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Incense smoke curled toward the ceiling of the Six Paths Temple.
Uchiha Senichi and Senju Shūichi knelt side by side before the painted scroll of the Sage of Six Paths, palms pressed together, heads bowed.
"Sage of Six Paths, grant us success against this old man!" Their voices rang through the empty temple in perfect unison.
They lit incense. Bowed three times. Set the sticks in the bronze censer. Bowed again.
"The Sage will watch over us." Senichi rose first, eyes lingering on the painting.
Shūichi nodded beside him. The usual levity was gone from his face. Only weight remained.
They walked out of the temple together and settled the terms on the spot. A two-month ceasefire between Uchiha and Senju. Deal with the old man first. Resume trying to kill each other afterward.
Business before pleasure.
Meanwhile, the old man they were plotting against had absolutely no idea any of this was happening.
Manji wandered through the countryside with his hands behind his back, enjoying the scenery.
........
In the northern mountains, green valleys were laced with clear streams, and birdsong echoed between the peaks.
The Two-Tails, Matatabi, was playing in the shallows of a mountain brook. One spectral paw traces lazy circles in the water, scattering the reflected clouds.
Life was completely different now. As a newly recognized sacred creature, she didn't have to hide anymore. She no longer ran or slept with one eye open. She even started helping the local people—pushing stranded fishing boats off sandbars and rescuing travelers from rivers. These small acts of kindness would have gotten her attacked just a month ago.
"Hehe, thanks to Teacher, I'm actually a good luck charm now…"
Her tail swished contentedly. The surrounding villages sent offerings of food on a regular basis. People bowed when they saw her instead of screaming.
For the first time in her very long life, existence was actually pleasant.
A thousand harvests had come and gone since the Tailed Beasts were created. This was the first time any of them had been treated with genuine respect.
Then the ground exploded.
Chains, strengthened by earth chakra and glowing with a dull amber light, burst from the ground like attacking snakes. They rushed at her from six directions at once.
In the shadows beneath the trees, a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan eyes suddenly lit up.
"Submit, beast!"
Uchiha Senichi materialized from nothing, his voice cracking like a whip, ocular pressure slamming into Matatabi's consciousness with crushing force.
"WHA—??"
Every hair on Matatabi's body stood on end in shock. She had gotten so used to gentle treatment that she had almost forgotten what a sudden attack felt like.
"Power Fist!"
No time to recover. Senju Shūichi dropped from the canopy directly above her, one fist cocked back, the terrifying physical strength of the Senju bloodline concentrated into a single descending blow.
WHAM——!
The impact cratered the valley floor. Matatabi was driven straight into the earth, debris fountaining outward, the shockwave flattening trees for fifty meters in every direction.
"Earth Style: Chain Burial!"
Shūichi's hands blurred through seals. The ground shuddered, and dozens of thick stone chains erupted from below, wrapping around Matatabi's body in layer after constricting layer, pinning her inside the crater.
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING ME!" Matatabi's voice cut through the dust.
"Hm? Is that… a woman's voice?"
Shūichi paused mid-motion. Something uncomfortable flickered across his face. The Two-Tails sounded distinctly, unmistakably feminine. And Senju Shūichi had a personal policy about fighting women.
That punch was excessive.
"Don't get sentimental. It's a Tailed Beast, not a person." Senichi shot him a flat look.
Shūichi scratched his head. Right—this was a Tailed Beast, not a person. The rules were different.
He pushed the thought aside and charged forward again.
"YOU—!!"
Matatabi's rage ignited. Tailed Beast chakra erupted from her restrained body in violent, churning waves. Her jaws wrenched open, and the black-violet sphere of a Tailed Beast Bomb began condensing between her fangs.
"Predictable."
Senichi's Mangekyō spun. A wall of psychic force slammed into Matatabi's motor functions, scrambling her chakra flow. The half-formed Tailed Beast Bomb destabilized, cracked, and detonated harmlessly in her own mouth.
Then both clan heads hit her at once.
Senichi combined Mangekyō genjutsu pressure with cascading fire techniques, waves of flame interlocked with ocular suppression. Shūichi just hit things. Right fist, devastating. Left fist, also devastating. Simple. Effective.
Their coordination was seamless. Two lifelong rivals who knew each other's rhythms so intimately that fighting together felt less like cooperation and more like a single organism with two sets of fists.
Within seconds, Matatabi was completely immobilized. Earth chains reinforced by layered sealing jutsu locked her body to the ground. She couldn't twitch a whisker.
She lay pinned in the crater, her eyes burning with helpless anger as she glared up at the two shinobi above her.
'The only people in this era capable of genuinely threatening a Tailed Beast. And I got hit by BOTH of them at the same time.'
"No choice. I have to use that."
Matatabi gathered every scrap of chakra she could still access, compressed it into her throat, and fired.
A brilliant pale-blue beam of light punched through the sky like a searchlight, piercing the clouds, illuminating the sky from horizon to horizon.
The next instant, a unique signature appeared in the sky above. Matatabi's personal emblem, blazing against the firmament for all to see.
This was Manji's invention. A dedicated emergency signal for the Nine-Tailed Beasts. Any beast in danger could fire their signature into the sky, and the others would come running.
Senichi and Shūichi looked up simultaneously. Neither recognized the signal, but both understood instinctively that it was a distress call.
Their eyes met. A fraction of a second of silent communication.
Both raised their hands. Concentrated blasts of chakra screamed upward and slammed into the glowing emblem.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Matatabi's signal shattered into a thousand fading sparks.
"NO!"
She could only watch as the fragments dissolved into the darkening sky.
........
Meanwhile, in a desert on the other side of the continent.
Shukaku was lying on his back in the sand, counting stars.
"Hey… what if I prank-called the others? Middle of the night. Wake everybody up."
A grin spread across his tanuki face. Teacher's new Link Conference Technique had been a godsend for this kind of thing. Real-time communication between all nine beasts, anytime, anywhere.
Shukaku's favorite use: calling Kurama at 3 AM.
"Hehehe. Rise and shine, everybody! If I'm awake, ALL of you are awake!"
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