Kenji's sensory technique had been running at maximum capacity for the past hour. Every fluctuation or unusual signature got logged and analyzed. Most were false positives, like ANBU patrols moving through their routes, small animals in the forest, residual chakra from earlier techniques.
Then he felt it.
A chakra signature appeared inside the barrier.
He actually came, he thought.
"Earth Release: Earth Spear."
Before any of the ANBU could react, he was already moving. Chakra flooded through his body. His skin darkened, turning the color of hardened stone. His right hand formed a different seal, and in the next second, his body vanished.
---
Inside the secret chamber, Biwako and Taji were preparing to leave with the newborn Naruto. The delivery had been successful. Kushina was exhausted but stable. Everything had gone according to plan.
Then space rippled.
The distortion was subtle at first, a faint shimmer. But it grew rapidly, expanding into a spiraling vortex of darkness. Reality twisted inward, and a figure stepped through wearing an orange mask with a spiral pattern centered around a single eyehole.
Obito moved the instant he materialized. His right hand held a kunai that flashed toward Biwako's throat. His left reached for the infant in her arms. Both medics' eyes were wide, their minds clearly struggling to process the impossibility of someone appearing inside a sealed barrier.
They were going to die.
At the last second, Kenji reappeared directly in front of Biwako. A kunai was already driving toward his chest. It struck his sternum with a metallic scrape, but the Earth Spear held, and the blade skidded off his hardened skin without penetrating.
The instant the kunai deflected, his left fist shot forward toward Obito's face.
At the exact same moment, a pulse of chakra activated the hidden mechanism in his prosthetic forearm. The spring-loaded blade housed inside his left arm released with a sharp click, shooting forward through the center of his palm and extending out between his middle and ring fingers. Obito clearly hadn't expected anyone to intercept him this fast. His visible eye widened behind the mask. His body rippled and became translucent just before the blade could connect. Kenji's fist, with the blade fully extended, passed straight through empty air.
The blade retracted immediately, sliding back into the concealed compartment in his forearm. His forward momentum carried him straight through where Obito's body should have been.
Kamui was every bit as frustrating to fight against as he'd anticipated. Perfect intangibility on demand meant normal attacks were useless. You couldn't hit what you couldn't touch.
He pivoted immediately, abandoning the attack on Obito and moving toward Biwako instead. If he could get Naruto away from the threat first, secure the baby's safety, then he could focus on dealing with Obito.
But before he could take two steps, space distorted again.
Another figure emerged from the spiral pattern, stepping out of the void behind Obito, followed by a cold voice.
"Shinra Tensei."
Invisible force erupted outward in a spherical wave.
Kenji had maybe half a second of warning before it hit. He tried to brace himself, channeling chakra to his feet to anchor his position, but it wasn't enough. The repulsive force slammed into him. His body was hurled backward, along with Biwako and Taji. All three of them crashed into the chamber's stone wall.
CRACK!
The wall spider-webbed with fractures. Chunks of stone broke free and clattered to the floor. Behind him, Biwako and Taji had both been knocked unconscious. Blood trickled from a cut on Biwako's forehead. But they were alive, and the iron sand he'd subconsciously controlled had formed a cushioning layer between their bodies and the wall just before impact.
"Coughing... didn't expect a second one to show up," he muttered, getting to his feet.
He turned toward the new arrival, noting the orange hair and pale purple eyes marked with concentric rings. It was one of Pain's Six Paths, specifically, the Deva Path. Obito now held Naruto in his arms. The baby was crying. Beside him, the Deva Path stood motionless. He'd anticipated that Obito might bring backup. But he hadn't expected Nagato to send one of his Six Paths bodies this early. Clearly Obito had been persuasive.
Across the chamber, Minato had sensed the chakra fluctuations and turned around. His eyes widened as he saw what was happening: Obito holding Naruto, the Deva Path standing ready, Biwako and Taji unconscious against the cracked wall, and Kenji standing between them and the intruders.
"Namikaze Minato. Step away from the jinchūriki."
Obito placed one hand on Naruto's head. "Otherwise, I'll kill him."
At that exact moment, Kushina cried out in pain.
"Ahhh!"
The sealing formula on her abdomen began to glow, visible through her hospital gown. The intricate patterns that contained the Nine-Tails were destabilizing, chakra leaking through gaps in the weakened seal.
"Kushina!" Minato's attention split between his wife and his son, neither of which he could protect from his current position.
