Shimoku commanded his Susano'o, which swept its massive arm outward.
A vast hurricane erupted, quickly dispersing the lingering smoke from the explosion ahead.
He narrowed his eyes and locked his gaze onto the colossal Eight-Tails Gyuki thousands of meters away.
"Eight-Tails?"
"It actually showed itself."
"Saves me the trouble of going to find you personally…"
Shimoku chuckled lightly.
The enormous Susano'o flapped its wings once more, diving forward toward the distant Eight-Tails.
At the same time, four consecutive [Tailed Beast Balls] shot toward Shimoku again.
He had to admit,
Gyuki certainly had more staying power than the other Tailed Beasts.
If this rate of relentless bombardment were applied to someone like Three-Tails Isobu, it probably would've collapsed from exhaustion long ago.
Indeed, there's a huge gap between one Tailed Beast and another!
However,
Currently speaking, unless it was an ultra-large-scale [Tailed Beast Ball] from the Ten-Tails or a jointly released [Tailed Beast Ball] from several Tailed Beasts working together, which could pose minor threats,
These consecutive [Tailed Beast Balls] posed absolutely no pressure to Shimoku's Perfect Body Susanoo, who held a divine weapon.
Behold, the Susano'o Demigod soaring through the sky swung its three-hundred-meter-long Divine Sword again.
Slash after slash—
Slash after slash tore through the air, beams of crimson blade-energy streaking a thousand meters forward, crisscrossing the sky into a deadly red net.
Instantly slicing those incoming [Tailed Beast Balls] into multiple pieces.
They exploded into balls of fire.
"Boom—"
The massive Susano'o flew right through the fiery remnants, continuing its charge toward the Eight-Tails.
Witnessing this, the distant Eight-Tails felt a chill run down its spine, every nerve on edge.
Even its attempts to fire more [Tailed Beast Balls] as defense couldn't keep up anymore.
It wildly swung all eight tails, desperately trying to retreat.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast the Eight-Tails ran,
It couldn't possibly outrun a flying Susano'o.
Originally, with just the newly acquired Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, the monstrous chakra consumption required to sustain Susano'o would have been unsustainable for long periods.
But thankfully, he possessed the Sage Body!
Supported by an immense amount of chakra and boosted by ultra-fast chakra regeneration, the usage of Susano'o became practically limitless in his hands.
Not only could he fight for days without worry, even a few hours of unrestrained combat remained completely feasible.
"Faster! Faster still! That thing is catching up!"
"Yarō! Kora yo! We're gonna die here!"
Killer Bee frantically shouted.
What could be done? The [Tailed Beast Ball] was the strongest attack they had.
How could he possibly stand against a 'demigod' that fears even that kind of assault?
Wouldn't staying around just be waiting for death?
Unfortunately, before the Eight-Tails managed to flee even hundreds of meters,
"Puchi—"
A gigantic Spiritualized Divine Sword suddenly pierced straight into the Eight-Tails chest, going through its tailed beast body and pinning it firmly to the ground.
"Bang!!—"
Right after, a deafening sonic boom finally arrived, breaking the silence at supersonic speed.
Clearly.
It was Shimoku in the distance who suddenly hurled his K'unwu Divine Sword forward, breaking the sound barrier as it instantly impaled the Eight-Tails.
"MoOOOoo!"
The Eight-Tails let out a painful bellow like a dying bull.
It thrashed desperately, trying to break free from the divine blade.
But alas, the sword was far too long, pinning its body firmly to the ground.
Unless it wanted to slice itself in half, there was no way to escape!
Then, within mere seconds,
Shimoku himself arrived, soaring above the Eight-Tails riding his Perfect Susano'o.
...
"Damn it! Who the hell do you think you are?!"
"You... Who exactly are you?!"
Killer Bee raged through the Eight-Tails' voice.
"Who am I?"
"That doesn't matter."
"What matters is—aren't you the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki from Kumogakure?"
"Enjoyed spitting out that Tailed Beast Ball, didn't you?"
