Kazekage Gaara was successfully freed from the physical cage, and Temari and Kankuro immediately stepped forward to support him. Yet Gaara was in terrible condition. His face was ashen, his breathing faint. It was not merely that his chakra had been exhausted-it seemed as though part of his life force had been drained away as well. Even the "love" tattoo on his forehead had lost its luster.
"Gaara! How are you feeling?" Temari called anxiously as the medical ninja immediately moved in to examine him.
"His chakra... has almost been drained dry... This isn't just physical exhaustion. It's more like... damage to his very core..." the Sunagakure medical ninja reported grimly.
Kakashi, Might Guy, and the others gathered around, their hearts sinking at the sight of Gaara's condition. Though they had broken the cage, Akatsuki had clearly already done something to him.
Neji stared intently at Gaara with his Byakugan, his voice filled with shock. "The tailed beast inside him... the One-Tail Shukaku's chakra... has become extremely weak and chaotic! It's as though some force tore at it, stripping away most of it! And there's an extremely elusive, chilling energy from the same source as that forest wrapped around the remaining tailed beast chakra like a parasite, preventing it from recovering naturally!"
"What?! Stripping away a tailed beast?!" Naruto shouted in disbelief. As a jinchūriki, he knew all too well what that meant. It was almost certainly fatal!
Kakashi understood at once. "Their goal wasn't imprisonment, but extracting the tailed beast! That cage and the fungal mat forest weren't just holding him. They were probably a... massive extraction and conversion apparatus! They used that corrupting energy to speed up the process of stripping away the tailed beast!"
The conclusion sent a chill through everyone. Akatsuki had actually mastered such an