A sensor shinobi burst into Orochimaru's tent, breathless. "Lord Orochimaru! Sunagakure has unleashed the One-Tail!"
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. Across the battlefield, Shukaku's massive silhouette eclipsed the sky—a sand-colored mountain of fur and rage that no amount of distance could diminish.
"Troublesome," he murmured, ice creeping into his voice. "I didn't expect them to deploy a tailed beast."
Should he summon the Triple Rashomon? The technique could contain Shukaku, theoretically. But that stingy serpent would demand a king's ransom—five hundred human sacrifices at minimum, probably more. He'd likely end up feeding it Konoha shinobi like cattle.
Orochimaru's fingers drummed against the table. He hesitated.
---
Shukaku's laughter split the sky—years of captive rage finally unleashed. Its maw yawned open, and a hurricane of wind and chakra erupted like the breath of a god, swallowing everything in its path.
"Counter with Fire style!" Konoha's commanders shouted.
"Fire style: Fireball Technique!"
"Fire style: Dragon Fire Technique!"
"Fire style: Great Fireball Technique!"
A dozen flames erupted from the Leaf Village shinobi, merging into a massive wave. Fire met wind in a collision of primal forces, but the scale was sickeningly lopsided. The tailed beast's assault shredded the united flames like paper.
"Damn it!" the lead shinobi cursed.
Then the air flickered.
A youth materialized before them—slender, with long black hair whipping like silk in the wind. His eyes were a pale, pristine white. Byakugan.
Before anyone could process his arrival, he opened his mouth.
"Fire style: Great Fireball Technique!"
The flames that erupted were a thing of terrible beauty—not the ragged bursts of exhausted shinobi, but a controlled inferno that met Shukaku's hurricane head-on. For a moment, the assault halted.
The youth swayed slightly. A pair of hands caught him from behind.
Seiran steadied himself, barely suppressing a smirk as Rin Uchiha turned to face him. Her Uchiha eyes betrayed her shock.
"You did great, Rin," he said. "I'll handle the rest."
"Seiran..." She blinked at his Byakugan, the pure white eyes unmarred by the traditional veining. "I didn't know your Fire Release had gotten that strong."
"There's plenty you don't know about me." He tilted his head with arrogant confidence.
Shukaku shrieked—a sound like tearing metal. Its massive tail swept down, a scythe meant to harvest lives. Konoha shinobi scattered, but three weren't fast enough. The tail crushed them like insects.
"Earth style: Earth Wall!"
Walls erupted from the ground. Shukaku shattered them with a casual kick.
Fear rippled through the Konoha ranks. Whispers spread like poison.
"Can we even survive this?"
"It's too strong..."
Then came a voice—sharp, almost amused.
"All fear stems from insufficient firepower!"
White smoke erupted around Seiran. When it cleared, dozens of shadow clones materialized in perfect formation. But it wasn't the clones that made the shinobi freeze.
It was what they were pushing.
Metal barrels. Dozens of them. Pitch-black cylinders with calibers that made grown men's eyes water.
"What the hell is that?!" someone whispered.
"Second Battalion Commander!" one shadow clone roared. "Where's the Armstrong Electromagnetic Railgun?!"
"Here!" Another clone shoved forward a massive battery array, its surface already dancing with threads of blue electricity. The barrel was enormous—twice the size of anything they'd ever seen. The muzzle began to glow, a pale blue luminescence crawling up from its depths.
Shukaku tilted its head, childlike confusion crossing its bestial face.
What is this thing?
The lead clone's voice boomed across the battlefield.
"Fire!"
BOOM!
The sonic boom shattered windows two miles away. A column of blue lightning erupted from the barrel, crossing the distance between them and Shukaku in less than a heartbeat. The electromagnetic shell struck true.
The impact tore through the tailed beast's chest like a lance through paper. A clean, catastrophic hole punched through its body.
"AAAAAAAH!"
The Konoha shinobi stood frozen. Rin's mouth fell open. Seiran couldn't help but grin.
Physics, baby. Never fails.
"Fire! Fire!"
The clones didn't relent. Blue rays poured from the cannon barrels like rain, a systematic barrage that left Shukaku no time to recover. Each time it tried to rise, a perfectly timed shot targeted its knees, driving it back down.
"HUMANITY! STOP!"
The tailed beast writhed, desperate. But the cannons were patient, merciless.
"Is... is the One-Tail really this weak?" Rin whispered, almost to herself.
Around them, shinobi swallowed hard, staring at the display with expressions caught between awe and disbelief. The scene defied everything they knew about tailed beasts.
Shukaku's hide was a ruin—bleeding, torn, barely holding together. Its chest gaped open. Some of the shadow clones were particularly cruel, aiming their fire with surgical precision. The beast howled with each impact.
After the tenth consecutive barrage without relief, Shukaku made a decision.
It would stay down.
If standing meant being targeted, then lying flat was the path to survival.
As it shifted, however, black and purple chakra began to coalesce around its maw. The air crackled with destructive potential.
Tailed Beast Ball.
The technique all nine tailed beasts possessed. Shukaku rarely used it, but desperation breeds necessity.
What the beast didn't account for was the largest fortress cannon, already tracking its position, already building its charge.
The blue light erupted.
Perfect. Surgical. Impossible to dodge.
The electromagnetic shell shot directly into Shukaku's open mouth.
The Tailed Beast Ball detonated from the inside.
When the smoke cleared, the Konoha shinobi stood in stunned silence.
Shukaku's head was simply... gone.
The headless body convulsed, shrinking, unable to maintain its massive form. Within seconds, only a crater remained, and scattered across it, a very disoriented tanuki-like creature, fully deflated.
From across the battlefield, Rasa watched through his sand-lens. His eye twitched. Once. Twice.
What in the name of the Sand Village is that thing?
Then his blood froze.
That blue flash. That signature pulse.
He'd seen it before.
His golden sand lifted him skyward, and his eyes locked onto the formation of metal cannons, onto the pale-eyed youth directing them with absolute calm.
Seiran.
Rasa's fists clenched so hard his fingernails drew blood.
"So it's you."