Chapter 397: Chapter 397: Kurama (with a merciful face): I’ll give you a chance to explain
"What are those two idiots doing?" In the distance, Kurama looked at Naruto and Sasuke with open dislike. After landing that one hit, they stopped attacking and just stayed in place doing who knows what.
The Ten-Tails kept roaring, its chakra in chaos, making it impossible for Kurama to precisely track the other tailed beasts’ chakra.
As far as Kurama was concerned, slacking off before a battle deserved strong condemnation.
"Need some help?"
Just as Kurama was cursing those two slackers in his head, he suddenly heard a slightly awkward voice from beside him.
Kurama paused and instinctively lowered his head, seeing Minato—fully recovered—standing there with an awkward expression.
"So it’s you, Minato." Kurama almost fired off a Tailed Beast Bomb at him. "I forgot you’re an Edo Tensei body. Even without your beast, you won’t die."
Minato smiled. "Long time no see, Nine-Tails."
"Ah, you’ve seen me like this before in Roran... wait, no, your memories were sealed." Kurama remembered—back then, only he and Kushina, the one who cast the jutsu, weren’t sealed.
But that wasn’t the point. Kurama looked down at Minato. "As much as I’d like you to help me, you can’t. I’m trying to connect to the other tailed beasts’ chakra and pull them out of the Ten-Tails."
Minato glanced at the distant Ten-Tails, then up at Naruto and Sasuke flying in the sky. A faint smile formed on his face. "Naruto’s grown up too."
"If I could, I’d really like to catch up with him right now." Minato rubbed the back of his head. "Earlier you said Kushina’s here too. Has she been brought back with Edo Tensei?"
"Yeah, before you." Kurama nodded. "Orochimaru didn’t bring you back earlier because he wanted my other half, and he was afraid you’d slip out of his control thanks to Tobirama’s jutsu. If nothing goes wrong, Kushina should be back soon. Just wait."
Minato’s fighting style was the typical human-type assassin—blazing speed, high attack power, usually going for a one-hit kill. Even if weaker than his opponent, he could rely on speed to keep up.
But that type has its weakness—against huge, tough enemies like tailed beasts or Susano’o, Minato would struggle. He had almost no way to break through a tailed beast’s defenses.
To make up for it, he learned sealing techniques. Unfortunately, now he was up against the Ten-Tails, and sealing techniques were almost useless here.
Minato knew his own weakness well. Standing before Kurama and looking at the Ten-Tails, he said, "I can use Flying Raijin to teleport its attacks away. Since I’m an Edo Tensei, I don’t have to worry about running out of chakra."
"No need," Kurama shook his head. "The Ten-Tails has no reason—it’s almost impossible for it to attack the ground unless Naruto and Sasuke deliberately lure it there."
"I see..." Minato’s voice carried a trace of disappointment.
Maybe watching his son fight hard at the front while he couldn’t help gave him that feeling.
Still, Minato wasn’t the type to mope. He turned to Kurama with a bright smile. "Never thought I’d be standing here fighting alongside you. Honestly, it feels a bit like a dream."
"Tch." Kurama clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Quit talking nonsense. You spent all those years tangled up with my other half in the Shinigami’s belly—you’re telling me you didn’t hear anything? Don’t act like some big shot now."
Minato narrowed his eyes with a smile. "True. If I hadn’t already learned about your changes from your other half, I might be shocked by the way you talk now."
He did know quite a bit about Kurama and had talked a lot with the yin half. In fact, Minato was probably the only person in the ninja world who believed Kurama had memories from another world.
Watching Kurama work hard to adjust his chakra, Minato couldn’t help but sigh. "Ninjas and tailed beasts really can coexist. I learned that from talking with your other half."
Kurama bared his teeth. "And you still call me Nine-Tails?"
Seriously, after getting that close to my other half, you should at least call me by my name. Calling me Nine-Tails is just...
Yeah, Kurama could pretty much guess why.
Minato sighed helplessly. "Every time I call your name, your other half goes crazy. I’ve gotten used to it after all these years."
"That’s hatred!" Kurama said with certainty.
Minato’s expression turned odd. "It’s clearly because your other half’s brain glitches... Forget it."
Better not say it, or Kurama would just get mad again.
Kurama bared his teeth again and shot Minato an annoyed glare. "If you’ve got time, you should go guard Sakura. Orochimaru’s pretty good at dealing with her—after all, he’s the same type of ninja as Tsunade. If you show up, it’ll give him a surprise."
But then—
Minato shook his head right away. "If Orochimaru’s still alive, there’s a good chance he’d take control of me again the moment I appeared."
Kurama thought about it and realized that was true.
Minato’s sealing skills weren’t at Kushina’s level, and his strength wasn’t on par with Hashirama or Madara. Escaping Edo Tensei control wouldn’t be easy.
Kurama stayed quiet, and Minato didn’t speak either. He just watched Naruto’s back from a distance, a warm smile on his face.
Naruto... really had grown up.
Suddenly, Kurama skidded to a stop. His eyes went wide with excitement as he stared into the distance. "Gotcha! I knew you wouldn’t die that easily..."
A Rasengan slammed right into Kurama’s face.
As the smoke rose, Kurama looked at Minato with a strangely gentle expression, quietly waiting for an explanation.
Then he saw Minato stick out his tongue and lick his lips. That sunny smile turned cold. "Just saying hello."
Kurama’s fists clenched. "Orochimaru, if I don’t beat you to death later, I’ll write my name backward!"
"Heh heh heh~" ’Minato’ made Orochimaru’s trademark chuckle. "Space-time ninjutsu is really useful. Too bad none of you can use it."
It was true—space-time ninjutsu was very useful, and Kurama couldn’t use it.
But...
Kurama grinned. "Who said none of ’us’ can use it?"
Almost instantly, two figures appeared right beside ’Minato.’ As chakra flared, the glow in Sasuke’s Rinnegan Tomoe eyes intensified, and genjutsu fell on him in an instant.
Tobirama placed one hand on ’Minato,’ and a special sealing technique formed black markings across his body.
As the black seal patterns spread, Tobirama looked at Orochimaru with an icy expression. "This sealing technique suppresses the soul. Neither the Fourth Hokage’s soul nor your soul and will can leave this body."
Sasuke’s Rinnegan Tomoe slowly spun. "Without Uncle Minato’s natural reflexes, and having never used the Flying Thunder God technique yourself, no matter how strong you are, you can’t pull off a teleport in someone else’s body."
If it had been Minato, he likely could have reacted the moment the two appeared and instinctively triggered Flying Thunder God to escape. But now, Orochimaru was controlling this body—and he had never used the technique before.
The genjutsu locked down Orochimaru’s control over Minato’s body, and the sealing technique kept his soul trapped inside, like a prison that locked him in Minato’s body.
His expression turned cold.
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