Kouta rubbed his aching behind while looking around the primal lair he ended up in. After the unexpected and far too powerful for a human throw that the little made-man pulled off on him the young man almost fell down breaking every single bone in his body. That would’ve left him paralyzed and broken, just laying down there waiting for whatever fate befell all those mangled victims of whatever was haunting this mine to also reach out to him.
Luckily enough, Kouta managed to take control of his fall, flip over and touch the wall with his feet which allowed him to stick onto it. The shock and inertia of the fall sent his knees crashing straight into the wall tearing up his ragged pants and opening some nasty feeling bruises. The medical ninja may not have been overly agile under these conditions so stealth was his only option at that moment.
The place that he ended up in was impressive, it was a gigantic cave with the usual cave structures like stalactites and stalagmites all over the place. A careless fall may have made the boy get impaled on one of them which would’ve been a very nasty injury for his exhausted state to take care of. Most of his chakra was spent on Mana and her healing, the medical ninja didn’t regret that for a moment.
After his eyes got used to the pitch black darkness and the quiet, which was occasionally interrupted by a powerful quake sending small pebbles down from the ceiling and then an occasional water drop from above pecking into a small pebble that must’ve formed from a collection of such raindrops, Kouta started slowly moving forward. His knees hurt when he was leaning down to sneak around. Must’ve been due to the injuries.
Kouta’s tired eyes then saw a strong and concentrated source of light, the young man rushed to a wall of salty stones and hid behind them. Letting his eyes peek over for just a small occasional glance. Deafening screams and even louder quakes shook the place. One of them lifted the medical ninja off the ground and then smashed him back down once the gravity took control of the situation again. A small group of miners ran out hiding everywhere behind similar structures to the one where Kouta was hiding. An even smaller group of mobsters ran out firing their strange kunai dispensers at something still remaining in the darkness of the cave which was not illuminated by the Audra ore shining its purplish blue light from above.
Kouta tried to peek again but when he did he could not believe his eyes. Humongous red eyes shined through the darkness and a colossal snout at least a meter larger than Kouta himself pierced through the veil of the darkness. The creature’s nose slammed into one of the mobsters with enough force for the poor man to explode into a combination of guts and blood splattering everywhere, perhaps it was good that the place was so poorly lit, that made the gruesome scene hard to see.
“Give that fucker all ye got, pin-cushion him!” another mobster shouted before he was splattered into a bloody stain by a demonic paw of the creature. Just briefly the young man hiding behind the rocky structure saw glowing orange fur on the creature that was slaughtering the remaining below mobsters and miners. Another mobster tried to use an explosive kunai on the fox-like creature but it didn’t appear to do much damage, it barely even registered with the monster at all. The fox leaned up, half of its immeasurably large frame was already in the blueish light of the Audra ores shining their natural light which the chakra particles in them emitted.
Its monstrous snout breathed out, the torrent of air coming out from its snout looked so easy and effortless and yet… The poor mobster screamed in agony as his skin and flesh got torn off by the immense pressure of the creature’s breath. Kouta looked at it in awe, “It’s the Nine Tailed Fox…” he realized, most genin knew of what exactly the Tailed Beasts were but not all of them.
The reason why genin may have known of the Tailed Beasts was because they were a bit overzealous, Jinchuuriki, the ninja with Tailed Beasts sealed inside of them were some of the most wanted people to be captured by a village so that their immense power could’ve been used by the village. However genin never engaged in combat with Jinchuuriki, only the most curious and excited to grow in rank ones bothered to read reports on the wanted alive posters containing information on the mysterious Jinchuuriki and then a little bit of extra research in the archives let one get the full picture.
The panicking last remaining mobster fled for his life firing off two smaller handheld kunai dispensers at the gigantic fox behind him before the monster’s mouth closed around him severing his arm and a leg which have been caught outside the creature’s bite range whereas the mobster was quickly munched up, as the demonic fox continued to chew blood burst from its mouth dripping madly onto the floor. Just what kind of trouble did Kouta end up in this time? He couldn’t have fought off the Nine Tailed Fox, his only way out of here was to go back and scale that wall up. He thought that was what he was doing in the first place but he got lost in all of his falling disorientation and all of that darkness in that primal cave.
“Hey, get out of my spot!” a miner’s whisper reached Kouta’s ear, the boy looked curiously at a miner shaking his fist at him. The medical ninja shook his head but then the miner decided it would’ve been the best idea to swing his pickaxe at him. Kouta rolled to the side and after the clang alerted the fox, one of its humongous nine tails quickly wrapped around the miner and soon he ended up right in the Nine Tails’ jaws just like the mobster before. Strange… Kouta had never heard of the Tailed Beasts being so predatorial in nature. That being said, the young man had no idea what the Tailed Beast fed on but he was pretty sure that eating people with such ferocity was not its usual behavior.
