My Techniques are a bit off

Main World – Konoha Village, Hokage's Residence, Early Morning

(Things have gotten tricky...)

In the dimly lit room, only a thin beam of morning light fell across the floor. Link sat at a small desk, hands clasped and elbows propped on the tabletop, wearing a deeply serious expression.

His secret had been exposed.

At first, he'd had a backup plan. The Stand named White Snake could extract a target's "memory disc" and "mind disc" from an ordinary human's body. Once the memory disc was removed, that person lost whatever was on it.

And because his transformation into a Stand wasn't permanent, once he canceled the Transformation Jutsu, the Stand vanished—and so did the discs. The memories wouldn't be returned to their owner's mind.

In other words, by turning himself into White Snake, Link could permanently erase memories from someone's mind. Thus, the fact that the Four Kage discovered his embarrassing secret hadn't truly enraged him; that was why he hadn't flipped out. If his "dignity" had really been compromised, he would have simply eliminated every witness and sent them on a forced "vacation" to another world.

After the war, he'd dragged the Four Kage off somewhere and permanently wiped from their minds the memories of seeing his toothless, fuzzy head under that mask.

However, there was a problem when it came to the Tailed Beasts.

Through some late-night testing, Link discovered that White Snake's ability didn't work on Tailed Beasts at all. He simply couldn't extract a disc from them. More precisely, when Link-in-Stand-form tried to place his hand on a Tailed Beast, it passed right through the creature—as if phasing through pure chakra. The ability didn't affect Shukaku, which meant trouble.

If Shukaku knew his secret, then eventually all the Tailed Beasts would know, which meant the Sage of Six Paths would know, and thus everyone could know. Link recalled he and Shukaku had some bad history; the beast might one day blab his secret everywhere.

(Maybe I should 'reincarnate' it into another world?) Link's eyes narrowed slightly.

Last night, he had forcibly ripped Shukaku out of Gaara and given it a thorough beating. As of right now, Shukaku was "quietly" squatting in the Tailed-Beast practice field inside Konoha. Link had never tried performing a mutated form of Edo Tensei on a Tailed Beast before, so he was curious.

(But what if one day, while we're off exploring another world, that guy's over there spilling my secret to everyone?)

Link had to consider much more carefully. Perhaps he could reincarnate Shukaku as a human? The question was whether that huge Tailed Beast could even be packed into the "black sludge" used for Edo Tensei. Given that Tailed Beasts can appear in Naruto's mental realm, presumably they have "souls" or a soul-like consciousness.

If you Edo Tensei a Tailed Beast, would you get a smaller Tailed Beast with a physical body, or a human form?

If it did become human, could the Ten-Tails still form itself from parts of them? Could the Ten-Tails itself be reincarnated? What about Kaguya Ōtsutsuki? And Black Zetsu?

Suddenly, Link realized all sorts of odd possibilities, and his mind spiraled. Eventually, the warm morning sunlight spread across the room.

(Let's just give it a try.)

After all, Tailed Beasts didn't exactly have "human rights." Humans had harmed Tailed Beasts in the past, and Tailed Beasts had killed plenty of humans, too. There was no fear of someone leaping out with "Tailed Beast Protection" nonsense. Though who knew if some random group might emerge in the future…

Link drifted off in his usual daydream, then yawned and rubbed his eyes, pushing down his sleepiness. He had to resolve this before Shukaku blurted out his secret.

…

Ten Minutes Later, at the Training Grounds

The colossal Shukaku stood dull-eyed on the sand, utterly subdued by a Sharingan genjutsu.

Nearby, Sasuke had his Three-Tomoe Sharingan active, quietly watching Link draw out the Edo Tensei formula on the ground. Utakata hovered in the background, calmly editing the footage from the "New Fourth Ninja War" on Web Net.

The ending had turned out comical, but the atmosphere earlier had been suitably intense.

Last night, after dealing with memory-wipes, they'd gone back to the battlefield for some reshoots, patching up the finale. With the Mangekyō Sharingan's mind control, everyone was basically a dancing puppet.

Side note: Utakata's and Sasuke's memories had not been erased. Though Link complained loudly about it, in truth, he wasn't very angry with either friend. He only growled that they'd better serve him faithfully from now on, and then left it at a single Web Net post: "Don't tell anyone." That was their precious gem of trust.

Sasuke couldn't help a faint smile in his eyes.

"All done." Link signaled for his shadow clones to bring over a large amount of "black sludge." He stepped back, took a breath, and moved forward to inject chakra into the ritual.

No matter how often he did it, he still found the stench of the black sludge unbearable.

Sasuke, meanwhile, forced Shukaku forward.

The Edo Tensei formula activated, and the huge Tailed Beast suddenly looked as if the air were leaking out of it, the black sludge latching on and sucking it inside. Visually, it resembled some story of a Demon King being sealed away in a mystical rice cooker or something like that.

Of course, given Shukaku's size and the absorption speed, it would take a good ten seconds or more to fully drain it.

Shukaku abruptly broke free from the Sharingan's control, the pudgy face betraying panic—just like any human soul being pulled in by the black sludge. It couldn't move or speak, but it still had its massive chakra reserves to make expressive changes in its eyes and cheeks.

That was all it could do.

Before long, the black sludge had devoured Shukaku completely. All that remained was a black, cocoon-like mass bloated with the Tailed Beast's tremendous chakra. Its original chakra aura grew weaker and weaker, nearly vanishing. Suddenly, its nature changed—no longer the violent, ominous presence from before.

All three of them watched the black cocoon curiously. Even Utakata paused editing the war footage.

For a non-human Edo Tensei, the reincarnation process took far longer than a human one. Several minutes passed before the cocoon began to crack.

"Dai… dai…?"

Pieces of the cocoon shell crumbled away as it disintegrated into ash, revealing a pale-skinned, horned little boy. He stared blankly around him, radiating a still-impressive chakra. Probably on par with Utakata when he wasn't in Tailed Beast Mode.

(That face…?)

Link rubbed his chin, feeling it was oddly familiar. (Who have I seen that looks like this…?)

(This resembles the Sage of Six Paths—skin color and horns. The facial features are pretty close, too…)

The more Link thought about it, the more it clicked. He'd expected a "real, physical Tailed Beast" to pop out. Instead, why had Shukaku been reborn as a human boy…one that looked like the Sage of Six Paths? (What the heck…? And is a horned kid even considered human?)

Scratching his cheek with an index finger, Link found the puzzle downright vexing. (Oh well… I'll leave the complicated questions for Tobirama and the others.) Right now, the main thing was to protect his secret.

An ominous gleam crossed Link's face as he activated the Transformation Technique, turning himself into White Snake. He grabbed the newly reborn Shukaku:

Time to wipe those memories clean!

~~~

Patreon(.)com/Bleam

— This Fanfic is Completed in Patreon!