You foolish Monkey!

When Minato teleported back to Konoha, the Nine-Tails had already begun its rampage.

A casual swipe of its claw or a flick of its tail could flatten entire blocks of houses and cause massive destruction.

The attacks of the countless ordinary Konoha shinobi weren't even enough to tickle it.

As the strongest entity formed from concentrated Chakra, the Nine-Tails could stand still and let the shinobi attack it, and few could even pierce its defenses, let alone hurt it.

After Minato flashed back to Hokage Rock,

the Nine-Tails, under Obito's control, soon noticed him.

The threat posed by the Fourth Hokage was greater than that of all of Konoha combined.

Without hesitation, it opened its mouth and began charging a powerful attack. In just a few seconds, it formed a hundred-meter-wide Tailed Beast Bomb and fired it at Minato.

The Tailed Beast Bomb swept through everything in its path.

Even before it exploded, it destroyed the buildings along a stretch hundreds of meters long. Nothing could stop it.

But just as it was about to hit Hokage Rock, it was swallowed by a layer of Space-Time Barrier that Minato had deployed.

The hundreds-of-meters-wide Space-Time Barrier folded a vast expanse of space, swallowing the Tailed Beast Bomb bit by bit.

Then Minato used Flying Thunder God Guiding Thunder again, transporting the Tailed Beast Bomb to a place dozens of kilometers outside the village.

BOOM!

The violent explosion of the Tailed Beast Bomb lit up half the night sky, a testament to its power.

But Minato's strength didn't lie solely in the Flying Thunder God Technique. Across the entire Ninja World, he was also one of the most accomplished masters of Fuinjutsu and barrier techniques.

He had learned almost every Fuinjutsu technique of the Uzumaki Clan.

And by combining the Flying Thunder God Technique with Fuinjutsu, he had developed all kinds of Space-Time Barrier techniques.

If this weren't Konoha, Minato could have transported the Tailed Beast Bomb straight beneath the Nine-Tails and made it explode there.

Then would its defenses still be so hard to break?

Give him a few more decades, and he might even develop a Forbidden Jutsu that could easily seal the Nine-Tails with his bare hands.

Seeing Minato remove the Tailed Beast Bomb,

Obito couldn't sit still any longer. He immediately emerged from behind Minato, ready to launch a sneak attack.

Unfortunately, just as he grabbed Minato and tried to pull him into the Kamui Dimension, Minato used Flying Thunder God to teleport away.

With no other choice, Obito could only pursue him.

He arrived at an open space outside the village, in front of a small wooden house that had been destroyed by the blast. He planned to defeat Minato there, so Minato couldn't go and move the Nine-Tails.

The two stared each other down, and the decisive battle began at once.

But neither of them, tense and wholly focused on the other, noticed the three figures who had appeared nearby ahead of time.

After entering Naruto World 4,

Tobirama of World 2 was startled. "Where is this?"

Hashirama of World 1 had experience with this by now and immediately reassured him. "Tobirama, calm down!"

Tobirama could only fall silent, looking anxiously at his Elder Brother and Natsu Yuu.

"Sir, where are we?"

"Konoha, Year 51. This is fifty years in the future for you, Hashirama, and thirty-four years in the future for you, Tobirama."

"What! The future? Thirty-four years from now? How is that possible? Could this be Genjutsu?"

"Tobirama, do I look like an illusion to you?"

Tobirama looked at his Elder Brother Hashirama and swallowed his doubts once more.

Whether or not this was Genjutsu, anyone who could produce a real, living God of Shinobi was already invincible. What was the point of getting hung up on the details?

Just then,

Tobirama, whose sensory abilities were exceptionally keen, also noticed what was happening in Konoha.

"Elder Brother, look over there! It's the Nine-Tails!"

"The Nine-Tails is rampaging through the village!"

"Mm. I see it. Sir, what exactly is happening?"

Natsu Yuu briefly explained the situation.

Hashirama and Tobirama were stunned all over again.

Someone had attacked Konoha while the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was giving birth, then released the Nine-Tails and caused a Tailed Beast Rampage?

"The Uzumaki Clan's seal should have been very stable! How could something like this have happened?" Tobirama frowned, feeling that he had miscalculated.

He had clearly made all kinds of preparations and safeguards, yet it had still gone wrong...

"No seal is flawless. An enemy will always find a weakness. And if there isn't one, they'll create an opportunity."

