ROAR—!!!
The second roar was louder, more savage, vibrating with a will that demanded the end of the world.
The cloud of dark red chakra contracted inward for a split second before pulsating outward like a beating heart.
BOOM!!!
The resulting shockwave of energy was a physical hammer, striking the walls and the ceiling of the shrine.
CRACK!
CRASH!
The ancient shrine, which had stood for centuries, was reduced to a house of cards.
The bedrock walls shattered, the massive support beams snapped like twigs, and the dome collapsed in a roar of stone and dust.
A rain of boulders, mixed with fragments of solidifying chakra, cascaded down like a meteor shower.
"ARGH!"
"NO—!"
The two elders who had survived the first blast were given no second chance.
A boulder the size of a millstone crushed one into a pile of unrecognizable meat.
The other was caught by a stray arc of crimson chakra; half his body was vaporized instantly, his scream ending in a wet gargle as he vanished.
In the center of the falling stone and the swirling chaos, Saiki stood as immovable as a mountain.
The falling debris and the waves of malice hammered against his Auspicious Cloud with a rhythmic thud-thud-thud, but they couldn't make him flinch. He remained perfectly pristine, not a single speck of dust touching his skin.
His gaze cut through the haze, locking onto Kushina on the altar.
The seal was gone. Kurama had escaped his cage.
The terrifying volume of chakra finally condensed into its true form—a colossal, nine-tailed fox with fur the color of fresh blood.
Its massive frame filled the crater where the shrine had stood. Nine tails, wreathed in the flames of pure hatred, whipped through the air, creating sonic booms and local hurricanes with every flick.
The fox tilted its head back and howled, its serrated teeth bared, its slit-pupiled eyes burning with a madness that demanded the death of all things.
The ninja arriving on the scene froze, their mouths hanging open, their bodies paralyzed by a chill that felt like being frozen in time.
Ignoring the fox's tantrum, Saiki flickered to the altar.
The Uchiha had been thorough; they had drugged Kushina so heavily that she hadn't even woken up from the lethal agony of a Tailed Beast extraction.
It made sense. Kushina was an Uzumaki, a natural master of sealing. The Uchiha knew they couldn't afford to let her be conscious during the process.
Saiki pressed his palm against her lower abdomen, assessing her state.
Fortunately, the Uzumaki life force was legendary. Despite the extraction, she hadn't died instantly.
But her chakra was leaking out of her like water from a shattered jug.
Life and chakra were one and the same for a ninja. Once she hit zero, she was a corpse.
Saiki channeled his Sage Chakra—energy that now operated on the level of the Six Paths—into her system. He used it as a spiritual "plug" to stop the leakage.
He let out a breath of relief. For now, she was stable.
Saiki couldn't have prevented the extraction once he arrived; the seal was already compromised and Kushina was unresponsive. His own Fuinjutsu skills weren't high enough to perform a mid-crisis reconstruction.
Releasing the Nine-Tails, giving it a thorough thrashing, and then having the Sealing Corps shove it back in was the only viable path left.
Saiki looked up. Having finished its initial vent, Kurama lowered its massive head.
Those twin blood-moons of eyes locked onto Kushina. The fox had been trapped inside her for a decade; its hatred for her was personal.
"What are you looking at, you overgrown mutt?"
Kurama's attention snapped to the boy. Sensing the energy rolling off him, the fox finally remembered. This was the tiny human who had been pestering its seal earlier.
Double the hatred.
Before Kurama could even let out a snarl, Saiki moved.
ROAR—!!!
The growl was still building in the fox's throat when Saiki transformed into a streak of black lightning.
No signs. No flashes of Ninjutsu. Only a storm of pure, absolute velocity and power.
"SHUT UP!"
The voice carried the weight of a divine judgment.
Saiki's fist, wreathed in a sheath of hyper-compressed air, screamed through the gap between them. It grew in Kurama's vision until it filled the entire world.
The fox was a god of mass, but mass is clumsy.
BOOM!!!
The impact was heavy enough to stop the hearts of everyone watching. Saiki's fist landed flush on the center of the Nine-Tails' massive nose.
HOWL—!
The intended roar was replaced by a high-pitched yelp of pure agony.
The fox's mountain-shattering head was snapped back with a violent jerk.
The kinetic force was so great that Kurama's entire upper body was tossed backward, its red fur rippling like grass in a gale.
The massive nasal bone shattered with a sickening crunch. Dark red chakra, acting as the beast's blood, sprayed from its snout and mouth in a disgusting arc.
The beast slammed into the ground, crushing a dozen houses and kicking up a cloud of dust that reached the sky.
ROAR!!
A second howl erupted, the shockwave clearing the dust away.
"DAMNED HUMAN!!!"
Kurama's nose was a broken mess. Even for a chakra entity, the pain was agonizing. The beast's primal savagery was now fully ignited.
Nine tails, looking like pillars of fire, lashed out in a coordinated, omni-directional strike. Every single tail-swipe carried enough force to level a city block.
But Saiki moved through the web of death like a ghost.
His speed was beyond the comprehension of even the Sharingan. He flickered through the microscopic gaps in the assault, un-touchable.
"Too slow!"
The voice whispered in the fox's ear like a death knell.
Saiki saw his opening as one tail slammed into the ground. He lunged forward and clamped his hands onto the tip of the massive appendage.
"GET OVER HERE!"
Saiki's waist twisted. The muscles beneath his clothes bulged as he anchored his feet. The entirety of his power exploded in a single, upward heave.
BOOM—!
The impossible happened.
The Nine-Tailed Fox—a beast the size of a mountain—was hoisted into the air by its tail.
Under the horrified stares of Tsunade and the arriving Konoha forces, the massive, sun-blotting body of the beast was swung in a giant arc and slammed face-first back into the rubble.
CRACK!
BOOM—!
Boulders disintegrated into dust!
A mushroom cloud of smoke and crimson chakra fragments rose into the air.
Kurama's massive frame was buried deep into the crater, the seismic shockwave so violent that the ninja miles away struggled to stay on their feet.