RRROOOOM!!!
The explosion shook the world.
For a moment it felt like the entire lake had been hurled into the sky.
From a distance, it looked like a dragon made of water, surging upstream into the clouds, tearing the blizzard apart with sheer force. Then gravity took hold. Millions of tons of water came crashing back down like an inverted waterfall, roaring as it fell from the heavens.
The flood smashed outward, a crazed beast off its chain, trampling everything in its path.
Trees within several kilometers were ripped out at the roots, flung along with broken trunks and boulders. The roaring torrent punched through the forest, carving a raw wound into the land before finally racing off downslope.
By the time the water calmed and the churning surface smoothed, the lake's level had dropped several centimeters.
Whole swaths of forest were gone. The earth lay drowned under muddy water. It wasn't a battle. It was a natural disaster.
If Jūzō Biwa hadn't prepared water-style defenses in advance to shield his comrades, they all would've been swept off to who-knew-where.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow, deliberate applause cut through the hiss of receding waves.
Uchiha Sogetsu stood on the ravaged ice, clapping lightly, nodding as if grading a performance.
"Not bad," he said. "Worthy of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. Your reaction speed is sharp. Using the terrain to your advantage, breaking the impact with Water Release on short notice… your judgment under pressure is impressive."
"Y-you lunatic…"
Jūzō stared at the black mass rising from the lake's center, the steel-mountain silhouette of the beast. All color had drained from his face.
Three-Tails Isobu was supposed to be their trump card—the last-resort weapon of Kirigakure.
Instead, Uchiha Sogetsu had stolen it out from under them and kicked it awake with no warning and no containment.
"Uchiha Sogetsu!!!"
Kurosuki Raiga's veins stood out on his forehead. He bellowed, voice cracking with fury.
"You actually unleashed a tailed beast! Are you insane?!"
"Isn't this what you people wanted?"
Sogetsu nudged his glasses up, voice going cool. "Instead of wasting time yelling at me, maybe think about how you're going to deal with that."
He jerked his chin toward the lake.
Right on cue, the Three-Tails' massive shadow loomed larger through the mist.
Waves surged and crashed around it, white spray bursting like fireworks around a black mountain.
That pressure—raw and crushing—rolled out in a wave, a wall of chakra dense enough to suffocate. It hit the Mist-nin like a second tsunami.
Hum.
Two huge yellow eyes lit up in the fog, round and cold as polished bells.
Who knew how long it had been sealed at the lake's bottom? How long it had slept?
Now it had been hauled up and wrenched awake.
The fury that answered was enough to burn the sky.
Isobu roared.
Just that one sound ripped the wind apart and spawned a visible hurricane.
Spray and mist blasted away. The fog curtain tore free—and the Three-Tails' full body finally came into view.
A monster shaped like a colossal mud turtle, its entire form plated in heavy black armor. Each segment bristled with jagged spikes. Three massive, flat tails lashed through the air behind it; every swing carried enough force to make the very air crack like a whip.
"So that's the legendary Three-Tails… Isobu…"
Even the Seven Ninja Swordsmen—Jūzō and Raiga—had never seen a living tailed beast before.
Power radiated from that body in waves. Every roar, every breath, every tiny movement felt like it could trigger a landslide or tsunami. Books and reports didn't come close to this kind of shock.
"W-what do we do, Jūzō…?"
Raiga swallowed hard, fingers clenching around the Kiba blades. He dragged in a breath, trying to muster courage.
It shattered every time he met those ice-cold yellow eyes. Whatever bravery he'd scraped together dissolved to ash in an instant.
The ANBU behind them were even worse. One of the younger ones was visibly shaking, fear hollowing him out, battle will gone.
Raiga didn't blame him.
He could barely keep his own knees from buckling.
You couldn't fault them for this. Even among shinobi, almost no one ever saw a tailed beast with their own eyes. They were the stuff of legend—monsters that only appeared in stories told in low voices around campfires.
And every time they appeared, they brought enough destruction to wipe out a country.
Stop a tailed beast, with just this many people?
Ridiculous. Even ten times their number might not be enough to fill that thing's stomach.
"Go. Go now. Fetch the Mizukage!"
Jūzō was terrified, but he forced it down and kept his voice steady.
"Kakuma," he snapped, "you'll carry the report. Tell Lord Mizukage everything exactly as you saw it. He must bring the sealing team and reinforcements. Until then… we'll hold the tailed beast and Uchiha Sogetsu here as long as we can."
The named ANBU, Kakuma, froze for a second, eyes going wide.
"J-Jūzō-sama… you—you're planning to hold a tailed beast here?"
"Are you out of your mind?!" Raiga blurted. Even he couldn't swallow this one. "That's a tailed beast! Even if we all die here, we still can't stop it!"
"I know. And I'm not crazy, Raiga."
Jūzō took a long breath. Fear still flickered in his eyes—but something else settled in with it.
Resolve.
"Don't forget where we are," he said quietly. "Kirigakure is less than fifty kilometers from here."
That shut Raiga up.
"Fifty kilometers. If we don't stay and slow it down—at the tailed beast's speed, how long do you think it'll take to hit the village?"
Jūzō's voice dropped, heavy as an executioner's blade.
"And once it's inside the village… do I really need to spell out what happens?"
A tailed beast charging into the middle of the Hidden Mist. No warning. No seals. No preparation.
You didn't have to imagine very hard.
Whatever else Kirigakure was, it was their home. Their families lived there. Ordinary people, civilians with no chakra and no jutsu.
They were shinobi. When the village was in danger, they were the ones who had to stand between it and the storm.
If even the shinobi ran—
Who was left to protect that home?
Jūzō's words fell like a temple bell in a silent hall, echoing straight through every chest.
"So," he said, breath frosting in front of him, "for Kirigakure…"
He exhaled once, hard, and drew the massive Decapitating Blade from his back. His hands tightened on the hilt.
"No matter what, we stop the tailed beast and Uchiha Sogetsu here. We do not let them reach the village."
"Tch. Never thought I'd see the day you lectured me."
Raiga swept his messy bangs back from his forehead, a crazed grin slowly stretching across his face. Lightning crackled along the Kiba blades as he lifted them.
"You're right, Jūzō. We're the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Our village is behind us. We are not letting that thing destroy it."
"That's right. We're Kirigakure shinobi!"
Even the ANBU who'd lost their nerve straightened, forcing their fear down.
They stared up at the towering beast and shouted through their shaking:
"Come on, then! We won't run!"
"With the village at our backs, there is no retreat!"
Jūzō raised the Decapitating Blade high, then kicked off the shattered ice. He charged like a warrior walking into his own funeral pyre.
"For the Hidden Mist—charge!"
"Time to live our ninja way!"
Raiga roared, lightning bursting around him as he surged forward.
"Uchiha Sogetsu! We won't let you destroy our village!"
On the far edge of the chaos, Sogetsu frowned slightly.
…Why does it feel like I'm the villain here?
He pushed the thought aside as Isobu's roar shook the sky again.
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