"Yikes... there seems to be a problem," Kushina, who was watching from the tree branch, suddenly raised a finger with a highly awkward expression.
Kushina had previously modified the seal circuit on Danzo's body, synchronizing the release of the Reaper Death Seal with his suicide vest.
As long as Danzo used the Reverse Four Symbols Seal, his own body would be torn apart and devoured by the void, perfectly meeting the sacrifice conditions to release the Reaper's stomach.
Danzo's face had been wrapped up in bandages, essentially covering the painted-on Death God mask.
Instead of putting a physical mask on him, Kushina had followed the traditional Uzumaki method and directly painted the summoning formula onto Danzo's face while he was anesthetized.
According to the original plan, Danzo would use the Reverse Four Symbols Seal in an open, harmless clearing, simultaneously dying and releasing the souls of the Fourth Hokage trapped within the Death God.
But now?
Danzo self-destructed prematurely in a panic over a paintbrush, forcing Kakashi to use Kamui to transfer the exploding geezer to save the neighborhood.
Where was he transferred?
Now everyone in the loop knows the "Masked Man" is Obito Uchiha.
Kakashi's Kamui and Obito's right eye share the exact same pocket dimension.
What does this mean?
When the Fourth Hokage and the Nine-Tails were violently released from the Reaper's stomach... they were directly dumped into the Kamui Dimension.
'Well, well.'
Obito wakes up every day to find he's unwittingly playing a collection gacha game called [Travel Frog: Kakashi Edition], eagerly waiting to see what random souvenirs Kakashi has mailed him today.
The first few times, Kakashi mailed him severed arms and a lot of shit.
Today, Kakashi mailed him an expanding black hole of death, a literal piece of shit on a brush, his old Sensei's ghost and a weapon of mass destruction.
Did he hit the jackpot? Is he pleased?
This is exactly why Kushina looked so embarrassed.
They, sort of, maybe, did something catastrophically huge.
"Lord Third... I..." Kakashi staggered, seeming to realize the nightmare of what he had just done.
Sending his dead teacher's soul over to the enemy base was one thing.
But sending the other half of the Nine-Tails over?! That's a disaster of apocalyptic proportions!
How could he face his elders and peers?
Uh, meaning, how could he face Makoto and the Akatsuki Organization who were working so hard to save this world?
'Hmm.'
Kakashi's mind and body, crushed under the immense weight of political anxiety and chakra depletion, gave out.
Thud.
He fainted dead away into the grass.
Kakashi is really something; his fainting-to-screentime ratio has far surpassed Hinata's by now.
But there's no helping it.
The Hashirama cells that Obito had secretly injected into Kakashi last time were a one-time-use consumable.
After restoring Kakashi's eyesight to normal, they only reduced the side effects of vision deterioration for the next few uses.
Fainting is still an inevitable protective mechanism of the body.
To put it bluntly, it's still due to insufficient chakra bandwidth.
Of course, Kakashi's actual chakra reserves aren't low—he's not the "Chakra Measurement Unit" (1 Kakashi = 0.5 Kisame) that everyone jokes about.
(After losing his Sharingan, Kakashi single-handedly fought 50 special Jonin and wildly spammed massive Ninjutsu, including an Earth-Style Wall that enveloped the entire village, without breaking a sweat.)
The problem lies with the Sharingan's overly strict anti-theft mechanism.
When implanted in a non-Uchiha, unless they have compatible Hashirama cells installed as a driver, their max MP is directly halved and continuously drained.
It's nothing like the Byakugan, which relies on the Caged Bird Seal instead of a parasite drain.
...
After sending Kakashi to his exclusive, permanently reserved hospital bed, the group discussed the situation and decided to urgently contact Amegakure via the Akatsuki rings.
When the Second Hokage learned the news, he instantly teleported over using Flying Thunder God and first glared murderously at Hiruzen.
"Silently giving away half of the Nine-Tails to the enemy—quite impressive leadership, Monkey," Tobirama sneered.
"We didn't mean to! It was an accident!" Kushina defended him.
"What we need to clarify right now is whether that Kamui Dimension is a completely isolated alternate space, or if souls can leak out."
Tobirama clapped his hands together and summoned a White Zetsu clone, which struck a seductive weird pose on the ground.
"Go on, Monkey. Someone go dig up the Fourth's grave and bring back some DNA samples."
"...Isn't that highly inappropriate?" Hiruzen looked incredibly uncomfortable.
"Still worried about desecrating the dead? If you won't go, I will." Tobirama shot Hiruzen a sharp look.
