Eight-Tails, Rampage!!

Boom!!

A gale howled as dark clouds rolled in, churning into a massive vortex above Kumogakure, forming a breathtaking natural spectacle.

It looked as if some monster was writhing and struggling within the whirlpool, and the blazing white lightning that burst forth illuminated two figures inside the hospital room!

"After I became a Jinchuriki, the eyes of my comrades, who I used to get along with, all changed."

Feeling like he was being too subjective, Fukai shook his head with a self-deprecating smile and corrected himself: "No, maybe they tried their best to act normal, but I could feel that everything was different."

"It's like walking alone toward the end of darkness, feeling the threat of death with every step, loneliness and fear lingering in my heart."

"It makes me doubt more and more whether I'm really fit to be a Jinchuriki. But—ninjutsu, ability, lineage, prestige—I clearly lack none of them. That's why I was chosen as the Jinchuriki..."

Under such a shadow, thinking the same things every day, even I can't see myself clearly anymore. It's like there's a hole in my heart.

"...Sorry, I talked too much."

Seeing the thoughtful expression on the woman's face, Fukai gave a bitter smile and said, "Maybe only someone who becomes a Jinchuriki can understand this feeling."

Even though the woman before him, young as she was, was the best person in the entire Land of Lightning for solving psychological problems, sent by the Third Raikage himself.

Click.

Just as they were talking, a tall, thin woman dressed like a nurse walked in, carrying a tray of medicine.

The pupils in her eyes were strange—cold and slit like a venomous snake's. She cast a faint, lingering glance at Fukai, then licked her thin lips as if covetously.

She set the medicine down beside the woman, reached out to light an incense burner, then walked out without a word.

"It's fine. My duty is to help you, isn't it?"

The woman wore a gentle smile, adjusted her glasses, and spoke softly: "Have you ever thought that what it takes to become a qualified Jinchuriki isn't ninjutsu, ability, lineage, or prestige, but something else?"

As she spoke, she pointed out the window at the thunderclouds that showed no sign of stopping, then pointed at Fukai's left chest and smiled: "Something that can fill the hole deep in your heart."

Looking at the woman's gentle yet profound eyes, Fukai froze, instinctively glanced away to avoid her gaze, but felt a sense of recognition rising within him.

Something to fill the hole deep in my heart?

"I can't find it." Fukai let out a breath, his face slightly pale, the despair in his eyes deepening. "Doctor, last time I heard you mention that you have a method to better vent emotions and relieve stress?"

"Yes." The woman's smile deepened, and she nodded slightly. "If you're interested, I can't guarantee a complete cure, but relieving stress is no problem."

"However, out of professional ethics, I must warn you in advance: that method is not gentle. I need your complete trust in me, and it cannot be interrupted before the treatment ends, or it may cause irreversible harm to you."

With that, she pressed her palm down slightly and said in a gentle tone: "If you're ready, then lie down."

The hospital room fell into an eerie silence, so quiet that only their breathing could be heard.

After a long silence, Fukai slowly lay down on the bed, staring straight at the white ceiling. In the end, pain overpowered reason.

"Ay gave me half an hour." He closed his eyes, feeling his heart twitch slightly. "If I don't come out in half an hour, no matter what happens, he'll force his way in."

Fukai could actually tell that Ay's safeguard wasn't aimed at the defenseless female doctor before him, but at him, the Jinchuriki.

If something went wrong during this treatment, both he and the doctor would be subdued by Ay in an instant.

No.

The doctor would be killed outright, and he would be sent back to Kumorai Valley.

In the name of protection, but in reality, imprisonment.

Even the Third Raikage, who had chosen him—the man hailed as the Strongest Shield and the Strongest Spear—harbored wariness and distrust toward him now.

His unstable mental state made everyone cautious, and their strange gazes only deepened his self-doubt.

As long as his comrades couldn't fully trust him, he could only fall into this vicious cycle, his fragile mental state gradually deteriorating, slipping bit by bit toward the abyss of loss of control and rampage.

"Half an hour is more than enough."

The woman's voice, tinged with a gentle smile, reached his ears: "My treatment method is to put you into a dream. The flow of time in a dream is different from reality, so you can rest assured."

Hearing this, Fukai was stunned and said in surprise: "I've only heard of people using genjutsu to treat mental illness. Is your method similar to that?"

As the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, though he hadn't yet become a perfect Jinchuriki, he had strong resistance to genjutsu. Ordinary genjutsu would probably be ineffective on him.

"No." The woman reached out and gently brushed back Fukai's bangs, her lowered eyes gazing at his face as she said softly, "This is the way of ordinary people."

A moment later, Fukai heard a gentle, soothing melody begin to play, and felt a pair of soft hands press lightly against his temples.

"Just think of it as resting. Now, do as I say."

The woman's calm, gentle voice came through: "First, adjust your body to the most comfortable position, then relax your body and slowly take deep breaths."

