"Kae…de.... I..."
Rin opened her mouth and tried to speak with great difficulty, attempting to tell Kaede what was happening to her.
Kaede's eyes fell to her chest. Even without the Byakugan or Sharingan, he could tell that Rin's loss of control stemmed from the cursed seal planted by Uchiha Madara near her heart. It was forcibly manipulating her body and causing the Three-Tails' chakra within her to go berserk.
"I know."
Kaede gave her a reassuring look. With a simple motion, he slapped the outer layer of the Three-Tails' chakra shroud around her. The crimson chakra that was beginning to take shape immediately collapsed and scattered.
Yet the Three-Tails' chakra continued to leak from Rin's body.
Kaede glanced at the steadily seeping chakra, then looked toward Rin's chest and said, "Do you trust me, Rin?"
It was a rhetorical question, her eyes gave him all the answer he needed.
Kaede nodded slightly after a brief glance at her expression. He dispersed the chakra shroud again, then raised his right hand.
"It might hurt... but bear with it for a moment."
In the next instant,
Under Kakashi's astonished gaze,
Kaede's right hand formed a knife-hand strike and thrust forward, piercing through Rin's chest. His hand passed clean through her heart, destroying the cursed seal embedded there in an instant.
Rin froze.
Was Kaede... trying to kill her?
"Hm."
Kaede confirmed that Madara's seal was completely destroyed, then withdrew his hand. At the same time, he injected a stream of time-reversal energy into her chest.
But at that very moment, he sensed something. His gaze sharpened, and his left hand swiftly swung in a particular direction.
Buzz!!
A silver crescent wreathed in lightning shot out.
The forest in that direction was obliterated instantly, revealing a figure bound in twisted, tree-like branches. The figure's appearance was obscured, but clearly humanoid.
Kaede's strike passed through it harmlessly, it was as if the figure wasn't fully present.
"Who's there?!"
Kakashi's expression shifted. He stared at the figure.
The person's face was covered by a bizarre spiral-patterned mask. Two crimson eyes gleamed through it, marked with a strange pattern completely unlike the Sharingan.
Whoosh!
A vortex swirled open suddenly, and the mysterious figure vanished.
At nearly the same moment, Kaede's hand withdrew fully from Rin's chest. The blood that had begun to spray from the wound turned into countless beads, which flowed back into the injury. The wound closed seamlessly and vanished without a trace.
Kaede stared thoughtfully in the direction the masked figure had disappeared.
"Uchiha Obito, huh? You really went all out, Madara... sending White Zetsu to bring him here at the 'perfect' moment?"
Kaede had already considered that Obito, now under Madara's influence, would eventually descend into darkness. He hadn't expected the events to mirror the original timeline so closely, though.
Now the question was, what would happen when Obito found out Rin hadn't died?
Would he come back to the light?
Or would he plunge even deeper into the darkness?
"Kaede... Kaede?"
Rin finally came to her senses. She stared blankly at her chest, slowly raising a hand to touch the skin where the wound had been. Her expression was full of disbelief.
She clearly remembered the feeling just now, there was no illusion. And yet, such a fatal injury had vanished completely. No... this wasn't just healing. It was like the wound had never existed in the first place!
What kind of medical ninjutsu was that?!
Suddenly, she understood.
No wonder Kaede had asked her if she trusted him. No wonder he had warned that it might hurt but told her to endure it. That really was what he meant.
A wave of guilt surged in her heart, she had hesitated for just a moment in trusting him.
"It's over now. I've destroyed the cursed seal in your heart."
Kaede turned away from where Obito had vanished and looked back at Rin, nodding lightly.
Kakashi approached as well.
That masked figure had seemed strangely familiar, and its method of disappearing was downright bizarre, but none of that was more important than Rin's condition.
When he saw that her chest bore not a single wound, not even a drop of blood, Kakashi was momentarily stunned. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd been caught in a genjutsu.
"Th-Thank you..."
Rin looked at Kaede, her emotions swirling. Countless things she wanted to say piled up in her heart, but she didn't know where to begin. In the end, she could only speak softly, her voice trembling.
But just as she did, her expression suddenly changed.
The seal inside her stirred violently once more, and the Three-Tails' chakra began to surge uncontrollably again.
This time, it wasn't the cursed seal.
It was because the Three-Tails' chakra had repeatedly broken through the seal, damaging it. The seal, already unstable, was now breaking down completely.
"Rin!!"
