Under the clear blue sky, a cat's yowl started soft and swelled fast into a deafening roar. The massive sound wave blasted outward from Matatabi's mouth like a shockwave.
Taiichi, Yohei, and Saori regrouped fast and pulled back, eyes locked on the center of the battlefield. Across the way, the two Cloud Jonin did the same. Both sides called a silent truce and stared at the Two-Tails.
"It hurts! It hurts so damn much! What the hell kind of flames are these?!"
After thrashing around like crazy, Matatabi finally smothered the bright golden fire with his own blue flames. The beast was pissed beyond words.
His huge vertical pupils swept the area. Both the Cloud and Leaf ninjas had backed off a hundred meters. From that high vantage, he zeroed in on the "ant" who'd caused all that pain—Taiichi.
With a furious roar that shook the ravine, deep blue flames exploded around his four paws. Matatabi charged straight at Taiichi.
The second Taiichi saw those eyes lock onto him, he knew he was screwed.
This damn cat held grudges. That one fireball must've really burned. Now that it was free, it was coming for him and only him.
"You two fall back. The cat's got me marked. I'll draw it off—we'll meet at yesterday's rest spot."
Taiichi didn't waste time explaining. He body-flickered away. The beast was already closing in.
"Big kitty! Over here! Come get me!" Taiichi yelled after running a short distance. He stopped, turned, and fired off a few Phoenix Flower shots just to twist the knife.
That did it. Matatabi lost it. With a roar, the beast ignored everything else and barreled after Taiichi on all fours.
Rocks, dirt, trees, bushes—anything in its path got smashed to bits.
Once Taiichi was sure he had the Two-Tails' full aggro, he stopped playing around. He veered hard and headed straight for the two Cloud Jonin. Even if it didn't work perfectly, he was going to make those bastards deal with their own mess.
He sprinted ahead, body blurring into afterimages. Every chakra burst under his feet left a small crater. Precision was out—he needed raw speed.
Behind him, Matatabi's massive blue-flamed body smashed forward like a runaway train, spitting huge fireballs at Taiichi the whole way.
Explosions rocked the ground around him. Taiichi dodged when he could. When he couldn't, he countered with Phoenix Flowers and slipped through unscathed every time.
"Damn brat! Stop running if you've got guts! You weren't this cocky earlier!" Matatabi roared in frustration. This little bug was too slippery—fast, agile, and those counters were no joke. His fireballs were useless.
Farther back, the two Cloud Jonin regrouped.
"Captain, Yugito's gone full Tailed Beast Mode. We can't handle that!"
"Who said anything about handling it? Can't you see the Two-Tails is chasing Matsushita Taiichi? Let them wear each other down. I've got a plan to finish it."
Seeing his captain so confident, the Jonin figured Cloud had supplied some secret weapon. He shut up and watched. But gradually, something felt wrong.
"Captain… don't you think they're getting closer to us?!"
The words barely left his mouth before Taiichi spun hard and charged straight at them. The safe distance vanished fast. For a monster like the Tailed Beast, it was just a few leaps.
"Shit! That Leaf brat's trying to sic the beast on us!"
"Split up!"
The two Jonin exploded in opposite directions at top speed, trying to clear Taiichi's hate zone.
But Taiichi wasn't letting them off easy. He locked onto the captain like glue while Phoenix Flowers formed around him.
This time they weren't aimed at the Two-Tails. The scorching fireballs slammed the ground right in front of the Cloud captain. Explosions sent rocks flying and flames sweeping out, sealing off every escape route and forcing him to a dead stop.
(Practical lesson on escaping a Tailed Beast: You don't need to outrun the monster. You just need to outrun the guy next to you.)
When Taiichi flickered past the Cloud Jonin and blasted straight through his own fire wall without a scratch, he caught the look of pure rage and regret on the man's face.
Why the hell had they stood around watching earlier? Why not keep more distance? Or at least stick together so the two Jonin could cover each other? Now the guy was stuck facing a rampaging Two-Tails alone.
