"Fukasaku-sama."
Raizen had barely stepped into the wooden house when he saw the old sage seated cross-legged by the hearth, eyes half-closed in thought.
"Oh, it's young Raizen."
Fukasaku-sama's webbed hands rested on his knees as his eyes flicked open. His tone carried a rare note of warmth.
"I came to Mount Myōboku today because I wanted to ask you something."
"Hm? What sort of thing?"
Raizen took a breath. "After I've signed the summoning contract with Mount Myōboku… can I still form a contract with another Summoning Beast?"
The question made Fukasaku tilt his head, brow furrowing. "Did you find another creature worth contracting with?"
"It's… not exactly a Summoning Beast."
Raizen's gaze hardened. "It's this."
The air chilled. His Mangekyō Sharingan spun open, scarlet and ominous. Even the elder toad froze—he could feel the raw, oppressive chakra leaking from Raizen's eyes.
Fukasaku-sama recognized that power immediately. "Those eyes… Uchiha's Mangekyō?"
He was about to ask the boy why such eyes rested in his skull when something else drew his attention. A tremor ran through the wooden floorboards. Fukasaku's gaze shifted—and froze again.
"That chakra… this is… a Tailed Beast!?"
Before him lay a monstrous form, scales glinting dully, three enormous tails sprawled limply across the ground. The sheer pressure of it left even the sage's breath unsteady.
"Raizen," Fukasaku said, voice low. "Explain. How did you get a hold of a Tailed Beast?"
"This one was hiding under a lake," Raizen replied, tone flat. "It attacked shinobi from the Konoha Alliance. Now that the Hyūga-led alliance is preparing to crush us, I captured the Three Tails. If war comes, I'll need every advantage I can get."
Fukasaku stared at him for a long moment. A few years ago this boy had been nothing—a stray spark in the mud. Now he stood here, talking about sealing Tailed Beasts like it was a chore. The change was unnerving even for a sage.
"So you intend to sign a summoning contract with it?"
Raizen nodded.
"The Tailed Beasts are a special case," Fukasaku warned. "They're not ordinary Summoning Beasts. Their chakra is… different. No ordinary summoning contract will bind them. You'd need their own pact—something only they can reveal. And if you treat it like a prisoner, the odds of that happening are almost zero."
Raizen's lips twitched. "Then I'll just have to make the odds irrelevant."
He remembered stories—Madara, Obito, even the Sage of Six Paths himself. They'd all done something similar, one way or another. The method was obvious once you knew the trick.
As long as he had the Mangekyō.
He turned toward the sealed beast. The air thickened with tension.
"Three Tails," Raizen said quietly, voice hollow as steel. "Submit."
His chakra flared, Mangekyō spinning faster. The world inverted—his will surged into the creature's mind. The Three Tails howled, thrashing against invisible chains, but the seal held. Raizen pressed harder, blood trickling from his eye.
"Submit."
The mental roar of the beast began to falter, its resistance crushed under the weight of that cursed gaze. Raizen's hands flashed through seals. He slammed a palm against the ground.
The summoning script spread like wildfire, glowing red against the dirt before wrapping around the Three Tails' body. When it dimmed, a faint thread of connection pulsed between Raizen's heart and the beast's.
"It's done," he murmured.
The bond wasn't perfect—the Three Tails wouldn't obey willingly. But it was enough. Enough to call it forth, enough to control it through sheer ocular power if needed. That was all he required.
"You really did it…" Fukasaku muttered, staring at the boy in disbelief. "You forged a summoning contract with a Tailed Beast."
Raizen nodded once.
The old sage's tone softened. "Mangekyō Sharingan… I don't know why you bear such eyes, Raizen. But don't lose yourself to their power."
Raizen gave a faint smile. "I'll try not to, Fukasaku-sama."
He left a dozen shadow clones behind at Mount Myōboku to gather natural energy—emergency reserves for darker days—then disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
When he reappeared, it was at the lake where it all began. The Three Tails floated beneath the surface, free once more.
The water erupted as the beast rose, bellowing. "You… human! How dare you control me!"
Waves crashed against the shore. Raizen stood unmoving.
"From today," he said, voice calm but sharp, "you are bound to me. You'll lend me your strength. Together, we'll end this era of war."
The beast's eyes widened. "You… you know my name?"
Raizen's Sharingan gleamed. "Isofu. That's what you are, isn't it?"
The creature froze, fury flickering into something close to disbelief.
"You don't need to know how I learned it," Raizen said quietly. "But if fate exists, then this bond is part of it. Remember my name—Amamiya Raizen."