"Huh?! Rin?"
Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi, along with Young Obito and Young Kakashi, all turned toward Rin Nohara.
Hashirama, Madara, and the others also looked at the brown-haired girl, their expressions carrying both skepticism and newfound respect.
"You really have a way to complete the mission, dattebayo?!" Naruto asked excitedly. He had been completely stumped by it just moments ago!
Rin said, "Just like well-nourished children tend to grow faster, maybe we can find a way to keep the God Tree from getting so much nourishment?"
Medical-nin really did think differently. Even their solutions were rather...
"Keep the God Tree from getting enough nourishment?"
"How are we supposed to do that, dattebayo?"
["I think I've already figured out what that little girl has in mind. Hmph, she's quite clever."]
The Nine-Tails spoke from inside Naruto, leaving him even more confused.
Of everyone present, only Minato Namikaze and Tobirama Senju had somewhat grasped what Rin meant, though neither of them fully understood how she intended to accomplish it.
Rin explained, "Isobu told me before that the Tailed Beasts are separate consciousnesses split off from the seed of the God Tree, the Ten-Tails. So I was thinking, if the God Tree has excess power, shouldn't Isobu, Kurama, and the others be able to absorb it?"
At that, Minato Namikaze immediately understood what Rin was suggesting.
He asked Rin and Naruto, "Have Isobu and Kurama said whether they can do it?"
The two briefly communicated with their respective Tailed Beasts deep within their subconscious, then both gave Minato an affirmative answer.
Tobirama Senju analyzed the idea from an academic perspective. "It follows the same principle I used when developing Shadow Clones. If the original body has excess chakra, that chakra can be divided among the clones. As long as there are enough clones, virtually any amount of chakra can be distributed among them. That's quite a good idea. Impressive that you thought of it, young lady."
Rin Nohara smiled at the praise and explained that, as a Medical-nin, she naturally tended to approach chakra usage from a different angle.
"OK! Now it's up to me and Kurama!"
Naruto smacked a fist into his palm, visibly eager to get started.
"Don't hold back when the time comes. Eat like your life depends on it! You'd better turn into Kurama Akimichi by the end of this, dattebayo!"
["Hmph! You're the one who needs to be careful. Don't take in so much chakra that you can't handle it, you stupid brat."]
Naruto was ready to head straight for the God Tree and get to work.
Minato Namikaze stopped him.
"According to what we just learned, merely approaching the God Tree carries the risk of having your chakra and life force drained. You need to be extremely careful."
"Isn't that basically a tug-of-war?" Naruto blinked.
Come to think of it, he had freed the Nine-Tails far too smoothly. He had never gotten to have a tug-of-war with Kurama, and afterward he probably wouldn't get the chance to have one with Ten-Tails Obito either, pulling the other Tailed Beasts' chakra out of him.
Yet now, out of nowhere, he was about to have a tug-of-war with the God Tree.
["What? Scared? That doesn't sound like you."]
"Who said I'm scared?! I'm super excited, dattebayo!"
Naruto rubbed his hands together eagerly.
Rin also said she wanted to give it a try.
Adult Obito said, "I'll use Kamui to send you over. If anything goes wrong, I'll immediately pull you back into Kamui's Dimension. Sound good?"
"Yeah."
The two agreed, saying they were ready to leave at any time.
Adult Obito stood up and activated Kamui with his right eye, drawing Rin Nohara and Naruto into the spiraling vortex.
Both of them had entered Young Obito's Kamui's Dimension countless times, but this was their first time inside Adult Obito's vast, dark, cold, and empty space.
They had instinctively assumed that Adult Obito's Kamui's Dimension would be identical to Young Obito's. Even if there were differences, they couldn't have imagined they would be significant.
But once they actually entered this dark space, where countless stone platforms were the only things protruding from an endless abyss, neither of them quite knew what to say.
And when Rin thought about everything Adult Obito had experienced, her heart filled with sorrow.
Even Naruto lost some of the excitement he had shown moments ago about challenging the Ten-Tails to a tug-of-war.
"Don't think about anything else. The Ten-Tails definitely won't be easy to deal with. You absolutely cannot let yourselves get distracted."
Adult Obito spoke sternly as he rapidly shifted the coordinates connected to the outside world.
Rin was actually a little nervous herself, but she still tried to reassure Naruto.
"We'll just test it first. If it doesn't work, don't force yourself."
"I know, dattebayo!"
That was what he said, but both Rin and Obito knew Naruto was exactly the sort of person who would push himself all the way to his limit before admitting defeat.
"We're here."
In less than a minute, Kamui transported the two of them close to the God Tree.
The Three-Tails, Isobu, and the Nine-Tails, Kurama, were already prepared.
The moment Rin and Naruto leaped out of Kamui's Dimension, the two Tailed Beasts immediately switched into vacuum cleaner mode, grabbing hold of the God Tree's chakra and desperately pulling it toward themselves!
But although Tailed Beasts seemed enormous in human eyes, compared with the seed of the God Tree, the Ten-Tails, they were little more than palm-sized small fry.
And this was a healthy, vigorously growing God Tree.
Although no one had dared approach it for a long time, its roots continued spreading outward, devouring the life force of humans even farther away.
The Nine-Tails and Isobu were aggregates of chakra to begin with, unique beings whose physical forms were determined by their consciousness and the amount of chakra they possessed.
In less than ten minutes, both Tailed Beasts had visibly swollen by an entire size!
Isobu had grown absurdly enormous.
Kurama had not only become larger, but his appearance had undergone subtle changes as well.
A large patch of fluffy fur had grown across the fox's chest, and even his face seemed somewhat more dignified.
