c94: Digging a Hole
In the dimly lit dining room, Namikaze Minato sat at the table enjoying a late-night snack. Across from him, Kushina Uzumaki visibly pregnant smiled warmly, her red hair cascading around her face as she playfully teased her husband between bites.
"Minato, you're eating like you're the one carrying the baby."
"Heh… with your cooking, I can't help it."
Suddenly, Kushina's gaze shifted toward the door.
"Huh? Who could be visiting so late?"
"I'll check."
"No, you're barely able to move. I'll go."
Minato stood up from the table and headed for the door. When he opened it, there was no sign of a visitor no chakra signature, no knock, just the quiet night air.
Then, something caught his eye. Sitting motionless on the doorstep was a small green frog with dull red eyes, its skin faintly patterned like a toad from Mount Myōboku, but subtly off mechanical in feel.
Minato furrowed his brow and knelt.
"Hm… what's this guy doing here?"
"Minato? Who is it?" Kushina called out from the table.
"No one… just a frog, I guess."
Confused but intrigued, Minato picked up the strange amphibian and brought it inside. His sunny face showed a flicker of unease.
As he set the frog on the table, he noticed a small cylindrical bulge in its mouth. With careful fingers, he pulled out a tightly rolled scroll green-skinned, with white spiral patterns, no doubt designed to blend into the frog's mouth perfectly.
He unrolled it.
Kushina leaned forward. "What is it?"
Minato's brows furrowed deeper as he read the inked script:
"Tomorrow night, a masked man suspected to be Uchiha Madara will infiltrate Konoha.
His target is the Nine-Tails.
He intends to forcefully extract it from the Jinchūriki and destroy the village."
Minato's hands tensed around the scroll.
"This individual possesses a unique space-time dōjutsu.
He can shift parts of his body or entire objects into another dimension to evade all forms of attack.
The maximum duration of this intangibility is five minutes."
"He may also possess Wood Release likely from transplanted Hashirama cells."
"If the Jinchūriki survives extraction, they can be re-sealed with their Tailed Beast, although the risk of death is extremely high."
Uchiha Gen had deliberately concealed the masked man's true identity—Obito Uchiha. He wanted to see if fate could be twisted with just enough information… just enough to let Minato act.
In the original timeline, Minato had defeated Obito without any intelligence—by relying solely on sharp observation, Flying Thunder God reflexes, and battle instinct. Had Obito not been modified by White Zetsu tissue and Hashirama's regenerative DNA, the Rasengan would have ended it.
But… what if Minato recognized Obito in time?
Could he have pulled him back? Could the Prodigal Son have been redeemed by the voice of his teacher?
Uchiha Gen doubted it.
Even if Obito's darkness hadn't yet fully taken root, his heart still clung to Rin's death, still believed in Madara's grand illusion.
But a heart that mourns can be turned.
That was the gamble.
Minato stared at the scroll, his mind rapidly dissecting every line.
"Minato? What's going on?" Kushina's voice broke the silence.
Wordlessly, Minato handed her the scroll, then formed a quick Tiger → Rat → Ox → Boar → Dog → Tiger seal—the Sensing Technique.
A translucent wave of chakra expanded outward like ripples from a thrown stone, scanning a kilometer radius. Nothing. No chakra fluctuations. No residual trails.
His heart thudded.
A messenger frog… delivered without being seen or sensed?
Who was capable of that?
The child's birth was due tomorrow—October 10th. Naruto's arrival was imminent. Could someone truly know this exact timing?
The frog was merely a puppet—Uchiha Gen had embedded a trace of his soul into it. After ringing the doorbell, the soul shard vanished into the void, returning instantly to his body. No chakra residue remained. No signature. Not even Flying Thunder God would leave a mark that subtle.
Kushina, having read the scroll, asked with a frown: "Minato… do you believe this?"
Minato had already calmed. His eyes sharpened.
"Whether prank or prophecy… it's too risky to dismiss."
"The village, our child you we can't afford to take chances."
"I'm going to tighten the security perimeter, activate additional barriers, and notify the Third Hokage. We need layered defenses."
Kushina nodded, her expression solemn. "Good. Let's be ready."
Minato kissed her gently on the forehead. "I'll be back quickly."
With no Flying Thunder God mark on Hiruzen Sarutobi's home, Minato opted for traditional movement still impossibly fast for the average ninja.
The moment Minato vanished in a golden blur, across the street from their house, a white silhouette melted out of the bark of a tree.
Zetsu.
It merged silently into the forest floor.
Seconds later, Minato arrived at the Third Hokage's residence. Though late at night, Hiruzen had not yet gone to bed. Minato's sudden appearance at his gate caused a brief stir; the guards let him through immediately.
In the garden, another white figure emerged just long enough to confirm Minato's destination… and disappeared again into the soil.
Inside, Hiruzen, already clad in his gray sleeping yukata, quickly pulled on his robes and stepped into the tea room. The pipe in his hand remained unlit.
"Minato. Something urgent?"
"Yes, Sandaime-sama."
Minato unrolled the scroll again and handed it over.
Hiruzen's experienced eyes scanned the text in silence, then narrowed.
A full minute passed.
Minato waited.
After another puff of smoke unlit but instinctively drawn Hiruzen finally spoke.
"No matter who sent this, we must treat it as credible."
"If even part of this is true, and the Nine-Tails escapes… it would be Konoha's greatest disaster since the First Great War."
"If the Beast is captured, the balance of power in the Five Nations will collapse. We must not let that happen."
"If it proves false, we will track down the sender and punish them with the full weight of the law."
Minato nodded firmly. "That's my assessment as well. Konoha, Kushina… and our unborn son… cannot be endangered."
Hiruzen sighed, heavy with the weight of experience.
"How do you propose we act?"
Minato's eyes gleamed with determination—sharp as the kunai he wielded.
"We begin mobilization."
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