Chapter 244: Foxy Bitches (1)
—
[New Quest, "Tailed Beast Rampage", has been created!]
Neji was confused and overall shocked, so he didn't bother looking at the details of the quest.
He hadn't kept his eyes on the Hyuga Compounds during his date, or he would have noticed this. Something happened and the previous main family of Hyugas made Midnight and Nagant into two Nine-Tailed Beasts. Somehow, either by force or the former heroes cooperated for some reason.
However, they weren't Jinjurikis. No, they had become the beast itself.
There was also Naruto a bit far from the battlefield, and no one seemed to pay any attention to his dead body. But Neji did. His «Lord's Eye» saw the fine hole inside the boy's head. He was shot. By a weapon that shouldn't exist in this world.
Nagant.
She shot him.
Then it made sense how Naruto Uzumaki, the fucking main character of this world, died. An outer variable took action, something that shouldn't have happened had happened, and was thereby forced to be fixed by the will of the world, where instead of the Nine-Tails dying as it should, it rather merged with the variables' existence. Neji doubted that Nagant and Midnight were killed, or got their existence devoured, since their Stats showed their names still. Their minds were just in an unstable state.
Confused and eager for an answer to what led to this situation, Neji decided to save the two women. The ten Hyugas his Shadowclone had noticed earlier were dead by now since they were the closest to the two beasts in their wake, so he couldn't ask them.
"Everyone," Neji said, looking back at the shocked faces of his and Asuma's team. "You grab the people fighting and the ones knocked out, the ones who are alive anyway. Take them out of here. I will take care of the foxes."
"What?" Asuma exclaimed in disbelief. "They aren't something you alone can handle on your o-" Asuma, being the oldest one, tried to oppose but the cat-Neji just growled like a beast.
"Do as I say before they kill you all. I am strong enough to take care of myself." he said, watching Temari, Tenten, and Hanabi nod immediately. They knew what he could do, and had no point in disobeying him, so they ran towards the few surviving Ninjas who had run here after noticing the commotions, and were still fighting.
Team Asuma grumbled but soon followed behind Team Neji.
"Be careful." Ino said while running.
—-
Rather than jumping on the beasts right away, Neji decided to observe the situation for a minute.
The first thing he noticed was a black-and-white cat, with suspicious chakra pathways, lurking in the shadows. That, coupled with «Observe» whose range limits were bypassed by his Lord's Eye, he could see the name of the cat. Samui.
Was she involved in this?
It looked unlikely, since she was in the back, and pretty much hiding, but there was a chance. Annoyed and suspicious, he sent one of his clones behind her, watching her meow in fright like any usual cat, before Neji hit her acupuncture point under her neck and watched her cat form change to her original, human one once she was knocked out.
He put her in his inventory and cancelled the Shadowclone.
Then his eyes expanded all over Konoha to notice frightened civilians scrambling all around the village, avoiding the crumbling mountain and buildings that were falling because of the two rampaging beasts. Most of the Ninjas currently present in the village were busy saving the civilians who were about to get hit by the earthquake, calming them down, and taking them to shelters or out of the village.
The rest of the Ninjas had gathered around, being led by the Hokage who made way towards the mountain, followed by a worried Danzo and Kakashi. Neji noted this was the first time, in his memories, that he saw Danzo this frightened. The old man really feared Konoha was a goner, didn't he? Poor guy.
Neji made a Shadowclone, who used Transformation Jutsu, and led it to the incoming 'backup' to warn them to stay out. They wouldn't fare well against these two beasts. These two weren't as strong as the true Nine-Tails, but their combined abilities made it dangerous for anyone fighting it in close range, and except for Kakashi and Danzo, none of the incoming backups was particularly good at long-range attacks. Especially Tsunade.
As for why they couldn't fight these two beasts at close range?
That's because the scariest aspect of these tailed beasts was the quirks they inherited from their human counterparts.