If one had to describe it, it gave the impression of the Six-Tails evolving into the Nine-Tails...
Naruto and Rin could feel the changes occurring in the Three-Tails and the Nine-Tails, and they also knew that the two had already "eaten" a considerable amount of the God Tree's chakra.
The sheer volume of chakra involved made Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, and the others watching from afar marvel at the God Tree's power.
At the same time, Madara and Tobirama couldn't help wondering what sort of creature, or perhaps non-creature, Hashirama Senju actually was if Kaguya had described him as a human-shaped, self-propelled miniature God Tree.
Adult Kakashi murmured, "I used to think the Nine-Tails was already the most ferocious thing within the limits of my understanding..."
Because Minato-sensei and Kushina had both died during the Nine-Tails Incident, Kakashi had spent a long period trapped in an endless cycle of nightmares involving Obito's death, Rin's death, and that terrible night of the Nine-Tails Incident.
Young Obito pointed toward Madara Uchiha.
"Isn't that rotten old man more vicious than the Nine-Tails?"
"You little brat, itching for another beating?"
Madara Uchiha lifted a leg and lightly kicked Young Obito in the butt.
Hmph! What an insolent brat with no respect for his elders!
Sasuke Uchiha snorted. "He's not even as strong as the First Hokage or Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. He might not even be as strong as Indra or my future self."
Indra raised an eyebrow, clearly pleased with Sasuke's assessment.
Madara Uchiha nearly exploded with rage.
He seriously wanted to tear Sasuke's mouth off!
Of all things, he hated hearing people say he was inferior to Hashirama the most!
These two brats were seriously asking for a lesson!
Izuna quickly stepped in to calm his older brother down. Irritating as they were, those brats genuinely had remarkable talent. Killing them now would be a waste.
Ignoring the commotion, Young Kakashi spoke to his future self.
"I'm afraid even ten Nine-Tails wouldn't match the God Tree."
He stared at the seemingly living God Tree in the distance.
Wave after wave of tremors rolled through the surroundings, giving the impression that natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, and storms were about to strike at any moment.
Dark clouds covered the sky.
"Even the weather itself is being altered by this power..."
Compared with those watching from afar, Adult Obito, who remained inside Kamui's Dimension near the God Tree and kept a constant eye on Rin and Naruto, was even more tense.
He could tell that even Tailed Beasts had a limit to how much chakra they could withstand.
Naruto could feel that the Nine-Tails was clearly beginning to struggle with absorbing more chakra.
"In that other parallel world, when I fought Sasuke, didn't you gather a huge amount of natural energy for me, dattebayo? There can't be even more chakra here than that, can there?"
["Idiot. Natural chakra doesn't possess an individual will, but the God Tree has an incredibly powerful consciousness of its own! This isn't as simple as you think, moron!"]
Ever since reconciling with the Nine-Tails, Naruto had become much more sensitive to Kurama's emotions and thoughts, and perhaps a little smarter as well.
He immediately understood what the Nine-Tails meant.
"So it's like if we hadn't reconciled and I wanted to borrow a huge amount of chakra from you, we'd have to play tug-of-war. And what I'd be pulling over wouldn't just be chakra, but also your hatred toward humans. Is that what you mean, dattebayo?"
["Hmph. Exactly. But compared with my little bit of hatred, you humans cannot even begin to comprehend the God Tree's 'urge to invade.'"]
As the Nine-Tails spoke, he glanced toward Rin Nohara, or more precisely, toward the Three-Tails.
Suddenly, Kurama swung one of his tails and knocked the Three-Tails' chakra away from Rin.
["Obito brat! Get the Three-Tails and that little girl into Kamui's Dimension!"]
Adult Obito immediately obeyed!
After pulling Rin back into Kamui's Dimension, he learned from her that the Three-Tails had nearly had its will taken over by the God Tree moments earlier.
"We've already absorbed a huge amount of chakra, haven't we? Shouldn't Naruto stop soon too?"
Rin looked worriedly at the Nine-Tails outside Kamui's Dimension, who was still desperately devouring chakra, then turned toward Obito and the Three-Tails.
The Three-Tails shook his head.
["Not even close."]
The God Tree's chakra reserves were enormous, especially for a God Tree that was close to producing a Chakra Fruit.
There was no chance two Tailed Beasts could absorb enough of it in such a short time.
["As expected of Kurama. He's still quite a ways from reaching his limit."]
Adult Obito tried to lighten the mood with a joke.
"You Tailed Beasts really do depend heavily on chakra. Kurama's fur looks like someone polished it with wax."
Rin covered her mouth and giggled.
"It looks like one of Kakashi's ninken right after a special grooming treatment."
The Three-Tails had grown several times larger after absorbing so much chakra, and his deep laughter boomed loudly through the space.
["Just don't let that guy hear you say that."]
["His..."]
The Three-Tails held his claws an almost impossibly tiny distance apart.
["...heart is about this big."]
So Tailed Beasts made fun of each other too...
Just as the Nine-Tails was nearing his limit, the loose strands of hair hanging over Hashirama Senju's forehead, those two cockroach-like antennae, suddenly twitched upright.
A feeling struck him.
A dangerous warning.
He turned to his younger brother.
"Did you sense anything, Tobirama?"
"No. What is it, big brother?"
Aside from the waves of chakra released by the God Tree as it fought against the Nine-Tails, which made everyone feel as though an earthquake, flood, volcanic eruption, or some other natural disaster might strike at any moment, neither Tobirama nor Madara and the others had sensed anything unusual.
"No."
Hashirama trusted his intuition completely.
"Something is definitely wrong!"
Standing by the window of the wooden house, he called to Minato Namikaze.
"Get Naruto back here, now!!"