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Naruto: Veil of Frozen Bones Chapter 13
🕑 Added 2025-05-07 22:57:38 +0000 UTCThe pulsating, fleshy prison of the Toad Mouth Bind tightened around Obito, its chakra-suppressing walls attempting to quell his power.
He felt the sticky, constricting pressure, an indignity far beneath the inheritor of Madara Uchiha's will. A flicker of surprise registered – the Fourth Hokage hadn't gone for a killing blow, hadn't even used his signature Rasengan.
Instead, this binding technique, crude yet effective, coupled with the unexpected interference of that Yuki woman... Minato-sensei was adapting faster than anticipated. But it didn't matter. The Kyuubi was free. His objective was achieved. This binding was merely a delay.
With contemptuous ease, Obito activated Kamui. The toad esophagus offered no resistance to his intangibility. He slipped through its constricting walls like smoke through fingers, materializing a dozen meters away, just as Minato Namikaze reappeared in another yellow flash at the cave entrance, his expression grim, kunai flashing in his hand.
Their eyes met across the shadowed forest clearing – the determined blue of the Fourth Hokage against the single, swirling red of the Sharingan behind the orange mask. The air crackled with tension, the earlier skirmish replaced by the focused intensity of a true confrontation between two masters of speed and space-time ninjutsu.
"So," Minato said, his voice dangerously calm, though his chakra surged, a palpable golden aura beginning to shimmer around him.
"You infiltrated a classified location, murdered Konoha shinobi, attacked my wife during childbirth, attempted to kidnap my son, and unleashed the Nine-Tails. All under the guise of Madara Uchiha." He shifted his stance slightly, kunai held ready. "Who are you?"
Obito chuckled, the sound distorted and cold. "Who I am is irrelevant. I am the one who will bring this world to its next stage. Pain is necessary for peace, Fourth Hokage. Your sacrifice, and the sacrifice of your village, will be a cornerstone of that peace."
"Sacrifice?" Minato echoed, his voice hardening. "Or massacre? There's no peace in destruction brought about by stolen power." He eyed the Sharingan. "That eye... that technique... it's advanced. You possess skills few Uchiha ever mastered. Yet, you weren't among the clan's known elite during the war."
"Perhaps I was merely... overlooked," Obito replied evasively, already planning his next move. He needed to retrieve Kurama, now rampaging somewhere nearby, drawn by instinct towards the massive chakra signature of Konoha.
Minato was fast, incredibly so, but Obito had Kamui. Direct confrontation was unnecessary, risky even with Minato potentially needing to divide his attention towards the freed Tailed Beast.
Obito gathered chakra, preparing to use Kamui to teleport directly to Kurama's location. But Minato anticipated him. Before Obito could fully activate the vortex, Minato threw his tagged kunai. It wasn't aimed at Obito, but at a point several meters behind him.
In the split second Obito registered the throw, Minato vanished in a yellow flash, reappearing behind Obito, instantly striking with a Rasengan formed mid-teleport.
Obito reacted instinctively, phasing through the attack. The blue sphere of churning chakra passed harmlessly through his shoulder. But it was a feint. As the Rasengan passed through, Minato twisted, his other hand, already crackling with lightning-natured chakra, driving a precise Lightning Cutter (a technique Kakashi would later make famous, but one Minato, a genius of technique development, could certainly utilize or adapt) directly towards Obito's physical anchor point – the slight lag as his body fully reintegrated after phasing.
It was a move designed to exploit the fractional vulnerability of Kamui, something few could even perceive, let alone react to fast enough. Obito felt a searing pain lance through his left side as the Lightning Cutter grazed him, bypassing his intangibility just enough to carve a shallow, cauterized wound along his ribs before he fully solidified and leaped back.
Surprise flickered through Obito's Sharingan. Minato-sensei... he had analyzed and adapted to Kamui's weakness that quickly? Based on one brief exchange?
"You're fast," Obito conceded, pressing a hand briefly to his stinging side. The wound wasn't serious, but it was a stark warning. "Faster than anyone I've faced. But speed alone won't save your village."
"Maybe not," Minato replied, dropping into a lower stance, another tagged kunai already spinning in his hand.
"But it buys time. And I know your technique now. That phasing... it's not absolute. There's a point of vulnerability, isn't there? A moment of transition." His blue eyes narrowed, sharp with analytical focus. "And that speed... that style... the way you anticipate..."
Minato's mind raced, connecting dots. The Sharingan. The advanced Space-Time Ninjutsu rivaling his own Flying Thunder God. The build, obscured by the cloak but familiar in its movements. The slight hesitation when confronted with Kasumi, an unexpected element.
