Snap!
Makiya snapped his fingers, and Yugito's genjutsu was instantly dispelled. At the same time, the ocular power within Matatabi dissipated, and the Sharingan in its eyes gradually faded away.
"Yugito, we need to run!"
The moment it regained consciousness, Matatabi roared anxiously within Yugito's mind.
"Pah!" Yugito pressed her hands against the ground and leaped into the air, spitting out a mouthful of sand before glaring viciously at Makiya.
Blue flames ignited across her body, illuminating the pitch-black cavern within the mountain.
"I was careless before. I didn't dodge when he ambushed me. Matatabi, if we work together, what kind of enemy can't we defeat?" Yugito said to the Two-Tails in her heart.
With blue flames obscuring her private areas, Yugito spread her legs and crouched low, her sharp claws digging into the ground. Her hips swayed slightly as she assumed the predatory stance of a cat demon.
"He's an Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan! We can't beat him!" Matatabi's massive feline face was full of anxiety as its ethereal blue paws paced restlessly on the floor of the sealing space. "You might not know what the Mangekyo Sharingan is, but trust me. Have I ever led you astray?"
"Matatabi, we're clearly in the heart of the enemy's base. Where could we even run to? It's better to capture a hostage for information first. Whether we can win or not, we have to try," Yugito said. Her blue flames erupted as she lunged forward on all fours like an agile leopard, charging toward Makiya at high speed.
Makiya stood perfectly still, seemingly paralyzed with fear. A cold smirk played on Yugito's lips as her ten sharp claws, trailing waves of fire, stabbed toward Makiya's thighs.
Suddenly, she felt all light vanish. The mountain cavern disappeared, replaced by absolute darkness. A crimson glow bloomed before her. Looking up, she could see nothing but a pair of massive Sharingan eyes. Three tomoe spun rapidly, their gaze cold and indifferent, like a god looking down from on high.
"This is..." Yugito's body went limp, an unconscious murmur escaping her lips. Blue flames suddenly manifested out of nowhere, illuminating the dark space and dispelling the floating Sharingan. The cavern reappeared before her eyes. Her body was still in mid-charge, but the momentary lapse caused her to lose balance. She tripped and performed a flat-faced slide across the ground. Carried by her immense momentum, she skidded several meters, leaving shallow ruts in the earth.
Makiya shifted slightly, watching Yugito slide past him.
"Yugito, quick, help me..." Matatabi's panicked voice echoed in Yugito's mind.
Yugito instinctively looked toward the Two-Tails in the sealing space and found the pattern of the three-tomoe Sharingan flickering in its eyes.
Without wasting a second, Yugito flooded the space with chakra, helping the Two-Tails break the genjutsu. The tomoe vanished, and the giant cat became active once more.
"What just happened?!" Yugito scrambled up, baring her teeth as she rubbed her chest cushions. The damn ground was too hard; she'd almost scraped her skin off.
"You were just caught in his genjutsu. Fortunately, I transferred chakra in time to break it. He tried to control us both simultaneously, but he was a fraction of a second too slow," Matatabi shouted excitedly. "This Uchiha's ocular power is immense, but he doesn't seem proficient with genjutsu yet. He can only control us if we both fall into it at the exact same time. Even a tiny gap in timing fails. That's the advantage of being a Jinchuriki!"
Yugito thought for a moment. "I don't quite get it, but it sounds like we're immune to his genjutsu... right?"
Matatabi replied, "...More or less. But stay cautious. Don't look directly into his eyes."
"Simple. I'll just keep my distance and use ninjutsu," Yugito said with a confident smile.
She looked up toward Makiya, her sultry, authoritative voice echoing through the cavern. "I don't know what your motive is, but unsealing me was your biggest mistake. Prepare to regret your arrogance!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Yugito let out a roar. A massive amount of blue flames erupted from her body, and her form expanded rapidly as the fire intensified. Her limbs transformed into beastly claws, and two flaming tails sprouted from her rear, flickering in the air.
The blue-flamed cat demon stood nearly fifty meters tall. Before it, Makiya, standing with his hands behind his back, looked like an ant at the feet of a giant, destined to be crushed in a single step.
