Chapter 234: You Are No Longer a Demon Fox!!! (Hot-Blooded!)
The little toad opened its mouth, and [Namikaze Minato] crawled out from inside.
Immediately afterward, with a 'bang', the little toad vanished and returned to Mount Myōboku.
[Uzumaki Kushina] did not come out and was taken to Mount Myōboku as well.
After all, [Kushina] had been severely injured by [Konan]'s explosion earlier. Even though she had recovered a little, she still had almost no combat capability.
Moreover, when it came to Flying Thunder God, the fewer people carried, the more convenient it was.
"Menma, are you alright?"
As soon as [Namikaze Minato] appeared, he immediately stepped forward and asked after Uzumaki Menma with concern.
"Sigh… this is probably the difference between two Namikaze Minatos."
Shiromo shook his head and sighed.
The Namikaze Minato of the Limited Tsukuyomi world did not merely lack conviction, nor was it simply that he didn't care about the village and only wanted a peaceful life.
Because he wanted a peaceful life, he had never participated in the core battles of the shinobi world wars, nor had he undertaken any high-difficulty missions.
This led to his combat experience and combat instincts being abysmally poor.
Even though his talent with Flying Thunder God was still that same talent, and he could still use it just like the Namikaze Minato of the real world, the performance he showed was worlds apart.
Flying Thunder God is a form of "instant movement". In constantly changing situations, it requires both the brain and the body to keep up simultaneously.
If the real Namikaze Minato were here instead, faced with an unbeatable enemy and a situation that demanded retreat, his response would definitely be to appear and immediately take Uzumaki Menma away with Flying Thunder God, leaving Shiromo and the others no time to react.
But now?
The very first thing he did after appearing was to ask Uzumaki Menma, "Are you alright?"
Of course, according to the future scene Shiromo had seen, [Namikaze Minato] was still preparing to take Uzumaki Menma away and had no intention of fighting them head-on.
This was simply a manifestation of his lack of combat experience.
So.
Then I'm sorry about this.
Die! Namikaze Minato!
"Menma, are you alright—uwah!"
[Namikaze Minato] had just finished asking. Before his hand could even reach Uzumaki Menma's shoulder, his body was suddenly sent flying backward, smashing heavily into the great temple bell.
At this moment, [Namikaze Minato]'s chest had been pierced through, torn open into a gaping hole.
Such an injury was beyond saving.
"Why…"
[Namikaze Minato] weakly raised his hand, looking at his son Uzumaki Menma, who was staring at him in shock from afar.
Why? He had only wanted to live a peaceful life.
[Namikaze Minato]'s consciousness began to fade, memories flashing by like a revolving lantern.
As if the battle instincts of Namikaze Minato from another world had possessed him, his remaining consciousness suddenly began to operate at high speed.
"The final Rasengan…"
[Namikaze Minato] suddenly struggled up, mustering his last bit of strength to form a Rasengan and smash the great temple bell behind him to pieces.
Then he collapsed, utterly lifeless.
Uzumaki Menma's pupils shrank at this sight, and at the same time, doubt arose within him. Why had his father attacked the bell behind him at the very end?
"?"
Watching this scene, Shiromo slowly typed out a question mark.
No, seriously, do you really have to be a riddle-speaker?
You could say "why", you could say "the final Rasengan", so why couldn't you just directly tell your son what you had figured out?
And Uzumaki Menma himself had zero awareness.
His old man was standing right beside him and got punched through the heart and blasted away by Shiromo. He didn't even consider that he himself was also within Shiromo's attack range and just stood there without moving.
It was only because they still needed the Nine-Tails' chakra that he couldn't die yet.
"Unforgivable!"
Uzumaki Menma clenched his fists in rage as golden Nine-Tails chakra began to erupt around his body.
"Shouldn't you be saying that I'm the most handsome?"
Shiromo spread his hands, "Or is it because I only killed one person?"
"Let me do it."
