Obito's Akatsuki Interview, Minato Seeks an Audience with the Toad Sage!

The scorching sun of the Land of Wind baked the sand until it was blistering hot.

Obito Uchiha—or rather, "Tobi," as he was now called—was walking through the seemingly endless desert.

The Spiral Mask on his face kept out the heat, but it couldn't block the hatred and humiliation churning in his heart.

"Sasori of the Red Sands..."

He murmured the name. The image of that indifferent figure looking down at him, and the words "Obey me, and perhaps I can bring your beloved Rin back to life," circled in his mind like a curse.

He hated him!

He hated Namikaze Minato, he hated Konoha, and most of all, he hated the "Uchiha Madara" who had toyed with him!

But he had no choice.

Power—power was what he needed most right now.

For Rin's sake, he had to endure the humiliation.

Just then, a short, stout figure slowly appeared on the dune ahead.

It was a strange puppet. Its bulky body was covered in a dark purple shell, and a weapon like a scorpion's tail gleamed with a metallic chill behind it.

"You're the new guy the leader told me about, 'Tobi'?"

The puppet's mouth opened and closed, but the voice that came out was sharp and hoarse, full of impatience.

Obito stopped. His single eye, hidden beneath the mask, stared coldly at the other figure.

"Scorpion, senior?"

"Hmph. Don't get so familiar." Sasori of the Red Sands, inside the puppet, snorted. "The leader sent me to test you. If you're useless, I'll make you part of my collection."

Before he had even finished speaking, the metal scorpion tail shot out with a sharp whoosh, aiming straight for Obito's heart!

It was so fast that an ordinary elite jonin wouldn't have been able to react.

Yet Obito simply stood there, as if he hadn't even noticed the deadly attack.

Just as the scorpion tail was about to pierce his body, something strange happened.

The tail... passed straight through him!

It was as if he were nothing but an illusion.

"What?!"

For the first time, Scorpion's voice held a note of surprise from inside the puppet.

His attack had missed?

"Is this the test? How boring."

Obito's voice came from behind Scorpion.

Scorpion's heart lurched. He swiftly turned the puppet around, only to see that Obito had somehow appeared several meters behind him, standing at ease.

"Space-Time Ninjutsu?" Scorpion's voice grew serious. "Looks like you're not an ordinary good-for-nothing."

"Then try this!"

Scorpion formed Hand Seals. The puppet Hiruko's mouth snapped open, unleashing hundreds, even thousands, of poison-coated senbon. They swept toward Obito like a purple downpour.

It was a wide-area attack with nowhere to hide.

Obito remained where he was, without moving.

The rain of poison needles instantly engulfed him.

Yet every needle passed through his body without resistance, burying itself deep in the sand behind him.

He was completely unharmed.

Inside the puppet, Scorpion fell silent for a moment, thinking.

This ability seemed to make attacks pass right through him, but it should have some kind of limit. Otherwise, it made no sense. And judging by those Sharingan, he was probably from the Uchiha Clan.

"Is the test over?" Obito's voice carried a hint of mockery.

"..." Scorpion didn't answer, but the scorpion tail behind Hiruko had already withdrawn, a sign that he had given up attacking.

"Quite an interesting ability," Scorpion rasped. "You pass. Come with me. Our next target is in the Land of Earth. I hope you last a while."

Obito said nothing. He simply followed behind Hiruko.

Beneath the mask, his fist clenched tight.

The feeling of being treated like a tool filled him with rage.

But he held it in.

For Rin... he could endure anything.

"Uchiha Madara"... one day, I'll make you pay for your arrogance today!

Meanwhile, in Konohagakure.

The oppressive atmosphere in the Hokage's office had not eased in the slightest with the passage of time.

Minato leaned wearily back in his chair. Documents were piled high in front of him, but he couldn't focus on a single word.

The news that Kirigakure had allied with the Akatsuki pressed down on every one of Konoha's senior officials like a boulder.

And Uchiha Madara's brazen figure had become a nightmare they couldn't shake.

"Minato, have you really made up your mind?"

Jiraiya stood by the window, looking at his student with worry written all over his face.

The meeting was over, but none of their problems had been solved.

Contact the other great nations? No one would believe them. They'd be glad to see Konoha suffer heavy losses and would only laugh at them.