Taiichi didn't give a damn what the Cloud ninja was thinking. After passing him, he instantly cast Shadow Clone Jutsu. Several Taiichis scattered in different directions.
He was done playing with the Tailed Beast. Since Cloud had the balls to send a Jinchuriki with two Jonin, they clearly had control methods. He couldn't beat the beast right now anyway—time to get the hell out.
As clone after clone popped, the memories flooding back confirmed it: Matatabi's grudge was bone-deep. The beast ignored the Cloud Jonin right in front of it and kept chasing him instead.
Luckily, Taiichi had planned ahead. The runners were all clones. His real body had already used Earth Style to sink underground and was now several hundred meters clear of the Two-Tails.
He didn't dare use chakra sensing either. One of those Cloud Jonin was a sensor ninja too.
From a safe distance, with just his eyes, Taiichi watched the Cloud captain pull out something special. Whatever it was, it woke Yugito from her beast state and finally forced Matatabi back under control.
With that, Taiichi didn't stick around. He needed to link up with Yohei and Saori fast, then get back to camp. The fact that the Two-Tails had shown up in the Land of Hot Springs was huge intelligence—a major variable just entered the game.
On a hill in the Land of Hot Springs, Yohei and Saori waited anxiously. The spot was over ten miles from the fight. If Taiichi had shaken off both the Cloud ninjas and the Tailed Beast, he should be arriving soon.
---
Sure enough, they didn't have to wait long. A small figure appeared on the horizon, racing toward them at incredible speed.
"He's here!" Yohei cheered.
Saori pressed a hand to her chest, finally letting out the breath she'd been holding.
After all, this was their first time seeing a Tailed Beast in action. That monstrous thing rampaging right in front of them had left a deep impression. Worry was unavoidable.
A few minutes later, Taiichi reached them. But he didn't slow down at all.
"Move! Back to camp! We can't stay here!"
Yohei and Saori got it immediately. They turned and started running. Taiichi caught up, and the three formed a tight formation as they sprinted toward the Leaf camp.
"Taiichi, what happened with the Tailed Beast?" Yohei asked after they'd been running for a while, unable to hold back.
"What else? Cloud took it back," Taiichi answered without turning around, eyes locked on the path. "They wouldn't have brought the Jinchuriki out without some way to control it. Otherwise they'd risk losing the Two-Tails completely if it went berserk!"
"So we're heading back to report this?"
"Exactly." Taiichi glanced back at Saori, relieved to see the gashes on her arm had already scabbed over. "Two Jonin plus a Jinchuriki completely changes the power balance out here. We need to warn Lord Orochimaru ASAP so he can prepare defenses. Otherwise we're sitting ducks."
Just as Taiichi predicted, the second they dropped the news, Orochimaru ordered every forward hunting team back to camp immediately.
First, their cleanup operations over the past few days had already wiped out most of the remaining Cloud forces in the Land of Hot Springs. Second, a Jinchuriki showing up was no joke. The camp's focus had shifted from offense to pure defense.
Of course, intelligence this critical had to go straight to the village, along with an urgent request for reinforcements.
They'd only run into one Jinchuriki squad so far. Who knew what else Cloud might throw at them? If they waited until Cloud actually attacked, it would be too late to ask for help.
By the time they left Orochimaru's command tent, it was already pitch black. Team Taiichi headed back to their own tent to rest.
Lying in their sleeping bags, the tent fell quiet except for their steady breathing and the occasional footsteps of patrolling ninjas outside.
After a long while…
"Taiichi, you still awake?" Yohei's muffled voice broke the silence.
"Yeah. What's on your mind?" Taiichi answered softly, not wanting to wake Saori.
"You think… if we run into monsters like that again, what the hell are we supposed to do? Can humans even fight something like that?"
Yohei's voice carried real worry and a hint of self-doubt. Clearly, the helplessness of facing the Tailed Beast today had hit him hard—especially right after awakening his Mangekyo. He'd been riding high on power, only to get slammed back down to earth.
