Shukaku's Restlessness, Breaking the Pact?

Several months after Shukaku returned to the sand, the Land of Wind appeared calm and peaceful.

The oasis at East Sea Bay expanded by the day, crisscrossed with fields and rolling waves of rice. Development of the Southwestern Peninsula had been put on the agenda, and Sunagakure was filled with a busy yet hopeful atmosphere. The coarse salt trade brought in substantial profits, greatly easing the village's financial strain. Ninja received better treatment, and even ordinary villagers wore more smiles.

Yet Shaye had never truly let down his guard. He knew full well that an agreement with a Tailed Beast was never a permanent solution. The wildness and resentment Shukaku had accumulated over who knew how many years could never be entirely worn away by a mere contract. It was like a dormant volcano, with surging lava hidden beneath its calm exterior.

That day, Shaye was testing a new agricultural puppet's ability to adapt to the desert at the research department when an unusual yellowish haze on the distant horizon caught his attention.

It was not an ordinary sunset. The dim yellow color spread from the depths of the desert, carrying an ominous sense of agitation. Even the grains of sand in the wind had grown restless, striking the puppet's shell with sharper, denser crackling sounds than usual.

"Hm?" Shaye frowned slightly, stopped what he was doing, leaped to higher ground, and looked into the distance.

In the far-off sky, yellow sand churned like boiling soup, moving slowly but steadily toward the southeast. It was no naturally formed Sandstorm. Within it was a vast, familiar chakra—violent, frenzied, and filled with the urge to destroy.

It was Shukaku!

Though he had not fully revealed himself, he was clearly deep underground or at the center of the Sandstorm, recklessly squandering his power