Chapter 407: Beheading Naruto—How Will You Respond, Honored Sage?
"I can't do anything either."
Kurama spoke helplessly.
What made a perfect jinchūriki truly "perfect" was having full control. But now that Naruto's body was immobilized in the real world, Kurama was equally unable to move, forced to watch the sealing chain wrap around his neck.
"Ah…"
Naruto was at a complete loss, clutching his head and trying to think, but nothing came to mind.
However, time waits for no one.
Rip!
Outside, with a simple thought, Li Yao's Obito clone yanked the sealing chain, and Kurama's chakra was forcibly extracted from Naruto's body.
"Farewell, brat."
In that final moment, Kurama no longer held any resentment toward Naruto. The brief time they had spent united had been enough to connect their hearts.
In truth, both had been victims of pain. Naruto was innocent. So was Kurama. It wasn't their fault—this world was to blame.
"Kurama!!"
"Ku…"
Naruto called out Kurama's name, but as the Nine-Tails' chakra was pulled away, part of his soul was dragged along. He couldn't maintain it. His spirit body dissolved, and the mental world collapsed.
As Naruto's consciousness returned to his physical body for just an instant, darkness swallowed him. He could only watch helplessly as Kurama was dragged into the mouth of the Demonic Statue, sealed away.
Whoosh!
In midair, Li Yao's Obito clone zipped past Kurama and headed directly toward Naruto.
A flicker of curiosity passed through Kurama's eyes.
Why was the masked man going to Naruto now?
Didn't he know that once a tailed beast was extracted from its host, the jinchūriki would die?
Kurama didn't understand—and he wouldn't get to see what happened next.
By the time Li Yao's Obito clone reached Naruto's side, Kurama had already been sealed inside the Demonic Statue.
"No!"
"Naruto!!!"
In the interspatial layer, Tsunade cried out in anguish. Li Yao remained unmoved.
Jiraiya watched from afar. He wanted to act, but his body wouldn't move—and he was fading away.
At this point, Jiraiya's purpose had ended. Li Yao allowed him to disperse.
Completely. His soul was truly gone.
Li Yao wasn't about to let Jiraiya's soul drift into the Pure Land.
The same went for Naruto's.
Li Yao's Obito clone, now standing beside Naruto's corpse, raised his hand and activated the Rinnegan's power to extract and obliterate Naruto's soul.
"Huh?"
"It's gone?"
The Obito clone furrowed his brows. He focused his senses again—yes, Naruto's soul had vanished in an instant.
"Sage of Six Paths!!"
In the interspatial layer, Li Yao's face turned grim with unprecedented seriousness.
He had seen how souls were drawn into the Pure Land before.
Typically, the soul would ascend skyward before being absorbed and disappearing.
But Naruto's soul had vanished instantly, inside his own body—Li Yao had never seen that.
Clearly, the Sage of Six Paths had intervened directly.
Who else in the ninja world could make Naruto's soul disappear before Li Yao's eyes? No one—only the Sage of Six Paths.
"So… Asura's soul is special to the Sage."
Li Yao's eyes narrowed. The Sage hadn't acted when Kurama was extracted and Naruto's body died—but the moment Li Yao tried to destroy Naruto's soul, he stepped in.
Clearly, the reincarnation of his son Asura mattered far more than Naruto's physical death.
Now that the Sage had taken Naruto's soul into the Pure Land, would he—like in the original story—grant Naruto the power of Six Paths Yang and send him back as the savior?
Li Yao pondered this, then looked at the Obito clone.
The clone understood and grinned. With a casual flick of the hand, he summoned a wind blade that slashed clean through Naruto's neck.
In an instant.
Naruto was beheaded. Blood sprayed like a fountain from the severed neck.
In the interspatial layer, Li Yao smiled faintly.
"I've beheaded Naruto. What will you do now, Honored Sage?"
He didn't believe for a second that Naruto could return after that. Even if his soul came back—what could it do without a head?
Grow a new one…? Wait.
Li Yao's eyes flickered. He suddenly remembered something from the original work—Might Guy had opened all Eight Gates and unleashed Night Guy, reducing his body to ashes, yet Naruto had brought him back using the power of Six Paths Yang.
This implied that Yang Release at the Six Paths level could defy all common understanding of life and death.
A simple beheading might not be enough to prevent Six Paths Naruto from returning.
With that thought, Li Yao acted. He teleported outside and released a black-hole space orb over Naruto's corpse.
BOOM!
In a flash, the space orb expanded, swallowing everything of Naruto's physical body—blood, tissue, and remnants. It all vanished into a spatial node, converted into pure energy, completely erasing all physical traces of Naruto from existence.
"If even now Naruto can be revived…"
"Then I'll truly have to reevaluate just how valuable Six Paths Yang Power really is."
Li Yao thought to himself.
Whoosh!
Meanwhile, the Obito clone returned to the top of the Demonic Statue. Forming hand seals, he activated the seal binding the nine tailed beasts, merging their chakra.
ROAR!
The Demonic Statue let out a deafening howl. Its body transformed dramatically. Ten tails sprouted from its back, its head mutated, and the nine eyes vanished, replaced by a single enormous eye.
Violent chakra rippled outward. The monstrous form loomed like a mountain that pierced the sky. People dozens of kilometers away from Konoha could see the upheaval.
"Seal it!"
Atop the Ten-Tails' head, the Obito clone clasped his hands together and activated the Ten-Tails sealing technique. His body began to behave like a black hole, absorbing the beast into himself.
"Ugh… the pressure is enormous!"
Suddenly, his face changed. As the Ten-Tails' body entered his own, a crushing force bore down on his will—far more intense than he had anticipated.
Because he was already housing a fragment of Li Yao's soul, the Obito clone was at its limit in terms of spiritual capacity.
Now, with the Ten-Tails sealed inside, part of its immense soul began to merge with the clone's.
Even though it was only a partial merge, the Ten-Tails' spiritual magnitude was far beyond that of any human.
Li Yao's will instantly felt like it was being crushed by a mountain.
Moreover, the negative emotions within the Ten-Tails' chakra began eroding the clone's soul, trying to push Li Yao's consciousness out and take over—fully seizing Obito's soul to be reborn.
With both soul and will being assaulted, the Obito clone could no longer control the Ten-Tails' power.
"This is bad!"
His body began to swell. The Ten-Tails' chakra leaked out uncontrollably, and its shell reformed around the clone, threatening to consume him.
"I can't hold it…!"
Cracks spread through the Obito clone's soul. The immense spiritual pressure of the Ten-Tails bore down like a mountain. His soul began to shatter.
"No choice—I have to abandon the other clones."
In the interspatial layer, the pressure made Li Yao feel dizzy. He realized he had to sacrifice the other clones to preserve the Obito one.
With that, he acted. His mind made the decision and clung tightly to the Obito clone.
In that instant—
Far away, in another Naruto world, four of Li Yao's elemental clones reacted.
The Fire Release clone, Uchiha Fugaku, was mid-battle on a distant battlefield. Suddenly, his face changed. He used the Flying Thunder God Technique to vanish, reappearing a hundred meters above the ruins of Rōran in the Wind Country.
The other clones followed, also teleporting to the same location.
(END CHAPTER)
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Kira1997