The instant the Lightning Shield fell, the terrifying backlash tore apart the muscles in Baishi's left shoulder.
Blood burst out in a mist. Without so much as a muffled groan, he rode that force forward, hurtling like a cannonball straight toward Kushina, who lay collapsed on the ground.
Boom!
With nothing left to stop it, the black-purple Tailed Beast Bomb surged like a beast freed from its reins, instantly pulverizing the ground where Baishi had stood. A pillar of destructive energy grazed his back, its heat instantly vaporizing what remained of his ANBU uniform there. The stench of flesh scorched across a vast area mingled with the heavy reek of blood and stabbed into his nostrils.
Baishi scooped up the red-haired woman with his only remaining arm.
Kushina's body was as cold as ice, her life rapidly draining away as the Nine-Tails was extracted. Baishi's chest, by contrast, was frighteningly hot from his heart's frantic pumping and the overloaded burning of his chakra.
"You..." Kushina's unfocused eyes suddenly widened.
She smelled the charred flesh on Baishi's body. She could distinctly feel that the bones of the left arm holding her had shattered into countless pieces. Only a few remaining tendons and lightning release chakra were forcibly holding it together.
Above them, four red pillars stretching between heaven and earth were rapidly closing in.
The dark red curtain of the Four Red Yang Formation descended like death's guillotine, moving at a speed visible to the naked eye. Only two meters of clearance remained, then one and a half, then one...
The Tailed Beast Bomb's intense light had already severely burned Baishi's retinas. Nothing remained in his vision but a blinding wash of blood red.
He gasped for breath, each inhalation forcing bloody froth from the wound through his chest. He knew perfectly well that this broken body, hemorrhaging uncontrollably, could never carry another person out of the barrier.
This simulated body's vitality was already exhausted. Even if he escaped, he would not survive another three minutes.
If he wanted to steal Namikaze Minato's ultimate fortune, if he wanted this woman who possessed the Nine-Tails' power to fall entirely into his hands in reality, he had to take this performance to its absolute limit.
Without a moment's hesitation, Baishi abruptly stopped in the middle of his sprint.
His heavy Military Boots plowed two deep furrows through the bluestone paving, sending fragments flying.
Kushina felt him stop, and her heart lurched. She clutched the torn fabric at Baishi's chest, digging her nails deep into his blood-soaked flesh.
"No... don't let go!" Her dry red hair whipped wildly in the storm, her voice hoarse beyond recognition. "If we leave, we leave together! Minato... Minato will be here any moment!"
Minato?
Beneath his mask, Baishi's lips curled into a cruel sneer.
That blond genius was busy settling his precious son somewhere safe. How could he spare the time to worry about this place?
"Shut up." Baishi's voice rasped like sandpaper, yet carried an unquestionable coldness.
The muscles in his remaining left arm suddenly swelled, squeezing out the simulated body's very last reserves of life. He twisted at the waist, his spine cracking explosively under the unbearable strain, and swung his left arm in a full arc. Like a cannonball, he hurled the red-haired woman in his arms toward the gap at the top of the barrier, now less than half a meter wide!
"Baishi!!!"
Kushina's body shot into the air, weightlessness instantly engulfing her.
In midair, she turned her head involuntarily. Looking past Baishi's shoulder, she saw the black-purple Tailed Beast Bomb bearing down on him.
The light of destruction had already touched Baishi's back.
Yet the man simply stood quietly where he was, still holding the pose in which he had thrown her. He did not turn around or try to flee. He did not even form defensive hand seals.
Vrrrm!
A deep, thunderous sound shook the night sky.
One second after Kushina flew out, the dark red curtain slammed shut.
The Four Red Yang Formation sealed completely. Inside and outside the barrier were forcibly severed into two utterly isolated worlds.
Thud!
Kushina slammed onto the grass outside the barrier. Her momentum sent her tumbling seven or eight times across the muddy ground before her back smashed through a large tree and she finally stopped.
Blood welled in her throat, and she spat out a great mouthful. Her dry red hair was caked with dirt and scraps of grass, leaving her utterly bedraggled.
But she paid no attention to her broken ribs or her ebbing life.
She scrambled up like a madwoman and stumbled toward the dark red curtain, crawling and rolling whenever she fell.
Rumble!!!
Inside the barrier, the Tailed Beast Bomb fully detonated.
A black-purple energy storm instantly swallowed the entire hilltop. The terrifying shock wave struck the walls of the Four Red Yang Formation, making them shudder violently as layers of savage ripples spread across them.
Kushina fell against the barrier, pressing both hands desperately against the dark red curtain.
The extreme heat on the surface of the Four Red Yang Formation instantly charred her palms. Her flesh sizzled, and the burnt stench of roasting meat spread through the air, but she felt no pain at all.
Through the translucent red curtain, she watched helplessly as that destructive energy swallowed Baishi's slender figure completely.
There was no miracle. No Flying Thunder God.
The man who had severed his own arm to save her, taken a Black Receiver through his chest, and withstood a Tailed Beast Bomb with his own flesh and blood was left forever inside that prison of despair.
"No... please, no..."
Kushina's legs lost all strength, and she sank to her knees before the barrier. Tears mixed with the ash and blood on her cheeks, falling in heavy drops onto the scorched earth.
"Come out! You bastard! What gives you the right to decide for me?!"
Her agonized screams tore through Konoha's night sky. She pounded frantically on the indestructible barrier, battering her charred fists into bloody ruin and leaving one horrifying bloodstain after another on the dark red curtain.
Why had it come to this?
She was supposed to be the Fourth Hokage's wife. She was supposed to have the most perfect life. Yet when disaster struck, the blond sun who had promised to protect her for the rest of her life was nowhere beside her.
Instead, this lowly cannon fodder, whose very name was hidden behind an ANBU codename, had stood in front of her again and again, forcing the hope of survival into her hands while walking toward his own destruction.
Inside the barrier.
Obito stood atop the raging Nine-Tails' head, letting the chakra storm whip his black robe around him. His Mangekyō Sharingan coldly watched the area below that the Tailed Beast Bomb's light had consumed.
"Pointless self-sacrifice." Obito gave a cold scoff, undisguised contempt in his voice. "Is this the Will of Fire you're so proud of? Before absolute power, it's nothing but the helpless whining of the weak."
He made the Nine-Tails turn around. Its enormous tails lashed viciously at the walls of the Four Red Yang Formation, ready to tear through this defensive line and deal with Konoha's reinforcements.
Yet at the very instant Obito turned away...
At the center of that destructive glare, the figure that should have been vaporized remained standing.
The Tailed Beast Bomb's energy had completely shredded Baishi's lower body. His left arm and half his shoulder had also turned to ash.
But he did not fall.
His remaining lightning release chakra held what was left of his torso fast, pinning it in place like chains.
Baishi slowly raised his head.
Through the roiling dark red barrier, through the ash filling the sky and the blinding glare, his black eyes, calm to an appalling degree, locked unerringly onto Kushina as she broke down sobbing outside.
Their eyes met.
Kushina's fists froze against the barrier. Her breathing stopped completely, and she pressed both hands tightly against the curtain, trying to etch that man's image into the depths of her soul.
Before the light swallowed his head completely, the corners of Baishi's mouth lifted slightly into a devastatingly tender smile.
His ruined lips moved faintly.
No sound passed through the barrier.
But Kushina understood the words his lips formed.
Her pupils instantly dilated to their limit. An invisible hand crushed her heart, and together with her soul, it plunged into an abyss beyond all redemption.