From a classification standpoint, there were sealing techniques that existed purely to seal and could later be undone—such as the Four Symbols Seal.
There were also sealing techniques created solely for erasure, irreversible by nature—such as the Reaper Death Seal.
Before today, no one truly knew what would happen if a seal of the latter type were used against a tailed beast.
Which meant that Hagoromo was once again stepping onto unexplored ground.
After warning his teammates to watch out for large-area attacks, Hagoromo pulled out a Reaper Death Seal scroll and hurled it straight at the Two-Tails charging toward him. Immediately afterward, he retreated at full speed.
By the time he reached a safe distance—well outside the technique's effective range—the scroll had arrived at its designated position. By now, his teammates should have already vanished from the danger zone.
Everything was ready in an instant.
Hagoromo raised his hands to begin forming seals.
But the word "detection"—though written as exploration—was often pronounced as "courting death."
The problem was that activating the Reaper Death Seal required a specific sequence and process.
Which meant—
Time.
And while tailed beasts were called "beasts," they were nothing like ordinary animals.
Their difference lay not only in power, but in intelligence.
Most importantly—
They could understand human speech.
And they understood it very well.
At the very least, they possessed intelligence—something that, regrettably, not all humans did.
Since their creation, how many times had tailed beasts been sealed?
They probably couldn't count anymore.
So when the scroll came flying toward it—and combined with Hagoromo's earlier warning—the Two-Tails immediately sensed danger.
Its reaction was purely instinctive.
With a violent sweep of its tail, it swatted the massive scroll straight back, sending it flying along its original trajectory.
The activation of the Reaper Death Seal was divided into two stages.
The first set of hand seals merely released the limiter on the scroll itself, restoring it from palm-sized to its original massive form.
Only after that came the second set—the seals that actually activated the sealing technique.
During that process, the scroll would draw an enormous amount of chakra from Hagoromo to deploy the sealing barrier.
For Hagoromo, the chakra cost was staggering.
Once he used this technique, his combat endurance as a ninja would essentially drop to zero.
His positioning was excellent, and his hands were fast—but as the enormous scroll crashed back toward him, the Reaper Death Seal's activation sequence was one hand seal short of completion.
Barely short.
This was probably the first time in his life that Hagoromo was grateful his hands weren't even faster.
That cold, prickling sensation—
So this was what people meant by breaking out in a cold sweat.
If he'd been even a fraction faster, this wouldn't have been an attack—
It would have been suicide.
High power.
Easy friendly fire.
Sealing techniques are dangerous.
Use with caution.
Sealing techniques were never meant for frontal, high-speed combat.
Throwing scrolls around like grenades was something only Hagoromo would attempt. The very idea of offensive sealing techniques was practically his own invention.
And now—
Someone had actually thrown the "grenade" back.
A literal technique rebound.
This was the first time Hagoromo had ever seen something like this.
Awkward as it sounded, the Two-Tails had indeed thrown his technique back at him.
Still, Hagoromo was a veteran of many battles. A sudden, near-fatal mishap was enough to startle him—but not enough to paralyze him.
The Two-Tails was already right in front of him, its massive forepaw swinging down.
Because both of them were still within the Reaper Death Seal's effective area, Hagoromo couldn't activate it without dying alongside the target.
Advancing or retreating made no difference.
So he chose the third option.
He charged forward.
The Two-Tails' original priority target had been Hagoromo himself—but it immediately changed targets.
Now, its first objective was the scroll lying on the ground.
With its intelligence, it understood that the threat wasn't gone yet—the sealing was still "working."
The Two-Tails slammed its paw down onto the scroll.
Blue, foxfire-like flames ignited beneath its claws.
In moments, the massive Reaper Death Seal scroll was burned away completely—
Along with the sealing formula that had been drawing chakra from Hagoromo.
The attempt failed.
Not only did the seal not activate, Hagoromo had also wasted an enormous amount of chakra.
