The Ten-Tails.
It was the living incarnation of the God Tree.
The Ōtsutsuki clan of the stars had cultivated it as a special vessel to endlessly evolve their own life levels and push their power higher and higher.
The original story never went into deep detail about the God Tree or the Ten-Tails, so Menma had to build everything on reasonable guesses from the scraps of information he already had.
His "mini-Ten-Tails" project was one of those guesses.
At best, it was a theoretical possibility.
No—honestly, it wasn't even a solid theory. If something like the Ten-Tails could be copied so easily, it wouldn't deserve to be called the most terrifying existence in the world.
Even a so-called "mini" version would carry the same weight.
Menma might be able to gather the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts, but he still had no answer for the missing shell or the critical core.
Still, this was the only path he could see right now to raise his own life level and reach a higher plane of power.
The odds of failure were sky-high.
Whether it succeeded or not would come down to heaven's whim.
And that was exactly why he needed the Tailed Beasts' full cooperation.
Beyond building genuine trust, the threat of the Ten-Tails' resurrection was the best bargaining chip he had. Menma believed they would make the right choice.
Of course, that was only what he believed.
Whether they actually would… that remained to be seen.
Living beings were nothing like machines.
They had hearts.
Hearts that spawned endless positive and negative emotions. Sometimes they simply refused to make the "correct" decision. Sometimes they acted on pure feeling, and there was nothing you could do about it.
Humans or beasts—it didn't matter. They were all walking contradictions.
Kurama fell into a deep silence the moment Menma finished speaking with absolute certainty.
A thousand years of life had blurred many old memories for the Nine-Tails, but the important people and events remained crystal clear.
The one they had all once looked up to as a father.
And the Ten-Tails—the existence they both feared and hated.
Both were burned into the fox's soul.
Old man… so this is the future you spoke of? I see now. Then Menma really is the "right person" you mentioned!!
Inside the still-dim underground chamber—where the metal bars that once caged him had long since vanished—Kurama rested his forelimbs and laid his massive fox head across them. His bright, blood-red eyes pierced through the shadows, as if staring a thousand years into the past at that ancient figure.
In this moment, that silhouette slowly overlapped with Menma's own.
If that's true… then I'll stay with this guy to the very end. I'll see for myself what that "correct and perfect future world" you talked about really looks like!!
A rare, human-like softness and iron resolve flickered across the Nine-Tails' face.
The Two-Tails, Matatabi, really was as Kurama had described—fierce on the outside, but gentle at heart.
That was why Yugito had earned the cat's genuine recognition. Yugito's own personality was strong yet kind, exactly the kind of person the Tailed Beasts could accept.
Very few humans had ever won a Tailed Beast's true approval. Since the jinchūriki system began, perfect jinchūriki were incredibly rare. In the Cloud, only this generation's Yugito and Killer B had fully earned Matatabi's and Gyūki's trust, allowing them to draw out one hundred percent of their beasts' power.
So when Menma approached Matatabi, he started from that friendship. He promised to keep Yugito alive in exchange for basic trust and cooperation.
Then he added the threat of the Ten-Tails' resurrection.
With Kurama, Shukaku, and Chōmei backing him up, Matatabi thought for a long moment… and finally agreed.
She willingly split off a portion of her chakra and handed it to Menma.
Now four Tailed Beasts' chakra resided inside him. As long as there were no special restrictions, he could gather all four inside his body whenever he wanted and throw a literal party with them.
The moment Matatabi's chakra flowed in and settled, Menma clearly felt his body grow just a little stronger. It proved his earlier guess had been right.
Whether he could actually create a mini-Ten-Tails was still a huge unknown. But at the very least, this method would definitely make him stronger.
The only condition was whether his body could handle the strain.
Thankfully, the Uzumaki clan's life force was monstrous.
Over the past year and more, Menma had never stopped training his body and running cell-activation experiments. Every detail mattered if he wanted to push his life level through a true qualitative evolution one day.
These same experiments would also help with other operations—like safely extracting Matatabi without killing Yugito. Matatabi had agreed on the condition that Menma keep her host alive. Even the gentlest extraction method could still endanger a jinchūriki's life. A violent one meant certain death.
So Menma had to keep working on sealing techniques and life-force enhancement. He had some confidence now, but he needed a little more. Once he and Orochimaru finished discussing that other matter…
He would dare to pull the Two-Tails out of Yugito.
One more note: Menma had never once considered trying to persuade Yugito herself. She was a Cloud ninja born and raised. He didn't think she would ever switch sides. Yugito was a special case only because of her bond with Matatabi.
