"Gaaah... What is this..."
Naruto knelt on the ground before the waterfall, his consciousness already going fuzzy. The consequence of mass Shadow Clone training was that his original body's chakra had been drained to nothing.
And in the void that followed, a searing, indescribable chakra surged without warning from deep in his abdomen. Unlike any chakra he'd felt before, this red energy carried something demonic about it—like some kind of corrosive poison, slowly numbing his hands and feet until they barely felt like his own.
You're thirsting for power far sooner than I expected!
A deep, bestial growl erupted inside Naruto's mind, making his entire body seize. He forced himself to shout: "Who are you?! What do you want?!"
Me?? Ahahahaha! You already heard it from that fool Mizuki a while back, didn't you? I'm the one who wrecked Konoha all those years ago!! I figured you'd grow a bit more before you started craving power—didn't think it'd come this early! Excellent! The more you convert chakra, the weaker the seal gets! But for now, why don't you have a little taste of what I can do!!
Accompanying the laughter echoing through Naruto's skull, a coat of blazing red chakra engulfed his entire body. Terrible memories flooded into his mind—the very ones that had nearly destroyed him as a child.
"Monster! Stay away from me!"
"Why doesn't a freak like you just hurry up and die?"
"Don't parade around in front of us, you unwanted creature!"
"Get lost! You wretched thing!"
Countless curses, paired with faces twisted in revulsion, poured through Naruto's consciousness. He couldn't make out who any of them were. The only thing he could register was the expression they all shared: disgust, hatred, rejection, cold indifference...
"Stop... I never did anything... Why... Why would you do this to me..."
Clutching his head, Naruto's body shook violently. His eyes—once the blue of an open sea—constricted, then flared into a pair of blood-red slits.
"RAAAAAAGH!!"
With a roar like a wild beast, a pillar of crimson light stained the cold moon above.
"Over there!"
The moment she saw the red beam exploding skyward above the waterfall, Hinata's expression hardened. Just as she'd predicted, that idiot had used Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to accelerate his training, burned through too much chakra, exceeded the Four Symbols Seal's conversion rate, and drawn out the Nine-Tails' own chakra.
"What's happening? My insects are all agitated—I've never seen them this frightened!"
Shino's voice broke with surprise. In all his experience, his kikaichu had never reacted with such raw fear.
"Talking won't help. We'll find out when we get there."
Sasuke's cold retort cut through the noise, and he surged ahead of the group. Behind them, Kakashi and Asuma wore identical looks of dread. They, more than anyone, understood what might be emerging.
"Aaaaagh..."
At the base of the waterfall, Naruto had dropped onto all fours in a bestial crouch. A mantle of red chakra cloaked his body, and behind him, a tail-like extension of that same energy swayed back and forth.
This was the Tailed Beast transformation—the Jinchūriki's most fearsome state. It was only the first and most rudimentary stage, but the power radiating from it was already terrifying.
"Is that... Naruto?!"
Shikamaru stared at the crouching figure, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He could feel the wild, alien chakra pouring off Naruto like a physical wave of malice and killing intent made manifest.
"What is this..."
Sasuke was equally stunned. When those blood-red slit eyes met his, a fear unlike anything he'd ever experienced crashed over him. In a flash of memory he recalled what Mizuki had revealed that night. Was Naruto truly a monster after all?
"He's so scary... What happened to Naruto?"
Sakura and Ino were trembling outright. For sheltered girls who'd never faced real danger, the Nine-Tails' rampaging chakra was overwhelming.
"I didn't expect anything like this... You lot, run! This is beyond anything you can handle!"
Recognizing the situation, Kakashi dropped all pretense and instinctively drew the kunai from the pouch at his back. "I'll hold him off! Get back to the village and prepare for evacuation!"
"Huh? But Naruto..."
Choji looked anxiously toward his friend. Leaving someone behind wasn't something he could easily accept. "What about Naruto?"
"We can't worry about him right now! Just go!"
Asuma clenched his jaw and drew his chakra blades, eyes locked on those blood-red slits in the distance. The sight dragged him back to a night eleven years ago—a crimson night when countless Konoha shinobi gave their lives to buy time against that terrible beast, when even the moonlight seemed stained red with blood.
And then—
"Pull yourselves together!"
A sharp bark shattered the panic.
Hinata whipped around to face the people behind her, radiating impatience. "Naruto's acting a little off. That's all. Getting this worked up—is that any way to behave?"
"B-but..."
The pale-eyed girl's composure reached Asuma on an almost instinctive level, and he started to respond—but she cut him off. "Think about it. That idiot Naruto—would he ever deliberately hurt someone? So what exactly are you all so afraid of?"
