Chapter – 342 A new purpose to live

After flying all the way to Ancor Vantian for a few hours, Kuroto temporarily placed Gaara in an empty room and said, "Get comfortable here kid, I have to leave for a while because of somethings, in the meantime, I will be sending someone here, she will be the one to place the new seal."

Gaara nodded and silently sat in the room while Kuroto left.

With him now left alone, Gaara had some time to process all the events that have happened since Yashamaru's death.

On the other side, after Kuroto left, he went to his laboratory room and used Tenseigan Soul Descend to transfer his soul into the Tsukihi Clone. Kuroto does not have any plans to reveal all the abilities to Shukaku, who knows if he can communicate with other Bijuu, so unless the Torii seal is placed on Shukaku all the abilities of Tenseigan will not be revealed.

With the soul transferred, Tsukihi made some preparations and then went back to the room Gaara was in.

Tsukihi looked at Gaara's thoughtful look and said, "So you are the one Kuroto-sama mentioned?"

Broken out of his thought, Gaara looked at the opposite Onee-san and asked, "You are?"

Tsukihi smiled, "I am Uchiha Tsukihi, you can call me whatever you feel like, and I will be the one to change the seal of Bijuu sealed within you."

Gaara asked, "Can you really do that?"

Tsukihi smirked and directly activated her Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, "How about I show you?"

Gaara was shocked, those eyes are similar, yet different to the ones that the other person who was with him had, "Your eyes? They are similar to the other one?"

Tsukihi nodded, "Hmm, you are probably talking about Shisui, the ones he has are called Mangekyou Sharingan, dojutsu that only the people of the Uchiha Clan can have, few exceptions aside, my eyes are a bit different, but anyway, let's get started as I don't really have much time."

Without waiting for Gaara to react, Tsukihi entered into Gaara's subconscious plane.

Tsukihi of course made sure to cast a Genjutsu over the soul body in order to not give away the obvious identity.

The purpose of using Tsukihi Clone is simple, that is to not reveal all the abilities of Tenseigan to Shukaku.

Anyway, after entering Gaara's Subconscious plane, Tsukihi looked around.

She wasn't much surprised with the state of Gaara's subconscious plane, after all, the seal placed on him earlier was too to actually seal a Bijuu safely.

Compared to what was shown about Uzumaki Naruto's subconscious plane Gaara's subconscious plane is much worse.

It seemed to begin at a cave filled with thorns and pointed stones all around… Tsukihi curiously watched everything, purple vines, walls filled with holes, sand all around, and whatnot. Overall, it wasn't a pleasant sight to behold.

'Subconscious plane is the clear indication of one's mental state, this devastated plane showcases Gaara's devastated psychological state, it might take quite a while to heal the kid of these psychological wounds. Perhaps a friend can help?' – mused Tsukihi.

After some time of walking, she finally came to the middle of the cage the cave where the main part of the mental plane exists.

The main plane was further divided into two caves, Tsukihi does not yet know what's inside of the first cave, but she can see the young figure of Gaara curiously looking at the inside of the other cave, which means that Shukaku is sealed there.

This other cave is obviously noisy… because it houses none other than Shukaku, and Tanuki's continuous shouts even made Tsukihi feel annoyed.

Tsukihi walked towards Gaara, and said, "You want to look at the state of Shukaku, right? Come on, follow me, as long as I am here, the Ichibi wouldn't be able to do you anything." – Leaving this sentence, she did not wait for Gaara's response and continued walking forward.

Gaara seemed to have some hesitation, if it were up to him, he would rather always stay away from Ichibi but upon looking at the confident expression of her, he somehow summoned up the courage and followed her silently.

Upon walking inside, the two finally got the sight of Shukaku.

The Tanuki was restricted within this cave as there were specific seals designed at the entrance of the cave that restricted Shukaku to come outside, and being restricted here was obviously unacceptable to him, so he kept shouting and raging out loud.

Perceiving the arrival of intruders, he roared and rushed over towards Tsukihi and Gaara.

As he moved, the entire cave shook, and dust rose.

