I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 403 You smell of her perfume on you; it's my nose that's to blame.

"Bang!"

The purplish-black Tailed Beast Ball shot rapidly toward Tatsuma at an extremely high speed. The point where the front of the ball rubbed against the air even ignited a blazing white flame, and the round Tailed Beast Ball seemed to be compressed into an oval shape.

Minato had already disappeared and appeared outside the barrier, at the extension point of the Tailed Beast Ball's flight path. He began to form hand seals, in preparation for any eventuality.

After observing the Tailed Beast Ball up close, Tatsuma also used Flying Thunder God Technique to leave.

"Boom!"

The Tailed Beast Ball sliced ​​through the air with a muffled boom, shattering the afterimage left by Tatsuma in place, and flew further away.

A long trench was plowed into the ground of the Death Forest. The place where the Nine-Tails stood was extremely close to the center of the Death Forest, and the Tailed Beast Ball flew to the edge of the Death Forest in just a few breaths.

"Buzz buzz buzz~"

The Tailed Beast Ball struck the barrier, and within the sensed field of vision, the spherical barrier that enveloped the entire Death Forest twisted instantly, adding a small knot, just like the knot in a balloon.

Outside the barrier, Minato, whose face was almost pressed against by the Tailed Beast Ball, suppressed his instinct to escape. He spread his hands and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique. He looked at the Tailed Beast Ball that was trying to break free of its cage and prayed continuously in his heart.

Hiruzen Sarutobi also rushed over quickly, but just as he saw the Tailed Beast Ball, which was only faintly visible inside the barrier due to the illusion, it disappeared before he could take a closer look.

Minato, standing outside the barrier, lowered his hands with a surprised smile. He sensed that the barrier had rebounded to its original shape, as for the Tailed Beast Ball from before.

"Buzz~ Buzz~ Buzz~"

Those present were all extremely perceptive ninjas, and naturally noticed the slight tremor in the ground. Hiruzen Sarutobi looked in one direction, and suddenly, a gust of wind blew from that direction as well.

"It's a success."

Minato smiled, and Hiruzen Sarutobi also breathed a sigh of relief. The Tailed Beast Ball was successfully transferred by the Flying Thunder God Technique on the barrier and thrown into an uninhabited valley outside the village.

Inside the barrier, Jiraiya and Tsunade couldn't help but smile, but Orochimaru poured cold water on their enthusiasm, saying:

"We've succeeded now, but the Nine-Tails' limit is far more than this. What if we condensed even more chakra into a Tailed Beast Ball? Or... more than one Tailed Beast Ball?"

Clearly, this barrier still has a long way to go in terms of optimization. The barrier's own strength, chakra absorption and conversion efficiency, and the activation and connection efficiency of the Flying Thunder God Technique all need to be optimized.

Tsunade waved her hand dismissively and said, "Kushina can only withstand this level of Nine-Tails power right now. We don't need to consider those things yet. Maybe before the barrier reaches its limit, Kushina will be able to learn to control the Nine-Tails' power even faster?"

"If the Jinchuriki were named Sakamoto Tatsuma, I believe he could do it."

Orochimaru made no attempt to hide his disapproval of Kushina, or rather, if Tatsuma were used as a benchmark, no one could receive a higher evaluation.

Having worked with Tatsuma for several years, Orochimaru had become accustomed to using Tatsuma as a benchmark, so no matter who he saw now, he thought they were terrible and stupid.

Jiraiya offered no comment, but after glancing at Minato who had returned, he gave Orochimaru and Tsunade a look and then said:

"The good news is that the sealing barrier can withstand the impact of the Tailed Beast Ball, but the bad news is that Kurama can use the Tailed Beast Ball, which proves that he has won the tug-of-war with Kushina."

In other words, we are now facing the rampaging Nine-Tails. Although several months have passed, I believe everyone has not forgotten, right?

Jiraiya's words brought both Tsunade and Orochimaru back to their senses. Tsunade had been preoccupied with protecting Kushina and enjoying Orochimaru's praise of Tatsuma, thus overlooking this point.

As for Orochimaru, he originally wanted to see how effective the sealing barrier that Tatsuma had created was, and the prerequisite for testing it was that Kurama used the Tailed Beast Ball. Therefore, he only realized this now.

"Should I make a move? I can use my Yin Seal now."

Tsunade formed hand seals, and a black chakra seal appeared on her forehead. Jiraiya asked, "You've been saving up chakra for several years."

"Thanks to my disciple, I no longer have to worry about wasting resources."

As she answered, Tsunade looked at Jiraiya and asked, "Why are you drawing blood on your face?"

"Immortal Face Mask, the medium for entering Immortal Mode."

Jiraiya gave a brief explanation and was about to turn around to introduce Minato when Tsunade and Orochimaru said almost simultaneously, "Why isn't Tatsuma being used?"

"Forehead"

What could Jiraiya say? Would he admit that his Sage Mode skills were inferior to Tatsuma's? And by a significant margin?

Minato scratched his head and said, "Teacher, and Tsunade-sensei, and Orochimaru-sama, it seems we don't need to prepare anything."

"what?"

She was just about to unleash her pent-up fighting spirit from years of not having fought, and now she's suddenly being told there's no need to prepare? Tsunade felt a little empty, but she still asked, "Why?"

