Chapter 533: Nine-Tails (1)
"Entered..."
Haruno Sakura narrowed her crimson Sharingan eyes.
Her slender, beautiful eyes carefully surveyed the surroundings from left to right, up and down.
This was a dim underground hall filled with standing water.
There were no walls around the hall; it was pitch black, seemingly extending infinitely until it fell into endless darkness and deadly silence.
As expected, she had entered deep into Naruto's body, standing within the sealing world constructed by the Double Four Symbols Seal.
In the crack between reality and spirit, neither true nor false?
Then, myself here, and Naruto standing with his back to me not far away, are also just spiritual projections, right?
"Naruto?"
She called out.
No response.
The orange-haired boy was surrounded by the Nine-Tails' power. White, bubbly chakra wrapped around him, binding his body.
Naruto was still struggling but gradually losing strength, slowly losing his mind.
In front of him, the Nine-Tails' chakra leaked through the seal, condensing into the head of the demon fox outside the huge sealing cage.
A pair of orange-yellow beast eyes, fully half a person's height, stared at Naruto coldly and ferociously.
"What are you hesitating for, Naruto?" The demon fox's voice, full of蛊惑 (bewitchment/temptation), echoed in the hall, "Come, open your heart and accept my power..."
The voice was low and resonant, like thunder sounding in the ears.
"You need my power... otherwise you will be left behind by them, becoming alone..."
"Hehehe..."
The Tailed Beast's gloomy laughter made one's heart run cold.
"Let him go, Nine-Tails."
The girl said coldly.
Those icy crimson eyes glanced at the Nine-Tails emotionlessly.
"These eyes... are the Mangekyo Sharingan."
The Nine-Tails' huge head turned to look at Haruno Sakura.
As it spoke, with more and more chakra leaking from the seal, the Nine-Tails' form also became more complete, detailed, and solid.
The demon fox's momentum also became increasingly heavy.
"Haruno Sakura..." It said coldly, "I remember, you are not a member of the Uchiha clan."
Stared at by the demon fox's huge and malicious vertical pupils, Haruno Sakura showed no fear at all, and instead walked straight towards it.
Walking all the way to a position where the Nine-Tails' ghastly white sharp teeth were within reach.
"So what?"
The girl's clear and cold voice sounded faintly.
"If you don't want to get beaten up, let Naruto go quickly!"
The Nine-Tails cracked its mouth and sneered. It opened its mouth, its sharp fangs a full arm's length, extremely terrifying, and said grimly: "Being able to enter here shows you have indeed mastered some of the Sharingan's power..."
"I have also witnessed the power of the Sharingan in the past." Its body gradually became complete as it spoke. The Nine-Tails sat up from the ground, looking down at the girl from above, and said disdainfully.
"Madara Uchiha in the past had visual prowess even more evil and terrifying than mine. He once controlled me."
"However—"
"You callow brat, don't talk too big! Don't think that just because you transplanted a pair of Mangekyo and mastered some superficial knowledge of the Sharingan, you can style yourself as Madara Uchiha... Just you, are not worthy!"
Haruno Sakura sneered.
But there was no trace of a smile in her eyes.
"Madara Uchiha? I have no interest in imitating him."
She tilted her head, cast a sidelong glance at the Nine-Tails, her tone carrying absolute confidence and contempt: "On the contrary, it's you. It seems you have chosen to get beaten up..."
The girl's figure seemed so petite in front of the giant demon fox beast, not even as tall as the demon fox's head, but her momentum was awe-inspiring like a mountain, standing up to the Nine-Tails as an equal, actually not inferior at all.
Haruno Sakura's chakra surged out unscrupulously in front of the Nine-Tails, pure, cold, and powerful.
The demon fox snorted coldly.
Then.
Its attack came without warning.
Suddenly, a huge claw abruptly stretched out, raised high, and grabbed fiercely and swiftly at Haruno Sakura!
The disparate size comparison made the girl seem so insignificant and fragile before the demon fox's sharp claw.
As if it only needed to exert a little force to crush that petite body into minced meat!
"Go to hell!"
The Nine-Tails, full of sharp killing intent, shouted angrily, as if it already saw the scene of Haruno Sakura being torn to pieces by its strike.
However, Haruno Sakura watched the sharp claw attack, completely unmoved.
She just raised her head and abruptly widened her eyes.
Those crimson eyes glared coldly at the demon fox.
Just one glance.
The Nine-Tails bared its fangs, showing a ferocious sneer, but its expression froze on its face the moment the sharp claw swung down.
The sharp claw stopped above the girl's head, its movement frozen, unable to advance an inch.
The tip of the claw was only a hair's breadth away from her smooth forehead, yet that distance was like the end of the world, insurmountable!
"Genjutsu: Temporary Paralysis Jutsu!"
The Nine-Tails stiffened in place, unable to move. The momentum that was boiling and surging just now was instantly cooled down, as if a basin of ice water had been poured over it.
