Turning the Blade on the Enemy

Dōmeki watched as streams of quicksand and gusts of wind poured endlessly from the tea kettle. At last, with a beastly roar, a colossal figure gradually took solid form in the sand.

Strange violet patterns covered its body, Cursed Seal markings that represented wind.

Its appearance, like that of an oversized tanuki, and its vast, unfathomable Chakra all proclaimed the monster's true identity.

One-Tail Shukaku!

Though Shukaku looked like a chubby, foolish tanuki, he had an extraordinary origin as a pet created by the Sage of Six Paths himself using Yin-Yang Release, and he also had a bloodline inherited from the Ten-Tails.

That gave him an endless supply of Chakra from birth. Combined with his innate ability to control wind, sand, and Magnet Release, he was unquestionably a fearsome creature born to stand at the pinnacle of the Shinobi World.

Shukaku was also the only Tailed Beast that learned ninja Ninjutsu, making him even more distinctive.

A Tailed Beast with Chakra was nothing to fear; a Tailed Beast with an education was another matter!

Wait! How did Shukaku end up here? What about Gaara? He can't have kicked the bucket already, can he?

What's Naruto going to do without his beloved consort? I promised Asura I'd break him and Sasuke apart, too. Am I supposed to rely on Sakura and Hinata?

Dōmeki's thoughts descended into chaos.

In the world of ninja, Tailed Beasts were nuclear weapons and could not be deployed lightly. The Five Great Shinobi Villages' ninja usually declared to one another that they would not be the first to use a Tailed Beast, making it an established convention.

Tailed Beasts were often stuffed into little black rooms inside humans, never seeing the light of day, working 24/7 all year round without pay. Almost every one of them had a violent temper, and Shukaku was no exception!

Even if Rasa was willing to sacrifice his youngest son, how did he dare release the One-Tail? Wasn't he afraid the tanuki would immediately go and tear Sunagakure apart?

But Dōmeki had no time to dwell on it. Shukaku's bloodthirsty yellow eyes had already fixed on the giant beneath him, while an intensely savage, bloody stench and aura of slaughter seeped from his impossibly viscous Chakra.

A massive amount of Chakra gathered at Shukaku's mouth. As dark clouds obscured the blazing sun, heavy air gathered before him, and an enormous ball of Chakra and wind took shape in an instant. The giant tanuki abruptly spat it out!

It was Shukaku's signature Wind Release Ninjutsu-Drilling Air Bullet!

As the enormous ball of wind howled toward its target, towering dunes across the desert floor rapidly crumbled and vanished like paper constructions. The powerful shock wave nearly swept away everything nearby, and the invisible force was about to destroy the giant of comparable size.

Whoosh!

The enormous humanoid weapon's hunched back snapped straight, its outer armor plates trembling slightly. It thrust the spear clenched in its hand forward, smashing it into the very center of the massive wind sphere.

The two abruptly locked in a stalemate. The sphere caved in where it met the spear tip, while the golden spear's shaft bent under the force.

"My drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens!"

Dōmeki's arrogant, wildly defiant voice rang between heaven and earth. Lightning flickered around the spear tip, and the surging current turned into rings of light that spiraled along the shaft!

Driven by electromagnetic coils, the golden spear spun at incredible speed. The enormous wind sphere burst with a bang like a popped balloon, scattering into gusts of wind.

Under Dōmeki's control, the Giant God Warrior slowly landed on the ground, bending slightly at the waist and stepping back with its right foot.

The powerful step made the entire ground tremble violently, as though an earthquake had struck.

The desert scattered beneath the giant's foot, leaving only a deep trench behind.

In almost the blink of an eye, the giant appeared before Shukaku.

When Dōmeki dispersed the Drilling Air Bullet, Shukaku had already been enraged by the giant. He raised both arms and roared at the sky, his enormous body surging into motion. His huge tail swept back and forth across the desert, gathering great swathes of yellow sand onto his body and making him swell even larger.

The two enormous monsters clashed in an instant. Razor-sharp claws slashed through the air, while the swinging spear tore open a vacuum.

Rasa, who had been floating in the air and waiting for a chance to strike, had no choice but to withdraw from the enormous battle. The shock in his eyes could no longer be concealed.

Orochimaru, who had withdrawn at some unknown point, had long since pulled Kimimaro, who had killed the Kazekage's guards, over to a towering sand mound in the distance. He was now watching from afar.

"Although I'm also very interested in the One-Tail, something seems a little off?"

Dōmeki had long since been swept up in the fight. A battle where every punch hit flesh was a man's romance!!!

Yellow sand billowed, and silver serpents danced!

Two incredibly ferocious forces collided and separated again and again. Thunderous booms stirred up raging winds and surging air, raising a sandstorm rarely seen even in the Land of Wind.

After one exchange, the two instantly sprang apart.

Shukaku crouched with all four limbs against the ground and roared at the sky. Clusters of black energy gathered before his gaping, bloody maw.

Countless high-density masses of Yin and Yang attribute Chakra energy converged at a single point, forming a pitch-black sphere that swelled rapidly!

It was a Tailed Beast Bomb!

Dōmeki felt the oppressive, suffocating sensation filling every part of the air and let out a sharp, quiet shout!

The giant hurled the spear, which spun at tremendous speed and flashed with electricity. Almost a second later, it struck the black sphere head-on.

The next moment, even the air suddenly seemed to sink. Then light spread outward as the Tailed Beast Bomb split open.

For an instant, it was as though another sun had appeared on the ground, only to go out moments later!

When the light subsided, the tanuki's head had been pierced by the spear and pinned firmly to the desert floor.

Before Dōmeki could approach and check on Shukaku, the giant tanuki's body collapsed into a mass of yellow sand, leaving only a pitch-black tea kettle to fall in its place.

Panting heavily, Dōmeki dismissed the Giant God Warrior beneath him and floated to the top of the Gold Dust spear. Looking down at the black tea kettle, he muttered, "It really was a fake, but that's a good item!"

Before the red-haired youth could reach for the tea kettle, Rasa dismissed the Summoning Technique first, and the kettle vanished abruptly.

The tea kettle was a secret treasure of Sunagakure. It had once been used as a vessel to seal Shukaku and could store the Chakra that leaked from him over long periods. The accumulation over many years had even formed a Chakra clone of Shukaku, Rasa's last resort, but Dōmeki had used it all up in a single encounter.

Rasa looked at the youth with a tragic resolve. The faces of his loved ones flashed through his mind, and his expression hardened in an instant.

As Kazekage, he could die on the battlefield, but he could never surrender!!!