Death Throes

The heavy metal doors slowly pulled apart to either side amid the shrill grinding of gears.

A thick, choking stench mixed with searing steam rushed straight at them.

Naruto endured the pain wracking his entire body and swallowed, already holding his Kunai across his chest.

At the very center of that purple glow crouched an enormous mechanical centipede, grotesquely oversized.

Mukade's fat face, covered in folds of flesh, had completely fused with the mass of steel.

"You troublesome Konoha ninja actually dared to chase me all the way underground."

"I have now completely assimilated with the Ley Line. In this city of Rōran, I am the Zetsu ruler!"

Naruto ground his teeth at those words.

The sheer size of that thing was enough to make anyone's scalp tingle.

Just as Naruto clenched his fists and gathered Chakra, preparing to charge in head-on—

A red figure shot past him like a cannonball!

Golden Chakra emerged from Kushina's body and poured outward without cease!

Nine enormous golden Chakra tails whipped wildly through the air behind her.

Seeing the wounds on Naruto's body still bleeding, Kushina could no longer contain the rage in her heart.

"You dared to hurt my son like this... You pile of scrap metal, today I'll smash you into pieces!"

Mukade let out a grating sneer as he watched Kushina charge at him alone.

His massive mechanical foreclaw smashed down at Kushina in midair with a howl that tore through the air.

Kushina could not even be bothered to form a single hand seal against such an attack. She was all about unreasonable, overwhelming force.

She swung her fist, wrapped in solidified golden Chakra, and smashed it directly into that enormous iron claw!

With a thunderous boom, the entire underground ceiling shook, sending stones raining down.

Mukade's gigantic foreclaw,