The pitch-black inner world slowly began to ripple…
"Shukaku…" Bunpuku coughed, blood seeping from the corner of his lips as his breathing grew heavier with each passing moment.
"Hahaha! I told you, you damn monk—sure, you're a decent guy, but you're way too weak," Shukaku laughed wildly, rolling around on the ground without a shred of dignity.
"But they really are strong…" Bunpuku admitted quietly, his tone tinged with helplessness. "I can't defeat them."
"Well, whose fault is that? You were sealed together with a beast like me from the moment you were born… no one ever taught you how to use your power properly."
"That's true… I don't know how to use it."
"That primitive fighting style of yours—relying on brute force or just squandering my chakra like an idiot…" Shukaku snorted in disdain. "With strength like that, there's no way you could ever bring peace to the shinobi world."
Bunpuku lowered his head in silence, offering no rebuttal.
Seeing the blood at his lips, Shukaku finally let out a sigh. "Ah, forget it. From the moment the Fourth Kazekage came looking for you, I knew this day would come eventually…"
"Don't worry, old monk. Leave the rest to me."
"Then… I'll trouble you, Shukaku."
Bunpuku's eyes slowly drifted shut.
"Come to think of it… old monk, I should be thanking you instead."
Shukaku's voice gradually rose, swelling with emotion.
"To finally step out into the world… this has always been my…"
"My wish!!"
…
......
.........
Within Konoha's Kikyo Castle, the two giant snakes stood their ground, eyeing the One-Tail Shukaku in the distance.
Slowly, Shukaku's massive form began to crumble. Its torso and limbs gradually dissolved into a pile of loose, shifting sand.
"Does that mean it's over?" Shimizu stood atop Garaga's head, disbelief flickering in his eyes. Even he hadn't expected that, working together with Orochimaru, they would actually bring down the One-Tail.
"Shimizu… I don't really want to dampen your spirits," Garaga said.
"Just say it."
"Tailed Beasts are, at their core, living entities formed from immense concentrations of chakra."
"Even though our opponent only has one tail, the number of tails merely represents the quantity of chakra—it doesn't fully determine their strength."
"…Speak plainly."
"I mean… I'm not human to begin with," Garaga replied, sounding slightly aggrieved.
At that moment, Manda cut in coldly, "Shukaku isn't dead."
"I figured as much…" Shimizu sighed. Of course, it wouldn't be that simple.
Still, he had plenty of chakra left, and Garaga was in peak condition. As for Orochimaru and Manda, they too were far from exhausted.
Fixing his gaze on the pile of scattered sand, Shimizu's voice turned icy. "In that case… we'll just kill it again."
As expected, the surrounding sand began to gather once more. Winds surged violently, spiraling inward as if drawn by an invisible force.
Even the sky itself seemed to churn.
Soon, a massive figure reformed before their eyes—a tanuki-like beast composed entirely of sand, its body marked with violet curse-patterns resembling symbols of the wind god, and a tail bristling with sharp, needle-like spikes.
"Hahahaha! I'm finally free again!!"
Shukaku threw its head back in wild laughter before suddenly pointing both claws forward—one at Manda, the other at Garaga.
"Enemies spotted ahead—two little snakes!"
"Ah! So it was you bastards who injured the old monk!"
"…Is it insane?" Shimizu muttered, frowning.
"That's just how Shukaku is—hot-tempered, battle-crazed, arrogant, and always laughing like a maniac," Garaga said, sounding oddly familiar with the beast.
Do they know each other? The thought flashed through Shimizu's mind.
But there would be time for questions later.
First, they needed to deal with this idiotic Tailed Beast.
Yet Shukaku made the first move, declaring war with manic glee:
"Let me bury you all!!"
Wind Release: Air Bullet!
A massive sphere of compressed wind chakra erupted from Shukaku's mouth. Both Manda and Garaga reacted instantly, darting aside with fluid agility before launching a pincer attack from opposite directions.
Shimizu glanced back just in time to see the wind sphere slam into a nearby building.
In the span of a single breath, the raging gale shredded the entire structure into fragments.
That level of power… even summons like Manda and Garaga wouldn't come out unscathed if they took a direct hit.
"Dodging?!" Shukaku jeered. "How many can you dodge?!"
