[Itachi: "He's too strong right now…"]
Itachi's pupils tightened. The pattern was obvious to him if not to those on the field: conventional ninjutsu slid off Obito like rain off lacquered stone. If there was a crack, it had to be senjutsu.
[Hashirama: "Tobirama, find the weak point already!"]
[Tobirama: "Thinking. Kindly don't jostle my IQ, big brother."]
Hashirama: "(ó﹏ò｡)"
[Sarada: "Intel so far: don't touch the black spheres."]
[Boruto: "But they orbit him 24/7—how do we bypass them?"]
[Itachi: "Calm down. Every technique has a fatal seam."]
Minato read the board coldly: offense and defense—both maxed. Their current pieces didn't check a Six Paths king.
"Trouble," Sasuke muttered, eyes hard.
"Stronger than I pictured," Naruto whispered, throat tight.
Minato's jaw set. "He's grasped… dreamlike power."
Tobirama glanced at Minato's severed arm—and frowned. "Not regenerating? Same with Hiruzen's half… which means—"
A fleck of spittle from Gamakichi sizzled against a Truth-Seeking Orb. The glossy black hissed and pitted.
Wind skated gravel across the field. Minato looked up. "Obito… you once said you wanted to be Hokage. Why this?"
Obito's gaze chilled. "Why? Isn't it laughable that you ask?"
His voice rose, rough with a decade of rusted grief. "Where were you when Rin died? Where were you every time it mattered? Teacher becomes Hokage, student gives up the dream—and you didn't even recognize your own student. Some 'Yellow Flash.'"
The knife slid between Minato's ribs without drawing blood.
Naruto's lids snapped open; sage markings bloomed.
Tobirama's eyes lit. "Not dumb after all."
[Boruto: "Why Sage Mode now?"]
[Tobirama: "Because senjutsu bites where ordinary techniques bounce."]
[Sarada: "As expected of the Seventh."]
[Sasuke: "Tch. I noticed too."]
[Itachi: "And yet… you didn't say it."]
Obito kept twisting the blade. "A 'hero's death' and yet you humiliate yourself before your son. Some Hokage."
Naruto ground his teeth. A Rasengan swelled in his palm—its halo laced with stone-still, storm-living nature energy.
Tobirama's hand dropped to Naruto's shoulder. "If you never became Hokage, you don't get to belittle one. And you sure as hell don't get to belittle his father."
**Blink—**Tobirama ferried Naruto behind Obito.
"Sage Art—Rasengan!"
Naruto drove it into Obito's abdomen. The air rang; the Truth-Seeking veil flickered—and cracked.
Minato's eyes softened, pride and sorrow braided together.
The battlefield erupts:
[Sarada: "It worked!"]
[Itachi: "As thought—senjutsu pierces the orbs' absolutes."]
[Adult Naruto: "Ahaha… you flatter me, Itachi."]
[Boruto: "Let's go, Dad!!"]
Classroom Boruto, fist-pumping by habit, accidentally posts it publicly.
[Sarada: "Oho? No roasting the Seventh today? Tsundere much?"]
[Iwa's Yanbe: "So Boruto is a softie."]
High above, Obito's face tightened—he hadn't expected the seam to be found this fast. The Truth-Seeking Orbs wobbled like dark moons at perigee.
And then—Naruto felt it too late—that terrible suction building in Obito's core. The orbs snapped back into an austere ring; his staff drew a clean white arc.
"Sensei…" Obito's tone flattened to judgement. "You taught me to throw the kunai—and then stopped looking where it landed."
The sky dimmed. Dust lifted as if commanded.
Obito's palm opened toward Naruto and Sasuke—a Truth-Seeking bullet coalesced, compressing, gleaming with annihilation. Tobirama flashed to mark it—too slow. Minato spun a kunai—too far. Even Sage Mode felt a heartbeat late—
And somewhere in that killing light, a tiny, fragile something flickered across Obito's lone eye: a hospital hallway; a girl's smile; a promise made under a setting sun—
The orb stutters.
The bullet fractures into nine smaller suns and fans out—three for Naruto, three for Sasuke, three for the two Hokage behind them. The team has one blink, one breath, and zero second chances.
Do they improvise a triple Mutual Blink—or does Minato finally answer the question Obito hurled at his heart?
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