At this moment, the Nine-Tails had already reached the Hidden Leaf Village and was wreaking havoc.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, led the shinobi to the battlefield, attempting to halt the Nine-Tails' advance.
But the ninjas' attacks were completely ineffective—mere scratches to the Nine-Tails.
Yosuke appeared within the Uchiha clan's compound and found Itachi holding the newborn Sasuke.
"Itachi, are you alright?!"
"Master?"
Seeing Yosuke in his demon-king form, Itachi felt a trace of unfamiliarity.
"Take your brother and hide. Do not appear on the surface. The Nine-Tails has already broken free from its seal—the whole village is now a battlefield. Be prepared. If we can't resolve this… I'll take you away from Konoha."
"But…"
If Itachi were alone, he would follow Yosuke without hesitation. But when he looked down at his infant brother, he hesitated.
Yosuke had no time to argue. In a blink, he vanished.
Itachi looked at Sasuke in his arms and let out a faint sigh.
With his sharp intuition, Itachi had long sensed the darkness hidden behind this Nine-Tails incident. Regardless of how this battle ended, the Uchiha clan's future would not be easy.
The Nine-Tails continued its rampage through the village.
The Third Hokage's forces couldn't stop it at all; casualties mounted in a short span of time.
But suddenly, the Nine-Tails stopped its attack and turned toward the Hokage Rock.
Minato Namikaze had arrived in the village, standing atop the stone faces.
Noticing him, the Nine-Tails redirected its focus, opened its massive maw, gathered chakra into a dense black sphere, and fired a Tailed Beast Bomb straight at Minato.
"You will not destroy this place!"
Minato rapidly formed hand signs. A barrier appeared, covered in countless ink-black sealing characters, swallowing the entire Tailed Beast Bomb and teleporting it outside the village.
The detonation outside Konoha lit up the night like day.
Just as Minato was about to launch an attack on the Nine-Tails, a figure emerged from the void—
The masked man, Minato's student Uchiha Obito in disguise.
Minato instantly turned and thrust his Flying Raijin kunai at the masked man.
But in a bizarre manner, the attack passed through the man's body—and the masked figure grabbed Minato's hand.
"Your opponent is me. And… this ends now."
Using his right eye as the focal point, the masked man began to phase, generating a powerful suction force aimed at pulling Minato into his time-space dimension.
Minato used the Flying Raijin to escape before he could be dragged in.
Yosuke finally arrived after tracing Minato's chakra. The Nine-Tails could not be killed—only sealed.
And Yosuke knew nothing about sealing techniques, so he needed Minato's cooperation.
Yosuke had just opened his mouth to speak when the masked man appeared again before them.
"Yosuke-san, be careful. His ability is a space-time ninjutsu!"
"I know!"
Having fought him once already, Yosuke was well aware of the masked man's intangibility.
Minato continued solemnly:
"To assassinate all members of the Third's personal ANBU, slip through our highest-security barriers, know that the Nine-Tails' seal weakens during childbirth, break the seal, and even control the beast… And to bypass the Konoha barrier freely—among all the shinobi I know, only one person…"
"Are you Uchiha Madara?! No… impossible, he died long ago—"
Sensitive to emotion, Yosuke sensed a brief hint of sorrow within the masked man's exposed Sharingan.
But it vanished just as quickly. The masked man lowered his hood and looked at Minato.
"Who knows? It's not impossible."
Minato demanded,
"At this point your identity doesn't matter—but why target Konoha?"
The masked man looked toward the sky.
"If I must say… it's on a whim. Yet also something I planned long ago. For war… and for peace."
Chains slid from his sleeves and locked onto his wrists.
"Minato Namikaze, you're praised as the fastest—Konoha's Yellow Flash. So tell me… are there people even you cannot save?"
He charged straight toward Minato and Yosuke.
Minato attacked with his kunai; Yosuke with the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.
As expected, both attacks phased harmlessly through the masked man. His chains tightened, binding the two together.
Minato placed a hand on Yosuke and used Flying Raijin to escape the restraint.
"Physical attacks won't work. He only becomes tangible at the moment he attacks. In other words—you must target the instant when our attacks would intersect."
With battle intuition beyond compare, Minato had already grasped the masked man's weakness.
Yosuke nodded.
"I'll create an opening!"
He inhaled, body crouching slightly, hand gripping the hilt of the Kusanagi.
"Blood Breathing, Fifth Form—Blood Flash!"
Yosuke launched forward with overwhelming speed.
The masked man phased again, letting the attack pass through, and reached out toward Yosuke.
"I'll deal with the troublesome one first."
But his pupils suddenly shrank—
Behind Yosuke, Minato had thrown a Flying Raijin kunai, following closely. The moment the masked man became tangible, it would strike his head.
He abandoned solidifying and stayed intangible, letting the kunai pass through his body.
But at the instant the kunai phased through him, Minato appeared, gripping it—using the Flying Raijin to warp directly behind him.
Minato's Rasengan smashed into the masked man's back.
"This is Flying Raijin—Second Stage!"
Simultaneously, Yosuke switched to the Breath of the Sun.
"Breath of the Sun, Twelfth Form—Flame Dance!"
Twin arc-shaped slashes of blazing flame carved into the masked man, severing the entire right half of his body.
The masked man leapt away on a single leg, gasping heavily.
The severed portion collapsed into a puddle of white fluid—
A substance that looked eerily familiar to Yosuke.
It resembled the same material that made up the Priest Master's body.
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