Chapter 43: The Only Person Injured in the Riot
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
The ground began to tremble.
Uchiha Asuka, who had been packing his belongings, stared blankly at the clock that had just fallen to the floor. Slowly lifting his head toward the northeast, he muttered,
"...The One-Tail is already out?"
"YAAA-HA!"
A shrill, exhilarated cry echoed throughout every corner of Hidden Sand Village.
Standing beneath the pure white moon, the giant tanuki covered in curse-mark-like patterns threw back its head and roared at the heavens.
The cry...
Was filled with pure joy.
Asuka pushed open the front door and looked toward the massive Tailed Beast rampaging on the outskirts of the village.
The corners of his mouth twitched.
Then he casually leaped onto the rooftop and settled into a comfortable squat.
Time to watch the show.
After all, it wasn't every day that dozens of Sunagakure ninja died at once.
He was rather curious to see just how severe the village's losses would be tonight.
"YAAA-HA!"
Shukaku slowly lowered its gaze.
Its enormous paw pointed directly at Rasa, who stood atop a distant rooftop.
"I've found someone I want to kill immediately!"
"Hmph."
Rasa let out a cold snort.
His eyes briefly swept over Advisor Chiyo, who lay unconscious amid the ruins, before returning to the One-Tail.
"So..."
"You're out again."
Shukaku's belly suddenly swelled.
The next instant, it slammed both paws against its stomach.
A massive torrent of Wind Release chakra erupted from its mouth.
Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet!
Watching the Tailed Beast-enhanced technique hurtle toward him, Rasa calmly raised both hands.
Magnet Release: Gold Dust!
An enormous wall of golden dust surged upward between them.
Boom!
The Drilling Air Bullet slammed into its center, carving a deep crater into the golden barrier before finally dissipating.
Immediately afterward, the wall transformed into a towering tidal wave and crashed toward Shukaku.
"..."
Shukaku rubbed its eyes.
Then...
It turned around and bolted.
It was a Tailed Beast.
Not an idiot.
The excitement it had felt upon escaping rapidly vanished the moment it saw the one human capable of sealing it away again.
Indeed...
The joys and sorrows of humans and Tailed Beasts could never be shared.
All they ever wanted...
...was to lock it away again.
Watching the gigantic tanuki flee on all fours out of the village, Asuka blinked in confusion.
"...?"
"It came out..."
"...yelled a few times..."
"...and ran away?"
He scratched his head.
"Fight!
"Why are you running?
"The worst that can happen is getting sealed again."
Then...
Something clicked.
"Oh..."
His eyes lit up.
"So that's how it is."
Looking at Shukaku's retreating back, he stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Did Rasa deliberately release the One-Tail to demonstrate to the other villages that he could suppress a Tailed Beast?"
"Hmm..."
"That's actually possible."
"It's basically the same as parading nuclear missiles around in later generations."
"Take the One-Tail out for a walk every now and then..."
"...then casually suppress it to remind everyone who's in charge."
"Sigh..."
Looking back at the luggage he'd packed in preparation for fleeing, Asuka couldn't help but sigh.
If I'd known there wasn't any real danger...
I would've just gone back to sleep.
---
"Teacher!"
"Teacher!"
Amid the commotion below, someone suddenly began calling out to him.
Asuka looked toward the source of the voice.
A blond young man wearing a white headscarf was sprinting toward him, frantically waving his arms.
"Teacher!"
The young man leaped onto the rooftop, panting heavily.
Asuka examined him carefully.
After searching his memory for quite some time...
"...Who are you?"
"I'm Yashamaru."
"Ohhhh..."
Asuka nodded thoughtfully.
Then slapped his fist into his palm.
"I see."
A brief pause.
"...Who's Yashamaru?"
"..."
"I'm your student!"
Before Asuka could ask another question, Yashamaru hurriedly adjusted the unconscious woman in his arms.
"Teacher!"
"Please save my sister!"
Only then did Asuka finally notice the woman.
One glance—
His expression immediately turned serious.
"She's critically injured."
He gently lifted one eyelid before checking her pulse.
Feeling the increasingly faint heartbeat beneath his fingertips, he frowned.
"How did she end up like this?"
"Th-That's..."
Yashamaru looked at the Uchiha crest embroidered on Asuka's clothing before glancing down at his sister's deathly pale face.
Clenching his teeth, he shut his eyes and shouted,
"My sister was injured during the disturbance just now!"
"..."
Asuka's lips twitched.
He recalled Shukaku appearing, shouting once, firing off a single jutsu...
...and immediately fleeing after being beaten back by Rasa.
With a complicated expression, he sighed.
"Your sister's luck is really terrible."
"If I'm not mistaken..."
"...she might be the only person injured during this entire riot."
"Teacher!"
"Please!"
"Please save her!"
"I know."
"I know."
Asuka waved him off impatiently before lifting the unconscious woman into his arms.
"Guard the door."
"Don't let anyone interrupt me."
