In the Land of Swamps...
Ever since Shukaku had drawn Shinnō's attention, the Sky Ninja had struggled to stand their ground against the Suna-nin and their 'Rōran Puppets'.
In terms of speed and firepower, the Sky Ninja were at a complete disadvantage across the board.
The technological gap between the two sides was like they came from entirely different eras.
However...
It seemed the battle between Shukaku and the demon with black wings—Shinnō's transformed self—had also reached its conclusion.
[BOOM!!!]
Shukaku's massive, round body came crashing into a wide stretch of swamp, sending waves of pitch-black sludge erupting in all directions.
"Damn it!"
Half-sunken in filth, Shukaku roared furiously into the sky, "How can a monster this strong exist?! Why don't Wind Release or Tailed Beast Bombs work on it?!"
It had seen it with its own eyes—its Tailed Beast Bomb had struck the creature head-on!
And yet, as the thick smoke cleared, all it had done was knock loose a few black feathers?
That drove Shukaku to despair.
[Swish swish swish swish—]
Just then, countless black feathers—like shadows blotting out the sun—sliced through the air toward it.
Seeing this, Shukaku's expression shifted dramatically. Fear flashed through its eyes.
It knew this move all too well.
When the feathers had hit him earlier, they inflicted a searing pain unlike anything it could describe.
Shukaku was now certain: if this kept up, it would soon be obliterated and forced to return to the natural world.
And that was not going to be a pleasant experience.
In an instant—
Feather after razor-sharp feather pierced through Shukaku's massive body with a series of thwip-thwip-thwip sounds. Some of the stronger ones even tore clean through it, bursting out its back.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
Shukaku was losing its mind.
It genuinely couldn't understand why these black feathers hurt so damn much.
Physical attacks usually barely affected it—barely even registered.
[WHAM!!]
Suddenly, the 'Satori' turned into a blur of violet-black shadow, flashing forward like lightning to appear right before the screaming Shukaku. With one long, muscular clawed hand covered in coarse black fur, he grabbed Shukaku's throat and slammed it into the filthy sludge.
"Ahahahahaha! So this is a tailed beast? So weak! Pathetically weak! Embarrassingly weak! I used to chase after power like this?!"
Shinnō burst into manic laughter, mocking even his former self.
Off in the distance, more than a dozen Suna-nin watching the battle couldn't believe their eyes.
"Let me think... how should I deal with you, Shukaku~?"
'Satori', bearing the head of the Zero-Tails and a wide, gaping maw stretching across his chest, leaned in close to the struggling Shukaku and grinned coldly.
"Alright then—if you submit and agree to sign a summoning contract with me, I'll extract you from your Jinchūriki and grant you freedom. How about that?"
To Shinnō—who sought to dominate the ninja world and resist the World Government—tailed beasts were incredibly useful allies.
In Shinnō's eyes, Shukaku—no, any tailed beast—would find this offer hard to refuse.
But Shukaku's response caught him completely off guard.
"What?!"
"You dare ask Shukaku-sama to submit? Ptuh! Who the hell do you think you are?!"
Shukaku roared in fury, as though grievously insulted.
The truth was, it had submitted once before.
To the World Government, of all things.
Their terms had been far more generous:
They'd promised to extract it safely from its Jinchūriki, grant it freedom, and even secure it a territory of its own on the Starfish World—as long as it didn't attack cities, it could roam as it pleased.
They even offered it a Zoan-type Human-Human Fruit, so it could obtain a human form.
In exchange, it would fight for the World Government when needed, especially in otherworld conflicts—
And compared to this Shinnō, who was clearly nothing more than a backwater bumpkin—
Even if he did manage to conquer the shinobi world, it was just one world. One that Shukaku had long since grown tired of.
Obviously, Shukaku was just as curious and eager to explore the multiverse.
So even if Shinnō killed it on the spot and it had to wait three years to reincarnate, it would never submit to him.
That was the pride of a tailed beast.
They hated dying, sure.