Having completed the full Tailed Beast transformation, the Two-Tails turned its massive head, using the firelight to survey its surroundings. It found the dark space to be incredibly vast, providing plenty of room to move.
"Roar! Do you regret it now, Uchiha brat?" Yugito's voice emanated from the Two-Tails' mouth. Distorted by the burning flames, the sound was a bit warped, but the smugness in her tone was unmistakable.
Makiya shook his head with a smile. Under the terrified gazes of the Two-Tails and Yugito, a sea of golden fire flooded the cavern, condensing into a translucent, menacing skeletal frame.
A massive spine shielded Makiya in the center, followed by ribs, arms, and a skull... Makiya's position shifted within the skeleton, rising steadily as the entity grew larger.
Fifty meters, seventy meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters... The skeletal giant continued to grow until it reached nearly three hundred meters in height. It only stopped because it hit the ceiling; any further, and it would have toppled the mountain peak.
The flaming skeletal giant burned with golden embers. By the brilliant golden light, Yugito and Matatabi finally saw the true scale of the vast, dark space.
It appeared to be the hollowed-out interior of a mountain. Had the Konoha ninjas hollowed out an entire mountain just to imprison Tailed Beasts?
The temperature of the flames was perfectly controlled, with no excess heat affecting the stone pillars or the cavern walls. Only Yugito and Matatabi felt the scorching heat waves constantly washing over them, making the air unbearably hot.
What the hell!
Matatabi stood there slack-jawed, and Yugito wasn't doing any better. The Two-Tails was a creature of chakra born of flames and possessed high natural resistance to heat, yet it was actually feeling hot. Just how high was the temperature of these golden flames?
And...
Matatabi and Yugito looked down at their small paws, then looked up at the skeletal giant that touched both the earth and the sky. For the first time, they felt the overwhelming pressure of a massive size disparity.
Matatabi had seen creatures larger than itself before. During training in the village, it had sparred with the Eight-Tails, Gyuki. But even Big Brother Gyuki was only about ten meters taller than it. The gap was nowhere near as staggering as this.
A sense of despair welled up. Yugito and Matatabi shared a glance in their mental space, both seeing the same sentiment in the other's eyes: 'Maybe we should just give up.'
Makiya manipulated the massive skeletal hand, reaching slowly toward the Two-Tails. The thirty-meter-long golden hand was just the right size to wrap around the cat's slender waist.
Like picking up a stray kitten, the skeletal giant lifted the Two-Tails off the ground.
The Two-Tails instinctively thrashed about, but the skeletal hand immediately released a surge of golden fire while the five fingers tightened. The pain was excruciating, causing the beast to wail repeatedly.
Seeing that the Two-Tails had settled down, Makiya retracted the golden flames. He carefully regulated the temperature, terrified that a moment's lapse would burn the Two-Tails to a crisp. He didn't dare use too much force either; since the skeletal giant lacked nerves, he could only judge his grip by the Two-Tails' expression.
It would be a disaster if he accidentally crushed it to death. Tailed Beasts took a long time to revive after dying, which would be a huge waste of time.
Makiya brought the Two-Tails level with his eyes and spoke slowly. "Two-Tails, your power is too great. I cannot allow you to run wild here!"
It had taken quite a bit of effort to construct this place. The mountain was completely hollowed out; if the Two-Tails knocked down a few support pillars and caused the entire peak to collapse inward, where would he find another place this perfect?
Two-Tails Matatabi:
"..."
"..."
Yugito:
"..."
"..."
Is he even speaking a human language?
Do you even hear yourself?
Matatabi felt insulted. How could anyone bully a cat like this? Just because you're strong doesn't mean you can humiliate a cat whenever you want!
Well, actually, he could.
In its long life as a Tailed Beast, Matatabi felt a profound sense of helplessness for the second time. The last time had been against that man, Hashirama Senju.
But that encounter had been far too brief. Matatabi had only seen a giant wooden hand pat it on the head, and then it knew nothing. When it woke up, it was inside the belly of a Cloud ninja. It had zero sense of participation.
