The wind died.
Even the clouds above seemed to hesitate.
Onoki knelt in the dirt—small, frail, and cornered—his breath shallow as he slowly lifted his gaze toward the only ally he had left: Yugito Nii, jinchūriki of the Two-Tails.
Their eyes met.
Onoki's cracked lips moved in silence, a plea barely formed.
But Yugito's golden eyes narrowed, sharp and unyielding.
In her mind, Matatabi chuckled darkly.
'Oi… don't look at me like that, old man.'
Yugito exhaled through her nose, her fists clenched at her sides.
'I'm not gonna help you."'
Onoki's face twitched with disbelief. Even now, the one who bore the Tailed Beast beside him chose not to act.
He had no cards left to play.
Then…
Thud.
The earth trembled.
Thud.
It trembled again.
All eyes turned slowly toward the towering form of Radahn.
Each step he took made the ground crack, the weight of him resonating through the hollow battlefield. Dust lifted around his boots. His great red mane flowed behind him like a comet's tail. The twin Greatswords strapped to his back shimmered faintly with a haunting purple hue.
Yugito's breath hitched.
Even she—whose chakra flared like a beast's heartbeat—felt like prey when he moved.
Onoki went deathly pale.
Radahn walked forward… one thunderous step at a time… until his titanic frame loomed above both of them.
Then—
He stopped.
A hush fell over the ruins.
Yugito's body tensed instinctively, and even Onoki—who had faced shinobi gods in his time—shut his eyes tight, waiting for the blow.
For the crushing power that would erase them like ink blotted on parchment.
Nothing came.
Instead—
He turned.
A shift of his shoulders, a rustle of his cape, and Radahn faced Minato.
Silence stretched—so heavy it could smother a soul.
Then came the voice.
Heavy. Deep. Like gravity itself was speaking.
"They are your prisoners of war."
Each word struck the air like a hammer against steel.
"Do as you see fit with them."
Minato blinked, stunned not just by the declaration… but by the way the world seemed to bend around Radahn's mere presence.
But then—Radahn wasn't finished.
His gaze shifted once more to Yugito.
And though she held her ground, a primal instinct in her screamed to run.
Radahn's voice rumbled again, lower this time—but colder, definitive.
"But that thing in the girl…"
A pause, long and deadly.
"…stays with me."
Yugito's heart skipped.
Even Matatabi inside her let out a low growl—not in defiance, but in unease.
Minato's expression grew more serious. He took a half step forward, lips parting to speak—but nothing came. Even he wasn't sure how to respond.
What did you say to a man who could devour armies and silence Tailed Beasts with a glance?
Yugito's hands trembled slightly at her sides. Her gaze flickered between Radahn and Minato.
Minato's breath caught as he processed Radahn's final words.
'That thing in the girl stays with me.'
He hadn't misspoken. There was no ambiguity in his voice. Radahn didn't mean her allegiance, or her presence. He meant the Tailed Beast. The Two-Tails. Matatabi.
Minato's mind raced.
'Wait—he doesn't mean to… extract it? No, if he does that—'
His thoughts hit a wall.
Everyone knew the basic rule: if a Tailed Beast is removed, the Jinchūriki dies.
It was no longer theory. It was proven law—etched into the annals of shinobi history by death after brutal death.
Yugito's eyes widened as the same realization struck her.
Matatabi growled within.
"What… does he think he's doing? He can't—"
"Radahn-sama" Minato said cautiously, taking a step forward, raising a hand to halt him,
"If you're planning to take the beast out of her… she'll—"
Radahn's crimson mane swayed gently as he looked back at Minato.
Those glowing eyes, star-like and ancient, showed no cruelty, no urgency, no regret.
Only certainty.
"Don't worry-" he said simply.
Then he turned to Yugito, and lifted one massive arm—gloved fingers opening toward her like an executioner's blade about to fall.
She stiffened immediately, body instinctively readying to dodge, to defend, to resist.
Even Matatabi inside her let out a hiss. Her chakra flared up, blazing like blue fire from her skin.
"If he tries anything—""I know-" Yugito whispered under her breath.
"We go down swinging."
But then…
Radahn did not attack.
His hand, massive and open-palmed, did not clench or emit deadly jutsu.
Instead, it hovered.
Softly. Deliberately.
The space around his fingers shimmered.
