"What's going on?" Motoi, who was patrolling Giant Turtle Island, suddenly felt the ground beneath him tremble.
"Captain Motoi! The giant turtle seems to have become restless," reported a shinobi responsible for routine patrols and security.
Though labeled as guards, few took this job seriously. Giant Turtle Island was a secluded treasure discovered by the First Raikage decades ago. No outsider had ever found it, and outside of Kumogakure, no one even knew of its existence.
Fortunately, the Fourth Raikage deeply cared for his younger brother and had stationed an experienced elite shinobi force here. Though the unexpected disturbance caused some panic, the guards didn't completely lose their composure.
"Quick, send out sensory ninjas to investigate!" Motoi, his wild, explosive hair and paint-smeared nose making him stand out, barked out the order.
"Yes!" The guard ninja immediately vanished using the Body Flicker Technique.
By the coastline, two Kumogakure sensory ninjas were already monitoring the sea nervously, pushing their chakra senses as far as they could to figure out the cause of the turtle's agitation and the sudden violent waves on the ocean's surface.
"What's happening?" Impatient, Motoi ran over to personally inquire.
"There was a massive explosion in the western sea," one of the guards, who had been stationed in that direction, replied with a nervous expression.
Motoi followed the direction the guard pointed. Though the sea had begun to calm, the sheer number of dead fish floating on the surface—so dense that they obscured the water—told a chilling story of the explosion's intensity.
But it wasn't over yet. More dead fish floated up from below, their blood dyeing the surrounding waters a deep crimson, spreading toward Giant Turtle Island like a virus.
What kind of explosion could cause such devastation? A shadow loomed over Motoi's heart.
"Th-that!" Suddenly, one of the sensory ninjas began trembling, as if he had seen something terrifying.
"What is it? What did you see, Damoi?" Motoi asked urgently.
"Chakra! Such powerful chakra!" Damoi stammered.
"Is it an enemy? Is there just one, or are there several?" Motoi pressed.
"There are three enemies!" Damoi replied, still trembling. "One of them has chakra only slightly weaker than Lord Raikage, Lord B, and Lady Yugito."
"The other two are weaker, but one is on par with Lord Darui, and the other is at least at jonin level."
Motoi's heart sank. The strongest of the three had chakra comparable to the Raikage and the Jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails and Two-Tails. That person alone was a threat beyond ordinary comparison. Darui, the Fourth Raikage's bodyguard, was also an exceptional shinobi, so someone with chakra on his level was equally terrifying.
While chakra strength alone isn't a perfect measure of a shinobi's power—there are those with low chakra reserves who are still incredibly strong—high chakra levels almost always indicate significant strength.
"What should we do? Should we notify Lord B immediately?" one ninja suggested.
"Wait! We can't be sure they're enemies yet. They haven't directly attacked us," another, more level-headed ninja argued.
"So, what? We wait until they attack before reacting? Against enemies of that caliber, we'll be dead before we can do anything!" The first ninja grabbed the other's collar, shouting.
"But Lord B is at a critical stage of his training right now, battling the Eight-Tails' malevolence and power. If we disturb him now, it'll lead to a fight for sure!" the second ninja countered, equally adamant.
Motoi found himself torn. Both arguments made sense, but as the captain, he couldn't just listen passively—he had to make a decision.
Before he could decide, a massive, malevolent chakra erupted from the center of Giant Turtle Island, instantly enveloping the entire island in its oppressive presence.
"Oh no! B!" Motoi turned toward the island's center. In the dim sky, he thought he could see a massive, horned, eight-tentacled beast thrashing wildly, its tentacles flailing in the air as it let out a maniacal, predatory laugh.
"Yo! Who dares disturb the great Killer B's training? Fool! Ya fool!" A familiar rap echoed as a figure leapt from the island's center. Covered entirely in red chakra, with eight tails swaying behind him and horns on his head, Killer B had partially transformed into the Eight-Tails' form, barely retaining his human shape.
"He's already partially tailed-beastified?" Motoi muttered, his anxiety evident as he watched Killer B perched atop a large tree in the island's center.
"At least he seems to have retained some rationality," Motoi noted, though his worry didn't lessen.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Motoi bit his thumb, quickly forming hand seals before summoning a giant owl. He hastily scribbled a note detailing the situation and tied it to the owl's leg.
"Please deliver this information to the village immediately!"
The owl struggled to take flight under the oppressive influence of the Eight-Tails' chakra. Meanwhile, the situation worsened. The partially transformed Killer B crouched on the tree, opening his mouth wide as he began forming a massive black chakra sphere.
"He's preparing a Tailed Beast Ball!?"
"Damn it! Everyone, get back! This is beyond what we can handle. Don't throw your lives away!"
"Now, we can only hope those three unlucky souls B has targeted can survive," Motoi thought grimly.
Earlier, he had been deeply uneasy about the strength of the three intruders. But now that Killer B, in his rampaging state, was involved, their chances of victory seemed slim. After all, this was the Eight-Tails—a being so powerful that even the Raikage could only seal it using special tools.
"This feels familiar, Sasori," Deidara remarked, standing on the water's surface with his hands in his pockets. The tongues on his palms licked excitedly. The thrill of facing a worthy opponent exhilarated him. He loved nothing more than a battle where he could fully unleash his art.
"It's the Eight-Tails," Sasori replied.
"Why do we always encounter rampaging Jinchūriki?" Sasori muttered in rare exasperation.
"It's coming!" he warned.
In the distance, a massive black Tailed Beast Ball hurtled toward them, splitting the sea below it in half and sending two towering waves crashing outward. The ball's speed was so great that it had already reached them before the sound of its approach could be heard, a testament to its supersonic velocity.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Wall!"
A solid wall of black iron sand rose before the trio. Perhaps still bitter about Deidara stealing the spotlight during their encounter with the Seven-Tails, Sasori wasted no time deploying his prized Three Kazekage Puppet.