Compared to the huge size of Shukaku, the Tsukihi figure was too small, yet there was no sign of fear within her eyes. She looked at the incoming Tanuki condescendingly.

Shukaku noticed Tsukihi's eyes, and his tail immediately rushed towards Tsukihi as he shouted, "I am so gonna kill you Uchiha!"

The immensely large tail of Shukaku fiercely rushed towards Tsukihi and Gaara.

But Tsukihi's face remained unchanged, she weaved hand signs at an extremely fast speed, and as soon as she completed, Torii gates fell from out of nowhere.

Two gates fell on Shukaku's tail, then three large gates fell on the main body of Shukaku.

With the Torii gates placed, Shukaku's all movements were instantly restricted, he couldn't even move, but that was not the end, as an extra-large structure of Torii gates kept forming that completely isolated Shukaku even inside this cave.

Being suppressed instantly, Shukaku raged and tried whatnot, but Tsukihi paid him no mind, in fact, she completely ignored him and further observed Gaara's subconscious plane.

Gaara's subconscious plane was indeed a mess, completely different from Naruto's, where large iron doors isolated Kurama, 'It seems that his psychological care has to be put to focus at first.'

"I am going to kill you, kill you, this seal will not last permanently, I am going to break this and then I will take over his body, after that, I am going to kill you!" – Shukaku's roar.

Tsukihi shook her hand, and said, "Yeah, go ahead and try all you can, but you won't even be able to put a single scratch on these Torii Gates… even Kyuubi is helpless in the face of these high-level, and you are just a measly Ichibi, the Bijuu with the least amount of Chakra…"

However, it seemed that Tsukihi's words fell upon a deaf ear, Shukaku kept roaring and struggling but to no avail.

However, those shouts have started to tick off Tsukihi, she snapped her fingers and suddenly chakra chains extended out of the several Torii gates and entwined around Shukaku's mouth. These chakra chains seemed to be a combination of countless small Torii gates joined together.

With the chains entwined around Shukaku, he no longer had the freedom to even open his mouth, so the cave entered a silence.

With everything returned to silence, Tsukihi sighed, "Like seriously, do you even know just how annoying you are? Now stay there quietly or else your state will only worsen, then more struggle you put, the more you will be restricted, behave like the good giant dog you are, do your job that you are supposed to do, the job of being a chakra battery and you will be allowed to exist, otherwise, only death awaits you!"

It seemed as if Tsukihi was casually speaking these words, but given the serious look in her eyes and the burning temperature in the cave, it did not feel as if she is simply joking.

Honestly, Tsukihi was really surprised at just how annoying this tanuki is, at the same time she is really glad that her Ryuumyaku is a good and honest Dragon who mostly sleeps if he doesn't have to give out chakra. If Ryuumyaku had been like Shukaku, then Kuroto would have always had a headache.

After dealing with Shukaku, Tsukihi turned towards Gaara, who was shocked looking at everything happening before him. He honestly isn't himself, overnight, his entire world has started to change, and whatever he believed has started to crumble.

Ichibi, who is feared by all the people of Sunagakure was called a pet? A battery? If that's not hilarious then what is? The fact that Tsukihi so easily subdues Shukaku?

Putting no mind to Gaara's shock, Tsukihi questioned, "Do you know how to become a perfect Jinchuriki?"

Gaara looked at Tsukihi with a complicated expression, then shook his head, "No, I do not."

"Communication with the Bijuu and gaining his acceptance. These things are critical to becoming a perfect Jinchuriki… to perfectly use the Chakra Cloak, the Jinchuriki and the Bijuu must be in sync, a bond of trust with one another is necessary." – Taking a pause, Tsukihi waited for Gaara to digest the information, then continued, "Treat them as monsters they will be monsters, treat them as friends they will be friends… I know it sounds too cliché… but it's the hardcore truth… But even with all that true, you must make them understand that you do not fear them… make them understand that you too are not someone to be looked down on… A bond of trust can only be formed when both parties understand and respect each other as equals… if one party has a too high evaluation of the other while the other party has a too low evaluation of the other, an equal bond will never form… so before becoming a perfect Jinchuriki, you must make him realize that you are no weakling." – As Tsukihi said so, flames of Amenooshihomimi (Oshihomimi for short) suddenly emerged in Tsukihi's hand.

