The Swift Release puppet stared at Rin's damaged mask, then thought about Obito getting launched through a wall by Kushina's chakra-enhanced slap.
I wonder what's going through his head right now. Seeing Rin alive after building his entire worldview around her death? That's gotta mess with him.
A flash of golden light announced Minato's return. He appeared in the chamber via Flying Thunder God, having just redirected the Three-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball away from the village. The instant he materialized, his eyes locked onto Kushina's half-transformed state and the hole blown through the chamber wall.
"Kushina! What happened? Are you—"
"I'm fine," she cut him off, red chakra swirling around her body. "But Minato, we've delayed too long. The Nine-Tails' seal is badly damaged. I need to go fight those tailed beasts. Use Flying Thunder God to send me there. I can suppress them with the Nine-Tails' power!"
Minato opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. The fire in her eyes left no room for debate.
"Minato," the Swift Release puppet stepped up beside him. "I'll take Kushina to the battlefield. You need to stay here and deal with the masked man."
Minato turned to look at the puppet.
"Those tailed beasts were almost certainly summoned by him," the puppet continued. "Defeating him should cancel the summoning technique entirely. His ability appears to be a space-time jutsu. When he phases, he's immune to all damage but can't attack. The moment he solidifies to strike, his real body becomes vulnerable. You're the only one fast enough to exploit that timing."
That assessment was accurate. Minato's Flying Thunder God gave him speed advantages no one else in the village could match. Against an enemy who could become intangible at will, conventional fighters would be useless.
Minato glanced toward the sounds of destruction echoing from outside the chamber. The village was still under attack. Every second counted.
"Understood," he said finally. "Please take care of her."
"Don't worry."
The Swift Release puppet placed its hand on Kushina's shoulder. Space rippled around them, and after two seconds, both vanished.
Minato turned his attention to Rin, who was helping support Biwako and Taji.
"Rin, evacuate immediately. Take them to the training ground assembly point. There's a barrier there. I've already sent word to Kakashi, he'll meet you."
"Understood, sensei!" Rin nodded vigorously. "Please be careful!"
She helped the two injured medical-nin toward the exit, moving as quickly as she could manage while supporting their weight. Minato watched them leave, making sure they were clear of the chamber before turning his focus back to finding Obito. He'd barely finished that thought when his instincts screamed a warning.
He spun, kunai already in his hand, and drove it backward in a reverse grip. The blade passed straight through the masked figure that had materialized behind him.
Just like Kenji said, he thought, already moving.
Obito's hand shot out, fingers closing around Minato's wrist. The air beside them distorted, a spiraling vortex of space opening up as Kamui activated. The pull was immediate and powerful, trying to drag Minato into the dimension.
But Minato was faster. His body flickered out of existence, teleporting several meters away via a Flying Thunder God mark he'd placed earlier. The Kamui vortex closed on empty air. They faced each other across the damaged chamber.
"You can't win this," Obito said with his distorted voice. "No matter how fast you are, you can't catch what you can't touch."
"Maybe," Minato replied. "But I don't need to catch you. I just need to keep you here. Can you afford a prolonged fight?"
Obito didn't answer, which was answer enough. He couldn't. Whatever his plan had been, it clearly required speed and surprise. A drawn-out battle in the heart of Konoha with the Fourth Hokage would end badly for him.
---
Meanwhile, outside the village boundaries, Kenji's battle with the Deva Path had settled into a strange equilibrium. After multiple exchanges, he'd figured out the pattern of Pain's abilities. Large-scale Shinra Tensei had a definite cooldown, about five seconds between uses. But smaller, directional repulsion bursts came almost continuously with minimal delay. And the Rinnegan's visual prowess was legitimately comparable to a three-tomoe Sharingan in terms of tracking ability and reaction speed.
Without Sage Mode active, even with Swift Release enhancement, his taijutsu wouldn't break through Pain's defenses consistently. But even in Sage Mode, while he could suppress the Deva Path with superior speed and power, he couldn't destroy it. Pain was a corpse puppet. It didn't fear fatal injuries. Kenji could beat it until it couldn't fight back, and it would simply stand up and continue like nothing had happened. More importantly, he'd noticed something crucial. Nagato wasn't truly committed to cooperating with Obito. The Deva Path's behavior made that clear. It wasn't trying to kill him or even seriously injure him. Its only goal seemed to be restraint, keeping him occupied and away from the village center. Which suited him fine. He was happy to have a high-level sparring partner to refine his Sage Mode control against. His puppets were handling the tailed beasts inside Konoha. Whether he was there or not didn't matter much.