"Whoosh..." Fukai's breathing gradually steadied.

His breathing had always been even and calm—a required course for any ninja.

Gradually, his expression began to grow weary, and his tense body relaxed.

"Yes, good. Slowly exhale. Mm, one more time. Deeply inhale, exhale. What kind of environment do you like?"

"...The seaside." Fukai's lips parted slightly, his response seeming sluggish.

That was his only experience at the seaside—the vast, boundless ocean had left a deep impression on him.

"Good. Now, imagine you're lying by the seaside. The sea breeze is cool and comfortable. The waves are rhythmically crashing against the rocks..."

The voice in Fukai's ears grew gentler, like ocean waves drifting near and far, wavering and elusive.

The head being gently massaged gradually relaxed.

Chest, back, abdomen, arms, legs...

His entire body grew more and more relaxed, as if floating on clouds.

"How do you feel now?"

Only the woman's calm voice could be heard in the room; Fukai's breathing was so slow it couldn't stir the air.

"..."

Fukai's voice was faint, like the muttering of someone in a dream.

"Can you hear?"

"Can you smell?"

"Can you... see?"

As the gentle voice entered his ears, Fukai's eyeballs began to rapidly move beneath his eyelids.

His breath suddenly turned ragged, and his body started convulsing violently.

Boom!!

An explosive thunderclap roared in his ears, as if the sky had been torn open, unleashing a beast bent on destruction.

His eardrums felt like they were about to burst; his calm breathing snapped, and Fukai's eyes flew open.

He instinctively reached out toward where the Memory Doctor was.

But what he felt was... a patch of warmth.

Fukai was stunned, but even more so, lost.

The psychological treatment went wrong—that was his first thought.

The next moment, feeling a wetness drip onto his face, Fukai instinctively looked up, and his pupils sharply contracted.

"Hah!"

A thick, nauseating stench of blood flooded his nostrils; he saw the doctor's pale, blood-soaked face.

He was gripping the doctor's neck, holding her high before him; her usually gentle eyes were vacant and lifeless.

At his feet, severed limbs and bodies piled into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood; a fine rain of crimson fell from above and below, washing over him in torrents, making the scarlet Chakra cloak on his body even more terrifying.

"Monster."

Fukai saw the doctor looking down at him, her twisted, hateful face trembling as she said, "You... damned monster!"

As he stood there frozen, a familiar roar came from behind him.

"Fukai! What have you done?!"

But that shout from the Third Raikage's son no longer held the respect it once had for Fukai.

At the same time.

The door to the hospital room opened.

Not the hospital room Fukai "saw," but the room where the woman was.

The humid air outside seeped through the crack into the dim room; as the light flickered, the graceful shadow on the wall gently lifted its head, its gaze falling on the "Nurse" who had silently entered.

"Orochimaru-san." The woman adjusted her glasses and smiled. "Are you satisfied with this collaboration?"

"..."

The "Nurse" reached up and tore off her face, revealing a pale, somewhat effeminate face.

Then, from the table beside her, she picked up the burned-out Special Genjutsu Drug, her snake-like pupils contracting slightly as she instinctively licked her lips. "You... who the hell are you? And what did you do to him?"

"I am a pharmacist, a healer who saves people, a healer who saves the world."

The woman's smile remained unchanged, her voice soft and deliberate. "As for Fukai... he will repeat, over and over, again and again, reliving his nightmare."

"In the end, he will die without pain—no, rather..."

"Be released."

Boom!!

At that moment, a thunderstorm struck over Kumogakure; forked lightning filled the black sky with pale light.

"Assemble the troops and prepare to move to the Land of Rain. Our time to enter has already..."

In his office far away, the Third Raikage, who was issuing orders, looked up, frowning at the thick dark clouds that had gathered overhead without warning, with occasional serpentine flashes of lightning illuminating the gaps between them.

For some reason, he felt a tightness in his chest and unease, as if some disaster was about to strike, and the dark clouds above pressed down on Kumogakure.

The next moment.

Boom!!

A roar far more terrifying than thunder exploded, enveloping heaven and earth!

The blazing white light at the edge of the sky burst forth, surging head-on to engulf the Raikage's office building.

That was not thunder.

It was the roar of Yin-Yang Chakra compressed to its absolute limit!

—A Tailed Beast Ball!

A surging Fire Tide swept outward with the shockwave, instantly shattering everything around the Raikage's office building. Red flames lit up half the pitch-black night, leaving a perfectly circular space as barren as drought-stricken land!

"ROAR!!"

When the Third Raikage, his body scorched black and wreathed in Lightning Release Chakra, emerged from the rubble, he raised his head and stared at the monster in the distance, near Kumogakure's hospital, recklessly unleashing its terrifying Chakra.

"Damn it, of all times!" He tasted bitterness in his mouth and roared, "Sealing Platoon! Get your asses over here!"

On the eve of the Second Shinobi World War's full outbreak...

The Eight-Tails had gone berserk!!