The Gap in Strength

"Kushina!!"

Minato Namikaze's figure abruptly solidified in midair. When his azure eyes refocused on Minamoto Takuya and Kushina Uzumaki, the sight before him nearly made his heart stop!

Kushina Uzumaki lay collapsed on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, already sunk into a deep coma.

Her signature fiery red hair had lost all its former vitality, sprawled dimly across the ground.

What froze his blood even more was that the "Collector" was holding up an enormous, suffocating sphere of violently raging crimson chakra with one hand!

As the husband of a former Jinchuriki, Minato Namikaze knew the nature of that power better than anyone. It was the Nine-Tails!

The Nine-Tails Chakra sealed within Kushina, the symbol of calamity and destruction!

"How could this be...?!"

Minato's pupils shrank violently in utter shock.

The scale of that chakra... The Collector had completely extracted the entire Nine-Tails from Kushina's body in an instant!

The fate of a Jinchuriki who lost their Tailed Beast... was death!

That realization pierced straight through Minato Namikaze's mind.

No! He refused to accept it!

A nearly mad light of hope suddenly ignited in his eyes!

His memories returned to that painful night of the Nine-Tails Incident. As long as he acted quickly enough!

Just like when he had sealed half of the Nine-Tails back then, he could stuff this enormous mass of chakra back into Kushina's body!

As long as even a thread of chakra remained to sustain her, there was still hope!

Minato Namikaze abruptly raised his head, his gaze shooting toward Minamoto Takuya like an arrow.

The shock brought by the terrifying Shinra Tensei earlier had now been completely replaced by a more primal, blazing emotion.

It was towering fury that threatened to burn everything away!

Exploding against the gentle and composed foundation