Chapter 573: Shukaku and Nine-Tails
"...Fine! You win, rotten fox! This time you actually win!"
Shukaku's voice erupted from that enormous body still flattened against the ground.
This gave Nine-Tails pause. It had given in? This thing had actually given in?
The stubbornest, most prideful, would-rather-die-than-say-I-lost creature in existence -- the dumb tanuki who would not admit defeat under any circumstances -- had just voluntarily said "I lost"?
"Which means you have to help me!"
Shukaku's voice kept firing out of that ground-level position, each sentence more urgent than the last, each one louder than the one before it.
"I'll admit it! This time I genuinely don't know what to do!"
Shukaku had made its decision. Compared to spending every single day in that desert with its paws pressed over its head -- compared to waking up every morning and checking first thing whether the ghost was still there, knowing there was nothing it could do regardless -- swallowing its pride for one moment was nothing.
So what if the rotten fox laughed at it? Fine. It could handle that.
"Don't know what to do? Gaara's been fine lately. And looking at you, you don't seem hurt. You're exactly the same kind of stupid as always."
Shukaku's fist tightened.
Its eye was twitching. It pressed the feeling down. It drew a deep breath. Then, dragging its battered body -- which was already beginning to recover -- it slowly hauled itself upright from its prone position.
"He's fine because that idiot has no idea what he's been living with every single day!"
"I am not sitting around waiting for disaster! I need to stamp out this threat before that ghost does something! Before it even gets the chance!"
"Ghost?"
Nine-Tails was genuinely confused by this. Ghost? What ghost? Those things didn't exist in the real world -- they were stories humans made up to frighten children, weren't they?
Shukaku then explained quickly and urgently: the puppet beside Gaara, the one called "Uzumaki Naruko" -- had suddenly, inexplicably, started radiating emotions that only living things were supposed to have.
For Shukaku, this was like -- a temple statue coming to life. Like a painting on the wall blinking its eyes. Like a wooden doll sitting in a cabinet slowly turning its head and smiling at you.
Something had possessed it. Something with unknown purpose. Something that could act at any time without warning.
Nine-Tails listened to all of this.
Then it was quiet for a moment.
This was the "ghost"? This was what had reduced the dumb tanuki to a shaking, incoherent wreck?
Nine-Tails had seen things -- had been in a position to know -- some of what Naruto was capable of. Capable of things that even Nine-Tails sometimes found difficult to accept as real.
Naruto could give other things life. Not as a metaphor. Actually bring dead objects into living existence.
Nine-Tails had watched. Naruto's body had absorbed -- it didn't know how many times -- the energy of those planets in deep space, the kind of energy that even Nine-Tails held in awe. Energy so vast, so pure, so ancient that what Naruto's body had become after all that immersion was something Nine-Tails could no longer fully comprehend.
So. Gaara had somehow gotten hold of Naruto's chakra. Nine-Tails didn't know the specifics, but it had a reasonable grasp of the situation.
The one certainty was this: any life that awakened through Naruto's chakra inherited Naruto's nature and way of thinking. That was a consistent trait in every living thing Naruto had brought into being. The puppet's personality and behavior would be just like Naruto's. It would never do anything to harm Gaara.
Which meant Shukaku was in no danger whatsoever. It had been frightening itself.
Nine-Tails looked at Shukaku doing its trembling routine, and felt a thought rise inside it completely unbidden. The corner of its mouth tried to pull upward. It pushed it back down.
Then it spoke in its most indifferent, most superior tone.
"Alright, rotten fox! You need to go and tell Naruto about this! Get him to deal with the ghost right away and--"
"I refuse."
"...What?"
Shukaku went blank. It thought it had misheard.
"Handle your own problems. Why would I do anything for you? You haven't forgotten, have you -- what you did to Gaara for his entire childhood? Naruto has some very strong feelings about that particular subject."
"But -- but!"
Shukaku panicked. That wasn't right. Yes, they didn't get along. Yes, every encounter between them ended in a fight. But at a moment like this -- at a moment when it genuinely had no idea what to do -- wouldn't Nine-Tails help it out? Weren't they both Tailed Beasts? Didn't that count for something?
Wasn't that just how things worked? Shouldn't Nine-Tails, out of basic solidarity between beings of the same kind, reach out a hand?
"You can't just leave me like this!"
"How am I supposed to fix anything! My chakra can't get through this seal -- not a single scrap of it! Every time I try to warn Gaara, he blocks my voice out completely! If I could get out of here I would have handled this myself already!"
"You're giving me a headache! Why should I save you! Die here for all I care!"
And with that, right before Shukaku's stunned and disbelieving eyes, the small Nine-Tails began to fade. Then it vanished entirely.
Nine-Tails was gone.
Shukaku stood there. Every ounce of rage, grievance, indignation, and feeling of betrayal it possessed detonated at the exact same moment.
"...You rotten fox!"
Shukaku's voice blasted out of its wide-open mouth.
"You heartless piece of garbage! You left me here to rot! What kind of Tailed Beast are you?! Where is your conscience?! Did you eat your own conscience?! You deserve to be sealed away! You deserve to be locked in a dark room! You deserve to never get out again!"
"Just you wait! Once I deal with this myself, you are first on my list! I am going to sew that disgusting mouth of yours shut! I am going to tie those tails in knots!"
"And then I am going to pluck every single hair off that red body of yours! Pluck it all off and dye you green! A bright green eyesore! And you'll get laughed at everywhere you go!"
Shukaku kept going, escalating freely, hitting every note it could reach. It went on for a full twenty minutes. It kept going until its voice went hoarse, until its mouth went dry, until its mind ran completely out of new material to throw at Nine-Tails.
Seething, it turned around. It was done here. Its footsteps were heavy, each one stamping a deep crater into the sand.
"Surprise!"
"AAUGH!"
A voice came from directly behind it, carrying the clear, unmistakable excitement of something that had been holding itself back for a very long time and had finally found its moment.
Shukaku didn't have time to turn around before an enormous force connected squarely with its back.
Its body lost all balance and crashed forward into the ground. Its face drove directly into the sand. It got a mouthful of it.
The small Nine-Tails had appeared again.
Its paw was still extended in the follow-through position of a kick, and the expression on its face was one of pure, complete, deeply satisfying relief.
Then it vanished again.
Not a single word left behind. No explanation offered. No time given for Shukaku to react. Strike delivered. Immediate departure.
Shukaku lay face-down in the sand. Sand in its mouth. Sand in its eyes. Sand in its ears. Sand packed into its nose.
It felt as though every muscle in its body was in spasm, every bone grinding against every other bone, every blood vessel boiling.
"YOU ROTTEN FOX! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
"GET OUT HERE! COME OUT AND FACE ME! COME OUT! Hiding in the shadows and ambushing someone -- what kind of ability is that?! Weren't you so full of things to say?! Weren't you so impressive?! COME OUT HERE! COME OUT AND FACE ME PROPERLY! I AM GOING TO FLATTEN THAT UGLY FACE OF YOURS! I WILL PULL YOUR ORANGE-RED FUR OUT ONE STRAND AT A TIME AND STUFF IT IN YOUR MOUTH! GET OUT HERE! YOU GARBAGE! YOU ROTTEN FOX! GET OUT HERE! GET OUT HERE!"