Savage Awakening

Deep within Lightning Cloud Gorge, the water in the underground river has been completely evaporated by the terrifyingly high temperatures.

The air was distorted, like a tightly twisted rag.

The Yugito knelt on the charred rock, its ten fingers gripping the ground so tightly that it carved ten deep grooves into the hard basalt. Its fingernails curled up, and the blood that had just welled up was instantly roasted into scabs.

The eerie blue flames on her body were rapidly turning black.

That was the purest and most violent primal chakra belonging to the Matatabi Chakra. Two materialized black-purple fire tails swept wildly behind her, shattering rows of fragile stalactite pillars around her.

"Roar--!"

A piercing, inhuman scream rolled down her throat. The Yugito abruptly raised its head, its once beautiful face now completely distorted, several thick black lines crawling across its cheeks like centipedes. Its right eye had completely lost its human pupil, becoming a vertical pupil belonging to a wild beast.

"Damn it, my sanity has snapped." Samui gasped for breath at the scalding hot air from the edge of the rock wall above.

Without the slightest hesitation, she drew her dagger from behind, slashing her index finger with her thumb, the blood smearing across the blade.

"Karui, Omoi! Set up the triangular formation! Prepare to form the 'Lightning Binding Formation'! Lock her Chakra channels first. The Sealing Squad hasn't arrived yet; we must trap her here!" Samui's voice was steady, but the veins on his wrist, gripping the sword, bulged.

This is the Hidden Cloud's standardized operating procedure for dealing with Jinchūriki going out of control. In their eyes, Yugito is no longer a companion, but a dangerous weapon that could explode at any moment.

Karui gritted his teeth, about to Hand Seals.

A pure golden wave of Chakra exploded out of thin air, like an invisible iron wall, slamming hard into the chests of the three Hidden Cloud members.

Bang!

The three of them groaned simultaneously, forced back seven or eight meters by the brute force, their backs slamming heavily against the rock wall.

"Are you crazy?!" Samui stared at the blond figure blocking her way. "Once the Two-Tails reaches its perfect form, in this confined space, a single Tailed Beast Ball could bury us all!"

Naruto's hands remained in his pockets, his shoes making a harsh, scorching sound as they stepped on the reddening gravel.

"Shut up if you want to live, and stay put in the back." Naruto didn't even turn his head, his tone brimming with unquestionable arrogance. "The more you treat her like a monster, the more out of control she becomes. Hidden Leaf's territory is not for your Hidden Cloud's rules to dictate."

"You..." Samui gritted her teeth, but found herself powerless to refute. The oppressive aura Naruto had just released gave her the illusion of facing the Raikage in a fit of rage.

No, even more savage than the Raikage.

Naruto pulled his hands out, cracked his neck, and his knuckles popped crisply. He strode forward, heading straight towards the blackish-purple flames that could melt steel.

The demonic fire transformed into a tangible heatwave that swept over us.

The edges of Naruto's jacket instantly turned to ashes, and his exposed skin was scorched by the high temperature, causing large, horrifying blisters to appear.

But almost within the same microsecond that the blood bubble swelled.

A rich golden light surged from deep within his skin. The most yang and vigorous life energy circulated wildly, scorched dead skin peeled off, and new skin appeared as smooth and supple as ever. Destruction and rebirth tugged at a visible speed on Naruto's body.

He walked these steps with extreme steadiness.

Meanwhile, in the sealed space deepest within Naruto's consciousness...

Deep within the cold, damp sewers, behind a massive steel cage, a pair of blood-red fox eyes slowly opened.

"Foolish." Kurama lay sprawled in the puddles, his massive tail slapping the surface in frustration. "You think that crazy, dead cat will thank you for approaching like that? All she has left is the instinct for destruction. The closer you get, the more you'll be torn to shreds."

"Shut your filthy mouth, Big Fox." Naruto's spiritual form appeared outside the iron gate, one hand resting on the cold railing, his eyes indifferent. "Put away your vessel theory. I'm not here to reason with her, and I don't expect her to be grateful."

"Then what are you going to do?" Kurama sneered.

"I'm going to smash that self-imposed shackle to pieces, bone and flesh." Naruto's lips curled into a cruel smile. "Since she thinks being a weapon doesn't hurt, then I'll show her what real pain is."

Outside, the underground cave collapsed.

The Yugito's rationality was completely reduced to zero.

With a deafening explosion, a large amount of dark purple Chakra gushed out from her pores, shooting into the sky like a volcanic eruption.

A gigantic demon cat, over ten meters tall, completely solidified in the abyss.

Two enormous tails, burning with black flames, lashed wildly in mid-air, each lash leaving a deep, scorched groove in the hard rock wall. Debris rained down like a storm.

The Matatabi has arrived.

Its enormous heterochromatic eyes locked onto the blond boy below, who looked as small as an ant yet radiated dazzling golden light.

The territorial instincts of a wild beast and its suppressed anger erupted simultaneously.

"Die!" Yugito's lingering voice overlapped with the roar of the Tailed Beast.

The Two-Tails raised their right front paws.

The enormous cat paw, enveloped in a dark purple demonic flame capable of incinerating souls, accompanied by a piercing howl that tore through the air, slammed down on Naruto's head like a collapsing mountain.

