The Death God Was Stunned—You Call This the Reaper Death Seal?

A flash of golden light.

"Boom!"

Yoru crashed through the barrier's outer defenses like a meteor smashing through space-time, moving with a speed far more brutal and unreasonable than the Flying Raijin!

The scene within the barrier instantly came into view.

Minato Namikaze's face was pale as paper, but his hands still rigidly maintained their seal.

Behind him, a gigantic phantom in white robes, with a short blade clenched in its mouth and a ferocious face, slowly emerged.

The Death God!

Its enormous translucent ghost hand, covered in curse markings, had already reached Minato's chest. It was about to pierce his body and seize his soul.

"Minato!"

Kushina Uzumaki let out a despairing cry, using her last strength to activate the Adamantine Sealing Chains, trying to bind the Nine-Tails and buy her husband one final second.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

And at that very instant, Yoru arrived.

"Sage Mode, activate!"

Yoru gave a low shout in his heart, without making a single unnecessary movement.

In an instant, natural energy vast enough to make heaven and earth change color surged wildly into his body like a burst dam!

Perfect cross-shaped pupils appeared in his eyes, while orange markings spread across his face like divine runes.

A terrifying pressure erupted from him. The flowing air around him seemed to solidify, and even the light warped strangely.

The Death God's ghost hand, which had been reaching for Minato, suddenly froze!

Minato and Kushina felt an irresistible power descend upon them. Even their thoughts stalled for a moment as they stared wide-eyed at the black-haired young man who had suddenly burst in.

"Uchiha... Yoru?"

Minato forced out the name.

He was an unremarkable young man from the Uchiha Clan, usually quiet and reserved. Who would have thought...

How could he possess such terrifying power?!

Yoru had no time to care about their shock.

The moment he activated Sage Mode, he directly copied the outrageous method that the deranged scientist Orochimaru would use in the future to break the Reaper Death Seal.

—Use a higher-order power to contaminate the Death God's contract!

"Get lost!"

With an angry curse, Yoru gathered the last trace of the Sage of Six Paths' Yang Release power remaining within Naruto—the purest trace—at his fingertips.

Then he flicked his finger.

A golden point of light, nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, shot out like a bullet and struck the Death God precisely between the brows!

Bzzzz—!

The Death God's greedy, ferocious movements froze completely.

For the first time, an emotion that only humans could possess appeared in its hollow eyes.

It was...

Fear and confusion.

It was like a GM lording over a beginner village suddenly running into a pay-to-win tycoon wielding a +999 divine weapon, whose level displayed as "???"

What kind of monster was this?

How could a mortal from the lower realm possess power on the level of that old cheat, the Sage of Six Paths?!

Something was wrong with this deal!

The Death God's other hand, the one clutching the massive short blade, even unconsciously shrank back.

This absurd scene left Minato and Kushina, who had been so tense they could barely breathe, staring dumbfounded.

"W-What is going on?"

Kushina stammered, "The Death God... seems to be afraid?"

Minato was completely stunned as well.

The ultimate forbidden technique he had summoned at the cost of his life—why did it seem as though it had met its natural enemy before this young man called Uchiha Yoru?

You called this thing the Reaper Death Seal?

This was clearly serving itself up on a platter!

Yoru looked at the stunned Death God, a playful smirk curling across his lips.

Good. It worked.

Strike while it was down and finish it!

Yoru gave the Death God no chance to react. He stomped hard, instantly cracking the ground beneath his feet.

Like an arrow released from a bowstring, he charged straight at the translucent ghost hand.

"Yoru! Don't!"

Minato's soul nearly fled his body in terror as he cried out.

That was the Death God's arm! Touch it, and you died. Your soul would be ripped away in an instant!

Yet what happened next utterly shattered the Fourth Hokage's understanding of the world.

Under Minato and Kushina's shocked gazes, so wide their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets—

Uchiha Yoru actually extended his right hand, covered in senjutsu chakra, and seized the Death God's translucent, curse-marked ghost hand!

Sizzle—!

The instant the two touched, a piercing sound erupted, like boiling oil splashing into water.

The Death God let out a soundless shriek and frantically tried to pull back its arm.

But Yoru's hand clamped down on it like a red-hot branding iron, holding it so tightly that it could not move.

Yoru raised his head, met the Death God's terrified gaze, and grinned, revealing a mouthful of stark white teeth.

"You're not taking this soul today!"