Kushina clapped a hand over her mouth.
Watching the enormous beast below thrash violently and scream inside the golden array of light, her face went deathly pale.
Sure, this Nine-Tails had just tried to destroy the world, but this… this was kind of too brutal to watch.
Rei Ao, on the other hand, was enjoying it immensely—he even tossed out a casual review.
"Hang in there. It'll be over soon."
"This is a premium contract package: permanent binding, non-removable, zero side effects, and it even comes with an absolute-loyalty patch. Other people could beg and I still wouldn't give it to them."
Seriously—are those even human words?
The process actually wasn't long—maybe a little over ten seconds.
But for the orange-red Nine-Tails, it felt like several centuries.
When the glow of the golden magic circle gradually dimmed and finally dissolved into the air…
The orange-red monster that had been ferocious and savage just moments ago seemed to have all its strength drained away. It collapsed on the ground, completely motionless.
Only its eyes had changed.
When it looked at Kushina, there was still resentment and humiliation there—
But deep down, there was also a kind of instinctive submission… something rooted so deeply it couldn't disobey no matter what.
"Done."
Rei Ao dusted off his hands like he'd just finished a household chore.
Then, under Kushina's stunned gaze, that orange-red Nine-Tails—still sprawled on the ground like a small mountain—began to shrink rapidly!
Like a balloon losing air—whoosh whoosh whoosh—it shrank down.
A few seconds later, where was the world-ending beast?
All that was left was… well, a tiny little fox—about the size of two hands—fluffy, orange-red, ears drooping, tail limply dragging behind it.
It looked completely wilted, like it had given up on life.
Rei Ao walked over, bent down, and pinched the scruff of its neck to lift it up.
The little fox (Nine-Tails) dangled in midair, kicked its paws a few times in useless protest, and then resigned itself and went still.
Rei Ao turned and walked up to Kushina, who was still frozen in a daze, and placed the warm, fluffy bundle right on top of her head.
"Here," he said. "It's yours."
"Starting today, it's your personal power bank, your fighting assistant, and your plush pet. Name it whatever you want—'Kyu-lama' or 'Orange-chan,' anything."
Kushina stiffly turned her head and stared at the "little fox" now perched on her shoulder, looking at her with dead, world-weary fish eyes.
The little fox stared back.
Their eyes met.
The air was filled with awkwardness and confusion.
Am I the Nine-Tails?
Or a pet fox?
Am I a jinchūriki?
Or a fox owner?
Just then—
"BANG!"
The air to the side exploded with a burst of white pressure!
A figure tore through the air at a speed beyond the naked eye, carrying mountain-shattering force, and drove a fist straight at the back of Rei Ao's head!
Fast. Vicious. Without warning—clearly a planned ambush.
But just as the fist came within less than an inch of Rei Ao's skull, it was as if it slammed into an invisible wall of absolute, unbreakable despair—stopping dead in midair!
The savage wind from the punch blew Rei Ao's hair slightly back, but he didn't even lift his eyelids.
"What?!"
The attacker let out an incredulous cry—her voice clear, but laced with shock and anger.
She clearly hadn't expected her full-power strike to not even touch him!
The moment the attack failed, she used the recoil to spring backward, instantly opening up more than ten meters of distance.
When she landed, her feet dug two shallow pits into the ground—proof of terrifying physical control.
Only then did Rei Ao slowly turn around and look at her.
In the moonlight, standing not far away, was a woman.
A woman with a figure that could only be described as "ridiculously, explosively good."
Smooth blonde hair tied into a sharp ponytail, with two loose strands falling in front.
Striking, elegant features—plus a pair of amber eyes now sharp as blades, locked onto Rei Ao with wariness and disbelief.
She wore a short green coat like a windbreaker, with mesh ninja clothing underneath.
Most eye-catching, of course, was her proud chest, stretching the fabric into a breathtaking curve, rising and falling with her slightly quickened breathing.
Standing there, she looked like a female panther ready to pounce—beautiful, wild, dangerous.
Tsunade.
One of the Legendary Sannin—"Princess Tsunade."
She'd just received an emergency message from the village: the jinchūriki candidate, Uzumaki Kushina, had been abducted by an unknown powerful figure.
So she immediately broke away from her work outside the village and rushed back to Konoha at full speed.
But on the way, she sensed from far off two earth-shaking torrents of chakra colliding—so familiar it made her heart seize!
The Nine-Tails!
And… two of them?
What kind of sick joke was that?!
She'd basically flown over the treetops to get here.
And then she saw it: a strange man standing on top of a golden Nine-Tails.
Nearby was the missing Kushina—and on the ground was an orange-red Nine-Tails that had been beaten flat!
The Nine-Tails had been released!
And there were two of them!
And Kushina was standing beside the enemy!
The sheer impact of the scene made Tsunade's brain go buzz—she barely thought at all. Rescuing the victim and eliminating the threat took priority over everything else, purely on instinct, and she went straight for a surprise "monstrous strength" punch.
And the result…
A whole lot of nothing.
She'd never even heard of the kind of defense he was using.
Now, Tsunade's mood was heavy to the extreme.
She stared hard at Rei Ao, then glanced at the eerily quiet golden Nine-Tails behind him. Her fist tightened again, knuckles whitening.
"Who are you?"
Tsunade's voice carried suppressed fury and an icy interrogation.
"Why did you take a Konoha ninja? What did you do to Kushina? And… what is going on with those two Nine-Tails?!"
Her questions fired like a machine gun, while her amber eyes flicked quickly over Kushina—
No obvious injuries… but she looked a bit spaced out.
Rei Ao didn't answer right away.
He looked Tsunade up and down first. The gaze wasn't exactly sleazy, but it was absolutely "appreciative."
Especially when it lingered on a few key areas for a fraction of a second longer than necessary.
"Tsk."
He let out a sound of unclear meaning.
"One of the Legendary Sannin… Princess Tsunade. You really do live up to the name."
The way he said it was a little ambiguous—it wasn't clear whether he was praising her strength… or her figure.