Miria watched in horrified fascination as Tobi's strategy unfolded. The masked man, now phased through Deidara's grappling clay and almost directly above Isobu, began to generate a localized vortex in his right eye, a chilling spiral of distorted space. This wasn't a grab to pull the entire Bijuu. This was far more insidious. He was aiming to tear Isobu apart, piece by agonizing piece, into his pocket dimension.
He can pull in parts of you! Miria's mind screamed, her [Observer's Log] flashing the specific mechanics of Kamui. He can touch you if he only pulls a small section. He'll phase his hand into you, and then pull that section into his dimension! The thought sent a fresh wave of icy dread through her. This wasn't about strength or speed; it was about the very fabric of reality being violated.
Isobu, massive and powerful, thrashed against Deidara's clinging clay, its roars of fury echoing across the lake. Its ancient instincts were for brute force, for physical evasion or counter-attack. It wouldn't naturally comprehend a spatial assault that bypasses tangible defenses.
"Isobu! Not your body!" Miria shrieked, her voice cracking from the strain, desperate to penetrate the chaos. "He will phase inside you! Don't let him get a solid hold! Blast the space inside the vortex! Push outwards! You can fight the warp!"
Her words were a desperate gamble, hoping the unique nature of Bijuu chakra, its sheer overwhelming volume, could act as a counter-force to Kamui's pull from the inside if she somehow managed to tell it to focus its power there.
As Tobi stretched out a hand, his fingers blurring as they began to phase towards Isobu's massive coral shell, the Bijuu hesitated. Its immense, single eye seemed to swivel towards Miria's grotto for a fleeting moment, as if registering her frantic warning.
Then, Isobu reacted. Instead of thrashing against the clay golem or trying to physically bite Tobi, the Bijuu's three tails began to glow with a furious, emerald chakra. The glow intensified, and a surge of concentrated chakra erupted from multiple points on its body, not outwards, but inwards, as if trying to create a pressurized counter-force against the spatial pull. Simultaneously, its form diffused slightly again, a desperate attempt to become less of a solid target.
Tobi's hand, which had just begun to phase into Isobu's shell, seemed to meet an unexpected, internal resistance. The vortex in his eye swelled, struggling, but it didn't immediately engulf a piece of the Bijuu. He let out a surprised grunt behind his mask, his body momentarily stiffening as the raw power of Isobu, directed internally, pushed back against his technique.
"What was that, hm?!" Deidara shouted, momentarily distracted from his own clay beast. "The Three-Tails is fighting back in a strange way, yeah!"
Tobi's eye-hole seemed to narrow, his head tilting. He pulled his hand back, the vortex still swirling, but his previous effortless confidence was gone, replaced by a calculating vigilance. Isobu had understood. It had tried to follow her impossible advice.
The reprieve was momentary. Tobi wasn't one to be deterred. "Clever, but futile," he muttered, his voice still low, but now with an edge of irritation. He leaped back, landing gracefully on Deidara's clay bird. "A wider strategy then, Deidara. We'll capture the lake itself, and force it."
Miria watched, her heart a frantic bird in her chest. Her warnings had worked, for a moment. But Tobi was adapting, and the scale of the battle was about to escalate beyond even her wildest predictions. The "convincing" was ongoing, desperate, and terrifyingly real.
Miria watched in a fresh wave of terror as Tobi's demeanor shifted. His "wider strategy" could only mean something truly devastating. Deidara, meanwhile, was already flying higher, rapidly molding an immense amount of clay, not into a grappling beast, but into something far more massive and menacing—a colossal, multi-headed clay dragon. Its scale was horrifying, easily dwarfing the entire lake.
The realization hit Miria with the force of a physical blow. They weren't trying to capture Isobu directly anymore. They were going to drain the entire lake, or perhaps, with Deidara's ultimate technique, threaten to obliterate it. Her [Observer's Log] screamed its internal warnings. This was a war of attrition, of overwhelming power against Isobu's limited evasions. The Akatsuki were adapting faster than she could warn.
Her patience snapped. The sheer, impossible desperation of her situation, coupled with the immediate, overwhelming threat to Isobu, brought forth a surge of raw, unadulterated resolve. She couldn't afford a slow negotiation.
"Tsk, Isobu! Quit being stubborn and get inside me now!" Miria screamed, her voice cracking, but imbued with an authority that defied her physical weakness. The words tore from her throat, cutting through the escalating roar of the wind and the thundering splashes. "I'll deal with them! I may not be Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, but trust me!"
She knew the absurdity of her claim, likening herself to the Sage of Six Paths, the original Jinchuriki and creator of the Bijuu. But the truth was, she shared a unique, fundamental understanding of the Bijuu's nature and the war's ultimate trajectory that no other human possessed, save perhaps Naruto himself. It was a desperate, ultimate gamble on the depth of her knowledge and the sheer audacity of her conviction.
Isobu, still struggling against the remnants of Deidara's previous clay golem, and sensing the new, monstrous clay dragon forming above, seemed to hesitate. Its immense single eye, partially obscured by the churning water, fixed on Miria's minuscule form. The ancient beast radiated a mix of rage, exhaustion, and a flicker of profound confusion. It recognized the utter lack of chakra from her, yet her words held a bizarre resonance, a ring of impossible truth that spoke to its primordial instincts.
The clay dragon above was nearly complete, its massive maw opening, crackling with explosive energy. Tobi floated beside it, his eye-hole a calculating void, waiting for Deidara's ultimate 'art' to force Isobu into submission. The very air around the lake began to vibrate with destructive intent.
