The Giant Beast Awakens

"Shut up, Kabuki."

His gaze passed over Kankuro and locked onto Gaara, who was half-transformed into Gaara. There was no killing intent in his Pure Byakugan.

Some felt curiosity, scrutiny, or indifferent pity.

"If you don't deal with that stuff inside you soon, it won't be your body anymore in ten minutes."

"It's none of your business!"

With a hoarse, bestial roar, the raccoon's massive arm lashed out, sending sand projectiles hurtling towards Naruto.

Naruto dodged to the side. The sand bullet shattered the tree trunk behind him, sending splinters of wood flying.

"Is this how the Sand Village ninjas behave?" He jumped off the branch, landing steadily. "My brother kindly helped you with your illness, and you throw things at the doctor?"

Kankuro desperately pulled Gaara back Gaara, "Please, don't provoke him—"

"Prove my existence!"

Gaara was completely deaf to the noise. A second tanuki-like arm was forming from his left shoulder. The mutation was accelerating.

The Pure Byakugan scanned Gaara's Chakra structure.

The Chakra the One-Tail- Shukaku was frantically assaulting the sealing barrier. The seal was Hidden Sand technique—its structure was shockingly crude. Compared to the Eight Trigrams Seal that Hidden Leaf used to seal the Nine-Tails -Tailed Beast, this thing was like trying to tie an elephant up with a rope.

No wonder this kid is mentally unstable. The seal itself is eroding his sanity.

We have a plan. We don't need to destroy it.

Using Yang Release. The life energy of extreme Yang and strength has a natural calming effect on Tailed Beast, which are aggregates of Yin Chakra. The sun shines into the gutter.

But there's one condition: he has to put his hand on Gaara's forehead.

Naruto took a step forward.

The raccoon's massive arm slammed into the ground!

Dozens of sand spikes shot out from the ground, blocking the path forward. The second wave was even denser, surrounding them from all directions.

His body was slightly slower than usual due to his weakened state. He weaved and dodged through the sand spikes, his movements still far exceeding those of an ordinary person, but a sand spike grazed his cheek, leaving a shallow bloodstain.

Naruto touched his face, looked at the blood on his fingertip, and raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, I actually managed to get some."

In the distance, Temari caught up. It didn't attack, but stood at a distance, staring intently at the arena.

Gaara's mutation spread to half of his face. Golden beast eyes replaced the light green eyes of a human. A sandy tail grew from his tailbone, sweeping the ground and causing it to cave in. Kankuro was swept away by the sand tail, crashing into a tree and spitting out blood.

"Gaara..." Temari's voice trembled. This was no longer her brother. This was Shukaku.

Naruto stopped in his tracks. His Chakra circulation was slower than usual due to his weakened state, and he needed to consciously control the output of his Yang Release.

Raise your right hand. A warm, golden light shines from your palm, like a miniature sun.

The moment Shukaku saw that ball of light, its reaction became ten times more violent.

"Aww--!"

It screamed and retreated. The raccoon's giant arms frantically erected sand walls. The golden light made it instinctively fearful—but deeper than fear was the absolute oppression from the top of the food chain.

Naruto began to close in. With each step he took, the Yang Release in his palm lit up a little brighter. Shukaku frantically fired sand bullets and sand spikes, forcibly turning the surrounding soil into sand to attack.

Naruto stopped dodging and blocked.

The Sage Body raised his right arm and crushed the sand spikes with his bare palm. One. Two. Ten.

With each broken piece, he took a step forward.

Dust filled the sky. Golden light shone blindingly through the dust and mist.

Temari stood at a distance, her lips slightly parted. She saw that Naruto's sleeves were cut in several places by the sand. There were shallow abrasions on his arms. He was bleeding.

But he didn't stop.

Three meters away from Gaara, Shukaku completely lost control. Its entire head transformed into a tanuki, its enormous jaws opening wide, and a highly compressed Chakra bullet condensed within— Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet.

Chakra output at the level of Tailed Beast.

In a flash, Pure Byakugan calculated the trajectory and power of the projectile. If he took it head-on, the weakened Sage Body could withstand it, but there were still Temari and the injured Kankuro in the woods behind him. The affected area was at least fifty meters.

Naruto didn't retreat.

He pulled his left hand out of his pocket. Ice-blue Chakra bloomed at his fingertips.

Extreme Cold Ice Release: First Time in Combat.

Ice Release: Absolute Zero Domain

He thrust out his left palm. A semi-transparent, ice-blue barrier unfolded in front of him. This was not a white ice mirror or ice spikes—it was Extreme Cold Ice Release enhanced by the Yang Release properties of the Sage Body.

The Drilling Air Bullet struck the ice wall. The shockwave was absorbed and frozen, turning into harmless ice crystal fragments that drifted down. It didn't penetrate an inch.

The Temari Iron Fan slipped from her hand and fell to the ground. She didn't bend down to pick it up.

Ice Release? He can use Ice Release? Just how much is he hiding?

The moment the ice wall shattered, Naruto pierced through the curtain of ice shards and appeared before Gaara.

The golden light of Yang Release's right palm shone brightly. Shukaku unleashed his massive arm—

Naruto didn't block. He took the hit head-on with his left arm. The sandy giant claw scraped three bloody marks on his forearm.

He didn't care about the pain.

His right palm, warm like the sun, pressed against Gaara's forehead.

The moment the Yang Release broke through the seal, Gaara's body suddenly froze. His beast eyes trembled violently, and golden lines cracked across the surface of his yellow sand armor, like sunlight shining through a dried-up riverbed.

Shukaku's roar changed from rage to fear.

No. More primal than fear. An instinctive tremor summoned by the womb.

The purest yang energy flowed in along the seal's patterns. Scalding magma poured back into the ice cave. Shukaku's Chakra was forced back into the depths of the seal inch by inch. The tanuki's giant arm began to disintegrate, and yellow sand fell in a flurry.

Just when Naruto thought things were about to succeed--

Deep within the seal, a will far more ancient and violent than Shukaku suddenly erupted.

When Shukaku was pushed to its limit by the Yang Release, it went berserk, risking damage to its own body, and tore apart the last three layers of the seal.

Mind's Eye of the Kagura was instantly overwhelmed by the surging, distorted Tailed Beast Chakra.

Gaara's body rapidly expanded under Naruto's palm. Yellow sand frantically converged from all directions—not just an arm, not just half a body, but his entire torso was being devoured and reconstructed.

The Chakra Cloak the One-Tail Beast has taken shape.

Amidst the swirling sandstorm, the silhouette of a colossal, three-story-high sand-colored beast materialized before Naruto. Its tail swept across, crushing all the trees within a twenty-meter radius.

Naruto's hand was bounced away by the expanding sand shell, and he stumbled back several steps, leaving two deep furrows. He looked up. His short golden hair Chakra storm. His Pure Byakugan reflected the roaring, fully formed behemoth.

The Yang Release light in his palm was still flickering, but it was dimmer than before— his Chakra recovery during his weakened state couldn't keep up with his output.

Naruto exhaled a breath of stale air, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.

"So you're really going to make a huge scene, huh?"

He moved his left arm, which had been scratched by the giant claw, and his knuckles cracked.

"Okay. Then I'll play with you—the big one."

In the distance, Temari watched the bloodied figure with a smile on his face as he faced the Tailed Beast Transformation monster. His knees went completely weak, and he had to lean against a tree trunk to avoid sliding down.

Only one thought remained in my mind—

What is this man made of?