After a while, the monster finished roaring and turned around, allowing everyone to witness its terrifying form.
Humans were as tiny and powerless as ants in its eyes.
Its body was very bloated, like a giant, chubby tanuki, covered with irregularly arranged violet curse marks.
"You damn human insects, how dare you seal me for so long? All of you, die!"
The monster, known as 'Shukaku' by the Sand Shinobi, had a booming voice with a unique, sharp quality that made it feel like a knife piercing one's ears, causing unbearable pain.
"Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet!"
Its mouth began to gather a large amount of chakra, and huge wind balls, covering a fan-shaped area, began to spew out, engulfing trees along the forest path and all enemies in their path.
A heavy boom echoed in the air.
Both its power and range were incomparable to conventional ninjutsu.
At this moment, the Sand Shinobi and Shiraishi's group tacitly ceased their fighting; they only wanted to find cover to evade the terrifying wind ball attack.
"Phew... Phew... Are you two alright?"
Shiraishi clutched his shoulder, where his clothes had been accidentally grazed by a wind blade from a scattered wind ball, leaving a shocking, bleeding wound.
Honestly, this situation was a headache.
One unexpected event followed another.
It was supposed to be a normal supply point destruction mission, but due to incorrect intelligence, they had to abort and retreat early.
Now, encountering such a rampaging monster, Shiraishi didn't know what to say.
More important than the Sand Shinobi now was how to avoid being caught in the monster's wide-range attacks.
"I'm fine, but this monster's chakra feels incredibly ominous. It's the most powerful chakra I've ever seen. It's hard to imagine such a being exists in the ninja world."
Ayane gasped for breath. With her Byakugan, she could directly observe how terrifying the chakra of this monster, named 'Shukaku,' was.
Among the people she knew, Ruri was already considered a ninja with a very powerful chakra reserve.
However, compared to this monster, their chakra levels were not even on the same scale.
"Of course. That's the Sand Hidden Village's Tailed Beast weapon. I didn't expect the Sand Hidden Village to deploy something like this onto the battlefield. We need to escape quickly."
Ruri seemed to know something, a hint of solemnity flashing in her eyes.
"Tailed Beast?"
Shiraishi raised an eyebrow. He had seen mentions of such beings in some documents, but this was his first time seeing one in person.
They were said to be nine ancient demonic beasts, now called Tailed Beasts by the current ninjas.
Their original source was untraceable, only known to have existed since ancient times, with extremely long lifespans.
Each Tailed Beast possessed a chakra reserve that ninjas could not match; a slight movement would shake the earth. Dealing with such monsters, even suppressing them with sealing jutsu, would come with immense sacrifices.
Such terrifying demonic beasts they were.
They were even more intimidating than what Shiraishi had learned from books.
The three of them—Shiraishi, Ayane, and Ruri—hid behind a rock, enduring the storm head-on. The rock was already heavily scarred, as if countless blades had scraped across it.
Feeling the heavy aura in the air and the still-raging storm, Shiraishi rubbed his throbbing forehead.
It couldn't be said that the situation was more dangerous than before, because the monster's rampage had caused the Sand Shinobi to stop their pursuit, their attention drawn to Shukaku.
However, the problem was that Shukaku's wide-range attacks had also caught the three of them in its wake.
"Wait!"
Ayane suddenly saw something with her Byakugan.
"What's wrong?"
"Hurry and go!"
Ayane didn't have time to explain, only urging Shiraishi and Ruri to quickly follow her away.
Shiraishi and Ruri dared not linger. Ayane must have discovered something, otherwise she wouldn't be so flustered.
Indeed, the chakra permeating the air grew heavier and heavier.
The whites of its eyes turned pitch black, and its pupils were sandy yellow—that was Shukaku's gaze as it stared.
Its downward gaze was as sharp as a blade, and its mouth stretched into an exaggerated, dangerous, and cunning grin.
It tore open its gaping maw, and small chakra orbs began to converge in front of its face.
These small chakra orbs merged, forming a single, gigantic black chakra orb.
The outer layer of the black chakra orb was enveloped in a faint purple, mysterious glow.
It looked like a huge, black gem emitting purple light, a perfect sphere.
The surrounding air stagnated, and an icy chill permeated one's skin, causing a shiver of dread.
Just as it was about to launch it, a heavy blow caused its bloated body to stumble, and the black, purple-glowing sphere was thrown into the sky in a parabolic arc.
Even flying in a parabolic arc, the black ball's speed was incredibly fast, like a gust of wind sweeping by.
Shiraishi and his companions, who were still running in the opposite direction of the camp, couldn't help but look up and saw the enormous black ball swiftly pass overhead, flying into the distance.
Light illuminated everything.
All figures, trees, and the ground vanished from sight.
The three of them involuntarily closed their eyes due to the intense light from the explosion.
The silence in their ears lasted for about a few seconds before a rumbling explosion began.
The forest shook, the riverbed collapsed, creating a sheer cliff directly ahead.
Dust rolled in like a tsunami.
An area of several kilometers of land was turned into a massive crater, completely barren.
"Cough, cough!"
Shiraishi scrambled out of the dirt, covered in dust, looking disheveled.
He saw Ayane and Ruri also emerging from the dirt, both looking very disheveled, with their arm and leg clothes somewhat frayed, covered in dense blood marks, and their injuries quite severe.
And these injuries were sustained only outside the blast radius.
If the chakra ball had landed exactly where they were, they would have probably been vaporized instantly.
Shiraishi tilted his head, patted his ears, trying to shake out the dust.
Was this still a battle between ninjas?
Witnessing the utterly destroyed land before them, this thought simultaneously crossed the minds of Shiraishi and his two companions.
Regardless, it was too exaggerated for such a large area of land to collapse in an instant.
If such chakra balls were to come a few more times, no matter how strong a ninja squad was, it wouldn't be enough for this monster to slaughter.
"They're right ahead!"
"Stop them, don't let them leave here!"
Footsteps of figures moving quickly came from behind.
"Hurry!"
There was no time to be shocked by Shukaku's destructive power. They hadn't expected the Sand Shinobi to be so persistent, not giving up on them even now.
Did they not want the news of this place to be exposed?
Indeed, such a powerful monster weapon certainly couldn't be leaked to the enemy in advance; that way, they could catch them off guard.
Rather, because Shukaku's rampage was known, the Sand Shinobi would be even less likely to let them go. Once the news got out, it could very well cause their painstakingly formulated plan to fall through.
Because the Sand Shinobi were coming very fast, the three of them could only run in a straight line, escaping the battlefield as quickly as possible.
Shukaku's area had fallen silent. Whether it was resealed by sealing jutsu or something else, Shiraishi didn't know.
Now, the most important thing was still to escape the pursuit of the Sand Hidden ninjas.
Passing through the barren land destroyed by Shukaku, there were faint black chakra gases with a purple glow, visibly drifting in the air.
Seeing this, a thought sparked in Shiraishi's mind.
He had a very intuitive understanding of Shukaku's power.
This power was enough to make anyone's heart race.
So, he immediately took out a glass bottle from his ninja pouch, opened the stopper, and while running, collected the physical chakra that hadn't completely dissipated along the way.
In just a moment, the chakra was collected. Shiraishi put the glass bottle back into his ninja pouch, smiling contentedly.
It seemed this time wasn't without its gains after all.
If conditions allowed, he truly wanted to find a place to thoroughly study this peculiar chakra; he might gain tremendous inspiration from it.