Shinigami in the Ninja World

"The Nine-Tails chakra" was the most difficult thing for them to obtain.

Especially in the current situation, with Naruto and Kurama working together—something they could not handle.

However...

It wasn't entirely impossible.

The reason Madara Uchiha left and even took Kabuto with him before transferring his Rinnegan wasn't just to greet Naruto. His main goal was to ensure Kabuto's safety and keep him under his control.

Kabuto was the only one capable of obtaining the Nine-Tails chakra without directly confronting Naruto.

Kabuto squinted and smiled, remarking, "I thought Madara-sama risked being sealed by Naruto because he admired me as his successor."

"Don't say such naive things," Madara sneered. "It makes your stupidity obvious."

"And fools have no place by my side."

With a flick, he tossed them to the ground, and white smoke erupted.

Two bodies appeared.

Of course, these two unknown ninja corpses weren't the focus.

Kabuto formed hand seals.

"*Edo Tensei*!"

The two corpses began to transform into new figures. One had golden hair, the other gray. Both had horns protruding from their heads like bulls and wore headbands from the Cloud Village. The one with golden hair had the kanji for "金 (Gold)" on his left shoulder, while the gray-haired one had "銀 (Silver)."

They were the infamous duo who killed the Second Hokage: the legendary figures of the Cloud Village, the *Kinkaku* and *Ginkaku* brothers.

They were also the only people in the world, aside from jinchūriki, to possess the power of the Nine-Tails chakra.

"This is...," Kinkaku said, looking around. "Is this the technique I've heard about in the Pure Land? The one that pulls the dead back into the world of the living?" Ꞧ

Ginkaku sensed the chakra and turned to the man controlling them—Kabuto, the white-haired man with glasses. "So it's you?"

"To accomplish this at such a young age," Ginkaku sneered, not bothering to hide his disdain.

Their gaze shifted toward Madara, who stood with his spiky hair and Rinnegan.

"Madara Uchiha?" As people from the same era, they were well aware of the man who stood only beneath Hashirama Senju in fame.

They had even fought him a few times, though the results were never in their favor.

"A man like you, being controlled by this kid," Kinkaku chuckled, his tone laced with schadenfreude as he looked Madara up and down.

Madara smirked. "Fools."

"Kabuto, don't waste time. Get it done."

Kinkaku and Ginkaku shifted their focus back to Kabuto.

The man with glasses smiled and nodded. "Of course, Madara-sama."

His hand seals changed.

Kinkaku and Ginkaku immediately lost control of their bodies, even their chakra. The Nine-Tails chakra residing within them activated, wrapping them in the familiar cloak of chakra.

Six tails whipped behind them.

"Damn it, what's happening?" Despite being controlled, the two brothers remained conscious, and this loss of control filled them with panic.

But no one paid attention to them.

Madara narrowed his eyes, examining them like objects. "The power of the Nine-Tails..."

"I never imagined that one day obtaining this power would be so troublesome."

"Obito, extract it."

Madara walked forward, making hand seals, and began to steal their chakra.

Unlike Naruto, he couldn't strip chakra from their souls, but the Nine-Tails chakra wasn't truly their own power. It was easy to take from them.

Kinkaku and Ginkaku couldn't resist.

Two dark red, half-transparent, molten-like masses of energy, still boiling like lava, gathered in Obito's hands.

"The power of the Tailed Beasts is now complete," Madara said softly. As he spoke, he lifted his head and looked at the giant figure within the space. "Let's begin, Obito."

Obito nodded.

He formed hand seals and activated the sealing technique.

"Phantom Dragon Nine Consuming Seals."

This was the technique used by the Akatsuki to extract Tailed Beasts from their jinchūriki and transfer their power into the Ten-Tails while maintaining the seal.

Normally, this process would require the combined efforts of at least six or seven people and take days to complete for an entire Tailed Beast.

But they weren't dealing with whole Tailed Beasts—just fragments of their power. This drastically reduced the time needed.

They only required a single day.

However...

Obito glanced up.

He had heard the earlier conversation. Naruto had already locked onto this location, and that guy was exceptionally sharp when it came to these things.

One day.

Could they fully seal the power of the Nine Tailed Beasts and awaken the Ten-Tails before Naruto found them?

As the sealing process continued...

In the Land of Rain.

Sitting atop the still-standing statue of Pain, Naruto gazed down at the ground.

"You're not continuing the search?" Karin asked, puzzled, as she sat beside him.

Naruto shook his head. "I've already found it."

Karin froze.

Found it?

"I've always wondered, what exactly is the Pure Land?" Naruto said, summoning two scrolls with a single slap. "Is it like the myths we encountered while traveling through the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, buried deep underground..."

"Or is it another dimension entirely?"

"Regardless of the guess, I had no way to prove it before."

Underground...

Naruto hadn't explored that, though his brief contact with the Sage of Six Paths allowed him to glimpse that the Sage's power didn't merely come from the earth.

But the other-dimensional theory seemed more plausible, especially with the existence of the Soul Society. Naruto had been leaning towards that idea.

Still, he hadn't been able to confirm it.

The power left behind by the Sage didn't carry any spatial fluctuations.

But now, thanks to Madara Uchiha and his group going to that strange place, Naruto's earlier guesses had been validated.