Both of them were fighting seriously enough to make it look good, but neither was going all out. It was almost polite, in a weird way.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The Deva Path released a repulsion burst that sent Kenji sliding backward several meters. He dug his heels into the ground to arrest his momentum, already preparing to counter. Then the Deva Path in front of him burst into smoke and disappeared.
"No... Summoning canceled?"
Kenji paused.
He immediately activated Flying Thunder God, teleporting to the tailed beast battlefield inside Konoha's walls.
Sure enough, the Three-Tails and Six-Tails that had been rampaging through the village were gone, dispersed into clouds of smoke. The summoning technique had been canceled, probably because Obito had fled or been forced to retreat.
Only the Nine-Tails remained.
The massive fox was in full tailed beast form, its nine tails lashing through the air. But it was restrained. One of Kenji's Wood Release puppets had summoned a towering wooden construct, and that golem now had one enormous hand pressed against the Nine-Tails' head.
"Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands."
The technique, inherited from Hashirama, worked by soothing the tailed beast's chakra and forcing it into sleep. Gradually, the Nine-Tails' struggles weakened. Its eyes grew heavy. Within another minute, the massive creature went limp, unconscious. But that didn't solve the fundamental problem. Kushina's seal was too badly damaged. Even with the Nine-Tails asleep, she couldn't revert from her transformed state. The seal would need to be completely rebuilt.
He stood on top of the wooden golem's head, looking down at the scene below. Minato was there, working frantically to construct some kind of sealing platform. Elaborate formula markings spread across the ground in precise geometric patterns.
He must have dealt with Obito and teleported here, Kenji thought. That guy had probably fled once it became clear his plan had collapsed.
He jumped down from the golem, landing beside Minato.
"Where's the masked man?"
Minato looked up briefly from his work. "He escaped. His jutsu was too troublesome. I couldn't pin him down before he phased out and left."
"Not surprising," Kenji said. "As long as you can't kill him in a single strike, he can just go intangible and walk away. Nobody can stop that."
He watched Minato continue constructing the sealing platform, hands moving through complex seal patterns while chakra flowed into the formulae being inscribed on the ground. He knew sealing a complete tailed beast was far more complicated than most people realized. Simply knowing the Four Symbols Seal wasn't enough. You needed specialized equipment, a proper sealing platform, and the "seal key" that acted as the core control mechanism for a jinchūriki's seal. That key was one of Konoha's highest-level secrets. Only the current jinchūriki's designated overseer possessed it. In this case, that was Minato. Which meant only he could repair Kushina's seal properly.
But Kenji was curious about how Minato planned to handle this. Kushina's seal had been damaged for a while now. The Nine-Tails was fully manifested and had been rampaging. Standard repair procedures might not work.
Then he saw it.
Minato vanished in a flash of golden light. When he reappeared seconds later, he was holding an infant in his arms. He walked to the center of the sealing platform and placed his son down among the formula markings.
Kenji's stomach dropped.
No way... He's not seriously going to...
But the evidence was right in front of him. Minato was preparing to seal the Nine-Tails into Naruto.
"Minato," he called out, unable to keep the confusion from his voice. "Are you really going to seal the Nine-Tails into a child?"
"Yes," Minato replied, his gaze fixed on the sleeping tailed beast. His expression was resolute, showing no hesitation.
"Can't you just reseal it into Kushina? You know what kind of life a jinchūriki lives. It's not exactly a good choice for anyone, let alone a newborn."
He didn't understand. In the original timeline, this had made sense. Kushina had been dying because the Nine-Tails had been forcibly extracted. Minato had sealed half the beast into himself using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal and the other half into Naruto to save both of them. But that hadn't happened this time. Kushina hadn't had the Nine-Tails ripped out of her. The seal had been damaged, yes, but she wasn't dying. She'd even transformed partially and fought. Her Uzumaki vitality meant she could survive having the beast resealed.
So why was he still choosing to put it into Naruto?
"The seal is too damaged," Minato said quietly, still working on the platform. "Even if I repair it and reseal the Nine-Tails into Kushina, it would take months of constant reinforcement to stabilize properly. During that time, she'd be vulnerable. And another attack like tonight..."
He trailed off, but the message was clear. Another assault during the recovery period could be catastrophic.
"Naruto is my son. And one day, he'll be strong enough to control this power. The village needs a jinchūriki. I can't let Kushina bear that burden anymore, not after everything that's happened. This is my choice as Hokage. And as a father."
Kenji stared at him, trying to process the logic.
It made sense, at least from a strategic standpoint. But it still felt wrong. Was this really Minato's decision, or had something else influenced him?
He couldn't help but wonder if the Sage of Six Paths, somewhere in the Pure Land, had quietly manipulated events to ensure Naruto became the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki as destiny demanded.