Chapter 254: Mentioning the Nine-Tails, Shukaku Breaks Down
"Another little bug!"
"I see you!"
"Die! Wind Release – Drilling Air Bullet!"
Shukaku's piercing screams echoed throughout Sunagakure as he fired three chakra-laced wind bullets from his mouth at the airborne Li Yao Wind Clone.
"Wind Release – Slash Wave!"
This time, Li Yao's Wind Clone reacted even faster. As soon as Shukaku's three chakra bullets left his mouth, three slash waves met them head-on.
Clang, clang, clang!
As expected, the three slash waves instantly sliced through Shukaku's wind bullets and continued forward, striking Shukaku's massive body.
In an instant, Shukaku's enormous sand arms were severed at the shoulders and hurled skyward. From his stomach to his forehead, a giant gash was torn open, with sand spraying out like blood.
"YAAAH... It hurts! It huuurts!!!"
Shukaku screamed in agony, his massive tail flailing wildly, pounding the ground and sending tremors through the earth.
"Unforgivable!"
"How dare you injure Lord Shukaku! DIE!"
His huge, water-tank-sized eyes locked onto Li Yao's rapidly approaching Wind Clone. Without even thinking to regenerate his severed arms, Shukaku tilted his head back, mouth wide open, and began forming a Tailed Beast Bomb to obliterate the human who had hurt him.
"No! It's a Tailed Beast Bomb!"
"Everyone, get out of the way!"
Chiyo and Ebizō's faces changed drastically as they shouted for everyone to flee.
However, several people did not leave. They fixed their eyes on the figure flying toward Shukaku, believing that Lord Windwalker would definitely stop the Tailed Beast Bomb.
"Are you insane?!"
From below the Kazekage Building, Chiyo yelled at the younger shinobi who had not eBakuated.
But it was too late for shouting.
Just as the Tailed Beast Bomb in Shukaku's mouth was nearing completion, Li Yao's Wind Clone arrived. Flying beneath Shukaku's body, he thrust a palm upward toward Shukaku's chin.
"Wind Release – Drilling Air Palm!"
A palm strike formed from compressed Wind Release slashing chakra exploded upward like a massive fist, landing squarely on Shukaku's jaw.
BOOM!
A tremendous shockwave burst forth.
"YAAAH!"
Shukaku shrieked again, as if he had just taken a brutal uppercut to the chin—his whole body was launched into the air.
The nearly-formed Tailed Beast Bomb was ejected reflexively from Shukaku's mouth, shooting high into the sky.
BOOM!
An explosion of fire erupted, illuminating the heavens like a second sun and casting a fierce light all around.
BOOOOM!
The shockwave crashed downward, forcing Chiyo and the others to retreat into the Kazekage Building.
Still airborne, Shukaku felt another sharp pain in his gut, as though something slammed into him with the force of a slingshot. He was launched even farther.
In midair, Li Yao's Wind Clone pulled back his fist, watching Shukaku fly away from the village. Then he shot forward again in pursuit.
"Wind Release – Slashing Fist!"
He caught up with Shukaku in the air and delivered another punch. A burst of compressed slashing wind chakra exploded on Shukaku's stomach.
"YAAAH…"
Another scream echoed as Shukaku was blasted even farther from Sunagakure.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
With three consecutive punches, Shukaku remained airborne, unable to land. Every attempt he made to fight back was interrupted.
Before this human insect, Lord Shukaku—the One-Tail—couldn't even strike back.
Anger boiled inside him. Furious chakra swirled in his belly. Soon he would show this insect what true power was.
BOOM!
CRASH!
Two kilometers from the village, Li Yao's Wind Clone finally halted his attack. Shukaku's enormous body crashed into the ground, sending waves of sand rolling like a stormy sea.
"Wind Release – Sandstorm Blade!"
The moment he landed, Shukaku performed a hand seal and unleashed a storm of wind blades from his gaping jaws. These blades fused with the surging sand, forming a tide of slicing wind and sand that surged toward Li Yao's Wind Clone.
Facing the hundred-meter-tall wave of sand-blades, Li Yao's Wind Clone raised his right hand and made a downward slicing motion.
"Wind Release – Slash Wave!"
SHING!
A sharp slash wave fired out, cutting the massive sand-blade tide in half, diverting it to either side of Li Yao's Wind Clone.
BOOOOM!
He stood like an immovable mountain in the storm, splitting Shukaku's attack down the middle.
"This human…" Shukaku widened his eyes in disbelief. His wide-scale attack had been so easily neutralized. But then he laughed madly.
"You fell for it, brat!"
"Sand Waterfall Funeral!"
The sand-blade tide was only the first wave. The real trap was the shifting sands beneath Li Yao's feet.
With Shukaku's cry, the sand surged upward, engulfing Li Yao's Wind Clone in a mountain of sand.
"Sand Burial Seal!"
Shukaku pressed his claws to the ground, sending sealing script patterns into the sand mountain.
Once completed, no matter how powerful this brat's wind slashes were, he would be sealed.
"Yahaha!"
"You're sealed now!"
As Shukaku roared in triumph—
SHING! SHING!
Two sharp slash waves burst from the compressed sand mountain.
Li Yao's Wind Clone leapt out, hovering before Shukaku.
"Shukaku."
He looked at the stunned beast and suddenly grinned. "I heard when the Sage of Six Paths divided the Tailed Beast chakra, he gave nine-tenths of it to the Nine-Tails. The remaining one-tenth was split among the rest of you. The fewer the tails, the less chakra you got."
"Is that true, Shukaku?" he asked with a cheerful smile.
"How do you know about the Sage of Six Paths?!"
At first, Shukaku was stunned. How could this human know about the Sage who had created them?
But when Li Yao mentioned that the Nine-Tails received the most chakra, and he the least—Shukaku immediately lost his composure. He roared in fury at Li Yao.
"You little brat! What do you know?! That damned fox isn't stronger than me! I'm the mightiest of the Tailed Beasts!"
"Watch closely! This is my real power!"
In a rage, Shukaku howled, then leapt backward to widen the distance between them.
He began summoning massive chakra to form another Tailed Beast Bomb.
Shukaku might be weaker than anyone—but not that fox!
This brat had dared claim that he, Shukaku, was weaker than that damned fox! Others could say so, but not this kid!
He would show this brat what true destruction meant.
SHING!
"Huh…?"
Suddenly, Shukaku felt a chill at his neck. His vision dropped, and the chakra he had just summoned seemed disconnected from his brain.
He was stunned. He couldn't react in time to process what had just happened.
Li Yao's Wind Clone calmly withdrew his slashing hand and watched Shukaku's falling head with curiosity.
"I wonder... if you decapitate a chakra lifeform like Shukaku, will it die?"
Earlier, he had cut off Shukaku's arms, which regrew. Even his massive gash had filled with sand.
That suggested Shukaku had elemental characteristics—like an energy-based lifeform.
But the other Tailed Beasts, like the Nine-Tails and Eight-Tails, clearly had flesh and blood.
Kinkaku and Ginkaku once ate the Nine-Tails' flesh inside its stomach and gained access to its chakra.
Orochimaru had even cultivated an Eight-Tails horn from scrapings of its cells.
All of this showed that while the Tailed Beasts were chakra entities, they still had biological structures like flesh and cells.
So for any lifeform with flesh—being decapitated should be fatal, right?
"Hmm… I guess not."
"Or maybe… Shukaku is just special."
Looking at the dense seal scripts covering Shukaku's body, Li Yao's Wind Clone started forming a theory.
Far in the distance, Shukaku's severed head dissolved into sand. And from his neck, a new head began to form.
(END CHAPTER)
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