Rescuing Naruto

They were not tears. They were Chakra.

The Nine-Tails Chakra cloak receded from his face for an instant. The gold peeled away from his cheeks, revealing the pale skin beneath and the dark circles under his eyes. That instant lasted less than half a second, but in that moment, his face looked as though it had aged ten years.

His knees buckled.

Not voluntarily, but because after operating beyond their limits for so long, his muscles and bones had finally sent the signal: "This is as far as you go." His right knee slid forward a few centimeters, and his left foot stepped back to steady him, keeping him from falling to his knees. But his body swayed slightly, like someone who had stood in a gale for too long and was finally beginning to lean with the wind.

"Naruto—!" Kurama's voice was almost a roar.

Too late.

The God Tree's senses caught that instant of vulnerability.

For the God Tree, the half-second in which the Nine-Tails Chakra's glow receded from Naruto's face was not information requiring analysis, but an instinctive signal—the prey's defenses had cracked. Not a crack caused by an attack, but one caused by the prey itself collapsing.

Five roots erupted simultaneously from less than a meter beneath Naruto's feet.

They moved faster than any previous attack, so fast that even Minato's Flying Thunder God had no time to activate. The tips of the roots reached Naruto's ankles the instant they burst through the earth. Purple-black Chakra wrapped around the golden Nine-Tails cloak and began draining Chakra at an astonishing speed.

The first root Naruto saw curled around the outside of his left ankle and wrapped around his calf. The second burst up from beneath his right foot, lifting it completely off the ground. The third grazed