A little earlier...
"Why is it burning this fiercely?"
Inside Naruto's Inner World...
The Nine-Tails, who had always been unflappable, was now frantic.
Naruto's entire Inner World had become like the Flaming Mountain without the Palm-Leaf Fan—completely out of control!
Chakra burned visibly, and beyond the conceptual "heat," even the entire Inner Space was being scorched until it warped!
Without the Nine-Tails suppressing it with all his strength, it would not last even a minute. Naruto's immense chakra reserves would burn away completely in mere moments.
And once his chakra burned out, that would mean—Naruto's death!
The Nine-Tails could not understand why simply removing the restrictions had made Metamorphosis Mode burn through chakra so violently... even his full strength could not suppress it.
He already regretted listening to Naruto's request and lifting the suppression on Metamorphosis Mode. Why hadn't he simply dealt with the Ōtsutsuki himself? Why bother training Naruto? The boy was still so young!
Now, everywhere he looked in Naruto's Inner World, chakra was burning. With all of Naruto's chakra ablaze, the Nine-Tails could no longer observe the outside world through his link to it, either.
"What on earth... Naruto, answer me. Naruto..."
"Lord Kurama, Naruto... it's so hot! (0.0)!"
The instant Minato's chakra regained consciousness inside Naruto, he received a terrible fright.
The burning chakra around him immediately swept toward him, seemingly treating this portion of Minato's chakra as fuel to burn as well.
"Why did you come... are you an idiot? Why come back now? You're only making things worse!"
The Nine-Tails' enormous tails swept through the "chakra flames," one of them wrapping around Minato's body and pulling him close.
When the "fire" spread toward the Nine-Tails, it died down again—as a chakra Lifeform, the Nine-Tails seemed to be entirely nonflammable in its eyes.
"What exactly