"Hiss… if that had landed inside the village…"
Sarutobi Hiruzen sucked in a sharp breath.
The sheer destructive power of the Tailed Beast Ball chilled him, but years as Hokage steadied his nerves in an instant.
"Everyone! Push the Nine-Tails out of the village!"
As his voice boomed, Hiruzen bit his thumb, ran through a rapid string of seals, and slammed his hand to the ground.
Summoning Jutsu: Monkey King Enma!
The Ape King appeared in a puff of smoke. Though not as massive as giant beasts like Gamabunta or Manda, Enma was far tougher. In his Vajra Ruyi Staff form, he could rival mountains.
Konoha shinobi, shaken for a moment by the last Tailed Beast Ball, snapped back into action. Ninjutsu poured into the battlefield like a storm of fire, lightning, and earth, hammering the Nine-Tails. The beast roared in fury, its tails whipping through the air like collapsing towers.
Hiruzen seized the opening. Enma transformed into the colossal staff, and the Third drove its end deep into the fox's gut.
"Now, Enma!"
The staff extended, thick as a building column, forcing the Nine-Tails to skid backwards, clawed feet carving trenches in the soil. Hiruzen had chosen his angle carefully and driving the beast out toward open land, away from homes and civilians.
But the Nine-Tails was simply too vast. After sliding back, it planted its weight, bellowed, and with one mighty swipe batted the Ruyi Staff aside.
The impact hurled Hiruzen through the air like a ragdoll.
Anbu darted in desperately, and five were swatted away by the shockwave before the sixth finally caught their Hokage.
The Nine-Tails roared again, chest expanding as it drew in both Yin and Yang chakra. A massive Tailed Beast Ball began to form, so dense the air itself trembled.
Too far for anyone to stop it. Too late to redirect it.
Konoha shinobi froze in dread.
But instead of the village, the blast launched straight toward Hokage Rock.
Despair rippled through the ranks.
The monument was the very symbol of Konoha's pride. Its destruction would be like losing a fortress in war, not only a tactical blow, but a humiliation to the village's reputation across the shinobi world.
At that instant...
Flash!
Minato Namikaze appeared atop the monument, hands weaving seals as black sealing lines spread into a spiderweb of light.
The enormous Tailed Beast Ball slammed into the barrier and vanished like a stone swallowed by a swamp.
A heartbeat later, it detonated far from the village. The night sky erupted in white light, a distant mushroom cloud boiling into the heavens. The shockwave barely brushed Konoha.
Before relief could settle, a spiraling vortex twisted open beside Minato. Obito lunged out, striking without hesitation.
Minato's kunai was already thrusting back, blade gleaming with the formula of the Flying Thunder God. It should have pierced his attacker's skull, except the masked man dissolved into intangibility, the blade slipping harmlessly through.
Obito's hand clamped onto Minato's wrist. Space distorted, pulling both into his vortex.
But Minato's golden figure flickered and was gone escaped by the Flying Thunder God in the nick of time.
Obito's single eye narrowed. He felt the ripple and gave chase.
–––
At the edge of the village, in the ruins of a wooden house, the two clashed for real.
This fight was shorter, sharper, deadlier than in the 'original timeline.' Minato already knew Obito's secret so no wasted time in probing.
In a single exchange, Minato's Flying Thunder God Second Stage tore through Obito's defenses, and a swirling Rasengan the size of a boulder smashed him into the ground.
The explosion ripped the earth apart. Smoke, dust, and shards of stone blasted outward like a wave.
Obito lay half-buried in the rubble, his chest heaving.
No… Impossible. How did he see through my ability so quickly? One clash and I'm already… down? All my training, all my pain… worthless?
The thought hit harder than the Rasengan itself. A choking sense of defeat wrapped around him.
But instinct forced him to act. His hands flashed through seals—Ox, Boar, Ram. His battered body dissolved into the ground, reemerging on the grass nearby. White ichor oozed from his ruined arm, knitting wounds closed.
Minato landed lightly, outwardly calm but inwardly shaken.
That Rasengan could shatter steel but he's still standing? No… he's regenerating. Wood Release… it has to be.
The Yellow Flash knew the value of such a bloodline. His decision was instant, this opponent couldn't be allowed to linger.
Obito straightened, forcing steadiness into his voice. "As expected of the Yellow Flash. To read my ability so fast..."
But before he could finish, Minato vanished. In the next instant he was behind Obito, one hand gripping his throat, the other flashing with a sealing jutsu.
Obito's eyes widened. With his neck clamped, he couldn't phase. His body locked, panic flashing as Minato's kunai pierced through mask, skull, and brain.
For a heartbeat Obito was gone.
Then, like a bubble re-forming, his figure flickered back into existence atop a tree at the battlefield's edge. His chest heaved.
"Fortunate I left a shadow of myself behind," he rasped. "Otherwise… I'd already be dead."
The words barely left his lips before Kamui swallowed him whole, vanishing into spirals of space-time. He didn't dare linger a second longer.
Minato lowered his kunai, expression grim.
An enemy like that, intangible, cunning, and escaping without hesitation the moment the tide turns… he's dangerous beyond measure.
But who is he?
Uchiha Madara? No. Madara was long dead.
A descendant? An inheritor of his will?
And what kind of jutsu was that, turning death itself into nothing more than an inconvenience?