After speaking, Uchiha Hikari immediately glanced warily at Konan beside her.
Seeing that [Konan] didn't instantly launch into another traumatizing history lesson, Hikari felt both relieved and slightly disappointed.
She was relieved because Konan's silence meant the situation remained unknown, and where there was the unknown, there was still hope.
However, she was disappointed because the unknown also carried the distinct possibility of an even more twisted reality.
"Do you want to know?" [Konan] asked, noticing Hikari's tense reaction.
"Huh? I thought you didn't know?" Hikari replied, confused.
"I do know. I just noticed your emotional distress and how difficult it is for you to accept these things," [Konan] explained earnestly.
"To avoid further upsetting you, I decided not to explain it directly. If it becomes absolutely necessary, I can tell you when we encounter it."
"Oh, I see," Hikari said, momentarily stunned.
She hadn't expected this world's version of Konan to be so perceptive, so attuned to her feelings, and so genuinely considerate.
'She's truly... I'm almost moved to tears!'
"We're here. It seems this is the place," [Konan] said, patting Hikari's shoulder and pulling her out of her thoughts.
The three of them looked down and saw two humanoid figures in the forest near the volcano's crater.
What instantly piqued their curiosity was that the two figures were roughly the exact same size.
Hikari controlled the Susanoo to descend.
Skillfully shrinking the massive avatar in mid-air, she landed it gracefully on the ground to avoid a thunderous, attention-grabbing impact.
Meanwhile, the two humanoid creatures opposite them were completely absorbed in their own intimate little world.
"Come on, Rōshi, I want to hear you say my name. Say it. Say my name." The Four-Tails, currently in a humanoid form, wrapped its arms around Rōshi from behind, its monkey head resting affectionately on Rōshi's shoulder.
"G-Goku," Rōshi murmured, a distinct hint of bashfulness in his gruff voice.
"Kyaaahh, Rōshi, I want you to say my name every single day," the Four-Tails purred, nuzzling Rōshi's cheek with closed eyes and a blissful expression.
"..."
Makoto and the others were utterly speechless!
In the real world, the Four-Tails had remained deeply resentful toward Rōshi for failing to remember its proper name, preventing them from ever truly reconciling.
Rōshi, being the stubborn old man he was, had clashed with his Tsuchikage and likely deliberately forgotten the beast's name just out of spite.
The name had become a lingering thorn in both their hearts, and it wasn't until their deaths and subsequent revival through the Impure World Reincarnation that the emotional knot had finally unraveled.
However, within the Limited Tsukuyomi world... the name had become a romantic bond connecting them.
"So this is the Four-Tails?" Hikari asked [Konan] after taking a deep breath to calm herself.
Don't blame her for being skeptical—the Four-Tails was just far too small!
And as a Tailed Beast, why was it so casually separated from its Jinchūriki?
Didn't male Jinchūriki have to enter the sealed space to intimately interact with their Tailed Beasts?
"Yes, this is the Four-Tails," [Konan] replied, her vast repository of cursed knowledge shining through once again!
"According to ancient legends, the Sage of the Six Paths once read a novel called The Bull-Sucking Chronicle. The Four-Tails' name comes from a demonic monkey in that story—a creature capable of freely changing its size at will."
"I see. Then let's just get straight to it." Hikari flicked her wrists, and the Susanoo's twin blades materialized in her grasp.
"Hmm? Rōshi, enemies!" The Four-Tails suddenly sensed Hikari charging toward them, with Makoto and Konan trailing behind.
"Could it be Ōnoki's lackeys again? That stubborn old man still hasn't given up," Rōshi frowned deeply.
"I've told him repeatedly that I don't like his type of loli!"
"I don't think so," the Four-Tails said gravely. "They carry a sinister aura. My companions must have fallen victim to them."
"Oh? Then it's time for Lava Release Rōshi to make his grand entrance! Yo!"
