As the Jinchūriki of Takigakure, Jun had lived in terror ever since learning that Uchiha Shin was collecting the Tailed Beasts. The fear gnawed at him daily, but now, his worst nightmare had arrived. Uchiha Shin had come.
As a Jinchūriki, how could he simply hand over his Tailed Beast? That was the same as giving up his own life!
Jun knew Takigakure might abandon him. He had no choice but to fight.
Suddenly, a mass of black tendrils erupted from his body, piercing into the heart of the Takigakure Jōnin beside him.
A sickening squelch followed as the tendrils ripped their way through flesh and bone, extracting the hearts from their victims. The still-beating organs were drawn into Jun's body, merging seamlessly with him.
"Hahaha! I truly am a genius! Shigaryu, you never expected this, did you?! I secretly learned Earth Grudge Fear and mastered it in secret!"
"Jun! How could you do this?!"
The leader, was furious as he watched his subordinate collapse lifelessly to the ground.
Jun, unbothered by the carnage, jabbed a shaking finger at Uchiha Shin. "Blame him! If I hadn't needed to save my own life, I wouldn't have done this!"
His words left leader momentarily stunned, his fists clenched in frustration.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Shin observed the unfolding chaos with amusement.
"I never said pulling out a Tailed Beast would kill you," Shin remarked with a smirk. "I'm actually quite reasonable. Just cooperate, and I'll let you live."
Jun stood frozen, his mind racing. He wanted to dismiss Shin's words as deception, yet he knew the emperor of the Fire Country had no need to lie.
But he had already crossed the line—there was no turning back now.
"Aaaaaahhh!! It's all your fault! YOUR FAULT!!!"
Jun's voice twisted with hysteria as a crimson chakra cloak exploded around him.
A pair of insect-like wings burst from his back, and he let out a primal roar.
"Secret Technique: Scaled Powder Jutsu!"
Rather than forming a Tailed Beast Bomb, Jun spewed out a thick cloud of luminescent scale powder. The particles shimmered, clogging the battlefield and impairing visibility. The paralytic properties in the powder could numb an opponent's body and restrict their movements.
Takigakure's shinobi recoiled as their sight was obstructed.
Jun took to the skies, and from his body, multiple masked creatures began to emerge—his own creations from the Earth Grudge Fear technique.
Fire and Wind element masked beasts formed at his sides, their grotesque faces snarling in unison.
"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!" "Wind Release: Suppression Blast!"
"Combined Style: Inferno Tempest!"
A storm of fire and wind erupted, a massive tornado of flames forming in an instant. The searing vortex of destruction spiraled toward Uchiha Shin, scorching everything in its path.
A moment later, Shin's figure was engulfed in the inferno.
But Jun didn't hesitate—he began charging a Tailed Beast Bomb, a sphere of condensed chakra forming in his mouth.
The black orb shot forward, cutting through the firestorm like a lance of raw destruction.
BOOM!
The entire rock face of Takigakure exploded, and the village trembled violently.
"Ha… ha… I won! I WON!!!"
Jun's laughter rang out madly—
—but then—
SHWIP!
Black rods shot out from the smoke, impaling Jun's limbs in an instant.
His manic laughter died in his throat as he plummeted from the sky, his body twisting like a broken marionette.
The villagers' vision finally cleared, and what they saw chilled them to the bone.
Uchiha Shin floated in mid-air, entirely unharmed, surrounded by a protective shell of pitch-black orbs.
There was no doubt—Jun's devastating assault had been completely neutralized.
Shin exhaled in boredom. The barrier around him reverted to Truth-Seeking Orbs, orbiting him lazily once more.
"Universal Pull."
He raised a single hand, and Jun's battered body was yanked toward him like a ragdoll, dragged helplessly through the air.
"There's no saving fools like you," Shin muttered. "You no longer have any reason to live."
Chains, infused with chakra, shot forward—piercing straight through Jun's abdomen.
"AAGGHHHHH!!!"
Jun howled in agony as his body convulsed.
Before the stunned eyes of the villagers, Uchiha Shin forcibly extracted the Seven-Tails from Jun's body.
"Outer Path: Gedo Statue."
A monstrous figure materialized behind him—the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Without hesitation, Shin fed the struggling Seven-Tails into its gaping maw.
As soon as his task was complete, Shin turned away, addressing Tsunade with a curt explanation before taking off, showing no further interest in Takigakure.
There was nothing worth remembering in this insignificant village. The Tailed Beast was his only objective.
Meanwhile, Jun—now devoid of his Tailed Beast—crashed back to the ground like a discarded husk.
Though Earth Grudge Fear kept him from dying instantly, his body was failing. And as the villagers gathered around him, despair overtook him.
Shigaryu, his leader, looked down at him with a complicated expression. But in the end, his eyes hardened.
Regardless of circumstance, Jun had murdered five comrades and stolen Takigakure's forbidden techniques. He had committed unforgivable crimes.
The families of the fallen Jōnin surged forward, their faces twisted with grief and fury.
Uchiha Shin paid them no mind.
His eyes were set on his next objective—the Land of Water, where two of his subordinates, Konan and Guren, were already tracking the Six-Tails.
For the two kunoichi, this was their first major operation, and both were eager to prove themselves.
"It should be here—the place Black Zetsu mentioned," Konan murmured.
"I sense a huge chakra signature ahead," Guren added.
After spending so much time under Uchiha Shin, Konan's perception ability had been enhanced drastically, rivaling the famed Kagura's Mind Eye. Sensing the Six-Tails was effortless.
The two shinobi quickened their pace, and soon enough, they spotted their target.
The Six-Tails—Saiken—was resting near a mist-covered pond. Despite its name, the creature resembled a massive slug rather than a rhino or a dog.
It had limbs, though, which only made its grotesque appearance even more unsettling.
A foul stench filled the air as Konan and Guren approached. A thick, corrosive slime coated Saiken's body, seeping into the ground and blackening everything around it.
The moment they stepped closer, Saiken stirred, its massive bulk shifting in the water.
Konan and Guren instinctively tensed. This was no ordinary opponent.
Taking a deep breath, they prepared for battle.
"Dance of the Paper Blades!"
"Crystal Release: Crystal Clone Technique!"
Konan's body disassembled into thousands of razor-sharp paper shards, while Guren summoned a crystalline clone—a durable copy with nearly the same power as herself.
The hunt had begun.
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