"Hahahaha! I'm out again!!!"
Shukaku's piercing scream tore through the sky, every word laced with explosive joy and liberation!
He had been suppressed for too long! Finally, he saw the light of day again!
While arrogant, he still cautiously sensed his surroundings.
He scanned the area... and sure enough, that damned, nightmarish chakra was nowhere to be found!
The final restraint had been broken!
"Haha! Little blond boy! What does your strength matter? Am I, Lord Shukaku, not the one who'll live longer?"
His superiority as a Tailed Beast instantly soared!
Suddenly—
His golden, star-shaped eyes locked onto Sasuke in the treetop! His giant claws, wrapped in a destructive gale, came crashing down:
"Little Uchiha? Since I'm in a good mood—I'll tear you to shreds to celebrate!!!"
Mid-swing... a familiar, inexplicable sense of unease suddenly stabbed into his nerves. These words... this scene... why does it feel so familiar?
But he immediately scoffed and drove the thought away: "Pah! The blond boy is dust! I, Lord Shukaku, fear no one!"
"Just what I wanted!" The crimson tomoe in Sasuke's eyes glowed fiercely!
His goal for this trip—to challenge a Tailed Beast!
Even though his body trembled slightly in the face of such a colossal beast, how could he back down?
However...
Sasuke's calm demeanor was like a thorn in Shukaku's side, pricking a sensitive nerve and triggering his PTSD.
Wait a minute... this kid knows of my reputation, yet he's so calm! Could he be another little blond boy number two?
The ecstatic joy of being free was instantly doused with a bucket of ice water!
The giant claw, wrapped in a destructive gale, froze in mid-air as if it had hit an invisible iron wall!
He decided: First, I'll play it safe!
Meanwhile, Sasuke frowned deeply—
He looked up at the giant sand beast, which blocked out the sun, but his mind uncontrollably flashed back to the image of Naruto's casual, violent beatdown of Shukaku, as if he were just hitting a sandbag!
Naruto can do it... so why can't I?
A Tailed Beast? Nothing more than that!
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
Sasuke's hands moved so fast they were a blur. Chakra surged as he unleashed his extremely confident Fireball Jutsu!
A torrent of heat spewed forth—a ten-meter-diameter fireball of molten rock, roared and smashed toward Shukaku's face!
A ten-meter fireball would be like a heavenly punishment for a person!
But... for a Tailed Beast, it was a bit small.
Shukaku's mountain-like claw simply gave it a "lazy" flick...
Pffft—
It was as if he had popped a soap bubble!
The ferocious fireball dissipated in an instant, without even a single spark!
On Shukaku's massive sand face, a human-like expression of shock and confusion was tangled together.
His cat-eye pupils widened in confusion:
That's all?
"Hey! You brat!"
Shukaku's voice was filled with deep confusion and a hint of humiliated rage: "Was that 'I'm invincible' look you had just now a bluff to scare Lord Shukaku?"
But Sasuke was completely frozen in place!
That ten-meter-diameter fireball of molten rock—a move he was so proud of, which cost a large amount of chakra! It was his declaration to challenge the Tailed Beast!
It was... casually brushed away by that mountain-sized claw, as if it were a speck of dust?
"How is that possible?" Sasuke's perception was struck by a massive blow.
In his mind: the resounding thud of Naruto's fists on Shukaku's massive sand body, the sand chunks flying everywhere, and the huge monster being hammered and sent rolling around like a helpless ball!
The reality before his eyes: his strongest Fire Style was as fragile as a soap bubble!
A tremendous sense of absurdity and a cold gap instantly seized Sasuke's heart!
This defense... this power... is this really the sandbag that Naruto just played with?
Sasuke suppressed the chilling absurdity and the cold sense of the gap in his heart. His Sharingan spun furiously, the crimson tomoe almost jumping out of his pupils!
"The gap is this huge? I don't believe it!!!"
His hands formed seals at lightning speed.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Claw!"
Dozens of heated fireballs, filled with chakra, covered Shukaku's eyes and joints like a meteor shower!
This was a feint!
Chakra surged violently throughout his body, and his figure became a blur of lightning!
"Chidori Sharp Spear!"
A sharp, ear-splitting screech rang out. A long spear of blue-white lightning tore through the air, stabbing toward Shukaku's throat!
"Break for me!!!"
However, the ending was cruelly suffocating.
Shukaku's massive, sandy-yellow beastly eyes didn't even turn.
Pfft—
The proud lightning spear was silently swallowed by a sand wall that appeared abruptly, penetrating it a little but failing to pierce the defense.