"If someone barges in..."
"...your sister dies."
"...!"
Yashamaru instinctively wanted to follow.
But seeing the door close in front of him—and remembering that Sunagakure's ninja would likely arrive soon to investigate—he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.
Earlier, when Shukaku burst through the roof of the safe house, he'd risked being trampled just to carry his sister out alive.
At that moment, seeing Karura on the verge of death and Elder Chiyo unconscious...
His mind had gone completely blank.
He'd simply run.
Then, amidst the chaos, he'd happened to notice Asuka squatting calmly atop a rooftop with an enormous travel pack, looking suspiciously prepared to flee the village.
Only then had he remembered.
The Medical Ninja who had been teaching them...
...was rumored to be extraordinarily skilled.
Looking at the tightly shut door, Yashamaru drew a kunai and stood guard.
"Sister...
"You have to survive."
---
Inside the room...
Asuka was stunned.
He had underestimated her condition.
This wasn't simply someone who had been caught in a Tailed Beast attack.
No.
A Tailed Beast had literally been inside her abdomen.
In the most literal sense possible.
Placing a hand against her shriveled stomach, Asuka carefully examined the residual chakra still lingering within her body.
She had clearly been pregnant until recently.
Yet the chakra remaining inside her...
Didn't belong to any human.
"There was no child...
"...only Tailed Beast chakra."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Could this be the pregnant woman Pakura mentioned?"
His gaze shifted toward the intricate sealing formula covering her abdomen.
Having studied Sealing Jutsu himself, Asuka immediately recognized traces of Sunagakure's modifications.
"I see..."
"So that's why a Cesarean section wasn't an option."
"They sealed the Tailed Beast into the unborn child through the mother's body..."
"...and then reinforced the seal to keep it from escaping."
After piecing everything together, Asuka gently rested his palm against her abdomen.
Slowly...
He guided the remaining Tailed Beast chakra outward.
A few moments later...
A small sphere of crimson chakra floated above his hand.
Sealing Technique: Tailed Beast Chakra Seal!
Asuka rapidly formed hand seals.
The crimson chakra gradually compressed before disappearing into a tiny diamond-shaped seal engraved on his fingertip.
Looking at the small mark...
Then at the scorched skin surrounding it...
He clicked his tongue.
"So my Sealing Jutsu wasn't a waste after all."
"It really can seal Tailed Beast chakra."
He flexed his finger thoughtfully.
"...But...
"Is this tiny amount even enough to cast two A-rank techniques?"
"Sigh..."
He had never planned on becoming a Jinchūriki.
Every Tailed Beast already had an owner, after all.
Originally, he'd intended to visit Kirigakure someday and see whether he could obtain some of the Three-Tails' chakra.
Instead...
The first time he'd ever used Sealing Jutsu...
Was to seal away a tiny fragment of Shukaku's chakra.
And the amount...
Was pitifully small.
---
Author's Note:
This setting is directly based on the anime.
Sora, a lay disciple from the Fire Temple, possessed a portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra that had dispersed into the air and was later collected and sealed into his body. It was only chakra, not the Nine-Tails itself, and therefore contained none of Kurama's consciousness.
It's roughly equivalent to Naruto sharing his chakra with the Allied Shinobi Forces during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
The protagonist only seals away a tiny fragment of Shukaku's chakra. It will be exhausted after limited use in the future.
---
By dawn...
Asuka pushed open the door.
Standing outside was a group of Sunagakure ninja.
His eyes immediately settled on the brown-haired man at their center.
The Kazekage?
After a brief silence, Asuka spoke first.
"Kazekage-sama."
"I didn't expect our first meeting to happen under these circumstances."
"Hm."
Rasa gave a slight nod.
His gaze passed over Asuka and into the room.
"...How is she?"
"Alive."
"...Hmph."
Receiving that single answer, Rasa studied Asuka for several long moments before turning away.
Without another word, he departed with the other ninja.
Only Pakura...
Yashamaru...
...and two young children—a boy and a girl—remained behind.
"Kazekage-sama."
One of the Sunagakure ninja lowered his voice.
"That Konoha ninja may have discovered the truth about our village's Tailed Beast."
Rasa's footsteps paused for a brief moment.
Then he continued walking.
His calm voice carried words colder than the desert night.
"I have another son."
"If, during a future war, my youngest child proves incapable of controlling Shukaku..."
"...I will extract it..."
"...and seal it into another son."
He continued without hesitation.
"Besides..."
"Konoha is currently our ally."
"If that Uchiha dies here..."
"...the Fourth Hokage is not the Third."
"He will not let this matter rest."
"..."
The Sunagakure ninja silently lowered his head.
If the Uchiha died inside Sunagakure...
The consequences would be troublesome.
The Fourth Hokage...
Would be an even greater problem.
Since killing him within the village wasn't an option...
Then perhaps...
If someone else killed him...
The trouble could simply become someone else's responsibility.