The beast, that was once Midnight, was releasing pink mist from all over its body, and once someone came into contact with it, they were immediately knocked out. That Gas, mixed with the chakra of the strongest tailed-beast, was far more potent than any sleeping gas that these Ninjas could defend against. Yet, the few who somehow could defend themselves against the gas were swiped by tornadoes created with the same type of gas, made from the beast's nine tails spinning rapidly. So the only Ninjas still fighting were specialised in long-ranged combat, as they were outside the range of both the gas and tornado.
Though, most of those Ninjas were being butchered as well because the other beast, who was once Nagant, was shooting at them with multicoloured chakra bullets, like minuscule-tailed beast bombs, from her nine tails. They weren't precise shots, given the beast wasn't in its right mind, and that's exactly why a few Ninjas were still alive and attacking from the far.
This was insane. Neji had to admit.
If only these beasts knew some Jutsus and weren't out of their mind at the moment, they might have reached beyond Tier 12. Luckily, that wasn't so.
If not, the two teams he sent out would be dead by now. They weren't yet, because his dear Temari used his gift to her, the Magical Folding Fan, and cleared the mists to make a clear pathway. Heck, her waves even destroyed a few of the tornados that were shot at her.
But she had limits. In the end, mere wind couldn't defend against the chakra bullet that the Nagant-Fox was shooting, so Neji had to step in and erect multiple [Hyper Automatic Barrier] around Temari and a group that blocked off the bullets.
Asuma, being the better ninja, used the clearance of the mist to run and save a few of the ninjas that were knocked by the mist but were yet to be crushed under either of the beasts' feet. Choji did the same, deciding to use all his fat to achieve his Butterfly Form, where his speed was incredulous, and saved the ones he could. Ino and Shikamaru used their respective clan's abilities, Mind Possession and Shadow Possession, to take over a few of the knocked-out Ninjas' bodies and drag them to safety. From the back, Hanabi warned of incoming attacks that she noted using her Byakugan.
With both of the team's cooperation, most of the Ninjas that could be saved were saved in less than five minutes (though Neji was pretty sure these minutes were the longest five minutes in these 7 Ninjas' lives). The others were either crushed under the beasts' feet by then, or were dangerously close for that to be a possibility sooner than later, so they were deemed to be impossible to be saved.
Neji decided to take matters into his own hands from there. He took in a deep breath and channelled his divinity to his eyes, allowing Lord's Eye to gain the perk of Tenseigan before he activated his ‹Tenseigan Mana Mode›.
His mana moved from his Mana Pool into his eyes and then erupted from there as if being filtered out. The filtered out mana, blue as the pacific ocean, formed a mana cloak around his body. He saw the Shadowclone he sent to Tsunade, as he told them to stay back, also attain the cloak. Meaning this Mana Mode could be shared between Shadowclones. Good to know. At last a horn of chakra erupted from both the human and cat Neji, and he felt a huge boost in his stats.
A technique that drew out part of his Mana reserves to form a mana armour around him that boosted his Mana by 10x.
That, and as he activated up to 7 Gates, which provided him with a 3.75x boost, he was immediately standing at 37.5x stronger than his base, Fusion form (Mana wise, at least). And for the record, base-Fusion was enough to dominate Sasori, Deidara, and Shukaku like a bitch.
With his enhanced stats, the world seemed to slow down, every movement looking more vivid and filled with flaws, and Neji used the opportunity to move at a speed that cut through the air, allowing him to casually save the leftover Ninjas and drop them beside his team.
"They were the last."
"Couldn't you have done that earlier?"
"No." Neji lied to Asuma, noticing him nod casually while his teammates looked at him suspiciously. "Anyway, Lady Fifth was about to come here and I sent a Shadowclone to tell her to stop. I suppose you know the reason behind that. Now, if you will go and join them. I will take care of the foxes."
The Ninjas exchanged glances and nodded. By now, they knew the invisible barrier was provided by him and after seeing his swift movements when he saved the Ninjas, they knew he was strong. So they had no choice but to obey.
"Be careful. I will go tell the long-ranged attackers to aid you."
