`Meanwhile, on the other side.
On the deserted island where the Seven-Tails was sealed.
Inside an underground chamber, Seimei's figure silently appeared.
In front of him, Shemu saw this but did not react much. He merely lifted his head slightly before closing his eyes again, as if he were sleeping.
In reality, that wasn't far from the truth.
Over the past month, due to the constant extraction of chakra from his body, his condition had deteriorated significantly.
Although most of the chakra extracted was from the Seven-Tails' leakage, one could not forget that a Tailed Beast's chakra is inherently corrosive to the human body.
If the seal were intact, it would be manageable—Shemu's own chakra could suppress it.
However, to ensure that the Seven-Tails' chakra leaked out as much as possible, Seimei had deliberately torn apart part of the seal.
This left Shemu completely unable to suppress the Tailed Beast's chakra from invading his body.
During this period, Seimei had his shadow clone feed Shemu enough military ration pills to replenish his energy, but the situation still worsened.
Now, both his physical and mental state were on the verge of collapse.
And that was one of the reasons Seimei was eager to perfect the 'All-Encompassing Sealing Technique.'
Seimei did not want the Tailed Beast he had captured with such effort to enter the resurrection process just because its host died.
Fortunately, everything was going according to plan.
With this in mind, Seimei once again unrolled the massive scroll in his hand, spreading it out in front of Shemu.
Unlike usual, this time he did not immediately extract chakra as his shadow clones did, which made Shemu slightly puzzled.
Because of this, Shemu opened his eyes again, struggling to lift his head and look at him.
When he saw the enormous scroll covered in dense sealing inscriptions, his heart inexplicably skipped a beat. Without thinking, he hoarsely asked, "W-What is this?"
Hearing Shemu's dry and raspy voice, Seimei lifted his gaze toward him.
Originally, Seimei had no intention of responding. However, considering they had spent over a month together—
Well…
Even though it was mostly his shadow clones extracting Shemu's chakra, they had, in a way, built a certain 'acquaintance.'
So, Seimei chose not to hide anything and answered directly, "Nothing much, just something to seal a Tailed Beast."
"Seal a Tailed Beast?"
Shemu looked puzzled. "Isn't the Tailed Beast already inside me? Why would you need to seal it?"
Before he could voice his doubts, the Seven-Tails spoke in his mind.
A faint buzzing sound, akin to insect wings flapping, filled his head as the Seven-Tails spoke with urgency: "Hey, kid, he's planning to kill you. Find a way to escape!"
The sudden voice caused Shemu's expression to freeze, and the words he had planned to say got stuck in his throat.
Being the son of the former leader of Takigakure, he had been trained to maintain composure, hiding his emotions when necessary.
Otherwise, he might have screamed out in shock at this unexpected voice.
However, despite his outward calm, he was still a young man. No matter how steady he appeared, a slight change in his expression betrayed his inner turmoil.
Fortunately, after answering Shemu's question, Seimei lowered his head and continued working on the scroll, paying him no further attention. This allowed Shemu to breathe a slight sigh of relief.
Gathering his focus, he tentatively asked in his mind, "Who are you?"
Indeed, he had no idea that the voice belonged to the Seven-Tails.
Hearing his question, the Seven-Tails let out a cold snort and replied, "Hmph, who am I? I'm the one sealed inside you—Seven-Tails!"
Understanding the urgency of the situation, the Seven-Tails did not bother with riddles. Though its tone carried a hint of irritation, it still answered Shemu's question directly.
"Seven-Tails?"
Shemu was momentarily stunned before realization struck him, and he exclaimed, "You have intelligence? You can communicate?!"
Clearly, Takigakure—or at least Shemu—was unaware of such information.
"Heh…"
Hearing this, the Seven-Tails let out a couple of mocking chuckles before responding, "You humans are so arrogant. Is it really so hard to believe that I have intelligence? So many summoned beasts can communicate with humans—why would I be any different?"