Launch an attack? They still didn't even know the enemy's headquarters for certain, let alone how to deal with the unfathomable Madara.

They were like prisoners trapped beneath an invisible net, forced to watch as the enemy devoured the world step by step.

"I have to go, Teacher." Minato looked up, his blue eyes bloodshot.

"Madara has mastered the Flying Thunder God. Only I, my guard unit, and the Second Hokage knew the secrets of that technique. There has to be something going on that we don't know about."

"And... Naruto..."

At his son's name, Minato's voice trembled slightly.

"The Great Toad Sage's prophecy, the Akatsuki's goal of hunting the Tailed Beasts... It's all too much of a coincidence."

He couldn't sit by and do nothing any longer. He needed an answer.

Even if that answer pushed him into an even deeper abyss.

Jiraiya fell silent.

He knew he couldn't stop his student.

Ever since becoming Hokage, Minato had carried too much on his shoulders.

The Nine-Tails Incident, Obito's betrayal, Madara's return—each and every one of them had stabbed at his heart like a knife.

"All right." Jiraiya sighed. "I'll go with you."

"No." Minato shook his head and stood.

"Konoha can't afford to lose you right now, Teacher. Please help the Third Lord look after the village."

He walked over to Jiraiya and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, Teacher. I'm only going to seek an answer. I'll be back soon."

Jiraiya saw the resolve in Minato's eyes and finally nodded.

"Be careful."

Minato said nothing more. He turned and walked out of the office.

He didn't go home. Instead, he headed straight for a secluded training ground in the village.

He formed Hand Seals, bit his thumb, and pressed it hard against the ground.

"Summoning... Summoning Technique!"

"Poof!"

A cloud of white smoke rose, and a pink-skinned toad wearing something like goggles around his neck appeared before Minato. He was Gama Kosuke, the messenger between Konoha and Mount Myoboku.

"Hello. I have urgent business in Mount Myoboku. Please let them know I'm coming," Minato said sincerely.

Gama Kosuke nodded, then vanished with a "poof," ending the Summoning Technique and returning to Mount Myoboku.

Before long, Minato disappeared from where he stood.

The next second, heaven and earth spun around him.

He appeared in a strange world filled with exotic flowers, rare plants, and enormous vegetation.

The air was thick with Natural Energy.

This was Mount Myoboku, one of the Three Great Sage Lands of the Ninja World.

"Oh? Isn't that young Minato? You sent word that you had urgent business and wanted to come to Mount Myoboku?"

The two Toad Sages, Fukasaku and Shima, leapt down from a giant lotus leaf.

"Lord Fukasaku, Lady Shima." Minato bowed respectfully. "I have an urgent matter and need to see the Great Toad Sage."

Fukasaku glanced at Minato's grave expression and nodded.

"Come with me."

After passing through a long corridor, Minato finally met the ancient master of Mount Myoboku, who had lived for more than a thousand years.

The Great Toad Sage sat peacefully on a massive throne, his eyes closed as if he were asleep.

"Great Sage, the Fourth Hokage of Konoha, Namikaze Minato, has come to pay his respects," Fukasaku said respectfully.

The Great Toad Sage's closed eyelids slowly twitched.

"Great Toad Sage..." Minato bowed respectfully. "I've come to ask you for an answer."

"I know why you've come," the Great Toad Sage said, his voice tinged with weariness. "The course of the world has been... thrown into complete chaos by an anomaly that does not belong to this world."

Minato's heart jolted.

An anomaly that did not belong to this world?

What did that mean?

"I saw... a future shrouded in dark clouds... blood and fire... the old order is collapsing..."

"My son, Uzumaki Naruto, is he..." Minato asked urgently. "Is he the Child of Prophecy you foresaw, the one who will save the world?"

The Great Toad Sage was silent for a long time.

The entire hall was so quiet that Minato could hear his own heart pounding.

At last, the ancient voice spoke again, but the words made Minato feel as if he had fallen into an icy abyss.

"The prophecy... has changed."

"The new prophecy is..."

"The God of Calamity, wielding the Pitch-Black Scythe, will stand atop the corpses of the Nine Tailed Beasts and bring the world ultimate 'pain.' After that..."

"The world will welcome a true 'rebirth.'"

"As for your other questions, I have no answers."

"This is all fate's doing!"