Gaara stared at the flickering golden flames on Tsukihi's hand, and for some reason, he felt instinctive danger from these flames.

Tsukihi paid no mind to Gaara's change and continued, "But that advice is for you, for me as well as most of the other people you will be meeting from here on, Bijuu may be considered terrifying and forces of nature but in our eyes, they are just batteries of Chakra, and there is no need to fear batteries, right?"

"But… but he is a sand demon…" – Gaara was puzzled, what Tsukihi said is completely different from what Sunagakure has taught him about Shukaku.

In Sunagakure, Shukaku is considered the strongest weapon and their ultimate trump card. He is kept in Suna as a necessary evil, one that you do not want but need to maintain deterrence against other villages.

"That's actually wrong perception…" – Tsukihi shook her head with a smile, "Their essence is Chakra, for this reason, they are even immortal and will be eventually reborn even after their death… how about I tell you a secret that is known to very few people, these Bijuu are in reality pets of a certain Oji-chan... so I am not really making things up… but anyway, they are nothing more than batteries for me." – as she said so, the flames of Oshihomimi were suddenly shot towards the trapped Shukaku in the form of a Fire Fist (The attack is a copy of Portgaz D. Ace's Fire Fist from the One Piece series).

Under Tsukihi's control, the flames of Oshihomimi completely engulfed Shukaku. His entire body was now full of golden fire.

Boom… Boom… Boom…

Bijuus are masses of chakra and the flames of Oshihomimi literally burns Chakra, as such, Tsukihi is the worst enemy for any Bijuu.

Being burned by the flames of Oshihomimi, Shukaku's struggle became more violent, and he frantically tried to break free of the Torii gates and escape but to no avail.

Looking at the frantically struggling and crying Shukaku, Gaara for once had an incredible expression.

After a while, Tsukihi turned around and squatted down to Gaara's eye level, then put both her and Gaara's shoulders and asked, "Do you see that? Shukaku is tied up, burning, he is even crying and struggling but still to no avail… now tell me, is there any reason to be afraid of someone like him anymore?"

The entire reason why Shukaku is being tortured is to completely wipe out the fear Gaara has of Shukaku. After if you are restricted by fear, then how can you grow? Fear is never a healthy motivation.

Gaara looked at Tsukihi for a while, then at Shukaku's pathetic state… and for a moment he felt numbed…

Tsukihi urged Gaara to walk forward and take a deep look at Shukaku, while she faintly spoke, "Look at that sight and burn it down in your memories… you have no need to be afraid of him… he can't do anything…"

After looking at Shukaku for a while, Gaara turned to look at Tsukihi and asked with an eager expression, "Will I… will I be able to do something like that in the future?"

Tsukihi thought for a while as she tapped her finger on her chin, all the while Gaara looked at Tsukihi with a nervous expression.

Looking at Gaara's nervous expression from the corner of her eye, Tsukihi chuckled, then spoke, "It depends on how much effort you are willing to put, although you wouldn't be able to do something like burning down Shukaku as your element is different… but if you truly try, you can definitely control the deserts, make sandstorms… and everything along the lines."

Gaara may not have understood what that really means, and what extent the power here reaches but for some reason, he had stars shining in his eyes.

He asked with a more eager expression, "R…really…?! Can I… can I really do something like that?"

Tsukihi nodded, "Kuroto-sama brought you here because he recognizes your potential, so obviously he has expectations from you… if you train and work hard, then you will eventually be able to attain such levels of strength."

Gaara turned back to look at the wailing and weak figure of Shukaku, the timidness, and uneasiness within his eyes started to disappear… and the flames of determination started to burn within him as he muttered, "I will not let him down, I will make sure that he never feels disappointed in me or regret saving me… I will become someone strong enough to control the deserts!"

This was the moment Gaara found himself a new purpose to live… and his eyes were no longer as empty as there were before.

Tsukihi just smiled looking at Gaara's changes that were also slowly affecting his Subconscious plane.

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Read up to Chapter - 596 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations