Chapter Fifty-Eight: Trouble

"This seems to have gotten out of hand," murmured Feng Xue, gazing at Gaara whose left side was encased in gravel. All he had done was dodge an attack; how had things escalated to this point?

At that moment, Gaara, half-transformed into a tailed beast, cared little for Feng Xue's thoughts. The massive sand arm he wielded swung with unnatural length and reach.

Shukaku's beast cloak was unlike any other tailed beast. With only one tail, it couldn't form a cloak with a portion of chakra as the others did. Instead, it had a far more practical approach—an actual armor. Chakra-rich sand formed a shell over Gaara's body, and as his awakening increased, the sand armor covered more and more, until complete coverage meant full beast transformation. It was the same principle as other tailed beasts: the more tails their cloaks manifested, the closer they were to full transformation.

But Shukaku's beast cloak was fundamentally different—it was tangible.

In fact, Shukaku's beast cloak shared a similar defensive philosophy with the AT Field: by spreading attacks across countless energy-laden particles, the impact suffered by the body was lessened. The main distinction was that one used ethereal soul particles while the other relied on real sand.

Though sand could not match the wondrous properties of soul particles, it had one singular advantage—as a physical substance, each unit could withstand and absorb impacts many times greater than soul particles ever could.

"Gaara won't transform into the tailed beast inside the arena, will he?" Feng Xue muttered, uneasy. That would bode ill for him. If a tailed beast appeared within the heart of Leaf Village, it would not be just the handful of formidable ninja from the original story who responded. The tragedy of the Nine Tails' attack was still fresh in everyone's memory; the village would never allow history to repeat itself.

It wouldn't just be the background ninja cleaning up fodder as in the original. Even the prestigious clans, who had sent only a few elite representatives before, might be compelled by public opinion to mobilize more. And the Jonin from the Hokage's faction would certainly join the fray. (If one looks closely at the manga, it becomes clear that during the Konoha Collapse, most Jonin were just playing supporting roles; their displayed power did not match their reputations. For example, Kurenai never used large-scale genjutsu, Asuma barely used his Flying Swallow technique, and Kakashi's avoidance of ninjutsu could be attributed to chakra conservation. But Guy's output was completely off—someone who could open several gates for hours was matched in performance by Kakashi, who didn’t use ninjutsu at all. Clearly, they were holding back. The author once suspected Orochimaru was always a third Hokage loyalist, orchestrating events so that the legendary ninja would not die bedridden, and to show Konoha, grown accustomed to peace, the horror of war. The Jonin likely understood the need to create a sense of oppression for the younger ninja, hence their lackluster performance. As for Sand Ninja, they were simply duped by Konoha and Orochimaru—after all, even training exercises require funding, and if Orochimaru wouldn't pay, someone else had to.)

And as someone from the enemy camp, appearing alongside Shukaku, Feng Xue could easily be slain by a passing Jonin with a casual kunai.

Thus—Gaara absolutely could not become Shukaku here!

Although Feng Xue thought so, the solution was complicated. First, surrender was out of the question. A half-beast Gaara had little rationality left (in fact he was intelligent, but unreasonable); even conceding wouldn't stop him. The examiner intervening might even prompt full transformation.

Second, knocking him out was impossible. Shukaku's nature meant the Jinchuriki could not lose consciousness; if Gaara fainted, Shukaku would emerge without question.

So...

"He must lose his will to fight," Feng Xue sighed, myriad thoughts flashing through his mind in an instant, while in reality, Gaara's giant sand hand had yet to strike.

No longer using "Arrogance" to evade, Feng Xue dodged with more conventional, human agility. He seemed to become a streak of violet light, darting forward, and the next moment appeared directly before Gaara.

Gaara did not hesitate. A tail, composed entirely of sand, swept toward Feng Xue. Somehow, Gaara had already formed a tail!

That was no good omen.

Feng Xue felt a bitter pang and poured all his soul force into action, releasing a torrent of soul particles in an instant.

He did not, as usual, envelop himself in them, nor fashion them into gauntlets, nor construct those beautiful, rule-bound, multi-colored polygons. Instead, he compressed them to their utmost limit.

At that moment, every spectator in the stands heard a song—a haunting melody, filled with sorrow and sinister undertones, yet imbued with a sense of holiness.

To the audience’s astonished eyes, a halo appeared above Feng Xue’s head.

It was a ring, neither gold nor silver, emanating strange allure, as if it could draw in one’s very soul.

This was a phenomenon born from the extreme compression of soul particles. In the world of EVA, it might herald an angel preparing to unleash a cross-shaped blast, but Feng Xue was not about to use such an attack. He lacked the soul particle reserves to sustain even a thread-thin beam.

Instead, Feng Xue chose a method akin to the Angel of Birds—infusing strands of will into the soul particles and then, in the form of light, directly inserting them into Gaara’s mind.

A filthy, dark, damp sewer—the standard landscape of a Jinchuriki’s inner world. At this moment, a beam of light invaded, not tranquil or peaceful, nor the holy light that brought harmony, but a destructive radiance steeped in another’s will.

Both Shukaku and Gaara seemed to suffer a mental blow, their vision flickering.

"Genjutsu?" Deep within Gaara's consciousness, Shukaku sensed the threat immediately, thanks to its long life, and reluctantly sent chakra outward.

Yet Feng Xue's technique was not a traditional genjutsu. This power did not rely on chakra as a medium, nor did it act by disrupting the brain’s chakra. Theoretically, a Jinchuriki, immune to genjutsu due to their dual souls, would have no advantage against such an attack; in fact, the very duality of their spirit made them even more susceptible!