"Big brother!" Sasuke behind him, cried out, his Two-Tomoe Sharingan swirled wildly, but he couldn't even make out the afterimage of that claw.

It's too fast, and it's too heavy.

This pure physical pressure is something that no Ninjutsu can withstand.

However, Naruto did not retreat.

He didn't even open the Eight Gates.

"Boom!"

A deafening roar shattered eardrums in the cave.

Smoke and black flames swirled wildly in all directions. Samui and the others were forced to shield their faces with their arms and were blown back more than ten steps by the gale.

When their vision became barely clear, everyone's pupils suddenly shrank to a single point.

Naruto remained standing in the same spot.

His legs below the knees had been smashed into the hard rock by the terrifying impact.

But above his head.

Nine thick, pure gold Chakra Chains shot out from the sky. They resembled nine living, angry dragons, weaving together in mid-air to form an impenetrable giant metal net.

Adamantine Sealing Chains!

The Two-Tails' enormous fiery claw was firmly trapped in the golden net. Its sharp nails were less than ten centimeters away from Naruto's nose.

The raging black-purple flames spread wildly down the chains, attempting to burn Naruto to ashes.

Naruto's arm muscles bulged high, veins coiling beneath his skin like blue dragons. He raised his head, his eyes showing no fear, only boundless wildness and disdain.

"Sister, your cat fur is really prickly." Naruto, enduring the intense heat that could melt an ordinary Jonin instantly, even had a wicked smile on his lips. "With such a temper, your little brother doesn't mind personally massaging your meridians and smoothing them out!"

Two-Tails roared in fury, raising its left claw as if to crush the provocative insect.

"Still not awake?!"

Naruto's eyes flashed with golden light, and he suddenly released his hand Hand Seals. He actually stretched out his right hand, which was covered in Yang Release Chakra, and grabbed the huge fingernail of the Two-Tails burning with demonic flames above his head.

"Sizzle--" The ear-piercing sound of flesh being burned rang out.

Naruto didn't even flinch. With his perfect physical strength, he withstood the immense pressure of the Two-Tails. His voice, like a thunderclap from the heavens, exploded in Yugito's chaotic mental world.

"Yugito!"

"If you want to be a weapon of the Hidden Cloud, then press me down hard right now and crush me into a pulp!"

"But if you still want to be a living, breathing human being, and if you still know what humiliation is, then take back this wildcat skin!"

The violent sonic waves, mixed with the life force of extreme Yang, flowed unimpeded into the Two-Tails' body through the chains of the Adamantine Sealing Chains, reaching deep into Yugito's soul.

That was an extremely forceful and unreasonable way of waking someone up.

The Two-Tails creature's massive body suddenly stiffened.

In mid-air, the left claw, poised to strike, abruptly stopped.

Within the closed mental world created by the Yugito, everywhere she looked were cold iron chains and the indifferent assessing gazes of the Hidden Cloud's higher-ups. She huddled in a corner, accustomed to being a weapon that never cried out in pain.

Until that golden fist brutally shattered all her pretense and shoved the words "a living, breathing person" into her ears.

Outside, the Two-Tails creature's heterochromatic vertical pupils began to flicker violently. The blackish-purple flames showed an extremely rare disorder, as if a human will was frantically seizing control of the body.

The power in the giant claw is waning.

Samui watched this scene, her hand gripping the knife completely frozen. She couldn't believe that someone could actually stop a rampaging Tailed Beast by simply using a few words and sheer physical strength.

"It worked!" Sakura exclaimed excitedly, clenching her fist.

Naruto stared at those eyes that were gradually clearing up, preparing to pour his Yang Release Chakra into them to completely suppress the Tailed Beast Cloak.

At this critical moment...

Suddenly, an extremely eerie dark red incantation lit up at the location of the Two-Tails beast's heart.

That wasn't Sealing Jutsu from Hidden Cloud, nor was it the Two-Tails' own markings. It was a vicious Cursed Seal that the former leader of the black market missing-nin had forcibly implanted deep into Yugito's heart when he used Black Rod to control Yugito!

The Lightning Formation Sacrificial Detonation earlier did not destroy it; on the contrary, the intense fluctuations in the Yugito's spirit became the breeding ground for its complete activation.

"Sizzle--"

The Two-Tails's dark purple flames, which had just dimmed, swelled three times in size as if a bucket of boiling oil had been poured into them.

This time, the vertical pupils no longer held confusion, but instead turned into pure ashes and extreme malice. It wasn't the will of the Two-Tails, but some darker, colder third-party force that had possessed it and resurrected it.

"Get out of the way!" Karin's sharp scream came from above the rock wall. Her Mind's Eye of the Kagura sensed the evil fluctuation that did not belong to this place.

The massive fire claws, enhanced by the dark red runes, doubled in power.

With a crisp "crack," a fine crack appeared at the point where the Adamantine Sealing Chains was intertwined.

Naruto's eyes suddenly turned cold as he stared at the dark red rune.

This familiar, chilling aura is definitely not something a wandering ninja could create.

Who is secretly using the Jinchūriki as puppets? Orochimaru? Or have members of the Akatsuki already infiltrated the operation?

The raging black flames flowed through the cracks in the chains and poured directly towards Naruto's face.