"Sit upon the frozen heavens!"
Inside the competition arena, as Minato declared the official start of the match, Trunks leaped high into the air, his right hand making a grasping motion at his side.
A sword had already materialized in his hand.
The tens of thousands of spectators present shivered violently, feeling as if they had been plunged into an ice cellar.
Looking down...
The moment Trunks swung his sword, the thousand-square-meter training ground had already transformed into a frozen world.
"Amazing, so amazing..."
Naruto, the sides of his forehead still bearing the marks of his mother's fist-drill assault, stared dumbfounded.
"What's the big deal."
Ichika crossed her arms in front of her chest, a look of disdain on her face.
Although shivering all over from the cold, the spectacular scene elicited fierce cheers from the spectators above.
Compared to Hinata's more concise and practical combat techniques demonstrated earlier, these laymen preferred this kind of flashy fighting style.
"Hmph~ Too easy."
Trunks, unable to sense the masked man's energy, thought he had already fainted.
He shrugged disdainfully, then turned to look at Minato, waiting for him to announce the result.
But Minato was indeed stunned.
Because when the breeze blew, dispersing the cold wind stirred up by the ice, Tobi's figure was completely gone.
"Wha-?"
Not only Minato, but Trunks opposite him, and many Konoha's Ninjas and experts who had come to watch the fun in the spectator stands were all startled.
'Where, where did he go?'
At that moment, Naruto suddenly felt a chilling sense of dread.
He sharply turned his head to look.
He saw the masked man had somehow appeared beside him and his mother.
"You, when did you get here?"
Naruto instinctively asked.
But Kushina, sensing the malice emanating from the other party faster than her son, quickly grabbed her son's wrist, trying to pull him behind her.
"Naruto, quick-"
"Uzumaki Kushina, hand over the Nine-Tails."
The masked man suddenly struck, the five fingers of his right hand burning with Yin-Yang Chakra, fiercely clamping onto Kushina's abdomen.
Eight Trigrams Unsealing!
"Kushina!"
Minato's face changed drastically as he threw a Flying Thunder God Kunai and charged towards the stands.
Meanwhile, Kakashi, Guy, Yamato, and the others watching from around the spectator stands were as if struck by lightning.
Swish-
Rukia suddenly drew Sode no Shirayuki, using Shunpo to rush over even faster than Minato.
The snow-white blade drew a brilliant arc, directly severing the masked man's right arm that was clamped on Kushina's abdomen.
But... it was too late!
"Roar-!!!"
Crimson Chakra surged into the sky like flames.
Accompanied by a beastly roar that echoed through Konoha Village, this scarlet Chakra rapidly condensed into a monstrous fox the size of a small hill.
In less than five seconds, the Nine-Tails reappeared in the world!
"Oh no! Kushina-san's seal was-"
Kakashi's face changed dramatically.
And seeing the Nine-Tails, which had crushed half the arena upon its appearance, the spectators from various countries were equally stunned, their jaws dropping.
It took them four or five seconds to react, then they began screaming and scrambling to escape.
Whoosh-
An invisible Conqueror's Haki swept past.
The moment it brushed over the panicked civilians, it caused them to roll their eyes back and immediately faint.
"Katakuri Nii-san!?"
Pudding looked in surprise at Katakuri, who had released his Conqueror's Haki.
Katakuri, who occupied five seats by himself, suddenly stood up and said in a deep voice:
"Letting them run like this will cause a stampede. Have Brulee use her fruit's ability to transport them away."
…
"You bastard!"
Rukia, who had severed the masked man's arm, also sensed something was wrong.
Because no blood dripped from the severed part of his arm.
But Rukia couldn't care less, twisting her wrist and thrusting her sword into the other's abdomen.
She didn't intend to kill him outright.
After all, she didn't know his identity or his purpose for doing this.
However, the moment her Sode no Shirayuki pierced the other's abdomen, Rukia's brows furrowed even tighter, 'What's going on?'
'There's no feeling of impact, as if I had cut through air.'
"Rukia-san, be careful!"