A barrage of air bullets roared toward Garaga in rapid succession.
"Damn it—why are you targeting me?!"
The barrage of compressed wind spheres forced Garaga to slow his advance, leaving him no choice but to twist his massive body and dodge repeatedly, his momentum constantly interrupted.
On the other side, however, Manda seized that fleeting opening and surged forward, closing the distance to Shukaku in an instant.
But just as he reached striking range, a sharp, piercing whistle cut through the air—
Shukaku's enormous, spiked tail swept out with terrifying force.
Boom!!
A towering wall of earth erupted in front of Manda, intercepting the brutal strike—it was a defensive Earth Release jutsu cast in advance by Orochimaru.
Without pausing for even a heartbeat, Manda lunged through the cover, clamping his jaws down onto Shukaku's right arm and immediately injecting a surge of black venom.
The coordination between man and summon was flawless, their movements flowing together with seamless precision.
"I say... do you really want to die that badly?!" Shukaku snarled as a dangerously dense mass of chakra began to gather in its mouth—a swirling sphere of black and violet energy.
"Shimizu, don't let it fire! That's a Tailed Beast Bomb!"
The Tailed Beast Bomb—compressed from yin and yang chakra at a ratio of 2:8—was a technique of catastrophic power, capable of leveling mountains and shattering the earth itself.
If that attack landed, it wouldn't just be Manda—Kikyo Castle itself would be wiped from existence.
"Petrify it!" Shimizu ordered sharply, already forming hand seals of his own.
If Garaga's senjutsu chakra could petrify Shukaku, then not only would the Tailed Beast Bomb be stopped, but Shukaku itself might be finished in one stroke.
But if it failed… then he would have no choice but to gamble everything.
"Manda, keep the venom flowing—I'll block it!" Orochimaru bit into his finger and began forming seals as well.
Time.
They were racing against death itself.
A stream of deep violet venom sprayed from Garaga, coating the left side of Shukaku's body. Yet the usually unstoppable petrification only spread across its left arm this time, while Manda's poison rendered the right arm completely useless.
It wasn't enough.
They couldn't stop the Tailed Beast Bomb from forming.
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!
A ferocious, colossal water dragon burst upward from the ground, surging toward Shukaku with overwhelming force. This dragon dwarfed any Shimizu had ever created before—he had poured nearly a quarter of his chakra into this single attack.
Summoning Jutsu: Rashomon!
A gigantic crimson gate, towering like a mountain, descended onto the battlefield. The demonic face carved into it opened its maw wide, as if ready to devour everything in its path.
"Die! All of you, just die!!" Shukaku roared.
In less than a single breath, the Tailed Beast Bomb was complete.
BOOM!!
At the very last instant, the massive water dragon slammed upward into Shukaku's jaw with savage force.
The sheer impact knocked its head back—just enough to alter the firing angle of the Tailed Beast Bomb.
In the next moment, the devastating sphere of chakra shot past the towering Rashomon gate, grazing it—
And yet, even that mere "graze" was enough to annihilate the massive structure in an instant.
Violent chakra energy erupted across the battlefield, and the raging winds were so fierce that it was nearly impossible to keep one's eyes open.
A single Rashomon gate was nowhere near enough to withstand the power of a Tailed Beast Bomb.
Manda hissed in irritation, "Orochimaru, if that attack hadn't been deflected just now, your Rashomon wouldn't have saved us."
"…It seems I underestimated its power," Orochimaru admitted, genuine shock flickering in his eyes.
If I used triple Rashomon next time, it might be enough…
But the chakra cost would be enormous…
And next time… they might not be this lucky.
Grinding his teeth, Orochimaru said coldly, "There won't be a next time."
"Good thing it worked…" Shimizu let out a long breath, tension finally easing from his shoulders.
"That was way too close… Thank goodness it went upward," Garaga added, still shaken.
"AAARGH! You're all still alive?!" Shukaku roared in fury.
It tried to move and launch another attack—but suddenly realized something was wrong.
Its left arm had been completely petrified, frozen in place.
Its right arm, meanwhile, hung limp and useless, paralyzed by venom.
"You… you despicable, underhanded bastards…"
"Every last one of you… is going to die!!"
..
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