The Legendary Nine. A group that every demon and every bijuu aspires to be a part of. Sometimes I wonder why I’m not part of the Legendary Nine. But then I think about it and it becomes very obvious.
For starters, I’m not legendary.
I seriously doubt that anyone has heard of me outside my frozen northern territory. And anyone who has ever heard of me doesn’t even think I exist. I am a myth. To the people of the world, I am a subject of stories and visual arts; inkworks, paintings, playworks, interpretive dance, and B-rated films. The inkworks and paintings are great, the playworks and B-rated films are okay (with a few good bits here and there) but the interpretive dance is just insulting.
So, anyways, you can’t be legendary when you’re considered a myth.
And two, I do not follow the rules of the Dragon King.
You may recall the incident that occurred with some of the more prominent canine members of the Legendary Nine (link) Kyuubi is careful to make sure that all the other members of the Legendary Nine are weaker than him. He took extra precautions for when he must leave by endowing himself with his part of the Dragon King’s power so that it stays with him no matter where he goes. In this way, he will always be stronger than any other member of the Legendary Nine wherever he is. (exception being Shukaku, but this may be because they’ll be at a stand off, plus they’re the best of buddies as far as bijuu go)
Before the Dragon King incident, I was far more powerful than any other bijuu in the world, with the exception of the Dragon King. As long as I stay on my homeland, however, I am far mightier than any other Bijuu. And if Kyuubi comes along…..we will have inherited the same amount of power from the Dragon King, and I will beat him with my natural power.
But that means I can’t be part of the Legendary Nine.
I suppose there are advantages to not being a member of the Legendary Nine. When less people know about you/believe that you exist, the less likely they are to stick you in some human with the intentions of creating a super soldier. Now, I’m on my third jiinchuriki, I must say, they can be fun, and I’ll admit without a jiinchuriki all bijuu will eventually go through mental decay, but it would be nice if I was ASKED instead of being forced into it by some arcane ritual.
And it’s really not worth it, making a jiinchuriki. A human life is usually required for the sealing, and if the bijuu has more power than 8 tails (mind you, Shukaku and I got more than that on our homelands because of the whole dragon incident) then the mother has to friggin die or else the child will be a stillborn. After that, the jiinchuriki will have various mental, psychological or medical issues that, while making them superior beings, can drive them insane. Such conditions include lipodystrophy, extreme insomnia, ADD, ADHD, hyperthymestic syndrome, claustrophobia, Prader-Willi syndrome (I finally remember it!) and what not.
Of course, we bijuu can be very selective when it comes to these conditions. Take Prader-Willi syndrome. Eternal hunger aside, the symptoms are….well, they explain it better than I do (link). But as you can see, my jiinchuriki never displays those attributes, always displaying seemingly the reverse.
Additionally, bijuu can gain power from defeated enemies. I myself do so by literally consuming my fallen opponent. (another reason I’m not in the Legendary Nine: I F*CKING eat other bijuu) Shukaku and Kyuubi create clones with similar abilities to certain fallen opponents. Kaku does so by shapeshifting into his fallen enemy. Nekomata can summon the spirit of any creature she has killed to do her bidding. The other bijuu I am not so sure of, but I know that they have some way of increasing their power from fallen foes. All bijuu share this ability with their jiinchuriki.
And furthermore, there are only 2 or 3 ways to kill any given jiinchuriki, one of which is always combat related fatality, although some jiinchuriki are more impervious to certain injuries than others. (The other method(s) of death is/are unique to each jiinchuriki, and no bijuu will ever tell anyone except their jiinchuriki, and even then, only under necessary circumstances. The only thing I will say is that it would be obvious if you studied the bijuu, the jiinchuriki, it’s powers, and where it tends to dwell) A jiinchuriki will stop aging at 25 and will not die unless it is killed by either of these methods. Since it’s difficult to kill jiinchuriki in combat, and the second/third method is usually unknown, jiinchuriki tend to live long lives if they are not killed outside of combat.
What’s the point I’m trying to make? While all that makes jiinchuriki great warriors, they are terrible soldiers. At some point in its life, the jiinchuriki will tire of taking orders from someone else and become its own boss. This means either it will go rogue and strike out on its own, or it will assume position of top dog.
What was I talking about?
Oh, right, Legendary Nine.
Ahem
Mighty confusing this whole Legendary Nine thing. Hard to tell who's in and who's out. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go acquaint myself with that ox headed tentacle beast over there
