Chapter 142: The Birth of the Nine-Tailed Beastman
In the Hidden Cloud Village, the very moment Black Zetsu and his cohorts melted into the shadows to flee, Blue B finally shattered the mental shackles binding him. However, breaking free from one master only left him vulnerable to another.
As a Jinchuriki whose mental defenses had been violently torn open, he instantly lost his grip on reality. Deep within his seal, the Eight-Tails seized the golden opportunity, surging forward to hijack his unguarded mind.
Violent, ink-black bursts of Chakra erupted from Blue B's skin, tearing up the surrounding earth and sending shockwaves echoing in all directions. His muscles bulged and tore as his human silhouette began to warp, rapidly undergoing a forced Tailed Beast transformation.
Just as his consciousness was about to be completely submerged in the beast's roaring rage, a blinding, pure golden light flared from the complex seal on his abdomen. The radiant energy ruthlessly invaded the Eight-Tails' surging mass, wrapping around its colossal form and forcibly dragging the beast kicking and screaming back into the depths of his mental space.
Blue B gasped, his eyes snapping open as clarity returned to his gaze.
Lightning crackled through the clearing, illuminating the imposing figure of the Third Raikage touching down before him. Seeing his leader, Blue B pushed himself up from the ruined ground, his voice trembling with a potent mixture of raw grief and boiling rage.
"Lord Raikage," Blue B rasped, bowing his head. "Please allow me to lead a Pursuit Team to find Ye. She has been kidnapped."
That very night, the Hidden Cloud mobilized. Led by a furious Blue B, a massive squadron of elite Cloud Ninja surged out of the village gates. The commotion was so deafening and brazen that spies from every major hidden village immediately took notice, sending frantic hawks into the night sky.
However, despite the sheer scale of the mobilization, not a single outsider knew exactly what the Cloud intended to do once they crossed their borders.
Naturally, the Kage of every respective village received this urgent intelligence by morning. And of course, sitting comfortably behind her mahogany desk in Konoha, Stelle received it as well.
She didn't even need to check the encrypted messages left in her dimensional space to figure out the truth. She could easily guess that her No. 2 alias had put on a spectacular, tear-jerking performance in the Hidden Cloud Village, successfully farming Black Zetsu for all he was worth while pulling a stunt massive enough to alert the Third Raikage himself.
Setting the intelligence scroll aside, Stelle leaned back in her chair. Speaking of farming, she had been so buried in paperwork and village politics lately that she hadn't found the time to visit the Nine-Tails.
She really needed to harvest the giant fox a bit more. As a major, high-tier entity for generating mood values, a single temper tantrum from the Nine-Tails could easily yield more points than Kagami or Sakumo, who simply didn't have enough dramatic screen time in the current overarching plot. She absolutely had to squeeze some value out of him today.
Opening her system interface, she noted the pristine Artificial Body still sitting unused in her reward pool. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. Could she use it on the Nine-Tails?
A short walk later, Stelle arrived at the Restricted Area. Stepping into the cavernous underground chamber, she found the terrifying, legendary Nine-Tails hanging out with the elite members of the Uzumaki Clan.
They were, quite literally, watching TV together.
Ever since the Uzumaki guards realized that the giant demon fox could casually stroll out of his supposedly impenetrable barrier whenever he felt like it, their primal fear of the beast had completely evaporated. After all, if this fluffy calamity actually wanted to slaughter them, he would have done it months ago instead of waiting around for the next broadcast.
Now, the guards had grown entirely too bold. Whenever the Nine-Tails turned on his massive television, the Uzumaki shinobi—bored out of their skulls from guard duty—would simply drag their chairs right up to the edge of the seal and watch the glowing screen alongside him.
The atmosphere between the fragile humans and the apocalyptic Tailed Beast was bizarrely, remarkably harmonious.
Only when they heard the sharp click of Stelle's heels approaching did the guards scramble to their feet, offering hasty salutes before dispersing back to their official posts.
Stelle ignored them, placing her palm flat against the shimmering seal. The barrier rippled and parted, allowing her to step inside the massive enclosure.
The Nine-Tails had grown so obscenely fat from his sedentary lifestyle that his torso was bordering on a perfect sphere. Stelle stared at the mountain of orange fur, genuinely suspecting that if she tucked his limbs in, she could dribble him across the room like an oversized basketball.
Hearing her enter, the colossal fox turned his massive head, his slit eyes blinking lazily at her. He shifted his bulk, pulling in several of his massive tails to clear some space, deliberately draping one fluffy appendage flat on the ground for her to sit on. His giant front paws patted the stone floor in a rapid, urging rhythm.
"Quick, quick, sit down and watch with me," the Nine-Tails rumbled, his deep voice vibrating through the cavern. "This part is super interesting. The main character is about to expose the traitor."
He was acting exactly like a lazy roommate looking for a TV buddy to binge-watch a soap opera.
Stelle couldn't even find the words to complain.
Taking a seat on the plush cushion of his tail, she reached over and took a loud, crunchy bite out of the oversized bag of potato chips he nudged toward her.
