Chapter 97: The Chakra of the Seven-Tails?
Sometimes, Kitagawa Gen couldn’t help but wonder—
Was he just destined to clash with the Akatsuki?
Otherwise, how could he keep running into them so often?
He still remembered his very first mission—he crossed paths with them even then. Since that encounter, the entanglement between them had never truly ended.
And every member of Akatsuki who came after him, despite not having full intel on him, ended up being the one who suffered.
"So... this time it’s because we ran into Orochimaru, and now Akatsuki is targeting us again?"
Gen wasn’t entirely sure. But an Akatsuki ambush wasn’t exactly surprising. After all, he’d already sabotaged them multiple times.
What goes around comes around. And more importantly, he knew what was coming.
---
"You alright? The Fourth Raikage still raging in there?"
Gen was lost in thought, but Jiraiya, oblivious to his inner musings, called out casually when he saw him walk out.
"That guy’s temper is seriously explosive. He’s been shouting about killing someone ever since he woke up."
"Tch. Let’s see how calm you’d be if someone chopped off your arm."
Tsunade shot Jiraiya a glare, making him awkwardly scratch his head.
"Well, that depends on the situation, I guess... But you really can’t fix his arm?"
Sure, Gen’s Purple Lightning had done a number on the severed limb, but this was Tsunade, the most legendary medical ninja around. Even if she’d already said "it’s impossible," Jiraiya wasn’t sure if she truly meant it—or just didn’t want to bother.
---
"Alright, Lord Jiraiya, let’s focus. What do we do now?"
Kakashi interrupted, cutting through the banter. At this point, whether or not the arm could be healed didn’t matter. In a way, it might even be better this way.
"We should head back. And the Raikage needs to be dealt with carefully. Has there been any word from the Third Hokage?"
"The old man said we should take good care of him—no more conflicts—and he told us to be extra cautious on our way back."
Jiraiya pursed his lips, recalling Hiruzen Sarutobi’s message.
"We caused quite a stir here in the Land of Cedar. There’s a chance the Hidden Cloud Village might catch wind of what happened. That’s why he emphasized being careful."
"Indeed. I’ve done some digging recently. Seems they were here for the secret arts of the Land of Cedars."
Kakashi nodded, chiming in.
"They probably got what they came for, but things didn’t go as planned—that’s likely why they reached out to Lady Tsunade. Still, it’s been so long, there’s no way the Hidden Cloud hasn’t responded."
"Typical thugs. Still the same after all these years," Tsunade muttered in frustration. "I could’ve been out drinking and gambling somewhere. Instead? Trouble after trouble."
Maybe the only upside to this mess was that her debt problems were finally resolved?
"So... what’s the plan now?"
Gen asked curiously. He knew Akatsuki wasn’t done yet—they were still lurking, waiting for an opportunity.
Should they just let Akatsuki and the Hidden Cloud fight it out?
Sounded tempting... but risky. If those factions stopped bickering and decided to work together, he might end up being the one in deep trouble.
"How about we pass through the Land of Waterfalls?"
Suddenly, Jiraiya stroked his chin and proposed an idea.
"It’s nearby, and from there we can enter the Land of Fire directly. Plus, we can escort the Raikage to the Land of Iron from there. Worst case, we have the old man meet us at the border and decide what to do from there."
"The Land of Waterfalls, huh..."
As soon as Gen heard the name, a thought struck him—besides Kakuzu, there was something else.
The Seven-Tails’ Jinchūriki is there!
From his memories, the Seven-Tails was... a strange one among the tailed beasts.
Despite having more tails, its combat ability seemed to rank among the weakest of the lot.
Normally, tail count correlated with strength—Nine-Tails Kurama and Eight-Tails Gyūki, for example, were absolute monsters in battle.
Especially Kurama—who had only half his chakra for most of the series and still dominated. Who knew how much bias the Sage of Six Paths had when splitting the Ten-Tails?
---
"The Seven-Tails ranks third in tail count, but aside from flight and a few explosive techniques like Deidara’s, it doesn’t really stand out... right?"
Gen couldn’t fully wrap his head around it—but he knew this much: the Seven-Tails was in the Land of Waterfalls (Takigakure).
"If I can use this opportunity..."
His heart skipped a beat at the thought.
Last time, the chakra he got from the Three-Tails gave him a noticeable boost—especially to his eyes.
He’d been thinking ever since about how to obtain more tailed beast chakra. But he had to be cautious.
Take Sora from the Fire Temple, for instance—he could go after him, but he feared that chakra given by the system might be different from what he could harvest manually.
"The Three-Tails’ chakra I got from the system didn’t cause any chakra leakage or instability. It fused with my body smoothly. But..."
Kurama was far too powerful. And Konoha had tight monitoring and sensory measures in place around him.
No one wanted another ’Night of the Nine-Tails.’
So he had to be extremely careful. But this time...
"If I get a chance to test it, and it works, things will be much easier in the future!"
He had already made up his mind—he would try.
Even if it didn’t work out this time, he’d come back again.
---
"The Land of Waterfalls... right. That just reminded me of something."
Gen’s eyes lit up.