The Fox screamed out in rage, its demonic voice and the pure compressed chakra in its yell sent crushing shockwaves that grinded all the stone around it to dust, the walls above elevated by several meters, the floor lowered as a crater formed around the demonic beast, the stone structures behind which Kouta tried to hide got grinded into dust and Kouta felt his body getting sapped of its last remnants of chakra augmenting his endurance so that he did not meet the fate of the miners. Those without the ability to augment their chakra ended up torn to bits by the powerful concussive force. Some of them were left in small pieces, dismembered and torn to tiny chunks, some got tossed and grinded to the wall, crushed as if the shockwave was made of stone grinding them to the wall. Just the Fox’s angry scream decimated the entire cave and killed everyone but Kouta.
Slowly the Fox crept up to each and every pile of body parts and guts slurping them into its smelly blood dripping mouth as if they were just oysters in their shells. Such desperation! Kouta grunted angrily as his entire body felt like it was broken. He tried wriggling around but he couldn’t achieve much success, slowly he got behind a pile of stone dust hoping that the Fox took him for a corpse. Judging from the feeling of warm blood all over his face and his wounds he must’ve been quite similar to one. Then again, even if the Fox took him for a corpse, it’d have simply devoured him like the others…
“No use, boy… I can sense negative emotions, fear in your heart is crystal clear to me, don’t go too far” the strangely manly voice for such a thin giant Fox rumbled through the cave sending more crashing stones from above. It appeared as if though the monstrous yell of the creature almost destroyed the entire cave they were in. With a gracious leap the Fox appeared right next to Kouta, its breath rustled the young man’s hair, blood and guts from its growling mouth fell onto his face and exposed by his torn up clothes chest. Those demonic red eyes was the worst thing about the situation. They must’ve been the most devilish eyes the boy had ever seen.
Kouta tried to struggle but his body was completely paralyzed. “No use, little ninja boy, I’ve killed so many and destroyed so much that my killing intent is second only to the Ten Tails. Any ninja who value their lives are rendered completely helpless in my presence”
Just then a combination of loud clangs signaled that a loud and intense barrage of sparks fired off from the beast’s eyes. Kouta’s head just barely managed to look away only to see Mana standing further away, wielding one of those kunai dispensers, firing her own cards which she had loaded into the weapon straight at the creature’s eyes. The cards exploded, some of them emitted a freezing gas, some of them burst into acid, some of them emitted a highly flammable liquid that quickly burst into flames upon air contact, some of them exploded into a barrage of kunai and shuriken, firing them in all directions. Despite hitting the creature right in its eyes, without even blinking the Fox continued to stare at Mana as she kept on firing and reloading, desperate to save Kouta’s life.
“This girl’s fear… It surpasses yours, but then why would she be able to fight me if she is more afraid than you? Perhaps she’s not afraid of me, but afraid of your death?” the Fox continued to ponder as Mana fired off her entire ninja kit straight at it with no effect. Not even a single hair on the Fox’s fur was rustled let alone fell from it. The eye took completely no damage nor was it irritated at all by continuous barrages of explosions, flame and ice. Nothing worked at all.
“Leave him alone!” Mana yelled out angrily and with a trembling as well as desperate tossing the dispenser device at the Fox but failing to toss it strong enough that it’d reach the monstrous titan when she was left empty.
“Hmph…” the Fox cursed flicking in the air. The flick sent a howling wind projectile. Mana couldn’t even react in time, it was like the projectile travelled faster than the howling sound of it. She was ready to die at that moment, she almost accepted it. All that she wanted was to have had a little bit more success saving Kouta. Mana closed her eyes, accepting the compressed projectile of wind but when her eyes opened it appeared that Meiko caught her from behind using her jet boots and moved her away.
“You suicidal bastard” Meiko’s grin flashed right at Mana’s surprised expression.
The Fox growled angrily, judging from its expression it became much more pissed off and the intensity of its devastating attacks may have increased. The Fox then looked down and noticed that, except for a small trace of blood, Kouta was no longer there. He moved quickly while the attention of the demon fox was all focused on Mana and its killing intent no longer applied such dominating pressure on his chest making it impossible to breathe properly when the beast was looking at you.
“I’ll… I’ll EAT YOU ALL!!!” the Fox roared out in its destructive low pitched tone that started sending more rubble their way, giant stalactites started going down from the floor aiming to impale anyone they caught in their way. The Nine Tails found it impossible to evade them due to its immense size and so the stalactites made of pure Audra ores seemed to bother it a little. Clutching and dodging them to the best of its abilities the beast fled further into the cave.
Meiko blinked rapidly a couple of times. “Holy shit, we’ve repelled the Nine Tailed Fox!” she yelled out in glee. The blacksmith must’ve been the only person down in that cave not to be terrified beyond relief. Kouta was afraid of the beast, Mana was afraid of losing Kouta, Meiko was afraid of absolutely nothing. She was there to do her job and she would’ve taken on even the Nine Tailed Fox if she had to… The redhead placed Mana down on the floor, the magician stood back up and checked her empty ninja tool case.
“No… Something’s wrong” Mana admitted looking down and trying to find anything that she could’ve used. She may have needed a weapon if the three were to escape the mine through the back, it was entirely possible that mobsters were still watching the exits of the mine.
