A hot day was drawing to a close as the sun began to set. Kushina, who hadn't been able to sleep comfortably lately, wished her baby would come out as soon as possible. She had already started having contractions every 10 minutes, and Minato seemed anxious; on one hand, he hoped everything would go well with the birth, and on the other, he was on high alert, knowing the time could come at any moment.
They proceeded to the secure location they had planned. All the arrangements had been completed a month ago and were perfectly hidden. If anyone came to investigate, they would first have to contend with the Uchiha squads, and second, they would find nothing strange on the surface.
In a cave a few kilometers from Konoha, Obito, disguised as Madara, spoke with Zetsu:
"There's a lot of movement near the place where the birth is going to happen. It seems they've deployed some Uchiha units, but they never thought we could appear in their midst without them noticing. As long as we do our job quickly, there won't be any problems."
Obito nodded, stroking his mask. "Any news on Fugaku?"
"I couldn't get close to the clan because I sensed he might perceive me, but he has remained there the entire time," Zetsu confirmed.
"Perfect. Our mission begins..." Obito said with a confident smile.
Meanwhile, Minato arrived with Kushina and the medical team who would be in charge of the delivery. At this point, Kushina was in unbearable pain every few minutes, and her contractions were gradually accelerating as the stars rose.
The labor began. Kushina certainly didn't lack strength, but the pain was still intense. She also had to concentrate to avoid weakening the Nine-Tails' seal.
At this point, everything was going well. A head of light hair gradually began to emerge, and tension hung in the air.
Minato took the child in his hands. Naruto's skin was as soft as silk, and he was tiny and easy to hold. Before handing him to the nurse and attending to Kushina's seal, which was beginning to lose control, he wrapped him completely in a blanket. He then gave him to the doctor at his side and immediately went back to Kushina, as his work was not yet done. He placed his hands on her abdomen and began carefully applying one seal after another.
At that moment, a hoarse, distorted voice was heard, a voice that seemed ancient but artificial.
"If you don't want your son to die, get away from Kushina. I won't repeat myself. You'd better remove your hand from her body this instant." The expected masked man appeared on the scene, holding a kunai pointed at the baby wrapped in white blankets.
Minato slowly withdrew a hand from Kushina's abdomen, but at the same time, a slight smile appeared on his face, and he said, "Wait a few minutes; I'll be right back, you damn bastard." With that, he vanished with Kushina, leaving only the bed, which still had traces of blood and some gauze that had been used.
"Damn it!" Obito, posing as Madara, was instantly enraged, pulling off the blankets to find only a strange device inside.
At that very moment, a faint beep was heard from the device, and a swarm of symbols structured like a spiderweb shot out, seeking to envelop him. The process was instantaneous, and Obito's reaction was just as fast. With his Mangekyō already open, he tried to phase into his Kamui dimension to escape.
Strangely, his spatial ability wouldn't activate for some reason. That wasn't the worst part. A white light shot out from the device, which he had already dropped, and with all his instincts, Obito retreated out of the building he was in. He didn't have time to think as he felt different explosions around him, and from various angles, he sensed danger. Strange pieces of metal were flying towards him at terrifying speeds.
Without being able to use spatial jutsus or his Kamui, he had only one option, something that Madara himself had taught him. A celestial chakra erupted from his body like an explosion—an electrifying azure that first materialized as ribs, which then formed muscles and skin. A 25-meter giant, said to have the greatest defense.
The explosions arrived, and Obito did nothing but receive them, but they didn't seem to stop.
At that very moment, as Obito was contemplating escape, a larger Susanoo, about 50 meters tall, had its sword above its head and brought it down in a way that seemed slow but carried overwhelming power.
A rejuvenated Fugaku was in Sage Mode, and for the first time in a long while, he felt invincible. The Susanoo took center stage and brought a sense of fun to this encounter. When his sword landed, the sound of an explosion echoed so loudly that many ninjas in Konoha began to come out of their homes.
Obito was left with half of his chakra body split, but he took advantage of the blow to escape the encirclement of those dangerous weapons and discarded his Susanoo because he still couldn't maintain it for long.
At that moment, two silhouettes appeared in front. One immediately began a jutsu, and the other vanished.
