The Most Miserable Tailed Beast in History

I admit it, when I heard the target was a Tailed Beast, I scoffed.

She had thought the White-Robed Man merely wanted to scare her, his hostage, into behaving. After all, according to what she had learned at school, the Tailed Beasts had long since been freed and no longer belonged to any particular village.

Though that did lower the difficulty of capturing them... or perhaps it did not. After all, once a Tailed Beast went berserk, it would also be a disaster for a village.

But when the White-Robed Man really took her to the Seven-Tails' residence, disturbed its sleep with provocations, and launched all sorts of probing attacks first—

It was for no other reason than to anger Chōmei!

Sarada's heart pounded wildly. She hid behind the White-Robed Man and whispered, "Every Tailed Beast possesses power that could be called catastrophic. Aren't you courting death by provoking it like this?"

The White-Robed Man said, "It's only the Seven-Tails, publicly acknowledged as the weakest in the Shinobi World."

Then, as expected, after the awakened Seven-Tails realized the visitors meant trouble, it first scrutinized the White-Robed Man in confusion, wanting to figure out his identity. After all, under Naruto's guidance, the Tailed Beasts had become beings of nature.

"The Shinobi World has already achieved peace, yet there are still people with evil intentions daring to set their sights on the Tailed Beasts!!" Chōmei glared furiously at the White-Robed Man, intending to intimidate him with overwhelming force.

But after Chōmei got a clear look at his eyes, it suddenly became like a deflated balloon, instantly shriveling up.

Holy shit... Mangekyō... power capable of treating the Nine-Tails like a monkey!

Four-Tails Son Gokū: Was that necessary?

Nine-Tails: ???

Even so, Chōmei continued its final struggle. Numerous Tailed Beast Balls formed before it and rapidly fired out.

Seeing this, the White-Robed Man instantly activated his Mangekyō. A Kamui-like ability allowed the Tailed Beast Balls to pass through his body.

...Chōmei's eyes undoubtedly became tense. It even vaguely felt that it had already become prey in his bag!

Sarada: ...

Hiding had been no different from not hiding at all. Facing the point-blank attack of the Tailed Beast Balls, Sarada wore an expression of utter despair. This was absolutely not an attack she could resist with her own strength.

With life and death hanging in the balance, Sarada could not help pleading, "Hey, save me already... Don't you still need me as a hostage?!"

The White-Robed Man's indifferent voice came through. "I only need hostages with value. To me, you are dispensable."

The Tailed Beast Ball rushed in from close range, carrying a chaotic pressure as immense as mountains. It easily passed through the White-Robed Man's body, as if the figure before it were merely an illusion, and exploded directly against Sarada's frail body.

Boom—

The explosion's roar and smoke concealed everything. The subsequent Tailed Beast Balls struck the same location one after another.

When the dust settled, an utterly unbelievable scene unfolded before Chōmei.

The White-Robed Man was completely unharmed. There was not even dust or dirt on his white robe. The ground had clearly been overturned, yet he was like a cloud of air... though even air should have been scattered by the blast, shouldn't it?

And it was not only him. Sarada was also standing behind him completely unharmed. This made Chōmei suspicious—had the White-Robed Man intercepted the attacks, or had Sarada endured the Tailed Beast Ball explosions herself?

"Your eye technique... burns through your ocular power way too quickly, doesn't it?" the White-Robed Man said speechlessly.

"..." Sarada was even more speechless. She had practically died dozens of times just then, barely enduring it all with her eye technique, and he was actually criticizing her for consuming too much ocular power?

Come on, those were attacks that could kill her!!

Wasn't trading life for life perfectly normal? Besides, she had merely sacrificed a little to gain something greater, spending ocular power in exchange for her precious life!

Chōmei, which had taken to the air nearby, became furious at the sight!!

It was a Tailed Beast, for crying out loud. It was one thing not to treat it with reverence, but they were actually ignoring it.

You two think you can take a beating, huh? Then keep taking it if you can!!

Chōmei angrily gathered even more Tailed Beast Balls. The shining, flaming spheres were fired continuously, their arcing trajectories joining together like a stream of water.

With that number... Sarada simply gave up.

The White-Robed Man: ...

"You'll die," he reminded her.

Sarada shook her head. "I'll die either way. I want to go peacefully."

The corners of the White-Robed Man's mouth curled up, as if he were coldly mocking her. The flames of the Tailed Beast Balls drew closer, their glittering light casting the pair's shadows... entwining them together.

At last, the White-Robed Man raised his hand and aimed his fingertip at the Tailed Beast Balls, as if preparing to intercept them. But his true goal was merely to lock onto the Seven-Tails firing the barrage through the Tailed Beast Balls.

Sage Art: Constellation Rasengan!

A massive sphere gathered before the White-Robed Man's fingertip. Even Seven-Tails Chōmei's pupils contracted at that size. It deeply realized the gap between them.

At that size, it far surpassed even a complete Tailed Beast Ball. Or rather, it was more like an attack launched by the Ten-Tails with a casual strike!

