Hiruzen persuaded me to die

The Three Tails, freshly unsealed, locked its massive, furious eyes on Yagura Karatachi.

Once, they had shared mutual respect. Yagura had even become a perfect Jinchūriki, seamlessly controlling Isobu's power.

But that trust had shattered.

Yagura had promised to relinquish the Three Tails before dying. And yet, even while weakening, he had continued to suppress the beast, fearing it would break free at the worst moment.

The betrayal festered.

But then…

The tailed beast's murderous gaze shifted—

And landed on Naraku Hyūga.

Isobu's colossal body froze.

Flashbacks of being seized and hurled like a ragdoll by Naraku's towering wood avatar burned into its memory.

Not even Hashirama Senju had ever dominated it like that.

The instinct was primal. Urgent.

Flee.

"You're thinking of running?"

Naraku's voice was calm, even amused.

He clasped his hands into a seal.

"Wood Style: Wood Dragon Technique!"

Boom!

A massive wooden dragon erupted from the earth beside Isobu, coiling tightly around the beast's mountainous form.

"Not this again—!"

Isobu roared, but it was helpless.

The technique that once subjugated tailed beasts under Hashirama's reign now drained its chakra steadily.

The wooden dragon's grip only tightened, growing stronger with every pulse it absorbed.

Desperate, Isobu lashed out with its tails, trying to shred the coils constraining it.

"Still struggling?" Naraku muttered, almost admiringly.

He raised a hand—chakra humming at his fingertips.

Zzzzzzt!

Three massive black rods, forged from Yin-Yang Release, blasted from his palm and pinned Isobu's flailing tails into the ground.

The beast gasped.

It couldn't feel its chakra.

The rods… severed its connection to power.

Even the Wood Dragon continued siphoning its energy without resistance.

The once-mighty Tailed Beast now resembled a powerless chakra core, immobilized and subdued.

"Three Tails... defeated this easily?"

Terumi Mei murmured in disbelief.

She had assumed that at least a giant wooden golem would be needed—if not the full Sage Mode of the First Hokage.

Instead…

A single dragon and a few black rods had ended the battle.

The rods were especially disturbing. Even Mei, seasoned and formidable, couldn't comprehend them.

Yagura staggered, his breath shallow.

His strength was nearly gone.

"Terumi Mei…" he gasped, "no matter what… Mist must not provoke Konoha."

Those were his final instructions.

To survive, the Hidden Mist must not antagonize a monster like Naraku.

"…Yes, Lord Mizukage," Mei whispered, shaken.

Now she understood.

Yagura had been willing to give up Isobu—a national strategic weapon—not out of desperation, but because it no longer mattered.

No force in Kirigakure could stand against someone like Naraku.

Watching from a distance, Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.

His gaze locked on the black rods protruding from Isobu's tails.

That design...

They were just like Pain's chakra receivers.

The rods embedded all over Pain's body—the ones Orochimaru had once dismissed as aesthetic eccentricity—were exactly like Naraku's.

"What are those rods…?" Orochimaru murmured. "Are they the same kind that Pain uses? Do they… channel chakra?"

His mind raced.

Yahiko—Pain's body—wasn't special. He'd been an ordinary orphan from the Rain Village.

And yet, he had acquired the Rinnegan—the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths.

Something didn't add up.

Then, Orochimaru saw something that made his heart lurch.

Naraku unsealed a scroll and released a humanoid white creature.

"That's…"

It was unmistakable.

That odd white figure bore an uncanny resemblance to Zetsu, the mysterious member of the Akatsuki.

It was him—White Zetsu, alias Tobi—the idiot half.

Naraku tilted his head, curious.

"You're still alive?" he asked the wriggling, screeching creature.

Indeed, he had sealed this very Zetsu during their fight against the reanimated First Hokage.

By all logic, it should've died.

No food, no air, no movement.

But here it was—alive and cursing.

"You son of a—! You think you can kill me so easily?!"

White Zetsu raged.

It didn't need sustenance. It refused to die.

Naraku only smiled faintly.

"Perfect. I need your cooperation for an experiment."

A swirling sphere of Tenseigan chakra condensed in his palm.

"What the hell are you—?"

Before Zetsu could finish, the orb pierced into its chest, embedding itself.

His limbs jerked.

"I—I can't move!"

Panic rippled through his voice.

His hands formed hand seals against his will:

"Hare. Boar. Tiger. Rabbit. Dog. Rat. Boar. Horse. All ghouls are sealed!"

The seals snapped into place—perfectly executed.

A cold, ghostly wind swept through the clearing.

A monstrous Shinigami appeared behind Zetsu, cloaked in white robes and a mane of red.

Even Zetsu—brainless, reckless, arrogant—trembled.

He could feel it.

Death.

True, absolute death.

"You—you used the Ghoul Seal on me?!"

Zetsu screamed.

Naraku said nothing.

The ability to implant chakra spheres from the Tenseigan allowed him to remotely control any living being.

White Zetsu had just become the perfect test subject.

"I've always been curious…" Naraku muttered, amused. "If you use the Reaper Death Seal… would it kill even you?"

The Shinigami floated above, drool slipping from its grinning mouth, eyes fixed on Zetsu—and then… Naraku.

Naraku raised an eyebrow.

"Ah… forgot you were a glutton."

The Shinigami's hollow hunger wasn't selective.

It didn't care who you were—man or beast. It sought souls.

And Naraku's enormous chakra… made it ravenous.

But this wasn't the first time it had faced him.

Naraku calmly folded his hands into a seal.

A blinding golden aura enveloped him.

Tenseigan Chakra Mode.

The Shinigami froze midair.

The dark winds it had summoned… softened to a breeze.

Even an instinct-driven spirit like the Shinigami remembered pain.

The scar from Naraku's previous Truth-Seeking Sword—still unhealed—burned in its memory.

Naraku grinned slightly.

"Still afraid, huh?"

The reaper said nothing.

But it did not move.

Even death… had learned to fear him.