The colossal Wooden Golem stepped forward, the ground quaking beneath its heavy steps.
The Wood Dragon coiled around it let out a silent roar, jaws gaping straight at Shukaku, whose face had turned ashen.
A combination Ninjutsu reborn upon the world!
And this time, the power it held far surpassed anything shown before!
Shukaku's huge, beastly pupils nearly popped from their sockets as he stared, disbelieving, at the towering Wooden Golem and the murderous Wood Dragon.
He had never imagined that, after unleashing a Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique on such a scale, this human could still summon such a terrifying combination.
Tejima Shinichi stood atop the broad head of the Wooden Golem, chest rising and falling, his breathing slightly ragged.
Maintaining both the Wooden Golem and the Wood Dragon at once was an enormous burden; the chakra inside him surged like a breached dam—he hadn't felt chakra exhaustion this severe in ages!
After several quick breaths, he forced the discomfort down, his gaze sharpening once more.
He glanced at the Wood Dragon wrapped around the giant's arm; scattered faint purple specks still flickered across its body, wordlessly reminding him of that earlier anomaly.
'No time to worry about that!' Steeling himself, he shoved the doubt aside. 'Beat him up first, then we'll see!'
"Go!"
At Shinichi's order, the towering Wooden Golem lurched forward; each massive timber footfall shook the earth as it charged straight for Shukaku with unstoppable brute force.
Shukaku's face twisted in alarm; the sense of danger made him scream:
"Wind Release: Sand Scatter Shot—!!"
He opened his huge maw and spat countless hardened sand spheres infused with Wind Release chakra, hurling them in a blitz toward the onrushing giant to check its charge.
Yet Shinichi, standing atop the wooden head, only gave a cold snort.
The Golem's enormous arm swung up, shielding its body.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang—!
The dense sand-bullets slammed into the wooden limb with dull booms, boring deep holes into the iron-hard wood—only for the damage to mend in an instant under Shinichi's chakra, unable to slow the giant's rush in the least.
At the same moment, the Wood Dragon entwined around the Golem sprang into action!
It shot from the giant's shoulder and once more wound its way toward Shukaku's immense body.
Shukaku, frantic and furious, swept his left paw to swat the dragon away while raising the other arm to slap his belly and unleash a Wind Release: Air Bullet—but the Wooden Golem was already in his face!
Boom!!!
In an instant, the mountain-sized wooden fist smashed square into Shukaku's chest and abdomen.
"Graaah—!!"
Shukaku howled in agony, his huge form staggering backward, his sand body rippling as though it might collapse outright.
The instant he reeled, the Wood Dragon coiled tight around him again!
"Argh—damn it—!"
That familiar sensation of his chakra being wildly sapped filled Shukaku with shock and rage.
Meanwhile, the purple speckles on the Wood Dragon's body grew ever clearer.
Without pause, the Wooden Golem's other fist thundered in!
Fists, palms, forearms, elbows—even a shoulder throw!
The Wooden Golem used no fancy Ninjutsu, only overwhelming brute strength paired with the Wood Dragon's seamless binding and draining to batter Shukaku in a tempest of raw physical domination.
Bang! Bang! Crash!!
Shukaku flailed his claws in vain, raising shields of sand that shattered again and again beneath the giant's absolute power; he tried to sweep with his tail, only for the Golem to seize it and answer with another heavy punch to his face.
Sand flew and roars rang out.
This time he was suppressed even more thoroughly, even more wretchedly than before!
Under the united assault of the Wooden Golem and Wood Dragon, his body had become nothing but a huge punching bag, able only to take the beating, unable even to mount a proper counterattack.
The onlookers in the distance could only stare dumbly at this mythic battle re-enacted before them—a wooden titan pummeling a sand behemoth!
...Under the relentless joint suppression of the Wooden Golem and Wood Dragon, Shukaku's struggles grew ever weaker.
His massive body of sand kept cracking and dispersing under the giant's repeated blows, barely reforming each time, slower and duller with every moment.
"Ugh... no more..."
A whimper escaped Shukaku's throat—he no longer had strength even for an angry roar.
The Wood Dragon held him fast, madly draining what little chakra remained, a tide of exhaustion submerging him.
Shukaku felt his body hollowed out completely!
At the same time, the Wood Dragon coiled around its body—its dark brown wooden frame—began to sprout, deepen, and solidify the pale purple flecks that had dotted it, the growth visible to the naked eye as more and more of Shukaku's chakra was absorbed.
In the end, the flecks merged into the same eerie violet markings that covered Shukaku, blanketing the entire dragon.
Tejima Shinichi stood atop the Wooden Golem's head, face grave as he watched.
Right then—an abrupt change occurred!
Bzzt—!
The complete violet patterns on the Wood Dragon flared with blinding light. A surge of power shot back along the chakra tether linking the dragon to Tejima Shinichi and slammed into his consciousness.
Tejima Shinichi's eyes flew open; shock seized his face, and he froze on the spot.
"What…?!"
In his perception, the Wood Dragon had become an extension of his own limbs, and a power originating from Shukaku was now vividly laid bare before him through that connection.
Almost instinctively, he focused his thoughts.
Clank! Clank! Clank—!
Across the battlefield, scattered grains of Iron Sand were yanked from the soil as if by an invisible hand, converging madly on the airborne Wood Dragon.
Countless tiny grains sheathed the dragon's colossal body in a jet-black armor that glinted with cold metallic light.
Simultaneously, more Iron Sand compressed before the dragon's gaping maw, and in the blink of an eye formed a gigantic sphere of magnetic sand.
A flash of insight struck Tejima Shinichi; guided by the feedback, he had the Wood Dragon aim the magnet-charged orb straight at Shukaku, who stared in utter terror, too drained even to struggle.
Then, almost unconsciously, he shouted the technique's name.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Cannon—!!"
Fwoosh—!!!
The pitch-black orb blasted toward the stunned Shukaku.
In the beast's eyes, there was only blank disbelief.
Seeing an attack formed from the very power he knew best, yet launched from an enemy's Jutsu, his mind went white.
Boom—!!!
The Iron Sand Cannon struck squarely on Shukaku's reflexively opened jaws.
The tremendous impact tore a ghastly hole inside his mouth.
Sand and iron grains exploded in every direction.
"Gyaah—!!"
Shukaku's final howl rang out. The blast inside his mouth, coupled with the dragon's relentless chakra drain, toppled the last supports of his fully formed body.
His frame convulsed, unable to hold its shape.
The surrounding sand crumbled away like melting snow.
"No… impossible… my great self…"
Before the thought could finish, a huge dune piled up where he had stood.
Amid the swirling dust, a small figure dropped from the sky and slammed onto the heap of sand, sending up a spray of grit.
It was Gaara.
The Feigning Sleep Technique had been forcibly broken; Shukaku's chakra was spent and flowed back into him.
After a moment's silence, Gaara's lashes fluttered; he slowly opened his eyes.
The teal eyes were at first dazed, then quickly replaced by a splitting headache and weakness that throbbed through every limb.
He tried to sit up, but his body felt hollow, without the slightest strength.
He looked around in a daze: a battlefield ravaged as if by a natural disaster—toppled trees, crisscrossing chasms, scorched earth, lingering traces of terrifying chakra in the air… and there, towering at the center, the colossal Wooden Golem and the dragon coiled about it, now veined with those eerie violet markings!
Memory crashed over him: the Konoha ninja named Tejima Shinichi… and that final, devastating strike. Gaara's pupils shrank; fear, humiliation, and a tremor he himself barely noticed swept through him.
He had lost!
Shukaku, the One-Tail, had lost!!
Lost to a mere Konoha Genin!!