Just as Orochimaru's heart shuddered, a figure wrapped in violent scarlet chakra, like a bolt of red lightning tearing through space, suddenly vanished from his sight!
The speed was so great that not even an afterimage remained!
"So fast!" Alarm bells rang wildly in Orochimaru's mind as he relied on instinct to jerk his body around, but the sight that met his eyes made him gasp.
The massive, hideous python he had summoned with his chakra was now being forcibly severed at the waist by a force so brutal it defied logic!
Foul-smelling snake blood and internal organs spilled out like a waterfall.
Standing firmly in the middle of the severed snake carcass was Naruto, his entire body enveloped in a materialized scarlet Tailed Beast chakra Cloak that flickered like burning flames.
He roughly thrust one arm into the snake's belly and dragged out the unconscious Sasuke!
At this moment, the aura emanating from Naruto was by no means the relatively immature orange-red chakra from before.
Covering his body was a Tailed Beast chakra Cloak that more closely resembled his later-stage forms!
The dense, inseparable scarlet light was filled with a pure and primal will of destruction.
Behind him, four massive scarlet tails, condensed from pure chakra like demon-like tails, were swinging wildly; each swing brought a shriek that tore through the air, radiating a suffocating pressure!
Without the slightest hesitation or even a wasted movement, Naruto's eyes—covered by Tailed Beast chakra, revealing only cold, beast-like pupils—instantly locked onto the nearby Orochimaru.
One of the violent scarlet tails, moving with the terrifying speed of a sonic boom and the force of a mountain-splitting blow, lashed out at Orochimaru's hastily raised arms!
Boom!
A dull, heart-palpitating roar exploded!
Orochimaru only felt an irresistible, tremendous force slam into his arms.
His defense was as fragile as paper, and the bone-shattering pain was clearly felt.
He didn't even have time to make any effective move to deflect the force or counterattack before he was sent flying like a broken puppet with severed strings, crashing heavily into the ruins and dust in the distance!
Naruto did not pursue the victory; instead, the palm clenching Sasuke was suddenly raised, the movement swift and stiff as if driven by a violent force.
He held the unconscious Sasuke up before him; the face was already covered by the blood-shadow of the Tailed Beast transformation, leaving only a blurred outline and a pair of tightly closed eyes.
A trace of struggle and confusion flashed through Naruto's blood-red eyes, as if he were trying hard to recognize this dear friend who had once fought side by side with him.
In the next moment, Naruto clutched his forehead tightly with his other hand, his teeth gritted as if he were engaged in a silent struggle with the demon deep within his heart.
He desperately wanted to suppress that impulse, but the Nine-Tails' chakra finally overwhelmed his mental defense line.
In desperation, exhausting his remaining sanity, he threw Sasuke away.
But he hadn't considered that his current strength was completely incomparable to his normal state.
This throw seemed casual, yet it contained the terrifying power of his Version 1 Tailed Beast State.
Sasuke's body was like a cannonball from a barrel, tearing through the air and flying away at an astonishing speed.
His limp body was completely defenseless; if he hit the hard branches of the surrounding towering ancient trees in his current weak state, he would surely be shattered to pieces!
However, at this life-or-death moment, a dazzling golden flash suddenly pierced the darkness, descending beside Naruto's tool bag.
Minato's figure appeared out of thin air, his golden hair flying in the wind; though his face was pale, his azure eyes were as sharp as a hawk's.
He didn't even have time to look around the messy battlefield before he caught the sight of Sasuke being thrown.
Without the slightest hesitation, Minato pushed off the ground, his body turning into a gale as he rushed toward the direction Sasuke was falling with a speed that surpassed his limits.
Time seemed to freeze; at the very moment Sasuke was about to hit a tree trunk, Minato's arms steadily caught him, dissipating that destructive momentum.
A slight thud sounded as dust flew; Minato staggered back a few steps but firmly protected the boy in his arms.
After saving Sasuke, Minato finally had a chance to catch his breath and observe this part of the battlefield.
Minato's azure eyes instantly locked onto the most heart-stopping scene.
In the distance, a figure completely wrapped in ominous scarlet chakra was struggling violently.
Four tails, several meters long and seemingly condensed from solidified blood, danced wildly behind him; each swing brought a piercing sound of breaking air and debris from the cracking ground.
