Suppressing the Nine-Tails Chakra

"What do you think they're talking about in the office?"

Tsunade leaned against the pillar at the village gate, arms crossed over her chest, her toe tapping the ground impatiently.

Jiraiya sat cross-legged on the steps and said, "I have no idea. But knowing Minato's personality, I doubt they'll end up at each other's throats."

"So confident?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"Of course!"

Jiraiya patted his chest, laughing heartily. "Don't underestimate my student, Tsunade!"

"Hmph, arrogant."

The two of them, accompanied by Shizune, bickered as they walked through the streets still under reconstruction, eventually arriving in front of Minato's house.

Pushing the door open, the house was deathly silent.

Kushina Uzumaki lay on the bed, her face deathly pale, lips cracked, and forehead drenched in cold sweat.

Even though she was unconscious, she kept muttering something, her brows knitted tightly together, occasionally showing an expression of extreme agony, as if something invisible were gripping her throat.

Jiraiya's smile froze instantly on his face.

"Tsunade, what on earth is going on here?"

Tsunade hurried to the bedside, placed her fingers on Kushina's wrist, and sent her chakra into the body to investigate, her expression growing increasingly grim.

"Someone forcibly extracted the Tailed Beast from within her."

She withdrew her hand, her voice tinged with anger. "Right now, her body is enduring the erosion of the Tailed Beast's residual chakra while simultaneously struggling to cope with the void left by the extraction of her life force. The two forces are clashing inside her; there's no way for her to recover."

"What?!" Jiraiya's pupils constricted. "Who on earth would do such a thing?!"

"I don't know yet."

Tsunade shook her head, her palms glowing with a pale green healing light as she pressed them against Kushina's chest. "I'm afraid this is why Minato was in such a rush to call us back. I'll try to channel some life force into her; otherwise, if this continues..."

She didn't finish the sentence, but the implication was clear.

Pale green chakra flowed slowly into Kushina's body. Beads of sweat appeared on Tsunade's forehead, and Jiraiya stood to the side, holding his breath.

"That kid Minato..."

Jiraiya gritted his teeth, his voice raspy. "He really knows how to keep his cool. With Kushina in this state, he could actually remain composed in the office..."

"Your student," Tsunade said without turning back, the green light on her hands intensifying, "is already a qualified Hokage."

No sooner had she spoken than Kushina's body suddenly shuddered!

Her face turned even paler, her lips trembling as a voice squeezed out from her throat.

"Minato... Minato... Naruto... don't die..."

"She's having a nightmare!"

Tsunade abruptly pulled her hands back, her expression ugly. "The Nine-Tails' chakra is too dark. Without natural energy to help suppress it, my healing chakra alone can't stabilize her current body!"

Jiraiya looked at Tsunade, anxious. "So what you said earlier about needing Orochimaru's natural chakra—it's true?"

"Of course it's true!"

Tsunade shook her numb wrist. "You can try it too, see if you can help alleviate some of her pain."

"Alright! I'll give it a shot!"

Jiraiya pushed off with his feet, quickly sat cross-legged, and formed hand seals to commune with natural energy.

In less than half a minute, the Sage Mode markings appeared around his eyes—Sage Mode, activated!

He carefully channeled a wisp of natural energy from his palm and gently pressed it onto Tsunade's shoulder, attempting to use her as a medium to transfer it to Kushina.

But the moment that energy touched Tsunade.

Crack!

The skin on Tsunade's right shoulder turned grayish-white at a visible rate, hardening and cracking like stone dried by the wind.

"It really doesn't work!"

Tsunade's pupils constricted, and she shouted sharply.

"Jiraiya! Pull back quickly! The natural energy of Mount Myoboku is too overbearing; those who haven't mastered Sage Mode simply cannot withstand it!"

"Oh, oh!"

Jiraiya was scared out of his wits and instantly cut off the flow of chakra.

Tsunade clutched her right shoulder, where grey, petrified traces were spreading like spiderwebs across half of her shoulder.

Jiraiya scrambled to pull a bottle of Toad Oil from the scroll on his back, his hands shaking so violently he nearly dropped it.

"I'm sorry, Tsunade, it's all my fault! I was too reckless!"