"The Nine-Tails has been subdued."

Orochimaru, looking bored, stretched his hands out of his sleeves and said, "With the restraint of the Eight Trigrams Seal, plus the long chakra release just now, Kurama has also lost a lot of chakra."

Moreover, the Adamantine Sealing Chains and Wood Release are far too powerful against tailed beasts. We'll probably have to wait until Tatsuma is away before we can have a chance to cooperate.

"I should have known better than to bite my finger."

Jiraiya somehow produced a fragrant, embroidered handkerchief, wiping the blood from his face and fingers. He then held out his cut finger towards Tsunade and said:

"Tsunade, please."

"Incurable."

Tsunade's decisive refusal left Jiraiya in disbelief. When did his relationship with Tsunade become so distant?

Minato cautiously gestured to the handkerchief. Jiraiya glanced down, then flung it away, saying, "I knew you'd taken the wrong one. It felt like I was reliving last night."

After Jiraiya understood the reason for Tsunade's disdain, he stopped thinking about asking her to treat him and instead looked at his disciple, Minato. Of course, Minato wouldn't refuse, but he was very careful to avoid touching Jiraiya.

If he were to accidentally come into contact with that fragrance instead of being afraid of contaminating his wound, given Kushina's increasingly keen sense of smell, he would definitely be in big trouble.

After healing the small wound on Jiraiya's thumb, and with all the noise from where Kushina had been in the distance completely gone, the four of them headed towards that spot together.

Minato could have used a faster method, since both Kushina and Tatsuma had the Flying Thunder God Technique formula left by him, but there was no need to save that little bit of time.

When they arrived, Kushina had regained consciousness and was sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking extremely exhausted.

The constant tug-of-war between her mind and the Nine-Tails' will, coupled with the relentless assault on her body by the Nine-Tails' chakra, was an unpleasant experience. However, the feeling of "the Nine-Tails isn't all that great" during this tug-of-war made Kushina feel quite good.

She was indeed too afraid of the Nine-Tails in the past. In fact, the Nine-Tails was nothing special. It took her a long time to barely suppress her. If it happened a few more times, she would definitely be able to suppress the Nine-Tails in return!

As for Tatsuma, it was even easier, because although Kushina had just been completely suppressed and the Nine-Tails had entered berserk mode, Kushina's will had not fallen asleep. He only needed to use a tail-sealing seal to give Kushina some space, and Kushina could take over the sealing herself.

If the sealing seal hadn't required the Vajra Seal as a prerequisite, he wouldn't even have needed to enter Sage Mode.

"Xiao Jiu, are you alright?"

Seeing Kushina open her eyes, Minato quickly asked, "I'm just a little exhausted and have a muscle strain." Kushina shook her head and said, "It's just a little exhaustion and a muscle strain."

Tsunade rolled up her sleeves and said, "Let me take a look."

"No need." Kushina shook her head and said, "Just now, when the Nine-Tails' chakra passed through my meridians, I think I... grasped something."

As she spoke, her chakra surged within her body. After the Nine-Tails was sealed again, the scattered portion of chakra was mobilized once more. That ultimate chakra was continuously sifted and purified as it circulated through Kushina's meridians.

Finally, Kushina smiled and said, "It seems I don't have to worry about getting hurt anymore."

Tsunade frowned and said, "Can the Nine-Tails' violent chakra really be used for healing?"

Tatsuma shook his head and said, "Chakra doesn't have the concept of 'violent'. Chakra is just chakra, at most it has different attributes."

The idea that the Nine-Tails' chakra is violent is simply a misunderstanding, aside from its appearance. The Nine-Tails' chakra is purer than that of other tailed beasts; it has no elemental attribute.

Or rather, the nature of the Nine-Tails' chakra is the undetectable Yin Release and Yang Release. Teacher, you should be very clear about the function of Yang Release chakra.

As long as one can filter, separate, and utilize the Nine-Tails' chakra effectively, healing is a perfectly normal thing.

Upon hearing this, both Tsunade and Kushina showed thoughtful expressions. Kushina quickly closed her eyes, recalling the feeling she had just experienced.

Jiraiya stroked his chin and said, "If Kushina doesn't have any physical burdens, wouldn't that allow us to increase the frequency of her training and attempts to master the Nine-Tails' power?"

"Theoretically, it's possible, but maintaining such a large barrier would consume a lot of energy, even for the Nine-Tails. Moreover, without the aid of jutsu or hand seals, directly using Yang Release chakra for healing is extremely inefficient. In other words..."

Kushina's self-healing required significantly more chakra than other medical ninjutsu that could achieve the same effect. Simply put, while Kushina needed rest, so did Kurama (the Nine-Tails).

Tatsuma nodded and then shook his head. Orochimaru then intervened, asking, "Do you have any ideas for optimizing the barrier?"

"No," Chenma readily admitted, adding, "Furthermore, I won't be focusing on optimizing the barrier for the foreseeable future. This already meets our current needs, so optimization work can be put on hold for now."

Then he looked at Tsunade and said, "Sensei, will you be the lead surgeon this time?"

"No problem. I also needed to try out some of the details myself last time."

Tsunade nodded. Neither of them seemed to have the respect that medical ninjas should have for patients, but this was just the normal performance of the master and apprentice. Besides, this patient was not one of their own.

(End of this chapter)