Back at the battlefield, Jiraiya was defeated. Arthur stepped forward with cold eyes as he approached the fallen Sannin.
His gaze was fixed on the massive scroll strapped to Jiraiya's back. That scroll was a rare one, and Arthur knew its significance—it held the key to forming a contract with the toads of Mt. Myōboku.
Reaching out, he grabbed the scroll and pocketed it in another, smaller scroll.
The elder toads, Fukasaku and Shima, had fought fiercely. They'd tried to protect Jiraiya, but in the end, they had fallen like he had. Their bodies lay motionless, unmoving, no smoke or flash of vanishings—just dead bodies.
Arthur observed them carefully; he was surprised they hadn't poofed away, as was typical after severe damage to a summoned creature.
Maybe they believed they could hold their chakra in check. Or maybe they thought they could still help Jiraiya. Regardless, this would pose an advantage to Arthur in the long run.
Their idea of staying here and not departing to warn the Leaf Village like they had when Nagato fought Jiraiya was a foolish mistake.
"Pathetic," Arthur said with disdain.
He then turned away from the elder toads and the fallen Sannin. He didn't bother dissecting them; they had no use anymore. Instead, he signaled his clones.
Quickly, they began tending Jiraiya's wounds with all manner of healing techniques to prepare him for what was to come. Arthur himself took a chakra pill from his pouch and swallowed it to restore himself.
'Flying raijin…'
When he reappeared, he was in the valley where Naruto and Sasuke were fighting. Naruto was in his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. He looked confident, almost unstoppable.
Sasuke, by contrast, had reverted to his initial curse mark form and was seen kneeling on one knee. His breathing was heavy, and he looked drained—his chakra was low, and the curse mark's power seemed to be fading.
The Uchiha looked down for the count.
How could anyone be surprised by these results? This was Naruto Uzumaki, a well-trained shinobi who had friends with foreknowledge, a die-hard fan of a cousin, and his parents returned to him.
Compared to Sasuke, who only had Orochimaru to back him up, the former was simply on a different plane.
"It's over!" Naruto shouted across the battlefield.
Sasuke growled and glared at Naruto with frustration. Despite his time with Orochimaru, he still couldn't catch up to his rival for the second time. Naruto's strength had grown beyond his reach, hurting Sasuke's pride.
Yet the Uchiha still refused to back down.
Suddenly, both sensed an unfamiliar presence. They turned to see a man standing at the top of the tallest hill. He was calm and composed as his white coat fluttered in the breeze, and an aura of quiet power surrounded him.
Naruto's eyes widened. The coat was familiar—he'd seen it before, during when he was ambushed. To him, he believed Arthur was working with Orochimaru.
"Just try and take Sasuke back," he said, stepping forward with fists clenched. "I won't give you—" Before he could finish, Arthur had vanished, only to be seen slowly drifting, almost lazily, right in front of Naruto.
"Shouldn't you be worried about Jiraiya...?"
The boy hesitated for a moment, allowing Arthur to deliver a deafening punch that hit Naruto in the chest.
Bang!
The force was so strong that the boy was sent flying backwards before skidding across the ground.
Naruto stumbled but managed to stay upright, stunned by the attack. Sasuke watched in bewilderment. What he had failed to do during their fight, Arthur managed to pull off in mere seconds.
Naruto's chakra flared, but he was still reeling from the blow. Arthur therefore turned his gaze to Sasuke. His Tamashii lingered on the Uchiha, yet Sasuke couldn't determine who he was.
"You've been with a Sannin," Arthur slowly said, "and yet you're still struggling with this boy?" His tone was measured, as if he knew everything about their situation without needing details. "How… pathetic…"
Sasuke furrowed his brows. "Who are you?"
Arthur casually removed his hood, revealing his glowing red eyes, transformed white hair, and piercing features. It was Kaito, whom Sasuke remembered all too well. "It's been awhile, boy..."
"I heard you were dead, so what are you doing here?"
"Don't be so quick to believe everything you here... I'm with the Akatsuki now..."
Sasuke had heard of that organization plenty of times before because his older brother was in it. But when and how did Kaito join them without anyone knowing?
Naruto, having recovered, finally saw Arthur as Kaito. How was he alive? Regardless, the situation had escalated even further.
Upon feeling Naruto's chakra double in strength, Arthur turned to study him. Clearly the boy hadn't been trying his hardest earlier since his chakra was surging greater than before.
Arthur found the display amusing. "Are you angry?"
"Shut up!" the boy shot back with a sharp tone. "I'm gonna deal with you first and bring Sasuke back!" Then it came. "Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" Clones appeared all around him by the hundreds with the same fighting spirit. Arthur ran toward them as they shouted, "Shadow clone: super explosion!"
All the Narutos exploded in unison, creating eruptions all around and filling the air with smoke and flashes of fire.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.