He hurriedly applied the Toad Oil to Tsunade's shoulder. As the greasy liquid seeped into her skin, the grey petrified marks slowly receded like a retreating tide, revealing the reddened flesh beneath.

"That actually stings a bit, Jiraiya," Tsunade sighed.

"You scared the life out of me..." Jiraiya panted, his face full of regret. "Tsunade, it's a good thing you were able to hold on for a bit."

"It must be the Senju bloodline holding me up," Tsunade gritted her teeth while moving her shoulder, her face pale. "The head of the Senju Clan... also possessed the ability to enter Sage Mode."

"Lord Hashirama...?"

"Yes."

Jiraiya stood up, looking at Kushina struggling in pain on the bed, then back at Tsunade's not-yet-fully-recovered shoulder.

"So that means..." his voice turned hoarse, "we can't do this without Orochimaru now?"

"Pretty much." Tsunade gave a bitter smile, rubbing her shoulder. "That guy's Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu is a bit gentler than the Mount Myoboku Senjutsu you use. At least... it won't turn people into stone."

"Tsunade!" Jiraiya's face flushed red. "Don't undermine me like that!"

"What are you two arguing about?"

The door was pushed open. Lin Zi stood at the entrance, looking at the bottle of Toad Oil still clutched in Jiraiya's hand, then at Tsunade's reddened shoulder, before finally settling his gaze on Kushina, who was twisting in agony on the bed.

He tilted his head, his forked tongue flicking out to quiver in the air.

"So loud," he said as he walked into the room and closed the door behind him, his tone flat yet carrying an unquestionable sense of oppression. "Don't you know the patient needs quiet?"

"Orochimaru, you're finally here!"

Tsunade's eyes lit up, as if a drowning person had grabbed a lifeline, and she even forgot the pain in her shoulder.

"Quick! Use your Sage Mode and see if you can suppress the Nine-Tails' malicious chakra inside Kushina. Jiraiya's Senjutsu was too powerful just now; it couldn't be channeled into Kushina's body at all."

Lin Zi didn't waste words and walked straight to the bedside.

He lowered his eyes, his golden slit pupils staring at Kushina's pale face for two seconds before shifting to her lower abdomen.

Beneath the skin there, a mass of dark red was vaguely writhing, like a fierce beast trapped in a cage, frantically tearing at its host.

"I will try."

He pressed his palms together, and when he pulled them apart, a layer of warm, gentle light glowed between them.

Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode, activate!

In an instant, the world in his eyes changed.

Inside Kushina's body, two streams of chakra were tangled in a mess: one was the pale green healing energy left behind by Tsunade, and the other was the blood-red malice of the Nine-Tails.

That red mass was rampaging through the Uzumaki Clan's life force, coalescing into a blurred fox head with bared fangs, letting out a silent roar at Lin Zi.

"A bit troublesome," Lin Zi narrowed his snake-like eyes, "but it can still be suppressed."

He raised his right hand, his pale palm hovering three inches above Kushina's abdomen without making direct contact.

Natural energy seeped from his palm, transforming into countless threads of green light as fine as hair, slowly descending like spring rain falling onto parched soil.

Those streams of light precisely bypassed Tsunade's healing chakra and gently wrapped around the mass of crimson malice.

"Hiss!"

The phantom of the Nine-Tails suddenly surged, opening its blood-red maw to bite through the light that dared to touch it!

Lin Zi let out a cold snort and abruptly pressed his right hand downward.

Boom!

The light flared suddenly, yet it wasn't blinding; instead, like living water in a deep pool, it gently yet forcefully enveloped the entire red shadow.

The natural energy seeped into the gaps of the Nine-Tails' chakra, flowing over the "reefs" like water, smoothing out the other's rage bit by bit.

The crimson fox head struggled frantically, kicking its limbs, but its movements grew slower and slower.

Its fangs were entangled by the light, its tails bound by chains formed of natural energy, and its unwilling roar turned from deafening to a low whimper, finally transforming into a wisp of red smoke that was forcibly pressed back into the depths of Kushina's seal.

Sweat beaded on Lin Zi's forehead. Only when the last trace of red was completely covered by the emerald hue did he slowly withdraw his hand, the Sage Mode receding like a tide.

"Whew..."

He exhaled a breath of stale air and wiped the sweat from his temple with his sleeve.