Shino dragged his soaked body ashore and said,
"I will never fail!"
Behind him, the battleship kept collapsing, explosions booming one after another from the flames Kiyosuke had unleashed.
Not long after, Kiyosuke flew over with two Sky Ninja leaders in tow. He tossed them onto the ground and said,
"Kakashi, Shikamaru, interrogate these two. I sensed a surge of the Nine-Tails' chakra from Naruto—he seems to have lost control. I need to go check it out."
"Naruto? Understood. Should I notify Yamato?" Kakashi asked.
"It might already be too late. But with Sasuke's Sharingan there, it should be manageable. What concerns me more is that besides the Nine-Tails' chakra, I also sensed another strange chakra. It feels connected to all of this."
"Hmm. Go ahead then. I'll take care of things here."
"I'm counting on you."
With that, Kiyosuke shot into the sky, heading toward the source of Naruto's chakra.
...
Following the coastline, he reached a place that resembled a tropical rainforest. He flew past the dense forest and came to a village.
The sight before him was bleak—ruins everywhere, as though it had just been attacked. Likely the work of the Sky Ninja. Kiyosuke scanned carefully, but sensed no trace of living people.
"Taken away, or slaughtered to the last? Doesn't matter. I need to find Naruto first… wait, this feeling… has Naruto already reached Four-Tails?"
Naruto's chakra had skyrocketed. The sheer amount confirmed he was in Four-Tails form, driven into a rampage by something.
"Sakura and Sasuke are already rushing his way?" Kiyosuke confirmed through his senses before heading toward Naruto.
He passed through the ruined village, then into a fog-laden forest, across wetlands, until he arrived at what seemed to be ruins.
There, Naruto in his Four-Tails form was locked in battle with a massive… worm.
The creature was as thick as a barrel, its body long and writhing. On its head sat a white mask, with four red tufts of hair sprouting from the top and another on its chin. On the mask's forehead was written the character for "Zero."
Naruto roared, grabbing the worm's body savagely, and with brute force, tore it in two. He howled again, flinging the halves away.
In this state, Naruto was completely feral, attacking anything in sight. The moment he sensed Kiyosuke, he lunged straight at him.
"You brat, you even want a piece of me?"
Kiyosuke kicked Naruto square in the face, sending him flying. From his pouch, he pulled out a paper talisman with the character "Suppress" written on it.
This was created by Jiraiya, specifically designed to restore Naruto's sanity when he lost control—sealing tags to suppress the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Each tag could subdue Naruto up to his Four-Tails state. Jiraiya, Kiyosuke, and Kakashi each carried one.
In an instant, Kiyosuke appeared before Naruto and pressed the seal against him. The chakra was suppressed, and Naruto regained consciousness.
"Kiyosuke-san? What are you doing here? Wait—what about that monster, the Zero-Tails?"
Naruto looked at the worm he had just torn apart and let out a breath of relief.
"Zero-Tails?!" Kiyosuke glanced over. There were only so many tailed beasts—where had a Zero-Tails come from? No… if he remembered right, the Zero-Tails wasn't like the Nine-Tails or the others born from the Ten-Tails. It was something else entirely. What were the details again?
He couldn't remember.
Suddenly, the Zero-Tails stirred. Its body reconnected, and like a faceless ghoul, it opened its mouth beneath the mask.
"A strong human… another one? I am the Zero-Tails. Whenever the world is steeped in war and human hearts fester with darkness, I am reborn. I devour the darkness within hearts and grow endlessly. In time, I will engulf this world in shadow."
"So during the Second Shinobi World War, just how many monsters did the older generation have to deal with?" Kiyosuke covered his face with his hand.
"Really, they had it tough. And you—where the hell did you crawl out from? And is there something else hidden inside your body?"
The Zero-Tails was odd. Like Kiyosuke, it seemed capable of phasing between the physical and the intangible. And there was something else dwelling inside it.
Naruto quickly shouted,
"Kiyosuke-san! Amaru is inside that thing!"
"Naruto!!"
At that moment, Sasuke and Sakura arrived. They paused when they saw Kiyosuke—surprised at his presence—but quickly shifted focus to the far greater problem: the monster.
"This thing's a pain," Kiyosuke muttered. Flames burst into life across his palm as he strode forward.
"Begone!"
The Zero-Tails swung its tail, but Kiyosuke sliced it clean off. With a powerful step, he lunged, his punch smashing into its body with a thunderous crack, splitting it apart.
From the gash, a hand emerged—but the Zero-Tails immediately tried to reabsorb it.
Kiyosuke didn't give it the chance. He seized the hand and yanked hard, pulling out a boy with a headscarf.
He tossed the boy to Sakura. Deprived of its host, the Zero-Tails' body collapsed and vanished.
"Hmph. Looks like it's gone for now. Alright, tell me—weren't you sent out as a medical squad to rescue a village? How did you end up facing something like that?" Kiyosuke asked.
Team Naruto's mission was indeed to help a village under attack. The villagers had once saved many Konoha lives during the Sky Ninja assault, but then word came that their own home had been attacked. As repayment, Tsunade had dispatched Naruto's team to aid them.
Sasuke spoke up,
"The village was attacked. Almost no one survived."
Sakura added sorrowfully,
"Amaru's teacher was killed. She's devastated."
"That's not my concern. What I want to know is why that monster swallowed this boy."
"Boy? Kiyosuke-sensei, Amaru is a girl," Sakura corrected.
"A girl? Poor thing."
Flat as a board… truly unfortunate. Not like Mei Terumī—you'd need both hands and still couldn't hold them…
Kiyosuke coughed loudly to cover himself.
"Whatever. Girl or not, Naruto, explain."
Naruto recounted everything. He emphasized how the Zero-Tails had emerged from Amaru's body, how the battle with it had triggered his Nine-Tails chakra, leading to his rampage, and how the Zero-Tails could absorb his chakra to grow stronger.
"I see…" Kiyosuke stroked his chin. A snake slithered out, aiming for Amaru's neck.
"Kiyosuke-san, what are you doing?!" Naruto shouted.
"Getting rid of the Zero-Tails," Kiyosuke said matter-of-factly.
"That thing is far too dangerous. It's nothing but trouble. Better to eliminate it quickly. The Zero-Tails is born from the darkness in human hearts. Which means…"
His eyes narrowed.
"This girl is a dangerous one."
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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