What Hiruzen's squad was planning wasn't hard for Ryū to guess. They were pinning the Nine-Tails down so he could deliver the finishing blow. Or rather—they wanted to borrow his power to break the fox's resistance, so Hiruzen could execute the sealing.
As long as Kurama can't move, Hiruzen can find the opening to reseal it inside a new jinchūriki. That's the play.
Even from a hundred ters away, Ryū could feel the weight of the forr Hokage's gaze. "Eager" didn't begin to describe it. The intensity of the old man's stare sent a shiver down his spine.
Then again, this is the sa guy who uses ninjutsu to peep on won bathing. So his orientation is definitely normal. But being stared at like that by another man is still uncomfortable.
* * *
Kurama was sinking. The mud swamp dragged at its limbs while chakra chains bit into its joints. It thrashed violently, its massive fra twisting against the restraints. Now and then, a jōnin holding a chain couldn't withstand the raw force and was flung away like a rag doll.
Whether they'd survive the landing was a question of bone density.
These jōnin know they can't beat the Nine-Tails, yet they keep throwing themselves at it. This village ans a lot to them, doesn't it. But if this fox keeps going, it's going to reach my neighborhood.
Ryū bent his knees slightly. He stood perfectly still for several seconds, building force.
Then—
An explosion of sound that left every ear within range ringing.
The ground beneath Ryū's feet fractured outward, dust erupting from a crater easily fifteen ters across. The spot where he'd been standing was now a jagged pit.
He was already gone.
Both arms were sheathed in Armant Haki. His muscles had swollen visibly—veins standing in hard ridges beneath skin that now had the sheen of tempered steel.
Iron Body. Armant Haki. Layered. Simultaneous.
A second sonic boom scread across the battlefield as Ryū materialized directly above the Nine-Tails' skull, roughly fifteen ters up.
* * *
Kurama saw him. The instant that shadow fell across its vision, dread flooded its body. Its jaws wrenched open to charge a Tailed Beast Bomb—
But before it could begin, an enormous staff slamd upward into its chin.
The jaw snapped shut. The Bomb died before it ford.
Kurama's eyes shot downward. Hiruzen was standing below, clutching a colossal bo staff that was—impossibly—still extending, still pushing.
The staff could change its length at will. And it had just interrupted the fox's last line of defense.
And then, in the instant of helplessness that followed—
Sothing landed on top of its skull.
A voice. Faint. But Kurama heard every syllable.
"Six Powers Secret Art… Maximum Rotation—SIX KING PISTOL!!!"
Did he have to yell that loud?
Before Kurama could do anything—think, move, snarl—a shockwave of compressed air erupted from the crown of its head and drove straight through its skull.
Its eyes bulged to their absolute limits. Blood vessels crawled across the whites in vivid red networks. Its mouth, just forced shut, sprang open involuntarily. Its eyeballs rolled upward, spinning, unfocused.
Its entire skull warped and deford around the point of impact.
Several fox-shaped teeth blasted loose from its jaw—dissolving into chakra particles before they hit the ground.
The colossal head plumted earthward.
* * *
When Kurama's skull hamred into the ground for the second ti, the impact was geological.
The earth convulsed. Fissures shot out in every direction. An invisible pressure wave exploded outward like a category-fifteen hurricane, shredding anything not nailed down. Rubble, dust, and shrapnel launched skyward.
Hiruzen and the jōnin braced against the gale, barely keeping their feet.
Inside the crater, Kurama was reeling. Its head spun with a vertigo so severe it was on the edge of blacking out. And its chakra—it was leaking. Not massive amounts, given its bottomless reserves, but the flow was unmistakable.
No—not leaking. Separating.
Damn it! If these wretched shinobi weren't holding down, I could have fought that human to a draw! I could have outlasted him! These insects make it completely unfair!
Kurama struggled to pull its head free from the earth. Its entire skull was embedded in the ground like a planted monunt.
* * *
"Now! Old friend—I'm counting on you!"
Hiruzen—buffeted by the hurricane and barely keeping his balance—saw his opening and seized it. He hurled the colossal staff directly at the Nine-Tails.
The staff, as it flew, spoke. In a gravelly, slightly exasperated voice: "Oi, oi, oi. A Tailed Beast this big? You're making this tough on . Fine… Adamantine Prison Wall!!"
The single staff multiplied—one beca a dozen—and the dozen arranged themselves around Kurama in a three-dinsional lattice, locking together into a massive cage. A prison of adamantine bars, enclosing the fox completely.
Hiruzen drew a ragged breath and forced his remaining chakra to the surface.
He was the Professor—the God of Shinobi. Every sealing technique ever developed, he had studied.
This one should hold!
His hands flew through the seal sequence, movents betraying no trace of age.
"As long as nothing goes wrong, this crisis ends here! Minato—with !!"
"Ninjutsu! Sealing Art: Yang—Forbidden Manifestation Seal!!"
Minato—who'd been relegated to Tailed Beast Bomb disposal duty for most of the fight—understood instantly. He flickered to Hiruzen's side and matched his seal sequence.
"Ninjutsu! Sealing Art: Yin—Forbidden Manifestation Seal!!"
* * *
Strange, alien-looking seal markings erupted across Kurama's body, spreading like wildfire. The dazed fox's expression contorted in sothing between fury and horror.
Ryū watched the sealing unfold in silence. He didn't interfere.
His hands were still trembling. That last strike had been everything he had.
Didn't expect my strongest hit to pack that much force. Good thing the Nine-Tails can take it. If that had landed on a Kage-level human shinobi… they'd be dead. No question.
☆☆☆
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