Shin led Konan into the cell with their heads lowered. The middle-aged monk watched them with his hands pressed together in prayer. In truth, he had silently observed everything from the very beginning, but he had never spoken.
"Are you here for the Tailed Beast?" the middle-aged monk asked in a deep, steady voice, showing no sign of panic.
"Shh. Don't speak." Shin murmured as he extended his right hand toward the man's abdomen.
The middle-aged monk was shocked. In an instant, he frantically raised his chakra, intending to fight back. Yet at that moment, the world lost all color, every shade fading away until only black and white remained.
The hand did not move quickly, and his chakra could still circulate, yet he could not muster even the thought of resisting. He could only watch helplessly as the other man's hand entered his body. A violent, terrifying chakra abruptly surged into the sky.
The hand left his body, and a formless mass of chakra energy appeared in Shin's palm. At the same time, color returned to the world.
The middle-aged monk clutched his stomach and collapsed, staring at him in terror. "Y-you... what are you doing? You'll release him like this. All of Sunagakure... all of Sunagakure will..."
He did not finish. His voice suddenly cut off, followed by a scream. His body began to swell unnaturally, while sand-like material emerged from within him and rapidly covered half his body.
Shin did not look at him. Instead, he focused on the chakra energy in his hand. He had just extracted it from the Jinchuriki's body—or rather, from within Shukaku. It was a wind-attribute chakra artifact.
This mass of chakra energy was formless and intangible. An ordinary person would never even notice it, much less extract it. Shin formed a