Tsunade raised a finger to her lips, her features still disguised.
*Shh.*
Her victory over hemophobia was still a secret, a card she planned to play against Onoki. It couldn't be revealed yet. If the Jinchuriki's condition hadn't been so critical, she never would have risked coming here just to check on him.
After a careful examination, she gently shook her head.
'He's beyond saving.'
It wasn't that she wouldn't save him. If there was any way, she would have poured her own chakra into the old man without a second thought. But his life force was simply at its end, he hadn't been injured at all. How could you save someone from old age? Unless another person was willing to give up their own life force, and who would do that for a Jinchuriki? To the village, he was a tool, not a person.
The familiar weight of that tragedy settled in her chest.
Meanwhile, Takeshi had moved the unconscious Pakura, laying her down beside Bunpuku. She wasn't dead, but her lungs were full of water. She wouldn't have lasted much longer. Rin immediately knelt beside her and began drawing the water from the kunoichi's lungs.
Takeshi and Minato looked up toward Rasa.
The Fourth Kazekage was still locked in a desperate battle, but his subordinates were already standing in a daze, their will to fight completely gone. They had given up.
'They fold so easily,' Takeshi thought, a flicker of amusement crossing his mind. 'It's almost a reflex.'
Orochimaru was toying with Rasa, and even found time during their fight to survey the rest of the battlefield.
"Well, Rasa," Orochimaru drawled, his voice a low hiss. "Your subordinates have lost their nerve, and Shukaku has been dealt with. Are you still not ready to surrender?" He let the question hang in the air. "No one would blame you for holding out, of course. After all, everything you've done has been for the good of Sunagakure, hasn't it? Even if this war leads to the decline of your village and the death of your Jinchuriki... it was all for the village."
"It doesn't matter if they fail to understand your sacrifice. All that matters is that you understand. You are the Kazekage, after all."
His words were coated in feigned sympathy, yet each one was a blade twisting in Rasa's heart.
Rasa's movements faltered. The entire point of this war had been to join the other great nations in forcing Konoha to pay a price for its power, to keep it from expanding its influence. The Land of Wind was barren, and its daimyo had long coveted the resources of the smaller neighboring countries.
But they had lost. Devastatingly.
And now their Jinchuriki was dying. If a Jinchuriki died, the Tailed Beast sealed within would vanish with him. It wouldn't be a true death, of course, Shukaku would eventually reform somewhere else. But who knew how long that would take, or which village might capture him in the meantime? It was a gamble Sunagakure couldn't afford. Shukaku was their last true deterrent. If they lost him, they would no longer have a place among the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Amegakure might even take their seat by next year.
"So, what will it be?" Orochimaru continued. "You should surrender. This has nothing to do with Shukaku or Pakura's failure. You would have met the same fate against him."
Rasa had no reply. A part of him screamed in protest, the sheer dishonor of losing to a cat was infuriating. But the rational part of his mind knew Orochimaru was right. He wouldn't have stood a chance either. That was Sage Art, one of Hashirama Senju's Jutsu. How could he possibly counter it?
"And you should do it quickly. If you wait for Takeshi to recover his strength, I doubt his methods will be quite so... straightforward."
At Orochimaru's words, a playful smile touched the corner of his lips. Rasa replayed the fight in his mind. Shukaku had been suppressed the instant he appeared. The black cat could have simply crushed him with the Gate of the Great God, but instead... it had added a dozen humiliating slaps. Rasa felt a lump form in his throat.
As Kage, he still had his pride. If that cat pinned him to the ground and slapped him, he might just commit seppuku from the shame.
Besides, he had once thought Ebizo a coward, always looking for an angle or a quick surrender. But now... what other choice did they have? Once a behemoth like Konoha caught its breath, it could turn and crush them without effort. Even he was no match for many of Konoha's ninja, and this wasn't even their full force.
After a long moment, Rasa sighed, his hands falling limply to his sides. The Gold Dust hovering around him clattered to the ground in a brilliant shower.
"We surrender."
The other Sunagakure ninja let out a collective, shaky breath of relief. These Konoha ninja were monsters. Shukaku and Pakura had both been defeated in an instant, the rest of them would have been throwing their lives away.
Orochimaru casually relaxed his stance. The new Kazekage's skills weren't bad, but he was hardly a threat. Orochimaru hadn't wanted to pay any price to win, so he had stuck to his Snake Ninjutsu, never even closing in for taijutsu. The fact that he'd had time to pick off other Suna-nin with stray snakes said it all. Their surrender saved him a good deal of chakra.
Cooperation was always preferable to a real fight.
