Hiruzen persuaded me to die

"What just happened? Did you cast some jutsu?"Terumi Mei turned sharply, eyes narrowing behind White Zetsu Tobi.There was nothing behind him—no shadow, no form.

But she felt it.A sudden chill.A suffocating aura of death and desolation, like something ancient had stirred.

"The... Ghoul Seal? Is that... a Shinigami?"

Tobi's voice cracked with rising panic.

He knew the name.From Madara's notes: a forbidden Uzumaki technique that summoned a death god from another realm, sealing souls in exchange for one's own life.

But the how had never been explained.

"You used me to summon the Shinigami?!"

Now his panic gave way to raw terror.

He had always been untouchable—regenerating, reforming, impossible to kill.But this?

This was death incarnate.

Terumi Mei frowned. "Shinigami... it really exists?"

She couldn't see anything, but the reaper's presence was undeniable.The very air twisted.

There was only one thing that could evoke that kind of dread.

"I hope you survive this," Naraku murmured. "Because then I'll be even more interested in how you're built."

The corners of his mouth curled faintly.

Tobi grunted as a phantom arm pierced through his abdomen—the Shinigami's hand.

It lunged straight toward Isobu, the Three Tails.

At that moment, a horrifying sensation overwhelmed Tobi—his life and soul were being drained.

His body knew death had arrived.

The arm closed around Isobu's core.

The beast couldn't see the Shinigami—but it could feel it.

Something ancient. Terrifying.

"Rise," Naraku commanded.

Suddenly, a massive chakra form, shaped like a spectral turtle, tore from Isobu's body.

Isobu thrashed.

"What is this?! What are you doing?!"

It was horrified. Its chakra was being extracted—but this wasn't like before.

When the Wood Dragon absorbed its energy, it could recover. Eventually.

But this... was different.

The energy being torn away was not just chakra—it was identity.

It would not regenerate.

Naraku narrowed his eyes, watching.

"Just as I thought," he muttered. "This is no ordinary drain."

When Minato Namikaze used the Ghoul Seal to split the Nine Tails, he had severed it into Yin and Yang halves. Both survived. Both regrew chakra independently.

This was the same principle.

The Shinigami wasn't draining chakra.It was dividing the tailed beast.

Naraku studied the phenomenon with interest.

"If I tried to cut a tailed beast in half physically, even with my strength, I couldn't create two living halves."

He wasn't a Sage of Six Paths.

But this method—the Shinigami's method—could.

Suddenly, he frowned.

Within the massive chakra mass being pulled from Isobu…a new consciousness was forming.

A second Three Tails was being born.

"Of course…"

He remembered: Minato's Yin Nine Tails and Naruto's Yang Nine Tails could talk to each other.

Separate chakra. Separate minds.

If left unchecked, the split would become a second Isobu.

Naraku's eyes glowed."Not on my watch."

He raised his hand.

Harnessing the Yin-Yang Creation of All Things, he severed the sprouting consciousness before it could stabilize.

He wouldn't allow another rogue beast.

Even when chakra was absorbed into the Gedo Statue, the tailed beasts' minds didn't die.

He wanted power. Not unpredictability.

"Let's go back."

With a calm breath, Naraku reversed the chakra bloom, collapsing the false consciousness inward.

The Shinigami's arm resumed its pull, ripping more chakra from Isobu.

"This chakra…!"Mei gasped aloud.

To her, Naraku now looked like the sun itself—blinding, absolute, divine.And worse—she didn't even understand what he was doing anymore.

It was like watching a god speak to something beyond the veil.

"Is the Three Tails... shrinking?"

A Mist Anbu blinked in disbelief.

They had just returned from putting down the rebellion in the Yoruichi clan.

They looked up—and realized that the monstrous turtle was indeed smaller.

"…It's shrinking."

Not sealed. Not suppressed. Just… shrinking.

Even experienced Anbu stared, stunned.

"Looks like this is the limit," Naraku said.

About half of Isobu's chakra had been extracted.

Any more, and the nascent second consciousness would re-emerge.

He exhaled, opened his palm.

Two gray-green gourds appeared—crafted from Wood Style and Yin-Yang chakra.

The Shinigami's arm turned, still gripping the extracted chakra.

Instead of sealing it into Tobi's body, Naraku redirected the energy into the first gourd.

This half of Isobu had no consciousness.

Perfect.

An ideal core for his future evolution into a Bloodline Snare-level being.

"Damn you… humans!"

The real Isobu thrashed furiously.

It was noticeably smaller now—from fifty meters to barely forty.

But the Shinigami wasn't finished.

Its hand moved again.

Despite its size, Isobu's body became weightless.

And in an instant—it vanished into the second gourd.

Author's Note:When Minato sealed the Nine Tails, the remaining half was visibly smaller. This is confirmed in Episode 469.Also, halving a sphere's radius from 50m to 40m decreases the volume by nearly 50%, due to the cubic relationship (V ∝ r³).

To be continued....