In the desert, Namikaze Minato stared hard at Uchiha Obito.
His expression was unusually grave. Fox-sama had previously told Minato about Uchiha Madara's subordinates, and the man before him, Uchiha Obito, had been the focus of that information.
Fox-sama had said that if one did not know Uchiha Obito's abilities beforehand, their first encounter with him could easily end in instant death.
Minato thought, 'As expected of an enemy Fox-sama pays special attention to. His ability really is strange.'
He threw a kunai.
The kunai met no resistance whatsoever and passed straight through Uchiha Obito's body.
Physical attacks were useless.
Then he would try ninjutsu.
Minato rushed toward Uchiha Obito, a Rasengan forming in his palm.
The Rasengan spun at high speed, producing a crisp rotor-like sound.
Uchiha Obito's expression was equally serious.
Every ninja carefully concealed their information, only revealing their trump cards when fighting for their life.
His right-eye Mangekyō's intangibility had already been exposed to others.
Whether it was the Akatsuki or the four great ninja villages, they all knew he could use his Mangekyō to perform spatial movement.
But he had never revealed his left-eye Mangekyō Kamui in front of anyone else.
First, although he had transplanted Hashirama cells, overusing the Mangekyō would still cause his vision to deteriorate quickly.
Second, he did not want others to know his true trump card.
Intangibility was a support ability. Kamui was his strongest offensive method.
This time, he had come to the Land of Wind thinking he could easily help Rasa block Konoha's assassination attempt. Yet he had not expected the ninja Konoha sent to be this strong.
Namikaze Minato was too strong. He alone had held Uchiha Obito back.
With only his right-eye Mangekyō technique, Obito could only fight Namikaze Minato to a draw. In fact, he was even slightly at a disadvantage.
Uchiha Obito hesitated over whether he should use his left-eye Kamui here.
The next instant, Obito saw Zetsu in the distant lantern grass.
Every person in the Akatsuki had their own schemes. He had to be wary of them.
Before Madara-sama died, he had spoken with Obito alone for a long time. He had also told Obito to go to the Uchiha clan shrine and look at a stone tablet. The truth was recorded on that tablet.
He was Madara-sama's true backup plan.
He had to supervise the people in the Akatsuki and complete Madara-sama's ideal.
Zetsu shouted a warning, "Obito! Run! Fox is here!"
The only person the Akatsuki feared was Konoha's Fox.
When Obito heard Fox's name, a vortex appeared in his right eye, and his figure quickly vanished.
A stream of water shot over from an extremely great distance.
However, Obito's intangibility was still a little faster. The water beam only cut through the air as Uchiha Obito disappeared into a spatial vortex.
Minato let out a breath of relief.
Fox-sama had arrived.
Yako saw that Namikaze Minato still had all his arms and legs, and the worry in his heart finally settled.
In the original story, Uchiha Obito, with only one eye, had still forced Namikaze Minato into a desperate situation. Yako had truly been afraid Obito would kill Minato in their first encounter.
"Minato, how does it feel to face one of Uchiha Madara's subordinates?"
Minato quickly said, "Fox-sama, Uchiha Obito gives me an extremely dangerous feeling. His ability is very strange. I thought of a tactic, but before I could test it, you scared him away."
Yako thought that the tactic Minato had thought of should be the famous scene from the original story: Flying Thunder God Second Step Rasengan.
"Be even more careful the next time you see Uchiha Obito. His abilities go far beyond this."
Minato nodded and asked, "Fox-sama, what about Kazekage Rasa?"
"The Kazekage Rasa was killed by Shukaku while sealing Shukaku. Rasa's deaths are always so meaningless."
In the original story, Rasa had been killed by Orochimaru in some corner before the Konoha Crush plan.
His death had been so casual that it had not even served to properly highlight Orochimaru's strength.
"Always?"
"I said ultimately. You heard wrong," Yako said. "Minato, your mission to assassinate Rasa has, through a series of coincidences, been completed.
"For the next few days, you will be responsible for observing Sunagakure's movements.
"If Sunagakure continues preparing for war, notify the village immediately. If Sunagakure withdraws, contact them and negotiate a peace agreement with their representative."
Yako took out a pre-prepared peace agreement scroll and handed it to Minato.
Minato temporarily took on the work of a foreign affairs advisor.
"Yes, Fox-sama!"
Namikaze Minato watched Fox-sama disappear with the Body Flicker Technique, then headed toward Windbird City.
When he reached the area near Windbird City, Minato saw the three towering trees.
The fiery-red maple trees were completely out of place in the desert environment, making them look even more majestic and massive.
After finding Kakashi and the other two, Minato observed for several days and confirmed that Sunagakure had withdrawn its troops.
The Sand ninja were orderly leaving the border.
Minato contacted the Sand ninja and soon met Sunagakure's current representative.
Advisor Mache said, "I didn't expect Konoha to have prepared a peace agreement in advance. Did you already predict that Rasa-sama would die?"
Minato said, "This agreement wasn't prepared in advance. After the village heard that the Fourth Kazekage Rasa had died in battle, they used a secret technique to send the scroll to me."
Of course, he could not admit that Konoha had planned this beforehand.
Advisor Mache knew that the situation forced them to lower their heads, so he could not dwell on the issue now.
Advisor Mache said, "Sunagakure's new leader, the Fifth Kazekage Pakura-sama, has already received permission from all the advisors. We are only waiting for the Land of Wind daimyō's appointment.
"Pakura-sama said that peace negotiations with Konoha may begin."
Minato was stunned.
The Disaster Organization's Fire had actually become the Kage of a village?
As expected of the organization founded by Fox-sama. It had actually pushed one of its members into becoming Kazekage.
The Fifth Kazekage.
News about Sunagakure's Kage traveled fast.
Rasa's death had been personally planned by Fox-sama. Fire becoming Kazekage was also something Fox-sama had pushed forward.
Since Fire had become Kazekage, Sunagakure would definitely not declare war on Konoha.
After both sides exchanged peace agreements, Namikaze Minato left Windbird City with the agreement.
The Land of Rivers battlefield had been resolved through a trick: assassinating the Kazekage to eliminate the threat. But the other fronts would not be so convenient.
Iwagakure. Kumogakure. Kirigakure.
Konoha had to face three terrifying enemies at the same time.
Far from Windbird City, somewhere in the Land of Rain, a spatial vortex appeared about a meter above the ground, and Uchiha Obito emerged.
Before long, Zetsu drilled out of a tree trunk.
The lantern grass opened. Black Zetsu stared at Uchiha Obito and said, "Obito, that white-haired Kakashi, the medical ninja Nohara Rin, and your clansman Uchiha Hato were only your classmates for two years, right?
"Why did you spare Nohara Rin?
"You clearly had better ways to threaten Namikaze Minato, instead of letting an explosive tag burn slowly.
"Obito, are you clinging to old feelings?"
Uchiha Obito glanced at Black Zetsu. "How I act does not require your commentary."
White Zetsu quickly said, "Don't argue, don't argue. We should hurry and tell the anti-Konoha alliance that Kazekage Rasa has been killed.
"The plan to attack Konoha from four directions has failed. I wonder if attacking from three directions will still be enough to weaken Konoha."