Chapter 313: The Demon Descends
The White Fang's edge was, without question, the sharpest blade in the shinobi world.
Hatake Sakumo had spent ten years polishing a single technique. Ten years of relentless dedication, of honing his chakra to a razor's point, of distilling everything he knew about combat into one perfect strike. When that blade was drawn—when the White Fang finally unsheathed its fangs—the result was not merely a cut. It was a revelation. A brief, blinding glimpse of what kenjutsu could become when pushed to its absolute limit.
A cold light pierced the darkness. Lightning chakra erupted along the blade's edge, wrapping the sword in a cocoon of brilliant, crackling energy. The world seemed to split apart at the seams—the chaos of the battlefield parting like a curtain as Sakumo appeared between Kushina and the descending tail.
The Body Flicker Technique. Executed at a level that transcended its classification.
The White Fang's blade met the Nine-Tails' tail—and the tail came apart.
"ROOOOOAR!"
The Nine-Tails screamed. Not a roar of fury this time, but a howl of genuine agony. The severed tail crashed to the ground, its crimson chakra still writhing and pulsing, scorching the earth black where it landed. The stump of the tail on Mito's body flickered and wavered—this was not the Nine-Tails' true form, merely its chakra manifesting through the Jinchūriki. The severed appendage dissolved into wisps of crimson smoke and vanished.
But the humiliation remained. For the Nine-Tails—the proudest, most arrogant of all Tailed Beasts—to have its tail cut off by a mere human was an insult beyond endurance. The Eight-Tails might casually shed a tentacle whenever it pleased, treating dismemberment as a party trick. The Nine-Tails was not the Eight-Tails.
"Sakumo! Your timing is impeccable." Sarutobi Hiruzen allowed himself a breath of relief. With the White Fang on the field, the tactical situation had shifted significantly.
And that blade—even Hiruzen, the Professor, the master of a thousand techniques—had felt a chill at its passing. The White Fang's sword was nothing like Enma's Adamantine Staff. The staff was indestructible, crushing, a weapon of overwhelming power. Sakumo's blade was different. It concentrated everything into a single point—all his chakra, all his will, all his decade of preparation—and released it in an instant so brief it seemed to stop time.
Hatake kenjutsu, Hiruzen thought. Truly terrifying.
Kushina's legs nearly buckled. She had felt the wind of that tail strike pass within inches of her face. She had seen her death rushing toward her. And then—a flash of white light, and she was still alive. Still breathing. Still fighting.
"It's not just me," Sakumo said, the ghost of a smile crossing his weary face. His blade hummed in his grip, arcs of lightning dancing along its edge like a thousand chirping birds. "There's one more."
"Another? Who—"
The Nine-Tails had heard enough.
Its fury transcended words. Its massive jaws opened wide, and two opposing forces began to converge between its fangs—blue chakra and black, positive and negative, spiraling into a sphere of absolute destruction. The Tailed Beast Bomb. Even within the confines of the Four Red Yang Formation, even with the beast not fully manifested, this attack would annihilate everything within the barrier. No survivors. No escape.
Why are Tailed Beasts feared? the old veterans asked their students. Is it their size? Their ferocity? Their monstrous appearance?
No. It was the scale of their power. A single Tailed Beast Bomb carried more destructive force than a hundred thousand soldiers. It was the ultimate weapon, the nuclear option, the threat that had kept the great nations locked in cold war for generations. If a shinobi's chakra was a stream, a Tailed Beast's was a river. Vast. Inexhaustible. Incomprehensible.
"GO TO HELL, HUMANS!"
The Tailed Beast Bomb began its trajectory—
"SHINRA TENSEI."
The voice came from above.
At the apex of the Four Red Yang Formation, suspended against the blood-red moon, a dark silhouette hung in the sky. Black ANBU attire. A demonic mask. A figure as lean and spectral as a wraith.
The words fell like a divine decree.
And the world obeyed.
An invisible force—absolute, irresistible, beyond comprehension—slammed downward from every direction at once. It was not wind. It was not chakra. It was pure, unadulterated pressure, the fundamental force of gravity itself bent to the will of a single man. The Nine-Tails' head snapped upward, its slitted pupils dilating in an expression that, for the first time in its millennia of existence, was not rage or hatred.
It was shock.
BOOM.
The repulsive force crushed the possessed body of Uzumaki Mito into the earth. The ground beneath her shattered. A crater yawned open, fifty meters across, its depths obscured by churning clouds of dust and debris. The Tailed Beast Bomb—still half-formed—detonated harmlessly within the fox's own throat, its energy absorbed and dispersed by the overwhelming pressure. The shockwave rippled outward, sending gravel and soil flying in all directions, shaking the very mountains that ringed Konoha.
