On the other side, the Third Raikage, having held out until the Eight-Tails fell, finally allowed himself to relax. As the tension in his body eased, he too collapsed, unconscious.
Thus, the battle between man and beast came to an end-a draw, with neither emerging victorious.
"Raikage-sama!!"
Dodai, along with a team of jonin, rushed into the Cloud Valley Gorge. They immediately carried the Raikage to the hospital for treatment.
"Get the sealing squad here immediately! We need to reseal the Eight-Tails!" Dodai commanded.
"Yes, sir!" The shinobi responded.
With the Raikage being treated and the Eight-Tails sealed away once more, the Cloud shinobi began working around the clock. But rebuilding the village, which had been devastated by the rampage, would take a long time.
When the Third Raikage finally regained consciousness, he found himself lying in a hospital bed.
"Raikage-sama, you're awake," Dodai greeted him, bowing respectfully.
The Raikage shook his head and sat up, his enormous frame causing the bed to creak under his weight. He coughed slightly before asking, "Dodai, has the Eight-Tails been resealed? What's the state of the village?"
Dodai's elated expression faltered as he delivered the grim news.
"The Eight-Tails has been resealed, and now we're just waiting to select a new jinchuriki to complete the process. But as for the village..."
Dodai's brow furrowed as he continued, gritting his teeth. "The damage is severe. Many of our people were killed during the battle, and a large portion of the village's buildings were destroyed. Several foreign tourists and merchants were also caught in the destruction, and we'll need to compensate them as well."
Despite the world running on strength, the Hidden Cloud would still have to give those merchants and tourists an explanation. Without proper compensation and a reasonable explanation, no one would want to come to the Hidden Cloud to do business again.
The Raikage's thick eyebrows knitted together.
"Have you determined the cause of the Eight-Tails' rampage?"
He hadn't been in the village when the attack happened. It wasn't until the Anbu notified him that he returned and got pulled into the fight. Even now, the Raikage didn't know why the Eight-Tails had gone berserk.
"Raikage-sama, I suggest we take this opportunity to conduct a thorough purge. Based on my investigation, this incident was definitely the work of enemy spies,"
Dodai declared angrily. "According to our findings, the owner of a small restaurant that the Eight-Tails' jinchuriki frequented was murdered and replaced by a spy. That spy laced the jinchuriki's food with a special drug."
"The jinchūriki unknowingly consumed the drug over time, which eventually eroded his sanity and allowed the Eight-Tails to break free."
"This drug magnified the jinchuriki's inner darkness, fueling the Eight-Tails' fury and triggering the rampage."