Chapter 269 – Choice
Outside the walls of Konoha, in the small wooden cabin where he had earlier teleported Kushina and baby Naruto—
A sharp bang split the silence.
A figure crashed onto the ground, rolling before landing lightly on his feet. His body instinctively dropped into a defensive stance, eyes sweeping through the night.
When no one followed, Minato Namikaze finally exhaled, tension easing slightly.
That force that had tried to drag him in—
even among the greatest shinobi in history,
few could have escaped it.
But he was one of them.
He was the man who had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique.
---
"A space-time jutsu… without a doubt," he muttered to himself, scanning the area.
"My attacks phase through him unless he chooses to materialize.
There must be a pattern to it—some kind of timing or rule.
And that vortex… was he trying to pull me into another dimension?
Or just teleport me to a fixed location, like my own Flying Thunder God?"
Even mid-battle, Minato's mind was analyzing at blinding speed—
dissecting every movement, every inconsistency.
It was that sharp, logical mind
that had once trained Kakashi Hatake to think the same way.
---
Then the air in front of him rippled—
space itself folding inward, spiraling into a vortex.
From the distortion stepped the masked man in black.
"You're fast," the intruder said, his tone calm yet faintly mocking.
"But this time… you won't escape."
His voice was smooth, self-assured—
but beneath it lay a strange complexity.
Confidence tainted by something like grief.
Minato didn't reply.
He raised his kunai, his expression hardening.
His mind continued to race.
"Space-time ninjutsu… and a Sharingan user.
He bypassed Konoha's barriers with ease,
knew Kushina's exact location,
and struck when the seal was weakest.
He must be someone who once lived in Konoha."
He frowned.
"To kill ANBU units so cleanly…
to know the secret of the jinchūriki's vulnerability in childbirth…
and to control the Nine-Tails itself…"
Minato's eyes narrowed.
"There's only one man I know who could do all that."
His voice dropped.
"You're… Uchiha Madara."
---
The masked man tilted his head slightly, silent for a moment—then lifted his hood.
The name was half-right, and yet completely wrong.
Inside the mask, his expression twisted—
a flicker of disappointment,
and perhaps, relief.
No… I'm no longer Uchiha Obito.
That name died long ago.
Now, he told himself,
he was only Madara Uchiha,
the one who would bring "true peace" to this cursed world.
---
"Impossible," Minato countered after a moment.
"Madara died at the Valley of the End decades ago.
Even if he used some forbidden technique,
by now he'd be a frail old man."
"Who knows?" the masked man replied softly.
"Perhaps death isn't as permanent as you think."
"It doesn't matter who you are," Minato said coldly.
"You've attacked my village. You've endangered my family.
That's all I need to know."
---
"If you must know," Obito said, voice low and dark,
"I do this for war… and for peace."
Chains of chakra lashed from his sleeves—
identical to the sealing chains Kushina used to restrain the Nine-Tails.
Minato's eyes widened slightly.
"Those chains… Uzumaki sealing technique.
Then you are connected to Madara."
This man was too dangerous to live.
He had space-time ninjutsu like Tobirama,
control over the Nine-Tails,
and an ideology steeped in madness.
If Minato let him escape,
he'd bring calamity to the entire world.
---
I can't lead him back to the village.
If I do, he'll follow me straight into Konoha.
But if I fight too long here, the seal on Kushina might break…
His mind whirred, calculating.
Then a thought hit him—
a pattern he'd noticed during their earlier exchange.
When the masked man attacked,
he phased in and out of reality,
but only for a split second each time.
There was a window—tiny, but real.
If I can time my strike within that instant…
---
Minato's eyes sharpened.
"Let's test it."
He charged.
Obito mirrored him.
The distance vanished in a heartbeat—
kunai flashing, chains whistling through the air.
Minato's blade passed through the masked man harmlessly,
as expected—
and Obito's chain lashed out, wrapping tight—
But in that instant, Minato vanished.
"What—?"