Kakashi's face changed drastically. "That chakra... Is that the chakra of a Tailed Beast? Did the Mist ninja seal one inside you?!"
Even someone as slow to react as Kakashi couldn't miss it now.
Kirigakure had clearly sealed the Three-Tails inside Rin, planning to use her as a human bomb. They meant to send her back to Konoha and let the beast rampage from within.
"Yes..."
Rin bit her lip and nodded. She was doing everything she could to suppress the Three-Tails' chakra and keep it contained.
But she was too weak. She hadn't even reached Jōnin level yet, her chakra was only on par with Chūnin's. Compared to the Tailed Beast, it was nothing.
Even a sliver of the Three-Tails' chakra was far beyond her ability to control.
Kakashi turned toward Kaede, his expression tense.
Kaede stepped forward and placed a hand on Rin's shoulder.
He glanced at Kakashi and said calmly, "Don't worry. Go help your teammates, leave Rin to me."
"...Alright."
Kakashi nodded.
He trusted Kaede completely. Besides, he had no way to deal with a Tailed Beast. This was entirely out of his league. He had no choice but to leave it to Kaede.
He quickly moved to assist Shiba and the others in treating their severely injured teammate and clearing the battlefield.
Meanwhile,
Kaede frowned. He attempted to suppress the Three-Tails' chakra using time reversal again, but it only scattered the chakra momentarily. It didn't stop it from regenerating.
Clearly, time reversal wasn't going to work here.
"I guess I'll have to talk to you directly, Three-Tails."
Kaede gently lifted Rin in his arms and flashed away from the battlefield's center. He landed on a tree trunk and laid her down, then pressed a hand to the seal on her abdomen.
His chakra surged into her body and entered the seal, emerging in a dark space where it took the form of Kaede's silhouette.
Looking up,
Suspended in the air was a massive water bubble. Inside it floated the enormous body of the Three-Tails, Isobu. The bubble was too small for it; part of its tail already extended outside.
On the opposite side stood Rin. She was pushing back with her chakra, desperately trying to keep the Three-Tails contained, but she couldn't force its tail back in.
The beast's giant eyes glared at her and Kaede.
"Humans... you will not... contain me..."
"Don't resist, Rin," Kaede said. "Let it out."
"Eh?"
Rin froze, her eyes full of shock and confusion. Was she hearing him right?
That was a Tailed Beast! If it broke free, the devastation would be unimaginable!
Kaede gave her a calm nod, silently signaling her to do it.
Rin looked into his eyes, eyes she instinctively trusted.
She took a deep breath, then slowly lowered her hands, ceasing the suppression.
Splurt! Splurt!!
The Three-Tails' sluggish tail suddenly became lively, thrashing about in the water bubble. Water splashed everywhere, and the bubble rapidly shrank.
Under Rin's frightened gaze, the bubble burst completely.
The Three-Tails' massive body dropped before her and let out a thunderous roar.
Whoooosh!!
The crushing pressure of the Tailed Beast's chakra and will slammed into her like a hurricane. She felt like a candle in the wind, about to be extinguished.
"So this... is the Three-Tails' power..."
Rin trembled.
But just then,
Kaede stepped forward, placing himself between her and the beast.
Crackle!!
A terrifying wave of chakra erupted from him.
It was a sea of energy, roaring outward and forming a barrier of lightning that cut off Rin from the Three-Tails completely, wrapping Kaede in a mantle of light.
This was the inner world of a Jinchūriki and their Tailed Beast. Only chakra and sealing techniques worked here.
Kaede wasn't particularly skilled in sealing techniques,
But that didn't matter.
He could generate chakra endlessly, injecting it into Rin and entering this space.
Here, his chakra was effectively infinite.
Against him, even the Nine-Tails wouldn't stand a chance, let alone the Three-Tails!
Crack, crack,
Bathed in silver light, Kaede cracked his knuckles, his expression calm. He clenched his right hand into a fist and placed his left hand over it.
Then, step by step, he walked toward the Three-Tails.
"A shinobi..."
The Three-Tails narrowed its massive eyes.
It had expected him to use some powerful sealing jutsu, but instead, Kaede seemed to intend to overpower it with sheer chakra.
The last time someone tried that was long ago,
A shinobi named Senju Hashirama, who had the chakra of Asura.
It couldn't resist that one.
But this human...
Aside from an enormous chakra pool, he didn't seem to have anything special. No sign of Indra's power either.
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