Inoiki looked at the two Truth-Seeking Orbs released by Obito. They hovered dangerously close to the giant Nine-Tails chakra form, glowing a blinding white—on the verge of detonation.
Inoiki said in a firm tone, "As if I'm going to let you explode those Truth-Seeking Orbs."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he used Vector Inversion again. The two Truth-Seeking Orbs, floating in the air at a constant state of rest, suddenly had their vectors altered—motion forced upon them in an instant.
With precise control, Inoiki redirected their movement toward the sky. The orbs shot upward, their glow intensifying, until—
BOOM! BOOM!
Two massive explosions tore through the night sky. A violent shockwave rippled across the battlefield, kicking up dust and debris, the radiant flash illuminating everything below like a brief, artificial dawn.
Obito's attack had failed.
The two Truth-Seeking Orbs were sacrificed, and Inoiki and Naruto remained completely unharmed, the tug-of-war between them continuing without pause.
By now, a significant portion of the Ten-Tails' chakra had already been extracted—nearly sixty percent. The green phantom tendrils connected to each of the Nine-Tails' tails grew more defined, more solid with each passing moment. From every tail, those phantom forms stretched outward, pulling, writhing and gradually coming out from Obito's body.
But Obito's strategy to attack Inoiki had, in some ways, worked.
As Inoiki had pulled out around sixty percent of the Ten-Tails' chakra, his focus shifted—if only for a moment—to deal with those two Truth-Seeking Orbs. In that brief lapse, Obito seized the opportunity. He forcefully dragged the Ten-Tails' chakra back into his body, the energy surging inward like a violent tide, reducing the progress of Inoiki, Kurama, and Naruto back down to fifty percent.
The balance tipped again.
And just at that moment, when Obito believed he could continue with this plan—to create constant distractions for Inoiki, to relentlessly attack Kurama, Naruto, and Inoiki, and slowly reclaim the Ten-Tails' chakra in portions—
—it seemed luck was no longer on his side.
A sudden shift in the battlefield occurred, a Kunai appeared on the ground and…
Sasuke arrived.
And he was not alone.
Behind him stood the members of Team Taka. Alongside them were the reanimated Hokage—the First, Second, Third, and Fourth—each carrying an overwhelming aura of power even in their reanimated states. They had all reached the battlefield through Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique, appearing in an instant like a coordinated strike force.
Reinforcements… finally.
Seeing their arrival, Inoiki immediately recognized the advantage. This was timely—perfectly so.
Without hesitation, his voice cut through the chaos, firm and commanding.
"All of you—there's not much to explain. What you have to do is simple: attack Obito with everything you've got."
A faint gust swept across the battlefield, carrying the lingering heat of the earlier explosions.
"But be careful of those black objects floating around him," he continued, eyes locked on Obito. "Those are called Truth-Seeking Orbs."
His tone hardened slightly.
"They can annihilate not just your body… but your soul as well."
He took a brief pause, his gaze shifting deliberately toward all the reanimated Hokage.
"Even your reanimated bodies will be harmed if you're hit by any of these Truth-Seeking Orbs. Your souls will be damaged as well—and you won't be able to recover. The so-called indestructible bodies you possess will be destroyed… and they won't heal at all."
A faint tension settled in the air at his warning.
After hearing Inoiki's explanation, all of the Hokage gave a solemn nod, fully understanding the severity of the threat.
Sasuke, too, stood silent for a moment.
He had his own goals for coming to this battlefield—his own path, his own intentions—but for now, he understood one thing clearly: before anything else, he had to protect this world. And to do that, Obito had to be dealt with first.
Everything else comes later.
Without hesitation, Sasuke activated his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. His eyes gleamed with a cold intensity, and in the next instant, a massive surge of chakra erupted around him.
A skeletal frame formed first—
Then muscle, armor—
And finally, a complete manifestation.
A full-body Susanoo rose into existence, towering over the battlefield. Its immense form stood comparable to the giant Nine-Tails chakra form within which Naruto and Inoiki were present, its aura heavy and oppressive as it solidified under Sasuke's control.
The ground trembled faintly beneath its presence.
As for the Hokage, they stood ready, prepared to follow Inoiki's orders without hesitation.
First and foremost, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, knew Inoiki—and held a good impression of him.
Of course, the conspiracies and political maneuvers that had once been carried out against Inoiki during his lifetime were a different matter entirely. But Hiruzen understood what truly mattered—for the village, and for the world.
And more importantly—
He knew just how capable Inoiki was.
Hiruzen turned toward the other Hokage—the First, Second, and Fourth: Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, and Minato Namikaze—and said, "Let's follow his lead and do what he's saying. He knows what's best for now."
There was no hesitation.
As soon as they heard this, they all nodded, and in the very next instant, they moved. Without wasting even a second, the Hokage launched their attacks toward Obito, their combined presence overwhelming as chakra flared and techniques surged forward in unison.
Now Obito was forced onto the defensive.
Attacks came at him from all directions—relentless, coordinated. The Hokage and Sasuke pressed in without pause, leaving him no room to breathe. Under that constant pressure, Obito found himself unable to divert his focus toward Inoiki.
And that shift changed everything.
It became increasingly clear—Obito was losing control over the Ten-Tails' chakra.
The energy began slipping away from him again, violently pulled outward, the nine tails of Kurama intensifying as they tore more and more chakra free from his body. The flow accelerated, no longer restrained, no longer contested.
It's slipping… I can't hold it…
Soon enough, only a small fraction of the Ten-Tails' chakra remained within him.
And at that moment—right at the brink—
Naruto's will connected to Obito's.
The battlefield seemed to fade for an instant as their consciousnesses intersected. Through that connection, Naruto began to speak to him—not with force, but with understanding, with persistence.
Word by word.
Memory by memory.
Naruto reached into the fragments of Obito that still remained.
And as their exchange continued, Naruto's so-called Talk-no-Jutsu began to take effect.
Obito's resistance wavered.
Then cracked.
And finally—
It worked.
Obito let go of the remaining Ten-Tails' chakra.
The realization struck him fully now—what he had become. A monster. The very kind of person he himself had once despised.
A hollow ache settled deep within him.
Rin… wouldn't even recognize me like this…
And with that thought, something inside him broke.
His obsession with the Plan Tsukuyomi faded, dissolving into nothingness. The conviction that had driven him all this time crumbled, and with it, his control over the Ten-Tails vanished completely.
The last of the chakra was pulled from him—fully extracted.