He knew that was his son, Naruto!
Minato's heart tightened; he could clearly feel that Naruto was painfully trying to regain control of his consciousness, but that violent power was dragging him into a deeper darkness.
His gaze shifted quickly as he scanned the other side of the battlefield.
The red-haired boy from the Hidden Sand Village named Gaara was now lying silently on the ground, completely unconscious, his fate unknown.
However, another mutation occurred!
On the other side of where Minato's gaze had swept, a mangled body that had been ravaged by tremendous force actually eerily pushed itself up.
The sight itself was filled with discordance and horror.
What followed, causing Minato's pupils to suddenly constrict, was that the mangled body's mouth... tore open horrifically at an angle that surpassed human limits!
It wasn't just opening the mouth; the entire oral cavity was being forced open like two rotting door panels!
Even more terrifyingly, from that wide-open, massive orifice, two pale hands covered in an unknown mucus actually reached out!
Those hands gripped the torn corners of the mouth and pulled hard to either side, as if opening a passage to the human world.
Accompanied by a bone-chilling sound, a complete figure forced its way out of that horrific, gaping maw.
Wet black hair clung to a pale face, and golden snake eyes flickered with a cold and greedy light.
"Orochimaru!" Minato shouted angrily, recognizing this uninvited guest who had been reborn from a dead shell.
"Tsk tsk tsk..." Orochimaru let out a signature raspy laugh as he stuck out his equally slimy tongue and licked the remaining mucus from the corner of his mouth.
His gaze scanned back and forth between Minato and the violent scarlet mass in the distance.
"So it's Minato... what a surprise. I didn't expect you to arrive at this battlefield so quickly. It seems the timing I chose to act was, after all... a step too late."
His snake eyes showed no concealment of his heavy wariness as they swept over Naruto.
That Tailed Beast transformation power was enough to startle any expert.
Finally, Orochimaru's gaze fixed on the unconscious black-haired boy in Minato's arms, Sasuke.
His eyes instantly became complex; greed and a hint of unavoidable regret intertwined, finally turning into pity.
"What a... pity," Orochimaru's voice carried a hint of self-mockery.
He had carefully arranged so many 'human bombs' and gone through so much trouble to hold back Shisui and the others...
In the end, he still failed at the last moment.
As expected of Minato.
Standing atop the ruins, Orochimaru's golden snake eyes flashed with a hint of unwillingness, yet it was quickly replaced by calm calculation.
Forcibly seizing Sasuke in front of the Yellow Flash was no different from a pipe dream.
Minato's elusive Flying Thunder God Technique was enough to dismantle any surprise attack in an instant.
Furthermore, there was very little time left.
Shisui was rapidly approaching; the delaying traps Orochimaru had set earlier could not hold out for long against Shisui's Sharingan.
The corner of Orochimaru's mouth curled into a self-deprecating sneer.
In this operation, he only had a fleeting window of opportunity to capture Sasuke, but he had happened to miscalculate the most critical link.
Naruto was actually the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
That violent Tailed Beast chakra had not only disrupted the entire plan but also caused his efforts to fail at the last moment.
However, disappointment did not spread in his heart.
The operation on the other side seemed to have sent a signal of success.
That backup Uchiha clansman, though his talent was not as dazzling as Sasuke's, was barely good enough.
Thinking of this, an unnoticeable smugness flashed through the depths of Orochimaru's eyes.
He turned to Minato, his raspy laughter sounding particularly harsh in the night wind.
"It seems you still don't have time to deal with my affairs," Orochimaru's voice carried a playful provocation, as if he were enjoying the other's predicament.
"Well then, goodbye, Minato."
Before his voice had finished fading, his figure had already distorted like a ghost, finally vanishing completely from the spot, leaving only a faint trace of chakra residue.
Minato stood in place, his azure eyes staring at the direction where Orochimaru had vanished, but he had no intention of pursuing him.
The other's words hit the mark; at this moment, his most important mission was to suppress the Nine-Tails' berserk state and pull his son Naruto back from the brink of losing control.
Besides, continuously performing the Flying Thunder God Technique had already left his chakra on the verge of exhaustion; rashly tangling with Orochimaru would only increase the risk.
A surge of anxiety rose in Minato's heart, but his rationality made him quickly reach a decision.
