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On the far side of the world, Obito examined the delivery Black Zetsu had brought from Kabuto's lab:
Two white, seal-wrapped cocoons, humming faintly with caged chakra.
"So this is his 'Nine-Tails'?" Obito asked, a sliver of doubt in his voice.
Black Zetsu's eyes dipped. "Unclear. The Nine-Tails' jinchūriki's location is currently unknown vanished from the Leaf without a trace.
Jiraiya, too, after witnessing the Rain incident, returned to Konoha and then… disappeared."
Obito studied the packages. Jiraiya and the Nine-Tails sealed in here?
Impossible. If that were true, the Leaf would be in open panic. So who what was inside?
"Release."
He formed a seal. Runes unraveled. The wrappings fell away.
Two men stepped out, one with long golden hair, the other with a steel-gray mane, each with two horns jutting from his brow.
Six whisker marks framed their cheeks. Cloud flak jackets, purple undershirts, and tattoos on their forearms spelled their names: "Gold" and "Silver."
Kinkaku and Ginkaku opened their eyes.
"Nii-san," the gray one muttered, scanning the cavern, "that damned man isn't here."
"Hmph. Then whoever is here will do," the golden one sneered, then jabbed a finger at Obito. "Are you with that masked freak with the blue Nian on his brow?"
They didn't wait for an answer.
Scarlet chakra swelled around them, wild and malignant, bubbling up their backs like tails of Nine-Tails chakra.
They roared, bodies warping toward beast-like forms, and lunged.
Their claws tore through stone and right through Obito, whose body turned to mist as their strikes passed harmlessly through.
Black Zetsu slipped into the ceiling, leaving only half a face peeking down to watch.
Obito regarded the writhing red cloaks with something like satisfaction. "So he really sent me the Nine-Tails," he murmured. "Not all of it—but more than enough to complete the Ten-Tails' quota."
Kinkaku and Ginkaku attacked again, again, and again each blow catching only empty air and echo.
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Wave Country – The Workshop
Back in the base, Neji felt the distant snap of his seals coming undone.
On the table lay six relics glittering with sinister lore: the Golden Canopy Rope, Seven-Star Sword, Crimson Gourd, Banana Palm Fan… the infamous Six Path Tools.
Neji clicked his tongue. "Even the names feel lifted from old myths," he said, turning the fan in his hand.
"To the world, 'Sun Wukong' brings to mind a certain anime instead of the original tale… funny how stories get rewritten."
He shelved the thought and resumed etching arrays, syncing his work with the parallel project in Konoha refitting Tenten's weapons.
"A shame the Amber Purifying Bottle is still with the Cloud," he mused. "My sealwork would sing with that in the set."
His mind drifted, just for a moment, to a different rabbit hole.
"Kinkaku and Ginkaku, second Raikage's era, yet they ate the Nine-Tails' flesh and lived. Timeline's messy. When Konoha was founded, Nine-Tails should've already been sealed in Mito," he murmured. "Unless the brothers found Kurama before the Leaf rose and somehow got spit out alive."
He shook his head, amused despite himself. "Bugged timelines… classic shinobi history. At least the seas kept their movies out of canon."
He set the fan down and flexed his fingers. "Enough. Back to work."
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The Ten-Tails Stirs
Back in the cavern, Obito's Gedo Statue opened its maw. Tendrils of chakra unfurled, drinking deep.
The brothers shrieked as the statue pulled the Nine-Tails' power from their bodies, siphoning the crimson shroud strand by strand.
Under Obito's control, the proto Ten-Tails drank greedily faster and stronger than the legends said, and in only a handful of days, the brothers' stolen power was gone.
Obito resealed them with a flicker of space-time and leaped lightly into the statue's palm.
The chamber thrummed around him, the stone heart of the world beating in answer to his eye.
"Only one left," he said softly. "Eight-Tails."
His gaze slid to Black Zetsu. The inky thing smiled.
"I already have the jinchūriki's location," Zetsu replied. "But—"
"No contingencies. Take me to him," Obito cut in. "With only one beast missing, there's no point pretending at restraint."
"As you wish."
Black Zetsu passed along the coordinates. Space twisted. Obito vanished into a spiral.
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Land of Iron – Five Kage Summit
The summit chamber shook with voices five shadows around a round table, trading strategies and suspicions.
Then the Fourth Raikage went still.
"Bee."
He slammed a hand on the table and stood. The other Kage felt it a heartbeat later—the surge of titanic chakra rolling across the snowbound plains.
"We cannot let Akatsuki get the Eight-Tails," Tsunade snapped. "If they do, the consequences—"
Her words were drowned by the distant bellow of a giant.
Outside the stronghold, the Eight-Tails Gyūki erupted into full beast form, a mountain of muscle and writhing tentacles, roaring defiance into the frozen air.
Only one beast remained.
And the world held its breath.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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