The slight dizziness caused by the spatial transfer vanished instantly. Duanmu Ci and Tsunade appeared in a secluded alley within Konoha. A suffocatingly heavy stench of blood and pungent smoke rushed over them! In the distance came earth-shaking roars, the sound of collapsing buildings, the cries of ninja, and... the desperate wails of civilians!
Looking up, they saw an enormous Blood Moon hanging above Konoha, radiating an ominous crimson glow! Its moonlight had dyed the entire village an eerie dark red! In the heart of the village, an unimaginably massive orange-red figure was wreaking havoc!
The Nine-Tails Fox!
It was like a world-annihilating demon god that had crawled out of hell. Its nine enormous tails swung like mountain ranges, each sweep unleashing a devastating storm that ground entire rows of houses into dust! It spat dark red Tailed Beast Bombs from its mouth, which crashed into the ground like meteors. Every explosion raised a giant mushroom cloud and swallowed countless lives! Its Chakra, brimming with brutality, hatred, and the will to destroy, surged through the air like a tangible tide, making the atmosphere thick and heavy!
"Roar—!!!" The Nine-Tails' howl sounded like the death knell of the apocalypse, making the earth tremble!
"Kushina!" Tsunade's face turned deathly pale. She saw where the Nine-Tails had appeared—it was near the village center, where Minato's home had once stood! Now, there was nothing left but a vast stretch of rubble and burning flames! She immediately tried to rush over.
"Wait!" Duanmu Ci grabbed her, his Rinnegan instantly activated to its fullest! Pale purple ripples flowed through his eyes as his powerful perception swept over the chaotic battlefield like a radar. "Something is wrong! The Nine-Tails' Chakra is extremely violent, but it seems to be forcibly controlled by some power! Its target is obvious: the densely populated area at the village center! Someone is controlling it!"
He instantly caught a crucial detail: near the Nine-Tails' massive head, there was an incredibly subtle spatial distortion that ordinary people would never notice! A figure wearing a spiral mask, with only one crimson Sharingan exposed, floated there like a ghost! It was Obito Uchiha—the Masked Man!
"It's that masked man! The Sharingan... he's controlling the Nine-Tails!" Duanmu Ci immediately understood who was behind it! Obito had used Kamui's spatial ability to infiltrate at the moment Kushina's seal was weakest during childbirth, released the Nine-Tails, and forcibly controlled it with the Mangekyō Sharingan!
"Senior Minato is over there!" Duanmu Ci's gaze locked onto a flickering golden light directly before the Nine-Tails! Minato Namikaze was using the Flying Thunder God Technique to maneuver with difficulty through the Nine-Tails' frenzied attacks, rescuing people while trying to strike the Masked Man! But he was clearly being severely suppressed by the Nine-Tails' terrifying power and the Masked Man's elusive spatial ability, constantly teetering on the edge of danger! He was already wounded in multiple places, and his white Divine Robe was stained with blood and dust.
On a relatively intact rooftop not far behind Minato, Duanmu Ci saw Kushina Uzumaki, guarded desperately by several ANBU. She was incredibly weak, her abdomen wrapped in bloodstained bandages! Her face was pale as paper, and her Chakra had weakened to the extreme, yet her eyes were filled with anxiety and resolve. Clearly, she wanted to seal the Nine-Tails again, but no longer had the strength to do so!
"Obito... why..." Kushina seemed to recognize the aura of the eye beneath the mask. Her eyes were filled with pain and disbelief.
"There's no time! Tsunade, go protect Sister Kushina! She just gave birth and is extremely weak. Use your Medical Ninjutsu to keep her alive! Stop her from doing anything foolish—sacrificing herself to seal the Nine-Tails! Leave the masked man and the Nine-Tails to Senior Minato and me!" Duanmu Ci spoke rapidly, instantly assigning the most sensible roles.
"Alright! Be careful!" Tsunade did not hesitate in the slightest. She trusted Duanmu Ci's judgment and strength. She immediately erupted with powerful Chakra and charged toward Kushina's rooftop like a golden bolt of lightning! "Kushina! Hold on! I'm coming!"
Duanmu Ci took a deep breath, transforming his worry for his newlywed wife and his fury at the horrific scene before him into icy killing intent and boundless fighting spirit! Sage Mode! Activate!
Buzz!
Pale green markings instantly appeared around his eyes! Vast Nature Energy poured into his body like a raging torrent! His aura surged higher and higher, and his dark green Azure Dragon Divine Robe fluttered without wind! The purple ripples in his Rinnegan deepened further!
"Senior Minato! I'm here to help!" Duanmu Ci let out a long cry that shook the surroundings! He slammed both hands onto the ground!
"Sage Art: Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence—Modified!"
Rumble rumble rumble—!!!
This time, the Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence covered a smaller area, but it was far more focused! Countless incomparably thick trees, wrapped in dense Sage Chakra and emerald runes, burst through the rubble and earth surrounding the Nine-Tails like living earth dragons, growing and twisting wildly! Their targets were the Nine-Tails' enormous body and its wildly lashing tails!
Tough vines coiled around the Nine-Tails' limbs and tails like giant pythons, trying to restrain its movements!
Sharp wooden spikes shot toward the Nine-Tails' eyes and vulnerable joints like siege crossbow bolts!
A huge Wood Dragon roared as it burst from the forest, opening its massive jaws and viciously biting toward the Nine-Tails' neck!
