Naruto stood where the Four-Tails had vanished, fragments of the black rod drifting from between his fingers. The golden Nine-Tails Chakra Mode burned steadily over his body, illuminating the ground for several meters around him.
The masked man lowered his right hand. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly shifted away from Naruto and swept across the battlefield. The Four-Tails had been sealed away, yet his expression did not change in the slightest—as though he had merely lost a tool that could be replaced at any time.
"Not a bad attempt," the masked man said in a low, calm voice. "But do you think getting rid of one Four-Tails will change anything?"
He raised his left hand, fingers spread wide, toward the direction where Han of the Five-Tails had been sealed.
In the void, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's chains that had wrapped around the Five-Tails layer by layer began to tremble violently. The black sealing formulas writhed like living things, countless fine patterns spreading outward—and then—the chains loosened. They had not broken, nor had the seal been undone. They had released him of their own accord. Han's reanimated body slid free from the seal, indentations left by the chains still visible across his grayish-white flesh, but they healed on their own within seconds.
The Five-Tails had been released once more.
Han's body floated in midair as white steam and dark-red Tailed Beast chakra poured out of him at the same time. His eyes—those hollow reanimated eyes controlled by black rods—lit up once more with a murky gleam. A will that was not his own took control of his body again.
The masked man's fingers twitched slightly.
Han of the Five-Tails began to swell. The white steam became a raging vortex, and five tails extended from behind him, each one as