Minato's expression finally changed.
The moment the wooden wall fully sealed, he felt it clearly—
his connection to the Flying Thunder God markers had been distorted.
The nearby ones were faint, blurred, as if submerged under thick mud.
The distant markers—completely gone.
"This isn't just a barrier," Minato said quietly. "It's interference."
"Heh heh~ noticed already?"
Tobi's voice drifted down from above, light and teasing.
Minato and Kushina snapped their heads up.
Tobi's masked figure slowly emerged from the inner surface of the wooden wall itself, as though he were growing out of the tree. He spoke with obvious amusement.
"This is a barrier Ninjutsu Lord Madara personally created to deal with Senju Tobirama."
He spread his arms theatrically.
"A technique designed to counter the Flying Thunder God."
Before the words fully settled—
His body dissolved back into wood.
"Below!" Kushina shouted.
Three razor-sharp wooden spikes burst violently from the ground, aimed directly at Minato's vitals. At the same time, three more extended upward, twisting through the air toward Kushina.
Minato reacted instantly.
He caught Kushina mid-air and activated Flying Thunder God.
Their figures vanished—
—and the ground they had stood on was perforated with deep, bottomless holes.
"He's merged with the trees," Kushina said sharply, her chakra chains whipping outward to pulverize the next wave of branches. "He's isolating us and draining our Chakra at the same time!"
Her voice tightened.
"I can't find a structural weakness in this barrier!"
Minato's gaze hardened.
"If we don't break through soon," he said calmly, "we'll be drained dry."
He activated the Spirit Bone in his right arm.
Wind Release chakra detonated outward.
A massive blast slammed into the wooden wall—
the barrier shattered violently, splinters exploding in every direction.
But before the fragments could even fall—
thick branches erupted from the ground, weaving together in an instant, restoring the wall as if it had never been broken.
The barrier remained intact.
Minato's eyes narrowed.
So that's it.
The wooden wall wasn't the core—it was merely a projection.
Destroying it directly was meaningless.
"It's useless, completely meaningless~"
Tobi's voice echoed mockingly.
The wall twisted.
Hundreds of wooden spears launched simultaneously from all directions, sealing every escape route.
"Vajra Imprisonment: Spin!"
Kushina's crimson chains rotated at terrifying speed, forming a rotating shield that pulverized every incoming spear into dust.
"What a beautiful defense~" Tobi praised lazily.
"But how long do you think you can keep that up?"
His tone suddenly turned colder.
"In this domain, every tree is me."
"And every breath you take… is filled with my spores."
Their expressions changed.
White spores suddenly bloomed across their skin—
parasitic organisms that latched onto Chakra pathways, spreading rapidly, blocking circulation, draining energy at an alarming rate.
Minato didn't hesitate.
"Five Elements Seal—Release!"
The additional seal on Kushina shattered.
She immediately stopped suppressing the Nine-Tails.
Boom!
Crimson chakra erupted like a volcanic explosion.
The violent tailed-beast energy incinerated the spores instantly—and slammed outward, shaking the entire barrier space.
The wooden wall creaked.
Twisted.
Shuddered.
Minato's eyes flashed.
So it can be shaken.
Without hesitation, he unleashed his final Spirit Bone technique.
A colossal Vacuum Great Sphere tore upward—
the top of the barrier shattered, sunlight breaking through in a thin裂.
Now!
Dozens of specially forged kunai shot upward, each infused with Wind Release chakra, screaming through the air.
Tobi reacted exactly as Minato expected.
The wooden wall surged to intercept—
"Now! To the side—target the main body!"
Kushina instantly redirected her chains, plunging them deep into the wall itself.
Nine-Tails chakra surged backward through the Wood Release network.
"Ngh—!"
Tobi grunted.
For a single instant, his control slipped.
Flying Thunder God.
Golden light flashed—
Minato and Kushina vanished.
"Impressive," Tobi said, staring at the empty space, clapping slowly.
"Using the barrier's Chakra absorption to reverse-flow Tailed Beast energy… identifying the flaw and seizing it instantly."
He chuckled.
"As expected of the future Fifth Hokage."
This barrier had been designed to be the perfect counter to Flying Thunder God—
total isolation, complete assimilation, inevitable compression.
But that very assimilation was its fatal flaw.
Wood Release erosion meant direct feedback.
And Nine-Tails chakra was poison to anything organic.
Two kilometers away.
Minato reapplied the Five Elements Seal to Kushina, suppressing the Nine-Tails again, then swallowed his second Chakra recovery pill.
He didn't stop moving.
Flying Thunder God activated repeatedly, creating distance—not escape, but space.
Once far enough, he handed Kushina eight kunai.
"Throw them. Different directions. Full force."
She nodded instantly, using her chakra chains to hurl them outward like artillery.
Minato swallowed his third Chakra recovery pill.
Locking onto one distant marker, he executed a long-range Flying Thunder God jump—
completely exiting Tobi's perception range.
"…Troublesome," Tobi muttered, arriving at Minato's last location.
No trace.
No destination.
He summoned White Zetsu immediately.
"Spread out. Search."
He sighed.
"Lord Madara won't be happy."
Minato leaned against a tree root, breathing heavily.
Kushina supported him at once.
"Too much Chakra output," he admitted, sweat pouring down. "The pills refill reserves—but they don't restore exhaustion."
She quickly erected a concealment barrier.
"Are we still going to the Land of Whirlpools?" she asked quietly.
Minato shook his head.
"No."
Her brows knitted.
"That masked man can sense almost everything—where can we go?"
He smiled faintly.
"It's not hiding. It's repositioning."
She smacked him on the head.
"Stop being vague!"
"…We go back to Konoha."
"What?!" Kushina stared.
"Everyone expects us to go to the Land of Whirlpools," Minato said evenly.
"Madara included. Hokage-sama is already mobilizing at the Valley of the End."
He looked serious now.
"Konoha is temporarily the safest place."
After a beat, Kushina nodded firmly.
"Then we go back."
Meanwhile—
"These things regenerate without Chakra," Shikaku said grimly, watching a severed White Zetsu limb slowly knit back together.
Tokuma confirmed it with the Byakugan.
Tekka's expression darkened.
"…Wood Release experiments."
Silence followed.
"Collect all bodies," Shikaku ordered.
"Split the samples. If things go bad, escort them to the Land of Whirlpools at all costs."
Tekka nodded.
They all understood what this meant.
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