That was why, whenever he spoke with the Two-Tails, Menma used a special sealing formula to completely block Yugito's consciousness. It wasn't foolproof—she couldn't escape before his plan was complete—but necessary precautions were still necessary.
Another goal successfully achieved.
The moment Menma stepped out of the underground chamber where Yugito was held, a faint smile touched his lips.
Everything was unfolding exactly as he had planned.
Naturally, he felt satisfied.
Next is to tighten up the rest of the schedule. The Three-Tails Isobu… and that guy's whereabouts. Time really is running out…
Menma exhaled slowly, thoughts turning in his mind.
Right at that moment—
His senses twitched.
A special feeling passed through the summoning link.
"Summoning Technique!"
Menma bit his finger, formed the seals in a flash, and slammed his palm to the ground. White smoke burst outward, then quickly cleared.
A small brown lizard barely fifty centimeters long appeared in front of him.
"Lord Menma, this is a message from Lady Karin."
The little lizard dipped its head in polite greeting, then spoke with quiet respect.
As soon as it finished, it opened its mouth wide. After a few heavy heaves of its belly, a tiny scroll slid out.
Menma's eyes sharpened. He snatched the scroll, unrolled it, and read the contents in one glance.
His gaze turned ice-cold.
"Hmph. The Sand Village actually dares to test us?"
His voice dripped with killing intent.
Karin's report was short and brutally clear.
Sand's border troops had begun moving. More than a thousand Sand ninja had already gathered at the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Grass—and their numbers were still growing.
The situation was obvious.
And it completely blindsided Menma.
If this had happened before their crushing victory over the Cloud—while they were still locked in standoff with the Cloud and the Leaf's main force was bearing down—Menma wouldn't have been surprised. Kicking someone while they were down was just human nature.
But the board had completely changed.
What gave a weakened Sand Village the guts to stick its nose in?
It was almost laughable.
Honestly, with Menma's current strength and the forces he controlled, if he really wanted to, he could wipe the Hidden Sand off the map.
The Fifth Kazekage couldn't possibly have lost his mind, right?
But even if Gaara had, Menma refused to believe Chiyo and Ebizō would be that stupid.
So if that possibility was off the table…
There was only one explanation left.
Those Leaf bastards are pulling strings again.
A razor-sharp glint flashed in Menma's eyes as he made the call.
"Return and tell Karin: do nothing unless they attack first. Until then, focus entirely on defense and surveillance."
After a brief pause, Menma gave the order to the little lizard.
"Yes, Lord Menma!"
With a soft poof, the brown lizard vanished in a puff of smoke.
Menma stood motionless, brows still tightly knitted.
The Sand Village's sudden move had thrown a wrench into his plans.
In his judgment, the Cloud's crushing defeat and the Stone's aggressive advance should have scared every other village into hiding. The Sand especially should have been acting like an ostrich, head buried in the sand, pretending nothing was happening.
Not launching a high-risk offensive posture.
If the Sand was moving now, it meant the Leaf had given them both the courage and the immediate, tangible benefits they needed.
And if the Leaf had done that with the Sand…
They had almost certainly made similar moves with the Mist—the village they were far more deeply entangled with.
Menma hadn't forgotten: the Mist's two-to-three-thousand-strong force was still sitting right on their border.
They could become a blade straight to the Waterfall's heart at any moment.
Leaf, Mist, Sand… if this really is coordinated, their next moves will come within the next two days.
Menma's eyes narrowed, thoughts racing.
Fine. Then let me see just how far your resolve actually goes.
His fists clenched until the knuckles turned white. A cold, sharp light burned in his pupils.
Exactly as Menma had predicted.
The Sand's movement signaled the Leaf was already acting.
Almost the instant Karin's message arrived, Orochimaru's report came in: the Leaf's main army had set out.
And it wasn't the previous three or four thousand.
Combined with the later reinforcements, the Leaf forces advancing in two pincer columns now exceeded five thousand.
That was nearly one-third of the Leaf's total strength.
Most of them were chunin and genin, sure.
But five thousand Leaf ninja led by Jiraiya himself?
Under normal circumstances, only the other four great villages could hope to face that.
No small or mid-tier village stood a chance—not even the Hidden Rain at its peak under Hanzo the Salamander.
Because the Jiraiya leading them now was no longer the Jiraiya of old.
Add in the Mist's approaching force—nearly three thousand Mist ninja under Mei Terumi.
To the outside world, Mei had no real reputation yet.
But in Menma's eyes, she was already a solid Kage-level fighter.
Possessing two kekkei genkai, Mei ranked near the top of the Kage tier.
The three great villages' armies closing in from every direction really did feel like suffocation.
The noose was tightening.