The Gedo Statue stood like a towering humanoid figure, its body resembling withered wood, nine eyes lining its face, and ten pillar-like protrusions rising from its back.
Now, those nine eyes slowly merged into one, transforming into a single, massive, blood-red eye.
The ten protrusions on its back began to grow and twist, turning into ten enormous tails.
The already gigantic body of the statue swelled even larger.
Thud—Thud—Thud!
The ten colossal tails whipped about uncontrollably, tearing through the underground base's ceiling and splitting it open entirely.
The secret base was completely exposed.
Yet at that moment, neither Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Obito, nor Zetsu paid any attention to the base being discovered—their eyes were fixed upon the monstrous creature with ten writhing tails.
Its sheer presence left no doubt. This was the Ten-Tails.
"So this is the Ten-Tails…" Obito murmured, feeling the oppressive, terrifying energy radiating from the beast.
"Yes. The Ten-Tails—but not in its complete form yet. It's still evolving," Zetsu replied, his tone trembling with excitement.
He had spoken without thinking, revealing a secret only he knew—memories inherited from the moment he was born, as the son of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
But neither Madara nor Obito noticed the oddity in his words; both were too shaken by the Ten-Tails' overwhelming presence.
Realizing his slip, Zetsu quickly added,
"The evolution isn't as violent as before, but if you look closely, you can still see it changing."
With the Rinnegan and Mangekyō Sharingan, Madara and Obito both possessed extraordinary perception. Looking carefully, they indeed noticed the Gedo Statue's body was still in flux.
Zetsu's words no longer raised any suspicion.
Meanwhile, across the shinobi world, the Five Great Villages had all mobilized their intelligence divisions.
They had come to realize that Akatsuki was not merely a threat to Konoha—but to the entire world.
A scout from Iwagakure's intelligence unit, searching for traces of Akatsuki near the borders of the Land of Frost, suddenly heard a thunderous roar echoing from afar.
Climbing to the peak of a nearby mountain, he peered toward the sound—and froze.
In the distance, the ground had collapsed, revealing a vast underground chamber.
Inside, an enormous creature stood on all fours like a monstrous reptile.
Its body bore a massive, blood-red eye and ten gigantic tails that swung wildly, smashing against the earth and stone, leaving deep fissures with every strike.
"Ten tails… Could that be the Ten-Tails mentioned in the intelligence reports?"
He remembered that Konoha had once shared information with Iwagakure—intelligence stating that Akatsuki sought to resurrect a creature of world-ending power known as the Ten-Tails, its most distinct feature being ten tails.
"Akatsuki has actually revived it!? I must report this immediately!"
Pale-faced, he hastily scrawled a message onto a scroll and sent it via a messenger bird back to the village.
At nearly the same moment, intelligence operatives from Konoha, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure also detected the anomaly and sent urgent reports back to their respective villages.
Hokage's Office, Konoha.
"Hokage-sama, we've received an urgent report from an intelligence officer stationed in the Land of Frost," said Uzuki Yugao solemnly.
"Read it," Uchiha Fugaku ordered, straightening in his chair.
"In the southern region of the Land of Frost—within the Chiba Forest—a massive creature over two hundred meters in length has been sighted. It possesses ten enormous tails… suspected to be the Ten-Tails."
As Yugao finished reading, Fugaku's expression grew grave.
A creature over two hundred meters long with ten tails—there could be no mistake.
Akatsuki had succeeded in reviving the Ten-Tails.
Ever since the boy who carried the Nine-Tails' chakra was captured by Akatsuki, Fugaku had feared this outcome.
But when no signs of resurrection followed, he had assumed Akatsuki had failed—or abandoned the idea.
He hadn't expected that after a long silence, they would actually succeed.
"Summon Jiraiya, Tsunade, Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, Uchiha Shisui, and Yuki no Hayabusa to the office immediately," he ordered.
Moments later, the six arrived, and Fugaku relayed the situation in the briefest terms possible.
"It's true, then… they've revived it?" Jiraiya said in disbelief.
During previous meetings, Fugaku had theorized that Akatsuki's true objective was to resurrect the legendary Ten-Tails—a being said to possess power capable of ending the world.
Even so, Jiraiya had doubted it. After all, the Ten-Tails was slain by the Sage of Six Paths and divided into nine tailed beasts. Even if all nine were gathered again, resurrection should've been impossible.
Yet now, it had happened exactly as Fugaku predicted.
"Is Naruto still in Mount Myōboku?" Tsunade asked, turning to Jiraiya.
"I just contacted Fukasaku through summoning. Naruto is safe. Akatsuki hasn't captured him," Jiraiya confirmed.
"Then how?" Tsunade frowned. "If the Nine-Tails is still sealed inside Naruto, how did Akatsuki revive the Ten-Tails?"
Fugaku took a deep breath. "During a raid on one of Akatsuki's bases, I rescued a kidnapped boy—but he was taken again shortly after. When I later investigated his identity, I learned he was the son of the former Guardian Twelve member, Kazuma.
Kazuma was one of the radical members who believed the Land of Fire should serve only one ruler—the Daimyo—and he once conspired toward that goal.
On the night of the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha, Kazuma was nearby and used a secret technique to gather the Nine-Tails' chakra. He secretly infused that chakra into his son."
Fugaku paused, then continued solemnly,
"My earlier assumption was likely wrong. Reviving the Ten-Tails might not require all nine beasts. A portion of their chakra—combined with one or more actual tailed beasts—may be enough."
Kakashi's expression hardened. "That seems likely. And that boy… was used for that purpose. It's unfortunate we couldn't keep him safe."
"That no longer matters," Jiraiya said grimly. "What's important now is that we alert the other Four Great Nations immediately and move to destroy Akatsuki before the Ten-Tails fully stabilizes."
"The Ten-Tails' revival will already have drawn attention," Fugaku said. "The other villages should be on the move. We'll head for the Land of Frost and join forces with them to eliminate Akatsuki and seal—or destroy—the Ten-Tails."
Everyone nodded. Even Tsunade, who had always been critical of Fugaku, offered no objection this time.
They dispersed to prepare. Half an hour later, they regrouped at the village gates.
But another figure had joined them—a young man with black hair and sharp eyes.
Uchiha Sasuke.
"You're bringing him?" Tsunade asked, surprised.
She knew Sasuke had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and possessed Kage-level strength. Still, she hadn't expected Fugaku to let his own son join such a dangerous mission.
"Every additional Kage-level ninja increases our odds," Fugaku replied simply.
"Hokage-sama, Sasuke is still young," Kakashi objected. "This mission is too dangerous for him."
"He's a shinobi of Konoha," Fugaku countered calmly. "When you were his age, you were already on the battlefield."
Kakashi tried to argue further, but Fugaku raised a hand to stop him and turned to Sasuke.
"You've heard the situation. What is your answer?"
Sasuke met his father's gaze. "Hokage-sama, please allow me to join the mission. As a member of the Uchiha Clan, I refuse to let our name fall into shame."
"Good." Fugaku nodded in approval.
Though dangerous, he wasn't sending his son to die. Sasuke had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique and awakened the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—his strength now second only to Fugaku himself, his survivability greater even than Kakashi's.
Tsunade watched the father and son with a newfound sense of respect.
She had long regarded the Uchiha as arrogant and self-centered, but now she saw something else—a pride born not of vanity, but of unyielding honor.
That pride was what made the Uchiha fearless in the face of death.
Something she realized, the Sarutobi Clan could never truly understand.
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