Obito's eye widened.
He turned just as a blinding blue light erupted behind him.
"Rasengan!"
The impact struck like thunder.
The ground exploded.
Debris tore through the air as Obito's body was hurled into the earth.
A crater bloomed beneath him, dust and smoke swirling—
and in its heart, the spinning Rasengan blazed like a miniature sun.
---
"He marked me… when our attacks crossed," Obito realized, teeth gritting.
"He teleported to his kunai…"
Minato landed lightly, kunai raised.
His expression was ice-cold now.
"You lose."
Obito tried to phase away again—
but Minato was faster.
His palm slammed against Obito's chest,
a glowing seal spreading across the black cloak.
"Contract Seal."
Obito's eyes widened as the connection to the Nine-Tails snapped.
He staggered, his chakra faltering.
"You—severed my link to the beast?!"
"The Nine-Tails is no longer yours," Minato said, voice calm and deadly.
"Rest in peace."
For a heartbeat, Obito froze—
his mentor's voice cutting deeper than any wound.
The face behind the mask twisted.
He felt that strange, buried emotion again—
something like loss.
---
Then he phased away.
One breath later, he reappeared far from the battlefield,
half-collapsed on a tree branch.
His right arm was gone.
The seal still burned faintly across his chest.
"As expected of the Fourth Hokage," he muttered bitterly.
"To think he could injure me… and sever the link with the Nine-Tails."
The space around him began to distort again.
"But it doesn't matter. The Nine-Tails will still destroy Konoha.
And one day… it will be mine again."
He vanished into the void.
---
Minato stood in silence, breathing hard, sweat beading on his brow.
One enemy defeated—
but the real threat still raged within the village.
"No time to rest," he murmured.
"The Nine-Tails is still loose… and Kushina—"
He disappeared in a flash of golden light.
---
Inside the void of Kamui, Obito clenched his fist around his newly attached arm.
The white cells of Zetsu writhed, knitting his flesh back together.
"I underestimated you, Sensei… but next time, I'll be ready."
He stepped toward a swirling rift.
"Let's see how you handle the beast without me."
---
Meanwhile, back at the village's edge—
flames devoured the night.
The Nine-Tails rampaged, its roars shaking the heavens.
Uchiha Fugaku's fire techniques barely singed it.
He gritted his teeth, turning to Kei.
"Kei! This isn't working. We need another plan!"
"I know," Kei replied grimly.
"But the situation's about to change."
He could feel it—
something had shifted in the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Then, suddenly—
The crimson glow in the beast's eyes flickered—
and vanished.
The Sharingan was gone.
For a heartbeat, the monster froze—
then howled, a roar of raw, unfiltered rage that split the air.
Wind pressure blasted outward, flattening entire blocks.
The beast, now free of control,
turned its fury on everything in sight—friend and foe alike.
---
Kei raised his head, eyes narrowing.
"The control's broken."
Fugaku clenched his fists.
"Then now's our chance."
"No," Kei said softly, watching the chaos unfold.
"Now comes the real nightmare."
Though it was no longer under Obito Uchiha's control,
the Nine-Tails had regained its consciousness—
and with it, its wrath.
But regaining its mind did not bring calm.
When it awoke, it found itself surrounded by destruction,
attacked on all sides by Konoha's shinobi.
The humiliation of having been controlled like a puppet,
of being used as a mere tool,
festered into pure rage.
And so, it turned that fury upon everything in sight.
---
With one casual swipe of its claw,
dozens of Konoha ninja were sent hurtling through the air.
Its tails swept across the village like whips of destruction—
crushing houses, shattering towers,
burying anyone too slow to flee.
The Nine-Tails, now fully aware,
was consumed by blind anger.
It would not rest.
It would annihilate everything before it.
---
Suddenly, the beast crouched low,
its enormous body twisting as it leapt backward,
creating distance from the exhausted Konoha forces.
Then, raising its head toward the sky,
it opened its jaws.
