Everyone Joins Forces

Obito's voice fell, and the air over the battlefield seemed to freeze for an instant.

The five Truth-Seeking Orbs behind him stopped spinning at the same time, as though someone had pressed pause. Then, they moved simultaneously.

This was no longer the tentative attack of one orb after another, but a five-pronged assault. Two flew toward Naruto, two toward Minato, and one toward Hiruzen, who was circling around from the flank. The Truth-Seeking Orbs no longer traveled in straight lines. Instead, they carved arcs through the air, closing in on their targets from different angles and heights at once. They were faster than before—so fast that the sound of the air being torn apart was no longer a howl, but a sharp, near-ultrasonic crack. Each orb trailed a black afterimage that lingered in the air for half a second before fading, like five black brushes sweeping across an invisible canvas.

Naruto leaped sideways, his nine tails whipping wildly behind him and constantly changing his direction in midair. The first Truth-Seeking Orb swept beneath his feet, grazing the toes of his Nine-Tails Chakra cloak and dissolving a small patch of golden light. The second orb came straight at him, and he had no room left to dodge—one of the Nine-Tails' Chakra arms slammed in from the side, smacking his entire body down toward the ground. Naruto's back crashed heavily into the earth. The impact made him bounce twice before the second Truth-Seeking Orb passed half a meter above him and struck a boulder behind him. A one-meter-wide hemispherical chunk silently vanished from the boulder.

Minato vanished just before the Truth-Seeking Orb touched him. Flying Thunder God carried him beside a Kunai dozens of meters away, a coordinate point he had set up earlier in the battle. But his left shoulder had