Tailed Beast Bomb

Uchiha Gen swallowed. It was his first time seeing such an enormous creature in person, and he could not help staring wide-eyed.

But in Shukaku's eyes, he looked like he had been scared senseless.

"Now you know fear? But I've got a bad temper. I'll give you a choice: if you can take one slap from me, I'll let you go. How about it?"

Shukaku grinned happily, seized by the urge to play around. Watching this weak human struggle desperately beneath his claws would surely be interesting, wouldn't it?

"Shukaku!"

"Hm?" Shukaku froze, his eyes slowly widening as he exclaimed in surprise, "How do you know my name?!"

"Look here!"

Shukaku fixed his gaze on Uchiha Gen, feeling puzzled. Why were this ant's eyes red? Some kind of special eyes? And why did they feel strangely familiar?

But before he could figure it out, his consciousness sank into darkness.

Uchiha Gen deactivated his Mangekyō Sharingan. While Shukaku was deprived of his five senses, he hurried beneath his feet, formed a massive hand of Chakra, and gave Shukaku's backside a fierce yank before pulling out a scroll.

"Tailed Beast Sealing Mark!"

After confirming that no Chakra was leaking out, he slung the scroll onto his back, turned, and ran.

Some time later, Shukaku opened his groggy eyes. Just as he tried to get up, a piercing pain shot through his backside.

"Hiss—"

He immediately lowered his head, only to find that there was nothing different about his backside.

"Hm? Did I get up too fast? I seem to remember some ant calling my name..."

He looked around, but there was still nothing but endless yellow sand, not a single living creature in sight.

"Forget it. Maybe I really did get up too fast."

Unable to make sense of it, Shukaku simply stopped thinking about it. He shook his head and lay back down to sleep.

Tailed Beasts were masses of condensed Chakra without flesh and blood. The small amount Uchiha Gen had taken would recover in an instant, and even if a Tailed Beast was killed, it would reform after some time.

But because they had lived for far too long, they spent most of their time sleeping.

After obtaining Shukaku's Chakra, Uchiha Gen immediately boarded a ship for the Land of Water.

Meanwhile, at the Uchiha Clan Grounds, Madara had just entered the clan head's office when he recognized at once that the one sitting in the chair processing documents was a Shadow Clone Technique.

"Hm? What did you go off to do?"

"Oh, Big Brother~ The original said he had something important to do and needed to head out for a while."

"Something important?"

"Mhm. But Big Brother, how did you know I was a Shadow Clone Technique?"

"If it were Gen, he wouldn't still be sitting here in the afternoon."

"..."

Uchiha Gen's Shadow Clone Technique was speechless. So he was saying his work efficiency was low?

Madara poured himself a cup of tea and asked casually,

"What did you do with that monkey's invitation?"

"Threw it away." The Shadow Clone Technique pointed at the trash can. "Too many people want to curry favor with us Uchiha now. They just want a sip of the soup we're drinking, but... those shinobi clans do not seem particularly useful to us."

Madara said nothing after finishing his tea. He sat there for a while, then silently left. The Shadow Clone Technique watched his departing back, his expression neither sad nor happy.

The Uchiha's current grand achievements were almost inseparable from the support behind Uchiha Gen, while Uchiha Gen's useful pawns only needed the Uchiha and Senju clans behind them. Any more would invite unnecessary trouble.

As for whether this would anger those shinobi clans into acting out? The five thousand Uchiha shinobi Uchiha Gen supported were not just there to eat for free.

The Uchiha clan was naturally still enforcing its childbearing policy. For every additional child, they were directly rewarded one hundred thousand ryo. There was no helping it—Uchiha Gen simply had too much money.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed.

The shinobi landscape in the Land of Fire remained the same as ever: plenty of noise, little action.

Uchiha Gen's Shadow Clone Technique casually tossed another invitation into the trash. This one was from the Shimura clan. Danzo had probably been born by now.

Meanwhile, Uchiha Gen's original body stood atop a valley, gazing into the distance.

"Strange. Isn't the Nine-Tails here?"

He opened the map and looked at the cluster of marks on it, then glanced at the valley. His senses clearly told him it was nearby.

The Nine-Tails was such a huge mass of evil energy that Uchiha Gen could smell it even with his eyes closed.

Beyond this valley lay the Land of Lightning. After traveling through more than half the Shinobi World, the Nine-Tails was now the only one whose Chakra he had yet to collect.

"How strange. Don't tell me it burrowed underground? It isn't that old turtle Isobu."

Underground?

Uchiha Gen rubbed his chin and looked down at his feet. That seemed to be the only possibility.

He coated the soles of his feet with Chakra and descended along the rock wall. Sure enough, the scent of the Nine-Tails grew stronger and stronger.

After landing at the bottom of the valley, he ran around it once and actually found a cave.

"Is the Nine-Tails really this big?"

He tilted his head up to the sky and estimated that the cave entrance was a hundred meters tall. That was practically as big as a legless Susanoo.

"Hmm... should I lure the Nine-Tails out first, then control it with a visual jutsu? Would going in like this be too risky?"

Whoosh—

A massive wave of fox stench blew out from the cave and hit Uchiha Gen square in the face.

"Roar!!"

"Damn, that sensitive?"

Uchiha Gen hurriedly leaped away. Amid thunderous rumbling, the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.

A gigantic orange-furred nine-tailed fox slowly emerged from the cave. The Chakra spilling from its body seemed almost solid, billowing like bubbles as it continuously radiated an evil aura.

"Ant! Was it you who set your sights on this old man?!"

"Right... I forgot the Nine-Tails can sense good and evil."

"Ant!! This old man asked you a question!"

The Nine-Tails widened its beastly eyes and opened its mouth. After gathering power for only three seconds, it fired a Tailed Beast Bomb directly at Uchiha Gen.

"Damn!"

A shriek tore through the air. Uchiha Gen hurriedly used repeated Body Flickers to evade it, while the blast punched straight through the place where he had just been standing. Following the trail of destruction, he saw that an entire mountain peak had been split down the middle.

"That power..."

The Nine-Tails could casually spit out an S-rank attack. For a moment, Uchiha Gen actually wanted to run.

"Roar!!"

"Quit yelling! Got a case of waking up on the wrong side of the bed?"

Uchiha Gen's temper flared as well. Every one of these Tailed Beasts acted like they owned the world. So they had explosive tempers, huh?

"Fire Release! Majestic Destroyer Flame!"

"Fire Release! Scorch Release: Steam Blast!"

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

He unleashed three wide-range attacks in rapid succession. With the Nine-Tails' size, it took every bit of the damage head-on.

Yet the Nine-Tails' gaze only grew more savage. It charged out through the sea of flames, its nine tails whipping wildly as the surrounding rocks and trees shattered like paper the moment they touched them.

The combined jutsu had apparently caused the Nine-Tails no trouble at all. Instead, they had only deepened its fury.

"Roar!—Gather"

Again? Uchiha Gen simply activated his Mangekyō Sharingan, flickered over, and came face-to-face with the giant fox.

"Demonic Illusion! Heavenly Lock!"

"Demonic Illusion! Earth Bind!"

The Nine-Tails, which had been gathering another Tailed Beast Bomb, suddenly froze. Its eyes gradually lost focus, and Uchiha Gen immediately followed up with Heavenly Lock, a Mangekyō Sharingan ability that temporarily erased its five senses.

He then ran behind the Nine-Tails, formed a massive hand of Chakra, yanked out a clump of fox fur, sealed it into a scroll, and turned to flee.