Only a few days had passed since Arisu's son was born.
Kushina's due date had quietly arrived as well.
But as the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki, her childbirth process was naturally a hundred times stricter than normal. Konoha's top ninjas had already set up layer after layer of barriers around the delivery room.
The night was cool.
"Tonight is a full moon."
Arisu stood by the window with his hands behind his back. His gaze passed through the dark night and looked at the bright moon hanging in the sky. His voice was calm.
On the couch nearby, Tsunade carefully held their swaddled son, her eyes full of a gentleness she had never shown before.
Her fingers lightly brushed through the soft hair of her child, and she was just about to say something...
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion suddenly tore through Konoha's night sky.
Flames shot upward, turning half the sky red.
Tsunade's arms tightened around the baby. She suddenly raised her head and looked at Arisu, a trace of seriousness in her voice.
"Husband, you sensed it?"
Arisu slowly nodded, his eyes still fixed on the distant fire.
"Mm."
"But there's no need to worry. With Minato and the Uchiha clan around, it isn't my turn to act yet."
———
Poof!
Accompanied by a cloud of smoke, the crimson Nine-Tailed Fox appeared in the center of Konoha.
It raised its head and let out a roar that shook heaven and earth. Its violent chakra spread in all directions like a tidal wave.
Almost the instant the Nine-Tails appeared, Konoha's highest-level emergency plan was activated.
The Uchiha clan, which had long been on standby, mobilized completely.
Because there had already been the incident of Ah Fei controlling the Nine-Tails and causing chaos in Konoha before.
Konoha had naturally prepared countermeasures.
Konoha knew that the Sharingan could effectively control tailed beasts.
So the Uchiha clan naturally had a role to play.
Before the Nine-Tails could cause large-scale destruction, Uchiha Fugaku had already leaped into the air. His scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan lit up in the night.
Two streams of powerful eye techniques shot straight into the Nine-Tails' consciousness, beginning a fierce struggle with Obito, who was controlling it from the shadows.
Obito was still too young.
He had to divide his attention between fighting Minato Namikaze in a battle of extreme speed and resisting Fugaku's powerful eye techniques, which came from the same Uchiha bloodline.
Very quickly, he fell into a disadvantage.
In the end, with his more experienced ocular techniques, Uchiha Fugaku successfully suppressed Obito's will and temporarily stabilized the rampaging Nine-Tails.
At the same time, Minato Namikaze precisely caught the flaw in Obito's intangibility ability.
His figure flashed, and the Golden Flash streaked through the night sky. Carrying overwhelming force, the Rasengan struck Uchiha Obito squarely in the back.
At the same time, he placed a Flying Thunder God mark.
"Damn it..."
Obito groaned and staggered backward, his eyes filled with unwillingness.
Hatred rose in his heart.
"As my teacher, he still didn't recognize me..."
———
Minato Namikaze held the newborn Naruto in his arms and looked at Kushina, whose breathing was becoming weaker and weaker. His face had turned pale, and his voice trembled with anxiety.
"What do we do...? Kushina is a perfect jinchuriki, but once the tailed beast is extracted, the jinchuriki will definitely die..."
At this critical moment, a figure silently appeared beside him.
"So it's a son for you too, Minato.", Arisu's voice was as gentle as ever.
Seeing Arisu, Minato was like a drowning man grabbing onto his last lifeline.
He immediately dropped to one knee, his voice almost pleading.
"Teacher! Please save Kushina! Please!"
Arisu slightly raised his hand, signaling him to stand.
"No need for that. Kushina is my only female disciple. How could I stand by and do nothing? I have a way."
"We'll split the Nine-Tails' chakra into two halves. One part will remain inside Kushina, and the other..."
Hope immediately appeared in Minato's eyes, but he quickly asked nervously, "W-Will there be any danger to life?"
Arisu shook his head, his tone full of certainty.
"I'll personally perform the sealing technique. Nothing will happen."
"Thank you, Teacher! Please, Teacher!"
Minato bowed deeply, his gratitude overflowing.
After a moment, he looked at the sleeping Naruto in his arms. A complicated expression flashed through his eyes before he finally asked through clenched teeth, "Teacher... could you... seal the other half of the Nine-Tails inside Naruto?"
Arisu looked at the swaddled Naruto, then at Minato's determined face.
Naturally, he understood.
Minato wanted Naruto to have a cheat ability as well.
Arisu did not refuse.
In the end, he slowly nodded.
"Alright."
———
The Nine-Tails incident came without warning, and it ended just as quickly.
Konoha didn't even have time to activate the evacuation plan for civilians.
Most of the villagers slept through the entire disaster and knew nothing about the catastrophe that had nearly shaken the village to its foundations.
Only the next day, after reading the newspapers and hearing rumors from neighbors, did they realize what a huge event had happened during the night.
"We must thoroughly investigate last night's attack."
Minato Namikaze spoke with a serious expression.
"The identity of the mysterious masked man remains unknown, but based on our battle last night, he called himself Uchiha Madara."
At present, Minato had no idea who it was.
And he didn't believe that Uchiha Madara would attack the village.
Before he could finish speaking, Hiruzen Sarutobi pushed the door open and walked in.
After Minato became Hokage, he had lifted Hiruzen's house arrest.
"That masked man isn't Madara. He's Tobi."
Hiruzen entered the room and spoke.
"Tobi?"
Sakumo Hatake looked puzzled.
Hiruzen let out a soft sigh.
"You youngsters don't know about the events from decades ago. That was the first time Konoha faced a rampaging Nine-Tails."
"Lord Hashirama personally stepped in to stop it, and that man used the exact same methods and abilities. Minato, let me ask you, did he have that strange ability that made him impossible to hit?"
Hiruzen looked deeply at him.
Minato immediately nodded.
"That's right!"
Hiruzen sighed again, his tone carrying the weight of age.
"Then it's definitely him. Back then, during the First Great Ninja War, I remained in the village because of my injuries. I was still young, but I clearly remember that disaster."
He remembered very clearly that the Nine-Tails incident back then had followed almost the exact same script.
Tobi kidnapped a baby and then summoned the Nine-Tails.
Only, back then, the kidnapped child had been Tsunade.
This time, it was Naruto.
"But it's been so many years. That person shouldn't have much strength left... Even if he's still alive, he should be very old..."
Minato's face showed confusion.
Hiruzen also fell into thought.
'That really doesn't make sense.'
After so many years, even if Tobi had been a teenager back then, he should now be at least sixty or seventy years old...