Outside Konoha,
The Nine-Tails' enormous body was tightly bound by chains. Though Kushina was extremely weak, her gaze grew ever more resolute.
She wanted to seal the Nine-Tails inside herself again. She didn't want to die just like this. She couldn't bear to leave her younger brother or her husband, and she especially couldn't bear to leave the child she had just given birth to.
"Nine-Tails, get your ass over here!" Kushina's aura erupted once more. Her red hair swayed in the wind, and Konoha's Bloody Habanero was back in action.
"Don't worry, Kushina. I won't let anything happen to you," Minato sensed the change in her and silently swore to himself.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted. "Is he coming?"
Above the Nine-Tails' head, space rippled, and Obito appeared once more in a flowing black robe, wearing a one-eyed Tiger-Pattern Mask.
"As expected of someone from the Uzumaki Clan. Even after enduring the pain of childbirth and having a Tailed Beast extracted from her, she can still unleash this kind of power!"
Looking at the completely restrained Nine-Tails, Obito was deeply surprised. Kushina's tenacity had exceeded his expectations.
"But this is where it ends." His scarlet eyes lit up, and his gaze sharpened again.
He raised a hand to attack Kushina, but in the next instant, a yellow figure appeared in front of him.
"I won't let you get away with this again." Minato's resolute eyes were just as sharp.
Whoosh!
A yellow figure and a black figure flashed back and forth across the field. Kamui and Flying Thunder God—their Space-Time Ninjutsu clashed for the first time.
"So he only turns his body tangible when he attacks!" Minato carefully analyzed Obito's ability. Naraku had already told him about it beforehand, so he had a plan from the start.
Whoosh!
Minato vanished from where he stood.
"Oh, you're trying to lure me away?" Obito murmured.
"Then I'll grant your wish."
Minato appeared in an open grassy field. "I don't have much chakra left. I have to end this quickly. Kushina's still in danger."
He thought to himself that teleporting the Nine-Tails and its Tailed Beast Ball just now had consumed most of his chakra, not to mention that he had already used Flying Thunder God several times before.
"Fourth Hokage, you're destined to fall today." Obito appeared in front of Minato again, boundless murderous intent filling his scarlet eyes.
His original plan had only been to release the Nine-Tails and cause Konoha some trouble. But now he had changed his mind. Compared to the Nine-Tails, which could easily be controlled by the Mangekyō Sharingan, Minato, with his Flying Thunder God, would be the greatest obstacle to him in the future.
"Is he really Madara Uchiha?"
Looking at Obito's mask, Minato wondered to himself.
But when he thought of how easily the man had controlled the Nine-Tails, along with his strange Space-Time Ninjutsu, perhaps only the legendary Ninja Asura could have done all that.
Clang! Clang!
Just then, chains slid out from beneath Obito's black robe.
"The man known as the fastest in the Shinobi World? Heh. I'm faster than you now." Obito sneered inwardly, gripping the chains as he charged at Minato.
Minato didn't dare let his guard down. He gripped his special Kunai and surged forward as well.
His sharp Kunai thrust out.
The two closed in on each other at tremendous speed. Just as expected, both the Kunai and Minato's body passed straight through Obito.
The next moment, as the two had completely passed each other, Obito gripped the chains and yanked them tight.
Whoosh!
But just as the chains were about to wrap around Minato, he evaded them with Flying Thunder God.
Meanwhile,
"Hah... hah..." Kushina was drenched in sweat, panting heavily.
Her successive bursts of power had long since drained all the energy Naraku had given her. Now, she was barely holding on through sheer force of will.
The Nine-Tails was still bound by her Adamantine Sealing Chains, but Kushina could no longer drag it into her body.
"Tsk, tsk. As expected of someone from the Uzumaki Clan. You can hold the Nine-Tails back even like this." Suddenly, a snickering voice came from behind her.
"Who's there?"
Kushina was about to turn around.
Splurt!
Scarlet blood gushed out as a sharp arm made of wood stabbed into her body.
"Ugh..." Blood trickled from the corner of Kushina's mouth. Her weak body shuddered violently, as if she could collapse at any moment.
"Big Sis!"
Suddenly, a voice called out.
"Am I imagining things?" Kushina thought she had heard wrong.
"But I really want to see you all one more time."
"Chidori!"
Just then, Kakashi, dressed in Anbu gear, appeared behind Kushina. Lightning flashed in his hand, and the sound of countless birdsong rang in her ears.
"It's Kakashi." The sound of Chidori roused Kushina's fading consciousness.
Kakashi, using Chidori, drove off the figure behind Kushina.
Looking at the figure before him, shrouded in a Pitcher Plant, Kakashi's scarlet left eye spun ceaselessly.
Whoosh!
Another figure appeared on the field. It was Guy, carrying Naruto in his arms and Naraku on his back.
Naraku quickly jumped down from Guy's back. Without even looking at the bizarre-looking Zetsu, he hurried to Kushina and held out his arm. Tears glimmered in his eyes.
"Quick, bite me! Hurry, bite!" Naraku cried in a trembling voice. His hands shaking, he tried to pry Kushina's mouth open with his arm.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, a deafening roar rang out. It was the Nine-Tails. Kushina was weaker than ever, and though she fought with all her strength to hold it back, the Nine-Tails still broke free.
Clang! Clang!
The chains snapped one by one.
"Looks like I'm not needed here anymore." Seeing this, Zetsu snickered and sank into the ground.
Without hesitation, Kakashi moved. By the time he reappeared, he was standing in front of the nearly freed Nine-Tails, with Kushina and Naraku behind him.
"Hey, Kakashi! You can't leave me out of something like this!" A hearty voice rang out. After setting Naruto down beside Kushina, Guy stood shoulder to shoulder with Kakashi.
They were only teenagers, barely in their teens.
Naraku felt a little moved, but he knew that even Kakashi and Guy couldn't stop the Nine-Tails. They hadn't grown strong enough yet.
"Kakashi, you..." Kushina, still barely conscious, felt touched by the sight, but helplessness welled up in her too. Though Zetsu's attack hadn't struck a vital spot, it had still made her lose a great deal of blood. She felt that she might really die.
"Naraku, no, your body—" Kushina was about to speak when she suddenly saw a flash of scarlet before her eyes. In her vision, Naraku's normally black eyes had turned an intense scarlet. She froze.
Taking advantage of the moment, Naraku placed his arm in her mouth.