"May I see him?" Rasa asked, his head bowed. He needed to see Bunpuku. If the old man died, they would be in real trouble. He had to try and transfer Shukaku before then, to preserve what was left of Sunagakure's strength.
"You may," Orochimaru said smoothly. "However, Shukaku caused extreme harm to our Konoha ninja."
"I'll pay for it!" Rasa replied without hesitation. He'd already expected to pay reparations. 'Extreme harm? How can he say that with a straight face?'
Rasa nearly choked on the audacity. That cat had pummeled Shukaku from the moment he appeared, slapping him around before pinning him down. It hadn't landed a single blow. To blame Konoha's casualties on Shukaku was... Orochimaru was truly shameless.
Rasa sighed inwardly.
"Rasa's coming," Tsunade whispered to Minato. "I'm pulling back. You handle things here for a moment." She said a few more words before slipping quietly into the shadows.
'So, she was really going to play this out,' Takeshi thought, watching her disappear. 'The Sannin are a devious bunch. I love it.' The black cat sat primly to one side, looking utterly harmless. As Rasa drew near, Takeshi suddenly flicked his tail.
Rasa flinched, instinctively raising a shield of Gold Dust.
"Meow. Scared?" came a mocking voice.
He lowered the shield and saw the black cat curling its tail in front of itself, idly scratching at the fur with its front paws.
With a strained but polite smile, Rasa gave a slight nod. "May I go over and see him?"
"No, you may not," Takeshi said, his voice completely serious. "My tail has a fracture from hitting Shukaku so hard. You'll have to compensate me for it."
'A fracture, my ass,' Rasa thought, his composure strained. 'You were enjoying yourself more than anyone. You beat Shukaku so badly he couldn't even fight back. If your tail is broken, it's your own damn fault!'
But the circumstances were against him. With Orochimaru behind him and Minato and the cat in front, he was powerless. If he tried anything, he knew he would end up pinned and humiliated. More importantly, he could feel Bunpuku's life fading with every passing second.
As he got closer, the dying monk seemed to sense his presence. Bunpuku stirred, struggling to turn his head toward his Kazekage before his gaze drifted up to the blue sky. It had been so long since he had truly seen it.
'I hope that one day, humans and Tailed Beasts will be seen as equals, and the world will no longer have a need for Jinchuriki.' The thought echoed in the prison of his mind, reaching the one sealed within.
For the first time, Shukaku was silent. He knew the old man who had been his companion for decades was dying. This was his last wish. After today, someone else would imprison him, use him, and they would be nothing like Bunpuku.
'You have a heart like the old Sage,' Shukaku thought. 'But that's not enough...'
Kindness without power was just a weakness for others to exploit. Bunpuku's dream of coexistence was just that, a dream. After all these years, had anyone ever truly tried to understand him? No. He had only known hostility and imprisonment, a life lived in shadow.
The most bitter irony was that almost no one even remembered his name. To them, he was just Shukaku. In the end, he and the Tailed Beast had become one, because in the eyes of the world, he had already ceased to exist.
Shukaku felt a pang of injustice for the kind old man.
"Thank you, Shukaku," Bunpuku's voice echoed faintly one last time. "I remember you saying that Tailed Beasts can be reborn. Next time... don't get caught."
Then, Shukaku watched as the cage around him began to crumble.
He was dying.
"Takeshi!" Minato called out urgently, sensing the shift. "Let him pass."
Takeshi leaped aside, clearing a path. Rasa rushed to Bunpuku's side and crouched, his hands flying through seals to begin the transfer. Minato moved to help, forming the signs to release Bunpuku's Four Symbols Seal.
But at that moment, Bunpuku's hand shot out and gripped Minato's wrist.
He held on with a strength that belied his dying frame. The old man clutched Minato's hand tightly. He knew Rasa couldn't undo a Konoha seal, but this man... there was love in his heart. He would understand.
Minato had meant to pull away, but he froze when he met the old monk's gaze.
"Help me, release the seal!" Rasa begged, launching into a desperate list of concessions. "I'm willing to pay for all of Konoha's losses, and more..."
But his voice was cut short as Bunpuku's hand fell limply from Minato's wrist.
His life force was gone. That last burst of strength had been the final flicker of a dying candle.
Deep inside, Shukaku roared.
Was it sadness or happiness?
He could no longer tell.
This old monk was the only human since the Sage of Six Paths who had made him feel something like love, and now he was gone.
The cage continued to shrink, to dissolve. Through the bars, he could hear Rasa's desperate pleading, not for a life, but for a weapon he could reclaim and use again.
"I'm sorry," Minato said quietly, his voice heavy with regret. "The seal has already released on its own."
"Save him!" Rasa shouted out, his voice cracking with desperation. "Please save him!"
===============
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