The ground trembled.Soft at first. Then steady.In the middle of shoving valuables into his travel pack, Uchiha Tobika looked down at the fallen wall clock, then toward the northeast.
"…The One-Tail's already loose?"
A shrill, almost gleeful cackle ripped across the desert night.
"Yaaaah-ha! I'm finally out!"
Shukaku, body covered in sprawling ink-black seals, reared under the moonlight and howled like a lunatic celebrating his parole.
Tobika sighed, opened Yakura's door, hopped onto the roof, and assumed his natural position:
Professional bystander.One-tail rampages weren't exactly common.Good eating material.
He watched Shukaku spot Rasa in the distance.
"Oh? It's someone I instantly want to kill!"
Rasa exhaled and glanced at the unconscious Chiyo buried in rubble.Then, flatly:
"Out again?"
Shukaku's belly swelled—then snapped inward as he expelled a massive blast of wind chakra.
Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet.
Rasa raised both palms and the sand beneath them surged upward.
Magnet Release: Gold Dust.
A golden curtain of compressed sand rose like a fortress wall.Shukaku's air bullet slammed into it, dented it, then vanished.The wall surged forward like a tidal wave, roaring toward the beast.
Shukaku froze mid-swipe.
Then turned—
—and bolted on all fours.
Tobika blinked from the rooftop.
"…He yelled twice and ran?"
This was a tailed beast.Acting like a bullied raccoon dog.
"Fight back, you coward! Worst case, you get sealed again!"
But the thought hit him:
"…Wait. Did Rasa let Shukaku out on purpose? To show off?"
The idea clicked.Like a country deciding to "accidentally" show off its nuclear stockpile.
Rasa pulling out Shukaku for a walk.Yep.Checks out.
Tobika rubbed his temples, looked at his half-packed bag.
"So the village isn't in danger… I could've kept sleeping."
Then—
"Sensei! Sensei!"
A familiar, panicked voice echoed through the street.A blond youth with a white headscarf sprinted toward him.
Tobika stared blankly.
"…Who are you?"
"Night! Yashamaru! Your student!"
"Oh—" Tobika brightened. Smacked his fist into his palm."Who is Yashamaru?"
"I! Am! Yashamaru!"He lifted the unconscious woman in his arms."Sensei, please! Save my sister!"
Tobika finally glanced at the woman—Deathly pale. Barely breathing.Her chakra thinned like fading smoke.
"…You didn't just get grazed by Shukaku, did you?"
"N-no—she—she was hurt during the chaos!"
Tobika rubbed his chin.
"Somehow… she might be the only person injured tonight. Impressive luck."
Yashamaru knelt so fast he cracked his forehead, blood dripping down.
"Please! Save her!"
"Alright, alright." Tobika waved him off. "Bring her inside. And guard the door. If anyone interrupts, she dies."
Yashamaru froze—then nodded rapidly.
Inside the room, Tobika's sarcasm evaporated.
This wasn't collateral damage.This was…
He placed a hand on her withered abdomen.
A womb that had been full recently.And beneath the human chakra, a residue—dense, coarse, undeniably inhuman.
"Ah. So this is the 'difficult childbirth' Yakura mentioned."
The seal pattern spread across her belly made everything clear.
Suna's modified sealing style.A Jinchuriki seal overlaid on a pregnant woman—not to contain the mother, but to forcefully seal the beast into the unborn child.
Which meant…
The child was already taken.
And the mother was dying from the spiritual and physical shock.
Tobika pressed both palms onto her abdomen and guided the fragment of tailed-beast chakra outward.
A hazy red aura surged into his hands—scalding hot.
Seal: Tail Binding Mark.
The chakra condensed into a diamond sigil atop his fingertip.His skin blistered.
"…So it actually works," he muttered. "My sealing training wasn't a waste."
But what he gained was tiny—barely enough for a few high-level jutsu.
He curled his fingers slowly.
"First time I wanted to become a Jinchuriki, I thought I'd chase the Three-Tails someday…But here I am, sealing crumbs from the One-Tail instead."
Pathetic.Useful.But pathetic.
Dawn
Tobika opened the door.
A crowd waited.Rasa stood at the front.
Their eyes met for the first time.
"…Kazekage-dono. Didn't expect our first meeting to be here."
Rasa gave a short nod and peered past him.
"How is she?"
"Alive."
Rasa's shoulders eased.Barely.
He turned and left immediately.
Only Yakura, Yashamaru, and two frightened children remained.
Behind Rasa, a whisper:
"Kazekage-sama, that Konoha Uchiha… he may have learned our tailed-beast secret."
Rasa did not turn.
"My younger son is still alive.If he cannot control Shukaku in wartime, I will extract it and seal it into my elder son."
He walked forward.
"As for the Uchiha…Konoha is our ally.If he dies here, the Fourth Hokage will not forgive us."
The shinobi behind him paused.
If he doesn't die here…But somewhere else…
Their faces darkened with a new, dangerous idea.