The Uzumaki shinobi stiffened the moment Amamiya Raizen declared he intended to capture a tailed beast. Even for a clan built on seals, "large-scale" meant "one wrong move and you're vapor." Their eyes carried the kind of dread usually reserved for natural disasters.
Raizen didn't let them stew. "I'll restrain the Three Tails. You handle the sealing."
Fifteen Uzumaki ninja nodded so fast Raizen almost felt bad for them. Almost. He signaled for everyone else to fall back, inhaled once, and let the world sharpen into that cold, combat-ready stillness he'd come to depend on.
The quiet lake reflected the sky. His eyes shifted, the familiar burn spreading as his vision bled scarlet.
Time to be reckless again.
"Amaterasu."
Black fire erupted across the lake. Heat roared outward, white steam billowing as the flames bored a molten crater straight through the water's surface.
Raizen snapped his fingers.
"Flame Control."
The fire twisted like a living thing, streaming downward in a long spear of black heat. The lake boiled in seconds.
A roar answered him. Not the kind a normal animal could make. This one came from a creature older than most clans, and angrier than all of them.
The lake heaved upward. A massive shadow churned under the surface, spiraling the entire basin into a whirlpool.
Fine. If the beast wanted loud, Raizen could get loud.
"Susanoo!"
Scarlet chakra exploded around him, forming bones, muscle, armor. A giant took shape at his side, towering over the treeline with a blade of pure chakra pointed skyward. Raizen directed it without hesitation.
The blade came down.
The impact split the lake open, sending a wall of water screaming upward. A flash of pitch-black energy launched from below.
A Tailed Beast Bomb. Great.
"Kamui shuriken!"
Susanoo's arm moved with Raizen's will, pulling the massive shuriken from its waist and hurling it. Space warped. The Tailed Beast Bomb twisted into nothing.
Raizen narrowed his eyes. "Three Tails… bow your damn head."
Susanoo shifted again. Red chakra surged, plates of "flesh" layering over armor. Wings unfurled from the giant's back. Raizen's body lifted, merging with the avatar's forehead as the transformation completed.
A full-grown Susanoo hovered above the battlefield, wings beating against the rising mist.
"Bow and arrow."
The giant's sword dissolved into a glowing longbow. A single arrow formed on the string, wrapped in Amaterasu's black fire.
He loosed it.
The world seemed to hold its breath. The flaming shot tore through the lake like paper, slamming into the submerged beast.
Three Tails screamed. Its shell blistered, black flames crawling across its body. The water couldn't smother the fire. It only fanned it.
The lake itself began to burn.
Raizen watched the beast thrash, its chakra flaring violently as its massive form rolled beneath the surface. But the fire didn't let go. It spread. It clung. It ate.
The perfect trap.
He felt the moment its strength faltered.
"Sharingan."
The Mangekyō spun hard, tearing into the beast's mind. Three Tails tried to resist, but between the fire, the pain, and the pressure, it buckled. Its will slumped. Its eye glazed over.
Bound.
Raizen's voice sliced through the steam. "Seal squad!"
The Uzumaki snapped back to life and rushed forward. Fifteen shinobi formed a circle around the massive beast, hands blurring through seals. Chakra surged under their feet, weaving into chains that wrapped around Three Tails, clamping down hard.
"Sealing Technique: Power Binding!"
Light flared. The constructs tightened. The beast stilled.
And then it was over.
Raizen let out a breath he hadn't noticed holding. Susanoo dissolved around him. Pain stabbed behind his eyes. His vision blurred.
"Great. Going blind in the middle of nowhere. Peak reincarnator reward."
He knew the cause. He'd been using Mangekyō constantly. Susanoo, Amaterasu, Kamui. Over and over, pushing the limits.
And the price was hitting him now.
If the Mangekyō gave out, his entire plan collapsed. Dust Release, Flying Thunder God, Sage Mode… none of them matched the raw brutality of Mangekyō.
Especially not his most dangerous hidden card.
Distinguished Heavenly Gods.
Without Mangekyō, that jutsu was gone. So was half his leverage.
"There are only two ways to fix this," he muttered, clutching his temple. "Eternal Mangekyō… or Senju Hashirama's cells."
One option didn't exist. The other walked around the world like some mythic tree spirit blessed by the gods.
Raizen gritted his teeth. "Perfect. Time to bother Hashirama-senpai."
He dismissed the thought for now. First, the mission.
The Mangekyō spun once more, opening a whirl of space next to the restrained beast. Time folded around the Three Tails, pulling the colossal form into the vortex.
When the distortion vanished, the lake was empty.
Mission complete.
...
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