When Minato teleported back to Konoha Village, the Nine-Tails had already begun its rampage.
A casual swipe of its claw carved through rows of buildings like paper, reducing entire blocks to splinters and rubble. Its tails whipped through the air—each one a devastating weapon that pulverized everything in its arc. Massive craters formed where its paws struck the ground, and the shockwaves alone sent shinobi tumbling backward.
Meanwhile, the attacks from numerous ordinary Konoha shinobi weren't even enough to give it an itch.
Kunai and shuriken bounced harmlessly off its crimson fur. Fire Style jutsu washed over its body like warm bathwater. Even coordinated Earth Style barriers crumbled like sand under a single swipe. As the strongest chakra-aggregated Tailed Beast entity, the Nine-Tails could just stand in place letting shinobi attack it—few could even break through its defenses, let alone actually harm it.
When Minato flashed back to the Hokage Rock, his eyes immediately assessed the devastation below. Entire districts were ablaze, screams echoing through the night as civilians fled in terror.
The Nine-Tails under Obito's control quickly noticed Minato, its crimson eyes locking onto the yellow flash standing atop the stone monument.
The threat posed by this Fourth Hokage was greater than all of Konoha combined.
Without a word, it opened its jaws impossibly wide. Crimson and violet chakra began spiraling inward, condensing into a sphere of devastating energy. The very air distorted around the gathering power, crackling with malevolent energy. Within just seconds, it condensed a hundred-meter Tailed Beast Bomb—a miniature sun of pure destruction—and fired it at Minato with a deafening roar.
The Tailed Beast Bomb swept forward like a meteor.
The sphere of compressed chakra tore through the air, leaving a vacuum trail in its wake. Even before exploding, its mere passage destroyed hundreds of meters of buildings along its path—walls collapsed, roofs disintegrated, and the ground beneath cracked and buckled. The heat alone ignited everything flammable within fifty meters. Nothing could stop it.
But just as it was about to strike the Hokage Rock, Minato's hands blurred through seals.
A massive barrier formula erupted beneath his feet, spreading outward in geometric patterns of glowing blue script. The 'space-time barrier' deployed by Minato opened like an iris, creating a swirling vortex of folded dimensions. The several-hundred-meter space-time barrier bent reality itself, the edges of the portal rippling with distorted light as it began devouring the Tailed Beast Bomb step by step.
The massive sphere of destruction shrank as it entered the barrier, compressed by the warping space until it vanished entirely—swallowed into another dimension.
Then Minato activated Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder once more, his chakra flaring as he redirected the technique's exit point to a location dozens of kilometers outside the village.
Far beyond the village walls, the Tailed Beast Bomb erupted from a tear in space.
"BOOM!"
The violent explosion of the Tailed Beast Bomb illuminated half the night sky, turning night into day for several seconds. A mushroom cloud rose kilometers into the air, the shockwave flattening an entire forest. Its power was clear to see—anything within that blast radius would have been instantly vaporized.
Minato allowed himself a single breath of relief. That was far too close.
But his formidable strength wasn't limited to just Flying Thunder God Technique. Throughout the entire shinobi world, he was also a top-tier master of sealing techniques and barrier techniques.
He'd learned nearly all of the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques from Kushina, studying obsessively to protect her and their future child.
And by combining Flying Thunder God Technique with Sealing Techniques, he'd developed various space-time barrier jutsu that no other shinobi could replicate.
The only reason this worked was because they were in Konoha. If this were in the wilderness, Minato could directly transfer the Tailed Beast Bomb to explode right under the Nine-Tails' ass.
Would he still worry about breaking its defense then?
If given a few more decades, he might even develop a forbidden technique to seal the Nine-Tails with his bare hands.
...
Seeing Minato transfer the Tailed Beast Bomb away, Obito's single visible eye narrowed behind his mask.
He couldn't sit still any longer. The Fourth Hokage was even more troublesome than anticipated.
Space rippled behind Minato as Obito emerged from his Kamui dimension, his form materializing from the spiraling void like a ghost. He immediately lunged forward, his hand reaching for Minato's shoulder, preparing to ambush him and drag him into the Kamui dimension where the Fourth Hokage's speed would mean nothing.
Unfortunately for Obito, Minato's reflexes were honed by countless battles.