Like the very laws of chakra, life, and nature were bending in his grasp.
Yugito's breath caught.
She could feel it—something separating inside her. Not violently. Not even painfully. But with precision, care… and power beyond comprehension.
A low hum filled the air.
The air around them grew heavy, tingling, charged.
Minato stepped forward involuntarily, watching in awe as a new, unknown jutsu—no, not a jutsu—something deeper, more primordial—began to manifest.
Even the sky seemed to lean closer.
Yugito's eyes widened. She could feel Matatabi… pulling away.
But not from her chakra system. Not from her soul.
From something else.
"What… what is he doing?" she whispered.
Matatabi inside her was silent.
For the first time in years, the fearsome Two-Tailed Cat didn't know how to respond.
All anyone could do was watch… as Radahn's hand glowed faintly, and the impossible began to unfold.
Then it began.
A surge of bluish chakra erupted from Yugito's core—not violently, but smoothly, unnaturally smooth—like liquid silk drawn through invisible seams.
Her eyes widened in alarm.
"Wh-What's happening…?" she whispered.
Her body trembled.
The chakra swirled in front of her chest, gathering into a dense orb—a deep cerulean sphere, tinged with flickers of violet lightning, glowing with the heat of an inner sun.
Inside her mind, the silence shattered.
"Yugito."
Matatabi's voice rumbled, not with power—but with sorrow.
"It seems… our journey ends here."
Yugito's eyes filled with tears.
"No…" she whispered, voice cracking.
Her knees buckled.
The strange chakra inside her locked her joints, paralyzed her limbs. She fell to her knees in the dirt, helpless. A single tear traced down her cheek as the truth hit.
'N-No… Not like this. Not without me saying goodbye.'
"Please… don't go…"
But she couldn't stop it.
The orb pulsed once—then floated from her chest like a dying star pulled from its orbit.
It rose into the air gently, and the chakra began to shift.
Minato narrowed his eyes.
"…What is that?"
Then he saw it.
The form of a cat—not full-sized, but unmistakable.
Matatabi—her graceful, twin-tailed form curled into a fetal position—hovered at the heart of the chakra sphere. It looked like a miniature comet: a glowing, ethereal feline curled into a ball, tails wrapped tight, its body flickering with hues of violet, blue, and silver.
Yugito choked back a sob.
Matatabi didn't speak again.
She was still inside her, and yet… not.
The spectral feline slowly drifted forward—drawn not by force, but by will.
By Radahn's call.
The gravitational field around his hand pulled the sphere in like a moon to a planet. The cat's form nestled in his palm, barely the size of a basketball—yet carrying the mass of a beast that had razed valleys and scorched mountains.
The ground vibrated lightly.
A soft wind picked up as Matatabi's presence left her vessel completely.
Yugito collapsed forward, catching herself with trembling arms. She gasped, sweat running down her face. Her body felt cold, hollow, like someone had taken half her soul.
"M-Matatabi…" she whispered.
And still—there was no pain.
No death.
No screaming.
Just… silence.
Radahn's closed fist wrapped around the orb with reverence, not cruelty. His eyes met hers for a moment—those glowing astral irises—
Minato Namikaze stood motionless.
Eyes wide.
Mind racing.
Heart—still.
'He… extracted the Tailed Beast.''Without killing her…'
That shouldn't have been possible. Not with all his knowledge. Not with everything the shinobi world understood about Jinchūriki.
Even with his genius, even with Kushina, even with what he had studied in secret about sealing… this—this defied all chakra logic.
And yet, Yugito Nii—though shaken—still breathed.
She hadn't even screamed.
'Did he bypass the seal entirely? Did he… no, he didn't forcefully rip it out.'
Minato's fists tightened at his sides.
'What kind of power is this? Not sealing… not summoning… it was like—like world itself obeyed his will.'
He exhaled slowly, but the breath came shakily.
Even for the Yellow Flash of Konoha, this moment was beyond comprehension.
A few paces away, Ōnoki the Fence-Sitter—once proud, once bold—sat frozen, his mouth half-open.
His lips trembled.
Eyes wide beneath his aged brow, locked on the figure of Radahn, who still stood silent as a mountain.
He had seen wars.
Seen Madara.
Fought Hashirama.