"Do you even know I was engaged in an exclusive battle with Raikage A?"
"So this was your scheme all along—using this moment to sabotage a fair fight and ambush me, weren't you?!"
As soon as Shimoku landed,
Without hesitation, he slapped a massive blame directly onto Kumogakure.
"You're lying!"
"It's you who attacked our village!"
"It's you who hurt my older brother!"
Killer Bee reacted quickly, trying to defend himself.
After all, he honestly had no clue about any so-called duel...
Of course, Shimoku showed no mercy.
He continued attacking with sharp words.
"You did it but dare not admit it?!"
"I never thought that even the great Hidden Cloud Village would stoop this low—cowardly, despicable, and shamelessly underhanded!"
Right or wrong,
It was undeniable that this unexpected interference by Killer Bee had ruined the duel between himself and Raikage A, the Fourth.
That much was unarguable!
Everyone already knew about this match.
Within three minutes, either he would die by the Raikage's hand—or vice versa.
No one else could be blamed.
Such were the agreed-upon rules from the very beginning.
Even if I had indeed killed Raikage A, the Fourth, according to those very terms,
Any rumors afterward would simply say the Fourth Raikage lost because his skills were outmatched in a fair fight.
But now, the rules were broken.
During the duel, not only did Kumogakure play dirty using brute force, they even ambushed him!
Now, it was clearly Kumogakure's fault.
And now it was their turn to pay the price—and compensate him for emotional loss!
Starting with this Eight-Tails!
"It's not appropriate to kill you outright. But collecting a bit of interest shouldn't be a problem!"
Shimoku grinned mischievously.
Then, without hesitation, he struck again.
Controlling his Perfect Susano'o, he directly grabbed one of the Eight-Tails' thick tails.
With a loud "Ripppp!"
A massive tail was torn clean off by sheer force.
The monstrous bull cried in pain once more, eyes filled with helplessness.
But this wasn't over yet.
Soon after, the second tail, third tail... followed one by one, ripped away mercilessly.
The poor Eight-Tails Gyuki couldn't endure the unbearable pain anymore.
It desperately tried to retreat back into the jinchuriki's body.
Unfortunately, with its torso pierced through and pinned to the ground by the K'unwu Divine Sword,
The Eight-Tails had no way at all to reduce its size and return into the jinchuriki's body.
Eight-Tails could do nothing but endure Shimoku's brutal torment, tears streaming from his eyes.
...
This continued until four of his tails were severed, leaving Eight-Tails battered, covered in wounds, and barely alive.
Only then did Shimoku finally stop.
He then pulled out a precious high-grade sealing scroll and sealed all four broken tails inside.
After all, the fundamental nature of tailed beasts is condensed living entities of chakra.
These four massive tails were essentially huge quantities of chakra—perhaps accounting for one-third of Eight-Tails' total chakra.
That meant several hundred units of chakra power at minimum.
It would be better to seal it away first, study it later, and eventually implant the chakra into clan members—creating a "semi-jinchuriki." That shouldn't pose any issues.
In other words, it meant gaining another Kage-level powerhouse for the clan.
A completely profitable deal!
Certainly, he had deliberately avoided extracting the entire Eight-Tails because doing so would have killed Killer Bee directly.
That could lead to open war between [Kumo] and his own [Homura Hidden Village].
Although Shimoku was confident he could utterly destroy [Kumo] outright once war began,
what came after destruction?
With only a few hundred clan members, how could they possibly control such a massive place as [Kumo]?
With such limited manpower, they probably wouldn't even have enough people to handle basic operations.
Moreover, under the leadership of the Fourth Raikage, [Kumo] operated like an ironclad fortress, united from top to bottom.
Unlike how he had once stirred strife within the Hyuga Branch House in Konoha, provoking conflict among Kumo's clans would be extremely difficult now.
Therefore, he chose the slow-knife method instead.
Pretend cooperation while secretly demanding compensation—gradually draining [Kumo]'s blood and carving up its flesh until his strength was enough to swallow them whole.
That was truly the smartest play.
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