(hne)
"Tailed Beasts! Tailed Beasts!"
"Both of them showed up!"
"Everyone, get out of the way!"
Upon seeing the tailed beasts appear, the Konoha shinobi immediately fell into chaos.
Shukaku scowled upon hearing the noisy Konoha ninjas below.
"Damn insects, how dare you disturb this lord? Go die!" he roared, swinging his tail at the Konoha ninjas.
Those closest had no time to escape—dozens were instantly crushed to death.
"So barbaric," Kokuō glanced at Shukaku and commented calmly.
Shukaku had just turned to argue back when he saw Kokuō charge forward, trampling who knows how many Konoha ninja to death.
Faced with two tailed beasts, Konoha's shinobi had no means of resistance.
But Jiraiya and Orochimaru showed not a hint of panic.
"Ōnoki actually released the tailed beasts, huh," Jiraiya sighed.
"Isn't this perfect? We get to witness the Nine-Tails' power. Kushina, I'm counting on you," Orochimaru licked his lips, speaking with excitement to the person behind him.
"No problem, leave it to me!" A red-haired woman stepped up in front of them.
This was Konoha's hidden trump card prepared for the Battle of Kikyo Pass—the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki, who had not left the village once since the start of the Third Great Ninja War, had finally entered the battlefield!
As the Nine-Tails' host, Kushina was originally filled with fear of the beast.
Especially before inheriting the Nine-Tails from Uzumaki Mito, she was riddled with anxiety.
Until Mito told her: "We were brought here as vessels for the tailed beasts. But before that, you must find love to fill the void. That way, even if you live on as the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki, you can still find happiness."
Later, Kushina met her destined one—Namikaze Minato.
With Minato's support, she gradually let go of her fear and began to face the Nine-Tails directly.
Minato gave her the courage to reach out to the beast.
Moreover, being a pure-blooded member of the Uzumaki clan—much more so than Naruto—Kushina was now able to control the power of six tails, and if she pushed herself, even seven for a short time.
Kushina glanced over at the two rampaging tailed beasts, her expression calm and composed.
Compared to the Nine-Tails, the One-Tail and Five-Tails were simply no match.
The next moment, red tailed beast chakra began surging from her body, a tail forming behind her, pupils turning red, black whisker marks appearing on her cheeks.
As the Nine-Tails' chakra increased, more tails appeared behind her—finally stopping at seven.
The entire battlefield froze in astonishment—everyone could sense the ocean-like, vast chakra coming from Kushina.
Shukaku, known to have the worst relationship with the Nine-Tails among the tailed beasts, instantly sensed the presence of its chakra.
Kokuō too noticed.
She spoke in panic: "The Nine-Tails! That's the Nine-Tails' chakra!"
Han, her Jinchūriki, was stunned. This was the first time he'd heard Kokuō so terrified. Was she… afraid?
And soon, he realized why.
Shukaku was the first to react, shouting in rage at sensing the Nine-Tails' power and firing a Tailed Beast Bomb at Kushina.
Kushina instinctively wanted to dodge.
But a voice echoed inside her.
"If you've chosen to use this lord's power, don't shrink back when facing that damned tanuki."
With those words, Kushina's seven tails extended and wrapped around the Tailed Beast Bomb, crushing it.
Everyone on the battlefield fell silent.
Han finally understood why Kokuō feared the Nine-Tails so much.
In the original story, half the Nine-Tails could defeat five complete tailed beasts and earned praise from Gyūki, the Eight-Tails.
Now, Kushina possessed the full Nine-Tails. Even if she could only control seven tails' worth of power, it was still unmatched by the others.
However, Kushina wasn't in a great state.
She had already been pushing herself to reach the seven-tail state. Just now, when the Nine-Tails acted on its own and crushed Shukaku's bomb, its negative emotions surged again.
Kushina could feel her time running out.
She had two minutes.
Two minutes before her body would collapse under the strain. Two minutes before the beast's emotions could overpower her will.
She had to end this quickly.
Looking toward Shukaku and Kokuō, she thought:
What can one do in two minutes?
Peel an apple? Fetch a package? Certain other things might take two minutes too…
But Kushina?
She used two minutes to defeat two tailed beasts.
No wasted motion, no flourishes—just brute-force brawling.
Under the protection of the Nine-Tails' chakra, she charged straight at Kokuō and leapt, landing a powerful kick to her head.
Kokuō's massive body couldn't dodge in time and was sent flying.
Shukaku roared and charged next. Kikyo Pass was his home turf. He refused to believe he could lose here to a damn fox.
Kushina scoffed. Tailed Beast strength wasn't always determined by the number of tails.
But in Shukaku's case—chakra, power, everything—he fell short.
One of Kushina's tails extended like a chakra chain, wrapped around Shukaku's neck, and another tail smashed into his body, breaking half of it apart.
This was a desert, and Shukaku could reconstruct his body from sand.
But he was still stunned—he couldn't remember the Nine-Tails being this vicious, even in past fights.
Kushina swung her tail, flinging the dazed Shukaku straight into the recently recovered Kokuō.
Kokuō was once again sent flying, and Shukaku's transformation was forcibly undone—leaving Bunpuku unconscious on the ground.
The previously arrogant Shukaku had been instantly defeated.
Kokuō stood no chance either.
Still, even a clay figure has three parts fire. A Tailed Beast wouldn't go down that easily.
Enraged, Kokuō gathered all her strength to fire one final, massive Tailed Beast Bomb at Kushina.
Kushina, though unafraid, grew cautious.
As Minato's wife, she was very familiar with his signature jutsu—Rasengan.
And the Rasengan was originally inspired by the Tailed Beast Bomb.
She gathered her seven tails together, condensing a blue chakra sphere at their tips.
The orb grew larger and darker—clearly, she was mixing the Nine-Tails' chakra into it.
Kushina flung the blackened chakra orb—it was much smaller than Kokuō's Tailed Beast Bomb.
But when they collided midair, the results shocked everyone.
Despite its size, Kushina's Rasengan pierced straight through the larger Tailed Beast Bomb, which exploded mid-flight—while the Rasengan continued on, smashing into Kokuō.
She never saw it coming.
And as the explosion cleared, Kokuō lay charred and battered, two of her tails completely blown off.
(To Be Continued...)