A suffocating darkness began to swirl within its mouth.
Raw, dense chakra—pure destruction given form—
condensed into a black orb that pulsed with lethal power.
"A Tailed Beast Bomb…"
Uchiha Kei frowned, his scarlet eyes sharpening as the tomoe began to spin.
"Looks like it's done holding back."
Beside him, Uchiha Fugaku sighed heavily,
the pattern in his own Sharingan shifting ominously.
"Seems we can't stay in the shadows any longer."
---
But before either of them could act—
A thunderous voice split the air.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
The heavens seemed to open.
A massive shadow dropped from above,
crashing into the earth with a ground-shaking impact.
Dust and shockwaves exploded outward—
and when the light cleared,
a giant red toad stood over the Nine-Tails,
a smoking pipe clenched in its mouth.
The Nine-Tails roared in defiance,
but the creature pinned it down,
pressing it deep into the shattered ground.
And standing atop the toad's head—
his white Hokage cloak billowing in the night wind—
was Minato Namikaze,
the Fourth Hokage.
---
"It's the Fourth Hokage!"
"Lord Minato's back!"
"We're saved!"
The cries rose like wildfire through the ranks.
Despair turned to hope.
Fear became courage.
Because at the moment when Konoha was on the verge of collapse—
the man who embodied the village's will had returned.
---
Even Uchiha Kei and Fugaku froze for a second,
their Sharingan tomoe slowing to a stop.
They exchanged a glance—
and both men exhaled quietly,
as though a crushing weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
Fugaku's relief was obvious.
Kei's, more subtle.
But neither could deny the presence of Minato—
the calm center of Konoha's storm—
gave them something they hadn't felt in a long time:
trust.
---
After a brief silence, Kei reached into his pouch
and pulled out a special kunai engraved with the Flying Thunder God seal.
Fugaku immediately understood what he intended.
His expression tensed.
"You're really going to do it?" Fugaku asked quietly.
"Minato's here now. We could let him handle the rest—"
"The Nine-Tails won't stay calm," Kei interrupted.
"If he tries to force a seal right now, it could backfire.
Besides—our job isn't done.
The Police Force's evacuation mission is complete,
and we've earned the village's trust.
Now's the time to prove it."
Fugaku hesitated, then nodded firmly.
"You're right.
But whoever controlled the Nine-Tails…
their Sharingan wasn't ordinary."
"Leave that one to me."
A faint smile curved Kei's lips,
but his eyes gleamed with a chilling resolve.
"I'd like to see how my Mangekyō measures up
against another's."
---
Before Fugaku could respond,
the Nine-Tails let out another deafening roar.
Pinned beneath Gamabunta,
it was still far from defeated.
Its battle instincts took over—
its jaws opening wide as another surge of chakra gathered.
This time, it wasn't a full Tailed Beast Bomb—
but the sheer destructive force was still enough to wipe out hundreds.
The glowing mass of energy began to expand—
aimed directly at the advancing Konoha forces.
---
"Damn it!"
Minato's voice cut through the chaos.
He saw the blast coming,
and his heart clenched.
Dozens of his men were still within the blast radius—
and many of them had already closed their eyes,
accepting what was about to come.
He didn't hesitate.
Golden light flared.
"Flying Thunder God!"
In a single instant—
both the Nine-Tails and the entire sphere of condensed chakra vanished.
The battlefield fell silent.
Only a lingering wind whispered across the broken earth.
The Konoha shinobi blinked, stunned.
Where moments ago death had been certain—
now, there was only empty space.
Their minds could barely process it.
Then someone finally spoke.
"He… he moved the entire thing…"
And as realization dawned—
their silence broke into thunderous cheers.
"The Fourth Hokage did it!"
"Lord Minato saved us again!"
---
From the distance, Kei and Fugaku watched in silence.
Kei's grip on the marked kunai tightened slightly,
his Sharingan reflecting the golden flash still lingering in the sky.
"Now," he murmured,
"the real battle begins."