"That wouldn't be necessary." Neji firmly refused Asuma's offer. "I don't want anyone hurting them, they're mine."
Asuma took that as a comment of him seeing them as his prey, though Neji meant that in a more literal sense.
With a nod, Asuma and the team left, with Hanabi and Tenten telling him to be careful. Tamari just gave him a shrug and took off with a nod.
Then, he focused on the foxes.
—-
By now, even these mindless chaotic and furious beasts had noticed these bunch of puny humans who were trying to save their prey. But it was too late, as all of them had fled, all except one small cat, covered in a chakra cloak.
"Groarr!"
The foxes roared, their instincts telling them to form a true-tailed beast bomb in their throat as they threw it forward, but the Cat simply waved his tail and hit the balls, causing them to burst midair.
"Grr!" the beasts' growl intensified, stepping forward as the cat growled back.
With a swift breath in, the cat started to grow, inch by inch and feet by feet and soon it towered over the beasts by almost double the stature. His body was covered by scales, with spikes coming out of his spine and reaching up to his tail, changing its soft texture to a bony draconic one. His paws were fine, but his nails were big, sharp and shiny. With two horns coming out of the cat's head, it no longer looked like a cat, more than it did kike a devil.
"That's all?" The cat snarled out, his horn shining brightly as two beams of blue energy leapt outwards and hit the foxes in their nose. They cried, but that wasn't all as the cat pushed his front paws on the foxes' throats, pushing them down on the ground and loomed over them.
One of the foxes, the one who once was Nagant, tried to retaliate
Then, his tail moved. Covered in Tremor, it cut through the air and slapped them in the face, one after another, at a speed beyond comprehension.
One.
Two.
Three.
….
—-
Each hit shook the world like an earthquake and the foxes' cheeks seemed to ripple in and out of existence with each slap.
Tsunade and Danzo stood still, their eyes in binoculars as they observed the scene in a terrible silence.
"Ah…" it was Danzo who exclaimed his surprise first, his mouth agape as he put down the binoculars. Slowly, he turned to Neji. "Is that… your cat?"
Neji nodded. "Partially. It's a state where I and my cat merge together to form what we like to call a Cat God. It's… my cat's racial ability."
At his last words Danzo, followed by Tsunade, gave him a doubtful look before focusing on the battle again.
"What is the Cat God doing?" It was Kakashi who asked that, his sharingan active as he squinted at the scene. Sharingan certainly couldn't zoom into anything, but it could still help him perceive the scene better than normal eyes. "Certainly, that's not its strongest attack?"
"I am not trying to kill them, why would I use my strongest attack? I am just making the foxes submit." Neji replied, watching Kakashi turn to him in confusion. "Those two are my maids. This is an accident."
Both Tsunade and Danzo's heads snapped at him.
Neji just shrugged.
—-
[Judgement of Light]
The sky flashed bright as condensed spears of light formed in the air before striking down on the foxes, piercing their limbs and each of their tails to stick it against the ground.
After five minutes of countless slapping, Neji realised these two beasts wouldn't calm down like this, let alone return to their normal form. He couldn't use his most destructive skills since their pained cries were a bit pitiful, so he decided to do it in a way that was proven to work in the canon timeline.
‹Woodstyle›
He wished not to resort to stealing Senju and or Uchiha bloodline powers this early since it would most likely give him Rinnegan and the rest of this world would be too boring. But there's no choice left, so he decided to say fuck it and picked up Yamato's dead body using his telekinesis. Yamato's body, including the other dead bodies, wasn't rescued because there was no need for that in this danger.
The Hokage and a few others were looking at the scene from far, he knew, but it's better to do it in front of them rather than put a [Blurred Barrier] and use Woodstyle later on. That'd lead him to answer unwanted questions.
Rather, he put the devastated body inside his huge maw, as disgusting as he felt, and used [Major Heal] on it, causing the body to grow green and heal. While inside his mouth, outside everyone's view, he used Mine on it, channelling it through his tongue and devouring Yamato's Woodstyle through it.
[Ding! You have mined "Woodstyle - Level 2"!]
