Rōshi stood there, his entire body trembling violently.
His head was lowered, making it impossible to see his expression.
Only the sound of heavy breathing came from his throat.
That breathing grew faster and faster, heavier and heavier.
It carried a beast-like growl.
"Three... chūnin..."
His voice was hoarse and low, as if forced out through clenched teeth.
"Again... chūnin..."
Chūnin.
A single chūnin had actually pushed him this far.
Had endured under his hands for that long.
Three chūnin, piloting that pile of scrap metal,
had fought him for this long.
He was the Four-Tails jinchūriki!
A Kage-level powerhouse!
Rōshi, who had roamed the shinobi world for decades and made countless people tremble in fear!
And now he had been turned into an experimental subject by a few chūnin, into a whetstone, into a... joke.
"You Suna trash..."
Rōshi suddenly lifted his head!
His eyes had already turned completely scarlet!
"All of you deserve to die!!!"
Boom!!!
Tailed Beast chakra erupted from his body like a volcanic explosion!
Crimson light shot into the sky, dyeing everything around him blood-red!
Scorching waves of heat spread in every direction.
The sand underfoot melted instantly, forming a ring of flowing magma!
Rōshi's body began to twist and swell violently!
The third tail... burst out from his body!
And then...
The fourth!
"ROOOAR!!!"
An inhuman bellow shook heaven and earth!
That was no longer Rōshi's voice.
It was the voice of something older, more terrifying... Son Gokū, the Four Tails, the true Tailed Beast itself!
He had lost control!
Rōshi's consciousness was completely swallowed by the savage fury of the Tailed Beast!
...
Far away, atop the rise.
Teizawa's brow furrowed slightly.
"He lost control?"
He spoke softly, a trace of surprise in his voice.
"This guy... his mentality's weak."
Behind him, the Suna ninja who had been taking notes were already pale with fright. Some had even begun backing away.
"K-Kazekage-sama, what do we do now?"
Teizawa did not move.
He simply watched that figure continuing to swell madly.
Watched those four tails whipping wildly behind it.
Watched that form drawing closer and closer to a complete Tailed Beast state...
Then he smiled.
"Interesting."
That was all he said.
"A perfect chance to see how strong the complete Four Tails really is."
As he spoke, Teizawa withdrew his gaze.
He looked toward the figure beside him who had remained silent the entire time.
"Sasori."
His tone was flat, as casual as talking about the weather.
"Interested in going to subdue the Four Tails?"
Sasori raised his head. The eyes visible through the gaps in his puppet body looked toward that red giant ape ravaging the distance.
He stayed silent for a few seconds.
"A thing that size..."
His voice was hoarse and serious, carrying a rare note of gravity.
"It would be too exhausting to deal with."
"My puppets... operate on a technical scale."
Teizawa raised a brow.
Sasori continued, his tone as calm as though he were analyzing something that had nothing to do with him:
"The best method is attrition. Once it exhausts its chakra, the Tailed Beast transformation will naturally end."
Teizawa rolled his eyes.
"Wait for a Tailed Beast to run out of chakra?"
He let out a derisive laugh.
"You really dare say that."
Sasori fell silent.
He knew exactly why Teizawa said that.
What was a Tailed Beast?
A mass of chakra. One of the greatest chakra sources in the entire shinobi world.
Wait for a Tailed Beast to run out of chakra...
How long would that take?
Until Sunagakure was flattened?
Until everyone was dead?
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
In the end, he closed it again.
Because he remembered his days in Akatsuki.
The leader had once clearly laid out the plan for capturing Tailed Beasts...
Pairs of two. Seize the jinchūriki swiftly while it was still in jinchūriki state.
Absolutely never let it reach full Tailed Beast transformation.
Why?
Because once a Tailed Beast was fully released, it stopped being a "jinchūriki problem."
It became a true natural disaster.
A horror capable of destroying an entire city.
Unless one was a powerhouse on the leader's level, or a dōjutsu user with extremely powerful ocular techniques...
There was nothing to do but flee.
And Sasori...
