Everyone could see the panic in Namikaze Minato's eyes.
Especially Jiraiya and Hatake Kakashi. They had known him well. In their memories, Minato was always calm, no matter how dire the situation. It was as if nothing could truly shake him. Even in Kaede Kitahara's earlier video, when Minato had been sent twenty years into the past, he had remained composed and rational.
This version of him, visibly shaken, was something they had never seen.
It was obvious.
Both his wife and his child meant everything to him.
The mere act of weighing one against the other was enough to tear him apart.
"You should be telling that to yourself, Minato."
The masked man continued his taunts.
"Right now, I'm perfectly calm."
With that, he suddenly hurled the infant Naruto into the air.
"Naruto!"
Even with the Nine-Tails on the verge of breaking free, Uzumaki Kushina's heart stopped when she saw her son tossed upward.
Just as the baby began to fall back toward the masked man, Minato moved.
In that split second, he snatched Naruto out of the air first.
"As expected of the Yellow Flash," the masked man said without surprise.
He knew his former teacher well.
The fastest shinobi in the world. The man who once forced Kumogakure's A and B duo to retreat through sheer speed alone. Losing out in raw velocity was only natural.
"But what happens next?"
The masked man ignited the Explosive Tags attached to Naruto's blanket.
"Naruto! Minato!"
Kushina screamed in terror.
Minato reacted instantly. He tore the blanket away and flung it aside.
The explosion that followed obliterated the house.
Minato barely managed to escape with Naruto in his arms. The entire sequence was chaotic and desperate.
It was clear.
Everything had been calculated.
Even Minato's reactions had been anticipated.
The masked man must have planned this for a long time. He had factored in Minato's habits. Even his unrivaled speed.
How terrifying.
Facing this situation, Minato's mind snapped back into focus.
Before, he had been forced to choose between wife and son, and that had shaken him. But now, whether by fate or by manipulation, the choice had already been made.
He had Naruto in his arms.
His heart steadied.
He quickly checked the baby.
"Thank goodness… Naruto isn't hurt."
Only then did he allow himself a breath.
But he was injured.
A jagged wooden shard from the explosion had pierced his ankle.
Outside the screen, Uchiha Sasuke watched Minato risk his life without hesitation to protect Naruto.
A dull ache formed in his chest.
He remembered how Naruto would sometimes stare at other families walking together, laughter filling the air, and fall silent.
Naruto had once been destined to live as the Fourth Hokage's son. The village's pride.
Instead, everything had been taken from him.
Taken by Uchiha Madara.
For the first time, Sasuke found himself unable to casually call him dead last.
If Naruto had not become an orphan that night, he would have received the best education in Konoha. How could he have ended up the academy's lowest-ranked student?
On screen, the key to Minato's escape lay not far away.
A Flying Thunder God kunai.
"I was forced to use Flying Thunder God."
"He's targeting Kushina. I've been lured away."
Minato pulled the wooden shard from his leg without so much as a flinch. His mind raced, analyzing the masked man's identity and objective.
"I need to get back."
Before the words had fully left his mouth, his body vanished.
He reappeared at the Hokage residence, where another Flying Thunder God marker had been placed.
Watching him use Flying Thunder God again filled Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kakashi with emotion.
Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke, however, had never witnessed it firsthand.
Especially Sasuke. He had never encountered such a space-time ninjutsu before. Only through Kaede Kitahara's diary had he glimpsed rare techniques like this.
Meanwhile, in another hidden space, Kushina was suspended midair, bound by sealing chains.
"What are you… trying to do?"
She panted, already suspecting the answer.
She knew better than anyone how many coveted the Nine-Tails sealed inside her.
"What did you say?"
Her eyes widened.
If he only intended to extract the Nine-Tails, she would not have been so shocked.
But destroying Konoha entirely?
That was something else.
The danger level was completely different.
In the dim space, the masked man's Sharingan glowed blood-red.
"Minato's technique allows him to teleport between marked spaces. And one of his marks was embedded within your sealing formula. Normally, with him guarding you, it would have been impossible."
"But now he's been lured away. And your seal has weakened due to childbirth."
"I've waited a long time for this perfect opportunity."
Outside the screen, everyone wore expressions of grim understanding.
This had been a long game.
With space-time ninjutsu, the masked man could observe undetected, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Tsunade had already made up her mind.
Once she returned, she would dig through the Senju Clan's archives. As the Senju Clan's greatest rival, there had to be extensive records on Uchiha Madara.
If Madara truly lived, then whether as the last visible member of the Senju Clan or as the future Fifth Hokage, she had to prepare for war.
Itachi had not been wrong.
Shinobi battles were battles of information.
Thanks to Kaede Kitahara's diary, they already possessed valuable intelligence. If they could choose the right moment, perhaps even a Kage Level opponent could be ambushed and killed.
Had she not nearly fallen herself?
A Kage Level shinobi almost undone because of Hemophobia.
The humiliation still burned.
Of course, that logic only applied if the enemy was still human.
Tsunade frowned.
According to what she had learned as a child, Uchiha Madara had been the Ninja World Asura. Powerful beyond measure.
But she had never heard of him possessing space-time ninjutsu.
Something did not add up.
"Second Grandpa must have left behind detailed records," she murmured. "He hated Uchiha Madara enough."
On screen, Minato gently laid Naruto in a prepared cradle.
"This place should be safe. Naruto, stay here for a moment. I need to go save your mother."
There was a trace of reluctance in his eyes as he looked at his son.
Elsewhere, inside Kushina's mindscape, the Nine-Tails roared.
Massive iron chains bound it in place.
It sensed the intruder.
A dark, ominous aura flooded the space, suffocating in its intensity.
Even outside the screen, Sasuke's hands trembled.
It was terrifying.
The feeling reminded him of the first time he faced an elite Jonin like Zabuza.
But compared to the Nine-Tails' pressure now, that memory felt insignificant.
This was the first time he had truly seen it.
Even just its head was as large as a mountain.
"This… is what's inside him?"
Sasuke suddenly remembered.
In that earlier footage, during the White Robe Sasuke period, his future self had projected his consciousness into Naruto's seal using his three-tomoe Sharingan.
Back then, the mere leakage of the Nine-Tails' chakra had already rivaled an elite Jonin.
And in that scene, his future self had effortlessly crushed that stray chakra with Sharingan power.
At the time, he had thought the Nine-Tails was formidable.
But not beyond reach.
After learning the concept of Kage Level, he had even believed that at worst, it was simply a Kage Level monster. With Mangekyo Sharingan, he would suppress it easily.
Now he realized how wrong he had been.
This was the complete Nine-Tails.
Not yet split into yin and yang by Minato.
Its pressure far surpassed even Orochimaru's.
"Yes… this is it."
Uchiha Itachi closed his eyes briefly.
"That ominous chakra."
It was identical to the one he had felt on the night of the Nine-Tails' Rampage.
He would never forget it.