Time rewound to thirty minutes prior.
Immediately after leaving the Uchiha district, Minato Namikaze flashed to a secret cave outside Konoha.
This was where Kushina Uzumaki was to give birth.
Kushina was the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki. While the robust physique of the Uzumaki clan usually kept the Tailed Beast's seal as steady as a mountain, there was one critical exception: childbirth. During labor, the energy required to deliver the child caused the seal to weaken drastically.
To prevent the Nine-Tails from breaking free and devastating the village, the Third Hokage had ordered Kushina to give birth in this remote location, protected by a barrier. His own wife, Biwako Sarutobi, served as the midwife.
Minato stood by, waiting anxiously, ready to reinforce the seal the moment it wavered.
"Wah! Wah!"
With a loud cry, Naruto was born into the world.
As a new father, Minato didn't even have time to look at his son properly. He immediately gathered his chakra, focusing entirely on strengthening Kushina's seal.
Squelch!!
A sickening sound of flesh being pierced echoed through the cave. Minato spun around instantly.
Biwako and the other medical ninjas lay in pools of their own blood.
A figure in a black robe and an orange mask had infiltrated the barrier without triggering an alarm. He held the newborn Naruto in his arms, dangling him dangerously.
'Who is this guy?'
A drop of cold sweat slid down Minato's forehead.
"Fourth Hokage, step away from the Jinchūriki," the masked man, Obito Uchiha, said coldly, his single scarlet eye visible through the mask. "Unless you want your son to die."
Driven by parental instinct, Minato was momentarily outmaneuvered. It was the classic "lure the tiger from the mountain" strategy. Although he managed to save Naruto using the Flying Thunder God technique, the split-second separation allowed the masked man to abduct the weakened Kushina.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
"Come forth, Nine-Tails!"
Under the mask, the tomoe in Obito's Sharingan spun rapidly, morphing into a triangular pattern. The overwhelming ocular power of the Mangekyō Sharingan pierced through the seal, instantly enslaving the Nine-Tails.
Crimson chakra surged wildly from the seal. In the blink of an eye, the colossal form of the Nine-Tails materialized in the night air.
Roar!
Freed after decades of confinement, the Nine-Tails let out a roar that shook the heavens, its rage palpable even under the control of the Sharingan. A hurricane of chakra erupted from its body, obliterating the surrounding forest.
In the nick of time, Minato reappeared. Using the Flying Thunder God, he grabbed the dying Kushina and teleported her to the safety of their home in Konoha.
Obito didn't care. He had successfully extracted the Nine-Tails; the Jinchūriki was no longer of value to him. Once a Tailed Beast was extracted, the host was destined to die. Kushina was only hanging on by a thread thanks to her Uzumaki lineage.
"Now, march on Konoha," Obito commanded, standing atop the great beast's head. "Let that village of lies turn to dust under your power!"
Boom!
The Nine-Tails took a step, its massive paw hitting the ground with the weight of a mountain.
But in the next second, a far more terrifying sound erupted.
BOOM!
A blinding light swallowed the forest as a mushroom cloud bloomed directly beneath the Nine-Tails' feet.
Roar—!
The explosion was deafening. The sheer force of the blast sent a wave of agony through the Nine-Tails, causing it to shriek in pain. Despite its gargantuan size, the shockwave was strong enough to lift the beast off its feet and flip it onto its back.
When the dust settled, one of the Nine-Tails' paws was mangled, blown to shreds by the concentrated blast. However, as a mass of living chakra, the beast began to regenerate almost immediately.
The rider, however, was not so lucky.
At the first moment of the explosion, Obito had instinctively tried to activate his Intangibility. But Jie's trap was designed for instant, overwhelming lethality. It was a calculation of intent versus reaction speed.
Even with the Nine-Tails acting as a partial shield, by the time Obito fully phased into the Kamui dimension, his black robe had been shredded. Half of his body was exposed, revealing pale, scarred skin.
His arm had been blown clean off. Yet, instead of blood, a milky white substance—like tree sap—oozed from the wound.
"Careless... Someone set an ambush here?"
Obito coughed violently, spitting out mouthfuls of blood as he materialized back into solidity, safely away from the epicenter.
"That explosion... the yield was equivalent to at least 100,000 explosive tags detonating at once."
"Did my intel leak? Was Konoha prepared for this?"
"Or was it a jutsu? Who in the village can unleash a forbidden technique of this magnitude? The Third is old. Orochimaru has defected. Tsunade and Jiraiya are gone."
"Minato-sensei... did you hide your hand this deep?"
Dozens of thoughts flashed through Obito's mind in an instant.
He quickly activated the Mayfly technique. A White Zetsu emerged from the ground beside him. Without changing his expression, Obito severed the Zetsu's arm and grafted it onto his own stump. Thanks to the regenerative properties of the Hashirama cells in his body, the injury began to heal rapidly.
The plan was already in motion. The Nine-Tails was unleashed. Regardless of the ambush, Obito would not give up.
....
Back in Konoha-
"The tags detonated."
Jie stood on a rooftop, listening to the rumbling in the distance.
'I hope it hit the Nine-Tails. And hopefully, it caught Obito too. He has Kamui, so a few tags wouldn't touch him, but saturation bombing is a different story.'
Hearing the continuous echoes of the blast, Jie felt a surge of joy.
He had spent weeks planting exactly 100,000 explosive tags around that cave. In the Warring States Period, that amount of firepower would have been enough to supply a small army for an entire campaign.
'100,000 tags going off together... even a Tailed Beast is going to feel that!' Jie thought excitedly.
As the smoke on the horizon began to fade, a mechanical voice chimed in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Host utilized 100,000 Explosive Tags to injure the Nine-Tails and severely wound Obito Uchiha!]
[Settlement Complete.]
[Reward Received: A mass of Nine-Tails Chakra!]
[Reward Received: Three-Tomoe Sharingan Pupil Power!]