Did I Beat Myself Into a Pulp?

The thing faster than the Yellow Flash was the instinctive sense of kinship between Tailed Beasts—and their mutual repulsion.

The Nine-Tails in the village whipped its head around, its blood-red eyes locking onto Lin Zi and the Kurama beneath him.

Without a word, it began forming a Tailed Beast Bomb in its mouth. The purple-black ball of energy spun faster and grew larger before it shot toward Lin Zi.

"Wow, you're certainly enthusiastic!" Lin Zi gripped the chakra fur on Kurama's back and grinned. "Kurama, we can't back down now!"

As he ran, Kurama opened his mouth. Another Tailed Beast Bomb rapidly took shape inside.

Boom!

The two Tailed Beast Bombs collided in midair. The shock wave sent the surrounding ruins flying into the sky.

Kurama's four paws blurred as he dodged left and right through the explosive waves, not letting a single fragment touch him.

"Now this is interesting!" Lin Zi leaned back against the wind, unable to hide his excitement.

"Faster, Kurama! I can't wait to punch that stupid fox right in the face!"

A low growl rumbled in Kurama's throat. He dug in with all four paws, accelerating so fast that everything behind him stretched into blurred streaks.

Houses, trees, ruins—all of it vanished behind them.

In less than two minutes, the two giant beasts were facing each other.

Their deafening roars erupted at the same time. The sound waves crashed together, making the very air tremble.

Before the roars had even faded, Kurama struck first, slamming a heavy punch into the other Nine-Tails' face.

The other Nine-Tails' head snapped to the side. Then, enraged, it lowered its head, clamped its jaws around Kurama's tail, and began thrashing him wildly.

Lin Zi scoffed. A bright blue Rasengan was already glowing in his palm.

Using the momentum of Kurama being swung around, he launched himself into the air and slammed the Rasengan into the other Nine-Tails' forehead.

Senjutsu Chakra exploded. The other Nine-Tails let out a miserable howl as its enormous body was blasted face-first into the ground, leaving a massive crater.

Kurama turned his head and bared his teeth at Lin Zi, who sat on his back.

"Hey! Kid! This is my fight. Don't interfere!"

Lin Zi raised both hands in surrender and grinned, taking half a step back. "All right, all right. You've got this. I won't steal your kill."

Half of Kage Rock had already collapsed.

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood atop the highest point of the ruins. Firelight cast shifting shadows across his face as he looked up and saw a second Nine-Tails.

And it was actually real.

Two identical crimson beasts were rampaging through the village, viciously attacking each other.

Hiruzen's pupils shrank to pinpricks. For a moment, his mind went blank.

In his long career as a ninja, he had lived through the Shinobi World Wars and witnessed Tailed Beasts run wild. But nothing in any ancient text came close to describing what he was seeing.

"What... is that?"

The Shuriken he had been holding clattered onto the rubble.

The Anbu Ninja beside him was trembling uncontrollably. No matter how strong someone's resolve, they were still only human—and before them stood two disasters capable of destroying a nation.

A young ninja's Kunai clanged to the ground. His teeth chattered, and he couldn't even muster the strength to pick it up.

"Lord Third Hokage..." The Chunin beside him spoke hoarsely. "If those two... are working together, then Konoha..."

"Is finished," Hiruzen finished for him, his voice hoarse but steady.

He narrowed his eyes, staring fixedly at the two giant beasts tearing into each other in the distance.

Amidst the flying dust and rubble, the second Nine-Tails slammed a heavy punch into the first one's face. Both demons roared deafeningly. They were clearly enemies.

"No. They aren't working together." A glint flashed in Hiruzen's eyes. "They're attacking each other."

The Anbu beside him looked up sharply, like a drowning man who had just grabbed hold of a lifeline.

"Where's the Fourth Hokage?" Hiruzen turned his head, his voice suddenly sharp. "He went after the Masked Man. Has he returned?"

A shadow flickered into view and dropped to one knee. "Reporting, Lord Third Hokage. Lord Fourth hasn't returned. But the monitoring team confirmed intense space-time fluctuations in the forest east of the village just now. It may have been the Flying Thunder God Technique."

Hiruzen fell silent for a moment.

Minato was still fighting.

And the village couldn't afford to let two Nine-Tails keep rampaging.

He took a deep breath, bit his right thumb, and slammed his hand against the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Poof—!

A huge cloud of smoke burst open, and Enma's burly form stepped out. His fur gleamed like metal in the firelight.

He was about to greet Hiruzen when he glanced over and saw the two Nine-Tails fighting in the distance. His whole monkey face twisted.

"Hiruzen!" Enma's voice cracked. "Have you lost your mind?! Those are two Nine-Tails! You summoned me to die with you?!"

"This isn't a suicide mission."

Hiruzen grabbed Enma's outstretched hand. As he poured in chakra, Enma's body abruptly stretched and hardened, transforming into the pitch-black Adamantine Staff.

The Third Hokage gripped the middle of the Adamantine Staff with one hand and held it level. His combat uniform snapped in the hot wind.

He fixed his sharp gaze on the unfamiliar Nine-Tails battling the Rampaging Nine-Tails, and the tiny golden figure atop its head.

"They're fighting each other. That's our chance."

"First, we'll make an alliance with the unfamiliar Nine-Tails and work together to defeat the one that's gone berserk. Then we'll wait for Minato to return."

He pushed off from the ruins and leaped down, twirling the Adamantine Staff in a fierce flourish.

"Then we'll seal them together!"

"Let's go, Enma!"

"...Damn it. I've lived this long, and I still have to go along with your crazy schemes." Enma's muffled voice came from inside the staff, but he showed no sign of backing down. "Let's go, Hiruzen!"

At the same time, Minato appeared at the sealing site.

Kushina Uzumaki lay on the ground, her red hair spread across the rubble beneath her like a pool of dried blood.

A Jinchūriki whose Tailed Beast had been forcibly extracted should have died on the spot. She was clinging to her last breath only because of the monstrous vitality of the Uzumaki Clan. Each rise of her chest came with a hoarse rasp, like the wheezing of a broken bellows.

"Kushina!"

Minato used the Body Flicker Technique to appear at her side and dropped to one knee. The moment his hand touched her shoulder, an icy chill shot through his fingertips.

Kushina struggled to turn her head. Her face was as pale as paper and her lips were cracked, but the first thing she managed to ask was, "Minato... how's our baby?"

The image of the blond boy in the forest flashed through Minato's mind: the Sage Mode markings around his eyes, the way he'd grinned and called Minato "Father."

The monster who called himself "Naruto," the one who had emerged from the forest.

Minato opened his mouth, then swallowed the absurd scene back down.

"He's fine." Minato slipped one arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees, then carefully carried her to lean against a nearby broken wall. "Hang on. I'll reseal the Nine-Tails right away."

He paused and looked toward the distant roars of the giant beasts. His voice lowered, but there was a certainty in it that he couldn't quite explain.

"This time... I'm not carrying the burden alone."

Kushina leaned against the cold wall and raised her eyes weakly to her husband's face, streaked with blood and ash.

She didn't ask what he meant. She simply summoned the last of her strength to form a smile.

"Go on, Minato."

She gently pushed his arm.

"We can't seal the Nine-Tails without me and the baby. Let's go seal it together."