Chapter 125: The Seven-Tails is Secured
Dana and his men followed Kakuzu through the mountains for nearly three hours until they reached a cave. From the tracks outside, it had once been a bear's den.
Inside, a man in his forties was lying on the ground, unconscious.
Kakuzu lifted the man's shirt, revealing a sealing formula on his lower back. "The Seven-Tails Jinchuriki," he said. "He's weak. Can't even use the tailed beast's power. But he rarely travels alone. It took me a while to figure out his route and ambush him. The Hidden Waterfall is probably looking for him everywhere now."
Dana gave a signal, and one of his sealing jutsu specialists stepped forward to examine the man. "Confirmed," he said after a moment. "It's a Jinchuriki. There's a tailed beast inside him."
"I used poison," Kakuzu said. "He probably won't be waking up. But I doubt you care about that, right?"
Dana didn't answer. He had his men pick up the Jinchuriki. "Good," he said to Kakuzu. "I am very satisfied with this transaction."
Kakuzu held up the two chests. "So am I."
He liked clients like Dana. Simple, direct, and paid fast. So fast, he hadn't even had time to react.
"Weren't you recognized by the Waterfall ninja?" Dana asked. "They're from the same village. They must have your picture."
"No," Kakuzu chuckled. "The ninja from my time are all dead. The ones now wouldn't recognize me. And I only made a move when he was alone. You don't have to worry."
Dana silently activated his "pulse" vision and confirmed there were no White Zetsu around. He nodded in satisfaction. "Keep this confidential," he said. "There will be more opportunities to work together in the future. Any luck with the Light-Weight Boulder Technique?"
"I'm not as familiar with the Stone," Kakuzu said. "It might take some time. But I won't pass up a big score like that."
He then left in a hurry, likely to go and find a place to stash his money. Dana was curious to know how much he had saved up over the years, especially since no one was paying him in explosive tags anymore. It was probably a considerable sum.
With the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, Dana entered the village through a secret entrance and went to the headquarters of the Sealing Corps.
It was more than just a "corps." The Cloud's sealing jutsu had developed rapidly in recent years, and there were now dozens of ninja here, most of them research-type.
The moment he entered, he was greeted by the familiar face of Samui, who was waiting for him. The buxom kunoichi, who was always doing her part to save the Cloud's fabric budget, looked at the man they were carrying with a serious expression.
Before he had even left to meet Kakuzu, he had told the Sealing Corps to prepare to receive a tailed beast. But there were only nine of them in the world, and they had been skeptical, wondering where he would get one.
The Sealing Corps already had a high security clearance, and today, it was on lockdown. They quickly went to the underground chamber, where the Third Raikage was already waiting.
And another person: Blue Bee.
When Dana had been the Acting Raikage, his punishment for Blue Bee had been confinement until his father returned. Considering the special nature of a Jinchuriki, he had been held in the Sealing Corps' headquarters. And since then, he had lost his freedom to watch the sea.
But from the looks of it, his father, after his return, had been lenient. After all, they were the A-B combo, as close as brothers. The punishment had likely been a slap on the wrist.
If you ignored the massive bruises on Blue Bee's face.
The Third Raikage looked at the unconscious Jinchuriki. "So you really brought him back," he said. "That mercenary of yours is something else."
"The Hidden Waterfall is weak," Dana said, shaking his head. "And he was familiar with them. That's how he succeeded. The other villages are guarding their tailed beasts very closely now."
"With this," the Raikage said with a sigh, "of the nine tailed beasts, the Cloud now has three."
And the strongest one, Dana thought, is worth at least seven of the others.
The Two-Tails had always been in the Cloud. But after a series of unsuccessful Jinchuriki experiments in the early days of the village, which had resulted in heavy losses, they had sealed it away in the Amber Purifying Pot, a legendary treasured tool of the Sage of Six Paths. This "divine tool," which the Third Raikage had recovered from the Gold and Silver Brothers, was one of the Cloud's most important assets.
"The Eight-Tails in me says he can feel one of his own," Blue Bee said.
"By the way, Blue Bee-senpai," Dana asked, "do you know the Eight-Tails' true name?"
Blue Bee froze for a second, then shook his head. "I've asked," he said. "He won't tell me."
Dana understood. Blue Bee was not yet a perfect Jinchuriki. Knowing the name wasn't everything, but it was an important benchmark.
Thinking back, though Blue Bee had displayed an overwhelming power on the battlefield, he had never used a full tailed beast transformation. He could use the tailed beast cloak, fire Tailed Beast Balls, regenerate, and even manifest the Eight-Tails' tails (or tentacles) to assist in combat. But he had never fully given his body over to the beast. He had likely used the power of his Sharingan, combined with the Iron Armor Seal, to achieve some kind of balance with the Eight-Tails.
Whether that balance was a peaceful one, or one with hidden dangers, he did not know. But for now, Blue Bee seemed to be a relatively stable Jinchuriki.
Perhaps because the Seven-Tails within the Waterfall ninja's body could also sense one of its own, the previously docile Jinchuriki suddenly began to stir. The man Kakuzu had said would never wake up began to tremble, and a large amount of chakra leaked out.
Samui and the Sealing Corps quickly reinforced the seal. The Hidden Waterfall's sealing techniques were far inferior to the Cloud's, and the Seven-Tails soon calmed down.
"Dad," Dana asked, "what are you going to do with him?"
"The Amber Purifying Pot is powerful," the Raikage said after a moment of thought, "but it has never sealed two tailed beasts at once. I have a feeling that putting two of them together would be a problem. For now, we'll just keep him in the Jinchuriki. As long as this Waterfall ninja doesn't die, with our current sealing jutsu, there won't be any problems."
"You're not going to try and create a new Jinchuriki?"
"Blue Bee's case has proven that a Jinchuriki is only useful if they can be controlled," he said, shaking his head. "Otherwise, they're just a time bomb. To rashly create a new Jinchuriki would just be a waste of a good ninja. And the village doesn't lack high-level combat power right now. We'll just keep the Two-Tails and the Seven-Tails sealed for now."
If they wanted to create a stable Jinchuriki without relying on luck, they either had to wait for their sealing jutsu technology to advance, or get their hands on another pair of three-tomoe Sharingan. Or, they could try to evolve Blue Bee's Sharingan into a Mangekyo and then use a genjutsu to control the two tailed beasts. All of which were very difficult.
"Speaking of which," the Raikage said, turning to him, "you're one of the few people in the village who could suppress a tailed beast. Do you want to be a Jinchuriki?"
Dana was taken aback. "I think I'll pass," he said. "A tailed beast wouldn't be much help to me right now, and it would just be another unstable factor."
What's so great about being the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki?
If I'm going to be a Jinchuriki, I'm going to be the Ten-Tails.