Kakashi Hatake had always been consumed by curiosity about the mysterious masked man's identity - an itch that refused to fade no matter how many missions, battles, or sleepless nights he buried himself in. It wasn't simply that the man was strong, or that he moved like a shadow slipping between worlds. It was the way he looked at Kakashi, the way his presence pressed against Kakashi's nerves like a blade held just close enough to draw blood without cutting.
That gaze didn't feel like hostility born from opposing villages.
It felt personal. Old. Bitter.
And that was precisely what unsettled Kakashi most - because he couldn't place it. In all his years, in all the faces he'd watched fade into the dirt, he didn't remember anyone like that. The only Uchiha he'd ever been tied to in any meaningful way was Uchiha Obito… and Obito had been dead for a long time.
Besides, even if Obito had lived, why would he look at Kakashi with that kind of hatred?
Kakashi's fingers flexed unconsciously at his side, the movement small but telling - like a man bracing against an answer he wasn't sure he wanted.
Chiba noticed the shift. He glanced at Kakashi, and there was something almost amused in his eyes, as if he could see the question turning like a knife in Kakashi's ribs.
"The time isn't right," Chiba said calmly, voice smooth and unhurried. "You don't need to know yet."
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed slightly. A part of him wanted to push - wanted to demand, to tear away the fog and force the truth into daylight. But another part of him, the part that had survived this long by understanding danger before it struck, recognized the weight behind those words.
Chiba continued, tone gentle in a way that somehow made it feel heavier.
"Just remember this - he will be your enemy. So if you don't want to be crushed by what's coming… get stronger."
A long breath slipped out of Kakashi, quieter than a sigh but carrying more exhaustion than he would ever admit. He gave a single nod.
"…Alright."
Around them, the shinobi of Takigakure had finally gathered in full, drawn by the aftermath - the torn ground, the lingering distortion in the air, the feeling that something monstrous had just passed through and been driven away by an even greater force. Shibuki, their leader, pushed forward with the others, his expression strained with relief and disbelief.
"Mizukage-sama!"
His voice cracked, emotion spilling through his composure. Behind him, the other shinobi stared at the marks left behind, at Chiba, and then at each other, as if confirming this was real.
"Those two… they were Akatsuki?!"
Chiba nodded once, as if confirming something trivial. "Yes. But it doesn't matter anymore. They won't dare come back anytime soon."
Shibuki's face brightened like a man saved from drowning. "Thank you, Mizukage-sama! Truly - this time, if not for you… Takigakure would have faced a calamity."
The shinobi around him murmured fervently, voices layered with awe.
"Mizukage-sama's power is divine…"
"That masked man's strength was beyond imagination - terrifying… but he still got beaten into the ground!"
"He won't act recklessly again. Not after that."
Yet Shibuki wasn't celebrating as freely as the others. Relief was there, yes - but beneath it, worry gnawed at him, sharp and practical.
Akatsuki had been repelled… but only because Chiba had been here.
And Chiba couldn't stay in Takigakure forever.
If Akatsuki returned when he was gone - what then?
The thought tightened like a noose. Shibuki's eyes flicked to the people around him: tired, loyal, brave… and still outmatched by threats that had grown too vast for small villages to withstand alone.
Unless -
Shibuki swallowed, then stepped forward as if he'd made peace with the risk of being judged. "Mizukage-sama, I… on behalf of Takigakure, I have a request!"
Chiba regarded him evenly. "What request?"
Shibuki's hands clenched, knuckles whitening. Then he spoke, clearly - loud enough that every shinobi around could hear the decision being carved into history.
"Please let Takigakure become a part of Kirigakure!"
He lifted his chin, forcing conviction into his posture.
"Just like Otogakure did!!!"
For a brief moment, the air seemed to still.
Chiba's gaze sharpened, interest sparking beneath the calm. Shibuki looked timid at first glance - soft-spoken, not the kind of leader legends were written about - but this wasn't foolishness.
It was survival.
Shibuki understood exactly what he was asking. If Takigakure became part of Kirigakure, Akatsuki would be forced to hesitate. Attacking Taki would no longer be preying on an isolated village - it would be provoking the Mizukage and everything Kirigakure represented now.
They would have to weigh the cost.
And in a world like this, hesitation could be the difference between annihilation and breathing one more day.
Chiba smiled faintly, as if appreciating the clarity.
"Is this your decision alone," he asked, "or Takigakure's?"
Shibuki looked back. The shinobi around him didn't even need a moment to confer. Their answer came as one, raw and immediate, the kind of unity born from fear, hope, and the will to keep living.