"Yeah, Taiichi…" Saori's voice joined in. "Are there a lot more of those things? What if we run into one on the battlefield?"
Apparently nobody had actually fallen asleep.
Taiichi sat up. Yohei and Saori followed suit, crawling out of their bags.
In the darkness, two pairs of bright eyes stared at him, waiting.
Taiichi reignited the small lamp and casually set up a miniature soundproof barrier to keep their conversation private. The effortless move made Saori's eyes sparkle.
"Looks like Taiichi's sealing skills have already left me in the dust," she thought.
"There are nine Tailed Beasts in the ninja world total," Taiichi began.
The sound of swallowing was loud in the quiet tent. Taiichi glanced at Yohei, who was sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.
"They used to live all over the ninja world. But back when Konoha was first founded, the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara captured every single one of them."
Another pair of gulps. Both their eyes lit up with fierce pride for their village's founders.
They'd just gotten a firsthand taste of how terrifying a Tailed Beast was. And those two legends had captured all of them single-handedly? It was awe-inspiring.
"But to maintain peace across the ninja world and give every major village its own strategic deterrent, the First Hokage decided to distribute the Tailed Beasts among the villages."
"What?! Why would he do that?!" Clearly, neither Yohei nor Saori could understand the First Hokage's reasoning. Keeping that kind of power in Konoha would have meant no one would dare mess with them.
Even Taiichi didn't fully get it. Was the First too idealistic? Or was his own political understanding just too basic?
Reality hadn't followed the First's plan anyway. Soon after his death, the First Great Ninja War broke out. Now they were heading into the Third. And those distributed Tailed Beasts hadn't prevented war at all. Instead, they'd become ultimate weapons that tore through battlefields.
"That's how each village ended up with their own Tailed Beast. As for actually countering these monsters… you two both have advantages there."
Both perked up instantly. They had ways to fight Tailed Beasts?
"Besides overwhelming power like the First had, the main counters are Mangekyo Sharingan and top-tier sealing techniques."
"Wait, Taiichi!" Yohei interrupted excitedly. "I have the Mangekyo! But I didn't feel like I could handle that thing at all!"
Taiichi gave him a flat look. Yohei immediately shut up, smiling sheepishly.
"Genjutsu. Anyone who awakens the Mangekyo gets a massive boost to their genjutsu no matter how bad they were before. That's the main reason Mangekyo users are so effective against Tailed Beasts."
"Genjutsu…" Yohei's face fell. The Sharingan gave huge bonuses to illusion techniques. Even Uchiha who sucked at genjutsu were decent with the eyes helping.
But Yohei was the exception. Back at three tomoe, he'd actually tried learning it properly. The results… well, they existed. Barely. Useless was putting it kindly.
The Uchiha instructor who'd tried teaching him had supposedly gotten so frustrated he nearly had a stroke and swore never to teach Yohei again. The whole clan heard about it. Even the clan head got involved and officially declared Yohei "incapable of genjutsu."
It was one of Yohei's black-history moments. Taiichi had learned about it from Obito during one of their chats and laughed his ass off.
Thinking about it now, Taiichi fought to keep a straight face as he told Yohei seriously, "Yeah, genjutsu. But don't worry—even if your genjutsu talent was trash before, the Mangekyo will fix that. You'll be able to use it."
"Really? That's awesome!" Yohei jumped up so fast he nearly hit the tent ceiling. Then he immediately got suspicious. "Wait… you know something, don't you?"
Taiichi kept his expression perfectly innocent. "What? I have no idea you're a genjutsu idiot—"
Yohei's face went bright red, then he lunged forward in embarrassment, trying to clap a hand over Taiichi's mouth before he could spill more embarrassing stories.
After some roughhousing, they settled down. Taiichi continued his Tailed Beast lecture, the three of them talking late into the night about the monsters that could change the entire war.