Tailed Beast Bomb

Several hundred meters away from Shukaku, atop a small hill that had just been smashed into existence.

Naruto, having entered the Four-Tails state and covered in crimson, faced Shukaku. Watching Shukaku charge up his ultimate move, he was just about to gather all the chakra in his body onto his blade.

"I'll do it!" Kurama instantly took over his consciousness. "Remember this—I'll only demonstrate it once!"

"Yin-Yang Chakra, two to eight!"

Before his words had even faded, under Kurama's control, a perfectly round black ball of chakra gradually formed before him.

Naruto watched everything from a third-person perspective, his eyelids twitching wildly. How was something this heavy supposed to be fired?

"Watch closely!"

With that, Kurama swallowed the Tailed Beast Bomb in one bite.

Naruto: "Fuck!"

What was this supposed to be? Self-destructing because he couldn't win?

At the same time, Shukaku launched the Tailed Beast Bomb he had finished charging from his mouth.

The Tailed Beast Bomb Kurama had just swallowed seemed to find its target, transforming into a blinding beam of light that shot toward the incoming Tailed Beast Bomb.

Boom!

At the point where the two collided, a half-sphere instantly formed and expanded!

It was as if all the surrounding light had been drawn into them, plunging the world into darkness.

Anything touched by the hemisphere was reduced to ash amid endless light and heat.

Then, a powerful shockwave spread outward in every direction!

"I-I'll be damned!" Before Kiba could finish speaking, the powerful shockwave knocked him unconscious.

A long time later.

An arm covered in wounds pulled itself out of the dirt.

"Kurama, you were just messing around!" Naruto spat the mud from his mouth and complained.

"Tch! That was nothing," Kurama said disdainfully.

"Where's Shukaku? You didn't blow him to pieces, did you?" Naruto asked in surprise. As far as the eye could see, Shukaku was nowhere to be found.

"How could that happen? He ran out of chakra and hid back inside his Jinchuriki," Kurama said.

"Ran out of chakra?" Naruto said in astonishment, as though he had discovered a whole new world.

"His true body is still sealed. He was only just released—how much chakra could he possibly gather?" The Nine-Tails spoke with disdain. Did Naruto really think every Tailed Beast could compare to him?

"...I see."

Naruto dug Kusabimaru out of the ground and headed toward where Shukaku had last been standing, following his memories.

"Am I dead?"

Gaara lay weakly on the ground. Every time he used the Feigning Sleep Technique, he would enter a period of exhaustion.

The reason he felt as though he had returned to his mother's embrace was because the surrounding terrain looked so much like the Land of Wind.

He clearly remembered that before losing consciousness, he had still been in the Land of Fire.

The Land of Wind was still a hundred thousand miles away.

"Mom, I'm coming to find you..."

Gaara slowly closed his eyes. To him, there was no difference between life and death.

Or perhaps life after death would be easier.

Suddenly, a shadow covered his body.

"Looks like you're not dead yet." A calm voice rang out.

Gaara struggled to open his eyes. Their gazes met, and he saw eyes very much like his own—indifferent, calm, and with madness hidden beneath that outward facade.

"Let's talk." Naruto sat cross-legged, laying Kusabimaru horizontally across his knees. "You and I are both Jinchuriki. We should have some things in common."

"..." Gaara forced his body once more, squeezing out tiny strands of chakra and manipulating the yellow sand to slowly raise himself.

"Have you ever thought about changing your circumstances?" Naruto looked up at the stretch of blue sky overhead and asked softly.

"Change?" Gaara seemed not to understand what he meant.

"Indifference, discrimination, exclusion..." Though Naruto did not know much about Sunagakure's situation, he could see fragments of Gaara's past in his eyes.

"Have you ever hated them?" Gaara did not answer. Staring directly into Naruto's eyes, he asked instead.

"Hate?" Naruto understood what he was asking and shook his head slightly. "I wouldn't call it hate. Just as they have the right not to like me, I have the right not to like them."

"Everyone has their own subjective views. Disliking or liking someone is their right."

"Like you—don't you also hate those who give you negative emotions?"

"You don't need to think too highly of yourself. Besides, we don't live by relying on them."

"And in the end, the reason they hate us is because we—or rather, the things inside us—have brought them harm and fear..."

"There is no love without reason, and there is no hate without reason."

"If you want to earn other people's affection and respect, you might as well reflect on what you have done and what you have brought to others."

"Those who love others are always loved in return. Though that saying doesn't really suit people like us."

"Is that so..." Gaara looked back on his past, his expression dazed.

Watching him, Naruto shook his head inwardly. This was merely his own way of dealing with the world. It was not necessarily right, but it was indeed his own realization.

There was no need to care too much about what others thought of you in life.

Others had the right to dislike you. If you insisted on making those who disliked you like you, then who exactly had the problem—them, or you?

Just like these past years—exclusion, indifference, unequal treatment...

He had not lost a piece of flesh because of it.

Living his own life well was enough.

If he truly could not stay somewhere because he was being excluded, then he could just go somewhere else.

The world was vast. There would always be a place that suited him. No one would die just because they left someone else.

"If it were you, how would you change things?" Gaara continued asking.

"Just follow your heart." Naruto shook his head. He could see it now—the kid already had an answer in his heart. He was only asking for advice because he was still lost and had yet to understand his own feelings.

In the end, one had to walk one's own path in life. Naruto's way of changing was his own, not the kid's.

As for the choices one made, one only needed to bear the bitterness and tears oneself.

"...I want to change how they see me. I want to get along with them normally. I'm not a monster." After a long silence, Gaara spoke. It was unclear whether he was telling the person beside him or making a vow to himself.

"Then go do it." Naruto nodded slightly. On the road toward one's ideals, there was no room for others' denial.

"Do you want to join my organization? The path of pursuing ideals is bound to be difficult. If there are more like-minded people helping one another, it should be much easier..."

Naruto revealed his purpose. As he had just said, there was no love without reason. He had not comforted Gaara out of overflowing kindness.

Before one's individual strength reached a certain level, the power of a group could not be ignored.

At first, Naruto had only entertained the idea of forming an organization of his own.

But after witnessing Gaara's—or rather, the One-Tail's—strength, that idea had truly taken root.

He wanted to establish an organization made entirely of Jinchuriki, where they could help one another.

The natural exclusion Jinchuriki faced and the great strength Jinchuriki possessed were the foundation upon which this organization could be built.

After hearing Naruto's description of the organization, Gaara remained silent for a long time.

Like-minded people...

"What is the organization called?" Gaara asked softly.

At those words, Naruto's lips curled into an almost imperceptible smile.

"Dragonborn!"

Post first, revise later.

Please send recommendation votes!