All Is Ready

"You think that guy calling himself Madara Uchiha collected the Tailed Beasts just for fun?"

The Nine-Tails pricked up its ears.

"His ultimate goal is to fuse everything from the One-Tail to the Nine-Tails." Qingchuan enunciated every word, his voice like a heavy hammer striking the Nine-Tails' heart. "To revive the legendary Ten-Tails."

"What?!" The Nine-Tails' round eyes suddenly contracted.

"Once the Ten-Tails is revived, your independent consciousness as the Nine-Tails will be completely erased." Qingchuan's icy gaze pierced straight into the Nine-Tails' soul. "When that happens, not only will you lose your current freedom, but you'll never again get the chance to eat grilled meat or have someone stroke your fur."

Erasure of consciousness!

Those four words terrified the Nine-Tails more than the Sharingan or Wood Release ever had.

On one side was losing its freedom and vanishing completely.

On the other was preserving its current life of eating and drinking to its heart's content.

There was no need to hesitate over this choice.

The Nine-Tails' chest heaved violently a few times. It turned its head away and gave a cold snort, its tone brimming with tsundere pride. "Hmph! It's not like I'm afraid of that masked bastard!"

"I just think... it'd be a bit of a shame if I couldn't eat that little girl's grilled meat anymore."

As it spoke, it slowly raised a furry little paw and held it in the air.

Qingchuan smiled.

He extended his right hand and clenched it into a fist.

One man and one fox, one large and one small.

His fist and its little paw collided heavily in midair.

The instant they bumped fists, an indescribably massive surge of orange-red chakra poured wildly from the Nine-Tails' paw into Qingchuan's body like a tsunami after a dam burst.

A violent gale swept