บท 203: Chapter 203: The Beast’s Broken Horn? Snowy, Go Fetch It!
The Eight-Tails let out a painful roar as the Tailed Beast Bomb it was gathering dispersed into nothing. Its massive face was nearly deformed from the blow, and its body slid further across the ground.
"Lord Raikage!!"
The Third Raikage had finally arrived. The Hidden Cloud shinobi cheered as their warrior god appeared on the battlefield.
The Third Raikage's expression was serious as he commanded, "Dodai, take your men and assist the injured immediately. Investigate the cause of the Eight-Tails' rampage. I will handle the beast."
Fighting tailed beasts was something the Third Raikage had plenty of experience with.
"Roar!"
The Eight-Tails, frustrated and furious after repeated defeats, roared and lashed out with its eight massive tails, thrashing them wildly in the Raikage's direction.
"Watch out, Lord Raikage!" Dodai yelled in alarm.
But the Raikage remained composed, charging fearlessly toward the beast. His right hand raised, enveloped in terrifying lightning chakra, as he aimed directly at the berserk Eight-Tails.
Dangerous!
Even in its rage, the Eight-Tails instinctively recognized the threat. Its tails whipped through the air, trying to strike the Raikage, but his speed was too great for the beast to land a hit.
In desperation, the Eight-Tails wrapped its tails around its own body, using them as a shield.
Splat!
The Raikage's Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite pierced through the tails, driving straight into the Eight-Tails' head. With a deafening scream, the beast's left horn snapped clean off, severed by the Raikage's strike.
If the tails hadn't blocked some of the attack, the blow would have landed directly on the Eight-Tails' skull, leaving it in far worse shape.
"What a terrifying attack..." Orochimaru's voice trembled as he watched, his body stiff from the shock of what he had just witnessed.
"Go retrieve the Eight-Tails' broken horn," Takuya mentally commanded Snowy before turning to Orochimaru. "We need to leave. The Hidden Cloud shinobi will soon track you down. If we don't go now, it's only a matter of time before they find out, and when they do, we might end up facing the Raikage and the entire village."
Once their identities were exposed, the Hidden Cloud would stop at nothing to hunt them down.
"Let's go!" Orochimaru agreed. The idea of sticking around had lost all appeal.
Originally, Orochimaru had intended to take the broken horn with him, but Takuya's warning made him reconsider. To get close to the Eight-Tails and the Raikage now would be far too risky. If they were discovered, things would quickly spiral out of control.
And if the Raikage led a manhunt, it could even force the Hidden Cloud to chase them all the way to the Hidden Leaf, putting Orochimaru in the position of being blamed for everything.
Risking it all for a horn just wasn't worth it.
Meanwhile, the Eight-Tails was dazed from the blow, giving the Third Raikage the chance to drag the beast out of the village by its tails. As the Eight-Tails recovered, it retaliated ferociously, and their battle slowly shifted from the village to the nearby Cloud Valley Gorge.
Within the Hidden Cloud, Snowy skillfully maneuvered through the chaos, sneaking closer to the battlefield. With a flick of its long tail, Snowy snatched up the broken horn of the Eight-Tails and quickly made its retreat, following the scent of takuya.
The entire village was in disarray, so no one paid attention to the small fox darting around in the shadows.
Dragging the Eight-Tails' horn, Snowy caught up with takuya and Orochimaru shortly after.
"Master, I'm back," Snowy said proudly, dropping the horn in front of takuya, its eyes sparkling with anticipation for praise.
takuya chuckled at the sight of the horn lying on the ground, and a contented Snowy, clearly expecting compliments. Orochimaru, on the other hand, looked as though he had eaten something bitter.
He had been eyeing the horn for himself, yet takuya had beaten him to it, with Snowy successfully retrieving it.
"You did great," takuya said with a smile, patting Snowy on the head. The little fox purred happily, nuzzling against his hand.
After sealing the horn into a scroll, takuya stood up. "Let's move. The Hidden Cloud will be a dangerous place for a while."
Once the cause of the Eight-Tails' rampage was uncovered, the village was sure to explode into chaos. A thorough purge of spies would follow, much like what had already happened multiple times in the Hidden Leaf. The other villages' planted agents had long since been struggling to stay hidden.
Many of them had undoubtedly cursed the Third Hokage and his ancestors countless times for making their lives so difficult.
With no time to waste, takuya and Orochimaru quickly made their exit.
Back in the Hidden Cloud, the battle was still raging. The fight had shifted from pure destruction to a fierce one-on-one between the Raikage and the Eight-Tails, with the sounds of their clash echoing through Cloud Valley Gorge.
Within the village, relief efforts were ongoing, but before the Raikage's arrival, the Eight-Tails had already caused considerable damage.
Following the Raikage's instructions, Dodai wasted no time investigating the cause of the disaster. The two ANBU members who had been monitoring the jinchūriki were immediately treated and interrogated.
"You're saying there was nothing unusual about Mona's behavior recently? And no one strange had contact with him?" Dodai asked, his frown deepening as he reviewed the ANBU report.
If no suspicious individuals had interacted with the jinchūriki, then how had the Eight-Tails gone berserk?
As their investigation progressed, all the clues pointed to the small restaurant that the jinchūriki had often visited.
But when Dodai and his team arrived at the restaurant, it was already abandoned. There wasn't a single person left inside.
On one of the tables, they found a small glass bottle, containing a small amount of purple liquid.
Seeing that bottle, Dodai had a sinking feeling.
"Take this back for analysis. I want to know exactly what this liquid is and how it was made!" Dodai ordered his frustration mounting.
Looking out over the wreckage of the village, the bodies and the wounded scattered everywhere, Dodai clenched his fists in fury.
"Whoever is responsible for this... I'll make sure you pay!" he shouted, his voice filled with rage.
The results of the analysis confirmed his worst fears. The liquid contained an extract of hallucinogenic flowers, designed to induce hallucinations in its victims. Once the affected individual's negative emotions were amplified, chaos ensued.
The drug had been tailored specifically to exploit the vulnerabilities of a jinchūriki.
Being ostracized by the villagers, treated like a monster, constantly monitored, and living under the weight of such oppression—anyone would eventually crack. Combine that with a substance that heightened those emotions, and disaster was inevitable.
In the end, the calamity was as much the result of the Hidden Cloud's treatment of its jinchūriki as it was the effects of the drug.
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