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Naruto was born.
As Minato Namikaze moved to reinforce the seal on Miyuki Uzumaki's abdomen, the midwife, Biwako Sarutobi, and the female Anbu, Taji, let out a sharp cry. They collapsed. Dead.
Minato's eyes snapped toward them, his pupils contracting to pinpoints.
"Lady Biwako! Taji!"
Behind their corpses stood a cloaked figure wearing an orange, spiral-patterned mask. Obito Uchiha. In his right arm, he held the crying infant Naruto. His left hand hovered, open-palmed, above the baby's head.
He spoke, his voice a deliberate, gravelly imitation of Madara Uchiha's. "Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Step away from the jinchūriki. Otherwise, this child's life will be measured in seconds."
Minato's gaze turned to ice, fixed on the masked man.
The sounds of battle still raged outside. The barrier was intact. Unbroken. How did he get through?
Fear for her son ripped through Miyuki. The sudden terror was the final straw. Her control slipped, and the leaking red chakra flared, wrenching the already-fragile seal another crucial inch toward collapse.
Inside Miyuki, the Nine-Tails sighed. It had been trying, truly. From the start, it hadn't stirred up trouble, actively working to leash its own chakra to minimize the strain on its host. But the leaking chakra? That was beyond its control. It was a living ocean of chakra. With the seal weakened from childbirth, a torrent was spilling out whether it liked it or not.
Minato's eyes flicked to her abdomen. The seal pulsed, unstable. Damn it.
Obito's left hand blurred. A kunai appeared, its point glinting above Naruto. "I said move! Or does your son's life mean nothing to you?"
"Wait!" Minato's hand shot up. "Just—calm down!"
"You're the one who needs to calm down, Minato. I have never been more clear-headed."
With a flick of his wrist, Obito tossed the baby into the air.
"NARUTO!" Miyuki's scream was pure agony.
The kunai descended.
Minato's eyes sharpened. The father vanished. This was the Yellow Flash.
He burst forward. A basic Body Flicker, honed to perfection. A blur of yellow. He scooped the baby from the air a heartbeat before steel met flesh.
Obito's masked head tilted. A cold chuckle. "As expected of the Yellow Flash. Even the most basic technique is blindingly fast. But what about… this?"
His hands formed the Tiger seal.
A hiss. The sound of paper burning.
Minato looked down. Tied to Naruto's swaddling clothes were three explosive tags. Their fuses were already half-gone.
"MINATO! NARUTO!" Miyuki's voice was shredding itself raw.
No time. No room for error.
Minato's mind worked at the speed of light. One hand cradled Naruto, the other tore at the bindings. In the same instant, space folded around him. The Flying Thunder God Technique.
They vanished.
They reappeared inside an empty, abandoned house on the outskirts of the village—a marked location, far from Miyuki. The tags finished burning.
BOOM.
The shack disintegrated into splinters and flame. Minato shielded Naruto with his body, skidding across the dirt as debris rained down.
Silence. Then, an infant's cry.
Minato looked down. Naruto, face scrunched and red, was wailing but whole. Unharmed. A wave of relief so profound it stole his breath. He smiled. "You're okay."
A sharp, hot pain lanced through his ankle.
He glanced down. A thick splinter of wood was embedded deep in his flesh.
Fool. Distracted. He yanked it out, his expression hardening. The target was Miyuki. He'd taken the bait. Played right into the enemy's hands.
Another flash of yellow. He was back in his home, in the nursery. He laid the now-sleeping, exhausted baby gently in his crib.
"You'll be safe here, Naruto. Just wait for me. I have to go save your mother."
Meanwhile, Obito had taken Miyuki to a jagged landscape of stone pillars.
He stood over her weak, exhausted form. He'd extracted her from the birthing room via Kamui and deposited her here, held fast against the cold rock by binding seals.
She struggled to lift her head, each breath a ragged gasp. "What… are you…?"
"I'm pulling the Nine-Tails out of you," Obito stated, his voice flat. "And then I will crush Konoha."
Her eyes widened in horror. "What?"
"The Fourth Hokage's technique… moving instantly between marked spaces. That mark is on your seal. Usually, he's there to protect you. But now? He's gone. Chasing a ghost. And the seal… weakened by childbirth." A dark satisfaction bled into his tone. "This perfect moment. I've waited a long, long time for it."
Inside Miyuki, the Nine-Tails' thoughts raced. 'A crisis in two or three years.' That's what that man, Qianyu, had said. This is it. An Uchiha. He means to control me.
It acted, trying to shear off a fragment of its consciousness, a clawhold of chakra to leave behind within its dying host.
Too late.
The crimson tomoe of the Sharingan spun in Obito's eye, drilling into the beast's mind. Resistance crumbled. Will was overwritten.
Obito's hands formed the sequence. "Seal Release!"
Deep within Miyuki, the colossal chains that bound the fox began to dissolve. The wooden stakes pinning it to the mental landscape were wrenched free.
The seal on her stomach warped. The elegant, spiraling pattern of the Eight Trigrams Seal collapsed in on itself, becoming a swirling, black vortex.
"Now. Come out! Nine-Tails!"
A torrent of violent, crimson chakra erupted from the vortex. It took shape—massive limbs, nine thrashing tails, a muzzle of sharpened fangs. The chakra solidified, hitting the ground with an earth-shaking THUD that sent cracks racing through the stone.
The Nine-Tails, its eyes reflecting the Sharingan's pattern, threw back its head and roared—a sound of pure, manipulated malice.
Miyuki went limp against the stone, her life force draining away.
Obito gazed at his new weapon, killing intent thick in the air. "Good. Now… march on Konoha."
He turned to leave. A weak, trembling hand grabbed the edge of his cloak.
"St… stop…"
He glanced back, mildly surprised. "Incredible vitality, you Uzumaki. Even with the tailed beast ripped out, you don't die immediately. Allow me to help you with that. After all…"
He took a breath. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
A colossal sphere of fire roared from his mouth, engulfing the space where Miyuki lay.
But in that final moment, her left eye changed. The pupil reshaped, the pattern shifting into the distinct, swirling design of Qianyu's Mangekyō Sharingan.
The fireball, mere inches from her face, winked out of existence, dissipated into harmless air.
Obito's eyes narrowed behind the mask. "A Transcription Seal. Of course. But his ocular power can't stop physical force." He gestured. "Kill her. The jinchūriki must die."
The controlled Nine-Tails obliged. One massive claw rose, blotting out the sky, and swept down to crush her.
A flash of yellow.
The claw smashed empty stone, pulverizing the pillar into dust.
Twenty meters away, Minato stood, Miyuki cradled in his arms. He'd used the Flying Thunder God mark on her seal for a last-second teleport.
Obito watched, a low scoff escaping him. "The Yellow Flash finally arrives. A little too late for it to matter."
Miyuki's eyelids fluttered. Her voice was a ghost of a whisper. "Naruto… is he…?"
"He's safe," Minato said, his voice tight. "Somewhere secure."
A breath of relief escaped her. "Good… Minato, you have to stop him… and the Nine-Tails… They're going to… level the village…"
Minato's gaze locked onto Obito across the distance, a look that promised annihilation. But he didn't attack. Instead, he held Miyuki closer.
Another flash.
They were gone.
Obito stared at the empty space. "Running away again… No matter. Let's go, Nine-Tails. Time to give Konoha a night it will never forget."
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