Faced with a tailed beast, I only had two options: fight or flee.
Without much thought, I used the Body Flicker Technique to escape.
Don't misunderstand me; I could have faced that thing, but first, the priority now is to escape, and second, I have companions I need to meet up with and bring to where the tailed beast is; it's not very wise, at least from my point of view.
The moment I leaped into a tree, I saw the giant ape trying to land on top of me; I jumped to another tree, avoiding the damage.
I couldn't escape it; I only had one option left: using almost all the chakra I had accumulated in the Yin Seal, I performed my jutsu.
"Wood Release: Tree Binding."
Beneath the Four-Tails, several tree branches began to emerge and envelop the biju. They passed through its entire body, halting its movements until finally creating a new tree made of only thin branches, leaving it motionless in the middle of it all; only the beast's head and hands remained outside.
I couldn't move or do anything; I could try something else, but the direction where its mouth would have been was where Minato was fighting, and the risk of him launching a Tailed Beast Ball there was too high.
Using another Shunshin, I left, since for now I wasn't interested in starting the Third Shinobi World War by stealing a tailed beast from Iwa; I'd have my chance for something like that later. For now, I'd better leave.
Quickly, I ran to where all the chaos was happening.
When I arrived, I saw Minato using the Flying Thunder God Technique to dodge a furious Five-Tails, very furious, that was trying to attack him, but Minato was too fast. When the tailed beast was about to attack him, it was gone, increasing his fury and frustration.
Instead of helping Minato, I used my perception skills to see where the others were. Kosuke and Jiraiya were already on their way here, followed by thousands of Iwa ninja, so when they arrived, Minato would have to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to quickly leave the area.
I needed to momentarily distract the Five-Tails.
"Ice Release: Freezing Mist," I said.
The battlefield where Minato and the Five-Tails stood began to cool down gradually.
This Ice Release ninjutsu is similar to the Concealed Mist Technique, but instead of making the air more gaseous, it rapidly cools it.
At that, the Five-Tails stopped what it was doing, noticing the unusual change in temperature.
Minato also noticed, but he remained still, since he had to conserve energy and chakra to be able to dodge and react before the Gobi's attacks. Besides, it knew about my Ice Release and Boiling Techniques; I never hid it from any of the three of them, and there was only one ice user in this place.
I had used this ninjutsu for two reasons: to hinder the tailed beast's movements and to make my ice-element jutsu more effective.
"Ice Element: Giant Ice Lion," I said, performing 29 hand seals. In the middle of the battlefield, a lion the same size as the Five-Tails began to form.
It attacked swiftly from the Gobi's side. The Gobi was able to dodge the attack by leaping backward.
Steam began to erupt from the tailed beast's body, and with a single blow, the ice lion was sent flying, shattering it into millions of pieces.
It's a shame, but it achieved its objective. The Five-Tails' body cooled and began to freeze, a process accelerated by the ambient temperature and the boiling steam emanating from it.
As the residual boiling cools, it passes through the states of matter, changing from gas to water, and then as the temperature drops, the water turns to ice.
Several parts of the Five-Tails' body were covered in ice, hindering its movements.
This was temporary, as it only needed to warm its body again and it would be ready.
I think the Four-Tails have already broken free, as I hear sounds of blows coming from where they were.
At that moment, Jiraiya and Kosuke arrived. I came out of my hiding place to join them.
"Get us out of here, Minato, before reinforcements arrive," a tired Jiraiya told Minato. He simply nodded. Each of them grabbed onto whatever they could to go with him.
The Gobi, seeing that we were going to escape, opened its mouth to quickly form a Tailed Beast Ball to prevent our escape.
I was already molding chakra to do something if Minato wasn't fast enough with the little chakra he had left.
There are factors that hinder the use of the Flying Thunder God Technique, something that was mentioned in the scroll written by Tobirama: the farther you move, the more chakra you consume; the same applies to the number of objects you move or their size.
(Note: I decided to add a little complexity to the Hiraishin, so it's not so easy and not always so instantaneous; this explains why Minato was sometimes late).
Just as the Five-Tails launched the Tailed Beast Bomb, I felt a sudden jolt. The scene where the Tailed Beast Bomb was heading in our direction changed to the tunnel that connects Taki to Iwa, where my tools were hidden, waiting for our arrival.
The explosion of the Tailed Beast Bomb could be heard in the distance.
Minato collapsed to the ground, exhausted; Jiraiya sat up quickly, almost as quickly as Minato. Kosuke remained standing, as did I.
I was the one with the fewest injuries, completely unharmed; no one could touch me, not even the tailed beast.
Next was Minato with several cuts and lacerations; Kosuke had several wounds and his hand was somewhat crushed; finally, Jiraiya had blood all over his body, but that was normal. It happened at the beginning of the fight, battling a jinchuriki with several Iwanin, only to find himself facing hundreds of them who kept appearing.
It was a relentless battle, dodging ninjutsu and expending a huge amount of chakra to eliminate just one due to the chaos of the situation; unlike me, that perverted toad doesn't have infinite chakra reserves. I might have tried using Sage Mode, but it was still difficult, though not impossible.
Anyway, he probably thought it was unnecessary, since the Iwa ninja were weak; the problem was their sheer numbers.