The roaring fireballs collided with another thick sand shield, making "thudding" sounds. The flames licked at the sand in vain, achieving little, leaving only scorched marks that were then covered by shifting sand, extinguished without a sound.
Shukaku didn't even move. The flat ground suddenly turned into a quicksand whirlpool! A powerful force surged upward along the sand flow, and Sasuke, caught off guard, was instantly flung into the air!
"Gah gah gah gah—Just tickling me? You Uchiha brat!"
Shukaku's wild laughter made the air hum. That sky-blocking giant claw, seemingly slow, swung with the speed of lightning!
Bang—
Sasuke felt as if he had been hit head-on by a mountain. The sharp pain in his chest made his vision go black, and blood gushed from his mouth!
His body was sent flying like a kite with a broken string, smashing into the forest in the distance and breaking several large trees before it finally stopped. His bones felt like they were coming apart, his clothes were in tatters, and he was covered in blood.
He struggled to get up, but the sticky quicksand had already tightly trapped his legs.
More yellow sand, like a living thing, coiled around his arms and waist, binding him and lifting him into the air like a sacrificial offering to be brought before Shukaku's giant pupils.
Despair!
A cold despair, like a venomous snake with a flickering tongue, wrapped itself around his heart!
All his proud Sharingan could predict was an insurmountable flood of sand!
Speed? Meaningless in the face of absolute power and defense!
Technique? Like a child's clumsy tricks in front of a giant!
This strong of a Tailed Beast, how did Naruto... do it? A question that made his soul tremble exploded in his mind.
Looking down at Sasuke, who was struggling like an ant suspended before him, Shukaku's giant beastly eyes flickered with cruel delight.
The humiliation of being bluffed by "little blond boy number two" and the fear of being ground into the dirt by Naruto were now all channeled into a frenzied venting on this weak prey before him!
"Hahahaha! This feels great! So great!"
Shukaku's sandy vocal cords rubbed together, producing a piercing, wild laugh. "Is that all you've got? You dare to challenge me, Lord Shukaku, just like that little blond boy?!"
"Sharingan? A little three-tomoe toy! Uchiha? Nothing special!!"
Shukaku's voice was full of contempt. "Compared to the pure, unreasonable 'pain' from the little blond boy, you're not even worthy of polishing my sand! Hahahaha, you're a wasted person!"
A massive amount of chakra gathered furiously in his giant mouth, compressing into a small, dark sphere that shimmered with destructive light—a Tailed Beast Bomb!
"It's over! You little bug!"
Shukaku's voice was like a declaration of death: "Let your shattered remains create the most magnificent fireworks for my freedom!!!"
The light of the Tailed Beast Bomb instantly surged, aimed directly at Sasuke, who was close by and unable to escape!
Just as the destructive light was about to swallow Sasuke—
A voice, calm to the point of indifference, clearly cut through Shukaku's furious roar and the low hum of the Tailed Beast Bomb: "Hey, you're so loud, you're making my ears bleed, you big tanuki."
The voice wasn't loud, yet it was like a sharp blade, instantly piercing through every sand-composed cell of Shukaku's body!
Time, it seemed, froze at that moment!
Shukaku's Tailed Beast Bomb, which had just been compressed to its limit and was about to be fired, burst like a popped bubble with a "pop"—and instantly dissipated!
The chakra, compressed to its maximum, lost control and shot out in chaotic energy currents, causing the surrounding trees to shake violently.
His mountain-sized body stiffened abruptly.
The golden beastly eyes, which had been filled with furious malice and killing intent a moment ago, contracted! And contracted again! They shrank to almost two tiny pinpricks!
His pupils were violently trembling!
"No, no... that's impossible!"
Shukaku's high-pitched voice instantly changed, filled with unimaginable terror and a cracking sound!
"An illusion! This is definitely an illusion! Gaara! The First and Second Hokage! They played me for a fool? No—"
Shukaku's enormous body, made of sand, began to tremble uncontrollably!
Countless tiny grains of sand, like chaff being winnowed, rattled down from all over his body, instantly forming a small sand dune on the ground!
It looked exactly like the physical manifestation of "peeing in fear" from extreme terror!
Naruto stood casually on a tree branch. He raised his clear blue eyes, first glancing at Shukaku, who was about to pull his head into his stomach.
Then he looked at the bloodied and pathetic-looking Sasuke.
"Tsk, you old pig, I already showed you how to beat up Shukaku. You didn't learn, so now I'll show you again."
"Watch closely, I'll only show you once!"