"You claim to be Madara, but you neglect your back," said Itachi, who delivered a powerful blow to Obito's sword with the intention of leaving a Flying Raijin seal.
As Obito turned to attack, he felt the scorching heat approaching. A fireball with a 15-meter radius had already been launched, melting the ground in its path. Shisui, in Sage Mode, was already at Kage level, and any ninjutsu automatically transformed into an S-rank.
For his part, Obito was not just Kamui. He was able to escape and stabilize on the battlefield; he hadn't been trained by one of the greatest shinobi for nothing.
"I concede that you youngsters are strong, but this ends here," Obito said, preparing to launch a fire jutsu when he suddenly felt the heat melt the flesh on his back. Not a millisecond later, his muscles strained to the maximum to escape in the opposite direction, flying several meters before falling next to a tree.
His side was bleeding, and the young men in front of him were smiling.
Just like a lifeline, he could feel his control over space returning. With blood running from his mouth, he was no longer interested in running away. A desire to kill overcame him, and he disappeared instantly.
"Be careful, Itachi, the spatial seal has lost its effect," Shisui said in a hurry, just as a sharp blade appeared with the intention of stabbing his side.
The shriek was deafening, but Shisui was unharmed. One could see certain electrical arcs and a kunai halfway through.
Obito, with a desire for revenge, was not discouraged by the magnetic shield. He threw a kick that sent Shisui back several steps before disappearing again.
Itachi hadn't exposed himself again but was already preparing another jutsu, a plasma cannon, while reading the battlefield and waiting to sense any spatial fluctuations.
Immediately, Obito reappeared above Shisui. At that moment, Itachi fired his plasma cannon. Obito disappeared again before being hit, but he realized that he wasn't making any progress with these youngsters.
Just then, when his thoughts were distracted, he felt it again—something appeared behind him. He tried to flee with Kamui, but it didn't respond! It was too late. Itachi had used the plasma cannon as a distraction to send a new space-suppression seal using the Flying Raijin seal.
A second later, a thread of blood had already escaped from Obito's neck, and the words stopped coming. Behind him, the youngest Hokage had returned and acted on the spot, without hesitation.
The body that fell into his arms was a familiar and cherished figure to him. Half of his face was blank, and the other half was a painful memory that had not yet healed.
Itachi approached the surprised Minato and said, "You couldn't have known. After researching Madara, we learned that he was looking for young Uchiha with a strong hatred for Konoha. All of this was to gain control over them and develop his power faster by using their hatred. We know the real Madara is alive and is an enemy who never rests."
Minato looked at Itachi with dull eyes, but they slowly regained their shine. He had lost a student, but his son was safe, and that was a reason to live without being tied to the past.
The battle had been easier than Itachi expected. The spatial seals played a fundamental role throughout the entire confrontation. Obito's most powerful card—his ability to become intangible and disappear into another dimension—had been nullified, and the rest of his abilities were not enough to defeat Itachi and Shisui.
In reality, Itachi did not participate so actively in the direct attack against Obito. He preferred to stay in the background, inflicting measured, calculated damage, and above all, gaining time for Minato. The Hokage was the one who needed more room to analyze the enemy's movements, find the exact moment, and execute his counterattack with surgical precision.
Shisui, on the other hand, did confront Obito more directly, maintaining a volley of fast blows that forced the masked man to expose himself. However, Shisui also didn't activate any of his main cards: neither his supreme-level Genjutsu nor the fearsome Susanoo.
Itachi understood it clearly. Manipulating space was manipulating an extra dimension of this world. It couldn't be seen or touched, but it was there. It could be opened, folded, sealed. And with enough mastery, it could become the absolute defense or the ultimate attack.
As he watched the remains of that confrontation, Itachi couldn't help but reflect on the next steps. He had several projects in mind that he hadn't yet had time to test:
Spatial cuts capable of tearing not flesh but the very air, leaving invisible and mortal wounds.
Spatial restrictions to block any kind of movement, even the intangibility of an enemy like Obito.
Defensive folds, capable of encapsulating someone in a prison of compressed space, impenetrable from inside and out.