Orihime, holding Uchiha Maron, cried out in alarm.
Hearing this, Rukia glanced sideways.
She saw the Nine-Tails behind her was also looking down at her, roaring as it raised its right paw and swiped down at her fiercely.
"Dance, Sode-"
Seeing this, Rukia prepared to release her Zanpakuto's Shikai.
Whoosh- Boom!
A giant fireball with human facial features soared over Rukia's head.
It slammed violently into the Nine-Tails' right forearm, causing it to stumble and fall onto the center of the arena.
"Are you alright, Rukia-san?"
Rin, riding on a thundercloud, called down from above.
The thundercloud also had human facial features.
And the giant fireball that had knocked down the Nine-Tails flew back above Rin's head.
It was her Prometheus and Zeus.
"Although I could have handled it myself, but... thanks anyway."
Rukia replied with a smile.
"Ugh!"
At that moment, Kushina, the Jinchuriki who had now lost her Tailed Beast, staggered and fell to the ground.
Minato, who had arrived via Flying Thunder God Technique, was pale.
He knew all too well what it meant for a Jinchuriki to lose their Tailed Beast.
"Dad! Dad! Save Mom!"
Naruto hopped around anxiously.
"I know, I know..."
Minato said this, but his pale face and hesitant tone made it clear he probably didn't have a good solution.
So far, there was no precedent in the Ninja World of a jinchūriki surviving after their Tailed Beast was extracted.
"Minato-sensei! Please take Kushina-san to Tsunade-sama for treatment first, leave this place to me..."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Guy, who had just arrived, hadn't finished speaking.
Deafening explosions resounded throughout Konoha Village.
The ground shook violently, and an atmosphere of chaotic terror instantly spread from the training ground to the entire village.
Many people looked up.
They saw many summoned creatures with purple eyes, their sizes not much smaller than a Tailed Beast, running rampant in the village.
"Who are you!?"
Kakashi, who had now lifted his forehead protector, glared fiercely at the masked man with the Sharingan in his left eye.
Hearing this angry demand, the masked man finally shifted his attention from Rin riding on Zeus back to Kakashi.
He let out a disdainful snort and charged fiercely towards Gaara.
'Releasing Nine-Tails wasn't enough… One-Tail, you come out too!'
"Stop right there!"
Kurenai stretched out her right hand.
A small Wind Release: Rasenshuriken materialized in her palm, and she hurled it fiercely at the masked man.
However, just like aiming at a mirage, the small Rasenshuriken passed directly through the other's body, hitting the wall on the opposite side of the training ground with a piercing tearing sound.
But it didn't harm the masked man in the slightest.
"How is that possible!?"
Kurenai's red eyes widened.
'What kind of technique was that?'
Having traveled to several worlds with Jin, she had never seen anything like it.
"Thunderclap Eight Trigrams!"
Yamato also leaped into the air, the club at his waist carrying immense force as it smashed down.
It also passed through the top of the other's head, hitting the ground directly.
Although it created a crater over ten meters in diameter, like Kurenai's Rasenshuriken, it just didn't hit the real target.
Gaara, still in his gloomy phase, hadn't had time to take any action.
The moment he saw the pinwheel-patterned Mangekyo Sharingan beneath the mask, he had already lost consciousness.
"Come out, Shukaku!"
The entire training ground shook once more as if the earth was moving and the mountains were trembling. A creature whose body was 99% composed of sand, with violet patterns covering its surface, Shukaku, broke free following the Nine-Tails!
"You're from the Uchiha!?"
The deputy Anbu Commander, Uchiha Shisui, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, shouted with a drastically changed expression.
To so easily break the Tailed Beast's seal and control it, besides the Uchiha, he couldn't think of any other clan capable of such a feat.
"Shisui! Be careful, his ability is strange!"
Kakashi loudly warned.
He had seen Rukia, Kurenai, and Yamato had attacked consecutively, but all their attacks passed through his body as if hitting air.
He had never heard such a technique… it was too bizarre!
Whoosh-
A violent crescent-shaped sword energy sliced a flying summoned beast from the sky.
