The gray bone spurs protruding from Kaguya's palms gleamed with an otherworldly malevolence, their surfaces reflecting the pale light of the ice dimension with an almost hypnotic quality. Each spike was perfectly formed, honed to a razor's edge that seemed to cut through the very air around it.
Swish! Swish!
Without warning, Kaguya opened a spatial rift directly in front of her transformed hands. The bone projectiles shot through the dimensional tear with velocity that defied normal physics, disappearing into the void between worlds with deadly purpose.
Almost instantaneously, a corresponding dark passage materialized behind Minato's position. The attack that had vanished into one portal emerged from another, traveling the impossible distance between dimensions in the blink of an eye.
But something remarkable happened in that critical moment—Kaguya's assault suddenly came to an abrupt halt.
Though Minato hadn't turned around, hadn't seen the spatial rift opening behind him, some indefinable sense warned him of the approaching danger. His body moved with the fluid precision of someone who had spent decades perfecting the art of combat survival, shifting left and right in a serpentine pattern that spoke of pure instinct.
The two bone spurs whistled past his shoulders, missing him by mere millimeters. The projectiles were moving so fast that they created visible disturbances in the air, their passage marked by trails of displaced atmosphere that spoke to their incredible velocity.
"Everyone, get clear!" Minato called out, his voice cutting through the frigid air as he prepared to distance himself from his companions.
His tactical mind was already working through the implications of Kaguya's new technique. Without understanding the full effects of her bone manipulation abilities, involving Naruto and Sasuke in close-quarters combat would be an unacceptable risk. Whatever power those gray spurs possessed, they represented a level of threat that required extreme caution.
"You should worry about yourself first," Black Zetsu's voice carried sinister amusement, its tone suggesting that their opponent had anticipated this exact response.
From the spatial passage behind Minato that had not yet fully closed, additional bone spurs suddenly erupted. But this wasn't a random follow-up attack—it was a carefully orchestrated sequence designed to exploit the psychology of combat.
The parasitic entity had been observing Minato's reaction patterns throughout their battle, analyzing his defensive instincts and movement preferences. The first two bone spurs had been feints, designed to establish a pattern and make him believe he understood the rhythm of the attack.
This third projectile was the killing blow, aimed directly at his heart with surgical precision.
Minato dodged again, his body moving with the same fluid grace that had made him legendary. But Kaguya had positioned her attack with devastating tactical awareness. The bone spur's trajectory wasn't just aimed at where he was—it was aimed at where he would have to be to avoid endangering his allies.
The gray projectile streaked through the space where Minato's body overlapped with Sasuke's position. If the Fourth Hokage dodged completely, the deadly spike would strike the young Uchiha instead. If he took the hit himself, Sasuke would be safe but he would face whatever lethal effect the bone possessed.
At the speed the attack was traveling, there wasn't time to activate the Flying Thunder God technique. The spatial manipulation required precise chakra control and a brief moment of focus—luxuries that didn't exist in the microseconds available.
Minato made his choice with the selfless instinct that had defined his entire career as a shinobi.
The gray bone spur struck his left shoulder with a sound like breaking glass. But instead of piercing flesh and bone as expected, something far more horrific occurred. The point of contact began to dissolve immediately, his shoulder crumbling away like autumn leaves touched by flame.
"What!?" Minato's pupils contracted as he watched his own body begin to disintegrate.
The decay spread outward from the impact point with terrifying speed. His shoulder dissolved into ash, the destruction racing along his arm and toward his torso with inexorable hunger. Within seconds, his entire form was crumbling away, turning to gray dust that scattered in the frigid wind.
"If you are touched by the All-Killing Ash Bones, death is inevitable," Black Zetsu declared, its voice filled with malicious satisfaction.
The technique was beyond anything that existed in the normal shinobi world—a Kekkei Mora that transcended even the most advanced bloodline abilities. The All-Killing Ash Bones represented the ultimate expression of death itself, a power that only the mother of chakra could wield.
"Even if someone has mastered Yin-Yang Release, recovery from this technique is absolutely impossible," Black Zetsu continued, savoring the moment of apparent victory. "The death is complete and irreversible!"
"Dad!" Naruto's voice cracked with raw anguish as he watched his father's form completely disintegrate before his eyes.
"Fourth Hokage!" Sasuke's normally controlled demeanor shattered as the implications of what they had just witnessed sank in.