"Then why haven't you spoken before?" Shemu questioned again.
"Hmph! Because humans are too greedy."
The Seven-Tails snorted coldly. Its tone carried both sarcasm and a hint of recollection, as if it had unpleasant memories of the past.
Shemu instinctively wanted to refute this claim.
However, he hesitated, unable to find the words.
Because… the Seven-Tails wasn't wrong.
Yes, there were humans with noble hearts, those who would sacrifice themselves for their ideals and beliefs.
But there was no denying that the majority of humans were greedy.
Take Takigakure, for example—
If the village elders knew the Seven-Tails could communicate, their first thought wouldn't be to engage in an equal conversation.
Instead, they would exploit this fact and find ways to completely control it.
Thus, Shemu found himself unable to argue back.
While he remained silent, the Seven-Tails spoke again: "Kid, think of something! If he extracts me from your body, you'll die too."
The urgency in the Seven-Tails' voice was apparent—it clearly did not want this to happen.
Not out of concern for Shemu's well-being, but because it sensed danger from the scroll Seimei had unrolled.
Instinctively, it knew that if Seimei succeeded in his sealing technique, freedom would become an unattainable dream for a long time.
This filled the Seven-Tails with dread, prompting it to urge Shemu to act.
However, what could Shemu do?
His body was already in a severely weakened state. While Seimei had stopped extracting his chakra today, allowing some to remain, he was still tightly restrained by the 'Self-Imposed Cursed Seal Binding Formation,' bound by nine chakra chains.
Under such circumstances, resistance was nearly impossible.
Not to mention, Seimei's real body was right in front of him—even if Shemu somehow broke free, his chances of escape were slim.
This realization left Shemu feeling hopeless.
At that moment, Seimei finally completed his preparations.
Glancing at Shemu, whose expression had become somewhat unnatural, Seimei chuckled softly but said nothing.
Indeed, he hadn't heard the conversation between the Seven-Tails and Shemu.
But he was well aware that Tailed Beasts possessed intelligence.
And intelligence meant the ability to assess threats.
Shemu had been speaking normally just moments ago, only to suddenly freeze—there was no need to guess what had happened.
Especially now, with Shemu's odd behavior, it only confirmed Seimei's suspicions.
However, he remained unfazed, because whatever plan they had was impossible to execute.
That was the confidence absolute power gave him.
Retracting his gaze, Seimei picked up a silver-white metallic sphere.
Then, he solemnly placed it at the center of the scroll, inside a circle inscribed with the character "封" (seal).
The metal sphere itself wasn't particularly special. If anything, the only remarkable aspect was the unique material it was made from.
The entire sphere was crafted from a highly pure chakra-conducting metal.
As the name suggests, chakra-conducting metal is a type of metal with excellent chakra conductivity.
Many high-quality ninja tools, such as the Kusanagi sword in Seimei's hands and the short sword obtained from the former Lightning Clan, which could unleash the "Lightning Release: Lightning Flash Blade," contained traces of this material.
And that was just with traces mixed in.
The metal sphere in his hands, however, was made entirely from this metal.
With such purity, its chakra conductivity was undoubtedly top-tier—perhaps even unprecedented.
This wasn't an exaggeration. Most ninja tools needed to balance durability, cost-effectiveness, and other functional properties, which required mixing in other metals.
As a result, their chakra conductivity was inevitably affected.
But he didn't have to worry about those concerns, allowing him to refine the metal to the highest purity possible.
That said, this metal was extremely rare. Acquiring such a large piece had taken considerable effort.
In the end, he had managed to obtain it by disguising himself under a different identity while his Shadow Clone was away on a mission. He had all but forced the newly reorganized Takumi Village to sell him a piece.
Thinking about it, he really did have a connection with Takumi Village. His Kusanagi sword had come from the previous leader of the village, and now this metal was obtained from them as well.
It was enough to make Seimei feel a little guilty about targeting them again!