"Genjutsu..."
The demon fox trembled all over, using all its strength to try to break free from the girl's binding, while saying through gritted teeth.
"I didn't expect you to be able to exert the Sharingan's power to such a degree..." It panted, saying laboriously, "It was my carelessness."
"Hmph."
Haruno Sakura sneered.
"There are many things you didn't expect..."
Saying that, she reached out and grabbed the Nine-Tails' extended front claw.
Monstrous Strength circulated. Light blue chakra radiance rose from under the girl's feet, power generated from the heel, flowing like water, through the ankle, knee, hip, stacking layer upon layer, until it reached the fingertips, it had become an unstoppable, abundant huge force.
"Hey!"
Haruno Sakura shouted angrily. The chakra in her left hand erupted, actually pulling the entire demon fox, jerking it fiercely in front of her!
A slender figure disproportionate to the Nine-Tails' massive body could actually generate such power?
"Wh-what?"
The Nine-Tails' pupils shrank violently. Under this huge force, it was actually pulled to the ground without any room for resistance!
"Nintaijutsu: Star Cannon Hammer!"
The girl stood on the ground. A punch seemingly thrust out plainly hit the Nine-Tails with heaven-supporting and earth-shaking power.
Bang—!
The demon fox wailed. That all-conquering fist force swept over, blasting it into powder.
Pure violence shattered the Nine-Tails phantom condensed by chakra with one punch, splitting it into countless chakra bubbles, dissipating into the air!
"You killed the Nine-Tails?"
Sasuke had just barged into Naruto's sealing formula. At this moment, he was tearing off the chakra clusters wrapping around him and trying hard to drill into his brain. Hearing that muffled boom, he turned his head and saw this scene.
Watching the scene of the Nine-Tails turning to ash, he was almost startled.
The Nine-Tails... was actually beaten to death by Haruno Sakura with one punch?
"That was just a Shadow Clone of the Nine-Tails." Haruno Sakura shook her head and explained.
"The real demon fox is still within the sealing barrier."
The girl pointed to the towering and sturdy prison gate not far away and said in a deep voice.
She turned her head and glanced at Naruto. The Jinchuriki boy had rolled his eyes back, foaming at the mouth, leaning against Sasuke and slumped on him, still in a coma.
Naruto hadn't woken up yet.
But after the Nine-Tails' chakra supply was cut off, he wouldn't develop further towards losing control or complete Tailed Beast transformation anymore.
Safe for the time being.
—If they could handle that Nine-Tails standing in the sealing cage, glaring at them covetously.
The expression on Haruno Sakura's face was unpredictable in the dimness as she gazed at the demon fox from afar.
Those huge orange-yellow eyes full of hatred were still looking at Naruto with ill intentions.
The girl's delicate eyebrows frowned slightly.
She thought for a moment, then stepped on the nothingness of the standing water beneath her feet, walking slowly towards the sealed gate.
Separated by the sturdy sealed gate set up by Minato Namikaze, the person and the beast stood on either side, glaring at each other coldly.
"Nine-Tails..."
The girl looked at the demon fox as massive as a small mountain, raised her head, and murmured.
This demon fox before her eyes was not the phantom from just now, but the true physical body of the Nine-Tails.
As the strongest among the nine Tailed Beasts, the true body of the Nine-Tails naturally carried an extremely strong oppressive force. Even if it was just breathing plainly, the leaking chakra was astonishingly plentiful, and its momentum was overwhelming, like an abyss or a hell, making people palpitate endlessly, constantly reminding humans of its identity as an incredibly ferocious beast!
"You hit me hard, Haruno Sakura."
The Nine-Tails' roar, containing anger, rumbled, and the vast sound wave pressed towards the girl.
Haruno Sakura didn't retreat, but took another step closer.
"Hmph... so what?"
The girl stood indifferently, asking back coldly.
The four-corner windmill in her eyes spun slightly, cooperating with the restless chakra. The sharp momentum confronted the Nine-Tails head-on without any tricks.
The calm air seemed to suddenly whip up a whirlwind.
"If you're not convinced," Haruno Sakura's eerie red pupils projected extremely, extremely cold gazes falling on the Nine-Tails, and she said slowly: "We can totally fight again!"
"I can beat you until you are convinced!"
The Nine-Tails narrowed its eyes dangerously.
As a Tailed Beast, apart from being controlled by Madara Uchiha back then, when had it ever been provoked like this?
Ghastly killing intent flowed from every pore of the demon fox, condensing in the air, as if the temperature of the entire hall had dropped by ten degrees.
Its claws moved slightly, but it immediately suppressed the thought of attacking.
Those Mangekyo Sharingan are really too dangerous...
Haruno Sakura could actually subdue its clone with just a look, which reminded the demon fox of the humiliation of being dominated by Madara back then.
"Hmph...!"
The Nine-Tails snorted coldly.