The instant he felt the spatial distortion behind him, Minato's body flickered. A Flying Thunder God seal he'd planted on the Hokage Rock during his assessment activated, and he teleported away—leaving only empty air in Obito's grasp.
Obito's fingers closed on nothing, and he immediately phased through the rock as a barrage of kunai—each marked with Flying Thunder God seals—whistled through where he'd been standing.
"Tch." Obito clicked his tongue in frustration.
With no other choice, he could only give chase, his form warping through space as he tracked Minato's chakra signature.
They arrived at the clearing of the destroyed small cabin outside the village. Debris from the earlier explosion still smoldered, scattered wood and ash covering the scorched earth. This was far enough from civilians—here, they could fight without restraint.
Minato stood ready, three-pronged kunai already in hand, his Hokage cloak billowing in the wind created by the distant Nine-Tails' rampage.
Obito emerged from a spatial tear, his orange mask catching the moonlight as he regarded his opponent.
The two locked eyes across the clearing—the Yellow Flash of Konoha and the mysterious masked man who'd brought disaster upon the village.
The decisive battle began instantly.
However, both of them, with their nerves stretched to the limit, failed to notice three other people who'd appeared in advance not far from the battlefield.
...
After entering World #4's timeline.
World #2's Tobirama exclaimed in shock: "Where is this?"
World #1's Hashirama, having experience now, immediately reassured him: "Tobirama, quiet!"
Tobirama could only shut his mouth, looking pitifully at his brother and Kai.
"Sir, where are we?"
"Year 51 of Konoha. For your timeline, Hashirama, it's 50 years in the future. For yours, Tobirama, 34 years in the future."
"What! The future world? 34 years later? How is that possible? Could this be a genjutsu?"
"Tobirama, do I look like a genjutsu to you?"
Tobirama looked at his brother Hashirama and once again suppressed all his doubts.
Whether it was genjutsu or not, anyone who could produce a genuine God of Shinobi was already invincible—what was the point of worrying about it!
Just then.
Tobirama, with his extremely sharp sensory abilities, also noticed the situation at Konoha Village.
"Big brother, look over there! It's the Nine-Tails!"
"The Nine-Tails is rampaging in the village!"
"Yes, I see it. Sir, what exactly is happening?"
Kai briefly explained the current situation.
Once again leaving Hashirama and Tobirama stunned.
Someone had attacked Konoha during the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki's childbirth and released the Nine-Tails, causing a Tailed Beast rampage?
"The Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques should be very stable! How could such an accident happen?" Tobirama frowned, feeling he'd miscalculated.
He'd clearly made various protective arrangements and plans, yet it still failed...
"There's no such thing as a perfect seal. Enemies will always exploit your vulnerabilities, and if there are no vulnerabilities, they'll artificially create opportunities."
"Second Hokage, do you still believe that Konoha plus the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques can guarantee safety?"
Tobirama fell silent, feeling his face burn with shame.
After all, he'd just confidently assured his brother about the reliability of [Uzumaki Sealing + Uchiha Control]. This slap in the face came way too fast, didn't it?
"Wait, where are the Uchiha?"
"Where's Kagami?"
"If this is 34 years later, with good luck, Kagami shouldn't have died of old age yet, right?"
"Why isn't he taking action to control the Nine-Tails?"
"Even if Kagami's gone, there are other Uchiha!"
"And where's Monkey and the others?"
Tobirama fired off a barrage of questions, unable to understand how his village with so many Uchiha could allow a single Nine-Tails to rampage so freely.
Setting other Uchiha aside, Tobirama absolutely trusted Kagami's character and convictions.
He should be one of the village's higher-ups by now, right?
With him present, over several decades, he must have changed some of the clan members' perspectives!
Hearing this, Kai wanted to laugh.
Still counting on Kagami? Danzō had already scooped out his eyes years ago—died the same year as you, actually.
"All the Uchiha have been ordered not to engage the Nine-Tails. They were sent to evacuate civilians instead..."
"What? Who gave that order? How utterly foolish!"
"The Monkey you just passed the position to, or rather, the Third Hokage 34 years later, along with other village higher-ups."
"That Monkey..."
Tobirama was furious, wondering if Monkey had lost his mind.
"This isn't necessarily wrong, is it? I can sense the Nine-Tails is being controlled by the Sharingan. Could it be that Monkey was worried about the Uchiha being suspected, so he had them avoid suspicion?"