But they weren't afraid of it—because they couldn't truly die.
"Oh? What a shame," Shinnō sighed, shaking his head. "Looks like I'll have to stuff you back into your Jinchūriki and have White Zetsu prep a new cell for you."
As he spoke, he suddenly drove his other clawed hand deep into Shukaku's abdomen.
In the next instant—
Crimson energy surged along Satori's arm and began flooding into his body.
"Damn you! Let me go, you monster!!"
Shukaku thrashed and bellowed, powerless to stop it.
"It's no use, no use," Shinnō mocked, voice oozing with mirth. "Ooh, now this is some feral chakra… but no problem. Just needs some conversion. Dark chakra always feels more pleasant to wield~"
But just then—
A hoarse yet magnetic voice echoed through the battlefield.
"Hey. Who said you could bully the pet I picked out?"
"Get lost."
In an instant—
Whether it was Shinnō, Shukaku, or even the distant shinobi watching the fight—
Everyone felt the light around them suddenly dim.
Then, wide-eyed, they watched as a colossal sandstorm—like a tornado reaching from earth to sky—descended from thin air.
That sandstorm tornado was violently raging outward from Shukaku at its center.
Satori, the manifestation of Shinnō, was almost instantly swept away by the violent gusts.
At this moment—
Under the volcano spewing molten lava, wind and sand raged across the sky.
Even the Sky Ninja and Rōran puppets battling in the surrounding airspace were caught in the chaos.
The relentless winds, mixed with countless grains of sand that stung upon contact, coupled with the howling like the wails of ghosts, turned the entire sky into a horrifying yellow hell.
"Ahhhh! This—this can't be happening! I'm actually injured?!"
"Void, didn't you say that not even the Sage of Six Paths could kill you, and that was why they had to seal you inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss?!"
Staring at the bloodied gashes on his body, Shinnō furiously questioned in his mind.
'Void'—that was Zero-Tails' true name, which would be the part of the demon's soul. 'Satori' was merely an alias given by outsiders to the divided body of 'Void'.
Now that 'consciousness' and 'body' had merged into one, its name naturally followed the will of its consciousness.
Void had once told Shinnō—
It too hailed from another world.
That world was called the underworld, and Void had once been a high-ranking demon there.
Long ago, it had been drawn into a spatial rift by accident.
Who knows how long had passed before it emerged in this unfamiliar Shinobi World.
But being a demon, it didn't care whether it was familiar or not.
The moment it saw intelligent life in this world, it began a wholesale slaughter without distinction.
The rest of the story hardly needed repeating.
But there was one thing Void was certain of:
Ninjutsu, senjutsu, tailed beast powers—none of these could truly harm it.
Only genjutsu and fūinjutsu had some limited effect.
Still, based on its centuries of observation as Zero-Tails in this world—
Some kekkei genkai might be capable of injuring a demonic body.
However—
Sand, wind—these elemental attacks were supposed to be meaningless.
No matter how powerful they were, they shouldn't have worked.
So as Void, within Shinnō's body, felt the pain at the wound site, even it was stunned.
"No… this isn't right!"
"There are 'rules' in this sand—it's faint, but it's definitely there. And this presence... why does it feel so familiar? This seems like demonic power!"
Void 'gazed' inward at the wounds slowly shriveling up, drying out as if drained of moisture, and found itself utterly confused.
Fortunately, the injuries weren't serious—just shallow cuts. The residual power could be erased with dark chakra, and with its regeneration, the body could quickly recover.
But the crucial question was—
Could the one who came also be a demon?
Or was there another demon sealed inside them?
"What did you just say?!"
Shinnō paled with shock at Void's speculation.
At that same moment—
The massive sandstorm tornado finally spent all its force.
But as the wind and sand settled across the land—
The Sunagakure shinobi in the distance were struck speechless, as if turned to stone.
For the scene before them… could only be described as a miracle.
What had once been a muddy, weed-choked marsh—
Had turned into a barren desert of yellow sand.
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