"Who the hell are you?" Kurama snapped with his usual bad temper.
"Never seen him before," Shukaku added, now picking up some of Kurama's sarcasm after spending a week with him.
"Should we just go back and keep mourning Gyuki?" Naruto chimed in—he'd long since become a master of sarcasm.
"Good idea," Kurama nodded.
"I'm in," Shukaku nodded.
"Then let's go," Naruto said, turning to leave, with Kurama and Shukaku following behind.
Gyuki: "???"
What's wrong with these three?
Seeing them all turn in sync, Gyuki quickly called out, "Hey! You're not seriously gonna leave, are you?!"
The boy, the fox, and the tanuki exchanged a glance, and after a silent eye-to-eye conversation, they all turned back around. In perfect sync, the three of them crossed their arms in front of their chests. Kurama, acting as the spokesperson, spoke up:
"State your business, or leave the court."
Gyuki instantly had dark lines running down his face. "Are you guys mentally okay? I came to bring you some big news!"
"Then hurry up and spill it. We've still gotta get started on building your grave," Kurama waved him off. "By the way, any preferences for your tombstone design?"
"I'm not dead yet!" Gyuki roared, the force of it almost blowing the smallest one—Naruto—off his feet.
After the outburst, Gyuki glared at the fox and the tanuki. "Bee and I got attacked by the Akatsuki. Two S-rank rogue ninja showed up. Strong ones. Based on what we've gathered this year, one's a defector from Iwagakure, and the other from Sunagakure. If I remember right, their names were Deidara and Sasori."
Shukaku blinked his beady little eyes. "Only two?"
Gyuki paused but nodded honestly. "Just two."
"Damn it!" Shukaku swore. "Why the hell?!"
Then came a string of words that would be nothing but asterisks on paper, and the other three could only stand there, cold sweat on their backs.
Gyuki was totally confused. "What's his problem?"
Kurama smirked, clearly enjoying this. "That guy got chased all over the place by *three* S-rank rogue ninjas not long ago. And just when he thought he could rest, *four* Kage-level powerhouses showed up out of nowhere—Third Raikage, a Sealing Fourth, Second Mizukage, and Second Tsuchikage. All just to catch him. If Naruto and I hadn't shown up to help, he'd probably be chilling inside the Gedo Statue right now."
"Pff—" Gyuki couldn't help but laugh.
He didn't know most of the names, but he definitely knew the Third Raikage. The guy was so strong even *he* couldn't beat him. How could he not laugh?
Seeing Shukaku's face getting darker by the second, Naruto felt that if they kept teasing him, Shukaku might really blow up right then and there.
So, trying to comfort him, Naruto reached out and patted Shukaku's... well, toe. He looked up at him with a sweet, innocent face and said, "Shukaku, look at it this way—
If they had to send that many strong people just to catch you, doesn't that mean you're way stronger than Gyuki?"
"That means you should be happy!" Naruto's eyes sparkled.
Shukaku: "?"
I can't believe I fell for that.
Naruto gave Shukaku a thumbs-up. This is the power of words!
Gyuki looked on, amused, and raised his opinion of Naruto a little—being able to talk to a tailed beast like this was no small thing.
He turned to Kurama and said, "Your jinchuriki isn't bad."
Then Gyuki lay down slightly and looked at Naruto. "But I still want to know—why do you want to comfort a tailed beast? What do tailed beasts mean to you?"
He really cared about the answer.
"I don't know about the others, but Kurama is my partner, and Shukaku is a good friend of mine." Naruto answered with a smile. Then he added, "Also, I'm not comforting Shukaku. I just wanted to remind him not to underestimate me."
Gyuki: "¿"
He could understand everything until that last part—what the heck was that?
Gyuki had something prepared to say, but it got stuck in his throat. His thoughts completely derailed, and he stood there in a daze, not knowing what to say anymore.
Kurama let out a couple of loud laughs. "Alright, more importantly—Gyuki, how are things going on your end?"
