"Perfect opportunity to test the strength of my shadow clone," Wakaho thought, raising an eyebrow as he quickly formed the seals to activate his newly discovered shadow clone jutsu.
"How does it feel?" he asked.
"You'll find out soon enough," replied the shadow clone, cracking its knuckles and looking toward the relentless half-tailed beast form of Han.
"By the way, how about trying the Eight Gates?" the shadow clone suddenly suggested. "With 80% damage transfer, opening the Gates might not even be a problem."
"Sounds like a plan. You go first," Wakaho said, kicking the shadow clone off the dragon mid-flight.
Tensing his muscles, Wakaho braced himself for the impending pain that would come from the clone's experience.
The shadow clone, anticipating its imminent fate, curled itself up mid-air, trying to shield its vital spots with its knees and elbows.
Then...
Slap!
The berserk, half-tailed beast Han swatted it away effortlessly.
Whiz—
Boom!!
The shadow clone was embedded into the wall, but it didn't disappear!
Thanks to the threefold durability increase, the clone remained intact despite the heavy blow. It even gave Wakaho a thumbs-up!
"Impressive..."
"A shadow clone tougher than a real body?" Wakaho gulped, realizing that even though the clone's chakra was limited to 20% of the original's, with his future chakra reserves and additional armor, the clone could become nearly unstoppable.
Suddenly, the rampaging half-tailed beast Han halted, letting out a deafening roar.
This roar was still filled with anger but now carried a sense of exhilaration and anticipation, as if something was about to break free.
"ROAR!!!!"
Another roar echoed, but this one was less hoarse and wild, the beastly tone becoming more pronounced as the last remnants of Han's humanity faded.
Wakaho continued flying forward but glanced back, his eyes widening at what he saw.
The half-tailed beast Han was now on all fours, head pointed skyward, as the red and black chakra poured out from his eyes, nose, and mouth, converging into the shape of a massive creature resembling both a horse and a dog.
Wakaho had seen this before.
A dark version of Obito had done something similar to Kushina, allowing the Nine-Tails a brief moment of freedom before it was split and resealed.
"ROAR!!!!"
The next roar was filled with the exhilaration of breaking free from captivity!
The Five-Tails, Kokuo, had completely broken out of its seal!
But instead of immediately searching for Wakaho in the sky, Kokuo turned to look behind it.
There, Han's lifeless body lay motionless, clearly dead...
Bam!
Kokuo stomped on the corpse, grinding it under its hoof.
"Being sealed wasn't pleasant, was it?" Wakaho's voice suddenly echoed.
"From now on, you should stick with me. The shinobi world in this era... it's too chaotic."
Bam!
Kokuo stomped again, this time crushing the shadow clone into the ground.
But the clone didn't give up; it even managed to form a seal.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
The intense heat under Kokuo's foot made it stumble slightly, and in its fury, it momentarily forgot about the other figure rapidly closing in on it atop the dragon...
"Look into my eyes, Kokuo!"
"Have you forgotten who I am?!"