Chapter 29: Nine-Tails Attack
The night was as dark as ink, and the roar of the Naka River's waterfall masked all evils.
This was a remote place far from the center of Konoha Village, where the massive flow of water crashed against the rocks, kicking up a mist that filled the air. On this damp and cold stone altar, Uzumaki Kushina was suffering through unimaginable torture.
At this moment, her hands were pulled to either side by thick iron chains, pinned firmly against the rock wall. The tearing sensation from every bone and limb made her nearly faint, but the searing pain in her abdomen, like a burning fire, kept her desperately conscious.
"What do you... want?"
Kushina's voice was as weak as a thread of silk. Cold sweat had long since soaked her once vibrant red hair, which now clung to her cheeks like withered grass.
Standing before her was that ghost-like Masked Man.
Obito looked down from above at his former mentor's wife, who had once taken quite good care of him. In the Sharingan eye exposed outside the mask, there wasn't a hint of pity, only an abyss-like indifference.
"To pull the Nine-Tailed out of your body, and then destroy Konoha."
Obito's voice was as flat as if he were discussing tomorrow's weather, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. "I've waited for this opportunity for too long. Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God Technique is like an annoying fly, always interfering with my chess game. Now that he's fallen for my diversionary tactic, no one can disturb my plan."
"Bastard!" Kushina gritted her teeth, trying to mobilize her Chakra to resist.
But it was all in vain.
That once-indestructible Eight Trigrams Sealing Style was now riddled with cracks due to the immense exhaustion of childbirth. Through her skin, one could even see the surging bubbles of dark red Chakra—representing extreme evil—beneath the skin of her abdomen.
"Still trying to stall for time? As a vessel, you've reached your limit."
Obito snorted coldly. His right eye suddenly widened, the Three-Tomoe spinning wildly and instantly connecting into a bizarre Mangekyo pattern.
Boom!
Kushina only felt a roar in her brain, and her consciousness was instantly pulled into a pitch-black abyss.
That was her mental world.
Behind the massive iron bars, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, which had been imprisoned for decades, was letting out a deafening roar. It felt the weakness of the outside world, and its vertical pupils were filled with a thirst for slaughter and blood.
"Who are you? This nauseating ocular power..."
The Nine-Tailed's massive body slammed into the Seal gates, its huge claws trying to tear apart the intruder before it. However, when it saw the pattern in that tiny human's eye, its violent beast-like pupils suddenly contracted.
"Uchiha Madara?!"
As a collective of Chakra that had lived for a thousand years, it was all too familiar with these cursed eyes.
"A beast should act like a beast."
Obito's figure floated in the middle of the mental space, his tone chillingly cold. "Be obedient, Nine-Tailed."
Ocular power erupted!
The Nine-Tailed's huge vertical pupils instantly lost focus, and on its originally crimson pupils, a Sharingan pattern identical to the one in Obito's eye was reflected.
Outside, the Naka River waterfall.
"Aaahhhhh—!!!"
Kushina let out a piercingly shrill scream.
Dark red Chakra erupted from her body like a volcanic eruption, soaring into the sky. The materialized Chakra storm instantly dispersed the mist from the waterfall.
It was a terrifying power capable of changing the very color of heaven and earth.
Accompanied by the trembling of the earth, a Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that blotted out the sun appeared out of thin air! Nine massive tails swung wildly, easily smashing the surrounding rocks and forest. Its skyward roar created visible sound waves that shattered trees for miles around.
Obito stood atop the Nine-Tailed's mountain-like head, his trench coat flapping in the wind. He looked down at Kushina, who had been thrown to the ground like a rag doll after the Tailed Beast was extracted, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes.
Not dead yet?
Normally, a Jinchuriki would die instantly the moment the Tailed Beast was extracted.
"As expected of the Uzumaki Clan Bloodline. This loathsome vitality is practically like a cockroach's."
There was a hint of mockery in Obito's tone. He lightly raised his hand, and the Nine-Tailed beneath him immediately and obediently raised its massive claw, capable of crushing city walls.
"Since you're not dead, I'll send you on your way."
"Roar—!"
The Nine-Tailed let out a low growl, and its massive claw, carrying a destructive wind pressure, slammed down toward the tiny red-haired woman on the ground!
The shadow of death loomed over Kushina.
She didn't even have the strength to move a finger now. She could only watch despairingly as the destructive blow fell. The last things to flash through her mind were that golden figure and the newly born Naruto.
"Minato..."
Just at this critical moment.
A golden flash, like the dawn tearing through the night, lit up without warning in the shadow beneath the claw.
It was a speed that transcended time and space.
