Chapter 622: Naruto in Peril
The Five Elements Seal was normally used to disrupt or seal a Tailed Beast's chakra. Minato, however, had modified it on the fly, treating the roots and fungi Tobi had used to invade Yamato's body as a "foreign entity" or "demonic" presence.
The moment the seal landed, Tobi felt his connection to the True Several Thousand Hands sever. A "wall" had instantly formed around Yamato's chakra network. Unless he broke the seal, Tobi could no longer access Yamato's chakra or his Wood Release.
"What happened?" The turn of events was too sudden. He couldn't understand. Wasn't I winning just a second ago?
Minato's skill in fuinjutsu was actually on par with his Hiraishin; most people just subconsciously overlooked it.
While sealing Yamato, he yanked the unlucky Anbu captain's body free from the Zetsu mass. Tobi (the Zetsu part) tried to fight back, but without the statue and facing a Sage Mode-empowered Minato, he was captured in less than two moves and promptly sealed as well.
Minato deactivated Sage Mode, letting out a long sigh of relief.
His personal chakra reserves were just barely at the minimum standard required to learn Sage Mode. They were larger than the average ninja's, but not by much. No matter how high his aptitude, his "hardware" was lacking. This resulted in a long gathering time and a pathetically short duration. He might need five full minutes to gather enough natural energy, only for the mode to last a mere five or six seconds. It was incredibly awkward to use.
He would never use it unless it was a special, dire circumstance.
Three minutes later, Minato handed the captured Tobi to the Torture and Interrogation Force. He then slung Naruto over his back and rushed to find Tsunade.
"Lady Tsunade! Please, look at Naruto! Why won't he wake up?"
He forced himself to remain calm, but he was panicking, feeling the same terror he'd felt on the night of the Nine-Tails' attack.
Tsunade motioned for him to be calm and personally examined the boy. "His body is... healthy. But his consciousness. It seems to be trapped in a deep state of slumber."
This clearly wasn't a medical issue. It was a jutsu.
She could see Minato was holding himself together by a thread. As an advisor, it was her right to give the Hokage counsel.
"Lord Hokage, we need to do three things immediately. First, interrogate that captured White Zetsu and find out what caused this. Second, the fact they targeted Naruto means their Tailed Beast collection is in its final phase. We cannot allow them to take the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki. Third... the Nine-Tails' chakra inside Naruto is slowly leaking. The process is... very strange."
Minato, who could sense his own fuinjutsu seals, was of course aware that something was wrong with the Nine-Tails. But how to fix it? He had no idea.
No matter how much he shouted, Naruto wouldn't wake up. And with him, the Nine-Tails had also fallen into a deep slumber. Unlike a normal living being, a Tailed Beast is a construct of negative emotion. As the pinnacle of that, if the Nine-Tails itself was unconscious, its chakra would lose its anchor and begin to dissipate back into the world.
In less than ten minutes, thin, thread-like wisps of red Tailed Beast chakra were already visibly seeping from Naruto's skin.
It was just like the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage, when Kazuma had secretly siphoned off the chaotic, unanchored chakra. The situation now was nearly identical.
They couldn't see where the chakra was flowing, but it didn't take a genius to guess: it was flowing to the Ten-Tails.
Ino was currently fighting the equivalent of seven Tailed Beasts plus Uchiha Madara, all by herself. If any more pressure was added, she wouldn't be able to hold the line.
The best solution was to wake Naruto. If that was impossible... they had to kill him. This would force the Nine-Tails into its rebirth cycle. They could not, under any circumstances, let Madara get his hands on it.
Sacrifice one Naruto, or allow the Ten-Tails to fully revive and destroy the world. This impossible choice now lay before Minato.
Even as an elder, Tsunade couldn't bring herself to say, "For the good of the shinobi world, you need to strangle your son." She fell back to the next best option. "We have to reinforce the seal."
Years ago, Minato had placed two Four Symbols Seals on Naruto's navel, creating the Eight Trigrams Seal. Now, he placed another Eight Trigrams Seal directly over Naruto's heart.
Ibiki Morino of the T&I Force quickly returned with a report. He had managed to get the entire story from Tobi. It had been an ordeal. Tobi was full of insufferable trash talk, constantly pestering Ibiki with questions about feces and the intestinal tract. It was disgusting, even for a hardened veteran like Ibiki. It was a classic case of "panning for gold in shit."
Learning how Tobi had rendered Naruto unconscious didn't ease Minato's frown.
It was a genjutsu, apparently, but one that had been catalyzed by a Mangekyō Sharingan, making it fundamentally different.
The father sat by the hospital bed, holding his son's hand, looking at the peaceful smile on Naruto's face. His heart ached.
"Naruto... what are you dreaming of? Please... just wake up."
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, the two village Elders, arrived at the hospital. They hesitated for a long time, but even they couldn't bring themselves to tell Minato to kill his son.
"His heartbeat is getting weaker!"
"Lady Tsunade, his blood pressure is dropping fast!"
"The patient is going into coronary spasm!"
Before they could even begin to form a plan, Naruto's physical condition began to rapidly deteriorate.
Tsunade shoved everyone aside and took personal command of the emergency resuscitation.
"Quick! Prepare for CPR! Shizune, get ready with the Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique!"
The medical team worked frantically, but they only managed to pull Naruto back from the brink of death for a few minutes. Once the drugs and the healing-jutsu formula wore off, his life would once again be on a countdown.
Minato used the Summoning Jutsu again, bringing the Two Great Toad Sages, Fukasaku and Shima, from Mount Myoboku.
Unfortunately, after examining Naruto, they too were helpless.
Fukasaku and Shima exchanged a worried, hidden glance. This is the Child of Prophecy? Why does it look like he's about to kick the bucket?
Tsunade, after working frantically, finally found the root cause. "Minato! The Nine-Tails is out of control. Its chakra is what's killing Naruto! We have to extract it, now! If we get it out, he has a chance. If we don't, he's dead for sure!"
Does he really have a chance? When a Tailed Beast is extracted from its Jinchūriki, the host... dies. At best, it would delay the inevitable by a few minutes.
Koharu Utatane remained ice-cold and rational. She spoke with clear, precise words. "Lord Fourth. Take Naruto outside the village first. Then, extract the Nine-Tails. This old woman... I have had some recent insights into new jutsu. I may be able to maintain his basic vital signs."
A hidden benefit of the old woman teaching Hinata was that she, in turn, had heard bits and pieces about profound Yin-Yang Release concepts from Hinata. Combining that knowledge with her own decades of experience, the Elder had started to figure some things out.
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