Two translucent tails swayed behind Kushina.
Several whisker-like markings split across her face.
A fox claw made entirely of chakra suddenly lashed toward Yako.
On the ridgeline, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Danzo, and the others all had their eyes fixed on the Fox.
By now, he was effectively Konoha's strongest shinobi.
And yet none of them had ever truly seen him fight at full strength.
Facing the fox claw formed from Nine-Tails chakra, Yako simply raised one hand and slapped it aside.
The claw shattered instantly.
The Nine-Tails chakra couldn't even maintain its shape.
Namikaze Minato's pupils shrank.
He had sparred with Kushina before.
No one there understood the strength of that chakra claw better than he did.
That thing could easily crush stone and bat away kunai and shuriken.
And yet Lord Fox had broken it with a casual wave of his hand.
Suddenly, Kushina's consciousness was dragged into the sealed prison within her body.
"Fox demon! Give me chakra already!"
Beyond the bars of the prison, the Nine-Tails slowly opened its eyes.
It could feel an extremely powerful chakra outside.
That man...
Was not someone one or two tails could deal with.
"Heh... so that's the shinobi you were talking about? The one who controls Wood Release?"
"Not every Wood Release... is Senju Hashirama's Wood Release..."
The Nine-Tails moved closer to the cage, and an enormous amount of chakra began spilling out.
Behind Kushina, a third tail appeared.
Yako flashed to her side with the Body Flicker Technique.
"Wood Release: Ironvine Bind!"
Several iron-hard vines shot from Yako's sleeves.
After only a few swift lashes, the Nine-Tails chakra around Kushina dispersed completely.
She couldn't even maintain the translucent chakra cloak anymore.
"Nine-Tails, I know you can hear me."
"Give her more chakra."
"Otherwise... I'll do it myself."
Yako could reinforce Kushina's seal.
And he could loosen it too.
Kushina's presence weakened rapidly—
Then an even more terrifying chakra erupted.
The Nine-Tails had been provoked.
A massive torrent of chakra exploded around Kushina.
This time, it wasn't a translucent chakra cloak.
It was dense, reddish-brown chakra—solid enough to push her into a semi-tailed beast transformation.
Behind Kushina, four tails appeared.
Dropping to all fours, Kushina threw back her head.
A Tailed Beast Ball began to form in front of her mouth.
Yako nodded.
"As expected of the Nine-Tails."
"The charge time on its Tailed Beast Ball is much faster than trash like the Two-Tails."
The moment the Tailed Beast Ball appeared, everyone tensed.
Especially Nara Shikakaku.
He had absolutely no way to stop a Tailed Beast Ball.
Sure, he was standing right beside the Third Hokage—but if Sarutobi Hiruzen decided to Body Flicker away and save himself...
Then what?
As for Danzo on his right—
Danzo had already begun gathering chakra into his legs.
Only Tsunade seemed completely unconcerned, with no intention of dodging whatsoever.
Minato, meanwhile, was incredibly tense.
He and Kushina had sparred many times, and while he had heard of the Tailed Beast Ball before, he had never actually seen Kushina use it.
Back when he followed Hatake Sakumo in the Land of Grass, he had seen the Five-Tails use one.
And that attack had been nothing short of apocalyptic.
The destructive power of a Tailed Beast Ball was universally acknowledged across the shinobi world.
Every major village had been struck by one at some point.
Either by their own tailed beast...
Or by someone else's.
In Kushina's four-tail state, her Tailed Beast Ball was only about the size of a human head.
But the pressure radiating from it was horrifying.
Wave after wave of violent air pressure rolled outward, whipping Yako's cloak into the air.
And yet—
The Fox did not dodge.
Did not retreat.
Instead, he bent at the waist and brought his face close to the Tailed Beast Ball, tilting his head from side to side as he examined it.
Up on the ridge, even Tsunade—who had remained calm until now—finally grew tense.
Fox was strong.
But wasn't this attitude a little too ridiculous?
The next instant, Yako stepped back.
And in front of him, a wooden humanoid burst up from the earth.
This Threefold Wood Golem stood only about two men tall.
The moment it emerged, it seized the Tailed Beast Ball in its hand.
The Tailed Beast Ball—
Like a ball being caught out of the air—
Had just changed owners.
It had become the Wood Golem's weapon.
And the Wood Golem slammed it directly toward Kushina's shoulder.
BOOM!
Kushina was struck by her own Tailed Beast Ball and let out a scream.
Tsunade immediately raised a hand and pressed down on Minato's shoulder, stopping him from rushing in.
"Minato! Watch carefully!"
"The Nine-Tails is too important. Fox won't do anything reckless!"
Minato knew Lord Fox was monstrously powerful, and with him there, Kushina wouldn't lose control.
But this training method was still far too brutal.
That wooden construct—
It had caught a Tailed Beast Ball and used it like a weapon.
That image left an unbelievably deep impression on him.
So chakra...
Could be used like that too?
When the smoke and dust finally cleared, a massive crater had appeared in the valley.
Minato saw that Kushina had been blasted to one side, her body covered in scorched burns.
But the Nine-Tails chakra had healing properties.
A huge volume of chakra surged through her, and the injuries began recovering at a visible speed.
Only then did Minato finally breathe again.
He glanced at the crater, deep in thought.
So this was what happened when chakra was compressed to that extent...
No elaborate trickery.
No flashy techniques.
Just pure, concentrated energy—
And it produced horrifying destructive power.
The explosion hadn't damaged the Threefold Wood Golem at all.
It stood there completely intact.
Yako stepped out from behind it and looked toward Kushina in the distance.
"Kushina, four tails is nowhere near enough."
"Your development as a Jinchūriki is still far behind people like Ryuuren and Han."
Kushina's entire body throbbed with pain.
And she had been thoroughly enraged.
Worse, the Nine-Tails' will had started surfacing within her.
That final push shattered the last of her restraint.
A fifth tail burst out behind her.
Yako sensed the chakra and gave a slight nod.
"Try to wrest control of your body back from the Nine-Tails."
"If you can erupt into five tails without losing your mind, then you'll have the confidence to stand against the tailed beasts of the other villages on the battlefield."
But Kushina only let out a series of beastlike growls from deep in her throat.
Clearly, she couldn't seize control back.
At this point, she looked more like a feral monster than a person.
She dropped to all fours and charged Yako without hesitation.
One of her forelimbs suddenly extended more than ten meters, clawing toward him.
The Threefold Wood Golem raised a hand and caught the strike.
Yako observed calmly.
"A stretched chakra limb... not bad battlefield flexibility."
Then suddenly—
One of the claw's fingers elongated into a two-meter blade and stabbed straight toward Yako's forehead.
Up on the ridgeline, everyone had assumed the Fox would use his Absolute Defense technique.
Instead, once again, the Wood Golem intercepted the attack.
The Threefold Wood Golem had three heads and six arms.
One arm locked down the claw's wrist.
Another arm moved with astonishing precision and seized the elongated finger-blade.
"Kushina!"
"Try to control your body!"
"Don't let the Nine-Tails' beast instincts drive you!"
"That's the entire point of this training!"
But Kushina couldn't hear a thing.
She simply turned her head and bit off her own chakra arm.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, she lunged at Yako again.
Yako shook his head.
Looks like this won't work.
Better to start with controlling four tails first.
Five tails was still too difficult for Kushina.
"Wood Release: Hokage-Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique — Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands!"
The Threefold Wood Golem's six arms moved at once.
Some seized Kushina's wrists.
Others locked down her shoulders.
And the most important wooden hand of all—
A seal mark bearing the character "Seal" appeared in its palm—
And slammed directly onto Kushina's forehead.