"Everyone, look—who's that standing on the Nine-Tails' shoulder?"
"I don't know... a swirl mask... such a strange outfit, I've never seen it before."
"The Nine-Tails looks like it stopped. What's going on?"
"Could it be…"
All eyes turned to Hiruzen Sarutobi, but bewilderment clouded his face as well.
For the moment, he couldn't make sense of it.
What did this sudden intruder do to make even the Nine-Tails fall quiet…?
Friend or foe?
The Nine-Tails' next move gave everyone the answer.
It suddenly shifted, squaring its body toward the Hidden Leaf Village.
Its head tilted back as a massive Tailed Beast Bomb condensed in the air, waves of annihilating pressure rolling out.
Faces blanched across the field, Hiruzen's included.
A Tailed Beast Bomb!
And aimed that way…
"Not good—stop it, now!"
Hiruzen's shout snapped the Leaf shinobi to action.
If that enormous Tailed Beast Bomb detonated inside the village, everything would be over!
Instantly, everyone desperately channeled the chakra in their bodies, trying to draw the Nine-Tails' attention away from the village just as they had before.
But this time, the beast ignored them completely.
And then—
Before their despairing eyes, the giant Tailed Beast Bomb kicked up a violent shockwave and streaked toward the village.
A huge sphere of light blossomed from nowhere, the earth shuddering in fury.
Even the air around it looked twisted and warped.
Only after dozens of seconds did the thunderous blast reach them.
"Those expressions… truly delightful."
Gazing down at the anger, unwillingness, fear, despair, and grief warping the Leaf shinobi's faces, the Nine-Tails smiled with smug satisfaction.
A heartbeat later, its massive body vanished—leaving only Namikaze Minato unconscious on the ground.
"Catch the masked guy!"
Hiruzen growled through clenched teeth.
It had to be that bastard's prompting that turned the beast back on the village.
Whoever he was, he could not be allowed to walk away.
As the Leaf shinobi surged in, the spiral-masked man clapped his hands. A low voice rang in every ear.
"Secret Technique!!!"
Hiruzen and the Anbu halted at once, bracing themselves against the mysterious foe.
Anyone who could make the Nine-Tails behave was not to be underestimated.
The masked man's tone turned mocking in the next instant. "Shadow Clone Technique—Release!"
Pop!
As a puff of white smoke dissipated in mid-air, the expressions on Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others' faces became as ugly as if they had eaten "dirt".
Played for fools.
——
——
Atop the Hokage Rock, Uchiha Yuzuru stood on the head of Tobirama Senju, looking down from on high at the wailing villagers of the Hidden Leaf.
After deliberately letting those Leaf shinobi escape last time, he had slipped in with Kamui.
He'd intended to use the Mangekyō Sharingan to drive Uzumaki Mito into a rampage, but sensing how little life she had left, he changed his mind.
Rather than waste his Dōjutsu Power, he chose to wait a few quiet days.
Without Uzumaki Kushina, the Leaf had no one who could perfectly suppress a complete Nine-Tails.
And so it went. The moment Uzumaki Mito died, the beast tore free.
Nearly a thousand shinobi dead, almost a third of the village reduced to rubble, countless civilians homeless, losses beyond measure…
'I wonder if any of them have realized even a few of their mistakes.'
They lived in a village founded by the Uchiha, yet had never truly accepted the clan.
Instead of honoring Uchiha contributions to the Leaf, they branded the clan a destabilizing element.
Ostracized, monitored, slandered...
'If that's the case, then let the facts prove it...'
'Who it was that earned them the right to enjoy this rich land under their feet!'
——
——
The sun was high in the sky.
The biting wind blew ceaselessly. The people of the Leaf huddled in an underground shelter, their faces numb.
The Nine-Tails' early-morning rampage had taken countless lives.
Whole neighborhoods had become ruins overnight.
For villagers whose economy had already faltered since the Uchiha left the Leaf, it was a bolt from the blue.
Some might truly end up sleeping in the streets.
Despair spread like dye through water. The shelter felt drained of life.
The sound of footsteps echoed as dozens of extremely exhausted, dust-covered ninja walked in. After a brief handover with the on-duty personnel, they all collapsed onto the ground.
"I'm dead tired. The Nine-Tails' power is terrifying. Just looking at that chaotic rubble, you can imagine how awful a Tailed Beast Bomb is when it goes off."
"Why do we let a Nine-Tails jinchuriki live inside the village? If not for the Nine-Tails, we wouldn't have lost so many!"
"We don't have a choice. Every other village has a Tailed Beast. If we alone lack a strategic weapon like that, we'll be at a huge disadvantage."
"True… The other villages can't be much better off than us. With a Tailed Beast's power comes the risk."
A deep voice cut in. "No. At least the Hidden Cloud isn't like this."
Heads turned. "Tetsu, what do you mean?"
"Because I saw it with my own eyes," Harada Tetsu said through gritted teeth. "On a recent mission outside the village, I ran into the Hidden Cloud's jinchuriki."
"That guy could wield the Tailed Beast's power freely!"
"What?!"
Shock rippled through the crowd, and the once-quiet shelter filled with noise.
People pressed toward the bandage-wrapped shinobi, curiosity burning.
"My comrade died to the Hidden Cloud's jinchuriki. I know what I'm saying."
"He used the beast's tails to block everything we threw at him."
Images of his comrade's death flashed across Harada's mind, twisting his face with grief and rage. "If not for Lord Jiraiya, I'd already be dead."
"But Tailed Beasts are brutal. They don't seem like they'd willingly lend power to a human."
Seeing the doubt around them, Tachibana Hiko and Yamada Koshi sighed and stepped forward. "Believe it or not, we saw it ourselves. Lord Jiraiya can testify."
"Hojo Shinroku knew too, but he died to the Nine-Tails last night."
Hearing Jiraiya's name dispelled the crowd's doubts.
With a man of his stature, no one would dare lie in his name.
"I'm so envious..." someone said with a bitter smile. "If our jinchuriki could do what the Hidden Cloud's can, we wouldn't be suffering like this."
"Which is exactly—" Harada Tetsu suddenly raised his voice, "—why I'm furious!"