Rasa was exhausted to the extreme, but he simply couldn't rest.
This prison had been specially set up with a formation. The moment he fell asleep, within three minutes, yellow sand would blow straight down at him.
This yellow sand was extremely sharp. When it struck his body, the pain was intense, enough to wake Rasa instantly.
Rasa really wanted to sleep, but he simply couldn't.
Right now, he regretted it. Deeply regretted it. He regretted sealing Shukaku into his own body.
But what was done was done. Since he had already become a jinchuriki, there was no separating from Shukaku for the rest of his life.
Rasa very much wanted to know why, back then, when Shukaku was extracted from Gaara, Gaara was still alive.
Unfortunately, Senku was already dead. No one could answer that anymore.
With Shukaku constantly spewing trash talk without restraint, Rasa's mental state quickly became agitated as well.
"Shut up, idiot! You're already sealed inside me, so just behave and listen!"
In Rasa's eyes, this tailed beast was nothing more than a tool. Naturally, he felt no reverence for it, only irritation.
["Hahahahahaha…"]
Shukaku's sharp laughter rang out, full of mockery.
["What the hell are you, daring to order me around? Once I find a chance to get out, the first one I'll kill is you!"]
"You'll never get out in this lifetime," Rasa shouted angrily.
But Shukaku stopped responding to him and went right back to spewing nonsense.
["I'll kill you all! I'll kill you all!"]
["Hahahahaha…"]
After being forcibly locked up by Rengoku for two full years, Shukaku had built up enormous resentment, along with an endless stream of trash talk.
He was even showing signs of going a bit insane. Rasa was just in poor mental condition, completely different from actual madness, so naturally he couldn't out-argue someone insane.
After all, Shukaku would suddenly switch into a frenzied state at times.
There was no way to communicate.
And Shukaku didn't need sleep. He could rant nonstop for 24 hours a day, not caring whether Rasa could endure it or not.
After venting his anger, Rasa's mood shifted from agitation to dejection.
And the most despairing thing was that this kind of life would continue until the day he died.
"Rasa, looks like you're having a hard time, huh?"
A leisurely voice came from somewhere, and Rasa sprang to his feet.
"Who?"
Obito emerged from the prison wall beside Rasa.
Rasa looked him over carefully before recognizing him.
"You… you're Obito?"
Although information about Obito had always been posted on the black market, he hadn't been active outside for many years.
In the ninja world, if there's no news for several years, that basically means the person is dead.
Yet not only was Obito alive, he had even come here.
"What do you want?"
Rasa was on guard, but the fatigue on his face was impossible to hide, especially the dark circles under his eyes.
They made it obvious just how badly he'd been living.
"Hahahahahahaha!"
Looking at Rasa, Obito found it genuinely amusing.
Who would be stupid enough to push themselves into a pit of fire like this?
Rasa didn't know exactly what Obito was laughing at, but it was clearly mockery.
"Damn it!"
With a wave of his hand, a large amount of sand gathered from the ground and shot toward Obito like spikes.
But obviously, with Kamui intangibility activated, Obito was completely immune to the attack.
After failing the strike, Rasa didn't continue attacking. Instead, he pulled the sand back to protect himself.
Even surrounded by sand, he didn't feel any sense of security.
Obito finally laughed enough and said, "No need to be so tense. I'm here to make a deal with you."
Rasa remained highly wary, but still asked, "What deal?"
"You can't sleep, right?", Obito asked.
Rasa snorted but didn't deny it. After all, it wasn't a secret.
"Do you want to sleep?", Black aura began to rise from Obito's body.
"You're trying to say wh—", Rasa didn't even finish speaking.
A blood-red Sharingan suddenly filled his vision, and his consciousness instantly fell into sleep.
At the same time, when Shukaku realized Rasa had fallen asleep, it immediately let out a crazed, shrill howl, ["Gahahahahahaha!"]
["This great me fin—"]
A gigantic Mangekyo Sharingan appeared in the sky, and in an instant, Shukaku lost control of its body
———
[Outside]
Rasa's eyes were now closed, and he had fallen into a deep sleep.
But the Shukaku inside him had also been controlled by Obito, unable to come out at all.
There was a trace of satisfaction in Obito's expression. After all, when he had controlled Yagura before, it hadn't been this easy.
When he used the Mangekyo Sharingan this time, he had catalyzed it with dark chakra.
The power of his genjutsu had increased by more than just a level.
Whether it was Rasa or Shukaku, both were taken down by him in the span of a single breath.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
An alarm suddenly sounded outside the prison.
Rows of holes appeared in the prison walls.
They aimed at Rasa and sprayed out countless streams of yellow sand.
Obito frowned, grabbed Rasa, and dragged him into the Kamui space.
The formation sensed that there was no one left in the room.
It immediately switched to another kind of long alarm.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Continuous footsteps approached as a large number of Sunagakure shinobi rushed in.
But Rasa had already vanished without a trace.
"Where's Rasa?", The Sunagakure people were stunned as soon as they entered.
"Rasa escaped!"
"Rasa defected from the village!"
Several of them were shocked. If a jinchuriki escaped, didn't that count as defecting?
"Hurry and inform the Kazekage!"
———
Meanwhile, on Konoha's side, in the time that followed, they began making secret preparations.
Since they couldn't leak any information, only a limited number of people knew that Konoha would be attacked.
Most of them were high-level personnel or elite shinobi.
Konoha also quietly recalled some elite members back to the village.
These included, but weren't limited to, Anko, Guren, Suigetsu, and others.
On the Uchiha side, before figuring out what kind of toxin the enemy had, they didn't plan to send their clan members out.
All combat personnel were assigned to protect their own clan.
Konoha's other elites were each assigned their own areas of responsibility.
Karin, Yakumo, and Shion were grouped together as reconnaissance and barrier personnel.
Since the predicted time of attack was during the day, things were relatively more relaxed at night, and everyone still rested as usual.
Every night, Rengoku would recall his shadow clones and return home to rest. In the morning, he would create new shadow clones again and continue practicing Water Release.
All of his dojutsu clones were stationed at several key locations in the village, making it convenient for him to teleport over at any time if something happened.
As for his main body, he went to Guy every day to learn the Eight Gates.
On Neji and Tenten's side, their wedding was arranged and held at a nearby time.
At present, the matter of Hizashi's revival couldn't be disclosed, and Konoha had been extremely busy lately, so no outsiders were invited.
However, Rengoku did go over and have a cup of tea, which counted as attending the ceremony.
After the wedding ended, Tenten sent her parents out of Konoha overnight.
After all, for ordinary people, something as serious as Konoha being attacked could get them killed with the slightest carelessness.
And just like that, four or five days quietly passed.
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