Chapter 31: Nine-Tails Attack
The forest clearing was suffocatingly silent.
Victory or defeat is often decided in an instant.
The specially made kunai in Minato Namikaze's hand had already left his grip, spinning as it sliced through the air and passing straight through Obito's intangible head.
"I've won!"
Obito watched the Kunai pass through him, a mocking curl forming at the corner of his mouth beneath the mask.
His body was currently in an intangible state, and Minato's momentum was spent. According to the script, he only needed to turn around, grab this yellow flash of Konoha, and suck him into the Kamui space for this farce to end.
However, at the very instant he solidified and prepared to touch Minato's abdomen...
...an extremely eerie "sense of incongruity" descended without warning.
Not just Obito, but even Minato Namikaze, in his state of extreme speed, suddenly had a momentary blankness in his eyes.
It was as if the entire world had been subjected to a "skip" button pressed by an invisible giant hand.
In those few tenths of a second, the wind stopped howling, leaves froze mid-air, and even the logical flow of thought that should have been continuous was forcibly gouged out.
That was—[Time Deletion].
When their consciousness reconnected with reality, an unbelievable scene unfolded.
Obito's pupils abruptly contracted into pinpoints.
His memory was still stuck on the wind-up motion of "turning to capture Minato," but the reality was—Minato Namikaze had somehow already teleported above his head!
That Rasengan, radiating an aura of destruction, was at this very moment being slammed firmly onto his back!
"What... how can this be?!"
Obito's mind went blank.
Where was the process?
The Kunai flying past, Minato activating the Flying Thunder God, Minato condensing the Rasengan in mid-air, Minato turning and smashing down... this series of complex tactical movements had vanished into thin air in this world!
It was like a network lag while watching a movie, where the scene jumps directly from "dialogue" to the "ending."
"Damn you, Yahiko!!!"
Before the intense pain hit, Obito let out a hysterical roar in his heart.
Even through the mask, his face instantly turned the color of pig liver. In the entire Ninja World, only that madman could pull off such an unheralded "time fault"!
That bastard! He chose this exact moment to activate his ability?
Is he interfering with my battle as if he's watching a monkey show?!
*Boom!!!*
Giving him no more time to think, the terrifying destructive power of the Rasengan erupted instantly.
The ground was like it had been struck by a meteorite; the soil exploded outward in waves. Obito was slammed bodily into the dirt by this immense force.
*Crack—*
His right arm, made of White Zetsu cells and used to maintain physical balance, couldn't withstand the instantaneous impact and shattered like a brittle withered branch—the price for being shredded by the Rasengan's violent Chakra.
Amidst the billowing dust, Obito rolled out in a wretched state, kneeling on one knee as he coughed up large amounts of blood.
Before he could catch his breath, a yellow flash flickered before his eyes once again.
Minato Namikaze's face, cold and devoid of emotion, abruptly appeared less than ten centimeters from the tip of his nose.
Minato's left hand was as fast as lightning, slamming onto Obito's abdomen.
His fingers curled into a claw, and black incantations crawled across Obito's chest and abdomen like chains.
"Contract Seal!"
"Ugh!" Obito groaned. He felt the tight mental connection between himself and the Nine-Tails within his body being forcibly severed, as if by a pair of red-hot scissors.
That sense of power, of controlling everything, vanished instantly, replaced by emptiness and terror.
"He actually left a Flying Thunder God formula on me the moment I was hit just now?" Obito clutched his chest, his eyes filled with horror.
This was the yellow flash.
Even with the interference of "Time Deletion" for a split second, this man's battle instincts were still terrifyingly despair-inducing. The moment his attack landed, he was already prepared for a second pursuit.
"I'm going to separate you from the Nine-Tails." Minato slowly straightened up, the Kunai in his hand glinting coldly.
Having lost control of the Nine-Tails, Obito knew the situation was hopeless.
If he continued to linger, he really would meet his end here tonight.
"Minato Namikaze... I'll let you have this win."
Obito gritted his teeth, staring venomously at Minato as his body began to distort along with the space. "But in this hellish world, what can you possibly protect? We will meet again soon..."
Before his words could finish, his figure was completely swallowed by the Kamui space, vanishing without a trace.
Minato did not pursue.
He clutched his abdomen, which was only now beginning to throb with pain, and looked back toward the Village with a heavy gaze.
Although the contract was severed, the Nine-Tails was still in the Village.
"I must Seal the Nine-Tails immediately."
With a flash of gold, the Fourth Hokage vanished... At the center of Konoha Village, atop the ruins.
The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, no longer under the control of the Sharingan, saw the pinwheel patterns in its eyes slowly fade, reverting to bestial vertical pupils.
Although no longer controlled, the fury of this strongest Tailed Beast had not subsided; instead, it became even more violent due to the humiliation of being forcibly enslaved.
"Roar—!!!"
The Nine-Tailed roared at the sky, the sound waves shattering the few remaining houses nearby.
Directly in front of it, a small elderly man in black battle armor was kneeling on a section of a broken wall, gasping for breath.
It was the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
In his hand was the Adamantine Staff transformed from Enma, known for being "indestructible." But now, the iron staff was trembling slightly.
"Old friend, can you still hold on?" Enma's low voice came through.
"Phew... not dead yet."
Hiruzen Sarutobi wiped the dust and blood from his face, a deep sense of powerlessness surging in his heart as he looked at the mountain-sized demon fox before him.
He was getting old.
The decline in his Chakra reserves and lack of physical stamina made him appear stretched thin in this direct confrontation with a Tailed Beast.
If Minato hadn't diverted that Tailed Beast Ball earlier, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
"Damn... you beast, you still won't give up?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi forced himself up, his eyes subconsciously scanning the chaotic shadows behind him, his gaze gloomy.
He was looking for someone.
Looking for his most prized Disciple.
"Orochimaru, at a time like this, as one of the 'Sannin,' why haven't you appeared yet?"
In a disaster of this scale, almost all the Jonin in the Village had been mobilized.
Only Orochimaru seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.
An ominous premonition quietly grew in the Third Hokage's heart.
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