Miria knew the moment was now or never. If Isobu didn't choose, it would be forcibly taken, and her own life, tied to this impossible gamble, would be forfeit.
Miria's desperate plea, her impossible comparison to the Sage, hung in the air. Deidara's monstrous clay dragon, now fully formed, roared above the lake, its multiple heads poised to strike. Tobi, a silent, menacing presence, seemed to shift slightly, ready for the final, annihilating blow. The air crackled with destructive intent, the end for Isobu seemingly inevitable.
Then, from the turbulent depths, Isobu's single, immense eye fixed upon Miria's tiny, defiant form. There was no roar, no thrashing. Instead, a wave of ancient understanding, tinged with a desperate, self-preserving gamble, washed over her mind. It wasn't a voice, but a direct, profound acceptance that bypassed words entirely.
The lake's surface exploded, not from an Akatsuki attack, but from Isobu's own sudden, cataclysmic surge. The colossal Bijuu launched itself from the water, a leviathan of green scales and coral, not towards Deidara, but directly at Miria's grotto.
Miria had no time to react. The sheer mass and speed of the charging Bijuu were overwhelming. She braced, expecting to be crushed, but instead, an impossible sensation enveloped her. Isobu didn't collide with the rock. Its colossal form, shimmering with an emerald aura, compressed. It became a blinding vortex of green chakra that surged towards her, not as an attack, but as a deliberate, controlled implosion.
A scream tore from Miria's throat as the overwhelming power consumed her. Her body felt like it was being ripped apart, then violently, impossibly, knitted back together. A searing, agonizing pain erupted through every cell, every nerve ending. Her chakra network, dormant since birth, exploded into agonizing, vibrant life, flooded by a torrent of raw, untamed energy beyond anything she could have ever conceived. It was like drinking from an ocean while standing in a thimble.
The last memory before the world became a kaleidoscope of pain and green light was Isobu's immense, single eye. It wasn't angry anymore, or even just curious. It held a profound, desperate acceptance as it fixed on Miria. There was no roar, no thrashing, just a sudden, cataclysmic surge from the lake's depths. The colossal Bijuu launched itself, not at the Akatsuki above, but directly at Miria's grotto.
Miria had no time to brace, no time to even scream a coherent thought. The sheer mass and speed of the charging Bijuu were overwhelming. She expected to be crushed, but instead, an impossible sensation enveloped her. Isobu didn't collide with the rock, or with her. Its colossal form, shimmering with an emerald aura, compressed. It became a blinding vortex of green chakra that surged towards her, not as an attack, but as a deliberate, controlled implosion.
A raw, guttural cry tore from Miria's throat as the overwhelming power consumed her. Her body felt like it was being ripped apart, then violently, impossibly, knitted back together. A searing, agonizing pain erupted through every cell, every nerve ending. Her chakra network, dormant since birth, exploded into agonizing, vibrant life, flooded by a torrent of raw, untamed energy beyond anything she could have ever conceived. It was like trying to contain a tidal wave in a teacup, or drinking from an ocean while standing in a thimble.
Her [System] went into a frenzy.
WARNING! CRITICAL CHAKRA OVERLOAD!
UNKNOWN CHAKRA SIGNATURE DETECTED: IMMENSE, PRIMAL, UNSEALED!
USER'S CHAKRA NETWORK: FORCIBLY ACTIVATED!
NEW SKILLS ACQUIRED: BIJUU CHAKRA CONTROL (UNTRAINED), TAIL BEAST MODE (LOCKED), TAILED BEAST RASENGAN (LOCKED)... ERROR! ERROR! TOO MANY SKILLS!
SYSTEM OVERLOAD!
Miria's mind reeled, a kaleidoscope of green and black. She felt a second of profound unconsciousness, then her eyes snapped open. They were no longer their usual emerald, but blazed with an eerie, radiant green light, a physical manifestation of the immense power now contained within her. Her skin felt impossibly taut, every nerve screaming, yet paradoxically, her senses were sharper than they had ever been. She could feel the Akatsuki's chakra signatures—Deidara's bright, volatile flame; Tobi's cold, twisting void—with a clarity that was terrifying in its newfound intensity.
The lake, moments ago a tumultuous battlefield, was suddenly still. Isobu was gone. Vanished.
Above, Deidara's massive clay dragon, poised to unleash its devastating attack, hung motionless. "What in the...?!" Deidara roared, his previous glee replaced by utter bewilderment. His eyes, trained to sense chakra, frantically scanned the empty lake.
Tobi, too, was frozen, his masked head tilted in a rare display of genuine confusion. His single eye-hole narrowed, focusing not on the lake, but on the tiny, glowing speck that was Miria, half-submerged in the grotto. He could sense it now. The distinct, overwhelming chakra signature of the Three-Tails, localized, condensed, and emanating from the seemingly insignificant human.
"The Bijuu... it's inside her?" Tobi's gravelly voice, usually so composed, held a tremor of disbelief. "Impossible! She has no chakra! No sealing jutsu! How?!"
Miria slowly, agonizingly, pushed herself upright. Her body thrummed with alien power, every muscle screaming in protest, but her mind was clearer than it had ever been. She was a Jinchuriki. An untrained, unstable, chakra-less Jinchuriki, but a Jinchuriki nonetheless. She now possessed the very power she had sought. Her [Threat Assessment] still blared, but now it felt different, almost... manageable. The overwhelming threat was still present, but now she had a weapon, however unwieldy, to meet it.
Her emerald eyes, now radiating green light, fixed on the Akatsuki above. She wasn't an invisible observer anymore. She was the prize. And the battle for her, and Isobu, had just truly begun.