Hiruzen persuaded me to die

"You no longer have the Fourth Hokage. So tell me—how do you plan to suppress the rampaging Nine Tails now?"

Uchiha Obito's voice oozed mockery, even as his shadow flickered at a safe distance from the battlefield.

Despite having seen Hyūga Naraku overpower the AB Combo, Obito held no illusions—Killer Bee's Eight Tails was nothing compared to the Nine Tails sealed within Naruto.

The strongest of all Tailed Beasts, the Nine Tails wasn't something you suppressed with brute force. Even Obito himself had needed the Mangekyō Sharingan to take control of it during the previous attack on the village.

If not for that eye... even he wouldn't dare.

"Damn it! It really was you—you're the bastard who released the Nine Tails and got the Fourth Hokage killed!"

Uchiha Fugaku's voice trembled with fury. Rage flickered in his eyes.

Namikaze Minato had been the only Hokage who treated the Uchiha Clan fairly, with respect. After his death, the Uchiha were pushed to the outskirts of the village, forced into near-isolation, and subjected to constant Anbu surveillance.

They had lived under suspicion—branded the cause of the Nine Tails attack.

But the real culprit had always been this masked man.

Naraku, hovering mid-air with his Tenseigan shimmering, didn't seem fazed.

He knew Naruto's full rampage wouldn't last forever. Jiraiya should be nearby, and if Naruto's chakra spiraled beyond control, the safeguard left by Minato—his imprint of chakra—would trigger inside Naruto's seal.

Still, it was best to act fast.

Back inside Kamui's distorted space…

"Sarutobi Hiruzen," Naraku's voice echoed, carried by the sharp edge of his sword. "Are you going to come out?"

He slowly turned his blade toward Sarutobi Asuma, whose body trembled.

"If not… I'll just execute your last remaining son."

In the Kamui dimension, Hiruzen's aged face twisted in anguish.

He had already lost his first son, Sarutobi Shinnosuke.

Danzo, Homura, Koharu—their deaths had followed soon after. His entire clan was gone.

Now Asuma… the last flicker of his bloodline…

"Can you go save Asuma?" Hiruzen's voice was hoarse as he looked toward Obito.

But Obito didn't even look at him.

"You want me to get close to Hyūga Naraku again?" Obito sneered. "You're welcome to try it yourself."

Hiruzen's expression froze.

Go out there? To him?

That was a death sentence.

"So you're just going to let my son die?" Hiruzen growled.

Obito gave a cold snort. "Your son's life means nothing to me."

He smirked, voice dripping with venom. "Besides… maybe Hyūga Naraku will end up just like your precious Fourth Hokage—dead, sealing Nine Tails."

"Think of it that way," he whispered. "It might soothe your pathetic guilt."

Outside.

Asuma stood frozen, scanning the area, hoping, praying…

"Father! Please—save me, Father!" he cried out.

The others looked on in uncomfortable silence. Moments ago, Asuma had been willing to kill his own father to survive.

Now he was begging for the same father to save him?

How ironic.

Naraku's voice broke the silence.

"Seems your father has no intention of coming for you."

The blade of the pheasant sword glinted in the fading light, aimed directly at Asuma's heart.

"Don't—wait! He'll come! He—he will!"

Asuma staggered backward, desperation pouring from his voice.

Shlick.

The sword drove through his chest.

Naraku's calm voice followed.

"What then? You'd have killed him next, just to buy time?"

Blood trickled from Asuma's mouth. His eyes widened in disbelief… then slowly closed as he collapsed.

Naraku calmly withdrew his sword, and without a word, shot into the sky on a wave of Tenseigan repulsion, soaring toward the rising chakra of Nine Tails.

It didn't take long to find him.

Naruto had already entered his eight-tails form—a monstrous figure cloaked in writhing, molten red chakra, with eight tails thrashing like whips behind him.

He was no longer Naruto—just raw, uncontained destruction.

"You… are you the one they call Hyūga Naraku?"

Jiraiya stood amidst the wreckage, panting heavily, blood splattered on his coat.

He recognized the glowing eyes immediately. A variation of the Byakugan—one that matched the reports he'd heard.

"Jiraiya-sensei," Naraku nodded.

"No time for talk," Jiraiya said, urgency creeping into his voice. "Can you stop him?"

Naraku looked at Naruto's berserk form.

"I can."

From a swirling distortion nearby, Obito's shadow emerged once more, safely distant from the fight.

"Let's see it then," he taunted. "Show me how you plan to control Nine Tails."

His eye gleamed with cruel interest.

In the Kamui space, Hiruzen stared out through Obito's distortion.

Let him die, he prayed. Let Hyūga Naraku suffer.

The man who had taken everything from him.

But Naraku didn't flinch.

He simply lifted a hand.

Whoooom!

With a thunderous hum, eight massive black chakra rods—forged from the perfected union of Yin and Yang chakra—erupted into the sky.

One after another, they slammed down around Naruto, piercing the ground, forming an unbreakable seal.

Each rod suppressed the flow of Nine Tails' chakra.

Naruto, caught mid-charge, froze—his body trembling as if an invisible force had gripped his very soul.

Even as the ninth tail began to form behind him, Naraku raised his hand again.

A ninth black rod, larger than the rest, descended like a divine judgment—impaling the final tail to the earth.

Silence.

Not just from Naruto.

But from everyone.

Jiraiya stared, speechless.

Konoha shinobi, arriving on the scene, froze in shock.

Obito's eye widened. "Impossible…"

Even Sarutobi Hiruzen, watching from within Kamui, gaped in disbelief.

They had expected a battle.

They had expected chaos.

But instead… the Nine Tails, feared destroyer of villages, was nailed to the earth—immobilized.

Like a wild beast subdued by a god.

Hyūga Naraku hovered calmly above, his Tenseigan glowing with celestial might.

Suppressing the Nine Tails?

It wasn't difficult.

Not for him.

To be continued…