The Only Person Injured in the Riot

Thud! Thud! Thud! The ground began to tremble slightly.

Asuka, who was packing his things, paused when he saw a clock fall to the floor. He then looked toward the northeast and muttered,

"One-Tail is already out?"

"Yaha! I can finally come out!"

The shrill voice traveled through the air to every corner of Sunagakure. A raccoon dog covered head to toe in Cursed Seal patterns gazed at the pale moonlight and howled at the sky.

That screech... sounded so joyful. Asuka pushed open the door, turned to look at the Tailed Beast at the edge of the village, and his mouth twitched. Then he leaped onto the roof and settled in to watch the show.

There were not many chances to see dozens of Sand Ninja die in a single day.

He wondered how great Sunagakure's losses would be tonight.

"Yaha!"

One-Tail slowly lowered his gaze. Looking at Rasa standing on a rooftop ahead, he extended his palm toward him and said excitedly,

"I found someone I want to kill right away."

"Whew!"

Rasa exhaled a puff of white breath. He glanced at Chiyo, the advisor lying unconscious amid the ruins, then fixed his eyes on Shukaku and said calmly,

"You came out again?"

Shukaku's belly swelled, and then he slammed his massive hand against it, spewing a huge amount of wind-natured Chakra from his mouth.

Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet! Watching the Wind Release technique, enhanced by Tailed Beast Chakra, rapidly fly toward him, Rasa stretched out both arms and slowly raised his palms.

Magnet Release: Gold Dust!

A gigantic curtain made of gold dust rose between them.

The enormous Drilling Air Bullet struck the middle of the curtain, smashing a deep indentation into it before falling silent. Then, under Rasa's control, the curtain surged toward Shukaku like a tsunami.

Shukaku rubbed his eyes. Seeing the sea of sand rushing toward him, he turned around and ran.

He was a Tailed Beast, but he was not an idiot.

The excitement of having just escaped gradually vanished when he saw the human capable of sealing him away.

Sure enough, humans and Tailed Beasts did not share the same joys and sorrows. I only feel like they want to imprison me.

Watching Shukaku race out of the village on all fours, Asuka, crouched on the rooftop, blinked in confusion.

This guy came out, yelled twice... and ran? Fight him! Why were you so scared? At worst, you'd get sealed again.

Then Asuka caught on. Looking at Shukaku's departing back, he muttered to himself,

"Could Rasa have deliberately let this thing out to show the other villages that he has the strength to suppress a Tailed Beast? Hmm.

"That's possible. It's like taking out nuclear weapons for a stroll in later generations.

"Bring One-Tail out for a walk every now and then, then show everyone that he can suppress a Tailed Beast."

Sighing, Asuka looked back at the bundle he had just packed, and his mouth twitched. If he had known there was no real danger, he would have gone back to sleep.

"Teacher! Teacher!"

Amid the noisy commotion on the street, he seemed to hear someone calling for him.

Asuka blinked and looked toward the voice. A blond man with a white scarf wrapped around his head was running in his direction while shouting.

"Teacher!"

Seeing the delicate-looking man leap onto the roof beside him, panting heavily, Asuka studied him closely. After searching his memories to no avail, he asked in confusion,

"Who are you?"

"I'm Yashamaru."

"Ohhh."

Asuka drew out the sound, slammed his right fist into his left palm, and nodded.

"Who is Yashamaru?"

"Your student!"

Seeing that Asuka seemed about to say something else, Yashamaru hurriedly raised the woman in his arms and pleaded anxiously,

"Teacher, please save my sister."

Only then did Asuka notice the woman in his arms, who was on the verge of death.

"Your sister's injuries are serious. How did she get hurt?"

Lifting her eyelids and watching her pupils slowly dilate, Asuka reached for her pulse. Feeling her heartbeat grow weaker and weaker, he frowned.

"Um..."

Seeing the Uchiha emblem on Asuka, then looking at his sister's deathly pale face, Yashamaru gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and shouted,

"My sister was injured in the disturbance just now."

Uh... Asuka's mouth twitched. Thinking of One-Tail, who had been chased off by Rasa after firing just one technique, he could not help but sigh.

"Your sister really has terrible luck. If I'm not mistaken, she may be the only person injured in this whole riot."

"Teacher, please save her."

"I know, I know."

Seeing blood already streaming from Yashamaru's forehead from bowing, Asuka waved a hand, picked up the blond woman, and said as he walked away,

"Guard the door for me. Don't let anyone disturb me, or your sister is as good as dead."

"This..."

Yashamaru instinctively wanted to follow him inside, but seeing the tightly shut door and thinking that village ninja might come to investigate later, he swallowed the words he had wanted to say.

