His left arm hung limply, the portion below his elbow twisted at an unnatural angle-the result of being grazed by Black Coffin's gravity blades.
Had he not activated Flying Thunder God in time, his entire arm would have been shredded.
Minato knelt on one knee, cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
It wasn't pain.
It was fear.
That darkness, that gravity, that oppressive force that seemed capable of crushing even his soul...
What kind of jutsu was this?!
"Oh? You escaped." Liuyu dispelled Black Coffin, raising an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Flying Thunder God really is troublesome. But..."
He looked at Minato's twisted left arm.
"Next time, you won't be so lucky."
Just then, the Reishi Container tucked against Liuyu's chest suddenly began to vibrate violently.
Inside the container, the cracks on the Hōgyoku Fragment's surface were healing at a visible rate.
It completely absorbed the crimson Nine-Tails chakra, then began emitting a deep blue glow like a starry sky.
The container was full.
Liuyu glanced down, satisfaction flashing in his eyes.
"Looks like it's time to wrap things up."
He stopped looking at Minato and instead raised his gaze toward the chaos in Konoha below.
The Nine-Tails' roars had stopped.
In the distance, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi knelt on the ground, his hands maintaining an ancient Sealing Formula-the Reaper Death Seal.
An enormous phantom of the reaper loomed behind him, holding the translucent, struggling Yang Nine-Tails in its hand.
No, it wasn't the entire Yang Nine-Tails.
Only half.
The other half of the Yang Nine-Tails' chakra was turning into streams of golden light, pouring into an infant nearby-
Naruto, whom Minato had placed in the Safe Location.
"The Reaper Death Seal..." Liuyu murmured. "Sealing half the Nine-Tails inside the reaper's stomach and the other half inside his son.
"Sarutobi