"Good."
A good day always starts with two words.
Uchiha Kai lowered his gaze, studying Yugito Nii—the Two-Tails jinchūriki—kneeling beneath him.
Years of training had left her in peak condition. Her complexion wasn't pale, but her physique was tight and disciplined, every line clean and sharp. Her tea-brown hair was tied back, swaying slightly with her movements.
"Damn it! Yugito—what the hell are you doing?!"
The Fourth Raikage, A, had only just been pried out of the rock wall, and now he erupted in rage.
He couldn't believe the Two-Tails jinchūriki of Kumogakure—the pride of their village—could show such submission.
"Do you even understand what this—"
Thk.
His voice cut off like it had been snapped.
Clang.
Behind him, the black chain tightened for only an instant—
And it yanked his insides out of place.
The pain was violent, so sharp it stole his focus completely. His eyes went unfocused for a beat.
"I…"
Yugito trembled again at the sight. Her whole body shook, a sheen of sweat slipping along her fitted battle gear.
But Kai wasn't watching her for that.
He simply crooked a finger.
Rattle—
The collar formed from Shinra Heart Chains seeped a thread of black liquid, sliding down along the slender line of Yugito's neck.
"Nn—!"
A sting like live current cracked through her nerves, and she let out a sharp, involuntary sound—then scrambled forward without hesitation.
It wasn't that she feared pain.
It was deeper than that.
Somewhere inside—inside her spirit—something was screaming at her to avoid that black liquid.
It was primal.
A terror etched into instinct.
So she obeyed… pulled forward as if by invisible reins, crawling until she reached Kai's feet.
Head lowered.
Eyes down.
Nothing remained of the proud, queenlike presence she'd worn before.
If Kumogakure saw this, they'd lose their minds.
Raikage A certainly had—rage, humiliation, and disbelief twisting together while the chain kept him on a leash.
Kai, however, looked at the chain with faint curiosity.
"Hm? So this thing can actually… press on someone's will? Like Black Zetsu?"
He hadn't expected Yugito to fold this easily.
For a moment, he even had the urge to rip the technique out of himself.
"This won't turn into some 'Black Zetsu ripping Madara's heart out' situation, will it?"
It wasn't a crazy thought.
In the shinobi world, the most absurd betrayals always came from the most unassuming black blobs.
Kai shook his head, forcing his mind back on track, then lifted Yugito's chin with his fingers so she had to look up at him.
"—Myaaaaow!"
A feral cat-scream suddenly echoed through the space around them.
Like a wild animal drawing itself into a bow right before it pounced.
Fwoosh—!
Blue fire exploded across Yugito's body—hot, violent, abnormal.
Kai's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Not good… Matatabi's going berserk!"
Yugito realized it too. She tried to clamp down, tried to force the Two-Tails back into line—
But her consciousness snapped off like a lamp.
Her eyes went dull.
Her body stopped being hers.
Kai watched, mildly surprised, as her posture warped and twisted, her form bending under the pressure of something vast forcing its way up.
"…So she got logged out," he muttered. "And the Two-Tails logged in."
A little farther away, the Raikage saw it and his deadened heart jolted awake.
Hope—thin, sharp hope—flickered into existence.
Yugito was a perfect jinchūriki, yes.
But compared to Killer B, her raw combat output still had limits.
Now, though—
"If the Two-Tails fully breaks loose…" A's lips curled despite the pain. "That's a hundred percent tailed beast power."
"This whole place could get wiped off the map."
The Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, had the same thought.
He sniffed, steadied his breathing, and began forcing chakra through battered coils.
If chaos erupted, he'd use the confusion to grab his people and flee.
On Konoha's side, Nara Shikaku and Hyūga Hiashi tensed instantly.
"Lord Kai—careful. That's a tailed beast—"
They pulled ANBU back, cleared space.
Not retreating.
They couldn't.
Konoha was right behind them.
And more than that… they believed in the boy standing at the front.
"MYAAAAOOOOW—!!"
Another scream.
The air was swallowed by a dense, suffocating storm of blue chakra flame—wild, stinking of beastly violence.
Then the shape began to form.
Kai held his position, watching it rise.
"Does this count as… I beat the kid and now the parent shows up?"
The Two-Tails—Matatabi—finished emerging.
Nearly six stories tall.
Standing before it, a human felt microscopic.
Its body was pure, blazing blue—fur that looked like condensed chakra fire, burning with a sinister glow. Its two tails whipped behind it like flaming serpents, cracking the air hard enough to produce sharp pops—near sonic booms.
Its slit-pupiled eyes locked onto Kai with pure malice… and arrogant superiority.
The beast lowered its body and arched its back.
"Mm… GRAAAAH!"
The lazy purr of a cat rolled once in its throat—then turned into a brutal roar the moment it remembered freedom.
Its massive head dipped, teeth like white blades showing as its mouth curled.
"An Uchiha brat…"
"You think you're qualified to step into my territory?"
Hot breath blasted over Kai's face, carrying a sulfur-like burn.
Kai's expression cooled.
"Showing teeth?"
When did little cats and dogs start thinking they could bare fangs at humans?
Then he smiled—a thin, dangerous line.
"Perfect. I'll use you to warm up."
Matatabi didn't care what Kai thought.
It stretched, almost leisurely, like it was about to toy with prey.
Then it opened its mouth wide.
You could see chakra inside its throat compressing—blue fire spiraling tighter and tighter, condensing into a sphere.
A Tailed Beast Bomb was forming.
A dense, destructive core of annihilation.
Just before it fired—
Kai moved.
One step.
One palm raised.
Ultra Sage Mode—Eight Trigrams: Air Palm.
And threaded through it—just a sliver of black chakra.
Natural energy, refined and compressed to a terrifying density, drove the strike forward like a cannon.
His palm shot straight into Matatabi's open mouth.
WHUM—BOOM—CRACK!!
The compressed air ruptured, splitting into fractures.
And that half-formed Tailed Beast Bomb—
Was slapped right back down its own throat.
Worse—
The black chakra contaminated the balance of the sphere, throwing the internal ratio into chaos.
Matatabi's eyes shrank.
Its throat turned instantly searing-hot.
"GRA—GHH… HK!"
Then—
BOOOOM!!
A heavy, muffled explosion erupted from inside the Two-Tails' throat.
The Tailed Beast Bomb hadn't even been launched—
It detonated internally.
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