The words had a strange, immediate calming effect. She was right. Everyone here knew what Naruto was like. The dead-last prankster might love his mischief, but he'd never intentionally harm another person. So what was there to fear?
"Heh... Fair point. Monster or not, it's still just Naruto. So—what's the plan?"
Feeling his nerves settle for reasons he couldn't quite name, Shikamaru shrugged. "How do we get Naruto back to normal?"
"Hmm, good question. Generally speaking, you know how TVs sometimes get those annoying static lines and snow? What do you do about it?"
Tightening the straps on her Sacred Fist Gauntlets, Hinata regarded Naruto with clinical interest. He was only in the one-tail state, and not even under his own conscious control. This was the Nine-Tails' chakra leaking through the Four Symbols Seal for the first time—probably weaker than the one-tail form he'd achieved during his fight against Cursed Seal Sasuke at the Valley of the End in canon. Half a tail at best. At that level, the combat power wasn't all that terrifying.
"Huh? TVs? Oh yeah, I've thought about this. At our house, my dad just smacks it a couple times on the back and it usually fixes itself."
Sakura nodded with the confidence of personal experience. "Yep! A few good whacks on the back panel and it sorts right out."
"Excellent answer. Now then—I believe we can apply the same method to fix Naruto. Any objections?"
Hinata cracked her knuckles, her tone making it sound like the most natural thing in the world. The group exchanged uncertain glances until Sasuke spoke up impatiently: "If we're doing it, let's do it fast. That dead-last looks disgusting right now."
From the tree line, Kakashi watched the children move to engage and felt a spike of alarm. "Wait! You don't know what that—"
"All right then! On my command!"
But before Kakashi could finish, Hinata issued her orders. "Sasuke and I take point. Shikamaru, Ino—suppression. Choji, second line of defense. Sakura on standby for healing. Shino, monitor the chakra fluctuations around Naruto! Go!"
At Hinata's shout, everyone scrambled into position. The Tailed Beast Naruto snarled and roared at the approaching group, but his will was clearly still exerting some hazy control over his body—he wasn't attacking on his own.
"First, let's check if your speakers are working! Naruto—Yami Barai!"
With a sharp cry, Hinata's right fist ignited with bright orange-red flame. She swung forward, and a dazzling streak of fire ripped along the ground toward Naruto like a bolt of lightning. The opening salvo of the fight.
"GRAAAH!"
Naruto's pupils contracted. A flash of pain crossed his face, but the feral blond leaped skyward, instinct alone telling him to dodge.
"Starflower Claw Storm!"
Sasuke seized the instant of Naruto's jump. Several shuriken trailing arcs of crackling blue lightning screamed toward the airborne target. Fox or not, even the Nine-Tails couldn't change direction mid-jump. The moment he left the ground, he was a sitting duck.
"AAAAAH!!"
But a Tailed Beast transformation was a Jinchūriki's most devastating power. With a howl, every one of Sasuke's shuriken was deflected by the rock-hard tailed beast cloak. That defensive layer had withstood even Orochimaru's Kusanagi Blade—only someone wielding Six Paths Power, like Pain, could have breached it easily.
"Tch! I'm not done! Lightning Release: Chidori Net!"
Sasuke yanked both hands back. Steel wires threaded through the shuriken snapped taut, binding Naruto in a tight web. The paralyzing lightning-natured chakra coursing through them drew another involuntary roar from the transformed blond.
But the Tailed Beast's power was overwhelmingly superior. Sasuke's electrical assault didn't so much as slow Naruto down—if anything, it stoked his fury. Those clawed hands, nails now razor-sharp, seized the wires and ripped them apart with brute force.
"Close-range power is off the charts. Everyone besides Sasuke and me—don't let him get in striking distance."
The veins around Hinata's temples pulsed faintly. Her Byakugan could clearly see the chakra mantle enveloping Naruto—its density was far beyond normal, substantial enough to act as an independent physical limb under the host's control. Without the Byakugan or Sharingan to read the attacks, you wouldn't even see them coming.
"Shikamaru! Ino! Buy us an opening. Sasuke—Chidori."
Hinata fell back half a step, frowning slightly. She'd been a little lax in her training lately. She didn't have a sufficiently powerful finishing move in her arsenal right now. After this was over, she'd need to develop some serious techniques.
"You sure about this? I still can't control the Chidori's output."
Sasuke's eyes flashed red as he activated his two-tomoe Sharingan. His concern was obvious—he didn't want to do too much damage.
"Relax. As long as he's still breathing, it's fine. I'm betting that idiot can take a beating."