Under the horrified gazes of his companions, Minato's body dissolved entirely, leaving nothing but scattered ash that was quickly dispersed by the dimensional winds.
"Hahaha!" Black Zetsu's laughter echoed across the frozen landscape with triumphant malice. "The Fourth Hokage is dead! Now we'll deal with you two remaining brats!"
The parasitic entity's joy was genuine and overwhelming. After millennia of planning and manipulation, after countless setbacks and near-failures, the greatest tactical threat to their victory had finally been eliminated.
"AAHHH!" Naruto's scream of rage and grief tore through the air like a physical force.
His eyes blazed crimson as the Nine-Tails' power merged seamlessly with his Six Paths chakra, creating an explosion of golden energy that made the very air shimmer with heat. The combination of his emotional fury and divine power transformed him into something beyond human—a living avatar of vengeance wrapped in radiant flame.
He launched himself toward Kaguya like a golden meteor, his speed so incredible that he became little more than a streak of light cutting through the ice dimension. Even Obito, who had been moving to restrain him, found himself unable to react quickly enough to intercept the enraged jinchuriki.
Not only Obito—even Kaguya herself was caught off guard by the sudden explosion of speed and power. Her enhanced perception, capable of tracking movements that normal eyes couldn't even detect, struggled to follow Naruto's trajectory as he closed the distance between them.
Swoosh!
The two figures crossed paths in a moment that seemed to stretch beyond normal time. When they separated, something unprecedented had occurred—Black Zetsu's form, which had been seamlessly integrated with Kaguya's right arm, was suddenly severed completely from her body.
"What!?" Both Kaguya and Sasuke exclaimed simultaneously, their voices carrying identical shock.
"So fast!" Sasuke breathed, his Sharingan struggling to process what his enhanced vision had just witnessed.
Even with his evolved dojutsu, Naruto's movement had been almost too quick to follow. The combination of grief-fueled determination and Six Paths power had pushed the young shinobi beyond his normal limitations, achieving speeds that rivaled even Kaguya's supernatural abilities.
But the mother of chakra recovered from her surprise with inhuman swiftness. She spun around with fluid grace, her remaining arm gathering massive amounts of chakra as she shaped it into the familiar form of her devastating fist technique.
The attack streaked toward Naruto's back with crushing force, aimed at the moment when his incredible burst of speed would make it impossible for him to change direction or defend himself.
Swish!
Just as the chakra construct was about to impact, a familiar figure materialized beside Naruto. In the instant before Kaguya's attack could connect, both forms vanished through spatial displacement, reappearing safely beyond the range of her devastating technique.
"You're not dead?" Kaguya's voice carried genuine shock for the first time since her resurrection.
Her normally impassive features showed clear surprise as she stared at the person who had rescued Naruto from certain destruction. The figure standing protectively beside the young jinchuriki was unmistakably Minato—whole, unharmed, and very much alive.
"You're not dead?" Sasuke echoed, his voice filled with confusion and dawning understanding.
Naruto's grief-stricken expression transformed into bewilderment as he stared at his father. "Dad?"
"Don't worry," Minato replied with a slight smile, glancing meaningfully at Obito. "The one who was killed was my shadow clone."
Hearing this explanation, Sasuke's analytical mind immediately began working through the tactical implications. His gaze shifted thoughtfully to the iceberg formation they had escaped from earlier.
"So that's how it worked," he murmured with growing appreciation for the Fourth Hokage's strategic foresight. "You switched positions between your real body and the clone before the final attack."
The full scope of Minato's deception became clear as Sasuke reconstructed the sequence of events. Back in the acid sea dimension, when Minato had used thirty percent of his chakra to create a shadow clone for their sealing attempt, that clone had remained active even after Kaguya's dimensional transitions.
When Minato and Obito had escaped from the ice prison using Kamui, the Fourth Hokage had employed his signature technique once more—the Flying Thunder God Mutual Instantaneous Revolving Technique—to swap positions with his shadow clone.
"You anticipated that Black Zetsu would escalate to lethal force after we used the acid sea against them," Minato confirmed. "So I decided to turn that murderous intent into an opportunity to gather intelligence about Kaguya's capabilities."
The strategic calculation had been risky but necessary. By allowing his clone to be "killed" by the All-Killing Ash Bones, Minato had learned crucial information about one of Kaguya's most dangerous techniques while maintaining the element of surprise.