The knowledge of the birth's timing and security. The specific targeting of Kushina's seal. This wasn't some legendary figure returned from the dead. This was someone with intimate knowledge, someone connected to Konoha, someone... he knew.
He remembered Kakashi's grief, the story of the Kannabi Bridge mission, the loss of a teammate with a newly awakened Sharingan buried under rocks. A teammate presumed dead. Obito Uchiha.
The realization struck Minato with the force of a physical blow, stealing his breath for a microsecond. Obito? It seemed impossible. Yet... the timing, the abilities, the single Sharingan visible... the way he moved...
"Obito?" Minato whispered, the name barely audible, laced with disbelief and dawning horror. "It's you... isn't it?"
Behind the mask, Obito froze. He hadn't expected recognition. Not now. Not like this. He had crafted the persona of Madara carefully. How could Minato...? The FTG seal! Minato must have felt something familiar when applying it, some resonance, triggering this impossible deduction.
Seeing the masked figure's momentary stillness, the flicker of something other than cold calculation in that single Sharingan, confirmed Minato's horrifying suspicion.
His student.
His bright, clumsy, idealistic student, presumed dead, now standing before him as a harbinger of destruction, wielding powers beyond imagination.
The betrayal, the loss implicit in that realization, hit Minato harder than any physical attack.
"Why, Obito?" Minato's voice was rough with pain and confusion. "What happened to you? Who did this?"
Obito recovered quickly, burying the shock beneath layers of indoctrinated resolve and burning hatred.
"Obito Uchiha died under a pile of rocks!" he snarled, the distortion effect failing to mask the raw emotion. "He died in a world that sacrifices comrades for missions! A world that couldn't even protect the girl he loved!"
His gaze hardened. "I am no one. Or perhaps... I am the Second Six Paths, here to end this wretched reality!"
He didn't wait for Minato's response. He lunged, chains erupting from his sleeve, attempting to bind Minato, to overwhelm him while simultaneously preparing Kamui again. He needed Kurama.
Minato met the assault, his movements fluid, precise, born of countless battles. Yellow flashes filled the clearing as he teleported between his prepositioned kunai, dodging chains, countering with swift strikes, always aiming to exploit that fractional weakness in Kamui.
He was faster, more experienced in pure combat speed, but Obito's phasing made landing a decisive blow incredibly difficult. The FTG seal on Obito's cloak was his anchor, allowing him to track and engage, but Obito was adapting too, anticipating the teleports, using Kamui defensively with increasing desperation.
It was a deadly, high-speed dance between masters of space-time. Sparks flew as kunai met chains. Rasengans dissipated against intangible flesh. Lightning Cutters grazed empty air. But Minato pressed the attack relentlessly, his mind racing even faster than his body.
He couldn't kill Obito – not yet, not while there was a chance, however slim, to understand, to save him from whatever darkness had consumed him. But he couldn't let him reach Kurama either.
He needed to end this confrontation now.
He threw three kunai simultaneously in a scattered pattern, forcing Obito to choose which teleport point to anticipate.
As Obito reacted, phasing towards the predicted vector, Minato flashed to a different kunai, appearing slightly behind Obito's flank. This time, instead of a direct attack, he slammed his hand onto Obito's back, channeling chakra. "Keiyaku Fūin!" (Contract Seal!)
It wasn't designed to harm, but to sever. A specialized seal designed to break control over a summoned creature. Minato gambled that Obito's control over Kurama, likely achieved through the Sharingan's power, operated on similar principles to a summoning contract.
Obito cried out, not in pain, but in shock and fury as he felt the connection, the absolute dominance he held over the Nine-Tails, violently severed. The malevolent chakra he could dimly sense rampaging closer suddenly felt… distant, alien, no longer an extension of his will.
"You-!" Obito snarled, whirling, but Minato was already gone, flashing away towards the rapidly approaching signature of the Kyuubi.
He had severed Obito's control, identified him, wounded him, and most importantly, kept him away from his family. But the greatest threat remained. Kurama, free, enraged, and now uncontrolled, was bearing down on Konoha.
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Minato appeared on the Hokage Monument, overlooking his village. Below, chaos was erupting as the colossal form of the Nine-Tailed Fox materialized near the village outskirts, its nine tails lashing, its roar shaking the very foundations of Konoha.
Its malevolent chakra washed over the village, inciting panic and terror. Shinobi were already mobilizing, Jonin and Chunin converging, launching futile attacks against the immense beast.
Minato knew conventional attacks were useless. He needed to transport the beast away from the village and seal it. But seal it where? And how? The Reaper Death Seal would cost his life, leaving his wife and newborn son vulnerable. He couldn't do that.
