At the foot of Blackglow Mountain, Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji had finished packing everything up and were about to leave when a dark figure appeared inside the Sixth Laboratory.
Ino spotted the figure the moment it appeared and shouted, "Who's there? Show yourself!" She hurled a kunai with an Explosive Tag tied to its end. The figure tilted its head to dodge the kunai, but its sharp eyes caught the Explosive Tag trailing behind it. Its pupils contracted slightly, and it dodged away with the Body Flicker Technique.
Boom! The explosion startled Shikamaru and Choji, who were still gathering their things. Shikamaru said urgently, "This is bad, Choji! Something's happened to Ino. We have to get over there!" He dropped what he was doing and rushed out.
Choji followed close behind. As they left, another dark figure appeared in the laboratory. Had Shikamaru and Choji seen the figure's face, they would have been shocked, because it was none other than Naruto, who was supposedly still in the corridor thinking about how to deal with those robots.
Only after Shikamaru and Choji had left did Naruto breathe a sigh of relief. He slowly walked over to the container holding the nine-tailed black fox. Looking at the fox before him, Naruto smiled and said, "Kurama, this is the black fox you wanted. He has nine tails just like you. Is there some connection?"
The Nine-Tails inside Naruto chuckled. "Not really. Naruto, you know about the relationship between a jinchuriki and a tailed beast, don't you?"
Naruto frowned, unsure why the Nine-Tails had suddenly brought this up.
When Naruto did not answer, the Nine-Tails stopped beating around the bush. "As you know, the lives of a jinchuriki and their tailed beast are linked. If the tailed beast is removed, the jinchuriki dies."
Naruto