Over the course of half a month, the area before the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path on Konoha's Back Mountain had practically become a second Hokage office.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru took turns standing watch. When they used up too much chakra, they rested for half a day, then returned to the statue's fingers to form hand seals once they recovered.
The three of them rotated, forcibly extracting chakra from the One-Tail, Two-Tails, Three-Tails, Four-Tails, Seven-Tails, and Eight-Tails in turn.
Isobu had long since been sealed inside a specially made container.
Roshi of the Four-Tails was imprisoned alive in Konoha's dungeon.
Seven-Tails Chōmei had been captured during the unification of the shinobi world.
They were all there, so the extractions went very smoothly.
Blue B of the Eight-Tails was the only one forced into it.
Tsunade showed him no courtesy. She ordered people to pin him to the sealing platform, and Nine Dragons Sealing directly extracted ninety percent.
Half a month later, thick, dusky yellow light had filled more than half the hollow in the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's chest.
The light surged slowly, like a deep pool on the verge of awakening.
Jiraiya sat on the ground with his back against an old tree and took a long gulp of water.
"One-Tail, Two-Tails, Three-Tails, Four-Tails, Seven-Tails, Eight-Tails... that makes six."
Orochimaru stood at the statue's feet, looking up at the withered colossus, his voice low.
"The Five-Tails and Six-Tails have been missing for so long, and there still hasn't been the slightest news."
Tsunade stood at the edge of the statue's shadow, her pale purple Rinnegan glimmering faintly in the dim light.
She was about to say something when she suddenly stopped.
Her pale purple, rippled pupils abruptly widened. A faint tremor came from the hollow in