"Nine-Tails," Stelle asked suddenly, her eyes fixed on the screen. "Do you want to go outside?"
The giant fox didn't even bother turning his head away from the television.
"I go out in the middle of the night all the time," he scoffed, tossing a handful of chips into his cavernous maw. "This forest is only so big. There's nothing much to see out there anyway."
"I don't mean sneaking out into the woods at night like a stray," Stelle corrected, dusting the salt from her fingers. "I mean letting you actually live in the village. Walk the streets in broad daylight."
That finally earned a reaction. The Nine-Tails paused mid-chew, his massive ears swiveling toward her. "Didn't you explicitly say that someone as big as me entering the village center would be a massive waste of real estate?"
Stelle smirked. Reaching into her inventory, she pulled out the Artificial Body from her reward pool—an item that had been gathering virtual dust for so long it was practically growing mold—and dropped it onto the stone floor with a soft thud.
"I told you to manifest as a little fox to go out, but you threw a tantrum, claiming it would completely ruin your 'domineering and terrifying' image," Stelle reminded him dryly. "So, try transferring your conscious Chakra into this body. If it works, you can use this vessel to live in the village."
She gestured to the pale, lifeless form on the ground. "This body has no consciousness of its own; it's just an empty, high-tier vessel. Your consciousness entering it won't cause any rejection or problems."
The Nine-Tails lowered his massive head, sniffing the human body on the ground with blatant disdain. His nose wrinkled.
As a proud Tailed Beast, he naturally preferred his majestic, beastly form. He completely failed to understand human aesthetics, looking at the slender limbs and fragile skin and concluding that this pathetic meat-suit would crumble into dust if someone poked it too hard.
While the prospect of running around the village in broad daylight sounded mildly appealing, the thought of squeezing his magnificent self into such a cramped, hairless shell felt deeply unpleasant.
Seeing his obvious hesitation, Stelle smoothly shifted into her manipulator persona, her voice dripping with temptation.
"Think about it," she purred, leaning against his fur. "Once you're walking around in this body, you can take all that salary you've been hoarding and wander all over the commercial district. You can buy whatever you want. You can eat freshly cooked meals straight from the stalls instead of relying on someone else's descriptions or cold takeout. True, unrestricted freedom—are you absolutely sure you want to pass that up?"
He couldn't refuse. The Nine-Tails practically felt the concept of 'freedom' waving a freshly grilled skewer of meat at his face.
Grumbling under his breath, he extended a dense tendril of his Chakra, connecting his consciousness to the empty vessel. A moment later, the previously lifeless body gasped, its eyes snapping open as it awkwardly pushed itself up from the floor, successfully standing on two legs.
[System, this thing is actually pretty good. Even a massive entity like the Nine-Tails can use it without overloading the circuits.]
[Of course! Products provided by the system are always premium quality,] the System replied cheerfully. [By the way, although the Nine-Tails keeps complaining that he hates it, he has already contributed 50,000 mood values to you. Oh, wait—make that another 50,000!]
Honest with his body, but completely stubborn with his words. Typical tsundere fox.
Stelle smiled in satisfaction. Grabbing the Nine-Tails—who was now wearing his new human alias—by the collar, she led him out of the Restricted Area and back toward the bustling village streets.
However, within five minutes, Stelle realized she had completely overlooked one critical biological flaw: whether a quadrupedal Tailed Beast would actually feel comfortable 'wearing' a bipedal human body.
Technically, the Nine-Tails could stand up straight and walk on two legs perfectly fine. His new human hands were fully functional, easily capable of forming hand seals alongside a Jinchuriki to activate the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
But ultimately... his soul was still a fox.
As they walked down the street, whenever he felt their walking pace was too slow, his instincts would kick in. He would subconsciously drop down onto all fours, scurrying across the pavement like a wild animal until Stelle violently yanked him back up by his collar.
Worse yet, when he did walk on two legs, his arms didn't hang naturally at his sides like a normal human. Instead, he kept his elbows tucked in, his wrists bent limply in front of his chest like a pair of paws.
For a fox, this resting posture was perfectly natural. But on a human body, it made him look exactly like a giant, mentally deficient macaque.
Noticing that the civilian pedestrians were already stopping to stare, point, and whisper at the bizarrely postured youth, Stelle sighed. She quickly grabbed his shoulder, activated her Body Flicker Technique, and blurred out of sight, flickering repeatedly across the rooftops until they materialized safely inside the Hokage Office.
"What are you doing?!" Stelle scolded, crossing her arms. "Remember, you are piloting a human now. Do not suddenly drop to all fours in the middle of the street, and stop keeping your hands curled up in front of your chest like a monkey! It looks incredibly hideous."
"I'm not a human to begin with!" the Nine-Tails snapped back, his new vocal cords straining with his booming tone. "It would be way weirder if I suddenly started walking like one of you hairless apes!"
Furious at being insulted, his instincts took over. He dropped to all fours and started angrily hopping around the spacious office. Because of the human joints, instead of looking like a macaque, he now looked exactly like a giant, furious frog.
Stelle rubbed her temples. 'I feel like I've brought a massive, exhausting problem upon myself.'
