Amid a violent rotation that seemed as if heaven and earth themselves had been overturned and thrown into chaos, Kushina Uzumaki fell heavily onto a desolate stretch of land.
Her body was unbearably weak from having just given birth.
Her chakra had also been severely consumed from the earlier struggle against the Nine-Tails.
On top of that, the sudden outbreak of war had kept her mind in an extreme state of tension.
Kushina Uzumaki's current condition could be described as terrible to the extreme.
Forget fighting against an expert of the same level. Even dragging the heavily injured Haruto Yamanaka out of the sea of flames had already left her gasping for breath, her legs trembling.
Yet even in such a state, when the black-clothed man wearing the tiger-striped mask appeared beside her without warning and prepared to abduct her with space-time ninjutsu, Kushina Uzumaki still reacted in time.
She threw Naruto Uzumaki, who had originally been in her arms, as gently as possible to one side.
She did not allow him to be captured by the enemy alongside her, becoming a pawn that could be used to threaten Minato Namikaze.
"This really is surprising… You are clearly already weakened to this extent, yet you still retain the instinct to protect your child?"
Kushina Uzumaki raised her head and looked at the mysterious man who had brought her to this unknown place.
Panting slightly, she asked, "Are you the one who brought the flames of war into Konoha Village all at once today?"
"After all, there is only one chance to seize the Nine-Tails. To keep Konoha's people from interfering too much with my actions, naturally, I had to go with the flow and draw in some external forces capable of tying them down."
Behind the mask, Obito Uchiha looked at Kushina Uzumaki's face, which was still somewhat familiar to him, and sighed with a movement so faint it was almost imperceptible.
Then his hands quickly formed seals, activating the seal-breaking barrier he had arranged long ago.
"Ugh—"
Black curse-seal chains formed purely from chakra shot out from the stone pillars standing around them, firmly binding Kushina Uzumaki's limbs and neck.
Then, along Kushina Uzumaki's pale skin, they coiled upward like venomous snakes searching for a place to bite.
Seeing that the other party had come prepared, Kushina Uzumaki subconsciously wanted to mobilize her chakra and stimulate the Flying Thunder God mark that Minato Namikaze had left within the seal.
But what made her feel a chill was that those black curse marks wrapped around her not only tightly restrained her body, they also severely suppressed the flow of chakra inside her.
Aside from the Nine-Tails chakra she had only just suppressed, she could not extract even the slightest bit of chakra right now.
"Do not waste your effort."
Obito Uchiha opened his Mangekyo Sharingan and spoke calmly.
"Since I dared come to seize the Nine-Tails, I naturally made enough preparations and contingencies… The Flying Thunder God formula the Fourth Hokage left inside the seal is indeed troublesome. But as long as he is entangled by an opponent he must devote his full attention to handling, by the time he realizes something is wrong, the Nine-Tails will already be in my grasp."
As his voice fell, the Mangekyo in Obito Uchiha's right eye widened sharply.
A powerful genjutsu instantly seized Kushina Uzumaki's consciousness, penetrated the Four Symbols Seal used to seal the Nine-Tails inside her, and looked directly upon the enormous demon fox praised as the incarnation of calamity and malice.
"You… you are…"
Seeing the Mangekyo Sharingan in Obito Uchiha's eye, the Nine-Tails, which had once experienced being controlled by the Uchiha clan, immediately realized the visitor's identity.
It instinctively tensed its body.
Its vast chakra surged violently across its body's surface, expressing immense hostility toward this uninvited guest.
"Nine-Tails, we finally meet again…"
Obito Uchiha skillfully imitated Madara Uchiha's tone.
That lifelike tone and deliberately altered voice instantly caused the Nine-Tails to make a mistaken judgment regarding his identity.
"Uchiha… Madara!"
The Nine-Tails shook its nine tails as if its fur had exploded.
It struggled, trying to resist what was about to happen. But the powerful and sturdy seal inside Kushina Uzumaki's body tightly restricted its movements and chakra mobilization, turning every thought it had into useless bubbles.
Seeing this, Obito Uchiha smiled coldly.
The Sharingan genjutsu, reinforced by his ocular power, suddenly erupted.
It easily shattered the fierce expression the Nine-Tails struggled to maintain, forcing it to lower its proud head before him.
Then the chains formed from black curse marks violently crashed into his spirit and into the seal where the Nine-Tails resided.
In the blink of an eye, they completely destroyed the Four Symbols Seal used to seal the Nine-Tails inside Kushina Uzumaki.