"Ah… oh, nothing much. We took some light injuries, but overall we're fine. One of the rogue ninja got an arm cut off by Bee, and the other had his puppet smashed. They won't be tracking us again anytime soon," Gyuki replied after snapping out of it. "But since they could find us, they must be using some kind of sensing trick we don't know about. Anyway, Bee's been messing around long enough—we were planning to head back soon."
"Then we heard about the Five Kage Summit going on in the Land of Iron, so I tried to reach out to Kurama. Didn't expect Shukaku to be here too." Gyuki was still a little surprised.
After all, Shukaku was the first of all the tailed beasts to be sealed. They'd basically written him off in past attempts to connect, since there was no way to reach him.
This time, Gyuki had only tried to contact Kurama—but Shukaku happened to be close, so he got pulled into this inner space too.
"That works out. You come as well. With me and Naruto here, those guys won't dare try anything," Kurama said.
Gyuki nodded. "That's what I was thinking too."
That seemed settled—but there was still one thing.
Naruto quietly raised his right hand. "By the way, I'm kind of curious, Gyuki. Where have you and your jinchuriki been all these years? Why couldn't the other tailed beasts reach you with their special connection?"
"Huh? Didn't we just get in touch now?" Gyuki looked genuinely confused.
Kurama and Shukaku both froze.
Shukaku tilted his head at Gyuki. "Don't tell me... you're talking to us from inside a sealed space right now?"
"What sealed space? Me and Bee aren't inside any sealed space," Gyuki replied, completely lost.
Kurama was just as confused. "Wait, let me get this straight—so... you didn't know we couldn't contact you,
and you also didn't know you were in a sealed space… so where the heck have you been all these years?"
Gyuki waved his nine octopus tails and answered blankly, "Bee and I have been living in the Land of Bear all these years. It's not far from the Land of Thunder. There's a good number of people around. Bee's been writing and performing songs. We haven't been hiding at all."
After hearing this, the one human, one fox, and one raccoon in the space all fell silent.
A long pause later, under Gyuki's confused gaze, Kurama looked down at Naruto and asked, "Naruto, what did the Raikage say about where they were searching for Killer Bee again?"
"Everywhere... except the Land of Thunder." Naruto looked completely dead inside. "So basically, the intel they got from the Land of Thunder wasn't from traces Bee left behind in the past. It's because he was literally just nearby the whole time…"
How do you even explain this? Hiding in plain sight?
Kurama twitched at the corner of his mouth. "The most dangerous place is the safest place, huh."
Unbelievable. Raikage, you sneaky bastard.
"There's still one more question," Shukaku said, crossing his arms. "What's blocking our connection with Gyuki?"
That was a real issue. Aside from sealing techniques, there weren't many ways to block communication between Tailed Beasts. It usually had to be massive chakra interference, space barriers, or something like being absorbed by the Demonic Statue.
Is there anything in the Land of Bear that could block Tailed Beast chakra?
While thinking about it, Gyuki suddenly remembered something. "Now that you mention it, Bee and I once found a small ninja village in the Land of Bear. They called themselves Hoshigakure, the Village Hidden in the Stars. Their leader even called himself the Hoshikage."
"Not that it matters much, but what's important is this: I felt some traces of the Ten Tails' chakra in that village." Gyuki rubbed his chin as he recalled. "We found a meteorite they called the 'Star.' From what I could tell, it was a small fragment of the Ten Tails' body, and it had some of its chakra in it."
"The villagers trained using that fragment. It made them stronger quickly, but it also caused serious side effects. After all, the Ten Tails' chakra isn't something regular people can handle." Gyuki let out a sigh. "Bee snatched that piece away, and we tried to destroy it, but we failed. So we've just kept it with us ever since."
Then Gyuki raised a finger. "Maybe that fragment is what's blocking your chakra connection. It could stop you from reaching me, but not the other way around."
The man, the fox, and the raccoon all went silent again.
Whatever the case, Naruto gave a big thumbs up first.
Seeing that, Shukaku also gave a thumbs up. He didn't know why, but it just felt like the right thing to do.
Kurama took a deep breath, then raised both hands and gave a double thumbs up. "You never disappoint, Gyuki."
Gyuki: "…"
These three must be seriously messed up in the head.
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