Among the nine Tailed Beasts, one could argue that Isobu, the Three-Tails, was particularly unfortunate. Like its siblings— save for Shukaku— it had been arbitrarily captured by Hashirama and shipped off to a foreign land to be sealed away in some poor soul… only to be extracted and forced into Rin's body, before dying alongside her by Kakashi's hand.
And now, it had died again!
Sakura wasn't sure how long it took a Tailed Beast to revive, but at the very least, she could rest easy knowing the world was safe from annihilation for at least… another fortnight or so.
No Three-Tails, no Ten-Tails!
That said, Sakura now had far more pressing concerns than the fate of the world, such as whether she'd live to see the sunrise again. For all Obito's claims that reality meant nothing to him, that the real world was nothing more than a lie… his actions suggested otherwise.
For Obito, capturing the Three-Tails wasn't just another Akatsuki assignment, it was revenge. He'd already had his fill of tormenting the Hidden Mist, having forced them to adopt the Blood Mist Policy by puppeteering their Fourth Mizukage, but now that the Three-Tails had resurfaced, it was supposed to be its turn to suffer. After all, Isobu was the Tailed Beast that had been sealed into Rin, leading her to believe that her own death was the only way to protect the Hidden Leaf!
But now, Three-Tails had died too easily— and more importantly, the Eye of the Moon Plan couldn't proceed without it. Delaying his reunion with the true Rin was unacceptable!
"Not a bad explosion," said Deidara, letting out a low whistle of admiration as the Three-Tails' scrambled brains rained down over the lake. "Well, guess that's it, eh? We've failed."
Obito glared up at Deidara, who soared overhead on his clay bird. His Mangekyō Sharingan burned with cold fury behind his mask. This could not go unpunished.
"We're not done here, Deidara," said Obito coldly. "We're not letting a single one of them live."
He glanced towards the traitor Kabuto, Guren of the Crystal Style … and Nanashi of the Mangekyō Sharingan. His three foes shared a nod, before scattering and flickering away. With the Three-Tails gone, there was no need for them to prolong their quarrel with the Akatsuki.
"What's with the deep voice, Tobi? Did your balls just drop?" Deidara sneered at his masked companion below. "Well, whatever, I'm heading back to base— I've used up my C-3, and I'm nearly out of C-1, so I need to make some more," he added lazily. "Oh, and… you're not the boss of me, newbie, so… bye~."
Obito ignored him. He didn't need his help, anyway.
But to think there was a third Uchiha clan survivor— they seemed to be popping out of the woodwork, lately. Still, what mattered was the hatred burning in the girl's Mangekyō Sharingan… hatred for the world itself. Perhaps she would make a suitable helper candidate, if his plans for Sakura and Sasuke were to fail. She seemed to be having some trouble with her sight, but it was nothing a few specially cultivated Hashirama cell implants couldn't fix…
Space twisted in on itself, and Obito vanished in a spiral of warping space-time… and a few seconds later, Kujaku's moss-coloured head broke through the surface of the troubled lake waters. She looked about in alarm, then, realising the enemies had all left, she let out a breathless laugh.
The Three-Tails was all hers!
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Kujaku bit her thumb until she drew blood and slapped the surface of the water, summoning what looked like a metal coffin next to the Three-Tails. With a hand sign, an extendable silvery tube slithered out of the side of the box and attached itself to the beast's corpse, which was already shrivelling to nothing as the last of its chakra dispersed and returned to nature.
The Three-Tails' chakra pulsed through the tube, feeding into the coffin. After a few agonising seconds, the lid popped open, revealing its contents: a short, white-haired, doll-like man with a circlet upon his noble brow.
"Lord Seimei!" exclaimed Kujaku, swimming over to him.
"Now, Takumi Village shall rule over all shinobi lands!" Seimei immediately declared, sitting up in his coffin. "My immortal body shall be fuelled by the…" his voice trailed off, as he glanced at the remains of the dead turtle. "One, two, three… Three-Tails!"
There wasn't much left of Isobu; his body, composed entirely of chakra, had already begun to fade. Seimei seized the tube and increased its suction, drawing the last remnants of the Three-Tails' chakra into himself and leaving behind nothing but a flickering mirage of the once-mighty beast, which gradually faded away into the night.
He peeked out of the coffin and looked at Kujaku.
"My faithful comrade," said Seimei. "I ask of thee— where are my masterpieces? How can I be expected to destroy the Five Great Shinobi Villages without my weapons?"
"Well, about that," said Kujaku sheepishly. "All four of them were stolen two years ago by a kunoichi from that hateful Hidden Leaf Village."
Seimei's doll-like face remained unreadable.
"But as it happens, I know where to get excellent materials with which to forge divine weapons!" Kujaku added hastily. "Another Leaf kunoichi passed through the village, and she was carrying loads of chakra metal, and I'm certain she has a lot more than what she showed me! Last I saw, she was in the forest beyond the lake!"
Seimei's eyes followed the line of Kujaku's pointing finger.
"Excellent," he said. "Then, I task thee with fetching the materials for me."
Seimei and Kujaku stared at each other in awkward silence.
"My lord, I dare not confront the Leaf shinobi alone, armed with only the paltry tools at my disposal," said Kujaku weakly. "I beseech the village founder for your help."
What exactly did they expect the other to do? They both wanted to cry.
"I only help those who help themselves," said Seimei haughtily.
Without the Weaknessless Soaring Shortswords, Seimei could not fly. Without the Infinite Armour, he was vulnerable to both physical and chakra-based attacks, and he remained unable to replenish his chakra mid-battle. And without the Garian Sword or the Fire Sword, he lacked any means of attack— close or ranged.
In short, he was utterly useless.
Worse than useless, actually— since he was only the shell of a dead man, powered by a dead Tailed Beast's chakra, he couldn't restore his energy on his own by eating and sleeping. He would inevitably return to being an inanimate doll once his limited chakra supply ran out.
"Perhaps it would be better if we returned to the village to regroup?" proposed Kujaku. "Gather more weapons and supporters to expel the foreigners?"
"A most wise plan," replied Seimei, nodding to himself. "Yes, we shall do just that."
To be honest, Kujaku was starting to feel more than a little disillusioned by this invincible-under-the-heavens-village-founder-who-would-solve-all-our-petty-problems-if-only-we-could-revive-him business. She'd let herself be convinced by her mum's ex-boyfriend, Hōki, to go along with his grand plan to make Takumi Village great again… but if she kept following in his footsteps, she was fairly certain she'd end up killed by some Konoha kunoichi, just as he had been…