But this—
'What the hell is he?! That wasn't ninjutsu. That wasn't even chakra. That... thing in his hand—it just left. No death, no explosion, just… gone.'
He dared not move.
His back felt damp with sweat, his aged spine trembling slightly.
'It didn't even leave a chakra signature. No trace. It's like the beast was erased from the world—but not destroyed. No one, not even Madara, could do this. This isn't power. This is… this is divine.'
He didn't know whether to mourn his pride or weep in terror.
Then, the silence was broken.
A soft, radiant golden portal shimmered open behind Radahn.
No hand seals. No chant.
It was simply… there.
A hole in the air, circular and smooth, rimmed with elegant cosmic glyphs that no one could read. They seemed ancient—older than history itself. The space behind it was not fire, nor stars, nor void.
It was elsewhere.
The glowing orb cradling Matatabi's miniature form floated gently from Radahn's palm and passed through the portal.
A wind whispered past everyone's ears as it moved—like the sigh of something older than mountains.
And then—
It vanished.
The portal closed.
With it, Matatabi's chakra was gone.
Not masked. Not hidden.
Gone.
Even Minato's sharp sensory instincts caught nothing. Not even a fragment.
Ōnoki reached out with his own chakra senses—searching, hoping. Nothing. Not a ripple. It was as if the Tailed Beast had been plucked from the very concept of reality.
'This… this goes beyond chakra control. Beyond chakra existence itself.'
Even Yugito—still conscious, pale, and hollow—sensed it. A terrible quiet where once a mighty flame burned within her.
She touched her chest, whispering: "Matatabi…"
But there was no scream.
No death.
No torment.
Just a hole.
A clean, painless severance.
And in its place—stillness.
Onoki slowly looked up at Radahn, his breath returning.
The wind picked up gently across the scarred, barren battlefield.
Only two things remained—
Radahn.
And the awe.
------------------------------------------------
Minato stood still, the soles of his sandals pressed into the cracked, heat-split earth.
The silence was deafening.
Smoke curled lazily in the air, rising from distant embers where trees once stood. The battlefield no longer resembled a battlefield. It was a wasteland—void of life, void of meaning. Just scorched soil and memory.
Minato's gaze swept across the open plain. There were no cries of battle, no fleeing survivors. No rustling leaves or footsteps. Only the soft hum of residual chakra and the occasional hiss of scorched wind. And there… at the very heart of it all… was Radahn.
Towering. Unbothered.
Alone.
At his feet, a graveyard of ambition. Hundreds of elite shinobi. The Raikage. Vaporized. Swallowed whole. Or cast aside like broken dolls. Even the Two-Tails had been ripped cleanly from its host—
-And now… it was gone.
Hidden.
Erased from the chakra network itself.
Minato exhaled slowly.
Three Tailed Beasts. Two in Konoha's domain now. The weight of that fact sank into his chest like a boulder.
'This will not be taken lightly. The moment we return, the diplomatic fallout… It'll be like standing on a minefield.'
He closed his eyes for a moment, letting his chakra settle. The Hokage—his mentor—would need to prepare. This victory, as miraculous as it was, would invite more enemies than it defeated.
He turned.
Ōnoki was hunched low, shoulders heavy, his former arrogance crushed under the weight of reality. The man hadn't spoken a word since Radahn's declaration. The very presence of the giant had rendered even words into dangerous territory.
Minato approached calmly.
"Let's go."
The Tsuchikage looked up at him—not with defiance… but the hollow gaze of a man who understood he was no longer in control.
Behind him, Yugito Nii, eyes dim, placed a hand over her chest. Her connection with Matatabi was gone, and her silence echoed more powerfully than a scream. She followed without resistance.
And beside them, Radahn.
Minato stepped to the center, glancing once at both prisoners. Then at Radahn.
'No need for words.'
He pressed two fingers together.
Chakra surged, forming a soft golden pulse around them. Warm. Controlled. Absolute.
He turned his head slightly to speak—his voice quiet, but carrying purpose.
"Hold on. This will be fast."
And then, a flash.
The battlefield was lit in golden brilliance—a streak of light more dazzling than the sun—ripping through the scorched land in a blink of motion.
They vanished.
Not a single soul was left in their place.
Only silence remained—and a battlefield carved open by a man not of this world.
(A/N: My condition is not yet stablized but i had a few chapters in draft and published them.)