But it refused to believe it. A mere human, even one with Mangekyō eyes, should not be capable of such a thing... This was merely a similar technique with an impressive appearance. Perhaps its power was not even comparable to its Tailed Beast Ball...

A series of Tailed Beast Balls collided with the Rasengan as it flew from his hand, yet did not cause the slightest ripple. The Tailed Beast Balls were like quail eggs smashing into a boulder. Whether in density or power, the Seven-Tails' Tailed Beast Balls were not worth mentioning.

The massive sphere frantically closed in on Seven-Tails Chōmei. It panicked as well. It could feel the weight of that Rasengan—it was practically a miniature celestial body!

It beat its wings desperately, trying to rise higher into the sky to evade this projectile attack—because the Rasengan was fired in a straight line, its trajectory had been set from the start.

Seven-Tails Chōmei thought so too. At close range, the Rasengan would not fall in an arc, so it came straight at it. Therefore, it should have been able to dodge this attack.

But the White-Robed Man's Rasengan clearly contained something else. This technique called Constellation Rasengan did not merely resemble a constellation in shape—it possessed an immense pulling force.

The Seven-Tails frantically spread its wings, yet it was firmly dragged by a force more like gravity than suction. Its body could not help sinking, as if Chōmei itself were moving closer to the Rasengan, embracing that mass of high-density Chakra.

Unwilling to accept this, the Seven-Tails immediately gathered high-density Chakra as well. A black Tailed Beast Ball emerged in Chōmei's mouth. Unlike the continuous barrage from before, this one was clearly on an entirely different level in size and mass.

The black and blue celestial bodies collided violently. The massive explosion shattered the Rasengan's original pulling force, and the Seven-Tails finally broke free and flew into the sky.

The two celestial bodies crashed against each other. The smaller black celestial body drove the Rasengan into rotation, whipping up a hurricane. Then the wind rolled back upon itself, forming a massive tornado—a Chakra storm.

The shrieking wind carried far into the distance. The surrounding forest was lifted into the sky by the gale, while the ground had already become a muddy mess. Like a grinder, the storm tore up and overturned the earth.

Having flown into midair, the Seven-Tails thought it had escaped disaster. It sneered as it searched the ground for a bedraggled figure, believing victory was already in its grasp. Yet the sudden chill running down its back still made its body tremble.

What could make even a powerful Tailed Beast tremble? High in the sky, the White-Robed Man coldly stared at the Seven-Tails. Behind him, Sarada inexplicably floated in midair.

"Go down. Embrace destruction, or serve me," the White-Robed Man's voice overpowered the howling wind and reached the Seven-Tails' ears.

Chōmei panicked. It might become the first Tailed Beast in history to be beaten to death by a human!

Even the Nine-Tails had only been sealed, and that was under an elemental disadvantage—Wood Release restrained the Tailed Beasts. But this was a genuine head-on clash, and it had been completely outmatched!!

The other party could not even be bothered to use Genjutsu to control it... What an insult to a Tailed Beast. Was he looking down on it that much?

In that moment of crisis, it had originally intended to relay everything happening here, warning the Tailed Beasts across the world that someone was targeting them again.

But in an instant, it fell into despair. This place seemed to have been sealed off. Even the Tailed Beasts' telepathic resonance could not establish contact. It had been completely isolated here.

"Well, Chōmei. I do not particularly want to destroy you either. After all, you will still be quite useful for my future plans. At the very least, I can guarantee that this power will benefit the Shinobi World's development."

The Seven-Tails hesitated for only a second before charging headlong into the turbulent Chakra currents. High-density Chakra collided violently, while the Tailed Beast Ball and Rasengan tore through the Seven-Tails' body.

If Tailed Beasts had blood, it would surely be a multicolored liquid of Chakra. That was Chōmei's condition right now. After all, it was merely a product of Chakra.

"Stubborn fool. You should know that my Mangekyō can easily control you. I only spoke to you patiently because I wanted to give you a chance."

The White-Robed Man's cold voice rang out.

As the Seven-Tails endured the intense pain, the damage from the torrent of Chakra was far worse than it had imagined. Even a Tailed Beast could not withstand such agony. It shouted furiously, "Don't dream!

Death is merely a human concept. To me, it only means sleeping for a few years before awakening once more."

"Then... live. I do not have that much time to waste," the White-Robed Man said, seemingly somewhat helpless.

After the dust settled, the White-Robed Man silently constructed a space-time barrier, sealing off all information from this place. Yet when the Seven-Tails entered a near-death state, he gave it an opportunity to transmit information...

After finishing all this, the White-Robed Man finally turned his attention to Sarada. The Chakra storm's damage had clearly swept her into it as well, but she had still fought desperately to survive.

Beneath the white mask, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly. When faced with life and death, everyone wanted to survive. That was why he had drawn part of the storm toward her—to make Sarada adapt to her Mangekyō eye technique as quickly as possible.

After all... a small amount of "god" cells had been implanted into her body.