Hinata studied Naruto carefully with her Byakugan and frowned. The tailed beast cloak wasn't for show. That ultra-dense chakra cloak had completely obscured every tenketsu and vital point on Naruto's body. Pressure-point strikes were useless against this form unless you had reached Kaguya's level of power.
"RAAAGH!!"
At that moment, the crouching Naruto suddenly reared up with a savage howl, rising to his feet. His clawed arms crossed in a stance Hinata recognized instantly—and her blood ran cold.
"EVERYONE DOWN!!"
The others felt it too: an incomparable pressure erupting from Naruto's body. Academy evasion drills kicked in and they hit the dirt without thinking, arms wrapped over the backs of their heads to minimize damage.
Naruto swung his arms in a vicious cross-slash. A full-moon arc of sonic energy, a saw-blade of pure force, screamed from his arms and tore overhead. The Sonic Hand Blade. The technique he'd been struggling to complete in human form had come out in a single devastating burst under the tailed beast cloak's overflowing chakra—and the power was monstrous. The crescent of compressed air, nearly three meters across, howled over their heads like a passing typhoon and carved into the forest behind them. An entire swathe of trees—too many to count—toppled as though cut by a colossal blade.
"Shadow Imitation Technique!"
Seizing the split-second of Naruto's post-attack recovery, Shikamaru lunged out of the dust cloud and committed his secret technique. His shadow lanced forward and locked onto Naruto where he stood.
"Mind Body Switch Technique!"
Like a perfectly chained combo, Ino fired her own clan jutsu from beside Shikamaru. Naruto, already caught by the shadow, went rigid—frozen in place a second time.
"CHIDORI!!"
Then came the shriek of lightning. Sasuke exploded out of the smoke, his left hand blazing with the Chidori's light as he charged the immobilized Naruto at full speed. Pained grunts from Shikamaru and Ino told the story—the tailed beast was overpowering both holds—but before Naruto could fully break free of the Shadow Imitation and Mind Body Switch, the incoming Chidori was already in his face.
SKREEEEECH!!
A sound that set teeth on edge. Sasuke's left hand drove into Naruto's right shoulder, but the tailed beast cloak blunted the strike—the wound was shallow at best. Worse, Naruto's clawed hands clamped down on Sasuke's wrist with crushing force, locking him in place.
"Take! This!!"
But from Naruto's right flank came another voice—Hinata, erupting from the dust, her right fist drawing back as if in slow motion. Wreathed in roaring flame, the punch arced upward in a perfect rising crescent and slammed dead-center into the Four Symbols Seal on Naruto's abdomen. The sheer force dilated his pupils to the breaking point. His body folded around her fist like a shrimp curling on a hook, and the impact launched him skyward—ten meters straight up.
"SNAP OUT OF IT!!"
That was the rest of her sentence. And visibly, the red chakra mantle guttered and died, peeling away from Naruto's body. His eyes shrank back to round blue pupils, and then he went limp, falling from the sky.
"Naruto~"
Choji was already in position, lunging forward to catch the blond as he dropped. Hinata landed on her own feet, breathing hard despite herself. That Flame Rising Dragon Punch had cost her essentially every drop of chakra she had left. A gamble—and it had paid off.
"Is everyone okay? Administering emergency treatment now!"
Sakura rushed over, pressing both glowing hands to Naruto's abdomen to begin healing. Her medical ninjutsu wasn't advanced enough yet, but every bit helped.
"Hah. A little tired, but otherwise fine."
Shikamaru, thoroughly dust-caked, helped Ino to her feet. Shino let out a breath and turned to report: "The anomalous chakra has completely dissipated from Naruto's body. The insects have calmed down again."
"Hmph. Stupid dead-last."
Sasuke inspected the claw marks on his Sacred Fist Gauntlets and scowled, though his complaints carried more exasperation than malice.
"Excellent. Repairs complete. That's enough for tonight—tomorrow we're having a whole roasted bull, on Naruto's tab. All right, let's go home."
Hinata rose first, rolling her right shoulder to work out the stiffness. Choji hoisted Naruto onto his back, and the rest fell into step behind Hinata as naturally as breathing. Whatever else tonight had been, it was over.
"They actually... suppressed it?"
From the forest's edge, Asuma watched the children walk away, slack-jawed. The unlit cigarette had fallen from his mouth without him noticing—a fair measure of his shock.
"Hah... Looks like we underestimated these kids. They've already got real strength—and more than that, they've got the Will of Fire: never abandon a comrade."
Kakashi exhaled and clapped Asuma on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go report to Lord Hokage."
"Maybe the Nine-Tails won't be a problem for Konoha ever again."