"After gaining access to Yin-Yang Release, even my shadow clones can temporarily achieve reaction speeds comparable to my original body when those powers are properly utilized," he explained.
But there was something else that surprised even the master strategist. "What I didn't expect was that Naruto would be able to achieve such incredible speed in response to my apparent death, or that he would successfully sever Black Zetsu from Kaguya's body."
Naruto's burst of speed had been genuinely astonishing, pushing the boundaries of what even Six Paths-enhanced abilities should have been capable of. Under normal circumstances, Kaguya should have been able to react to and counter such an attack, regardless of its velocity.
"It seems that using the All-Killing Ash Bones requires a considerable amount of chakra," Minato observed, his analytical mind working through the tactical implications.
The bone technique's devastating power came at a significant cost, temporarily reducing Kaguya's reaction speed and defensive capabilities. Combined with the fact that she hadn't yet recovered the Nine-Tails' full chakra, her current state was likely far below her theoretical peak power.
"Mother!" Black Zetsu's voice carried genuine panic for the first time in centuries.
The parasitic entity, now severed from its host and lying helpless on the frozen ground, began writhing desperately as it attempted to return to Kaguya's body. Its form stretched and contorted, trying to bridge the distance between its current position and safety.
Swish!
But suddenly, Black Zetsu's position changed dramatically. What appeared next to Kaguya wasn't the fleeing parasite—it was the massive, imposing form of Sasuke's complete Susanoo.
The ethereal shinobi materialized in all its terrifying glory, its perfect armor gleaming with spiritual energy as it raised its enormous weapon overhead. Sasuke had used his Amenotejikara technique to swap positions with Black Zetsu, placing himself directly beside Kaguya while trapping the parasitic entity away from its host.
Since they had finally managed to separate that troublesome creature from Kaguya, there was no way they would allow it to reunite with her.
The Susanoo's massive blade descended with crushing force, but Kaguya was hampered by the loss of her right arm. Her combat effectiveness was reduced, her ability to generate defensive techniques significantly compromised by the injury Naruto had inflicted.
Her remaining hand desperately opened another spatial rift, her form beginning to slip through the dimensional tear just as the Susanoo's weapon swept through the space she had occupied.
Meanwhile, Naruto had moved to secure their advantage. Two of his Truth-Seeking Balls flowed like liquid shadow, reshaping themselves into long, dark spikes that he drove deep into the ground on either side of Black Zetsu's writhing form.
Under the suppression of the Truth-Seeking Balls' power, the parasitic entity found itself completely immobilized. The divine energy of the Six Paths was anathema to its existence, creating a prison that even its millennia-accumulated power couldn't escape.
"No!" Black Zetsu screamed, its voice filled with centuries of frustrated ambition. "I was so close! Mother's resurrection was supposed to be the end of all obstacles!"
But its cries fell on deaf ears. After so many years of manipulation and suffering caused by this creature, none of them felt any sympathy for its predicament.
Kaguya emerged from her spatial portal behind Minato's position, her movements slightly less fluid than before due to her missing arm. Despite her injury, she remained incredibly dangerous, and her bone manipulation abilities were still fully functional.
Whoosh!
Even before her body had completely materialized from the dimensional rift, gray bone spurs were already shooting toward Minato's position. The attack came without warning, the projectiles emerging from the portal with lethal intent.
Swish!
But Minato vanished before the bone spurs could reach him, reappearing on the far side of Naruto with casual precision. His expression carried a slight smile of satisfaction, as if he had just confirmed an important hypothesis.
"Kaguya's space-time ninjutsu is indeed formidable and activates with incredible speed," he observed, his voice carrying the tone of someone who had solved a critical puzzle. "But it has one significant tactical weakness."
His analysis was based on careful observation of her attack patterns throughout their battle. "When she changes position to launch an attack, she must first open a spatial portal. No matter where she wants to appear, no matter how quickly she can create the dimensional rift, that opening process will always give me enough time to react."
The realization was tactically significant. While Kaguya's spatial manipulation was vastly superior to his Flying Thunder God technique in terms of versatility and power, it possessed a fundamental limitation that his technique didn't share.
"Therefore," Minato concluded with quiet confidence, "Kaguya's attacks using space-time ninjutsu will never be able to hit me!"
Therefore, Kaguya's attacks with space ninjutsu will never be able to hit Minato!