Many people looked over and saw that the one who had attacked was Kazui, holding a large watermelon knife!
"Mom!"
After cutting down the summoned beast, Kazui hurried to Orihime's side, firmly shielding her behind him.
After all, his mother truly had zero combat ability.
The fallen summoned beast on the ground tried to struggle, but another, even sharper sword energy cleanly bisected it.
It's from Ichika!
"Where did these rats come from, causing trouble in someone else's home!"
Ichika's face was dark, her right hand holding a sword, her left hand carrying Hidan's chattering head.
The next second, she tossed Hidan's head into the air and swung her left palm.
"Raikoho!"
Golden thunderlight shot skyward like a heavenly pillar, grinding the immortal Hidan's head into dust.
"You're dead."
Ichika threatened with the tone of a delinquent.
...
Jin's residence was next to the Uchiha Clan's compound.
And at this moment, a huge water pool with a diameter comparable to two football fields, no, more accurately, a giant oval-shaped water sphere, covered half of the Uchiha Clan's compound.
And the Eight-Tails was trapped inside.
Inside the giant water sphere, fighting the Eight-Tails was Hoshigaki Kisame, who has fused with Samehada!
And the super-sized water sphere before them was the result of Kisame's [Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave].
"Wow... there are so many types of martial arts in this world I've never seen before. Spitting out so much water from the mouth, and turning clay into bombs, so interesting."
Goku placed his right hand above his eyebrows, watching Kisame's fierce battle with the Eight-Tails.
Behind him was Deidara, beaten black and blue, shivering and huddled in a corner.
"I thought since Orochimaru wasn't here, this Chunin Exams wouldn't be worth watching, so I didn't go. I didn't expect Obito to pull off such a big stunt."
Jin also walked over and threw Sasori, who had been beaten half to death by him, next to the artificial lake.
Boom!
Suddenly, without warning, missiles with flaming tails burst out from the soil.
They flew into the air, turned 180 degrees, and rained down on Jin and Goku like a storm.
Goku blinked twice, his expression unchanged.
This reminded him of his experience destroying the Red Ribbon Army when he was very young.
Those people used things like this to attack him back then.
It hurt quite a bit.
He forgot to go back and apply medicine at the time, and it had already healed by the time he remembered.
In the last instant, when the rockets were less than half a meter away from the two, Goku silently released his Ki.
All the missiles were sent flying back as if hit by a baseball bat, getting a home run.
They exploded violently outside the courtyard's walls.
The next moment, several black figures suddenly descended.
They held black rods in both hands, stabbing fiercely down at the two below.
This scene strongly resembled the last thing Jiraiya saw before his death.
Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!
Jin moved.
To be precise, his tail moved.
The tail at the base of his spine was as flexible as his own limbs.
It slapped fiercely against the faces of the six black figures at an incredible angle.
Causing them to lose their balance in mid-air, nearly falling into the artificial lake beside the courtyard.
"Wow, your hair color and eyes are all the same, and you all have so many rods stuck in your faces. Are you sextuplets?"
Goku asked curiously.
He seemed completely unaware that they had just tried to kill him.
But this was normal.
After all, when six mosquitoes land on you, do you think they're there to kill you?
"We are Pain, we are God..."
Deva Path at the front pretended nothing had happened, calmly striking a pose with the other five Pains, and once again recited his mantra.
"..."
Jin's face at this moment was indescribable.
If one had to describe it, it would be exasperation.
"...Goku, do you still have any Senzu Beans left?"
Jin asked, turning his head.
"Huh? I have a few left. Why? Are you injured?"
Goku asked curiously in return, simultaneously taking the hemp pouch tied to his belt and pulling out two Senzu Beans.
Jin took one and threw it towards Deva Path.
Deva Path didn't catch it, letting the unremarkable-looking bean fall at his feet.
However, Jin didn't seem to mind, just saying with a sigh:
"Poor kid, take the Senzu Bean back for your main body to eat, then go back to your hometown and find some land to farm. Sigh, looking at you makes me feel sad."