"It's the request of all of Takigakure!!!"
Chiba nodded once.
"Then I accept." His voice carried the calm authority of a Kage making a decree. "As Mizukage, I agree."
Joy exploded through the group - voices rising, bodies relaxing, shoulders uncoiling as if the village itself had finally been allowed to exhale.
"Thank you, Mizukage-sama!!!"
Shibuki bowed deeply, then hesitated, as though another thought had surfaced - one more chess move he couldn't afford not to play.
"There's also something else," he said carefully. "I hope that Fū, the Choumei Jinchūriki, can temporarily stay by your side. Whether you go to Konoha or Kirigakure… please take her with you."
He tightened his expression, speaking honestly now.
"That way, she'll be better protected. And… to be frank, it will also stop Takigakure from being watched so relentlessly by Akatsuki."
Chiba let out a quiet chuckle, not mocking - more like impressed.
"You've thought it through."
His gaze flickered toward the underground complex that housed the girl, and the weight of what Akatsuki hunted pressed into the silence between words.
"…It is a good solution," he admitted. "I agree."
Shibuki's relief became almost dizzying. If Takigakure merged with Kirigakure and Fū traveled under Chiba's protection, then the village would no longer be a convenient target, and Fū would no longer be a lonely prize waiting to be stolen in the night.
All they had to do was let the world know: the Choumei Jinchūriki had gone to Kirigakure with the Mizukage.
A single message - yet it would shift the pressure away from their throats.
It was, in every sense, a win-win.
Even the other shinobi looked at Shibuki with renewed respect. Young as he was, he saw the situation with startling clarity - like someone who understood that pride meant nothing if your people were buried beneath it.
By then, dawn had fully arrived, pale light spreading over the village and washing the battlefield's scars into something almost unreal - like a nightmare fading at the edge of morning.
Shibuki led everyone down into the underground base where Fū was kept, and he explained everything that had happened.
The moment she understood, her eyes widened, then lit up so brightly it was as if the sun had found its way underground.
"That's amazing!!!"
She practically bounced in place, excitement spilling out of her like laughter she couldn't hold back.
"I've always wanted to see other places! Honestly - ever since I became the Choumei Jinchūriki, I couldn't go anywhere. I've been stuck here forever. I was going to die of boredom!"
Then, suddenly, her expression tightened, as if fear had rushed in to balance her joy - fear that this might vanish if she blinked too hard.
"Mizukage-sama… you - you really will take me in?!"
Chiba's expression softened. He reached out and gently ran his hand through her hair, the gesture unhurried, steady - like he was telling her without words that she wasn't a burden, or a weapon, or a prisoner.
"Of course," he said simply.
Fū's cheeks flushed bright red, excitement bubbling out of her so strongly it looked like she might burst into laughter at any second.
And just like that, the crisis in Takigakure came to a clean, perfect conclusion.
Chiba had crippled both the mysterious masked man and Uchiha Itachi, crushing Akatsuki's plan to capture the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki in Taki before it could even take shape. With the danger driven off, Takigakure also chose - without hesitation - to submit to Chiba and Kirigakure.
From that moment on, Chiba's influence wasn't merely growing - it was swallowing the map.
Under his banner now stood four major forces and territories: Kirigakure of the Land of Water, Konohagakure of the Land of Fire, Otogakure of the Land of Rice Fields, and Takigakure of the Land of Waterfalls. In the shinobi world, that kind of reach was already beyond comparison.
And with Fū's allegiance, the weight in Chiba's hands became even heavier - both in power and in responsibility.
He now held four Jinchūriki: Yagura's legacy with the Sanbi, Utakata of the Rokubi, Fū of the Seven-Tails, and Uzumaki Naruto of the Nine-Tails. Strength like that could reshape the era… but it also meant that any misstep would draw blood on a scale most villages couldn't even imagine.
As a final gain from Takigakure, Chiba also acquired the fabled Hero Water - an elixir said to multiply chakra dozens of times in an instant. He didn't need it himself, not even remotely, but placed in the right hands it could become a decisive tool on the battlefield - something that could turn a desperate defense into a sudden breakthrough.
Once everything was settled, Chiba - accompanied by Shibuki - returned to the Sacred Tree.
Ever since that day Chiba's senjutsu chakra had stirred it awake, the tree had remained in a constant state of violent agitation, as though something ancient and hungry had been forced to open its eyes. The village had only just begun to relax after the Seven-Tails incident… and now a different fear had taken root, one with branches and vines.
