Samehada, which only moments ago had been snarling and gnashing its teeth in a feral frenzy to drain the life from its opponent, was now actually vomiting because of the man's chakra.
"Am I seeing things...?" Beneath his shock-white hair, Hozuki Mangetsu's purple eyes trembled.
Samehada was widely known as the "Tailed Beast without a Tail." It didn't just absorb chakra; it could funnel that energy back into its master to stimulate cell regeneration and heal near-fatal wounds. But this? Suikazan Fuguki, the blade's first true master, stood frozen in disbelief. He was witnessing the impossible: Samehada had eaten its fill—and then some.
Watching the sword retch dark-red chakra back into the water prison only to snap at it again, Fuguki felt his skin crawl.
"This chakra... it's wrong!" Fuguki stared at the dark-red mist. A primal, terrifying familiarity tugged at the back of his mind.
"How can one man possess such a monstrous volume of chakra? Is he a Jinchuriki?" Mangetsu flickered to Fuguki's side, holding the Explosive Blade: Shibuki across his chest, his face a mask of wary disbelief.
Kirigakure housed two Tailed Beasts: the Three-Tails and the Six-Tails. Utakata, the Six-Tails host, often struggled with control and required suppression, while the Three-Tails was sealed within the Mizukage himself. Neither Fuguki nor Mangetsu were strangers to the oppressive weight of a Tailed Beast's presence.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Fuguki hissed through gritted teeth. "There is no intelligence suggesting a rogue Jinchuriki of this caliber!"
As the ANBU Commander, every scrap of international data crossed his desk. He kept meticulous tabs on every village's Tailed Beast status. Aside from rumors of replacements in Konoha and Suna, the global roster was accounted for. Furthermore, Shura had spent the last year terrorizing Konoha and Kumo—he couldn't belong to them, and Suna or Iwa wouldn't have someone this powerful roaming free.
"Damn it... this volume... it actually overfed the blade!" Fuguki reached out, performing the specific hand signals to recall Samehada.
The sword was sentient; once it acknowledged a master, it could be used as a weapon or released to fight like a summoned beast. But for the first time in Fuguki's life, his command was ignored.
Inside the water prison, Samehada was caught in a bizarre cycle of gluttony. It would vomit the dark-red chakra, only to immediately gulp it back down like a creature that lacked a memory. It was twitching with over-satiation, yet it refused to stop. It had completely tuned out its master's voice.
Fuguki's face turned a shade of livid purple. He was the first master of the Great Sword Samehada! To be ignored by his own weapon in front of a subordinate was the ultimate humiliation.
Inside the sphere, Menma was shrouded in a dense, bubbling cloak of Dark Nine-Tails chakra. It flowed like a river into Samehada's maw, force-feeding the parasite until it was stuffed to the brim.
Finally, the sword's needle-like scales softened. It slumped backward, then suddenly sat upright. Its jagged spikes smoothed down as it began to nuzzle Menma's leg, panting with its tongue lolling out like an expectant puppy. Its hilt—the "tail"—wagged back and forth in a frantic display of joy.
This sight of a legendary weapon begging for scraps left Fuguki and Mangetsu utterly speechless. Since the Second Mizukage commissioned the Seven Blades, Samehada had never shown such pathetic submission.
"You bastard!" Fuguki's eyes bulged with rage. No matter how he screamed, Samehada remained fixated on the enemy within the prison.
"Let's just focus on getting him back to the village," Mangetsu muttered, trying to regain his composure. "Once he's in a cell, Samehada can drain him at its leisure."
"Psst, psst. Over here."
Inside the orb, Menma had been crouched down, patting the "dog" that used to be a sword. Hearing the two discuss his impending torture, he stood up. He gripped the Executioner's Blade in his left hand and reached out with his right to seize Samehada by the tail.
Instantly, the "loyal" Samehada stiffened, its scales hardening back into combat form at Menma's touch.
"Did I ever say I was going with you?"
Menma's voice was cold. The broken Executioner's Blade shimmered in his left hand, while the massive Samehada felt weightless in his right. He tilted his white fox mask upward, and a wave of pure, unadulterated killing intent crashed into the two swordsmen like a physical shockwave.
Even through the thick walls of the water prison, Fuguki and Mangetsu felt their breath hitch.
"Hmph! No matter how strong you are, the Water Prison cannot be broken from the inside!" Fuguki roared, baring his shark-like teeth.
"Is that so? How about this!"
The three-tomoe Sharingan in Menma's left eye flared. From beneath his feet, the Kagutsuchi flames—sealed within his eye—erupted like a volcanic vent. A pillar of dark-red fire surged upward, incinerating the water prison from the heart.
The black flames of Amaterasu licked outward, catching the arm of Fuguki's Water Clone.
BOOM!
The Water Prison collapsed as the clone dissolved into a puddle.
"Look out!" Fuguki scrambled backward in terror, leaving Samehada behind. He had never seen a fire that could burn through a high-level Water Style prison from the inside.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Fuguki desperately wove signs, trying to thicken the shroud for a retreat.
"Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" Mangetsu countered, a massive spiral of water rising beneath him until it mimicked a dam bursting, a tidal wave of destruction surging toward Menma.
"Bring it on!"
Facing the wall of water, Menma laughed. He funneled massive amounts of Dark Nine-Tails chakra into both the Executioner's Blade and Samehada. Like a rabid dog, Samehada lunged forward, snapping its jaws to swallow the incoming flood.
Menma charged through the opening, cutting a path through the vortex. He blurred past the waves, reaching Mangetsu before the boy could even finish his next set of signs.
"What?!"
The dark-red wreathed Executioner's Blade slammed into Mangetsu's shoulder, biting deep. Mangetsu gasped as the blade hit bone, and he instantly activated his Hydrification Technique, turning into a splash of water to escape the killing blow.
"And you!"
Menma's Sharingan locked onto the retreating Fuguki. He hurled the Executioner's Blade like a giant shuriken. The massive steel slab whistled through the air, catching Fuguki in the waist and pinning the obese commander directly to a massive oak tree.
THUD!
Fuguki coughed up a spray of crimson, staring in shock at the blade protruding from his gut.
Years ago, during the Third War, he had survived by fleeing from a "worthless" Konoha Genin. Today, a far more mysterious enemy had dismantled him without breaking a sweat.
Heh... how many monsters are there in this world? Fuguki thought as the light faded from his eyes and darkness took hold.
Follow-up Question: Fuguki is down and Mangetsu is in "puddle mode." Does Menma take the two legendary blades as trophies for his collection, or does he leave them as a "message" for the Mizukage while he pursues the escaping Orochimaru?