Chapter 37: Dance with the Tailed Beast
Kokaki, the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, felt no urgency. The initiative was hers. Akatsurugi was the one who needed to make a move, to find a way through her defenses. Her mind, however, was working furiously. Flight is his biggest advantage. His speed in the air makes a ground pursuit pointless. My only option is to prevent him from taking off and end this with overwhelming force before he can react.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The sound of kunai cutting through the air broke her concentration. Three projectiles flew toward her. She didn't even bother to move her main body, simply flicking one of her two massive, blue-flamed tails to bat them aside.
Then she saw the nearly invisible wires attached to them.
In the next instant, black-red flames erupted along the wires, coiling toward her like fiery serpents.
"A cheap trick," Kokaki sneered. Such tactics were meaningless against a Jinchūriki.
With a surge of chakra, her body swelled, transforming fully into her half-beast state. Her form grew larger, muscles rippling under a cloak of intense blue fire. The transformation was instantaneous, and the sheer power of it snapped the wires effortlessly. The black-red flames sputtered and died against the overwhelming density of her chakra cloak.
Having traced the wires back to their source, Kokaki became a blur of blue light, closing the distance to Akatsurugi's hiding spot in a fraction of a second.
CRACK!
Her clawed hand slammed into the thick tree trunk where he'd been concealed, splintering it into kindling.
But Akatsurugi was already gone, having leaped back several dozen meters. His three-tomoe Sharingan spun wildly, desperately tracking her movements. He could see her, but his body simply couldn't keep up with the speed his eyes perceived.
She was on him again in an instant, a massive claw swiping down to crush him.
Yet, Akatsurugi had not engaged her without a plan. As the claw descended, his body dissolved into flickering flames.
The attack passed harmlessly through him, slamming into the ground and carving a deep furrow in the earth.
An intangible clone? A genjutsu? Kokaki's instincts screamed. She immediately spun around, expecting an attack from behind—the classic misdirection tactic.
But the real attack came from the very spot she had just "dispersed." Akatsurugi, having rematerialized, thrust the sealed hilt of Ryūjin Jakka forward with all his strength, aiming for her back.
It was a clever ruse: using his elemental intangibility to feign being an illusion, creating a moment of fatal hesitation.
CLANG!
A metallic ring echoed as the blade tip was stopped cold by the thick, chakra-dense blue-black cloak covering her body.
"What?!" Kokaki whirled around, surprised not just by the attack, but by its source. Her tail lashed out in a whip-like motion, forcing Akatsurugi to disengage and leap backward.
He landed lightly, gripping Trenchant Fire tightly. I can't even pierce her chakra cloak. This is a problem.
"Is this the power of your Sharingan?" Kokaki asked casually, not pressing the attack immediately. The Third Raikage's briefing had been clear: the target possessed a Mangekyō Sharingan with an unknown but potent ocular ability, suspected to be how he'd killed their elite jonin.
Akatsurugi remained silent, his expression unreadable.
Kokaki didn't expect an answer. Testing was the only way. She kicked off the ground, becoming a blue comet once more.
This time, Akatsurugi was ready. A massive, swirling sphere of chakra—the Great Ball Rasengan—had already formed in his hand. With the Sharingan's predictive ability, he had anticipated her direct charge. He met her head-on, slamming the Rasengan into her chest.
The impact was tremendous. Kokaki was thrown backward, skidding across the ground, but she quickly regained her footing. The Rasengan had dissipated against her cloak, leaving her completely unharmed.
Akatsurugi let out a frustrated breath. A direct hit from that... and nothing. This is the power of a Tailed Beast.
"You know the Fourth Hokage's jutsu," Kokaki noted, mentally adding another line to Akatsurugi's dossier.
He said nothing, simply raising his sword again. The only chance was to break through that chakra cloak, even for a moment.
"Enough playing," Kokaki declared. She threw her head back and let out a roar that was neither fully human nor fully beast. The chakra around her exploded outwards, her form swelling to a monstrous size. The blue flames intensified, and in the space of a breath, the full, monstrous form of the Two-Tails, Matatabi, stood where the woman had been—a gigantic, twin-tailed cat demon wreathed in hellish blue fire.
"You have got to be kidding me," Akatsurugi muttered. The half-beast state was trouble enough. The full form was a catastrophe.
"ROAR!"
Matatabi moved. The speed was incomprehensible. Even his Sharingan could only register a blur before a colossal paw, large enough to crush a house, swatted him.
But it passed through him, the flames of his elemental form scattering and reforming.
"Fireball!" the beast bellowed, its voice a guttural rumble. It opened its maw and exhaled a tsunami of blue fire, engulfing the area where Akatsurugi stood.
The heat was incinerating, turning the very earth to glass. To any other shinobi, it would have been a death sentence.
But for Akatsurugi, it was a warm breeze.
He stood calmly within the heart of the inferno, the flames of the Tailed Beast harmlessly washing over and through him. He even felt a surge of energy, the fire nature chakra replenishing his own reserves slightly.
It wasn't an attack. It was a gift.
From within the raging blue fire, Akatsurugi's voice rang out, calm and clear. "Is that all? My turn."