"I think Iwa has a clone machine; otherwise, I don't understand how they can have so many ninjas in their ranks. I think I killed four people who had the same one," like the Chinese, I thought.
My comment lightened the mood a bit.
"If that were the case, their ninja ranks would be nothing but flying Tsuchikage," Jiraiya replied.
I simply approached the perverted sage to begin healing his wounds.
"Tell me, Miyu, how much did you prove this time?" Jiraiya asked me.
"Enough to make them fear me, but not enough for them to believe in a reincarnation of Hashirama," I replied.
"What annoying guys; they kept creating earth walls or molding the ground to make our techniques less effective. I had to use more chakra than usual to be able to do anything against that," Kosuke complained.
"Imagine having to teleport around to avoid a tailed beast, because if you got too close, it would start blasting superheated steam at you," Minato complained.
"Shut up, both of you. You sound like whiny little girls." With that, they both shut their mouths without another word.
...
"So, what's the mission report?" the old monkey asked, looking at the three of us.
"Awful, everything's wrong," I said, making exaggerated gestures so Jiraiya would comically hit me on the head. "Ow."
"Excuse me, sensei, I didn't hear you; your brain's a bit low on chakra."
"Don't worry," the monkey said with a bead of sweat, "start with the report."
"Yes, the information I received was correct that Iwa was mobilizing troops to the border," he stated.
"An exorbitant number," he commented, sitting down in the chair in the office.
"Numbers?" the Hokage asked.
"Hundreds, thousands, millions maybe. We don't know how many ninja are currently in Iwa, but there were a lot of personnel in that section; still, thinking about it, who was there makes sense," Jiraiya replied.
"Who was there?" the Monkey asked.
"The two jinchuriki from Iwa," Kosuke replied.
"The Four-Tails and the Five-Tails, a monkey capable of spitting lava, and a rare horse capable of emitting highly concentrated steam," Minato commented.
"Do you know why you're there?" the old man inquired.
"They don't want you in their village, which is normal for a jinchuriki; given this, the Tsuchikage took the opportunity to deploy them to the border," I said.
"Yes, the idea is to use them as guardians to act when any invader enters the Land of Stone illegitimately," Jiraiya added, revealing what he knew.
When he speaks of illegitimacy, he refers to unmarked and undefended paths, places where enemy ninjas could infiltrate the village undetected.
When someone can infiltrate as a civilian, they can be monitored afterward, whereas if they don't know you're in the village, they don't monitor you, which is why they infiltrate through unknown routes.
These areas are guarded by border ninja, and if something happens, the plan is to send in the jinchūriki to eliminate the threat.
This anti-infiltration method likely continued into Shippuden, which is why it was so easy for the Akatsuki to capture the Four-Tails and Five-Tails, since they handled that kind of thing.
"I imagine that wasn't the only reason there were so many enemy ninja," the Hokage exclaimed.
"From what I understand, no, they're preparing for something, probably for the next war, but from what I gather, they don't want to start one; they're just laying the groundwork for one to begin," Jiraiya explained.
"That was before we entered and made a large force there," I said with a sigh. "I don't think Onoki will do anything; these things happen regularly. We have skirmishes with enemy ninja trying to infiltrate the border every so often. If they had done something to the jinchuriki, like kidnapping them or stealing their tailed beasts, then something would have happened," the old monkey declared, looking at me.
I can just imagine it. Onoki holding a Kage Summit, explaining everything to portray himself as a victim, declaring war on Konoha for stealing tailed beasts, hoping the other villages will join him out of a sense of threat. I can see it clearly.
"They should just be prepared for when Iwa's bounty list is updated and hope their rewards aren't too high," the Hokage commented.
"We still need to be careful; Iwa's jinchuriki can use their tailed beasts quite easily," Minato said.
"Do they have the power to control the tailed beasts?" the Hokage asked, sounding more concerned.
"I don't think so," I said. "I felt it was something else, like those guys let the tailed beasts take complete control of the situation."
"Surely the reason for that was Miyu; after all, it was the Wood Release that sealed them away. They must have asked their jinchuriki to take control, something they had to accept," Jiraiya said.
This is due to blood ties, something common to blame the sins of the old generation on the new, or at least in this type of situation.
Kurama resented Naruto for being the son of Minato and Kushina, who sealed him away, more than for being Naruto.
"Alright, you can write the details in the written report; you can go rest; I'm giving you five days off, except for Miyu, who has to go on a mission for jōnin-sensei."The old monkey spoke.
"Ha, you get five days off; I get months off and they're paid, see you later, losers," I said to the three members of my team, pointing at them to perform a shunshin and leave.
...
When I arrived at my residence, I saw Kushina writing something while Junko stood beside her, watching everything with concern.
"Hey, I'm here," I said, only to be jolted off my feet by a red-haired motorcycle.
"I never want to be a clan leader," she said, crying. "Tsunade, as soon as you left, she ran off with a good amount of money and hasn't returned, so I had to take over the clan. Between this, my personal life, and being a jōnin sensei, I'm exhausted. I feel so sorry for you."
I quickly tried to push her off me to avoid getting my clothes soaked with tears and snot.
"But why didn't you use the Shadow Clones to help you?" she asked, somewhat disgusted.
"Shadow Clones? What are those?" Her question left me bewildered.
Even though her future son spammed that technique for everything, his mother had never seen or heard of it; it's almost comical.