The Zero-Tails.
It is a pure manifestation of negative emotions, an evil chakra creature born from the accumulation of human darkness.
In contrast, the nine Tailed Beasts—from the One-Tail to the Nine-Tails—are fundamentally fragments of the Ten-Tails carved out by the Sage of the Six Paths. They are a more refined form of chakra life. The malice swirling within the Nine-Tails is actually a byproduct of a thousand years of war, betrayal, and hatred, which in turn warps its chakra. This corruption causes its Jinchūriki to lose their sanity.
However, if a Jinchūriki ever reconciles with the beast and masters that malice, they gain the ability to sense negative emotions—a skill honed over a millennium.
But for the Zero-Tails, this ability was innate from the moment of its birth!
While the Zero-Tails couldn't fire Tailed Beast Bombs or grant its host a "Golden" or "Crimson" cloak, and its total chakra capacity was somewhat embarrassing (Ren once suspected a full-grown Zero-Tails might have less chakra than Kisame Hoshigaki), it understood one thing better than any other beast: Malice.
Because Ren's Zero-Tails was still a "hatchling," its sensing range had been limited to a five-meter radius. This was a major bottleneck. Against Kage-level opponents like Ebizo, it took only a few rounds for them to see through the range and move the fight to long-range "beam struggles."
His "God-tier" shurikenjutsu was becoming obsolete because his perception couldn't keep up with the scale of the battlefield.
Until now.
"Chirp!"
Receiving the determined and hungry response from the Zero-Tails inside him, Ren narrowed his eyes.
By absorbing the Nine-Tails' leaking chakra, the Zero-Tails wasn't just gaining fuel for battle; it was temporarily unlocking its primal, latent abilities. It was a massive, fleeting liberation of power!
Thinking of the possibilities, Ren ignored Orochimaru's warnings about the "Dragon Personality" and activated the Cursed Seal of Heaven!
Black, petal-like markings spread down his legs, warping his musculature and bone structure. He gained the explosive speed of a black mamba. He blurred into a shadow, sonic booms trailing behind him as he charged toward the center of the mushroom cloud—the place where the Nine-Tails' chakra was most concentrated.
The berserk Kushina, controlled by the Nine-Tails, watched the brat talk trash and then turn tail.
Through Ren, the Nine-Tails was having a flashback to a certain "bad seed" who once rode on its head and laughed like a maniac. The hair, the arrogance, the tone, the eyes... especially those eyes! In those Sharingan, there was a madness and a thirst for battle that couldn't be faked.
He's enjoying this!
The Nine-Tails realized with a jolt of fury: This is basically a juvenile version of Madara Uchiha!
This boy could not be allowed to live. If left alone, he'd be the next Uchiha to laugh while standing on its head.
"Grrr!"
The Nine-Tails let out a low, dog-like snarl. It ignored the village behind it and leapt through the hole in the barrier into the Forest of Death. Sniffing the air, it pinpointed Ren's direction and began a four-legged gallop in pursuit.
As it ran, it began forming another Tailed Beast Bomb in its mouth—the terrifying black sphere condensing at a perfect 2:8 ratio. Aiming at Ren's back, it fired!
BOOM!
The gale surged once more, the ground erupting as a deep trench was carved into the forest.
At that exact moment, Ren's world changed.
As he ran, the Zero-Tails was gorging itself on the surrounding Nine-Tails chakra. As the malice accumulated, the beast's body expanded visibly. Chakra flooded Ren's system like a broken dam.
His perception range—previously a mere five meters—began to explode:10 meters... 50 meters... 100 meters... 500 meters!
At 500 meters, Ren felt it. A pillar of pure hatred, like a beam of light shooting into the sky, had him dead-locked.
Simultaneously, his S+ Tier talent, Combat Instinct, expanded alongside his sensing range. What was once limited to close-quarters combat now encompassed the entire 500-meter zone.
But it didn't stop there. The "Natural Energy" within his reach also began to resonate and expand.
Ren skidded to a halt and spun around, facing the incoming Tailed Beast Bomb head-on. He was standing right at the edge of the previous explosion's crater. Here, the Zero-Tails acted like a high-powered pump, drawing in massive amounts of energy and converting it into terrifying chakra that threatened to burst his veins.
"This power... is this what it feels like to be the Nine-Tails?!"
He threw his head back and laughed. "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
"It's time!"
Ren looked down at the Nine-Tails with pure disdain. "Beast, witness the power of a Sage!"
Ren slammed his hands together in a prayer pose and roared:
"Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation!"
The ground beneath them surged violently. According to Ren's will, seventy-two stone pillars, each five meters thick, rose in an Archimedean spiral around the Nine-Tails.
Standing atop the highest pillar, Ren looked down at the tiny, berserk Jinchūriki and stomped his foot down with a heavy thud.
In an instant, nearly a kilometer of earth transformed into a cascading waterfall of soil and rock—an Earth River that crashed down to bury the Nine-Tails!
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