But there was a more important, and most ambitious, point of all: the connection between space and time.
Another point, and the most important one that he hadn't had time to test yet, was the direct link that Itachi knew existed between space and time, either due to Einstein's relativity that ties time to space or due to how spatial warping accelerates time in the case of matter.
Next project: creating a jutsu that could deform and alter time and space… there was something in the anime about some ruins, he would have to ask Renji if he could investigate for him...
"Next project…" he murmured while putting away some scrolls. "Creating a jutsu that allows me to alter time and space…"
That idea lingered in his mind like a distant bell. For now, he had to focus on another matter. Itachi got up and thought of someone who could help him with the more technical part of all this.
"Anyway," he said in a low voice. "It's time to go see Renji..."
Renji had been transformed, in just a few years, into a complete theoretical ninja. He was a brilliant boy with an uncommon analytical mind. Although he didn't have Itachi's innate talent for battle, he had developed an extraordinary ability to create new jutsus, design complex theories, and decently control most of the chakra natures.
When Itachi found him in his workshop, heavily funded by Uchiha gold, Renji was surrounded by scrolls, open rolls, and tools. There were diagrams on the walls, notes written in a hurried hand, and strange symbols that only he seemed to understand.
"Renji," Itachi said in a serious tone. "I have a task for you."
The young man looked up, a bit nervously. He was used to Itachi assigning him experiments, but there was something in his tone that sounded different.
"A task?" he repeated. "What kind of task?"
"It's long-term," Itachi replied, handing him a sealed scroll. "One hundred percent confidential. No one else must know."
Renji took it carefully, as if it weighed more than it seemed. Itachi continued: "You'll have all the budget you need. Materials, scrolls, assistants… whatever you ask for. But this research has to proceed in secret."
The boy nodded solemnly. Itachi then slowly unrolled the scroll. Inside were several complex drawings and schematics. A main design occupied the center, surrounded by notes and secondary diagrams.
Renji gasped. "This… what is this?"
"A design," Itachi explained. "Just an idea, a sketch of what could be."
The central drawing clearly showed the shape of a spacecraft. There were detailed oxygen tanks, airtight compartments, and thrusters diagrammed with chakra runes inside. On the edges were drawings of seal circles, each with notes on how to transform energy.
"A ship...?" Renji murmured. "Do you mean that...?"
"Exactly," Itachi interrupted. "A vehicle capable of leaving this planet."
Renji swallowed. The concept was too big, too bold. "Why a ship?" he asked. "With your power, you could just..."
"Yes," Itachi said, guessing the question. "I could try to travel into space on my own, using chakra, protecting my body with barriers. But I couldn't last more than a few minutes. The lack of oxygen, the pressure, the vacuum… they would eventually force me to return."
His eyes shone with a strange gleam. "I want more. I want to travel to other planets. Not just leave this world for an instant, but to explore other places, to discover what lies beyond."
Renji was stunned. He ran a hand through his hair, not knowing how to respond. "This is… too much. How do you plan to...?"
"That's why you're here," Itachi said, with a slight smile. He pointed to one of the side diagrams. "Look, I've thought about thrusters that run on compressed chakra, but it's not enough. What I need is a system that can transform solar energy into chakra… or even better, into natural energy. That would give the ship autonomy."
Renji studied the diagram carefully. "Transforming sunlight into chakra?" he repeated, muttering. "It would be like how plants grow with sunlight… but made of seals… seals that absorb the waves and convert them into usable energy..." He was already getting lost in thought, jotting things down in his notebook.
Itachi watched him in silence for a moment. He had chosen well: Renji had that spark, that ability to turn a crazy idea into a real project. Itachi could do it too, but it was important to know how to delegate.
"You have time," Itachi added finally. "It's not something that will happen overnight. But start with the research and building the things you can, because we may have to improve several things along the way. I want to know how close we can get to transforming pure energy into chakra as well."
Renji looked up and met his gaze. "Understood. I promise I'll make as much progress as I can."
Itachi nodded. In his mind, the image of unknown planets glowed like a distant but achievable dream. It wasn't just about power, or glory, but about breaking the final chains of a universe that seemed too small for what he wanted to discover.