"A special presence? What do you mean?"
Uchiha Jin turned with interest toward Hyuga Hizashi.
If Hizashi called someone "special," it wasn't ordinary.
Hizashi hesitated.
"It should be a jinchūriki. The Eight-Tails hasn't been unsealed yet… so it's likely the Two-Tails from Kumogakure."
"The Two-Tails… Matatabi."
Jin's eyes gleamed.
He rather liked cats.
Especially large ones.
Killer B was a perfect jinchūriki—hard to take.
But at this point in time, Yugito wasn't perfect yet.
Which meant… possibilities.
And the Uchiha?
They had experience raising cats.
"Jin, they're within a hundred meters."
Hizashi's Byakugan tracked every movement through darkness and flame.
"Good," Jin said coldly. "Let them taste despair."
He punched forward.
"Blazing Rope!"
A towering wall of fire, dozens of meters high, erupted across the Cloud shinobi's advance path.
Several couldn't stop in time and plunged straight into it.
Their screams echoed through the forest.
"Water Release! Use water!"
Dodai immediately reacted, spitting out a torrent.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
A massive stream smashed into the flames.
Steam exploded outward.
A gap opened—
Only to refill in seconds.
Other Cloud ninja repeated the attempt.
Same result.
The flames refused to die.
Meanwhile—
The arrows never stopped.
They pierced through the inferno as if it barely existed, striking flesh with merciless precision.
"What kind of fire is this?!" Dodai's composure cracked.
How are they locking onto us through the flames?
Are they all sensory ninja?
No.
Impossible.
Sensory types were rarer than medics.
Konoha couldn't possibly have hundreds.
Before he could think further—
"Dodai-sama! Samui's unit is under attack! High-level enemies! They're about to collapse!"
His heart seized.
The jinchūriki could not be lost.
Instinct screamed at him to turn back.
But more comrades were falling around him.
If they retreated now, they'd be shot to pieces on the way.
Is this bait?
A trap to force us into the open?
His mind fractured under pressure.
"Dodai-sama, what should we—AAAH!"
An arrow punched through the sensory ninja's chest, leaving a fist-sized hole.
He collapsed mid-sentence.
Dodai froze.
For a moment—
Fear flickered in his eyes.
Then—
A blue blaze ignited beside him.
"I'll go," said Yugito Nii calmly, her body wreathed in azure flames. "You reinforce Samui. I'll disrupt their formation."
Dodai understood instantly.
She was surrendering control to the Two-Tails.
It was a gamble.
But it was their only one.
"Please… Yugito."
"Everyone! Turn around! Support Samui!"
The surviving Cloud shinobi pivoted and rushed back.
Yugito leapt straight into the wall of fire.
Her body began to change.
"ROAR!!!"
A massive feline shape burst through the flames—an enormous cat of ghostly blue fire.
Matatabi had emerged.
At last free—
"Finally, I—"
Its voice cut off abruptly.
Because it met a pair of crimson eyes.
Within those eyes—
A spinning pattern.
Mangekyo Sharingan.
In an instant—
The Two-Tails' pupils reflected that red spiral.
This was the fatal flaw of a non-perfect jinchūriki.
If the host fell unconscious—
The beast had no external aid.
And if the beast took control—
The host had to relinquish awareness.
There was no cooperation.
Only imbalance.
Matatabi staggered—
Then slid across the ground in an undignified skid.
The massive body collapsed, shaking the forest.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Jin lowered his hand.
"Archers—continue eliminating Cloud shinobi."
"The rest of you—move around and mop up survivors."
"And Dodai?"
He smiled faintly.
"I want him alive."
Orders moved like lightning.
The encirclement tightened.
Hizashi's Byakugan scanned the broader battlefield.
"Fugaku's side has finished. The Eight-Tails wasn't released. Two Cloud ninja captured, the rest dead."
"As for Dodai's group… about thirty remain."
"They're finished."
The Breaking Point
Dodai heard the roar.
He heard it stop.
And then—
Nothing.
No shockwave.
No Tailed Beast Bomb.
No rampage.
Just arrows.
Still falling.
Yugito had vanished like a feather into the ocean.
No splash.
No ripple.
His last hope… gone.
They were less than a hundred meters from the temporary camp.
Yet no sound came from that direction either.
No explosion.
No clash.
No signal.
Is there still hope?
For the first time—
Dodai truly felt it.
Not fear of death.
But the crushing realization of complete defeat.
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