The fireball emitted light and heat in the darkness of night, attracting countless small insects. One by one, they flew into the fireball, ultimately turning to ash. Below, Shisui saw the insects recklessly charging into the flame and instantly understood Uchiha Yuan's intention.
"Senior Yuan wants to use insect instincts to lure out the Seven-Tails? Will that really work?" Shisui murmured to himself.
In truth, Uchiha Yuan was trying this out with a "what's there to lose" mindset.
He believed that no creature could resist the pull of instinct. Since the Seven-Tails' true form was an insect, it would naturally react strongly to light and heat.
Of course, the Seven-Tails was no ordinary bug—it was a Tailed Beast with intelligence. Whether or not it would act purely on instinct remained to be seen.
For common insects, flying into a fire was instinctual—even if they knew it would lead to death.
If the Seven-Tails' instincts could overpower its rational mind, then even if it suspected a trap, it would still come!
Over ten minutes passed. The fireball had already claimed countless insects, but the Seven-Tails still hadn't appeared.
Yuan sighed and was about to give up—when suddenly, a massive insect plunged down from the sky, hurtling straight at the fireball.
"No way! It actually worked?!" Shisui stared in shock as the Seven-Tails charged into the flame.
In reality, the Seven-Tails had been hiding close to the mountain all along. After being previously beaten by Yuan, it was unwilling to let the matter go and had been waiting for a chance to strike back.
The moment Yuan summoned the fireball, the Seven-Tails noticed.
But being a Tailed Beast with human-level intelligence, it immediately recognized this as a possible trap and chose to ignore the fireball at first.
Yet the longer it looked, the stronger its desire to approach the flame became. Driven by insect instinct, it longed to get closer.
At first, it managed to suppress this urge. But slowly, instinct overwhelmed willpower, and the Seven-Tails could no longer resist—it flew straight toward the fireball.
It crashed headlong into the massive flame conjured by Uchiha Yuan.
This fireball was essentially a Great Fireball Technique, but it had been enhanced by Yuan's Mangekyō technique Magatsuhi, and further boosted by the Annihilation skill.
The power of the Great Fireball was already terrifying on its own.
As soon as the Seven-Tails made contact, Yuan teleported away instantly.
BOOM—A deafening explosion flattened the entire mountain.
The Seven-Tails was blasted far away.
Yuan could clearly sense the beast's immense chakra beginning to wane.
At the same time, Magatsuhi's effect activated: the Seven-Tails' chakra and life force were continuously leaking away.
Seizing the moment, Yuan burst into Lightning Release Chakra Mode and teleported beside the injured beast.
Burned and covered in black smoke, the Seven-Tails' body was riddled with wounds. Magatsuhi continued draining its energy and life.
But a Tailed Beast wasn't that easy to kill. Its chakra began to flow outward, healing its injuries.
The Seven-Tails let out a furious roar and shook its body, releasing a huge amount of phosphorus powder from its surface.
The powder quickly covered Yuan's area, and just like before, it started glowing intensely and then exploded.
Clearly, the Seven-Tails was reusing the same tactic to try to escape.
Yuan had fallen for this once, but he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. There was no way he'd let Chōmei get away again.
Yuan activated his right Mangekyō Sharingan. The tomoe transformed into a six-pointed star—Inari, the Mangekyō ability, was unleashed. The chakra and life force leaking from Chōmei began flowing directly into Yuan.
The vast Tailed Beast chakra filled Yuan with exhilaration like he had never felt before.
Even better, the life force absorbed by Inari could be used to restore his Mangekyō Sharingan's power—no need to consume his own life force.
With nothing to hold him back now, Yuan's Sharingan spun wildly.
The next moment, blue skeletal ribs formed around his body.
The immense chakra from the Seven-Tails made the bones rapidly "grow."
In just a blink, the ribs sprouted arms, a torso, and a head.
As the chakra kept flowing in, muscles formed over the skeleton, and a ghostly blue blade appeared in its hand.
Yuan wanted his Susanoo to evolve further. With the Seven-Tails' chakra and life force, he hoped to reach Stage 3 Susanoo.
But no matter how much chakra he poured in, Susanoo didn't advance. Yuan felt a bit disappointed, guessing his ocular power still wasn't strong enough to unlock the third stage.
Still, a Stage 2 Susanoo was enough—and now it wielded his own curved sword.
Dealing with a Tailed Beast without a jinchūriki was no big deal.
Yuan controlled the Susanoo to swing its blade at the Seven-Tails.
The Seven-Tails, upon seeing Susanoo, immediately lost the will to fight. It soared into the sky, trying to escape.
"Going somewhere? Yasaka Magatama!"Yuan hurled a row of blue spinning magatama beads at the fleeing beast.
In the air, Lightning (his summoned creature) also coordinated with an aerial wind-blade attack.
Struck by the combined assault, the Seven-Tails plummeted to the ground.
Lying there, it realized it couldn't escape. It decided to go all out and began forming a Tailed Beast Ball.
Yuan hesitated but didn't interrupt—he wanted to test if he could destroy a Tailed Beast Ball head-on.
A few seconds later, the Tailed Beast Ball was ready. A dark sphere hurtled toward Yuan.
Yuan commanded his Susanoo to slash down with its sword.
BOOM—The massive explosion echoed across the sky. A wide swath of forest was flattened.
When the smoke cleared, Yuan's Susanoo had some visible cracks—but hadn't broken. The Seven-Tails lay motionless on the ground.
Yuan smiled and walked over, having Susanoo sever two of its tails and store them in a sealing scroll.
With the Seven-Tails' chakra in hand, Yuan dispelled Susanoo and asked Shisui to summon Takigakure's people for the sealing process.
Ten minutes later, the village leader and several elite jōnin rushed over, carrying a 2- or 3-year-old girl.
Judging by her hair color, Yuan guessed she was Fū, the future Seven-Tails jinchūriki in the original story.
To avoid suspicion, Yuan did not participate in the sealing—it was completed by Takigakure's own personnel.
Thus, the mission to help Takigakure capture the Seven-Tails was successfully completed.
(To Be Continued...)