The Flying Thunder God Technique!
Boom!!!
The Nine-Tailed's claw slammed heavily onto the ground, shattering the rock layers and sending dust flying. The entire ground was smashed into a massive crater.
However, Obito's pupils suddenly shrank.
It missed?
His keen dynamic vision caught the image of that moment—just 0.01 seconds before the claw touched the ground, that blond man had appeared out of thin air, scooped up Kushina, and then vanished again.
"So fast..."
Obito stood on the fox's head, looking at the man who had suddenly appeared on a distant treetop holding his wife. It was impossible to tell from his tone whether he was impressed or disgusted.
He did not choose to pursue.
Because he knew very well that as long as the Flying Thunder God Technique was in play, it was impossible for him to catch Minato Namikaze. Instead of wasting time playing cat and mouse, it was better to do something more important.
"Go, Nine-Tailed."
Obito turned around, his gaze fixed on the brightly lit Konoha Village in the distance. A cruel curve formed at the corners of his mouth beneath the mask. "Go and destroy that place. Turn everything to ash."
The massive demon fox began to stride, each step making the earth tremble as it bolted toward Konoha.
Amidst the whistling wind, Obito muttered to himself in a low voice:
"Yahiko, tonight is quite the spectacle. If you happen to be turned to ash by one of this beast's Tailed Beast Balls, then I'll just have to endure the 'grief' and reluctantly take over the position of the Akatsuki leader..."
Konoha Village, Hokage Residence.
With a flash of golden light, Minato Namikaze's figure appeared in the bedroom.
He stumbled slightly, carefully placing Kushina on the floor next to the crib. The continuous high-intensity spatial jumps, combined with extreme tension, had left even this Hokage, known for his Chakra reserves, feeling a hint of fatigue.
"Kushina, how do you feel?" Minato knelt on the ground, his palm pressed against his wife's wrist.
"Is Naruto... okay?"
Kushina's face was as pale as paper, and her eyes could barely focus, but instinct drove her to turn her head and look toward the crib beside her.
There, the little Naruto, who had just been born, was sleeping peacefully, his breathing light.
"He's here. He's safe," Minato comforted her softly. "Rest for a moment. Don't move. I'll go get the medical kit."
Only after confirming that his wife was not in immediate mortal danger did Minato's tense nerves relax slightly.
He stood up, his gaze habitually and quickly scanning the entire room to confirm the environment was safe. This was the instinct of a top-tier Ninja, even in his own home.
However, just as his gaze swept over the crib, his entire body was struck as if by lightning, and every hair on his body stood on end!
"What is this?!"
Minato's pupils contracted violently. His right hand instantly gripped a specially made kunai, and he lowered his body, entering his highest level of combat stance.
Beside Naruto's pillow, an object that hadn't been there before was lying quietly.
It was an exquisitely made pellet drum, a piercingly bright red.
Minato remembered clearly that before he left, and even just now when he came back to place Naruto down, there were absolutely no toys on the bed besides the bedding!
Someone had been here!
And it was within those few short minutes while he was away saving Kushina!
"Who's there?!"
Minato barked in a low voice, his tone suppressed and cold. His perception was immediately on high alert.
No footprints.
No signs of forced entry.
Not even a strange scent was left in the air.
That intruder had been like an invisible ghost, brazenly walking into the bedroom, standing before the sleeping son of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, placing this toy down, and then quietly leaving.
In this instant, Minato felt a chill even more terrifying than facing the Nine-Tailed crawl up his spine.
Wasn't that Masked Man outside tangling with him?
Then who placed this pellet drum?
If that intruder had malicious intent, a simple slash just now would have turned Naruto into a corpse. Or if he had attached an exploding tag to the pellet drum...
Minato didn't dare think further. Cold sweat slid down from his temples.
"Minato... what's wrong?"
On the floor, the weak Kushina seemed to have sensed the killing intent that had erupted from her husband for a moment and asked with effort.
Minato snapped back to his senses.
He looked at that eerie pellet drum, then at Kushina, who was completely unaware of it.
He absolutely could not let her know about this right now.
If Kushina, who had just lost her Tailed Beast, knew that another mysterious powerhouse of unknown alignment had stood by her son's bedside, the psychological shock would be enough to make her collapse on the spot.
"It's nothing..."
Minato took a deep breath and, with extremely fast hand speed, grabbed the pellet drum and stuffed it into his Ninja tool pouch.
He forced a reassuring smile, turned around, and said in a gentle voice:
"Just... just now the window wasn't closed properly, and the wind knocked over a toy. Don't worry, it's safe here."