"Second Hokage, do you still think Konoha and the Uzumaki Clan's Fuinjutsu are enough to guarantee safety?"

Tobirama fell silent, feeling a burning sting of embarrassment.

He had just confidently assured his Elder Brother that the combination of Uzumaki sealing techniques and Uchiha control was reliable. That had backfired fast.

"Wait, where are the Uchiha?"

"What about Kagami?"

"If this is thirty-four years in the future, then if things went well, Kagami shouldn't have died of old age yet, should he?"

"Why isn't he stepping in to control the Nine-Tails?"

"Even if Kagami's gone, there are still other Uchiha, aren't there?"

"And what about Monkey and the others?"

Tobirama fired off a string of questions, unable to understand why his village's many Uchiha were letting the Nine-Tails rampage through the village like this.

He might have reservations about the other Uchiha, but Tobirama trusted Kagami's character and convictions completely.

By now, Kagami should be one of the village's High Council members, shouldn't he?

With him around, he would surely have changed at least some of his clanmates' views over the decades!

Hearing this, Natsu Yuu could barely keep from laughing.

Still counting on Kagami? Danzo had already gouged out his eyes. He'd died in the same year as you.

"All the Uchiha were ordered not to engage the Nine-Tails. They were sent to evacuate the civilians..."

"What? Who gave such a foolish order?"

"The Monkey you appointed just after passing on the Hokage title—or, to be precise, the Third Hokage thirty-four years from now, along with the village's other High Council members."

"Monkey..."

Tobirama was furious. Was Monkey an idiot?

"That might not be wrong. I can sense that the Nine-Tails is being controlled by the Sharingan. Maybe Monkey was worried the Uchiha would be suspected, so he sent them away to avoid giving anyone reason to blame them?" Hashirama guessed. He didn't like judging others by assuming the worst.

"Elder Brother, how can you be so foolish too?"

"It doesn't matter who's controlling the Nine-Tails."

"After all these years, has the Hokage really failed to raise even one Uchiha he can trust?"

"If nothing else, send the Uchiha with the strongest Genjutsu to counter the Nine-Tails. If anything goes wrong, just cut that person down."

"They have a sword and refuse to use it, choosing instead to lock it away. Has Monkey's head been crushed in a door or something?"

Tobirama scolded him, exasperated.

If it were up to him, he'd summon every Uchiha and have them try to control the Nine-Tails one by one. Anyone who refused would be cut down!

Once you became Hokage, how could you still be afraid of this and that? How could you protect the village?

"Tobirama, you're being too extreme..."

"The village is almost destroyed. What else should we do but take extreme measures?"

"Ah, I suppose you're right."

"Enough. Elder Brother, let's go control the Nine-Tails first. We can't let it keep rampaging."

"Right!"

But Natsu Yuu suddenly cut them off:

"Wait. You can't intervene right now."

If he wanted to inspire Konoha in this world and the Fourth Hokage to pursue their goal of unifying the Ninja World, they needed to suffer. The Nine-Tails' Rampage was just the catalyst they needed.

"That's our village! How can we stand by and do nothing?" Tobirama asked anxiously.

"I can send you back right now..."

Natsu Yuu replied coldly. He wasn't going to indulge anyone.

If Tobirama really insisted on opposing him, he could simply bind himself to another faction and let that side unify Naruto Universe 2 instead. It would certainly be harder, but it wouldn't be impossible.

Tobirama immediately fell silent.

He was anxious, but he knew what mattered.

If he really got sent back, how could he learn anything about the future?

"Tobirama, don't rush. Sir must have his reasons. Let's watch for now," Hashirama reassured him at once.

He was more optimistic than Tobirama. After all, Natsu Yuu had just helped him save Tobirama. He probably wasn't a bad person.

And even if, in the worst case, Natsu Yuu really was a bad person,

they would still have to put up with him to learn about the future. They couldn't exactly pick a fight with this Sage of the Dao Path, could they?

"Phew... Sorry. I got carried away!"

Once he'd calmed down, Tobirama immediately apologized. He had just been dancing on the doorstep of the underworld, and his life had been saved only thanks to Natsu Yuu and Hashirama.

He naturally didn't dare act recklessly. Just now, he had been so worried about the village that he'd lost his composure.

"No harm done."

Natsu Yuu replied magnanimously. He understood Tobirama's love for the village.

"Then, Sir, why are we staying here?"

"So you can meet the Fourth Hokage and watch a battle."