The battlefield rested into a quiet and unsettling hush, the tails pressing tighter and tighter at their targets.
But the moment they locked together around the Warchief.
A flash of yellow light sparked past them, as both Minato and Gamabunta blurred outside the seal.
"Flying thundergod technique."
Now outside the cluster of tails, Gamabunta lifted his blade into the night sky, magnitudes of blue aura wrapping and gripping through his blade until a blue outgrowth was formed.
And when the blade finally burned as though clad in fire, he let it descend with full impact, cutting through the gathered tails with a bright blue explosion.
With the chakra-projections now destroyed, Gamabunta turned his attention back to the Ninetails, but the moment Minato's eyes gazed at the Orange beast.
He couldn't help but scowl at the arrival of one more ghostly figure.
"Hmmm? Why the long face— Hokage?"
Obito's cold voice resounded through the night sky, as he warped atop the tailed beast.
He then crossed his legs. Then with a yawn, proceeded to sit atop Kurama.
"Aren't you excited to pick up where we left off?"
Minato's face did little to hide his irritation at the figure that tried to kill both his Wife and Son.
But he had learnt better than to let his emotions cloud his judgment.
"What happened to the boy you fought?" The Hokage ignored the hooded figure's taunts, asking a question of his own.
Obito stroked his chin as though trying to reminisce about an insignificant event, before snapping his finger the moment he jogged his memories.
"Oh, that young fool."
The masked uchiha's eye immediately bent in glee, its scarlet radiance growing as he uttered his next words in a tone of ecstasy.
"I killed him."
Upon hearing those melancholic words, Minato's fist tightened in rage, whilst a feeling of regret gripped his heart.
As for why he would feel so saddened by the death of a stranger? Even the fuming Hokage didn't have those answers.
"I see." Minato's face remained expressionless.
"Then I shall also kill you— right here."
Obito's joyous demeanor faded into a more serious look, as he laced his voice in venom.
"Then come at me— Hokage!" The masked Uchiha pointed at the Yellow flash with an apathetic gesture.
"ROAR!!!!!!!"
The Ninetails thundered a beastly groan, swaying its head from side to side as though trying to break free from a mental curse.
Its pupils flashed back and forth, once adopting three tomoyes, and then switching over to its natural slits.
Suddenly, with its eyes back to their natural form, it immediately turned its attention over to Obito.
It then ascended its arm over its head, before attempting to crash it onto its captor.
But the moment his clams were just moments away from scrapping at the nonchalant Uchiha, the beast froze in place, its eyes radiating once more in a crimson gleam.
"You beasts really are a riot." Obito calmly tapped the beast on its head like a father to a little child.
The Uchiha's gaze was directly pierced at the monster's wide eyes, and in mere moments.
The beast's pupils spun violently, birthing a pattern of three uncanny tomoyes.
Minato's figgoz tensed the moment he and Gamabunta witnessed the masked man's eerie display of dominion, over a monster fabled to possess the power to reduce the world to embers.
"ROAR!!!!!!"
The beast shook the earth once more with a shout, before slamming its feet into the ground.
The ground shattered under the sheer pressure of the impact.
Kurama then built momentum, tensing his muscles before storming forward in a frenzied charge.
"Chief."
"I know!"
Gamabunta responded, surging forward with a blast of chakra leaving his feet.
Lifting his free arm into the air, the Boss toad's smoking pipe immediately appeared in a burst of white smoke.
He then stuck it into his mouth, clasping both his palms together. And in conjunction with Minato's chakra.
"Sage art, White clouds of the toad mount!"
His Kiseru instantly bubbled, foaming on the mouth to release an explosion of smoke that obscured the battlefield.
The Ninetails stopped in its tracks, watching as a hazy mist stretched all around him, and encapsulate the battlefield.
Their plan was simple.
If they couldn't get close enough with brute force, they would slip through the Beast's defenses by catching it off guard.
SLING!
A metal shimmer gleamed in Kurama's sight as a gargantuan sword came rushing towards him.
He barely parried the attack, slashing through the blade and ricocheting the weapon to send it spinning off into the air.
But as though he had perfectly timed the flow of the events, Gamabunta laid in wait up in the air, catching his sword before crashing upon Kurama.
The Beast's fingers met steel once more, leaving the two titans in a momentary stalemate.
However, there was a huge difference between an oversized toad, and a devilish beast.
Kurama pushed Gamabunta backwards, before attempting to slash through the staggering amphibian.
But Gamabunta bent his blade sideways, leaving the metal to absorb the full brunt of the attack.
The Warchief then swung his sword, the sharp metal reaching speeds that cut the air in two.
He sent that momentum heading straight at the Ninetails, but the Beast made quick work of it, wrapping his tail around the toad's arm and locking its motion in his forceful grasp.
His sword had been rendered immobile, but his left arm was still free.
He spat his Smoking pipe straight at his left palm, gripping it tightly to deliver a swat across the Fox's head.
But that only seemed to make the beast fume with more intense rage.
"That's not good." Gamabunta regretted his earlier decision, as he was sent crashing down with a vengeful uppercut from Kurama.
The Beast didn't stop there.
Employing his tails as chains, Kurama wrapped them around both of Gamabunta's arms, latching at his legs, body and neck.
The monster then lifted Gamabunta above the ground, and sent the toad crashing into the earth, crushing a few of his ribs as he coughed up volumes of blood.
"Chief, are you alright?!—" Minato Maintained his grip onto the toad by sticking to him with chakra.
He tried to ask for his friend's wellbeing, but his words immediately hung in his throat.
His brows furrowed in worry, as he watched a dark ever growing shadow tower above them.