The sea of flames had not fully faded when Shinichi pressed his hands together again.
"Sage Art: Gate of the Great God!"
Crimson torii gates fell from above one after another, pinning the Nine-Tails to the broken valley floor. Before it could force itself up again, another Wood Dragon rose from the ground, wrapped around its neck, and began to drain its chakra.
Smoke and heat still hung over the broken valley.
Fukasaku stood on Jiraiya's shoulder, his eyes fixed on the Nine-Tails below. The giant fox was pressed beneath the gates, growling low, while the dragon around its neck continued absorbing its chakra.
After a long moment, Fukasaku sighed. "That boy... no wonder the Ninja World calls him the new God of Shinobi."
Even Shima fell quiet for a moment as she looked at Shinichi's back.
"Now I understand why people gave him that title," she muttered. "To suppress the Nine-Tails like this... even in Hashirama's era, this kind of strength would be enough to stand among those monsters."
Jiraiya did not speak for a while. He looked at Shinichi, then at the towering Wood Human beneath him, and finally at the Nine-Tails struggling under the torii gates.
This was the same beast that had once forced Minato to sacrifice his life. In the past, just sealing it had cost Konoha heavily. But now, it was being held down in the crater like prey caught in a trap.
Naruto was safe. With Shinichi in Konoha, the village would not fall easily either.
That should have been enough.
But when Jiraiya looked at Shinichi standing above the Nine-Tails, he could not fully relax.
He had trained for decades, survived wars, and wandered across the Ninja World. Even now, he still needed Fukasaku and Shima's help to enter Sage Mode properly.
Shinichi was only thirteen, yet he had already crushed Iwagakure and suppressed the Nine-Tails with his own strength.
Jiraiya looked at his back for a long moment and let out a quiet breath.
"Is this..." he muttered, "the true guide of the Child of Prophecy?"
Fukasaku heard him and turned slightly.
"Little Jiraiya, don't belittle yourself. Prophecies were never that clear. The Great Toad Sage only said you would guide someone and work with him. As for what kind of path that person would walk, no one could say for sure."
Fukasaku looked toward Shinichi again.
"Maybe his way is simple. If something stands in front of him, he breaks through it. If that so-called 'god' is really coming, the Ninja World may need someone like that."
Below them, the Nine-Tails suddenly struggled harder.
Its head, which had been pressed into the dirt, lifted slightly. Its eyes moved from Shinichi to the Wood Dragon around its neck, and its voice came out low and hoarse.
"You bastard... you're absorbing my chakra?"
The beast felt its chakra being dragged into the Wood Dragon. A moment later, the dragon's aura began to change, carrying a trace of its own power.
At the same time, it remembered the other familiar auras it had sensed from Shinichi earlier.
Shukaku, Son Goku, Chomei... and more.
"So that's it," the Nine-Tails said, its voice turning colder. "You're using Wood Release to take our power. You're collecting the chakra of all the Tailed Beasts."
The crimson gates pressed down harder, but the Nine-Tails still bared its teeth.
Shinichi stepped down from the Wood Human and landed near the crater. He walked up to the Nine-Tails' massive head and looked down at it.
"Looks like you understand," Shinichi said. "You are the fifth."
The Nine-Tails' body stiffened. To the Tailed Beasts, gathering all nine kinds of chakra had a meaning no human should know. They had all been split from the same source. Of course they understood what those powers pointed to when brought together.
"What are you trying to do?" the Nine-Tails asked, staring at him. "Gathering the chakra of all nine of us... are you trying to..."
Shinichi cut it off before it could finish.
"No need to probe me. I have no interest in becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki."
The Nine-Tails' pupils shrank.
So he even knew about the Ten-Tails. This brat knew too much.
Before it could think further, another wave of weakness spread through its body. The Wood Dragon continued drawing out its chakra, and the Nine-Tails' huge form began to lose strength.
"Damn it..."
Its gaze shifted to the dragon wrapped around its neck. Orange-red markings had already begun to appear across its wooden body, like the pattern of the Nine-Tails' chakra itself.
At that moment, Shinichi spoke again.
"But I can tell you one thing."
The Nine-Tails looked back at him.
"In the current Ninja World, there are indeed people who have set their sights on the Ten-Tails. Some of them even want to use it to bring back a so-called god."
The beast went still for a moment. Deep inside its mind, a memory buried under the long years stirred again.
"What did you say?"
Its eyes widened as it stared at Shinichi, trying to find even the slightest sign that he was lying.
"Which god? What else do you know? Tell me, brat!"
Shinichi did not answer. He only looked at the Nine-Tails quietly.
"Damn it..."
The Nine-Tails wanted to ask more, but its body suddenly trembled. Too much chakra had been drained, and it could no longer maintain its form.
Its mountain-sized body began to shrink. The nine tails faded, the huge limbs disappeared, and within a few breaths, the beast was gone.
Only Naruto was left lying unconscious at the bottom of the crater. Shinichi glanced at Naruto once, then looked away.
He had already said enough. The Nine-Tails would remember it, and sooner or later, Naruto would hear about it too.
His attention moved to the Wood Dragon that had absorbed the Nine-Tails' chakra. The dragon's body had turned dark orange, with crimson patterns spreading across its wooden surface like fur marks. The life force inside it was far stronger than the previous Wood Dragons.
Shinichi watched it for a moment and murmured, "Finally, the fifth Wood Dragon."
The dark orange Wood Dragon suddenly trembled. Light flashed across its body, and a huge amount of chakra rushed back to Shinichi through their connection.
This time, it was far stronger than before.
Jiraiya had just jumped down from the Wood Human and was heading toward Naruto when his steps suddenly stopped.
"Shinichi?"
Shinichi raised his left hand without opening his eyes.
"I'm fine."
Then he stopped holding back the power inside him.
Chakra erupted from his body with a heavy rumble. The ground cracked beneath his feet, and the air around him shook violently.
Jiraiya froze. This was the first time he had felt Shinichi's chakra rise from this close. It had already gone far beyond any normal ninja, and even the Nine-Tails' chakra from earlier seemed weaker beside it.
But Shinichi's chakra was still rising.
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