Rōshi used the Body Flicker technique to teleport behind the Four-Tails and thrust his fist upward. The Four-Tails let out a deafening roar.
The volcano trembled violently.
Fiery magma erupted from within the crater, showering the surrounding forest in a deadly rain.
Hikari frowned, observing the commotion.
This Four-Tails looked small, but she never imagined it possessed such raw, environmental power.
The only time she had witnessed a similar phenomenon was when Kurotsuchi had transformed using the Natural Energy stone Makoto had given her.
Back then, Kurotsuchi had harnessed the earth's true power to unleash the lava.
But now...
Sizzle.
"Aaaah~!"
Hikari slashed her sword at a falling blob of magma, cleanly cleaving it in two.
A high-pitched, pained cry echoed from within the molten rock.
So that was it.
The Four-Tails hadn't magically mastered the earth's power at all.
These "magma blobs" were merely living creatures disguised as rock and fire!
"No! My children with Rōshi!" the Four-Tails cried out in anguish, watching as Hikari danced through the fiery rain, her twin swords flashing like lightning as she slaughtered his monkey offspring one by one.
"Are you absolutely sure the Four-Tails can freely control its size?" Makoto asked [Konan] as he watched the enraged beast charge toward Hikari in the distance.
"Uh, that's just a legend. It might not be true," [Konan] replied, a rare hint of embarrassment on her face.
If it was already this furious, why hadn't it returned to its massive, full size?
Perhaps it wasn't that it didn't want to, but that it couldn't.
Even when the other Tailed Beasts in this world had offspring, they usually only produced one or two.
But the Four-Tails and Rōshi had spawned an entire volcanic mountain of monkeys.
How much chakra must have been drained to create them all?
Fortunately, each time a monkey was killed, the divided chakra simply returned to the Four-Tails' main body.
Hikari had quickly noticed this pattern.
After marking the Four-Tails with the Eight Thousand Spears seal, she prioritized culling the smaller monkeys first.
"Why? Why are you doing this to us?!" the Four-Tails roared.
Realizing it couldn't stop Hikari's onslaught, the Four-Tails angrily dragged a Hidden Stone Ninja—a scout Ōnoki had sent earlier—out from a nearby tree lair.
Under the ninja's terrified gaze, the monkey bit down.
"..."
Hikari's twin blades paused momentarily.
Just as the Four-Tails believed it had intimidated its enemies, Hikari activated her skeletal Susanoo.
She spun like a top, rapidly shredding the surrounding monkeys into minced meat.
As the offspring were slaughtered, their chakra surged back into the Four-Tails' body.
"You humans only know how to harm small animals! You don't understand the true meaning of love! All you do is eat their flesh—it's cruel and evil! I will destroy you on behalf of all animals!" the Four-Tails roared, violently pounding his chest as his body finally began to rapidly grow larger with his restored chakra.
"You only know how to devour fruits, trees, and plants," Hikari retorted coldly. "I will also destroy you on behalf of all vegetation."
Simultaneously, Hikari activated her Perfect Susanoo.
By now, her towering avatar had grown to the size of a Thousand-Armed Buddha—easily capable of holding a Tailed Beast in a single hand.
Faced with this overwhelming size disparity, the Susanoo simply stomped the Four-Tails underfoot and fully activated the Eight Thousand Spears.
Drawing the energy upward, the Susanoo absorbed a massive portion of the Four-Tails' chakra with each pulse, then swung its longsword downward, severing a piece of the beast to prevent it from escaping.
"AAAAHHHH!" the Four-Tails shrieked in agony as the extraction began.
Though Rōshi physically felt a strange comfortable relief after having the volatile Tailed Beast extracted from his body, hearing Goku's screams resonated deeply within his heart.
"Waaah, Goku, don't leave me!" Rōshi wept melodramatically from the sidelines.
"I don't want you to die! Why?! Why?! Is it just because I'm powerless?..."
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