Shigeo leapt aside. "Senpū Ranba (Thousand Wind Blades)!"
Countless blades of wind cut across from every side, severing Zero-Tails' many arms. But in the next second, new arms sprouted. To it, the surrounding ninja were appetizers.
Shigeo unleashed Ranton (Storm Release). Lasers slashed across its massive body. Any normal beast would have been shredded. Zero-Tails simply re-formed, as if without flesh. Its severed parts vanished instantly. Its bulk swelled.
Shigeo frowned.
He vaulted over its body. "Then how about this? Mokuton: Kōmitsu Senshashu no Jutsu (Wood Release: High-Density Cutting Technique)!"
Zero-Tails looked invincible. It could regenerate endlessly. But every jutsu, every art, had its nemesis. Wood feared fire, fire feared water, the living feared pain, the dead feared curses.
Zero-Tails had to have its own hidden weakness. Purely physical strikes had no effect. But Mokuton's upgraded piercing jutsu might.
Hundreds of wooden spikes detonated inside its form. The entire monster vanished, leaving only its mask marked "Zero-Tails" clattering to the ground.
No corpse. No Shinnō.
Ninja searched desperately. Nothing.
"Stay sharp!" the sensor ninja cried. "It's still here."
Shigeo felt it too. Physical strikes were useless.
Myōjinmon (Gate of the Great God)! He tried binding it. Zero-Tails reappeared, unaffected.
Only one option remained.
A sudden gust swept over. Zero-Tails surged forward, sprouting arms. One snatched Shigeo mid-leap.
"Shigeo! I caught you! Now you'll see the might of the aerial overlord!" Shinnō's arrogant voice echoed from inside Zero-Tails.
Its body scattered and reformed at will.
Clutched in its hand, Shigeo was drained. The clone army protecting Wuwang Castle popped out of existence one by one.
"Tell me!" Shinnō shouted. "How did you kill the Fagui? Speak!"
"Simple. I planted chakra pathogens into her hair." Shigeo's voice was calm, even while being drained.
"Chakra pathogens? In hair? Impossible!" Shinnō snarled. As a medical shinobi, the thought had never crossed his mind.
"That's right. And now, I'm planting them into your chakra too."
Shinnō recoiled. Zero-Tails dropped Shigeo.
He landed lightly. His body glowed. He entered Sage Mode. Seven colored chakras flared.
Beams of bijū chakra burst outward—two-tails, three-tails, four-tails, five-tails, six-tails, seven-tails, nine-tails—all shimmering.
Golden light poured forth.
"No way… seven bijū chakras?!" ninja gasped.
Even Shinnō froze. He could not escape. Chakra beams pierced him.
"What are you?!"
Shigeo looked like a monster himself. Sage Art fused with bijū force. And not just any chakra—pure Yang chakra.
Zero-Tails convulsed, body unraveling. Golden light engulfed it and Shinnō. Their forms burned away to nothing.
Silence. Waves slapped the shore.
Shigeo dismissed the bijū chakra, turned, and started to leave.
"Shigeo!" Kakashi called. His face was a storm of shock. Every secret unraveled into something bigger. "So many bijū… how?"
All the ninja leaned in, tense. Just one jinchūriki would terrify them. This boy held seven.
Shigeo shrugged. "No big deal. I have them, that's all."
(End of Chapter)
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