Even the ground trembled as a barrage of mini blasts rippled outward—a grand spectacle of the boy's power that lit up the landscape in a fiery display.
From outside the blast radius, Sasuke watched in awe. The power Naruto displayed was incredible. It was then the Uchiha understood that Naruto hadn't been trying with him earlier. This revelation only further upset Sasuke.
As the explosion still raged across the land, the real Naruto felt a foreign pulse inside of him—something that pulled him deep into his subconscious.
There, Arthur found himself standing in a dark corridor. The floor was slick with water while everything else was silent. Naruto's mind was the same as when he last visited.
He first checked himself and verified that he was still transformed as Kaito. Then his footsteps echoed loudly as he moved forward.
Already he could feel the enormous and wild chakra of the Nine-Tails. It was much stronger than the Six-Tails, which reminded Arthur how just that one Tailed Beast could take on the other eight by himself.
At the end of the corridor, he made it to the main room where Naruto was standing right in front of the cage in a manner as if expecting Arthur to come.
"I don't know how you got here," Naruto said aloud, "but there's only one way out."
"And where would that be...?"
Naruto hesitated; he didn't have an answer. How could he when he didn't even understand how Arthur entered? This made the Nine-Tails let out a deep, rumbling laugh.
"Whose side are you on anyway?!" Naruto asked, trying to sound confident. "This guy's the enemy!"
"What can I say?" the beast roared with amusement. "You're so eager to fight, but you don't even understand what's really happening in this battle."
As Naruto argued with the beast inside his head, Arthur silently watched. His eyes lingered on the Eight Trigrams Seal over the cage. There was an extra layer on it that wasn't there by accident.
It took him less than a fraction of a second to understand: the additional seals were designed to trap the Flying raijin marks Naruto carried. And from their design, they looked like marks placed there by Jada and Minato.
If those marks didn't have a seal on top of them, Naruto could be tracked or transported against his will. That explained why no one had come rushing to help him—the extra seals were deliberately placed to keep him isolated.
'I see…' Arthur deduced.
How could he not be content with this discovery? The boy was doing his work for him.
That gave Arthur more options now. He could attempt to kill Naruto here, but that was risky. It might alert others too soon. Or he could hold the boy hostage, like he'd planned with Jiraiya. Though if he did that, it might complicate his main goals.
No, he had to think carefully. Especially considering his plan B was still in place.
"Your name's Kaito, am I right?" the beast asked.
It was understandable that the Nine-Tails, of all the Tailed Beasts, took tremendous interest in Arthur, almost as if magnetically drawn to him.
"Hmph…" Arthur scoffed. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
At those words, Naruto found himself back in the world. He didn't know how or why Arthur had entered his mind, but he knew one thing: his explosive technique had somehow been thwarted.
His gaze shifted to Arthur, who was caught brushing away the dust and debris on his shoulder. Naruto's chakra flared to unprecedented levels, making Sasuke cover his face.
Calmly, Arthur performed the tiger hand sign, and in an instant, Naruto's body jerked and his surging chakra ceased.
"Huh?" Sasuke wondered in alarm.
Naruto's Nine-Tails Chakra Mode disappeared in a flash, and he reverted back to his usual form. Then he felt pain as black, jagged lines spread rapidly across his skin. It caused him to cry out, and he clutched his belly while the lines crawled over him like cracks in glass.
Sasuke recognized them instantly. "The curse mark?!"
How had Naruto gotten it?
When Naruto fought Arthur as John, Arthur had defeated him and left him barely able. Instead of killing the boy, he had secretly planted a curse mark inside the Eight Trigrams Seal.
And when did Arthur know how to do that? Simple: when he extracted every bit of information on it from the Sound ninjas under him.
And this wasn't just any curse mark; it was Kimimaro's earth curse mark that was turned into a trap for Arthur to activate and drain the boy's chakra.
Because Arthur always stayed prepared, there was no one in this world that rivaled him; he simply always ahead of the game. Yet there was something he hadn't seen while watching the boy's body twist in pain.
"Oh…"
Naruto's screams echoed as the black lines spread further, covering more of his body. Then, suddenly, nine chains burst from his back. They were thick, dark, and glowing faintly as they spiraled upward with him writhing.
Sasuke's eyes widened even more. He had never seen anything like this before.
If Arthur were to guess, him finally activating the curse mark had triggered Naruto's dorman chains to awaken.
The chains curled, stretched, and wrapped around Naruto's torso and limbs. It was almost as if they were waiting for his orders, yet he couldn't concentrate nor focus his chakra to command them since his body was trembling under the pressure.
For a moment, he looked like he might not pass out. Yet his body collapsed to the ground as the chains still coiled around him. Blood soon dripped from his lips, and his chest heaved as he fought desperately for breath.
Arthur watched calmly, almost pleased. But once the boy could no longer take the pain, he finally fell unconscious, and the chains evaporated into the air.