He sensed Kushina's weakened signature from the safe house Kasumi had taken her to. He also felt Kasumi's steady, controlled presence nearby. An idea sparked, desperate, risky, but perhaps the only way.
He flashed to the safe house. Kasumi stood guard outside the room where Kushina lay weakly holding Naruto.
"Kasumi-san," Minato said urgently, appearing before her. "Kushina cannot contain the full Fox again in her current state. But her Uzumaki chakra... she might be able to hold a part of it. Stabilize it."
Kasumi looked shocked. "Hokage-sama, splitting a Bijuu is..."
"Dangerous, I know," Minato cut her off. "Potentially fatal. But less certain than the Reaper Death Seal. I need to seal the Yang half – the bulk of its raw power and malice – into Naruto. He has Kushina's blood, he can contain it. But the Yin half – its consciousness, its cunning, its remaining chakra... Kushina might be able to anchor it within herself temporarily, using her remaining chains and sealing knowledge, long enough for us to find a more permanent solution later. It will keep the Fox incomplete, weaker, and buy us time." It was an immense gamble on Kushina's resilience.
Kasumi saw the desperate logic, the terrible choice Minato was facing. "What do you need me to do?"
"Protect them," Minato said simply. "I need to transport Kurama away, then perform the sealing. I need you to ensure nothing interferes here."
Kasumi nodded grimly. "Understood, Hokage-sama."
Minato gave a curt nod, then flashed away again. He appeared above the rampaging Kurama, drawing its attention. With a massive summoning technique, he brought forth Gamabunta, the Chief Toad, landing atop his head.
"Minato! What is the meaning of this?!" Gamabunta roared, grappling instantly with the enraged Fox.
"No time, Bunta! I need you to hold him down!" Minato yelled, already flashing around the battlefield, placing FTG kunai at strategic points, preparing his largest-scale space-time barrier.
He channeled immense amounts of chakra, creating a vast barrier that enveloped both Kurama and Gamabunta, then, with a tremendous effort that drained him significantly, he teleported the entire construct, Fox and Toad included, far away from Konoha to the remote location where Kushina and Naruto awaited, guarded by Kasumi and a handful of trusted ANBU.
He appeared beside Kushina, who despite her weakness, was already focusing her remaining chakra, faint golden chains beginning to manifest around her – the Adamantine Sealing Chains. Naruto lay on a prepared ceremonial altar.
"Kushina, now!" Minato commanded.
The process was agonizing, complex.
Minato began the Eight Trigrams Seal on Naruto, drawing the furious Yang half of Kurama's chakra towards his son. Simultaneously, Kushina lashed out with her weakened chains, binding the Yin half, the spectral form of the Fox attempting to resist, pulling its essence towards herself with sheer Uzumaki willpower, guided by Minato's precise chakra control.
Hiruzen Sarutobi and a few elite Jonin arrived, adding their strength to maintain a powerful barrier around the chaotic sealing process.
Kasumi stood guard outside the barrier, her Ice Release held ready, watching the forest, acutely aware of the masked man – Obito – still out there somewhere, his control broken but his threat far from neutralized. She scanned the trees, feeling for any distortion, any hostile signature.
Inside the barrier, the sealing reached its climax. The Yang Kurama roared as it was forced into the newborn Naruto, the Eight Trigrams Seal flaring brightly on his stomach before settling.
The Yin Kurama snarled, fighting Kushina's chains, but ultimately its spectral form was drawn into Kushina, the remnants of her own seal flaring briefly as she anchored its consciousness within her, the effort causing her to collapse, unconscious but alive.
Minato staggered back, chakra utterly depleted, swaying on his feet but alive. He looked at Naruto, now quiet, the seal holding firm. He looked at Kushina, unconscious but breathing steadily, the faint, dark aura of Yin Kurama contained within her.
He had done it. He had saved the village, saved his family. The cost was immense – Naruto was now a Jinchuriki, Kushina critically weakened and carrying a dangerous burden, Biwako and Taji were dead, and Obito, his lost student, was still out there, manipulated by forces unknown, now stripped of his primary weapon but filled with burning hatred.
Hiruzen placed a steadying hand on Minato’s shoulder. "You did it, Minato. They are safe."
Minato nodded wearily, looking towards the forest where Obito had vanished. "For now, sensei," he murmured. "For now. The fight is far from over."
The night had irrevocably changed the world, but unlike the tragedy he had narrowly averted, Konoha still had its Hokage, Naruto still had his parents, and the battle against the shadows would continue, led by the Yellow Flash.
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Marvin Baltes
timeline change achived