But then she checked her interface. The mood values she was passively farming from his frustration were just too sweet to pass up.
Sighing, she walked over and firmly pinned the Nine-Tails-branded frog to the floor, stopping him from jumping onto her desk.
"You'll get used to the anatomy after a while," she instructed, manually pulling his arms down to his sides. "Keep your arms straight. Always remind yourself that you are currently a person, not a monkey, and definitely not a frog..."
"I am a proud Tailed Beast!" he roared, thrashing against her grip.
"Right, right, right. You were a Tailed Beast before, but now you're a Beastman," Stelle placated smoothly, patting his head. "And as the absolute number one Beastman in the entire Ninja World, you need to carry yourself with some class. Come on, stand up straight. I'll teach you how to walk properly..."
Honestly, it would have been fine if she hadn't tried to teach him. At worst, his natural walking gait was just incredibly ugly, occasionally requiring him to scurry on all fours before standing back up.
But after Stelle's hyper-specific anatomical instructions, the Nine-Tails suddenly found himself overthinking every single muscle movement. He couldn't coordinate his limbs at all.
Taking a rigid step forward, his left foot instantly hooked behind his right calf. Gravity ruthlessly took over. With a startled yelp, he lunged forward, his heavy body crashing directly into Stelle and violently pinning her flat against the office floor.
Just at that exact moment, the heavy oak doors of the Hokage Office swung open. It was time for her scheduled afternoon debriefing, and the three highest-ranking men in the village stepped inside.
Hiruzen, Kagami, and Danzo froze perfectly in the doorway.
The towering stacks of mission documents in Hiruzen and Danzo's hands slipped from their slackened grips, scattering across the floorboards in a chaotic flurry of white paper.
The three men stared at the scene before them in absolute, stunned silence.
Where in the world did this reckless, unknown youth come from? And more, how did he possess the sheer audacity to physically pin the Hokage to the floor in the middle of her own office?
They analyzed the boy's features. He looked quite handsome, wild, and dashing—exactly the type of face Stelle usually favored.
Did they come at a spectacularly bad time?
Maybe they should just step out into the hallway and pretend they saw nothing.
"Pardon the intrusion," Hiruzen muttered smoothly, his seasoned diplomatic instincts kicking in as he immediately reached for the brass handle to pull the door shut.
But Uchiha Kagami's hand shot out, slamming the door wide open.
His jaw locked. Without a word, Kagami strode across the Hokage Office, his hand shooting out to grab the unknown youth by the back of his collar. With a single, powerful heave, he hoisted the boy off of Stelle and suspended him in the air.
Kagami's eyes were cold. He wanted to see exactly who this insolent brat was, and what right he had to be treated with such bizarre leniency by Stelle.
But the moment his gaze locked onto the boy, his Sharingan spun to life on pure instinct. The three tomoe whirled wildly as his visual prowess pierced the boy's physical shell, sensing a dense, suffocating, violently malicious Chakra that was fundamentally impossible for a human to possess.
Kagami froze, the blood draining from his face. This specific, overwhelming Chakra signature...
"Nine-Tails?" Kagami breathed out, his grip tightening.
"You evil Uchiha!" the Nine-Tails roared, his eyes snapping open to reveal blood-red, slitted pupils. "Put this Great Me down this instant!"
Having just stepped foot into the human village for the first time, only to immediately be assaulted by the sight of those detestable, cursed Sharingan eyes, the Nine-Tails' trauma-induced rage instantly flared to life.
His Chakra began to boil. The entire Artificial Body was violently enveloped in a searing, blindingly bright orange-red Chakra cloak, the sheer pressure cracking the floorboards beneath them. He looked exactly like a Jinchuriki utterly overtaken by the Tailed Beast's wrath.
Clatter.
The few documents Hiruzen and Danzo had just managed to pick up slipped from their trembling fingers, fluttering uselessly to the floor a second time.
Before the office could be vaporized, Stelle calmly reached up and slapped the back of the boy's head.
Smack.
The terrifying, building pressure vanished in an instant, the orange-red Chakra dispersing into harmless wisps of smoke.
"Don't mess around," Stelle scolded, dusting off her robes as she stood up. "How is this fragile body supposed to withstand such a massive, concentrated impact of your Chakra? You'll blow yourself up."
Ten minutes later.
The Konoha F4 sat rigidly around the polished wooden conference table, their eyes locked onto the Nine-Tails.
When the boy sat perfectly still, he looked like a refined, delicate youth. But the moment he shifted his weight or reached for a cup of tea, his posture collapsed, turning him right back into a giant, twitching macaque.
The expressions on the faces of the village's top brass were incredibly varied. Danzo looked like he was suffering a quiet aneurysm. Kagami was still rubbing his eyes, trying to deactivate his battle instincts.
Hiruzen Sarutobi simply buried his face in his hands, looking exactly like an exhausted, rapidly aging father.
"How many times have I told you?" Hiruzen groaned, his voice muffled by his palms. "Consult with us before you do something completely insane. This is the Nine-Tails! Couldn't you have at least given me a five-minute heads-up so my heart could be prepared for this?!"
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