"Good… Return to the world, Nine-Tails."
"Awooooooo—!"
Scarlet chakra, vast enough to shake heaven and earth, violently surged out of Kushina Uzumaki's body and rapidly swelled beneath the night sky.
Chakra, which should have been illusory, took physical form under the moonlight.
Bones.
Flesh.
Claws and fangs.
Fur.
And finally, the nine long tails that symbolized its identity.
After many years, the scarlet demon fox, dozens of meters tall, once again stood upon the earth.
It raised its enormous and ferocious head, stared at the bright moon in the sky with a pair of three-tomoe pupils utterly different from usual, and released a long howl that shook the four directions.
"Heh. Tailed Beasts… Before the power of the Sharingan, they are merely beasts that are slightly stronger than normal."
Obito Uchiha looked at the Nine-Tails, which had already become a weapon in his hands, and sneered disdainfully.
He then turned and prepared to use Kamui's power to leave this place, taking the Nine-Tails under his control back to Konoha and completely ending today's war.
But just as the space around him began rotating as it had when he arrived, Kushina Uzumaki, who should have died immediately after the Nine-Tails was violently extracted, relied on the Uzumaki clan's innate vitality—and a surge of life force that seemed to come from nowhere—to raise her head with difficulty.
She weakly called toward Obito Uchiha's figure.
"Stop… Don't… leave… Obi…"
Obito Uchiha's movements stopped on the final syllable that Kushina Uzumaki spoke intermittently.
He slowly turned around and stared at the panting Kushina Uzumaki with his Mangekyo Sharingan.
He did not move.
It was as if he were waiting for her to finish saying the remaining syllables.
Seeing this, Kushina Uzumaki's face could not help showing an expression of utter bitterness.
She forcefully drew in a breath and, with all her strength, asked a question as completely as she could.
"Obito… why… would you do this?"
"…You clearly could have watched me leave and continued clinging to life for a while longer."
Obito Uchiha's answer was somewhat disconnected.
"Why insist on asking such a foolish question and make me notice that you are not dead yet?"
"I… do not understand."
Kushina Uzumaki looked at Obito Uchiha, whose answer was almost equivalent to admitting the truth. Several brief memories flashed through her mind.
When Minato Namikaze had first taken over the team made up of Kakashi Hatake, Rin Nohara, and Obito Uchiha, the way he had racked his brains thinking about how to help them become a proper team.
Before taking the squad to the battlefield, how Minato Namikaze had specially dragged her along to take a commemorative photo and eat with the three members of his team.
The bright, utterly genuine smile on his face at that time.
And Obito Uchiha's smile then—awkward, not particularly perceptive, yet just as sunny, making people feel that he would become a good child who treasured his comrades.
After Obito Uchiha sacrificed himself in the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, the way Minato Namikaze had sat at home, silently looking at Obito Uchiha's photograph, his expression full of melancholy and self-blame.
And after Jiraiya came to their door and revealed that the mastermind behind Root might have some connection to Obito Uchiha—or even possibly be Obito himself—the complex, indescribable expression Minato Namikaze had shown when she privately asked him how he intended to face the matter if that intelligence proved true.
"Why… did you, who once… believed in comrades so much… become someone who kills comrades and the village without mercy? Why?"
Facing Kushina Uzumaki's intermittent questioning as she covered her mouth, Obito Uchiha let out a laugh that was half disdainful and half self-mocking.
Only then did he speak faintly.
"Comrades, villages, nations, shinobi… Everything in this world is false and illusory."
"No matter how hard the fools who cling to such things struggle, they will never change the bloody cycle of the shinobi world."
"But I am different… I have already seen the path that leads out of this endless cycle."
"That is why I made my decision."
"No sacrifice matters. No atrocity is condemned so long as it succeeds."
"As long as I can reach that place, all sacrifices will turn into bubbles. All pain will come to an end. There will be no more war, no more conflict. A world where everyone can obtain what they desire, and where no one needs to hurt anyone else, will be reflected from my eyes across the entire world."
"You should go wait there first, Nine-Tails—no, Kushina Uzumaki… When I reach the other shore, there will no longer be any separation between life and death. Everything in this world will attain perfection."
After saying that, Obito Uchiha raised his hand.
Then he swung it heavily down toward Kushina Uzumaki.
Join my Patreon to read public release chapters and get 1 chapter ahead for free. Paid members can read more advanced chapters.
Continue reading here
patreon.com/Inkveil_