This was an incredibly advanced restrictive seal.
"This is..." Obito's pupils shrank violently, and his voice began to tremble.
"It is a sealing tag."
Minato slowly opened his eyes. His gaze held a trace of pity, mixed with simmering anger.
"As long as this seal remains, you cannot take your own life, nor can you take any key actions that go against the caster's will. He can even use this tag at any time to control your life and death, or turn you into a mindless puppet."
"No... that's impossible..."
Obito muttered to himself as the image of that aged figure flashed through his mind.
Madara had saved him.
Madara had taught him.
Madara had entrusted everything to him, allowing him to create a world where Rin existed.
"He said it was to save me... to repair my shattered heart..."
"He was treating you as a tool."
Minato's fury was directed at the man behind Obito—Uchiha Madara—who had actually dared to treat his own student as nothing more than an instrument.
"If he truly trusted you, if he truly saw you as his successor, why would he implant such a seal inside you?"
Minato's palm suddenly tightened, and dense black sealing formulas surged across his hand.
"Four Symbols Seal: Isolation!"
Hum!
A wave of warmth instantly enveloped that cold seal, temporarily severing its connection to the meridians in Obito's heart.
The icy sensation prickling his spine vanished.
But Obito's heart sank to the bottom of an abyss.
The seal was real.
Minato hadn't lied to him.
Uchiha Madara, the man he had viewed as a savior and a guiding light, had been guarding against him and exploiting him from the very beginning.
The so-called "Eye of the Moon" plan and the "creation of an ideal world" suddenly seemed shrouded in a layer of hypocrisy.
"Why..."
Obito's voice was hoarse as he stared blankly at the grey, overcast sky.
"Sensei..."
"Why go this far? Wouldn't it be simpler to just kill me?"
"I'm a traitor to Konoha, a murderer responsible for so many lives... I even..."
Obito's words suddenly caught in his throat.
He remembered his original plan.
To take advantage of Kushina's delivery, when the seal was at its weakest, to summon the Nine-Tails and destroy Konoha.
"Obito."
Minato looked at the lost student before him, a flash of pain crossing his eyes.
"Do you know what happens to a Jinchuriki once the Nine-Tails is extracted?"
Obito remained silent.
Of course he knew.
If a Tailed Beast is pulled from its Jinchuriki, they die.
"That's Kushina."
Minato's voice trembled slightly.
"She is your master's wife. She treated you like her own brother. You were always late, and though she'd scold you, she always made sure to leave a meal for you. When you were injured, she was more worried than anyone."
"To create an illusory Rin, were you really prepared to personally kill Kushina—the woman who loved and protected you like an older sister?"
These words pierced through Obito's defenses like a blade.
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
In his mind, that fiery red-haired woman and his current self—covered in scars with hands stained in blood—began to overlap.
'What on earth... am I doing?'
'For Rin's sake, can I really sacrifice Kushina?'
'If Rin knew that I killed her to bring her back and destroyed the village, would she smile at me?'
'No.'
'She would probably despise me.'
Obito's body began to shake, no longer from pain, but from a bone-deep fear and self-loathing.
Watching the silent Obito, Minato slowly released his hand from the boy's chest.
He stood up and turned his back to Obito.
"I have temporarily sealed and isolated that tag. Madara can no longer control you through it."
"For now, you are free."
"However, I cannot stay here to watch you repent."
Minato looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through the dimensions toward the distant Konoha.
"The village still needs me."
Obito remained on the ground, motionless, like a hollow shell that had lost its soul.
Minato didn't say anything more.
He knew that some wounds could only be healed by oneself. Some sins could only be atoned for through the rest of one's life.
"Flying Thunder God Jutsu!"
A golden light flared.
Minato's silhouette vanished from the Kamui Space in an instant.
Leaving Obito all alone, lying on the cold stone floor.
It wasn't that Minato was unable to enter or exit Obito's dimension; he had spent a long time sensing the Flying Thunder God formula he had left in Konoha.
Perhaps due to the nature of the separate dimension, although he could sense it, the connection was incredibly faint.
It had consumed significantly more chakra than usual.
The grey space fell into a deathly silence.
After a long while.
A single tear slid from the corner of Obito's eye, tracing over his hideous scars and dripping into the dust.
"Rin..."
"I'm sorry..."
...
The space rippled without warning, and a golden figure appeared out of thin air, stumbling as he hit the ground. Minato Namikaze dropped to one knee, one hand bracing himself on the damp grass as he gasped for breath.
"Cough..."
He clutched his chest, forcibly suppressing his churning blood and qi.
Though he had crushed Obito with absolute strength within the Kamui Space, the high-intensity mental strain and the precision of the chakra manipulation had left him deeply exhausted. More importantly, the wound in his heart felt much heavier than the fatigue in his body.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Almost the moment he appeared, several dark shadows leaped from the surrounding tree canopy.
"Fourth... Fourth Hokage-sama!"
The leading Anbu captain's voice was filled with unbelievable joy. "You... you've returned safely!"
During the previous battle, Minato had vanished into a space-time vortex along with the masked man. Rumors had been flying through the village, with some even speculating that the Hokage had met a tragic end. Seeing this pillar of stability return, the Anbu present felt the heavy weights in their hearts finally lift.
"What is... the situation?"
Minato stood straight, regaining his usual composure, though his voice remained slightly raspy.
"Reporting to the Hokage!" the Anbu captain reported quickly. "The Third Hokage-sama has stabilized the situation. Aside from the damage to buildings caused by the falling Hokage Rock, there have been no casualties, and the evacuation of the villagers is nearly complete."
"That's good..."
Minato's tense shoulders relaxed slightly. 'The Third Hokage-sama... it seems everything is going according to the plan we discussed with Sensei.'
"Where is Kakashi?" Minato asked suddenly.
The Anbu captain blinked, seemingly surprised that after asking about the village's safety, the first name the Hokage mentioned was Kakashi.
"Hatake Kakashi... he just went with a patrol unit to perform guard duty." The Anbu hesitated, lowering his voice. "However... his state doesn't seem quite right."
"Not right?" Minato's brow furrowed.
"Yes. It's as if he suffered a major blow." The Anbu chose his words carefully. "He's executing orders mechanically, showing no reaction to his surroundings. Just now, someone from the Uchiha clan tried to speak with him, and he didn't even respond."