Chapter 121: Intent
Is that human dead? He… should be? I put everything into that hit. A normal human would have been turned to paste.
Kurama wasn't entirely convinced. Something about the whole thing felt too easy. It had just been getting pummeled for an extended period, and now it had suddenly killed the attacker? The math didn't add up.
Is he really dead, though?
Before Kurama could finish the thought, the swarm of maddening shinobi was already launching a fresh offensive—seizing the opening.
Wretched humans. Fine, one is dead. But there's still an army.
Kurama absolutely refused to be sealed again. It was not going back inside a human body.
Running wasn't an option either—not because it wouldn't try, but because it couldn't. Konoha's shinobi outnumbered it by orders of magnitude. With Hiruzen, Minato, Gamabunta, and a mass of jōnin surrounding it on all sides, there was nowhere to go.
Only one option: fight through them.
But this new round of combat was going poorly. After Ryū's sustained beating, Kurama was noticeably flagging. The Konoha shinobi were pressing harder than ever.
Fury boiled inside the fox with no outlet.
* * *
Standard jōnin-level sealing techniques can't hold the Nine-Tails. And we need a jinchūriki vessel to contain it—shove the Nine-Tails inside a host. Unless I use… that jutsu. The Reaper Death Seal.
Surveying the ever-expanding destruction of his village, Minato pressed his lips into a thin line. His emotions were tangled.
He didn't know why the Nine-Tails had broken its seal. But he was the Fourth Hokage, and stopping the fox from further devastating Konoha was non-negotiable.
He couldn't let innocent civilians keep dying. He couldn't let the village his predecessors had built from nothing be destroyed by one rampaging beast.
He knew the consequences of the Reaper Death Seal. He knew them intimately. But he was running out of options.
* * *
Then Minato's thought process crashed to a halt.
Because the Nine-Tails had just been sent flying. Again.
Yes—the beast that had been locked in a desperate struggle moments ago simply… launched sideways. About forty or fifty meters. It hit the ground with a concussive impact that nearly flattened several jōnin who barely scrambled clear in time.
If they'd been pinned under that…
But the scene was familiar. And when Minato spotted the figure responsible—
He went blank.
Because standing there, looking mildly inconvenienced, was Yagami Ryū. The man everyone had assumed was dead.
His clothes were a little more shredded than before, but he appeared to have sustained… no significant injuries.
At least from what Minato could see on the surface, there was nothing wrong with him.
He's alive?! He took the Nine-Tails' full-power hit—and survived? If that had been me—ten of me, standing still and taking it—I'd be dead. All ten of me.
Minato's shock was profound. Ninety-nine percent of all shinobi in existence were glass cannons. Only a rare few had genuine durability—Tsunade, the Third Raikage, and a handful of others.
Minato was firmly in the glass-cannon camp.
Hiruzen was equally stunned. The former Hokage had also assumed Ryū was finished.
Reality, once again, exceeded expectations.
* * *
Ryū, for his part, couldn't have cared less about the internal monologues of the shinobi, the toads, or the fox. He didn't have mind-reading in his toolkit, and even if he did, he wouldn't have been interested.
He flexed his slightly sore wrist, looked at Kurama, and spoke.
"That slap of yours stung, I'll give you that. Pretty sure I've got some bruising. But is that really all the power you've got?"
Kurama—still dazed from the punch that had sent it flying—shook its enormous head to clear the fog.
Its crimson eyes focused on Ryū. Inside its mind, the phrase "this is impossible" was repeating on an infinite loop.
Is this ACTUALLY a normal human?!
This is a human-shaped Tailed Beast!
The real problem, Kurama realized, was the size differential. Its raw power wasn't necessarily inferior to this human's—but Ryū's body was a speck. Tiny. Blindingly fast. The fox simply couldn't connect.
And every time Ryū connected against the fox, it felt like getting sucker-punched by yourself at full strength.
So what—I'm supposed to just get beaten up again?!
* * *
The two stood facing each other. Motionless. Eyes locked.
Ryū was in no hurry to attack.
Kurama didn't dare attack.
Because it needed to watch Ryū's next move like a hawk. One more surprise hit to the face—one more set of teeth knocked loose—and the fox's pride would never recover.
The Nine-Tails… is afraid of that young man.
Hiruzen watched the standoff with unreadable eyes. His mind was racing.
Putting the Nine-Tails back inside Kushina was off the table. She'd been evacuated by Biwako. The battlefield was far too dangerous for someone who'd just given birth.
And Kushina was gone—and she was one of the most accomplished sealing practitioners in the entire village, thanks to the Uzumaki clan's bloodline specialty. Her absence removed the most obvious containment solution.
Hiruzen knew a significant number of Uzumaki sealing techniques himself, but executing them required a very specific opening. An opening he didn't currently have.
My only hope is that young man. If he can knock the Nine-Tails unconscious, the rest becomes manageable. But… knocking a Tailed Beast unconscious? Is that even a real thing someone can do?!
Hiruzen made his decision in a flash.
He barked orders to the surrounding jōnin: "Earth Release—immobilize the Nine-Tails! Sealing specialists, restrain it for as long as you can!"
The weight of a former Hokage's authority was absolute. The jōnin moved instantly.
A vast mud-swamp materialized beneath Kurama's feet, dragging its body downward. Thin chains of condensed chakra wrapped around its limbs.
Other jōnin—those without Earth Release or sealing specialization—launched genjutsu, Fire Release, and other visual-interference techniques, pelting the fox's senses with noise and confusion.
Watching the shinobi coordinate, Ryū could read their intent plainly.
They want me to deliver the finisher while they hold it down.
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