"Big Ball Rasengan!"
In the next moment, Naruto appeared above Shukaku's head, and the massive Rasengan slammed directly into Shukaku's face.
Accompanied by a dazzling explosion like a miniature nuclear blast, Shukaku's body was blasted back hundreds of meters before crashing heavily into the ground. The chakra body it had condensed was now full of cracks and missing chunks, and it stared at Naruto with fearful eyes.
Barely managing to stand up, Shukaku clasped his hands together, preparing to use ninjutsu to counterattack.
But what greeted it instead was one Rasengan after another. When dozens of Rasenshuriken smashed into Shukaku at the same time, Shukaku completely lost any chance of getting back up.
After being violently beaten into the ground more than ten times in a row, Shukaku's eyes changed from arrogance to pure terror.
Although it had guessed that this brat was the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, even Kurama had never crushed it this one-sidedly before. Thinking about its own useless Jinchūriki, Shukaku couldn't help wondering why the gap between Jinchūriki could be this fucking huge.
Seeing the fear in Shukaku's eyes, Naruto still didn't stop. He intended to beat Shukaku into submission in one go.
He hadn't forgotten the task the Nine-Tails gave him. According to Kurama, Shukaku was the type that desperately needed a beating. As long as he subdued it hard enough, Shukaku would naturally acknowledge him.
"Is this really Naruto's strength?"
Tsunade looked at the scene before her in disbelief.
She had originally thought Jiraiya was just being humble when he said he was no match for Naruto, but now it was undeniable. Naruto's strength had already surpassed the level of the Five Kage, and might even be close to her grandfather's.
But how could Naruto possess such terrifying power at an age where he should still be taking the Chūnin Exams?
At this moment, Shisui, who had already dismissed his Susanoo, slowly walked toward Tsunade and looked at the strongest descendant of the Senju Clan.
The moment he sensed Naruto was about to make his move, he decisively released Susanoo and left the opportunity to show off to his boss.
With his strength, he could defeat Shukaku as well, but it would cost a large amount of Mangekyō power. Meanwhile, Menma-sama could completely crush the One-Tail Jinchūriki head-on.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Tsunade turned toward Uchiha Shisui and frowned slightly.
The feud between the Senju and Uchiha clans had lasted for thousands of years. A few decades of peace wasn't enough for the ninjas of the two clans to completely let go of their vigilance and suspicion toward each other.
Shisui, however, remained calm and said to Tsunade:
"Senior Tsunade, it's been a long time. It seems that even after the Uchiha left Konoha, the village still hasn't been peaceful these past few years."
"..."
Tsunade remained silent, not knowing how to respond.
...
Inside the arena.
The battle between Naruto and Shukaku was still ongoing. Shukaku's absurdly high regeneration gave it terrifying endurance, but when the gap in strength became too large, that regeneration ability simply turned into torture.
After several minutes of brutal punishment, Shukaku finally gave up resisting. Panting heavily, it looked at Naruto standing above its head.
"Brat, stop fighting already... I surrender..."
"Your attitude when surrendering isn't sincere enough..." Naruto said casually.
Shukaku froze for a second before hurriedly correcting itself:
"My lord... I surrender. Besides, there's no need for us to fight in the first place."
"Whether you want to fight or not doesn't matter. The important thing is that I wanted to test the strength of the One-Tail."
After speaking, Naruto locked Shukaku to the ground with the Adamantine Sealing Chains, carved a chakra seal into its body, and then activated a genjutsu targeting the sleeping Gaara, who had used the Feigning Sleep Technique.
As Gaara slowly opened his eyes, Shukaku's chakra instantly lost control and returned to Gaara's body.
Lying on the ground, Gaara slowly stood up and looked at Naruto in the distance with confusion in his eyes.
"I remember Shukaku taking over my consciousness... Did you defeat Shukaku?"
Naruto glanced at the panda-eyed boy and nodded lightly.
Naruto knew a little about Gaara's past. In many ways, the two of them had similar experiences.
Gaara was the Kazekage's son and Sunagakure's One-Tail Jinchūriki. Since childhood, he had never enjoyed peaceful sleep. He was feared and ostracized by the Sand shinobi led by his own father, Rasa, who even sent Gaara's uncle to assassinate him in order to test the stability of Gaara's "love."
The result was obvious.
Gaara had successfully been turned into Sunagakure's weapon of war.
After hearing Naruto personally admit that he had defeated Shukaku, Gaara was stunned. Ever since he could remember, Shukaku had been his nightmare, yet Naruto had crushed it so casually. The craziest part was that Naruto looked about the same age as him.
"How did you defeat Shukaku?" Gaara asked impatiently.
Naruto glanced at him with the kind of look normally reserved for mentally challenged children.
"Obviously I defeated Shukaku with strength. What else did you expect? Talk-no-Jutsu? I barely even use that thing these days."
"I mean... we're around the same age. How did you defeat a monster like Shukaku? It's basically a natural disaster."
Gaara clearly wasn't used to communicating normally, and his words came out awkwardly.
Naruto rarely acted modest. Releasing a trace of the Nine-Tails' chakra, he said:
"Besides the fact that I'm personally stronger than you, the tailed beast inside me is also stronger than your Shukaku. Don't tell me you didn't know Shukaku isn't unique? There are eight other tailed beasts in the ninja world."
"There are eight other tailed beasts?"
Gaara froze in place. No one had ever taught him this kind of basic ninja knowledge before.
"So... there are eight other people like me?"
Naruto stepped forward and patted Gaara on the shoulder.
"Don't worry about trivial stuff like that right now. Sunagakure and Orochimaru attacked Konoha. Since you lost to me, you should start thinking about surrendering."
"Surrender?"
Gaara's expression changed slightly. After remembering the mission he had come here for, he immediately jumped back from Naruto and prepared to fight again.
But Naruto instantly slammed him back onto the ground.
"Gaara, stop resisting already. You're not my opponent."
"Instead of overthinking useless shit, why not think carefully about which thigh Sunagakure should hug after this defeat? Konoha of the Land of Fire, or Uzushiogakure of the Land of Whirlpools? After all, the weak don't get the right to choose."
Pinned to the ground, Gaara looked up and saw a large number of Konoha shinobi rushing toward them in the distance.
No matter how confident he was in his own strength, there was no way he could defeat so many Konoha ninja alone. The plans of Sunagakure and Kazekage Rasa had clearly failed.
But what did any of that have to do with him?
He was just a monster unloved by everyone, hated and feared wherever he went.
Maybe staying here for now wasn't so bad. At least there was another "monster" standing in front of him. Perhaps they could exchange experiences about living as monsters.
Maybe... he could even learn how to suppress Shukaku and finally escape that endless nightmare.
At this moment, Naruto's mind echoed with a system notification:
"Gaara's favorability has reached Approval. Reward obtained: [Sand Manipulation Technique]."
"Lonely children always crave recognition. Even if they become part of a monster, it doesn't matter."
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