He did not possess that kind of power.
No matter how exquisite his puppet techniques were, no matter how lethal his poisons were, to that giant ape covered in magma, they would amount to no more than a scratch.
So he could only refuse.
...
On the battlefield, Rōshi's figure had disappeared completely.
In his place stood a true monster.
It was a giant ape, blood-red from head to toe, moving on all fours, with huge fangs bared from its maw.
Scorching magma flowed across its body.
Every breath sent sparks spraying from its nostrils.
Every step it took scorched the earth black.
Son Gokū, the Four Tails... fully transformed.
"ROOOAR!!!"
The giant ape threw back its head and roared, shaking the heavens.
Even the air trembled!
It lowered its head, its scarlet eyes locking onto the three tiny figures on the ground.
Kankurō.
And the two Suna ninja slumped on the ground beside him.
The three of them stared upward at the mountain of flesh drawing closer, their faces white as paper.
Run?
Run where?
Every step it took was like an earthquake, leaving them unable even to stand steady.
One stomp from it would be enough to crush an entire mountain into rubble.
"K-Kankurō-sama..."
One of the Suna ninja was trembling as he spoke.
"A-Are we... going to die?"
Kankurō said nothing.
He only stared fixedly at that giant ape drawing nearer and nearer.
His palms were soaked with sweat.
It's over.
That thought flashed through his mind.
It was really over.
No matter how fanatical he had been, how thrilled,
how strongly he had felt he might one day fight Gaara...
When faced with a true Tailed Beast,
he finally understood how insignificant he was.
The giant ape raised its foot, and an enormous shadow swallowed the three of them whole.
That foot was about to come down.
And then...
Bang!
A figure suddenly appeared in front of them.
A dark gold robe, a tall straight posture, and those eternally composed eyes.
Teizawa.
Without turning his head, he spoke lightly:
"Keep your eyes on that ape that's about to stomp down."
"K-Kazekage-sama!"
Kankurō cried out involuntarily.
Teizawa did not reply.
He merely lifted one hand slightly.
Then...
"Let me show you what a real mecha looks like!"
Rumble!!!
Hummmmmm!!!
The earth shook violently!
Countless streams of pitch-black Satetsu (Iron Sand) burst madly from beneath the ground.
Like living things, they gathered, swelled, and rose behind him!
In the blink of an eye, a giant black mecha, also dozens of meters tall, rose straight up from the earth!
It was the very same one that had once smashed Shukaku flat in Sunagakure.
It did not have the savage appearance of the giant ape.
It was only the simplest thing possible: absolute pressure.
And yet that pure, absolute pressure was not inferior in the slightest to that magma giant ape!
The giant ape's foot came crashing down!
Boom!!!
The mecha giant raised an arm and directly caught that massive foot in its palm!
The two colossal beasts collided head-on across the battlefield!
Shockwaves spread in all directions, flattening everything in their path!
Kankurō and the other two were thrown to the ground by the shockwave.
They scrambled and crawled as fast as they could toward the distance.
Only after fleeing far enough away did Kankurō dare look back...
And then he saw a scene so overwhelming it nearly stopped his breath:
One black, one red. Two colossal beasts. Locked in savage combat!
Magma splashed in every direction, and Satetsu (Iron Sand) scattered through the air.
Every collision shook the earth and rocked the mountains!
And atop the head of that black colossus... stood a figure in dark gold robes with his hands clasped behind his back.
Teizawa.
This time, he had not chosen to merge into the Satetsu (Iron Sand).
His increased power now allowed him, even at a distance,
to control the mecha giant through electromagnetic force alone.
He simply stood there.
No matter how violent the battle below became, his figure did not move in the slightest.
Kankurō's mouth fell open, almost suffocating from the sheer shock.
Far away, on the rise.
Sasori looked at that mecha giant, looked at the figure standing on top of the colossus...
And in those eyes of his, a complicated light flickered.
"So this is..."
He murmured to himself, his voice so quiet it was almost impossible to hear: "his true strength?"
(End of Chapter)
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