[Either Master Neji or Familiar Kurai can have it. Who do you wish to choose?]
[Option 'Master Neji' has been chosen!]
[Woodstyle - Level 2
Details: Allows the user to create – and manipulate the created – wood.
-With enough level, user can essentially create anything out of wood.]
Neji wasn't surprised at the low level. Yamato wasn't a perfect vessel for this, anyway. But he was pretty sure his dragon body was much stronger than Hashirama, so he would be able to use it better given time.
After a second he put Yamato's body from inside his mouth to his inventory, and by that time he also realised that he actually didn't get Rinnegan or become an Otsutsuki outright, Neji decided either (or both) of those two would only happen after he collects the other half of Sage of Six Path, aka the Sharingan.
Neji decided to move, channelling his mana into his ability ‹Woodstyle›, watching instinctive anger and suppressed fear flash on the foxes' faces, as he struck with wood coming out of the ground, spinning around each other to form the head of a snake.
He had no proper Jutsu for Woodstyle, so he was just doing crude imitations of one of his earth magic techniques.
[Nine Headed Great Serpent]
Wooden serpent heads, scary as they hissed, started to pop up from the ground one after another and soon nine heads were beside each of the tailed beasts, looking down on them with scary precision.
"Strike." Neji ordered and the eighteen heads moved, plunging down to bite at different parts of the two beasts' bodies.
Red Chakra was sucked out of the beasts' body, entering the ground from where the serpent heads came out, and coming back to Neji with a rush of aggressive energy. The chakra converted to mana and joined Neji's form, though it wasn't any permanent boost.
Neji watched in silence as the roars and cries of the foxes died out slowly, their body shrank but their fox ears and nine tails didn't disappear. Soon, two naked human forms, beautiful as their sweat glistened under the moon, laid down on the ground unconscious.
[Quest, "Tailed Beast Rampage", has been completed!]
Neji cancelled the fusion as a great burst of silver mist devoured the area, and not waiting for it to clear Neji ran to the two unconscious women and put towels over their naked forms. Though that didn't make them any less 'naked', and rather made their curves visible. Also, it might just be the most, but they looked somewhat more gorgeous.
As the mist started to clear, Kurai jumped on his shoulder and dropped to sleep. It turned out that using the Cat Fusion form was straining on her since it wasn't a Perfect Fusion form. He patted her neck and let her take a rest.
When the mist fully cleared and the faraway Ninjas ran to the spot, Neji cancelled his Shadowclone and confronted them on his own.
"Neji Hyuga," Danzo Shimura said as he stopped in front of Neji. "You are to come with me with your cat and two… maids and answer the necessary questions."
"I don't think I want to do that." Neji stood up, the two sleeping beauties rising in the air by his telekinesis. "I have my own interrogation to do, if you don't mind."
"I do mind." Danzo said, raising an arm to stop Tsunade who was about to say something. "Your cat's powers are extraordinary, and your maids' states are dangerous. We need answers. What'd we do if they rampaged again after waking up?"
"Well," Neji scoffed. "You and your group did nothing this time so I wouldn't bother you to do anything in any potential 'next time' either, in case anything does go wrong. They're my girls, so I saved them. As simple as that. If they rampage again, I will save them again. I won't want an senile old man to care about that."
"You are not going to disobey an order from the village!" Danzo yelled.
"I can, and I will." Neji started to float in the air. "You'd need a hundred more of those 'eyes' before you even dream to order me around. Now, you should shut up and rather bury the dead."
Danzo's his eyes widened and his jaws clenched he heard Neji's threat. Only he knew what Neji meant. Following Neji's gaze, he found dozens of dead bodies lying around the battlefield. However, nobody saw Neji's eyes widening under his blindfold as he saw the missing body of Naruto Uzumaki.
'Someone took his body.' Neji realised. 'Most certainly Obito since the abduction was so sneaky. Annoying.'
Unfortunately, he didn't have time for this. He took off in the air, towards the clouds with the two unconscious women flying behind him.
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