He raised his hand to form seals, and the Flying Thunder God Technique symbols flickered with a faint light at his fingertips.
In the blink of an eye, Sasuke was safely teleported to a distant shelter.
Although the chakra consumption made Minato frown slightly, he didn't dare to gamble on whether Orochimaru would make a sudden return attack.
This move was not the best policy, but it was a necessary precaution.
Having handled all this, Minato's gaze finally fell back on his son.
Naruto seemed to have been completely swallowed by the Nine-Tails' scarlet chakra at this moment, crawling on the ground like a beast and letting out an earth-shattering roar.
That out-of-control power tore up the surrounding land, and a flash of pain crossed Minato's eyes.
But in the next second, his figure turned into a golden light, resolutely rushing into that violent Nine-Tails' Chakra.
...
Minato carefully held Naruto, the temperature coming from his fingertips being exceptionally scorching.
He looked down at the child's exposed skin, which had been ruthlessly burned by the violent Nine-Tails' Chakra, showing a shocking blood-red as if a layer of thin skin had been brutally peeled away.
This sight stabbed deep into Minato's heart, and piercing pity and deep self-blame instantly overwhelmed him.
If only he could have been a step faster... would Naruto not have been forced to endure this pain from the monster inside him?
This young body should not have been so covered in scars.
He suppressed his surging emotions, his gaze scanning the messy battlefield that had just settled, and a hint of relief after survival quietly emerged.
Fortunately, what Naruto had faced was not that The Collector whose power was unfathomable.
If that mysterious and powerful enemy had truly descended, in that situation, he might have only been able to watch helplessly as the other half of the Nine-Tails was taken away, or even pay a more tragic price.
Perhaps... he thought, that Collector didn't know the Nine-Tails had been split in two at all?
So after obtaining the half from inside Kushina, he left contentedly?
Organizing his thoughts, Minato delayed no longer and quickly returned to Konoha with the still-unconscious Naruto and the equally exhausted Gaara.
Stepping into the Village entrance, the clamor of war had already faded, and the air was filled with a silence following the tension.
Konoha had experienced a storm and was now restoring order.
Thanks to the thorough preparations beforehand, the Village's main structures had miraculously been preserved, reducing the disaster's destruction to a minimum.
However, the explosion points of those few 'human bombs' that they hadn't had time to safely transfer became the most glaring markers of loss in this battle.
As far as the eye could see, the Shinobi in the Village were putting all their effort into the aftermath.
But even though a devastating blow had been avoided, the number of injured was still massive.
The Medical Shinobi were all walking in a hurry with exhausted faces, weaving between hospital beds and doing their best to treat all kinds of wounds, having no time even to wipe the sweat beading on their foreheads.
Looking at this busy and arduous scene before him, a strong sense of longing suddenly rose in Minato's heart.
He couldn't help but think of the two top healers who were not in the Village right now, Takuno and Tsunade.
If they were still here... Minato thought silently, the predicament of being stretched thin for manpower would surely be greatly relieved.
More importantly, their exquisite medical skills would surely be able to carefully examine Kushina and Naruto to confirm if any hidden dangers still lurked in their bodies.
Minato sighed deeply at this time.
Post-war affairs poured in, and Minato finally received a detailed damage report from Konoha.
He focused on reading the scroll, and his tightly furrowed brow gradually relaxed.
Although the numbers on the report were heavy, just as he had calmly predicted before, the Village's foundation was undamaged.
Overall, the losses were still within the Village's capacity to endure and quickly recover.
Turning his gaze toward the Land of Wind, intelligence from Sunagakure was also clearly presented on his desk.
The truth had already surfaced; the mastermind was indeed Orochimaru.
The other party had assassinated the real Fourth Kazekage Rasa long before the plan was launched and had carefully planned and directed this attack against Konoha using his identity.
A wave of chill and anger rose in Minato's heart; Sunagakure had been used without knowing it, and their Kazekage had been tragically killed, so their strength and reputation would surely suffer a heavy blow after the war.
Without a doubt, in this shocking turn of events, Sunagakure was the biggest victim who paid the heaviest price.
He thought about the upcoming post-war maneuvering and how to demand reparations from Sunagakure.
Compensating for Konoha's losses without driving the other party into a corner became an urgent issue on his desk, and he needed to find an appropriate solution that balanced all parties.