Shibuki released a heavy sigh. "The villagers… they used to worship the Sacred Tree. Now they're terrified of it."
He swallowed, forcing himself to continue.
"They say it moves on its own. The branches and vines… it's like they've come back to life. It's been devouring other living creatures in the forest - draining them. It's horrifying. One of our shinobi was even… swallowed alive. His chakra and vitality were drained until he died…"
Shibuki's voice lowered, as if saying it too loudly might make the tree hear.
"Mizukage-sama… how should we deal with it?"
Chiba nodded once, calm and absolute. "I'll handle it."
Truthfully, he was interested. Not in the villagers' fear, but in the tree itself - because he could already sense the truth hiding under the name "Sacred Tree."
So he raised his hand casually.
A monstrous burst of extreme freezing air erupted outward, the temperature plunging so violently that even the moisture in the air seemed to scream. In an instant, the entire towering Sacred Tree was encased - branches, vines, trunk and all - sealed inside a thick shell of ice.
Then, with a sharp compression, the enormous frozen mass collapsed inward as if space itself had folded around it.
In the next heartbeat, what had been a colossal tree was reduced to something no larger than a palm - captured and contained, then stored away by Chiba as easily as pocketing a stone.
It was an ability he'd possessed for some time, but after grasping the concept of freezing space, his control had become frighteningly natural - refined to the point of absurdity.
Shibuki stared, stunned beyond words. Admiration hit him like a wave, leaving him almost dizzy. Watching that nightmare of a living tree vanish from the world, he finally breathed out in shaky relief.
Once the Sacred Tree - no, the "small God Tree" - was secured, Chiba returned to his room and resumed his calculations.
He released the small God Tree again and began probing it with everything he had: his chakra, senjutsu chakra, Hashirama cells, the Mangekyō Sharingan - layer upon layer of power and perception, tearing into the object's secrets without mercy.
Time flowed.
Chiba worked through the entire night, and by dawn, he had completely seen through it.
It was real.
This was undeniably a branch of the God Tree itself.
Long ago, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya had ambushed Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, fed most of his body to the Ten-Tails, and successfully planted the God Tree on this planet - letting it take root, bloom, and bear a chakra fruit.
When Kaguya consumed that fruit, she obtained power so vast it became almost impossible to describe with human language.
But in the end, she was betrayed by her own two sons, and a war erupted between mother and children - something closer to a divine catastrophe than any shinobi conflict.
Cornered and enraged, Kaguya fused with the God Tree itself, transforming into the true Ten-Tails and facing her sons in a final battle.
Ultimately, she was sealed by the Sage of Six Paths and Ōtsutsuki Hamura using Chibaku Tensei ("Six Paths: Planetary Devastation").
The Ten-Tails' empty shell became the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, locked away inside the moon born from that sealing technique. Its chakra, split apart by the Sage of Six Paths, became the nine great tailed beasts.
And yet…
As Chiba had already suspected, a portion of the God Tree had never truly died.
Its roots still sprawled beneath the shinobi world like a buried circulatory system, woven through the planet itself. The only reason it remained dormant was because it could no longer freely absorb natural energy - so it hid.
But Takigakure was different.
It was a secluded paradise, rich beyond measure in natural energy. A section of the God Tree's roots happened to pass beneath it, and over time, that root slowly fed - drinking in the abundant natural energy until it produced this small God Tree above ground.
Even the Hero Water…
…was secreted from this small God Tree.
It was only a ten-thousandth - a minuscule fragment - yet it was still, without question, part of the God Tree.
When Chiba reached that conclusion, he didn't just study it anymore.
He tested it.
He reached for a fusion.
No - more than that.
His goal was clear, sharp, and ruthless:
He would devour the small God Tree.
For someone who possessed the power of the Frozen Fruit and could freely transform his body into an elemental state, that wasn't difficult. More importantly, he already carried overwhelming senjutsu energy within him.
Because this was the source of the God Tree - of the Ten-Tails.
And it was also the only thing in existence that could truly restrain him.
A Ten-Tails Jinchūriki could ignore chakra and ninjutsu to an absurd degree… but could not fully ignore senjutsu chakra and natural energy.
That was the principle.
And Chiba intended to make that principle his own.
He immediately merged his body with the small God Tree's power and began to consume it.
The once-lofty tree seemed to dissolve as though being absorbed from within - shrinking rapidly, its form turning fluid, flowing like living chakra as it was pulled into Chiba's body.
In mere moments, the small God Tree was completely taken into him.
And in that instant -
Chiba felt a terrifying power surge through his veins, something so vast it made his senses ring.