When he had seen One-Tail burst through the roof of the safe house and appear in the village, he had risked being trampled to death by the Tailed Beast to carry his sister out.

But when he saw his sister barely clinging to life and Elder Chiyo unconscious, his mind had instantly turned to mush. He could only instinctively carry his sister toward the hospital.

When he reached this chaotic street, he saw Asuka crouching on the roof with a huge bundle on his back, looking as though he were about to flee.

Only then did he suddenly remember that Uchiha Asuka, who had taught him Medical Ninjutsu, seemed to be a powerful Medical Ninja.

"Big sister, you have to survive!"

Glancing at the tightly shut door, Yashamaru pulled out a kunai from his pocket and vigilantly watched his surroundings.

Until there was a result, no one could enter.

At that moment...

Asuka was at a loss.

He realized that he had underestimated the severity of her injuries. How was this being caught up in a Tailed Beast attack?

This was more like a Tailed Beast had moved into her stomach.

In the literal sense.

Placing his hand over her shriveled abdomen, Asuka could clearly sense that she had been pregnant not long ago. Yet the nonhuman Chakra lingering inside her belly indicated that she had an extraordinary connection to a Tailed Beast.

There was no child in her womb, but there was Tailed Beast Chakra.

"Could this be the pregnant woman Pakura mentioned who had a difficult birth?"

Looking at the complex pattern on her abdomen, Asuka, who had studied Sealing Technique, examined it briefly and more or less guessed that this was probably Sunagakure's improved sealing technique.

No wonder they could not perform a C-section. They had directly sealed the Tailed Beast into the infant through the mother's body, then used the seal to keep the Tailed Beast from escaping.

After figuring out the sequence of events, Asuka pressed his hand against her lower abdomen and guided the nonhuman Chakra into his palm.

A moment later.

A cluster of fiery red Chakra wrapped around Asuka's hand.

Sealing: Tailed Beast Sealing Technique!

Asuka rapidly formed hand seals. The Tailed Beast Chakra quickly gathered at his fingertip, and as it vanished, a diamond-shaped mark formed there.

Asuka stared for a while at the diamond mark on his finger and the burned skin around it, his mouth twitching.

The facts proved that his Sealing Technique studies had not been in vain. It really could seal Tailed Beast Chakra.

But was this amount of Chakra enough to cast two A-rank techniques?

Sigh. It was not as though he had never considered becoming a Jinchuriki, but all the Tailed Beasts were already kept by others.

He had originally planned to visit Kirigakure in the future to look for the Three-Tails. He had never expected that the first time he used a sealing technique would be to seal One-Tail's Chakra into his finger.

And there was pitifully little of it. P.S.: This part was copied directly from the anime.

Sora, the lay disciple of the Fire Temple in the Land of Fire, had a portion of Nine-Tails' Chakra sealed within him. It was the kind of Chakra that dispersed into the air, was collected, and then sealed into Sora's body—not the actual Nine-Tails.

It was merely Nine-Tails' Chakra, and that Chakra contained none of Nine-Tails' consciousness.

It was roughly like when Naruto shared his Chakra with others during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

The protagonist only sealed away a tiny bit of Shukaku's Chakra. He would use it once in the future, and then it would be gone.

After daybreak.

Asuka pushed open the door and swept his gaze over the people waiting outside. His eyes settled on the brown-haired man in the middle.

Kazekage?

After a brief silence, Asuka said,

"Lord Kazekage, I didn't expect our first meeting to be here."

"Mm."

Rasa nodded. Then his gaze passed Asuka and moved into the room. Squinting, he asked,

"How is she?"

"She's alive."

"Whew!"

Upon receiving the answer that she was alive, Rasa gave Asuka a deep look. Then he led the group of ninja away, leaving only Pakura, Yashamaru, and a boy and a girl behind.

"Lord Kazekage, that Konoha Ninja may have learned the secret of our Sunagakure Tailed Beast."

Hearing the voice behind him, Rasa paused briefly before continuing on as normal. In the calmest tone, he spoke the most ruthless words.

"I still have another son.

"If war breaks out and my younger son cannot control Shukaku, then I will extract it and seal it into my other son.

"Besides, Konoha is our ally.

"If he dies here, the Fourth Hokage is not the Third Hokage. He will not let this go."

At those words, the Sand Ninja following behind Rasa's eyes flickered.

It would indeed be troublesome if this Uchiha died in the village. The Fourth Hokage would be an even greater problem.

Since it would not work if he died here, then if he died at someone else's hands, shifting the trouble elsewhere should be fine, right?