Nawaki pushed open the door. A scorching wave hit him.
The floor was already charred black. Kushina Uzumaki was curled up in the center of the room, both hands clamped tightly over her stomach. Her nails had dug into her flesh, drawing blood.
Red chakra spilled from her body, twisting through the air as though alive, trying to destroy everything around it.
"Mikoto!" Nawaki swept his gaze over the room. Mikoto was collapsed in the corner by the door, blood at the corner of her mouth. Her Sharingan was active. She had clearly tried to suppress it with genjutsu, only to suffer backlash from the Nine-Tails' immense chakra.
"I'm fine." Mikoto gritted her teeth and forced herself up. "She was extracting chakra when she suddenly lost control. That power was too domineering. My eyes couldn't see through it."
Nawaki nodded. He did not ask any further questions.
He strode toward Kushina. Sensing an outsider approaching, the red chakra immediately split into several streams and lunged at Nawaki with bared fangs and claws.
Nawaki did not dodge. He did not even activate a chakra defense, allowing the searing red energy to crash into him.
Several holes were instantly burned into his clothes. Yet his skin was not even reddened.
A perfect Sage Body. This level of chakra leakage was not enough to even scratch an itch.
He reached Kushina's side and dropped to one knee. The clothing around her abdomen had already burned away, revealing the intricate Eight Trigrams Seal. The markings were flashing wildly now, their red glow blinding.
Recently, in order to keep up with Nawaki, she had been desperately extracting chakra every day. Then she had run into Minato outside earlier, and her emotions had fluctuated greatly, giving the Nine-Tails an opening.
"It hurts..." Kushina closed her eyes,