This...
This was!
The deep crimson, vertically slit pupils slowly shifted toward her upper right. When they fell upon the pale violet, spinning sphere of Chakra, a faint look of astonishment surfaced on Kushina's face.
At this moment, within her field of vision, aside from the Rasengan mixed with Nine-Tails Chakra that was about to strike her, what drew even more of her attention were the two incomparably familiar black Chakra arms that had suddenly grown from behind Uchiha Nobuhiko.
Those arms had extended from his defensive dojutsu just now! Could it be...! At that moment, she suddenly understood something, and a familiar figure flashed through her mind.
The figure of that boy outlined in emerald green Chakra! Chiba! Uchiha Nobuhiko's current form—no, rather, the manifestation of his Chakra—was just like Chiba's Eight Gates Mode! Only, Uchiha Nobuhiko was not using the Eight Gates. He had absorbed his defensive dojutsu, that humanoid-like absolute defense! Uchiha Nobuhiko's current form, that sensation of being outlined by Chakra, was exactly the same as the figure she had seen behind the cabin: covered in blood, yet wearing an excited expression, enveloped in emerald green Chakra as though it were tracing his outline! It was exactly the same as the strongest form of her proudest disciple! Only, her proudest disciple used the Eight Gates Mode, developed after improving the Forbidden Jutsu known as the Eight Gates. Uchiha Nobuhiko's current manifestation had likely replaced the berserk Chakra of the Eight Gates with that defensive dojutsu.
After all, the defensive manifestation of that dojutsu was merely a massive mass of Chakra. Gathering that massive mass of Chakra into the body through a method similar to Chiba's Eight Gates Mode, producing power equal to—or even greater than—that of the Eight Gates and enhancing one's speed and strength, was