"Roar!!!" The Nine-Tails' assault was slightly stalled by the sudden Wood Release attack, and it unleashed an enraged roar! It swung its giant claws, easily tearing apart the vines around it and batting away the incoming wooden spikes! The Wood Dragon was also struck on the head by a single claw, letting out a pained hiss as cracks appeared along its body!
But Duanmu Ci had not intended to succeed in one strike. His goal was to create an opening for Minato! And to limit the Nine-Tails' range of movement!
"Nicely done, Duanmu!" Minato's pressure dropped drastically, and his spirits soared! He instantly seized the brief opening created when the Nine-Tails was restrained by the Wood Release!
"Flying Thunder God: Second Stage!"
With a flash of golden light, Minato appeared instantly above the Nine-Tails' enormous head, right beside the Masked Man—Obito! He moved faster than the limits of vision! In his hand was a highly compressed ball of Chakra radiating destructive fluctuations—the Rasengan! He slammed it viciously toward the Masked Man's head! This strike contained all his rage and his resolve to save his wife!
"Hmph!" The Masked Man—Obito—snorted coldly, and his crimson Sharingan instantly transformed into a complex Mangekyō pattern! "Kamui!" His body warped like rippling water, and the Rasengan passed straight through his head as though it had struck empty air! The killing blow of Flying Thunder God: Second Stage was effortlessly neutralized by Kamui's Phasing!
"What?!" Minato's pupils shrank sharply! The opponent's spatial ability was far stranger than he had imagined!
"Senior Minato! Watch out!" Duanmu Ci's warning rang out!
The moment Minato's attack missed, the Masked Man—Obito—ended his Phasing. At some point, a huge black scythe with a bizarre shape had appeared in his hand. Carrying a cold glint that seemed capable of tearing space apart, it slashed toward Minato's waist as his missed attack left him momentarily off balance! The timing was impeccable!
"Shinra Tensei!"
Duanmu Ci's support arrived! Rather than directly attacking the Masked Man, he unleashed a powerful repulsive force field into the space directly in front of Minato!
Buzz—!!!
An invisible, powerful repulsive force instantly acted upon the space before Minato!
Clang—!!!
The Masked Man's scythe struck the repulsive force field with a thunderous clash like metal striking metal! The powerful repulsion not only blocked the scythe, but also sent the unprepared Minato flying backward, allowing him to narrowly avoid the fatal blow! Minato flipped in midair and landed steadily, breaking out in a cold sweat as he gave Duanmu Ci a grateful look.
"So it's you again, Duanmu Ci!" For the first time, the Masked Man—Obito—truly turned his gaze toward Duanmu Ci. His crimson Mangekyō Sharingan was filled with icy killing intent and rage at having his plans thwarted time and again! "You've ruined my plans over and over! Today, I'll deal with you too!"
He abandoned his pursuit of Minato and controlled the Nine-Tails, turning its enormous head toward Duanmu Ci! The Nine-Tails opened its blood-filled maw, and an even larger, denser dark red Tailed Beast Bomb, radiating destructive fluctuations, rapidly formed inside! Its target was Duanmu Ci and the Wood Release forest behind him!
"Duanmu!" Minato's expression changed drastically! At such close range, that Tailed Beast Bomb possessed enough power to level half of Konoha!
"Duanmu!" Tsunade, who was urgently treating Kushina, also cried out in alarm!
Facing this world-destroying attack, Duanmu Ci's gaze turned colder than ever. Sage Chakra roared through his body! The power of his Rinnegan was pushed to its limit! He knew he could not hold anything back any longer!
"You want to kill me? A puppet blinded by hatred like you isn't qualified!" Duanmu Ci's voice was like the frigid wind of the deepest underworld. He suddenly pressed his hands together, and the Chakra within him—fused from Sage Jutsu, Wood Release life force, and Rinnegan Eye Power—began to circulate, compress, and erupt in an unprecedented frenzy!
"Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands: Buddha's Heavenly Hand—Initial Manifestation!!!"
Boom—!!!
The earth behind Duanmu Ci erupted like a volcano! Endless light and Chakra shot into the sky! Amid earth-shaking thunder, the phantom of a colossal Wood Release Buddha Statue slowly rose from the ground, revealing only the outline of its upper body and part of its arms!
Though this Buddha Statue was still far from the scale of the complete True Several Thousand Hands—having manifested only dozens of arms—it already towered far above the Nine-Tails! Its entire body shone with a dense golden-green light, Sage Jutsu and Wood Release intertwined, carrying a sacred, majestic, overwhelming aura capable of suppressing all things! Its face was indistinct, but its enormous eyes, formed from pure Chakra, gazed down upon the Nine-Tails and the Masked Man like the sun and moon, filled with compassion and... the will to pass judgment!
"Roar?!" Even the Nine-Tails froze in the midst of gathering its Tailed Beast Bomb. For the first time, the gigantic phantom of the Buddha Statue was clearly reflected in its hatred-filled beast eyes. A primal fear of Wood Release, rooted deep in its bloodline, made its massive body tremble slightly!
The Masked Man—Obito—also changed expression beneath his mask! The Sharingan controlling the Nine-Tails sent a sharp pain through his eye, as if the Buddha Statue's gaze had scorched it! "What is that?! Wood Release... how could it reach such a level?!"
Duanmu Ci stood upon the Buddha Statue phantom's palm, connected to it by its illusory energy, like a Buddha commanding divine punishment. Facing the Tailed Beast Bomb about to erupt from the Nine-Tails' mouth, facing the Masked Man, facing this world-annihilating calamity, he issued a decree like a divine oracle:
"Wretched beast! How dare you run wild! Be suppressed!!!"
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