“What do you mean?” Meiko asked, Kouta just fell against the wall, the young man was pale and breathing heavily “ a side effect of being crushed by such overwhelming killing intent without a doubt.
“The Fox should’ve had no problem eating our guts. Its roar should’ve disassembled us on a molecular level, it’s a being that can destroy the world by just punching it really hard…” Mana checked her body for injuries and then looked back at where they came from.
“Wait… Do you mean this isn’t the real Nine Tailed Fox?” Kouta finally managed to speak but his shortness of breath made it incredibly difficult to do.
“No. It’s as real as it gets, you can’t emulate that killing intent. At my own time I thought Tanshu-sensei had the worst killing intent in the world, it was impossible to stand around him but this… This is something else entirely” Mana closed her eyes and started slowly walking back to where they came from.
“Wait… That’s right… You’re now a normal human… A killing intent like that should’ve made you go insane!” Kouta finally remembered what he learned in the Academy. Killing intent worked on a multiplied fiftyfold scale, even a smallest killing intent of a child who managed to kill someone in their early career as a ninja intimidated people to no end. Something like an ancient demonic fox creature should’ve made Mana go insane from fear and yet she didn’t tremble for a moment to grab the gun and fire off everything at it.
“I… I’ve built a tolerance of it after spending so much time with a murderous Sannin. Also I’m pretty good with self-control, I’ve spent my entire childhood meditating and learning to understand my own body. I could never again go insane, no matter how afraid I get, for better or worse… Sometimes when you find a very firm thought to focus on and repeat it in your head you can survive such an influence over your mind and matter” Mana lowered her head and stopped for a moment before rushing forward.
Meiko looked back at Kouta and winked at him playfully, “Yeah, she digs you, you should’ve seen her up there… “We’ve got to save Kouta!” that’s all she could babble about!” the blacksmith laughed out before rushing after Mana, losing the track of each other in this darkness was completely counterproductive and it was slowly starting to cave in out here. The three should’ve hurried back, it was safe to say that even if they rushed back to the best of their abilities it’d still be a close call if they could leave the mine.
“Wait… Really?” Kouta blushed and ran after Meiko “Wait up… Did she really say that!?” he kept shouted and Meiko while watching out for some of those stalactites so that they didn’t cut him in two before crushing him.
After a short track back to the large hole Mana bumped into Shimo, it was tough to see the Yuki in this darkness. The swordsman rather rudely pushed her off of him.
“What are the three of you doing? We need to go the opposite direction, the mines are caving in and the hole is completely covered up. It’s raining stones out there and soon the whole place will end up buried. We need to go the other way!” the swordsman yelled out grabbing Mana by her elbow and dragging her forward, this time a little bit softer than his initial push.
“Wait… What?” Mana looked at him confused.
“That stupid mobster blew up the mines, it’s all buried under, the only way out now is to hope that it has another exit down there” her teammate informed the magician of how the battle went down.
“We bumped into the Nine Tails, it’s pissed beyond belief and it fled further into the mines. We’re going exactly where it ran right now” Kouta explained their end of the story.
“Well then let’s hope we don’t bump into it again. We need to move, this place isn’t stable either. It’s falling apart as we speak up ahead” Mana closed her eyes and nodded to Yuki’s suggestion having just realized what their situation was. Having been the person who brought everyone to this mine she felt incredibly guilty about it all. She felt bad that she put them all into this situation where their only way out was to fight off some ancient demon fox for their exit.
“So… How did you survive that? Meeting the Nine Tails?” Shimo asked curiously.
“It was… Different…” Mana explained “Its eyes were completely glowing red and it was almost… Starved to death, it was so slim and exhausted. It must’ve spent decades buried here, it must be on its dying stages, its last legs”
Meiko blinked rapidly in confusion and then shook Mana wildly. “Wait, Tailed Beasts can die?” she asked curiously.
Mana nodded, “Technically they can, they die every time their host “ the Jinchuuriki dies however since they are not actually living beings but created artificially constructs of chakra, it is said in most historic sources that they are reborn instantly after their death. Within an hour or so after its death the reborn Tailed Beast is at its full power again with all of their memories intact.”
Kouta scratched his chin, he was still limping around due to his knee injury. “So waiting it out until it kicks the bucket is out of the question, even if its reborn weakened something tells me that it’ll still be hundreds of times stronger than this dying Nine Tails we’ve bumped into…”
Mana shook her head in response. “It wouldn’t work either way, this mine would fall down on our heads and this cave would collapse sooner than it’d die or we’d starve out long before it died. Plus, I don’t intend on letting it die, we’re going to free it, it’s just a wild animal who was caged in here, it may be a destructive force of nature but its place is out in the wild, not continuously starving to death and being reborn only to starve out again… Even destructive world breakers don’t deserve such a fate”
Shimo cursed, “Here we go again…”
Meiko laughed out playfully as if their plan didn’t include approaching a colossal Nine Tailed Fox just to lure it to freedom as the three carefully avoided the falling down rubble and moved in to the large spiraling tunnel which the Fox fled into, wherever it lead to, it appeared that the four would end up confronting it quite soon…
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