Uchiha Hikari stepped forward as Susanoo activated.
"You are no longer the debauched demon fox. You are Konoha's Uzumaki Menma's wife, Kurama!"
"Let's go, Kurama!"
"Oh~"
Amid the hot-blooded shouts of man and beast, a massive golden fox burst through the temple buildings and threw its head back in a long howl.
"Ugh."
Hearing those words, Uchiha Hikari staggered and almost lost her footing.
"Damn it, Kurama Link Mode. You really are 'linked' with Kurama, aren't you?"
Shiromo had not expected Uzumaki Menma to drop all pretense and openly shout such utterly unbearable lines.
The ones collapsing weren't just Shiromo and Uchiha Hikari.
The people in the audience seats were also losing it.
When all the previous bizarre things happened, everyone had merely fallen silent.
But this time, it was really too much—so outrageous that it made people claw at their heads in agony.
"This isn't real… right, this was never real to begin with!"
Kushina clutched her head with both hands, muttering to herself.
At this moment, everyone else wished they could just stab their own ears deaf.
When Menma shouted that line, it sounded quite hot-blooded at first. But once you actually processed the content, everyone completely broke down.
It felt like their ears had been violated.
Of course, the one who collapsed the hardest was the Yin Nine-Tails currently inside Kushina.
In the past, it was always the jinchūriki whose emotions collapsed, allowing the tailed beast to seize control of the body.
From today onward, there was a precedent for a tailed beast having an emotional breakdown.
Hearing Uzumaki Menma's lines, the Yin Nine-Tails went berserk, screaming at Kushina and demanding that she be given all of its power so she could go kill the two guys down below.
If they had trained, the Yin Nine-Tails would probably have wanted Kushina to activate Baryon Mode and charge straight in.
Fortunately, although Kushina was mentally collapsing, she still retained her rationality and decisively rejected the Yin Nine-Tails' proposal.
"Don't you dare mock Kurama. Kurama, who has become my wife, is the purest of all!"
From within the massive golden Nine-Tails came Uzumaki Menma's furious roar.
"Peh."
Uchiha Hikari spat, cleaned herself up, pulled out a tissue to wipe the corner of her mouth, and took a few steadying breaths. Then her gaze hardened as the skeletal Susanoo instantly expanded, transforming into its complete form.
"Uchiha?"
"It's useless. I am complete now. The Sharingan can no longer steal Kurama away from my side!"
Uzumaki Menma controlled Kurama as it clasped its hands together.
In an instant, the towering ancient tree behind the Fire Temple suddenly tore itself from the ground and grew wildly, transforming into two colossal Thousand-Armed Buddhas. In front of those giant Buddhas, two faint figures could vaguely be seen.
"So this is true 'reincarnated bond renewal', gaining Asura's power?"
Standing in the "Susanoo cockpit" beside Uchiha Hikari, Shiromo looked at the scene before them and spoke.
"That's right. I have remembered everything—everything between Kurama and me from the past!"
"Back then, my previous life, Asura, was in love with Kurama, but my brother Indra used the Sharingan to hypnotize it and steal Kurama away."
"When Asura saw Kurama being intimate with Indra, he believed Kurama had betrayed the love between them. Heartbroken, he even said cruel and heartless words to Kurama, calling it a loose fox!"
"In the previous generation, Indra's reincarnation, Uchiha Madara, found Nine Tails in advance and formed a bond with it, leaving the later reincarnation of Asura, Senju Hashirama, unable to obtain it and filled with resentment, leading to further misunderstandings."
"Until now…"
"The misunderstandings between Kurama and me have all been resolved! I accept everything about it! You cannot defeat the love that has endured for a thousand years! Love is infinite!!!"
Uzumaki Menma shouted passionately.
"Stop talking already!!!!"
Uchiha Hikari covered her ears, controlled Susanoo to charge forward, and slashed down twice, severing the golden Nine-Tails' arms.
(End of this chapter)