If they kept fussing about "disrespecting the deceased" now, they'd all become deceased permanently soon enough and wouldn't have to worry about it!
The Nine-Tails wouldn't threaten Amegakure's forces.
Those with Edo Tensei bodies had nothing to fear either.
But what if?
What if the Masked Man controlled the Yin Nine-Tails and recreated another Nine-Tails Night?
Could anyone in Konoha survive a second round?
Or what if he didn't attack Konoha but targeted ordinary civilians in other nations?
"I'll go." Kushina volunteered, her face grim.
She was going to dig up her husband's grave.
Minutes later, Kushina returned with a dust sample from the coffin.
Tobirama began the Edo Tensei ritual using the White Zetsu.
Poof.
As expected, it failed and the ashes scattered.
"Either your Reaper Death Seal release failed completely, or this Kamui Dimension truly exists independently from the Pure Land, trapping both the soul and the Nine-Tails inside like a vault."
Tobirama concluded with a grave expression.
"Then... what should we do now?" Kushina asked worriedly.
This was all her fault.
If she hadn't considered using Danzo as a suicide bomber to retrieve the other half of the Nine-Tails as a gift for Naruto, this wouldn't have happened.
"Where's Kakashi? Wake him up. Have him use Kamui to suck me in. I'll go investigate what's happening." Tobirama looked around, searching for the silver-haired ninja.
"Um, Kakashi overexerted himself and passed out. He's in a coma."
"Besides, Lord Second, it's too dangerous! Even with an immortal Edo Tensei body, you'd still be walking blindly into an enemy stronghold!" Kushina argued.
"Exactly. We don't know what traps are waiting in there," Hiruzen added.
"Then there's no other way. We wait."
Tobirama completely gave up the idea.
Not because he was persuaded by their concern for his safety, but simply because he learned Kakashi was out of chakra.
Under these circumstances, without their guide, there was truly no alternative.
....
Meanwhile.
Inside the Kamui Dimension.
Danzo, who had been transported via the portal, completed the Reverse Four Symbols Seal inside the dimension.
The black sphere expanded, absorbing a bunch of giant concrete blocks and empty space, before fading away.
Fortunately for the Masked Man, he wasn't actually hanging out in his lounge at that exact moment.
This time, the Masked Man finally had a stroke of luck.
Obito avoided the suicide bombing, but because he wasn't there, he couldn't immediately discern what transpired after the explosion ended.
The Reaper Death Seal had been broken by Danzo's sacrifice.
A puff of spiritual white smoke drifted out of the void.
This was the soul representing Minato Namikaze.
Under normal circumstances in the real world, shortly after being unsealed from the Reaper's stomach, the soul would begin ascending naturally to the Pure Land.
But within the Kamui Dimension? There was no heaven to ascend to.
It was a closed server.
At this moment, Minato's soul was like a glitching NPC—constantly seeking an exit protocol yet remaining stationary due to finding no valid coordinates.
In such conditions, unless driven by intense lingering attachments, floating souls rarely develop subjective consciousness.
They just sleep.
However, while Minato lacked subjective awareness, the Yin Nine-Tails very much possessed it.
Tailed Beasts are miraculous entities—aggregates of pure chakra where the chakra constitutes both their physical form and their soul.
Realizing they were trapped in a dark void, the Yin Nine-Tails actively consumed its own massive chakra reserves to forcibly awaken Minato's soul consciousness.
Then, it infused Minato's ghost with Nine-Tails chakra.
This temporarily granted Minato a glowing, golden physical form, enabling him to speak and use ninja techniques.
Minato gasped as his eyes snapping open.
He was glowing bright yellow now!
"FOURTH HOKAGE!" A massive, demonic voice boomed in his head. "The chakra lingering in this place feels detestable! It's from that masked bastard who controlled me back then!"
"Nine-Tails? Wait... What? Could this be the Masked Man's alternate dimension?" Minato looked around at the endless rows of grey concrete blocks.
"EXACTLY! Get me out of here now using your Space-Time Ninjutsu!"
"..."
"ARE YOU FUCKING DEAF?!" The Nine-Tails roared.
"I can't!" Minato sweated nervously. "This is a completely separate dimension... I can't sense any external space-time Flying Thunder God coordinates from in here! I didn't leave any marks inside this place!"
"THEN WHAT DO WE DO?!"
"We can only wait for the space-time portal to reopen from the outside... Nine-Tails, return to my body to conserve chakra for now. We need to set an ambush."
And so, the Yellow Flash and the Demon Fox sat down on a concrete block, waiting to jump-scare whatever poor bastard opened the door next.
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