"Sigh... you humans, why do you always like to enslave us Tailed Beasts?"
Shukaku said somewhat desolately.
For a long time, humans have held the concept that Tailed Beasts are natural disasters, born to destroy human homes and order.
In reality, the original Tailed Beasts were all children raised by the Sage of Six Paths, each one a naive and kind-hearted being.
But with the passage of time, Shinobi appeared, human conflicts escalated, and conventional Ninjutsu combat could no longer meet the needs of war.
Thus, the armed forces of various nations all turned their gaze toward the Tailed Beasts.
Everyone wanted to obtain the powerful strength of the Tailed Beasts for use in war.
Coveted, deceived, harmed, and hunted by humans... no matter how naive a Tailed Beast was, they would eventually blacken and become demon beasts that hated humanity.
It was originally fine because the strongest among humans were the successive reincarnations of Asura and Indra.
Except for the generation of Hashirama and Madara, the stats of the reincarnations in other generations weren't that overpowered; the Mangekyo Sharingan and Wood Release only awakened in Hashirama and Madara's generation.
In the era without Hashirama and Madara, the Tailed Beasts were still quite free and easy, playing happily in the wild, occasionally destroying a city or trampling a Village.
Those days were truly carefree.
But all good things must come to an end; the strongest reincarnations of Indra and Asura arrived.
Shukaku was the most pathetic; before Hashirama and Madara even made a move, it was first sealed by the monks of the Wind Temple.
Hashirama and Madara joined forces, the Warring States Period ended, and the era of the Five Great Nations began.
All the major Shinobi Villages turned their attention to the Tailed Beasts; the Hidden Cloud Village was the first to act, with the Kinkaku and Ginkaku leading a unit to capture the strongest Tailed Beast—the Nine-Tails.
They didn't succeed and were eaten by the Nine-Tails, but they turned misfortune into a blessing by gaining the Nine-Tails' Chakra.
The power of the Tailed Beasts was still very dangerous for the newly established Shinobi Villages.
Later, Hashirama took action, capturing the seven Tailed Beasts from the Two-Tails to the Eight-Tails using Wood Release, and held the Five Kage Summit to distribute them across the land.
After leaving Konoha, Madara accidentally discovered the wild Nine-Tails...
By this point, all Nine Tailed Beasts had been sealed one by one.
This era belonged to Shinobi, not to Tailed Beasts.
Why do humans like to enslave Tailed Beasts?
Ryou answered Shukaku's question: "Humans don't just like to enslave Tailed Beasts; they also like to enslave their own kind. It's just that to humans, you are special."
Shukaku was puzzled: "Special in what way?"
"You can be enslaved for many years!"
Shukaku was a bit distraught: "Then I'd rather be enslaved than return to the Ten-Tails. At least for now, I am still myself."
Ryou ignored Shukaku and lay down comfortably, stroking Candy's cat head.
Nearby, Sasori took out Rasa's corpse and, while it was still warm, began turning Rasa into a Human Puppet.
Matatabi and Snowy watched with a chill; even outliers like them couldn't bear to look at what Sasori was doing to Rasa. One could only imagine how cruel Sasori really was.
Ryou, however, could still look.
After all, he used to be a Medical Shinobi and had come into contact with many disgusting human organs and had even performed human experiments.
Candy took a look at the lollipop in her paw, and it no longer tasted sweet.
"Sasori, why are you so cruel?"
Sasori continued turning Rasa into a Human Puppet for himself and snorted: "What do you mean cruel? When I was in the Shinobi World, I saw people eating others alive."
"Compared to that, I'm making Rasa into a Human Puppet after his death."
"Originally, I wanted to keep him alive so he could watch his blood being drained bit by bit and his heart and lungs being carved out..."
"...watching with his own eyes as he was made into a puppet by me!"
Just hearing it made Candy feel a chill; humans were truly too ruthless to their own kind.
Ryou didn't think much of it and even stepped forward to help Sasori, experiencing the process of Sasori making a Human Puppet.
What is there to be afraid of from the dead? It is often the living who hurt you the most!
Ryou looked at Rasa's face, his eyes still wide in death.
Rasa must have died full of regrets and resentment!
After all, his path as Kazekage had only just begun, and he had yet to realize his ambitions.
His youngest son hadn't even had his fill before he met his end. Who could possibly bear that?
"Why did a person like you have to choose to become the Kazekage?"
In the original work, Pakura's cause of death in the manga wasn't clearly explained; it only said she was a deceased hero of the Sunagakure.
Pakura being betrayed by Rasa and the higher-ups was anime-original content, a setting that contradicts the manga.
Thinking carefully, did Rasa and the Sunagakure higher-ups play Genshin Impact? Why would they insist on sending a powerful Kekkei Genkai user like Pakura to be a sacrifice?
It makes absolutely no sense!
Konoha's Uchiha Clan was also exterminated because they were going to revolt, but Pakura was a hero of Sunagakure, completely loyal to the Village.
If you ignore the matter with Pakura, Rasa actually wasn't that bad.
Regarding Gaara, Rasa didn't blame Karura's death on him or hate him.
In the original work, Gaara himself said that as a child, he had experienced fatherly love from Rasa.
It was only after the age of six that Gaara increasingly lost control of his emotions and became more unstable, with rampages attacking villagers occurring frequently.
The Sunagakure higher-ups told Rasa to find a way to control Gaara, and Rasa was constantly weighing Gaara's success or failure as the Shukaku Jinchuriki.
He pushed Gaara to the brink; if Gaara could still endure, he would continue to exist, but if he lost control, it meant Gaara was a failed Jinchuriki.
He could basically be disposed of.
But was he disposed of? Until the Konoha Crush plan, Gaara was still alive and well.
In the original work, including the time with Yashamaru, Rasa had Gaara assassinated a total of six times, and not once was it successful.
It might be because Gaara's strength was great, and an average Jonin couldn't deal with him.
His sand could defend automatically, making him very hard to assassinate.
But of those six assassinations, was there even one time where Rasa took action personally?
No. If Rasa really wanted Gaara dead, it would have been enough for him to take action himself.
Even the unsealed Shukaku could be suppressed by Rasa's Gold Dust, let alone Gaara, a failed Jinchuriki.
Presumably, Rasa's orders to assassinate Gaara were forced by the Elder Council!
He was the Kazekage, chosen by the elders; his power was greatly checked, and he had to consider the opinions of others in the Village.
Everyone hated Gaara, and the elders also wanted to replace him with a more stable Jinchuriki.
Rasa had no choice but to pick some Shinobi he didn't get along with to assassinate Gaara, giving an explanation to the villagers and the elders.
What father would look at his own son as an enemy?
In the original work, when Gaara and the Reanimated Rasa met again during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Gaara said he already understood Rasa.
Rasa tried to kill Gaara six times, causing Gaara to become distorted—how could that be understood?
Presumably, it was after Gaara became Kazekage and thought about the problem from a Kazekage's perspective, being completely suppressed by the elders, that he remembered his father's forced helplessness!
Rasa also had dark circles under his eyes like Gaara; Gaara's dark circles were formed from long-term insomnia.
What about Rasa's?
Watching his own child being tortured until he couldn't sleep, being targeted for assassination by people he sent, and being hated by the villagers.
He probably couldn't sleep either!
Rasa was just a failure, not evil!
If he hadn't become the Kazekage, Rasa would have lived very well relying on his Gold Dust.
But he just had to touch politics!