Hirohiko!
As they watched the pillar of Black Flames erupt skyward right before their eyes, Kushina and Yukina—still reeling from the realization that Uchiha Nobuhiko was not Uchiha Nobuhiko—had not even processed the conversation between the two of them before their minds went blank.
There were no cries of alarm, no looks of horror. Their expressions were almost still frozen in that moment of sudden realization.
The searing heat wave rushed toward them, yet they seemed wholly unaware of it.
Only their eyes, stretched wide with fury, reflected the violent emotions they had yet to process.
This heat wave!
Could it be?! At that moment, sensing the sudden wave of heat from behind him, Minato Namikaze seemed to realize something as well. His expression abruptly changed. That searing presence, as if those black flames had ignited directly behind him, instinctively filled him with an intensely ominous feeling.
He had experienced this scorching presence once before at close range. Though he had not been attacked, during the previous battle, he had felt it from beside that wall of black flames.
Unlike ordinary fire, this burning presence was distinctive. Though he did not yet know how to describe it, Minato Namikaze, having felt it himself, could still tell the difference.
Combined with the sight of Uchiha Nobuhiko forming hand seals from the corner of his eye, he could almost certainly conclude that Uchiha Nobuhiko had launched an Amaterasu attack, and the target had to be Hirohiko.
And judging by Kushina and Yukina's cries just now, Hirohiko's situation could not have been good. With such a searing presence now, even without seeing it, Minato Namikaze could guess most of what had happened.
Hirohiko is likely doomed! Damn it!
*Shikaku said just now that this is not genjutsu, but a Space-Time Ability—one different from