The Nine-Tails' rampaging Chakra erupted into a terrifying storm.
In an instant, Uzumaki Naruto's body became a mangled mass of flesh and blood. He had nearly transformed into a humanoid Tailed Beast.
Tailed Beast Mode!
Everyone's expression changed.
Naruto's transformation was horrifying.
Aside from Seventh Hokage Naruto, none of them had much understanding of Tailed Beast Mode. That included Tsunade, whose grandmother, Mito Uzumaki, had been the first Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, and Namikaze Minato, whose wife had become its second Jinchuriki.
Neither of them had ever personally witnessed the Nine-Tails running wild.
This kind of transformation was completely unfamiliar to them.
After entering Tailed Beast Mode, Uzumaki Naruto's will was overwhelmed by the Nine-Tails. His mind had been consumed by an endless urge to kill.
Everyone watched in horror as the space around him seemed to distort beneath the influence of his Chakra. Even the entire visual style of the battle changed.
Deva Path Pain looked as though he were fighting a monstrous beast, getting smashed and thrown around without mercy.
In this state, only Deva Path Pain could withstand Naruto's attacks. Anyone else would have died from the slightest graze.
"This state…"
Namikaze Minato stared at his son, who had completely lost control in the video, and worry rose in his heart.
This was clearly nothing like the Sage of Six Paths form Naruto would later display, nor was it anything like Sage Tailed Beast Mode.
Naruto had completely lost control because he couldn't suppress the Nine-Tails' power.
In other words, the Nine-Tails still posed this kind of danger.
If something went wrong, couldn't the same thing happen to Kushina?
He had to find a way to prevent it.
"Do you hate me? Can you still claim that people are capable of truly understanding one another?"
Deva Path Pain spoke calmly.
Naruto couldn't hear a word of it.
Bones had even begun growing from his body. Everyone could tell he was losing his sanity one step at a time.
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the Nine-Tails completely took over his body.
"That's right. But my pain is greater than yours."
The grotesquely distorted Deva Path Pain slammed his fist into the ground, shattering it so violently that water erupted from underground like a fountain.
He immediately charged across the surface toward Uzumaki Naruto.
But in this state, Naruto had no reason left at all. He wildly spat out miniature Tailed Beast Balls, blasting Deva Path Pain away.
Their battle was crude and brutal, without the slightest trace of grace.
Uzumaki Naruto had lost all sense of self. Nothing remained but the desire to kill and destroy.
Just as he was about to complete his transformation, Tsunade saw Chakra emerge from the necklace she would one day give him, the keepsake left by her grandfather.
The Chakra transformed into Wood Release and attempted to seal the Nine-Tails.
It was useless.
Naruto broke free in an instant.
In his fury, this transformed Uzumaki Naruto couldn't possibly be suppressed by such a small amount of Wood Release Chakra.
Even Senju Hashirama himself would have found this state troublesome.
The instant Naruto tore through the Wood Release seal, he charged forward and appeared directly in front of Deva Path Pain.
Even Shinra Tensei couldn't blast him away. He forced his way through the repulsive force.
"Bansho Ten'in!"
Before Uzumaki Naruto could fire the Tailed Beast Ball gathering in his mouth, Nagato used Bansho Ten'in to restrain him.
By then, six tails had already emerged behind Naruto.
Everyone could see what was happening.
As each new tail appeared, it was only a matter of time before he transformed completely into the Nine-Tails.
The oppressive Chakra radiating from Naruto's transformed body made it difficult for everyone to breathe.
It was horrifying beyond words, as if they were standing before some savage beast from the ancient past.
"So this is the Nine-Tails without anyone restraining it? It's even more terrifying than the Nine-Tails from the video of the Nine-Tails' attack."
Uchiha Sasuke stared in shock at the six-tailed Naruto in the video.
Somehow, he felt even more terrifying than the Nine-Tails had when all nine tails were visible.
Was it because no one was holding it back this time?
Was this what the Nine-Tails was like in its original, untamed state?
No. The Nine-Tails in its true wild state was probably even more terrifying than this.
But if the Nine-Tails was so powerful, how had anyone captured it and sealed it inside a Jinchuriki in the first place?
Uchiha Sasuke's young mind was filled with enormous shock.
After luring Uzumaki Naruto away from the village, Nagato also realized how troublesome Naruto had become in Tailed Beast Mode.
Even though his body was already at its limit, he prepared to use his ultimate technique.
In the middle of a forest, Deva Path Pain unleashed his greatest move.
Chibaku Tensei!
A black sphere as bright as the sun appeared in the sky.
The earth below began tearing apart as endless masses of stone and soil were dragged upward. Even the transformed Uzumaki Naruto, who had been pursuing Deva Path Pain, was pulled into the air.
