Chapter 201: Beating Obito Is Purely Building Merit
"You'd better pray this guy opens the space soon. In your current state, you can't hold on for much longer. When the time's up, none of us will be able to get out."
After leaving those words behind, the Yin Nine-Tails obediently entered Minato's soul.
Don't ask why a soul still has an "inside." Back when the Reaper Death Seal was used, they were pulled in together like this.
What the Nine-Tails said wasn't an exaggeration.
It wasn't the Sage of Six Paths. Being able to temporarily maintain Minato's human form was already its limit.
Once that time ran out, Minato would turn into an invisible, intangible soul body, and his consciousness would no longer remain clear.
In that state, there would definitely be no way to use Flying Thunder God. At that point, they would all be lambs waiting for slaughter.
The Nine-Tails didn't want to be controlled again.
Minato was a bit naturally airheaded in personality, but when it came to serious matters, he was extremely focused.
Taking the Nine-Tails' words to heart, Namikaze Minato immediately concentrated on sensing changes within the Kamui space. The moment there was any movement, he would act at once.
Inside Minato, the Nine-Tails half-lay on the ground and slightly opened its eyes.
For soul bodies, this kind of intense focus actually drained energy faster and instead shortened the maintenance time.
But the Nine-Tails didn't bring it up.
They were in a dangerous situation now. It couldn't exactly tell Namikaze Minato to take a nap to extend the time limit.
"Hm?"
Minato suddenly sensed a spatial fluctuation, as well as the Flying Thunder God mark he had left behind.
At the same time, outside.
The masked man, having just finished eating curry rice, was about to use his convenient space-time ninjutsu to travel away.
The masked man had learned his lesson. After the previous two sneak attacks by Kakashi, he no longer ate curry inside the Kamui space.
Now he always goes out to eat at restaurants.
If he was dining in, Kakashi couldn't suddenly pop out of nowhere and blast him with something big, right?
Everyone knew that when the masked man transferred himself, he had to become tangible. It was precisely because of this that Konan had prepared six hundred billion explosive tags.
So, at the very instant the masked man began transferring.
A golden figure suddenly appeared behind him, forming a spinning ball of chakra in his hand.
"Rasengan."
Buzz.
"Uwa…!"
The masked man was ground into the ground by the Rasengan.
His whole mind went blank.
Damn it, where did that Rasengan come from?
And did he just hallucinate a voice?
As the Rasengan on his body gradually dispersed, the masked man hurriedly pulled away and looked behind him.
"Huh?"
There was no one there.
He even carefully sensed the area, but there wasn't even the lingering aura left behind after someone appeared.
What the hell, was this haunting in broad daylight?
The masked man touched the wound on his back, which was still bleeding and leaking white bodily fluid.
If the wound weren't still flowing, he would've thought he'd been caught in some genjutsu or gone insane.
He cautiously guarded the area for a long time, afraid that someone, like the owner of that voice he thought he heard earlier, might suddenly appear and attack again.
In the end, despite being seriously injured, he waited and waited, and no one showed up.
It felt awful.
He had taken a beating for no reason, and didn't even know who hit him.
The masked man activated his space-time ninjutsu and transferred away to treat his injuries.
So what exactly had happened?
The reason was actually very simple.
The moment Minato sensed the Flying Thunder God mark, he immediately activated Flying Thunder God and came out of the Kamui space.
Knowing clearly that the one outside was the Uchiha Madara who had attacked Konoha back then, Minato used his final remaining strength and slammed a Rasengan into him.
Then he used Flying Thunder God to send the Nine-Tails inside him back to the Flying Thunder God marker on top of the Hokage Rock in Konoha.
Right after that, having lost the Nine-Tails' power that was maintaining his human form, Namikaze Minato naturally ascended instantly and returned to the Pure Land.
The Yin Nine-Tails and Minato hadn't discussed anything in advance, but things still unfolded this way.
Minato chose to trust that the Yin Nine-Tails wouldn't destroy Konoha, and the Yin Nine-Tails also understood Minato's intentions. Sending it back to Konoha was, in essence, also a form of protection.
If he hadn't sent it back and left it where it was, it would've been captured by the masked man immediately.
Konoha.
The Nine-Tails appeared above the Hokage Rock, and the commotion was naturally huge.
Especially since the Hokage Rock was visible to the entire village, having the Nine-Tails show up there was far too eye-catching, instantly causing panic throughout Konoha.
But very quickly, the Nine-Tails vanished.
It disappeared so fast that many people thought someone must have used some kind of massive Transformation Technique as a prank.
In reality, the Nine-Tails had been transferred outside the village by the Second Hokage, who had been waiting on the Hokage Rock with Flying Thunder God.
As the creator of Flying Thunder God and a former Hokage, Senju Tobirama could easily guess what the Fourth Hokage might do.
If the Fourth could act, he would definitely send the Nine-Tails back to the village and wouldn't let it fall into enemy hands.
So Tobirama had left shadow clones at locations he thought might be used for teleportation.
The Hokage Rock was one of them, it was relatively open, and even if the Nine-Tails went on a rampage, it could be discovered immediately and the damage minimized.
There were several other spots as well, all with shadow clones stationed.
Now the Nine-Tails had indeed appeared, and without any sign of rampaging, which made Tobirama silently raise his evaluation of the Fourth Hokage.
After transferring the Nine-Tails away, Tobirama tried to communicate with it.
At the same time, he had his shadow clone notify the others to rush over.
The Nine-Tails didn't give Tobirama any attitude either. After all, this wasn't the one who once grabbed its neck and said its power was too strong, the naturally evil Senju Hashirama.
"The Fourth kid did pretty well."
After learning from the Nine-Tails what had happened, including how Minato had given the masked man a Rasengan before leaving, Tobirama was very satisfied.
"That one called Uchiha Obito is the most evil type even among the Uchiha clan, basically a human wooden fish. Beating him is pure merit farming. The monks of the Fire Temple should all go beat him up."
"..."
When Kushina arrived, she happened to hear that line and forced out an awkward smile.
"Stop smiling. The Nine-Tails will temporarily stay inside you."
"Huh? Not give it to Naruto?"
Kushina was stunned.
'You called me over for this?'
"Look at the attitude of this half of the Nine-Tails, and then think about the attitude of the Nine-Tails inside Naruto right now."
Tobirama didn't spell it out completely.
What he meant was, if I explain everything clearly for you every time, how are you ever supposed to grow?
"Oh… alright."
Kushina could only agree helplessly.
Indeed, one Nine-Tails had reconciled, and the other hadn't.
If the two were merged back into one, what would happen?
Would it get a split personality?
Better to keep it with her for now, and return it once Naruto had grown stronger.
Huh?
The way that sounded, why did the Nine-Tails suddenly feel like New Year's gift money being held by parents for safekeeping?
(End of this chapter)