The Void World Prison Dome kept knitting itself back together, every fracture sealing faster than Neji could destroy it.
He flicked his wrist, sending the Black Spot racing across the barrier, but the shimmering dome held firm.
A pulse of chakra flared beneath his Byakugan's gaze.
The Third Hokage's chakra… it's gathering at his feet?
Before he could react, the earth beneath him softened into sucking mud.
"Earth Release: Underground Swamp!" Hiruzen's voice rang out.
Quicksand yawned open. In a blink, Neji was waist-deep, his legs locked fast.
"Tch—bad timing," he muttered.
He'd read of strange sealing methods—hand-signs made with feet, borrowed palms, even eye-seals—but never faced one himself. Now he had no choice.
A deep breath. Lightning burst from every pore.
"Lightning Release counters Earth Release!"
The mire stiffened to stone, but Hiruzen was already on him. The Adamantine Staff flashed, striking before Neji could regain his balance. Neji barely managed to draw a kunai.
Clang!
The kunai screeched against the staff's impossible hardness. Shock ripped up Neji's arm and hurled him into the prison wall.
His ribs burned. Blood slicked the inside of his mask. His strength… greater than Tsunade's?
The Sarutobi clan was famed for wisdom, not brawn, yet Hiruzen's raw power eclipsed anything Neji expected. Neji remembered the old stories: this same man had once driven back the rampaging Nine-Tails single-handedly. Perhaps Tsunade's legendary might had roots in training under him.
A deafening BOOM! interrupted the thought. The entire dome quivered and collapsed in a spray of rubble.
Yugito had arrived.
A claw of pure chakra tore through the prison and slashed at Hiruzen. The Hokage swung the Adamantine Staff with deceptive ease and batted her away like a leaf in a gale. Yugito's body crashed through rooftops and slammed into the distant cliffside.
Neji's scalp prickled. Even with Yugito we're outclassed.
A hiss sliced the air. Dozens of shuriken streaked toward him.
"Earth Release: Multiple Earth Walls!"
Thick stone bulwarks erupted in front of him.
Hiruzen's fingers blurred through seals.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Blade! Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Each spinning star split into two, then four, then eight. The wind-enhanced storm screamed toward the barrier.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The first wall shattered. The second cracked and fell. The third barely held as shards of stone and razor-edged wind rained around him.
Neji exhaled in relief. "Blocked… but—"
The Adamantine Staff elongated like lightning, striking for his throat. At the same instant the ground coiled upward, an earthen serpent snaring his legs. The staff's end sprouted a spectral arm that clamped around his neck.
"You have nowhere left to run," Hiruzen said coldly.
The grip tightened—then the "Neji" in its grasp dissolved into a ball of crackling light.
"A Lightning Clone," Hiruzen murmured. "He set it up behind the earth wall."
Scanning the shadows, his sharp eyes narrowed and fixed on a crumbling house. Neji stepped from the ruin, mask tilted in respect.
"Your strength, Hokage-sama… astonishing."
The old man chuckled. "These bones aren't what they used to be."
A thunderous roar shook the valley. On the mountainside, a gigantic blue cat-demon emerged—Yugito in full Two-Tails form, barreling back into the fight.
Neji's expression hardened. Reinforcements were arriving fast: squads of elite Konoha shinobi streaked across the rooftops. Even without the Hokage, Might Guy alone could tip the battle.
Escape was narrowing to a thread. If worst comes to worst, Neji thought grimly, the Raikage can ransom me back.
But giving up was not in him.
---
A Silent Fox
Why won't the Nine-Tails help?
Neji closed his eyes and sent his mind into Naruto's inner world.
Behind the great iron bars, the Nine-Tails cracked one eye, yawned, and shut it again.
"Nine-Tails," Neji said sharply. "We had a deal."
No reply.
His frown deepened. Only one possibility…
He pushed deeper into the seal.
---
The Sealed Space
The massive cage loomed before him—but it was different. Two additional sealing formulas glowed across the bars.
A calm voice floated from the darkness. "The Fourth Hokage reinforced the seal after you left. Even if I wanted to help, I can't."
Neji studied the changes. "Minato Namikaze," he called, "you've watched your son suffer all these years. Do you still feel no regret?"
A soft, regretful tone answered. "I regret it every day. I should never have sealed the Nine-Tails inside Naruto. I should never have died with Kushina. But it's too late."
"Then why block me now?"
A woman's voice—Kushina's—added sharply, "Yes, why?"
Minato's reply carried both sorrow and resolve. "Because if Konoha loses the Nine-Tails, our village will weaken. I am a Leaf shinobi. However flawed Konoha is, I will not let anyone destroy it—not even for Naruto's sake."
The fox rumbled a laugh. "Cold, ruthless… and entirely true."
Neji's eyes narrowed. "You wish to protect Konoha? Then watch as I free the Nine-Tails and raze your village. Let's see if anyone can stop me."
"You can't release the seal," Minato said quickly, then hesitated. "Unless… you intend to destroy it outright."
Neji's silence was answer enough.
The Kyūbi's golden eyes gleamed with understanding. The air grew tense, a silent gamble hanging between them.
Finally Minato exhaled. "…You win."
The extra sigils unraveled.
"Take the Nine-Tails' chakra and go," Minato said quietly. "Many in the village are innocent."
Kushina's voice softened. "Please… take care of Naruto."
"I've already prepared a safe home for him," Neji replied, turning away. "You'll approve."
Kushina's grateful whisper followed him as the mindscape faded.
---
Power Unleashed
Reality snapped back.
The Two-Tails roared, a violet sphere of compressed chakra forming in her jaws—a Tailed Beast Ball.
"Stop it now!" Hiruzen barked. He leapt and smashed the beast's skull with the Adamantine Staff, dispersing the deadly orb in a burst of sparks.
Yugito staggered, barely holding consciousness. She was no perfect jinchūriki; full transformation already pushed her limits.
"Adamantine Prison Wall!" Hiruzen shouted.
The staff split into a dozen bars, slamming into the ground to form a cubic cage around the struggling Two-Tails.
Konoha's forces erupted in cheers. To them, the legendary Hokage had just shackled a living natural disaster.
Might Guy clapped his hands in awe. "As expected of Hokage-sama!"
Kakashi barely heard him. His eye was locked on Neji, who stood unnervingly still.
"Why isn't he fleeing?" Kakashi murmured.
Before anyone could answer, Naruto's body flared with crimson-orange chakra. A violent, familiar presence swept the battlefield—the unmistakable aura of the Nine-Tails.
Every shinobi stiffened, memories of the Fox's rampage five years ago flashing through their minds.
But the chakra didn't attack. It streamed outward—straight into Neji.
The red energy coiled around him, thickening, darkening. One tail, then two, then three, until four blazing tails lashed the air behind him.
The ground trembled beneath his feet as the power of the Nine-Tails merged with the prodigy of the Hyūga.
---
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