It gave him the feeling of being in a "Kyōgoku (Valley of Screams)."

In the Soul Society, there was a unique type of space called "Kyōgoku."

The gap between the Soul Society and the World of the Living was known as the "Dangai," a turbulent space where time and space flowed chaotically. Normally, it was only inhabited by creatures called *Kōryū* that cleaned up anything left behind in the Dangai.

But as with everything, there were exceptions. Over countless years, some souls that hadn't made it to the Soul Society or Hueco Mundo had, in rare cases, remained in the Dangai. These souls would gather and form small, independent worlds existing outside the three realms yet connected to them.

Such spaces were called "Kyōgoku."

The ninja world didn't have a "Dangai."

So…

The space Naruto sensed must be similar—caught between the World of the Living and the Pure Land.

It was visible yet untouchable. If he kept searching within the World of the Living, he would never find it.

Now that he had a new line of thought, Naruto believed the place where Madara Uchiha and the others had gone was this separate dimension.

Karin was surprised by this unconventional theory.

Naruto nodded. "I think so."

"So I've been calculating…"

"What the space in this world might look like."

Calculating space was no easy task. It had taken the Soul Society centuries to accurately map out the coordinates of its space relative to the World of the Living.

Luckily.

Naruto had been put in charge of Hueco Mundo, so he had worked closely with the 12th Division in measuring and mapping its space. He had personally visited places that were difficult for them to reach.

So he had learned a thing or two about spatial calculations.

Karin watched from the side.

The complex numbers and formulas gave her a headache, but since it didn't affect the situation, she patiently observed.

This sounded important...

If the Pure Land really was another dimension, then this skill would be essential.

Naruto wasn't in a hurry. He carefully refined his calculations, gradually narrowing down the coordinates.

One day later.

In the space between life and death.

Obito and Madara had sealed the Eight-Tails chakra.

The nine eyes on the Ten-Tails' head were almost fully open.

"Only the Nine-Tails remains," Madara said. Even in his Edo Tensei body, after an entire day of high-intensity exertion, he was starting to feel some fatigue.

Obito nodded, placing the Nine-Tails chakra extracted from the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers before the Ten-Tails.

They began the final sealing process.

Kabuto stood by, smiling as he watched. He wasn't eager to get involved. Madara and Obito had tasked him with keeping watch—a heavy responsibility. If Naruto arrived before they completed the Ten-Tails' revival, Kabuto's job was to hold him off until the process was finished.

From the Ten-Tails' mouth, nine translucent white chakra dragons emerged, biting and consuming the Nine-Tails chakra bit by bit.

It was the smallest portion of chakra, but it brought the most visible change.

The skeletal, withered Ten-Tails began to stir with life. The spiked protrusions on its back grew like stone columns, while the nine eyes on its head started to converge into one.

Kabuto watched the transformation closely.

The Ten-Tails...

The being that could only be awakened by gathering the power of all nine Tailed Beasts.

If he could report this to Orochimaru, it would certainly be fascinating.

The Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers hadn't obtained much power from the Nine-Tails, only managing to tear off a few pieces of its flesh.

In less than two hours, the sealing was complete, and the Ten-Tails revived.

The nine eyes fused into one massive *Rinnegan* with nine tomoe, and its back was adorned with spiraling protrusions. Its ten tails lashed about, and when it opened its mouth, rows of needle-like fangs were revealed.

"So this is the true form of the Ten-Tails?" Obito looked up, awestruck by the powerful creature.

Madara shook his head, his voice as cold as ever. "Of course not."

"With only part of the Six-Tails' power and fragments of the others, how could this be its true revival?"

"It's only regained some of its core power."

They paused, then Madara turned to Obito. "My current body isn't fit to fight Naruto."

"It's up to you now."

Obito nodded. "I understand."

"The Ten-Tails... jinchūriki, huh?"

He raised his hand toward the Ten-Tails.

In the Land of Rain.

Naruto stood up, his gaze piercing the space in front of him as he stood on the tongue of the Pain statue. "I've found it."

Karin rose beside him.

She reached out, gripping the air lightly, and ripples appeared, distorting the space.

Her hands glowed with spiritual energy as she pulled it apart.

A rift opened.

Unlike a *Garganta*, the interior of this rift was clearly visible.

The Ten-Tails, two Sharingan users, Kabuto, and the reanimated Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers.

Karin gasped softly.

In the space between life and death.

Madara turned, looking toward the rift above and behind him. He couldn't see what was beyond it, but this strange phenomenon, unseen in his decades of being here, was unprecedented.

Even during his lifetime, he had never witnessed a jutsu capable of tearing space itself.

But there was no doubt—whoever had found the path to this place had to be that blond brat.

In the next moment.

A figure dressed in white stepped through.

The small space, capable of holding thousands of people, suddenly felt crowded as this figure entered.

Naruto smiled, focusing his gaze on the two figures. He drew his sword.

"I've found you."

"Madara Uchiha."

"And…"

He paused, locking eyes with the young man beside Madara, whose face was half-scarred and whose body was beginning to show signs of scaling.

"Obito Uchiha."

"You've been hiding for so long. Are you ready to face my wrath now?"

Naruto raised his sword, and natural energy swirled around him.

*Sage Mode* activated instantly.

~~~

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