This time, it had witnessed the entire process. The sense of participation was maxed out.
If possible, Matatabi didn't want this kind of experience.
It just wanted to be a carefree, happy little Tailed Beast that occasionally smashed a mountain for fun. Why was that so hard?
Matatabi clearly didn't know the fate of its big brother, the Nine-Tails; otherwise, it would have felt much better.
Unlike Matatabi, Yugito only felt a surge of terror. This Uchiha possessed such overwhelming power; the Cloud Village was in dire straits for this war.
As for herself?
Yugito had completely abandoned the idea of escaping. In the face of an enemy of this caliber, escape was nothing but a pipe dream. Her struggles felt laughable.
The blue flames gradually vanished, sinking back into Yugito's body bit by bit. The long-legged beauty with chestnut hair sat curled up in the skeletal hand, hugging her knees and looking quite pitiful.
"Have you accepted reality? Good." Makiya nodded in satisfaction, also controlling the flames to dissipate. The three-hundred-meter skeletal giant sank into the earth until Makiya's feet touched the ground.
The flaming hand finally vanished, placing Yugito on the floor.
"What exactly do you want?" Yugito bit her lip, staring fixedly at Makiya.
Makiya laughed brightly. "Yugito, right? And Matatabi—I know you're listening. I want you to assist me in my training."
Yugito and Matatabi: "Huh?"
Two hours later, inside the mountain cavern.
Yugito, covered in blue flames, roared as she pounced toward Makiya.
Makiya sidestepped the attack. The three tomoe in his eyes spun frantically as a massive amount of ocular power flooded into Yugito, simultaneously invading the sealing space to surround the slumped Matatabi.
The three-tomoe Sharingan appeared in the eyes of both the woman and the cat at the same time. The delay between them falling into the genjutsu was less than a second, giving them no time to dispel it for each other.
"It worked!" A flash of joy crossed Makiya's face. Under his command, Yugito crouched down, her hands curled in front of her like a cat's paws. She brought one to her mouth and extended her soft tongue to lick the back of her hand.
"Hmm, there's still a bit of resistance to overly excessive commands." Makiya revoked the order, and Yugito stood obediently in place, awaiting his next instruction.
"In a while, I'll bring some clothes. From now on, you will guard this place. If you find any strangers entering this valley, knock out the civilians and throw them out. If they're ninjas, knock them out and bring them to me. Understood?"
"Understood, Master!" Yugito replied obediently.
The mountain sanctuary had just been founded, but the guardian beast was already in place.
Flying on his sword to a city in the Land of Hot Water, he bought several sets of women's clothing. Then, Makiya mustered up a great deal of courage to enter an underwear shop. He randomly selected a few items and fled in a panic under the suggestive gazes of the shop assistants.
"How can a tiny scrap of fabric be so expensive!"
Makiya grumbled as he carried the clothes. The lingerie shop was practically highway robbery. No, even robbers weren't this efficient. High prices for regular clothes were one thing—at least there was plenty of fabric—but how could a tiny piece of cloth cost as much as a full outfit?
After handing the clothes over to Yugito and giving her a few more instructions, Makiya flew off on his sword and returned to the camp.
Minato still hadn't returned from the front lines, and there were very few ninjas in the camp. Makiya returned to his large tent and soaked comfortably in a hot spring to wash away his fatigue.
Just as he finished changing, there was a knock on the door. He opened it to find a travel-worn Tekka Uchiha.
Tekka first handed Makiya a large pile of sealing scrolls containing the Eight-Tails' chakra. Makiya could feel the highly corrosive chakra eating away at the scrolls.
Aside from the scrolls, Tekka brought news that surprised Makiya: the Great Elder of the Uchiha wanted to meet with him.
Patriarch Fugaku had been staying in Konoha recently to be with his child, spending his days with Lady Mikoto and enjoying family life. The duty of leading the Uchiha clansmen on the front lines had fallen to the Great Elder.
"What does he want with me?" Makiya murmured to himself. Tekka's eyes were full of expectation as he delivered the message, which was clearly unusual.
Could it be that the Uchiha hardliners were planning something?
>
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