Shukaku

The other Wood Clone of Araki was pursuing the One-Tailed Jinchuuriki named Ishimoto Sadao. He was with a few other Sunagakure Shinobi, but they were not important in Araki's eyes. They might as well not have been present at all…

Even with Ishimoto Sadao, Araki wasn't in the mood of any talk. He pulled out the sword resting in his scabbard.

The Wind Chakra covered his whole sword as Araki's speed suddenly doubled.

Before any of the Suna Shinobi realised anything, Araki was ahead of them and Ishimoto Sadao's head was rolling on the ground.

For some seconds, the Sunagakure Shinobi didn't even realise what was wrong. Their minds soon registered the presence of Araki in front of them.

They came to an abrupt halt. These Sungakure Shinobis had seen him earlier when he had come to fight against the Third Hokage.

These Sunagakure Shinobi had stayed near the end with Ishimoto Sadao and seen the Titantic Wooden Statue. It had dwarfed the Susanoo by far.

They turned towards Ishimoto Sadao and noticed that he wasn't by their side. They slowly turned more until half their body was rotated.

Quite a bit behind them… The Sunagakure Shinobi saw it, Ishimito Sadao's head was on the ground. And his body was even more behind…

"Being so careless in front of an enemy?" Araki let out a sigh, these Sunagakure Shinobi were so stupid that he didn't even feel like killing them.

"Just go…" He felt as if these people were so pitiful that it would be better to let them leave.

"T-The one-tailed Bijuu?" One of them still gathered his courage and spoke to Araki.

"Hmm? I see… Go and inform your Kazekage that One-Tails no longer belongs to Sunagakure. If he has an issue, he can come directly to me. Now GO!" He said the last part while releasing his aura.

These Sunagakure Shinobi were scared as heck, and they immediately left. To meet Senju Araki and escape with their lives intact, nothing could be better than this…

As for the One-Tailed Beast, they ultimately felt that it wasn't their problem. The Kazekage should think about it.

After these Shinobis left, Araki walked to Ishimoto Sadao's body. He could feel a faint trace of the One-Tails being released into the surroundings. If this continued, it would take a year to two, for the One-Tailed Beast to take form.

This sort of time wasn't something Araki wanted to wait…

"I guess I will do it forcefully…" The first thing he did was let his chakra enter Ishimoto Sadao's body.

He accelerated the release of the One-Tailed Bijuu. He used a lot of his Chakra to compress it so that the One-Tailed Beast came to his original shape.

Normally, this sort of thing was nearly impossible to achieve for anyone. But… Araki's Chakra was so dense that it could even suppress the One-Tailed Beast's chakra.

In a span of half an hour or so, the One-Tailed took shape. At the least, the outline of the One-Tailed Beast had congealed now.

Araki continued to assist the One-Tails for some more time before he stopped, he noticed that the One-Tails was curiously staring at him.

"Senju Araki… Aren't you? What do you want from me? You said to those Sunagakure Shinobi that I no longer belong to them, does that mean you want to take me to Konoha?" Although quite aware of Araki's power, the One-Tails still showed him quite a lot of hostility.

In response, Araki smiled and said, "You don't need to be that worried. You are free from now on, Shukaku."

"How do you know my name?!" Shukaku asked, quite startled that Araki knew of his name.

"Well, Kurama didn't exactly hide your name from me," Araki replied to Shukaku's question quite casually.

"That fox?! You even know his name?!" Shukaku was even more startled now. He was well aware that between the tailed beast, it had the most arrogance. For Kurama to have told his name to Araki…

"Well, I like to call him a friend. Kurama is free as well… He is roaming in the Land of Fire, careful to not catch someone's attention while searching for a resting place." Araki mentioned it to Shukaku who looked so surprised that he didn't say anything.

Araki then smirked while looking at Shukaku, "But still, I didn't think your appearance to be this cute. Maybe instead of giving you freedom, I should take you to Kushina, she will definitely be happy to have a cute pet racoon."

Since One-Tails hadn't completely congealed, it was in his young form. The form in which it had been created by the Sage of the Six Paths. Well, it could certainly be called cute…

"NO! I am not cute!" Shukaku really wanted to attack Araki for these words at the moment. Well, his words made it seem even more adorable, and Araki just laughed out loud, "Sure, you aren't."

"Alright…I guess I will get to the point now." All traces of light-heartedness vanished from Araki's face as a serious look appeared on his face.

"I will be freeing all the Tailed Beasts in the Elemental Nations. At the end of the Third Shinobi War, I will send you a signal. I want you to come to the designated point… There, you will meet all your siblings."

"What do you want by gathering us all?" Shukaku asked a little curiously.

"To get the chakra of all 9 of you," Araki said, not at all concealing anything from Shukaku.

And before Shukaku misunderstood, he added, "I mean getting chakra from the 9 of you, but I won't be absorbing you completely. For others, it will be one-tailed worth of their chakra, and as for you, it will be half your chakra."

Hearing Araki, Shukaku was a little annoyed as it seemed as if Araki was rubbing the fact that Shukaku had only one tail.

"Why don't you take my chakra right now? You are certainly strong enough to absorb it forcefully." Shukaku asked Araki, wondering quite curiously.

Araki nodded his head and replied calmly, "Well, that's one option… But I would feel better if you will be willing to give it on your own accord. I don't have any hatred for the Tailed Beasts, and I would like to keep it that way. But if a tailed beast does resist, I won't be making any promises."

"So, is it a deal?" Araki asked Shukaku, who still wasn't sure.

"If the other Bijuus are also free and we meet during that time, I will agree to give you my chakra," Shukaku promised Araki. The reason Shukaku promised Araki even though he didn't personally know Araki was because he knew of his name. This was just one reason. The other reason was that Araki didn't take his chakra forcefully. And the last reason was that, even though the hope was faint, Shukaku did want the other tailed beasts to be free and meet them again. They rarely met in that other dimension…

This promise was good enough for Araki. He stepped forward and touched Shukaku's sandy body. He sent quite a bit of his chakra to Shukaku's body…

"I have given you quite a lot of my chakra and compressed it deep within your body. If you need my help, send a pulse of chakra to it. My wood clone would appear immediately, and it should deal with most threats. And once the Third Shinobi War has ended, the Wood Clone would pop out and lead you to the location." Araki said to Shukaku.

Shukaku soundlessly nodded his head and then started to concentrate on extracting his own chakra and compressing it to increase the size of his own body.

The Wood Clone dispersed after having accomplished its objective.