"What... what ninjutsu was that?!" Sarutobi Hiruzen's face was a mask of disbelief. In all his decades, in all the thousands of techniques he had studied and mastered, he had never seen anything like this.
"He's here," Sakumo said. And this time, his smile was unmistakable.
Kushina's heart seized. A name rose unbidden in her mind. A name she had whispered into the darkness every morning for three years, standing outside an empty cabin, hoping against hope.
Hiruzen followed Sakumo's gaze upward. Through the settling dust, through the crimson glow of the damaged barrier, he saw the figure descending from the blood-red sky.
Black ANBU combat attire. The ferocious visage of the Rakshasa mask. A silhouette that had become legend in the Land of Rain and nightmare in the Land of Earth.
"Ye Chen!"
That power just now—it came from him. It crushed the Nine-Tails in a single blow. What kind of monstrous ability is this?
In the center of the crater, Uzumaki Mito's body had reverted. The Tailed Beast Cloak was gone. The phantom tails had vanished. The fox's chakra, which had been raging like a wildfire moments before, had been forcibly suppressed—beaten down by an overwhelming external force that cared nothing for the Nine-Tails' pride or power.
Ragnar descended. The Gravity Fruit allowed him to control not merely downward force but the directionality of gravity itself. Up, down, left, right—all were mutable in his hands. It was, in a sense, closer to vector manipulation than simple weight control. The fundamental forces of the physical world answered to him.
He landed softly beside Kushina.
"It's alright now."
Three words. Calm. Steady. Utterly without drama.
Kushina shattered.
The tears she had been holding back—through her grandmother's collapse, through the Nine-Tails' rampage, through her own near-death—burst forth in an uncontrollable flood. She threw herself against Ragnar's chest, her fingers clutching the fabric of his ANBU blacks, her sobs raw and ragged. For three years she had waited. For three years she had been strong. But in this moment, with the demon standing between her and death, she did not need to be strong anymore.
"Ye Chen... you came... you actually came..."
"Your timing," Hiruzen exhaled, "was impeccable."
"One second later," Ragnar replied, "and you would have been obliterated."
It was not a joke. The Tailed Beast Bomb, had it fully detonated, would have scoured the Four Red Yang Formation clean. Hiruzen might have survived—barely, grievously wounded. Kushina would not have.
The Hokage's expression flickered with shame. "This is my failure. As Hokage, I should have—"
"Can the sealing continue?" Sakumo cut in, his voice sharp with urgency.
Hiruzen hesitated. "I... am not certain. The sealing techniques I know are all... final measures. Methods of last resort. This is the first time I have participated in a Tailed Beast transfer."
"If Grandmother's consciousness is still present, we might be able to complete the seal together," Kushina said, her voice still thick with tears. "But alone... alone I can't. The Nine-Tails is too strong. I'm not skilled enough yet. It's like..."
"Like a child trying to swing an axe," Ragnar finished for her. "The power is there. The technique is not."
Kushina nodded miserably.
Rustle.
The rubble in the crater shifted. Uzumaki Mito's body stirred. Slowly, jerkily, it rose to its feet.
The eyes snapped open. Scarlet. Slitted. Burning.
The Nine-Tails was still in control.
Hiruzen's heart plummeted. His hand tightened on the Adamantine Staff until his knuckles went white.
"You." The fox's voice was low, dangerous, utterly unlike its earlier rage. It was looking directly at Ragnar. "You carry the scent of the Five-Tails. You are the human from the spiritual plane."
"That's right."
"Five-Tails..." Sakumo murmured, his eyes widening slightly.
"So that's why Kokuō refused to help me. You." The Nine-Tails' voice dripped with contempt. "Pathetic. Humans, always trying to control powers they cannot comprehend. You think you can master a Tailed Beast? You think you can bend us to your will the way you bend everything else?"
"You misunderstand, Nine-Tails." Ragnar's voice was calm. Cold. Final. "In my eyes, you are nothing but a fox. The power of a Tailed Beast means nothing to me. I have crushed your sibling. I have defeated two Kage. Your chakra is vast, but it is not infinite. Your hatred is deep, but it is not invincible."
He took a step forward, placing himself between the fox and everyone else.
"If you will not accept the seal willingly... then I will simply have to remind you what it felt like when the First Hokage held you in his grip."
The air around him began to distort. The Gravity Fruit's power stirred, bending the light, pressing down on the earth with an invisible weight.
The Nine-Tails snarled. But for the first time since it had broken free, there was something in its eyes besides hatred.
It was wariness.
The demon fox had met the Demon of Konoha. And it was not certain who would win.
(End of Chapter)
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