----
The four Tailed Beasts were bound by golden chains, their necks and tails restrained. Their massive forms were also pinned to the ground by the chakra-formed hands of the Nine-Tails, rendering them completely immobile.
Naruto and Kushina didn't forget Mito Uzumaki's advice. They carefully located the black rods embedded in the Tailed Beasts and wrapped their chains around them, yanking them out with all their strength.
The Tailed Beasts let out pained roars, and then, all at once, they extended a joint invitation to Naruto and Kushina into a shared mental space.
---
Inside the familiar white void, Matatabi (Two-Tails), Son Gokū (Four-Tails), Kokuō (Five-Tails), and Gyūki (Eight-Tails) stood quietly, along with their respective Jinchūriki, waiting for them.
"It's been a while, Fourth Hokage's wife and son... or should I say, Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki," Matatabi greeted them. Of the four, she was the only one who had previously met Naruto and Kushina.
Naruto waved at them, smiling. "Hey there! Uh, sorry for being a little rough earlier."
Kurama, however, snorted and jabbed Naruto's head with a massive claw. "What are you apologizing for? These guys let themselves get caught and controlled they deserved a beating."
"Oi, you're still the same as ever, huh?" Gyūki chuckled, shaking his head. Among the Tailed Beasts, he was the most mature, speaking like an older brother.
Son Gokū rumbled in his deep, gravelly voice, "So you've finally found a human worth trusting? These two? They don't seem all that special."
Then, with a resigned sigh, the Four-Tails muttered, "Fine… I'll trust your judgment for now. As long as they don't end up as stubborn as Rōshi."
Kurama tilted his head back arrogantly, his tails swishing. "Hmph! My judgment is never wrong."
---
"Alright, we don't have much time left," Kokuō said in a calm, composed voice. "Would you two mind stepping forward? There's something we'd like to entrust to you."
"Something?" Kushina frowned slightly in confusion.
Naruto, sensing it was important, gently pulled her along, raising his fist.
Matatabi pressed her paw against their fists. "The Sage of Six Paths created us, hoping that we could one day coexist peacefully with humans, not be used as weapons of destruction. Please… stop us. We're counting on you."
One by one, the other Tailed Beasts joined in, stacking their fists, paws, and hooves.
"We're counting on you." (Son Gokū)
"We're counting on you." (Kokuō)
"We're counting on you." (Gyūki)
Kushina gasped slightly, looking down at her hands. "This is… chakra?"
Matatabi nodded. "It's not much, but we're entrusting you with a piece of our chakra. You'll need it in the future. As for the others… you should be able to contact them when the time comes.**"
As the chakra transfer was completed, Yugito Nii finally spoke. "We may have been enemies once, but right now, all we can do is trust you."
Rōshi folded his arms, sighing. "Never thought I'd see the day where I'd have to rely on shinobi from another village. Has that stubborn old fool Ōnoki actually learned to adapt?"
Han, ever the peacekeeper, chuckled. "Don't be so harsh. The Five Great Nations fighting side by side doesn't that sound like a good thing? Besides, when it comes to being stubborn, you weren't much better yourself when you were alive."
Blue B let out a small laugh. "I guess I'm technically your senior, huh? Sorry for the trouble."
He had, after all, been betrayed and killed by Orochimaru, only to be resurrected and used as a pawn again.
"Fate sure is a twisted thing," he murmured.
...
Meanwhile, in the Real World—
"I can't afford to lose the Tailed Beasts!"
Seeing that all four of them had been sealed, Obito clenched his fingers into a hand seal, his Rinnegan glowing ominously.
"Summoning Jutsu, Gedo Statue!"
ROOOOAAAAAARRRRR!!!
The ground split open, and from the cracks in the earth, a colossal, hundred-meter-tall humanoid monstrosity emerged.
Its skeletal body loomed over the battlefield, its gaping mouth twisted in an eternal scream.
"So this is the Gedo Statue…" Minato narrowed his eyes. "The husk of the Ten-Tails."
Given that they had just witnessed a battle between Tailed Beasts, the arrival of this monstrosity wasn't as shocking as it might have been otherwise.
Elsewhere, in a hidden laboratory, Orochimaru momentarily paused dissecting White Zetsu's arm, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
"Finally… it appears."
For this exact moment, Orochimaru had made sure to subtly interfere.
He had released the seal restraining Mito Uzumaki's consciousness, allowing her to briefly resist Obito's control, forcing Obito to reveal his trump card earlier than planned.
And now that it was here…
A tiny snake slithered unseen through the battlefield, approaching the massive Gedo Statue's foot.
Then, with a bite—
CRACK!
Its fangs snapped instantly.
The small snake whimpered pitifully before burrowing underground to report back.
"Of course it's indestructible," Orochimaru chuckled. He wasn't surprised.
He simply formed a hand seal.
Moments later, not far from the battlefield, a coffin emerged from the ground.
From it, an Iwagakure shinobi one of Orochimaru's Edo Tensei pawns stepped forward.
Without a word, the reanimated shinobi used Earth Release to burrow deep beneath the battlefield, beneath the Gedo Statue's feet.
Scrape, scrape, scrape.
With careful precision, the Iwa ninja shaved off microscopic fragments from the Gedo Statue's foot.
This wasn't done with ordinary tools but with one of Orochimaru's personally crafted Kusanagi Blades one of the few weapons capable of cutting even a sliver from this legendary entity.
He sealed the gathered dust into a small vial.
Then, the same tiny snake from before slithered back, opening its mouth.
The Iwa ninja carefully placed the vial inside.
The snake disappeared into the shadows, its mission complete.
Oblivious to Orochimaru's "Gedo Statue pedicure," Obito focused on retrieving the Tailed Beasts.
From the Gedo Statue's mouth, six massive, glowing purple chains shot out.
The ensnared Tailed Beasts, along with the already sealed Bunpuku and Mito Uzumaki, were dragged back into the monstrous entity.
As the four Tailed Beasts disappeared, Naruto and Kushina's mental link was severed.
Kushina clenched her fists. "They're gone…"
Then, her gaze steeled.
"It's up to us now. We'll bring them back!"
Just as Obito prepared for another grand monologue, Black Zetsu suddenly emerged beside him.
"Obito, we have a problem."
Obito frowned. "What is it?"
"Orochimaru has… vanished. And with him… so has Madara's corpse."
Obito's eye twitched.
And then twitched again.
The world truly didn't deserve to exist.
Black Zetsu added grimly, "Oh, and—all the Edo Tensei shinobi are free now. They've started massacring White Zetsu clones. The Uchiha in particular are—"
BOOM.
A massive blue Susanoo blade wiped out an entire wave of White Zetsu.
Obito sighed. "Damn you, Orochimaru."
----