Wood Dragon Technique Strangles, Beating a Tailed Beast Like a Pet

Above Wind Canyon, yellow sand and green radiance split the sky into two distinct halves.

Shukaku's massive body trembled violently. The fear carved deep into its soul made it instinctively want to retreat. But as the ultimate aggregation of chakra, a tailed beast's ferocity and pride would never allow it to bow its head to a mere human.

Especially not one who radiated the Wood Release aura it hated to the bone!

"Roar!"

Shukaku let out a savage howl that shattered the rock layers, then violently slammed its enormous arms against its round belly.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Within its abyss-like maw, violent Wind Release chakra and densely packed sand compressed frantically. In less than half a second, three enormous Wind Release: Air Bullets, each over ten meters in diameter, took shape and crashed toward Sosuke in midair in a triangular formation, carrying an unstoppable aura of destruction.

The power of those three Air Bullets was enough to instantly flatten a small mountain. Gale-force winds tore through the surrounding air with ear-piercing sonic booms, while the remaining giant trees along their path were instantly ground into dust by the intense wind pressure.

Facing this calamity-level attack, enough to drive even Kage-level experts to despair, Sosuke did not so much as raise his eyelids.

His white haori snapped in the fierce wind. The only expression left on his handsome, gentle face was lofty indifference and brutality.

"Reckless beast."

Sosuke parted his thin lips slightly and sharply brought his long hands together before his chest.

Clap!

The crisp clap somehow overwhelmed the howling winds filling the sky, striking precisely at the hearts of everyone present.

The Yang Release chakra of his perfected Sage Body poured out without restraint. The wooden stairway beneath Sosuke's feet instantly erupted with dazzling emerald light, and then the entire earth of Wind Canyon let out a groan of unbearable strain.

"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!"

Rumble—!

The earth collapsed completely. A colossal wooden dragon, no smaller than Shukaku and even more massive in length, burst directly from the ground with a violent momentum that promised to destroy everything!

Its rough, dark-brown bark layered over itself like dragon scales, while enormous wooden horns stabbed toward the heavens. The Wood Dragon had no eyes, yet its gaping maw was packed with sharp wooden fangs, radiating an ultimate greed to devour all things.

The moment it appeared, the Wood Dragon released a silent roar. Its massive body twisted sharply, and its thick tail lashed through the air like a pillar holding up the sky.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The three Air Bullets, powerful enough to level mountains, were directly smashed apart by the Wood Dragon's tail. Terrifying wind blades scattered in every direction, carving countless bottomless ravines into the cliff walls, yet they failed to peel even a single piece of bark from the Wood Dragon's surface.

Absolute defense. Absolute power!

At last, unmistakable terror appeared in Shukaku's enormous pupils. It swung its massive claws, trying to put some distance between them.

But the Wood Dragon was too fast.

Driven by Sosuke's chakra, it shot forward like a dark-brown bolt of lightning, instantly crossing hundreds of meters and slamming viciously into Shukaku's body.

Boom!

The instant the two colossal beings collided, a visible chakra shockwave erupted. The mud and water at the bottom of the canyon evaporated instantly, while the yellow sand blanketing the sky was forcibly blown away.

"Aoo—!"

Shukaku let out a shrill scream. Its strength had never been among the greatest of the tailed beasts, and against the Wood Dragon that naturally countered tailed beasts, it had no ability to fight back at all.

Like a gigantic python, the Wood Dragon's colossal body wrapped tightly around Shukaku again and again. Its wooden trunk continuously constricted, producing bone-crushing sounds that made one's scalp tingle. The strange violet curse markings on Shukaku's body began to twist and dim beneath the Wood Dragon's strangling coils.

Then, the Wood Dragon opened its fang-filled jaws and bit viciously into Shukaku's neck.

Squelch!

Wooden spikes plunged deep into Shukaku's body of sand and chakra. The unique devouring property of Wood Release activated instantly!

Visible to the naked eye, the vast, violent chakra within Shukaku poured madly through the Wood Dragon's fangs and into its body, ultimately converging upon Sosuke, who stood atop the dragon's head.

"Roar... Let go... of me..."

Shukaku struggled desperately, its gigantic sand claws frantically raking at the Wood Dragon's body, but they could only leave a few faint white marks. As its chakra drained away at a rapid pace, its mountain-sized body began shrinking at a visible rate.

The once arrogant beast of sand now resembled a punctured ball, its wails growing weaker and weaker beneath the Wood Dragon's constriction.

At the edge of the canyon, Fugaku had collapsed into the mud, staring blankly at the scene.

His prized Sharingan reflected the Wood Dragon casually brutalizing a tailed beast as though it were a pet.

What was this?

The tailed beasts that the Uchiha clan had guarded against and feared for generations, which they had only dared attempt to control after awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, did not even have room to resist before Senju Sosuke!

Those were tailed beasts! The ultimate powers that every great nation worshiped and feared like nuclear weapons!

Yet in Sosuke's hands, it was like a slightly oversized wild dog, pinned firmly to the ground and drained dry.

"Monster... He's the real monster..." Fugaku's lips trembled as he scrambled backward on hands and knees. In that moment, his ambition to compete with Sosuke for power in the Hidden Leaf was completely crushed to powder.

It was not only him. The Senju clan's hidden guards concealed in the shadows all dropped to one knee in fervent devotion.

Beneath his mask, Toka's face flushed red from overwhelming excitement. Looking at Sosuke standing atop the Wood Dragon's head, dressed in flowing white, his eyes were filled with fanatical faith.

This was the king of the Senju Clan!

What Hokage? What higher-ups? Before this absolute violence capable of beating a tailed beast like a pet, they were all nothing but worthless rabble!

In just a few minutes, nearly one-third of Shukaku's body had been drained away. It lay limply on the ground, no longer possessing even the strength to roar, able only to make weak whimpering sounds.

Sosuke looked down from above at the dying beast, a satisfied chill flashing through his eyes.

"That should be enough."

He did not form conventional sealing hand signs, nor did he use a sealing technique such as the Myojinmon to imprison Shukaku again.

Before everyone's stunned eyes, Sosuke leaped down from the Wood Dragon's head and landed steadily atop Shukaku's enormous nose bridge.

"You... what are you going to do..." Shukaku weakly rolled its eyes, its voice filled with unprecedented terror. It could sense that what this man wanted was not merely its chakra.

Sosuke did not answer. He slowly extended his right hand.

Buzz—!

An extraordinarily strange black rune quietly emerged in his palm. It was a fragment of Yin-Yang Release law that the system had analyzed after devouring Black Zetsu.

Sosuke pressed his palm mercilessly against Shukaku's forehead. The Yang Release of his perfected Sage Body intertwined instantly with that strange Yin Release, transforming into a bottomless chakra vortex.

"Ordinary chakra is far too chaotic. It is unworthy of the bloodline of my Senju Clan descendants."

A cruel smile curled Sosuke's lips as his five fingers suddenly clenched.

"Hand over your origin to me!"

Boom!

A scream ten times more miserable than before erupted from Shukaku's mouth. It was not physical pain, but the extreme torment of having its soul and origin forcibly torn apart.

A sphere of earthy-yellow light, radiating blinding brilliance and containing the One-Tail's most fundamental power, was being brutally dragged out of Shukaku's body by Sosuke.

Far away, atop a sand dune beyond the canyon, an old woman who had originally intended to seize the chaos and control puppets in a sneak attack saw this bizarre and domineering sight. She froze as though struck by lightning, her clouded eyes filled with horrified disbelief.