But battle was always filled with uncertainty.
If everything went according to Hagoromo's expectations, he'd be unbeatable.
He had never entertained such shallow thinking.
If one attack failed, then he'd wait for the next.
So without even checking what happened behind him, Hagoromo relied on Lightning Release's extreme cellular stimulation to reach maximum speed.
He shifted sharply, slipping beneath the Two-Tails' abdomen.
Chidori Spear flared in his hand.
He drove it upward, plunging it deep into the Two-Tails' belly, then carved upward in a straight, linear cut as he passed through.
By feel alone—
Cutting a tailed beast wasn't much harder than slicing through an Iwagakure ninja's Earth Release.
Somewhere inside the beast, the jinchūriki might still exist.
There was a slim chance Hagoromo's strike had accidentally hit Yugito.
And if so, even without the spear tip, Chidori Spear had enough power to kill.
But that chance was vanishingly small.
Hagoromo didn't have that kind of luck.
His attack earned only a roar of pain and rage—not disappearance.
If one followed a certain line of speculation, the jinchūriki was likely hidden at the back of the beast's neck.
In theory, precise cuts to that area might kill both host and beast simultaneously.
Unfortunately—
Hagoromo had no particular yearning for wings of freedom.
From start to finish, he passed straight through the Two-Tails, dispersing the Chidori Spear after inflicting only external damage.
He sidestepped left, narrowly dodging a tail smashing down behind him.
After dashing forward another distance, his teammates—having realized what had happened—reappeared beside him.
What embarrassed Hagoromo wasn't the massive chakra loss.
Nor was it the fact he'd nearly killed himself.
It was the look his teammates were giving him.
Innocent.
Expectant.
Where was the big move?
We all hid and ran—and that was it?
Was that… an attempted castration?
Ahem.
In any case, Gamabunta and the enlarged Akimichi Chōza moved back to the front line, attempting to draw the Two-Tails' attention again.
Minato, who had understood everything that happened, spoke up.
"The sealing technique was destroyed. Hagoromo—can you prepare it a second time?"
Hagoromo shook his head decisively.
For him, the Reaper Death Seal truly had a cooldown. The specially prepared chakra-storing versions he'd made earlier had long since expired.
It was amazing.
High damage with no health bar was one thing—but running out of chakra too?
What kind of nonsense was this?
Setting aside extreme burst scenarios, Hagoromo simply couldn't sustain a fight against a tailed beast.
But should they really continue fighting the Two-Tails here?
Time wouldn't allow it.
"Minato—large numbers of Kumogakure ninja are on the move," Aburame Shibi reported, as expected.
Samui was likely still on her way to report.
And Kumogakure's response was undoubtedly triggered by the unmistakable signature of the Tailed Beast Ball.
Any tailed beast or jinchūriki in this region could only belong to Kumogakure—not Konoha.
They would move faster.
They were closer.
Only one path remained for Minato's team.
"We can't teleport the tailed beast—no, never mind," Hagoromo stopped himself mid-sentence.
He'd almost suggested teleporting the Two-Tails away.
But Flying Thunder God had limits.
It could move tailed beasts—but not far.
Space–time ninjutsu wasn't omnipotent.
And even if they could move it—
Where?
The Konoha camp?
Dropping a tailed beast into a crowd of ninja wasn't a siege—it was a massacre.
Destroying a tailed beast was never something that could be done in one stroke.
Even elite teams aimed only to kill the jinchūriki before transformation—not to fight the beast itself.
Compared to battling a tailed beast directly, killing the untransformed jinchūriki was far easier.
In truth—
This battle was already over.
Minato's team had gained only intelligence:
Kumogakure had a new jinchūriki.
A young female ninja.
Next time, Konoha would need to be extremely careful.
As for now—
Let the incoming Kumogakure forces deal with their own tailed beast.
Just imagining that scene…
Was strangely satisfying.
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