"Hah!"
With a roar from the grotesquely distorted Deva Path Pain, an enormous celestial body began forming in the sky.
Countless boulders flew upward under the force of Chibaku Tensei. Even the transformed Nine-Tails couldn't escape and was dragged onto its surface.
By the time Nagato accomplished this, he had exhausted every last ounce of strength. Blood streamed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
"Did you really have to go this far?" Konan asked, shocked and distressed.
"Our opponent is the Nine-Tails. I can't afford to underestimate it. Besides, compared to the moon the Sage of Six Paths supposedly created, this is nothing. In any case, the Nine-Tails has now been captured."
Nagato spoke between ragged breaths.
"What? The Sage of Six Paths created the moon?"
Everyone was dumbfounded.
The moon was an enormous celestial body. How could any human possibly create something like that?
But then they remembered that they had just watched Nagato create a massive Chibaku Tensei with his own hands.
He had accomplished it using the Rinnegan's power over attraction and repulsion.
By that logic, if the legendary Sage of Six Paths also possessed the Rinnegan, perhaps he really could create a Chibaku Tensei himself.
The only difference was that its size would have been utterly absurd.
The implications were staggering.
"If the moon is also a Chibaku Tensei, then what did the Sage of Six Paths create something like that to seal?"
Hatake Kakashi stared in shock.
If the Sage of Six Paths had truly existed, and the moon had been created through the Ninjutsu known as Chibaku Tensei, then perhaps the Sage of Six Paths had also been trying to seal someone away.
It was only speculation.
Even so, the thought alone made every hair on Kakashi's body stand on end. He sucked in a sharp breath.
What the hell is sealed inside the moon?
"Could 'the moon coming toward you' have been referring to something like this?"
Tsunade suddenly remembered the Konoha crisis mentioned in Kaede Kitahara's diary, the one where the moon would come hurtling toward them.
Could it have meant that something like this Chibaku Tensei would come crashing down from the sky?
That was far too terrifying!
"Why? Why did things turn out like this?"
Within the sealed world inside Uzumaki Naruto's mind, Naruto lay helplessly on the ground. He had already lost the ability to think.
"It hurts. I can't take it anymore. I don't understand. What am I supposed to do? I don't know anything anymore. Someone, please save me. Tell me the answer!"
Even someone as strong-willed as Uzumaki Naruto had completely broken after seeing Hinata killed before his eyes.
"Destroy everything. Destroy everything that causes you pain."
The Nine-Tails seized the opportunity to tempt him.
"Give your entire heart to me."
At long last, the Nine-Tails had found its chance. It poured every ounce of its effort into corrupting him.
"Then I can free you from your suffering."
The last scraps of Uzumaki Naruto's reason were swallowed away, little by little.
With eight tails, he was only one step away from becoming the Nine-Tails.
He no longer looked human at all.
Then the ninth tail appeared!
"Kurama, you really were awful back then!"
Seventh Hokage Naruto watched with great interest as his past self gradually lost control in the diary video.
Unlike everyone else, who was tense with worry, he knew exactly what would happen. He wasn't nervous in the slightest and even had time to tease Kurama.
"Hmph!"
Kurama gave an arrogant snort.
Remembering those turbulent years left him feeling somewhat nostalgic.
In the blink of an eye, so many years had passed.
Just as Naruto was about to tear the seal away completely, a hand suddenly caught his wrist and shoved him backward.
"Fourth Hokage!"
Tsunade cried out in delighted surprise.
She had been convinced the Nine-Tails was about to break free completely. Then, at the most critical moment, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, suddenly appeared.
"Minato?"
Jiraiya froze before reacting with the same joyful shock.
"Sensei!"
Hatake Kakashi was overwhelmed when the teacher he hadn't seen in so long suddenly appeared.
"That's me? No, it must be the Chakra I left behind back then."
Namikaze Minato understood almost instantly.
In the earlier video of the Nine-Tails' attack, he had deliberately left some of his Chakra behind as a safeguard.
So this was when it would be used.
It was meant to pull his son back when Naruto had completely lost himself.
Namikaze Minato's appearance also left Uzumaki Naruto stunned.
"Fourth Hokage?"
Naruto stared blankly at the figure before him and spoke his identity aloud.
"Naruto!"
Namikaze Minato called his name.
"That's Dad's Chakra. I remember it so clearly."
Seventh Hokage Naruto watched the father and son meet in the diary, his heart filled with emotion.
He still remembered the shock and joy of seeing his father for the first time.
But now, he would never have the chance to see him again.
He was already older than his father had been when he died.
Only now could he fully understand why his father had sacrificed himself for Konoha.
As the Seventh Hokage, Naruto knew that he too would willingly die to protect the village.