Taiji Rasengan

"Although I'd like to arrest you right now, it seems we'll have to work together first!"

Minato Namikaze truly was a future Hokage. In an instant, he made the calmest judgment.

He had already sensed that Yue Uchiha seemed to have found some way to see the fatal weakness in this monster—a weakness even he hadn't noticed yet.

"Okay, old man! Let's do this!"

Naruto was full of questions, but the Nine-Tails Chakra inside him was surging wildly along with his rising excitement.

"Zero probability?"

As the gigantic centipede's body came crashing down, blotting out the sky, a deeper, more sinister red glow than the Dragon Vein's purple light shone from Yue Uchiha's left eye.

"In this world, there's no such thing as absolute zero. Even in your shell, there'll always be a screw with a higher chance of coming loose..."

Yue slowly raised his left hand and lightly curled his slender fingers in the air.

"Snap."

The crisp snap sounded like the Death God knocking at the door, despite the din of battle.

The Mangekyo pattern in his left eye spun like a madly whirling wheel, and a trail of blood slid down his cheek.

"Yagokoro Omoikane!"

In that instant, the invisible threads of cause and effect were forcibly shifted.

"Crack... crackle, crackle, crackle!!!"

Mukade, who had been bearing down on Yue with unstoppable force, ready to crush him into a pulp, suddenly froze in midair.

An ear-splitting series of explosive cracks, like metal gears jamming and breaking, came from deep within his body.

"W-what's happening?! My circuits... why are they overloaded?! This is impossible!" Mukade howled in terror.

Then, to the astonishment of Minato and Naruto, a piece of Mukade's thickest Dragon Vein alloy armor—the part said to be immune to all ninjutsu—shot off with pinpoint accuracy. A loose screw inside had triggered a chain reaction, exposing the pulsing energy core within, glowing purple like a heart!

That was the terrifying power of Yagokoro Omoikane. It could adjust the probability of events. As long as an event wasn't impossible, it could theoretically turn "zero probability" into "guaranteed," or adjust "guaranteed" to "zero probability."

The only price was the amount of ocular power it consumed.

Of course, that also depended on how difficult the event was and how much its probability needed to change.

For instance, making Yue Uchiha a Six Paths-level fighter right now would take far more ocular power to raise the probability by 0.1% than it would to make "the foolish elite jonin Naruto takes one step forward" a certainty. In fact, it would take far more than Yue's Mangekyo could currently handle.

"Now! Naruto, attack!" Minato shouted.

"Yeah!!!"

Naruto thrust out his left hand, and a Rasengan appeared in it.

That still wouldn't finish the job, even with the enemy's armor damaged.

Minato looked at Naruto and smiled faintly.

He had his suspicions, but the boy's behavior lately had still warmed his heart.

He darted forward to Naruto's left, then held out his right hand beneath Naruto's left.

"When chakra of similar natures draws close, it resonates. Then, when the two chakras combine, they form the strongest Rasengan. It's called the Taiji Rasengan!"

A massive Rasengan, blazing with light and surrounded by rippling Taiji patterns, took shape in their hands.

It wasn't the pulse of an ordinary ninjutsu, but the strongest resonance born of a father and son's bond across time and space.

Yue wasn't standing idle, either.

He knew that even after suffering such a heavy blow, Mukade would still lash out in his final moments as long as his connection to the Dragon Vein remained intact.

"I'll give you a push. Amenominakanushi."

Yue narrowed his right eye. A precise repulsive force burst from his palm—not to cause destruction, but to propel Minato and Naruto forward with tremendous force.

The push sent the father and son past the sound barrier in an instant. They became a golden meteor and slammed through the broken armor!

Meeting no resistance, they tore through the short-circuited defenses and made their way straight to the core.

"No—!!!"

The enormous explosion swallowed Mukade's despairing scream.

The Taiji Rasengan's violent energy erupted inside the Dragon Vein core, and the once-stable purple light began to crack and crumble.

At the same time, guided by Yue's Shadow Clone, Sara finally poured the blood of the Rōran royal family into the sealing platform.

"Cut off...!" Sara cried, driving her short sword into the core.

"Rumble, rumble—!"

The Dragon Vein's energy beneath Rōran began to flow backward in a wild torrent. The instant Mukade's enormous metal body lost its power source, the Taiji Rasengan's shock waves ground it into dust.

The smoke cleared, and the purple light gradually faded.

Sara had successfully sealed the Dragon Vein, and the spatial distortion spiraling out of control began to exert a powerful pulling force.

"Captain Yamato!" Naruto looked at Yamato, whose body in the distance was beginning to turn transparent, then down at his own glowing hand.

Minato stood not far from Yue, watching the "rogue ninja" with a complicated expression.

In that battle, Yue Uchiha had displayed not only the terrifying power of his Mangekyo, but also a profound cunning that let him toy with probability and people alike.

"Yue Uchiha... If you have this kind of power, why did you betray the village?" Minato asked gravely.

Yue stood quietly atop the ruins, his Mangekyo having reverted to an ordinary Three Tomoe.

He looked at Minato, his tone utterly calm. "I have no reason to explain myself."

Minato opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but the powerful pull of space and time forced him to close his eyes.

"To avoid changing the course of history, we have to erase our memories of this period."

Hearing that, Naruto suddenly realized what was going on and shouted at Minato, "Wait! There's so much I still want to ask you! Who are you?!"

"Minato Namikaze. Your father." Yue's quiet words instantly silenced the shouting Naruto.

"So, that's how it is..." Minato smiled ruefully.

"I'm proud of you, Naruto. You've grown into an excellent ninja!"

With that, Minato quickly began forming Hand Seals.

There was no time to lose. The Dragon Vein's light was already flickering violently. He had to seal everyone's memories as quickly as possible, to prevent a temporal collapse caused by the "grandfather paradox."

"Yue Uchiha, although I don't know what sides we'll be on once we wake up, I'll still give you one piece of advice: come back to Konoha. There's still room to work things out." Minato spoke gravely as he formed Hand Seals.

But Yue, standing atop the ruins, only shook his head.

"The world never changes according to one person's will. Neither do you, Minato Namikaze."

Before he'd finished speaking, Yue swept out his hand. Several black Shuriken instantly multiplied into a rain of shadows, shooting at Minato from every tricky angle!

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"