The seal had already been weakened by childbirth. Biwako was meant to reinforce it immediately after delivery, but with her unconscious and Obito threatening Naruto, there was no time. If it collapsed completely, the Nine-Tails would break free... Kushina would die, the beast would rampage, and Konoha would be destroyed.
"Still refusing to move?" Obito pulled out another kunai and pressed it against Naruto's throat. The edge touched the skin. "Don't you care whether this child lives or dies?"
Kenji watched the blade and felt his jaw clench. He couldn't make a move, not yet. Obito was completely unstable right now, driven by grief and rage. If he gave him even the smallest excuse, he might kill Naruto just to hurt Minato.
"Just calm down," Minato spoke urgently. "We can talk about this. There's no need to hurt the baby."
"The one who needs to calm down is you." Obito's tone was flat. "I'm perfectly calm."
The words had barely left his mouth when he suddenly tossed Naruto into the air. The baby tumbled upward, arms and legs flailing. He raised his kunai as if preparing to strike the infant mid-flight. It was obviously a ploy to draw Minato away from Kushina. But he had no choice.
Kenji moved at the same instant.
"Summoning Technique!"
He bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood, his hands flying through seals faster than thought. He slammed his palm against the floor. White smoke exploded outward.
As it cleared, three puppets stood before him: a Swift Release puppet, a Wood Release puppet, and a Samehada-support puppet.
Minato had already vanished, reappearing in midair using Flying Thunder God. He caught Naruto securely in his arms, pulling the baby against his chest protectively. But before relief could set in, Obito's mocking voice drifted up from below.
"You're really fast. But what now?"
Minato's eyes went wide.
He felt chakra fluctuating from Naruto's blanket. Looking down, he saw explosive tags plastered all over the outside of the swaddling cloth. Dozens of them, enough to vaporize both him and his son if they detonated.
"Naruto!" Kushina screamed from the medical table, having seen the tags as well.
Her emotions spiked. The Nine-Tails' chakra responded to her distress, pouring out through the seal in greater amounts. A faint red aura began to form around her body, the tailed beast's malevolent energy mixing with her own.
Minato didn't hesitate. He vanished again, using Flying Thunder God to teleport himself and Naruto far away from the chamber, beyond the range where the explosive tags could harm anyone else.
The instant Minato disappeared, Kenji made his move.
All three puppets shot forward simultaneously. The Swift Release puppet blurred toward Kushina. The Wood Release puppet charged at Obito himself, wooden vines already extending. The Samehada-support puppet angled toward the Deva Path.
"Banshō Ten'in."
The Deva Path's eyes pulsed with power.
Invisible gravitational force seized Kenji and all three puppets, yanking them violently toward the Rinnegan user. It felt like being grabbed by a giant invisible hand and pulled through the air against his will. But just before the gravity could drag them into close range, all three puppets vanished. Kenji had unsummoned them the instant he felt the pull begin. He'd been preparing for this moment since before rushing forward. While Obito was threatening Minato, he had been quietly absorbing natural energy. Drawing it in from the environment in tiny increments, carefully balanced to avoid the transformation going wrong.
Black markings appeared across his face.
The gravitational pull from Banshō Ten'in was still affecting him. But instead of fighting it, he let the force accelerate his movement, turning himself into a projectile aimed directly at the Deva Path's head. His fist came around in a punch enhanced by senjutsu chakra.
WHAM!
The punch didn't land.
Just before impact, stronger repulsive force erupted from the Deva Path's body. Kenji was blasted backward, his feet skidding across the floor as he fought to maintain balance. His shoes left long scorch marks on the stone.
He didn't let the momentum stop him.
The instant his slide ended, he kicked off again. His sage-enhanced speed turned him into a blur, circling around to attack from the Deva Path's blind spot. His right leg came up in a kick aimed at the opponent's lower back, targeting the spine. But the Deva Path moved faster. He twisted away from the kick and simultaneously produced a black chakra receiver rod, intercepting the kunai Kenji had drawn with his other hand.
Their weapons locked for a fraction of a second.
Then Shinra Tensei activated again at point-blank range.
The repulsive force slammed into Kenji, hurling him backward through the air. He tumbled alongside the iron sand he had been trying to shape into bindings around the Deva Path. Even as he flew, his hands flashed through seals.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!"
Countless tiny iron pellets materialized in the air in front of him. They hung suspended for a brief moment before launching forward like a shotgun blast, thousands of projectiles flying toward the Deva Path at high velocity.
The iron pellets reached their target.
And stopped.
An invisible barrier halted every single projectile exactly one meter from the Deva Path's body, unable to advance even a millimeter further.