No… it wasn't the full peak. It couldn't be. This was only a ten-thousandth of the God Tree.
But even so, what it represented was monstrous.
It was potential - the kind that could place him above the entire shinobi world.
A path to the true apex:
A genuine Ten-Tails Jinchūriki.
The peak of the Six Paths.
Yes.
From the moment Chiba devoured and fused with that branch, in theory, he had already become a Ten-Tails Jinchūriki.
Not the complete Ten-Tails - more like a "small Ten-Tails," a prototype, the embryonic form of that godhood.
But it was real.
It was the same principle as Uchiha Obito reviving the Ten-Tails using only fragments of the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails' chakra. The power might not match the absolute pinnacle… but the transformation of one's very nature was a chasm.
A boundary line.
One step, and a "shinobi" became something else entirely.
A being closer to a god.
Chiba was the same. His raw power hadn't exploded to some absurd, immediate limit… but his body - his essence - had fundamentally changed.
From this point forward, if he continued training, devouring natural energy and refining it into chakra… or consuming bijuus power -
He could eventually become an ultimate lifeform rivaling Ōtsutsuki Kaguya herself.
Of course, that path would be long.
But feeling the boundless, oceanic power roiling inside him, Chiba's satisfaction was unmistakable.
This trip to Takigakure had originally been about protecting the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki.
He hadn't expected a harvest like this.
Ten-Tails Jinchūriki Chiba.
From now on, he wouldn't merely rely on the Frozen Fruit as his trump card. Even within the shinobi world's own power system, he had already stepped onto the absolute summit.
And Chiba suspected - quietly, coldly - that elsewhere in the world, other branches like this small God Tree might exist.
If he could devour them all…
His strength would skyrocket beyond restraint.
But that was for later.
Once Takigakure's matter was resolved, Chiba bid farewell to Shibuki and the others. He led Fū, Jiraiya, Kakashi Hatake, and Team Seven - Uzumaki Naruto, Sai, and Haruno Sakura - back to Konohagakure first.
After that, Chiba prepared to return to Kirigakure.
He had been away for too long.
No matter how far his influence spread… he was still the Mizukage.
Chiba had Tsunade remain in Konoha as the Godaime.
Orochimaru continued moving between Otogakure and Konoha, obsessively researching Hidan's immortality - so absorbed that he could barely tear himself away. Chiba didn't summon him back to Kirigakure immediately.
Jiraiya took Naruto with him, intending to teach him how to control the tailed beast's power - protecting him while pushing him to train hard, to fulfill the promise he'd made to Uchiha Sasuke… and to Chiba.
In the end, Chiba returned to Kirigakure with only Fū.
Crossing the sea, skimming over the water's surface, stepping onto the Land of Water's soil - everything was new to her. For a girl who had rarely been allowed beyond the borders of her own village, every wave and horizon felt like a miracle. Curiosity and excitement clung to her like sunlight.
When they finally reached Kirigakure, her excitement became almost overwhelming.
After taking her around to see the village, Chiba quickly summoned Terumī Mei and the others to report on Kirigakure's development, while he also informed them of everything he had done during these days.
Kirigakure had welcomed its king back once more.
…
Meanwhile -
The mysterious masked man and Uchiha Itachi, beaten until they were barely recognizable, had only narrowly escaped death thanks to Izanagi ("Izanagi").
Even so, the catastrophic injuries Chiba inflicted on them remained.
The masked man's voice was cold enough to frost the air.
"Uchiha Itachi. How did you escape?"
Itachi was silent for a moment, his expression unreadable beneath exhaustion and pain.
"…Chiba let me go."
The masked man paused, then let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Oh? He's suddenly that kindhearted?"
Itachi exhaled, the sound heavy. "No. He wants my younger brother - Uchiha Sasuke - to kill me with his own hands. For revenge."
The masked man froze for a heartbeat, then sneered, cruelty curling at the edge of his mouth.
"That really is a fitting death for you."
His eyes narrowed behind the mask, anger and calculation mixing together.
"So that damned Chiba even planned that far ahead…"
Itachi looked at the masked man's miserable condition, voice low and steady. "What do we do now?"
The masked man's reply came instantly, sharp as a cut.
"What do we do? We failed to capture one Jinchūriki - so what?"
His tone grew colder, contemptuous.
"Do you think the other Akatsuki teams can guarantee success?"
Itachi fell silent.
"…."
The masked man turned away, voice sinking into a grim promise.
"Return to Akatsuki. I want to see just how many tailed beasts the other squads manage to capture."
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