"Here."
"Your reward."
Kai's voice was extremely calm, carrying almost no emotion.
Then he flicked his finger.
The dark-blue pill drew a precise arc through the air before landing with a crisp tap on the broken stone in front of Mei Terumi.
She lowered her head and looked at it.
The pill was no larger than a fingernail, its surface a deep azure hue.
Inside, water-like ripples seemed to flow continuously.
Just by looking at it, one could feel the aura forcibly compressed and sealed within.
A terrifying aura that made the heart tremble.
This was...
The berserk chakra of the Three-Tails, Isobu?
Gulp.
Mei Terumi swallowed with difficulty.
Her watery emerald eyes locked tightly onto the pill before her.
Her already fragile, pale features lost their final trace of color.
A reward?
How was this a reward?
This was clearly a lethal multiple-choice question!
In an instant, countless possibilities appeared in her mind.
Dark.
Twisted.
Was it poison made from Tailed Beast chakra?
Or perhaps a puppet curse seal that she would never escape for the rest of her life?
Or some strange drug she had never heard of—one that would turn her into something completely at another person's mercy?
Yes.
That had to be it.
The little man before her must have felt that verbal promises were unreliable, which was why he was using this method to control her.
After all—
What could be more loyal than having someone's life in your hands?
The moment she realized this, the relief she had just felt after being pulled back from the edge of destruction was instantly swallowed by a deeper, colder fear.
The choice before her seemed to have only two paths.
Either...
She ate the poison and submitted, preserving the village.
But the price might be that she would completely lose herself and become a living puppet controlled by someone else.
Or she refused to eat it...
And angered the little man before her.
"Haa... haa..."
She breathed heavily.
Her hands pressed hard against the sharp broken stones on the ground.
She tried to use the pain to preserve the last bit of clarity in her mind.
Her breathing became increasingly rapid.
Her chest rose and fell violently under the weight of suppressed emotions.
Should she eat it...
Or not?
If she ate it, she might fall into eternal ruin and become a second Yagura Karatachi.
If she didn't...
She had no doubt.
The young boy before her, who could casually crush a Tailed Beast Bomb, would use a far more direct method.
He would make both her and all of Kirigakure understand what true despair was.
If things reached that point, then whether she ate it or not would no longer matter.
And besides...
At least right now, this little man was still willing to speak calmly.
Perhaps it was only something that could make a person obedient.
Thinking of this, Mei Terumi suddenly shut her eyes tightly.
Her long lashes trembled violently.
Images flashed through her mind.
The flames of the entire village being reduced to ruins.
Ao and her subordinates on the brink of death.
Elder Genji's aged and heavy entrusted hopes.
Fine.
Fine!
"Haa—"
Mei Terumi exhaled once more.
When she opened her eyes again, only determination remained in her watery emerald pupils.
Then, like lightning, she grabbed the pill.
Without even looking at it, she decisively tilted her head back and swallowed it.
Even if what she held was the most vicious curse...
The cruelest method of control...
She accepted it!
As long as it could win the village even a single chance of survival!
However...
It seemed different from what she imagined.
The pill was cool when it entered her mouth.
It did not melt.
Instead, it slid down her throat like a bead of mercury.
The pain, corrosion, or invasion of her mind that she had imagined did not come.
"Strange..."
"What's going on?"
Just as she felt confused—
Something suddenly felt wrong.
BOOM!!!
Inside her body, a vast yet surprisingly gentle flood of chakra silently erupted.
Immediately afterward—
Her limbs.
Her bones.
Every channel of blood and chakra within her body.
All were filled by this surging current of chakra.
This power was even greater and deeper than her own peak state.
Not only did it possess the unique tolerance and flexibility of Water Release...
It also contained the terrifying foundation of a Tailed Beast.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Almost at the same time, a brilliant blue chakra flame began uncontrollably surging from every pore in her body.
In an instant, it formed a violently fluctuating energy halo around her.
At this moment, even the broken stones on the ground were shaken until they hummed.
Some even floated slightly into the air.
Within her body, her originally exhausted chakra pool was not only instantly filled—
It began expanding at a speed she had never experienced in more than twenty years of life.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Again and again.
It continuously broke through the limits of her body.
"Th-This..."
"What... what is this?!"
Mei Terumi lowered her head in disbelief and stared at her own hands.
She could feel it.
An unprecedentedly powerful force was filling her body so completely it almost overflowed.
In an instant, her beautiful eyes widened.
They were filled with immense shock...
And uncontrollable ecstasy.
Her entire body trembled slightly.
The hairs on her skin stood on end.
But this time, it wasn't from fear.
It was from excitement.
It wasn't poison!
Nor was it a curse!
This was—
The purest crystallization of chakra!
Something enough to drive any ninja mad with desire!
A treasure capable of making chakra grow like flowing water!
A true treasure!
A treasure millions of times better than something like a soldier pill!
"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"
"Hiss—what the hell is that...?"
At the observation point, Kisame had just raised his head and spat out several mouthfuls of sand.
Before he could do anything else, he sucked in a cold breath.
His tiny bean-like eyes widened like bronze bells.
He could clearly sense it.
Mei Terumi was becoming stronger.
And...
Kisame lowered his head and looked thoughtfully at Samehada in his hand.
He could feel Samehada's excitement.
Its greed.
To Samehada, that woman was an irresistible temptation.
Then...
Without thinking, Kisame immediately pressed down on his blade.
"No, no, no, no!"
"You absolutely cannot crave her!"
As he spoke, he secretly raised his eyes toward Kai.
A sentence was stuck in his heart.
If you crave his woman...
I'm afraid...
He'll crave your body.
The method Kai had just used to grab the Three-Tails and refine it in an instant made even Kisame, the Tailless Tailed Beast, feel terrified.
Even uneasy.
He hadn't seen this method during their last meeting!
Only a few months had passed, and Kai had gained another ability?
Or perhaps...
Last time, Kisame hadn't even lasted long enough to see it before he was beaten unconscious?
With that doubt in mind, Kisame quietly shuffled sideways.
Crack.
But by accident—
He knocked off a piece of wood.
To be precise...
A section of puppet tail.
Sasori of the Red Sand's puppet tail beside him.
Inside Hiruko, Sasori's cold eyes widened slightly for once.
A method that could instantly raise another person's chakra to such an extent...
It was simply unheard of.
Unseen.
What was this?
Could it be...
A new kekkei genkai?
Crack!
At that exact moment, his tail, which had stiffened too many times from shock, finally snapped.
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