Shukaku emptied another cup of sake and laughed maniacally. He poured himself another cup, casually glanced out the window, and noticed an approaching figure. He peered out across the desert sands….Kyuubi? Yes….Kyuubi………why was he here?
He turned to sand and reformed near Kyuubi. “To what do I owe the honor?”
“I got it.”
“Wuh- is it time?”
“Yeah, it’s time. Come on.”
Shukaku began to follow Kyuubi towards the centre of the mainland.
The two giant demon dogs, one with 3 tails, the other with 5, wrestled under a tree of incredible size. Then, as if hearing some signal that no human could pick up, they raised their heads. The 3 tailed dog said; “It appears that Kyuubi kept his word, Houkou!” In turn, the 5 tailed dog replied “Well, then, Kouhou, we’d better cash in it!” And they got off each other and ran towards the centre of the mainland.
In the Land of Snow, a beast stirred. Awakened from his slumber, the mighty white wolf lifted his head and sniffed the air.
“So, Kyuubi did it.”
With one mighty leap, with the wind at his back, the wolf traveled to the centre of the mainland.
And so the 5 canine Bijuu assembled in the centre of the mainland.
Shukaku, the 1 tailed tanuki-originally a drunken teenager, who died in a sandstorm and had his body mummified in a tea pot. His angry spirit wished to control the sands and winds that had killed him, and his wish was granted when he transformed.
Kouhou and Houkou, the 3 and 5 tailed dogs-a pair of brothers that had always bickered over who was superior, until one day their squabbling got them both killed.
Okami, the 7 tailed wolf-once the leader of a rogue samurai clan, he saw all of his men slaughtered before him by a traitor. He avenged them all, but the blood loss took its toll. He died, and his body was preserved in the ice, but his soul was carried away by the wind. Eventually, he became the wind.
Kyuubi, the 9 tailed fox-a light hearted trickster ninja who never meant to hurt anyone until his pranks went too far. He was burned alive, and retained the inferno in his spirit.
There was no ranking among these bijuu….their tails did not signify anything, not even how much power they had. Okami possessed the most chakra, with Kyuubi and Shukaku tied for second, and the dogs tied for last place. But Okami was not their leader. They had no leader. They needed no leader. They simply listened to the words of whoever had the best idea at the time. And this time it was Kyuubi.
“I’ve finally got it. The scroll of the Dragon King’s power!” the orange fox snarled.
The Dragon King was, as the name implied, a dragon. He had 10 heads and 10 tails, and he sought to rule over all of the bijuu with his infinite chakra horde. Many would’ve simply bowed down before him, but he had a bizarre (or at least everyone thought it was bizarre) rule: chakra levels and number of tails are strictly intertwined. Many bijuu’s natural chakra levels did not match this trend, and he demanded that they be slaughtered. Now, only 16 bijuu remained: the Dragon King, 9 bijuu under his command, with tails 1-9, Isonade, a 3 tailed shark that had managed to elude the Dragon King in the deepest parts of the ocean, and the canine clan.
“I’ve found it at last…but, it comes with more catches than we originally thought.” Kyuubi spat out the giant scroll and laid it out. “As you can see, it is a map of the world. In order to gain the Dragon King’s power, we must first divide up the world into the portions which we desire.”
“Whut?” Shukaku murmured drunkenly. “Why would we need to do that?”
“We will only be able to possess the Dragon King’s power in certain areas of the world. If our boundaries overlap, none of us will ever have access to the Dragon’s power!” Kyuubi snapped. “I presume that you want the desert.”
“Urm….yes. I want the desert.”
“And I want every piece of land north of the main continent!” Okami snapped.
“We demand the coasts of the main continent!” The dogs barked simultaneously.
“Very well. Then the rest of the world goes to me.” Kyuubi lit the tip of his finger and drew the respective boundaries. “Now, if you are all satisfied, take note of the blue water seal. It is Isonade’s. I used him as a guinea pig. All I had to do was use his seal on the ocean…and he instantly gained the Dragon King’s power in the ocean.”
“So….all we must do is put our own seals in the territories we desire in order to gain the Dragon’s power?” Okami inquired.
“Yes, that is exactly what we must do. Shukaku, care to start?” The giant tanuki eagerly slapped down his palm, but he was stopped by Okami.
“What’s the catch, Kyuubi?”
The fire fox sighed. “You can always tell, can’t you?”
“I can always tell if you’re lying. So far, you’ve been telling the truth. Don’t break your record.”
“Fine. If you put your seal in the territory you wish, you will gain the Dragon’s power in that territory…..but, if you are outside that territory, your chakra levels will drop until they meet his twisted demand!”
Okami’s hand went for Kyuubi’s neck. “You traitorous bastard! You intend to weaken us all, while you gain enough power to destroy us all!”
“What is he talking about?”
“Look at the map! We’re in the thick of Kyuubi’s territory!”
Kyuubi wheezed. “You-you-you can cut up the map. Take your own territories with you. Go home, make your seals there. It won’t….change…how much power you gain!”
Okami released his grip on Kyuubi. Instantly, the demons tore up the map and disappeared. Kyuubi breathed in deeply. Wretched wolf. Ah well, no matter. Kyuubi still had his part of the world……
Simultaneously, the canines stamped their seals upon the paper. And the Dragon King faded out of existence.
Several days past, and the canines were still testing the extent of their newfound powers. The 1 tailed rat was destroyed by Shukaku, the 3 tailed ox ripped to shreds by Kouhou, the 5 tailed horse torn apart by Houkou, and the 9 tailed lizard burned to ashes by Kyuubi. Due to his extreme isolation, Okami and Kaku, the 7 tailed badger, never faced off. Kyuubi assumed the title: King of the Bijuu.
Centuries past. Kouhou was eaten by Isonade, and only 10 bijuu remained. All of the Bijuu engaged in a massive battle (which again, Okami missed out on due to isolation) we refer to as the Ancient War of the 9 Gods where Kyuubi again gained the title of King of the Bijuu. Houkou, who had betrayed Kyuubi, spend a long time hiding in a giant tree. Perhaps the most misfortunate of them was Shukaku, for soon after the war, he was imprisoned in the Antler Teakettle, and forever made the slave of man, sealed inside humans regardless of his will. The rest of the canine clan remains free of this slavery, but several powerful men throughout history grew the nerve to create a jiinchuriki for Okami with the intentions of creating the perfect soldiers-but instead creating their own successors. So far, Kyuubi has only been sealed in a human once, and it is too early to draw conclusive results about the jiinchuriki of the Bijuu King.
