The air in Konoha felt electric. To the average villager, it was a humid summer night, but to Dan, the atmosphere was a mess of fluctuating chakra frequencies.
Kushina Uzumaki had been moved to a secret cave outside the village perimeter. The location was a high-level secret, protected by a barrier that even the Byakugan couldn't penetrate. But Dan didn't need to see the barrier; he had the Void Anchor he had placed on her months ago.
[System Notification: Spatial Anchor Active.]
[Detection: Target 'Kushina Uzumaki' is experiencing a critical seal fluctuation. Labor has commenced.]
[Secondary Detection: A localized 'Vacuum' is manifesting 500 meters from the birth site. Obito has arrived.]
Dan stood on the rooftop of the Uchiha Police Station, his Abyssal Sage Mode already simmering beneath his skin. Beside him stood Shisui and a squad of "Shadow Architecture" operatives, all wearing masks with the compass-eye crest.
"Shisui, lead the 'Foundation' squad to the village outskirts. If the Nine-Tails manifests, your job isn't to fight it—it's to guide its chakra into the grid we've prepared," Dan commanded.
"And you, Dan-niisan?"
"I'm going to intercept the Architect of this mess," Dan said.
Zip.
The Cave of Secrets
Inside the cave, the screams of labor were replaced by a sudden, chilling silence. Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, was desperately trying to hold the Nine-Tails' seal together as Kushina gave birth to a blonde-haired boy.
But as Minato reached to pick up his son, Naruto, a swirl of space opened behind him.
"Step away from the Jinchūriki, Fourth Hokage," the masked man rasped, holding a kunai to the infant's throat.
The events played out like a tragic play—Minato was forced to choose between his son and his wife. He saved Naruto, teleporting to a safe house, but in that split second of absence, Obito dragged Kushina out of the cave.
Obito stood on a cliffside, the moon turning a blood-red hue behind him. He slammed his hand onto Kushina's stomach. "Extraction... COMMENCE!"
The Nine-Tails' chakra began to erupt, a mountain of red malice clawing its way into the world. But as the Fox's head materialized, something strange happened.
The red chakra didn't expand. It hit a violet, translucent wall.
"What is this?" Obito hissed, his eye dilating.
"It's a Faraday cage for gods, Obito," a voice echoed from the shadows.
Dan stepped out of the treeline. He wasn't running; he was walking with a calm, terrifying precision. His hair was frosted white at the tips, and his violet Sage-eyes hummed with the power of the Abyssal Frost.
"You again," Obito growled. "You're too late. The Fox is out!"
"Is it?" Dan asked.
[System Command: Activate 'Void Anchor: Phase 2'.]
[Ability: Abyssal Binding — Zero Absolute.]
Dan slammed his hand into the ground. A wave of frost-covered roots erupted, not to attack Obito, but to wrap around the emerging Nine-Tails. The Natural Energy of the Abyssal Sage Mode acted as a super-coolant. The Fox's boiling chakra began to slow down, the red fire turning into jagged, crystalline ice.
"You're trying to freeze the Nine-Tails?!" Obito laughed. "Even Hashirama couldn't do that!"
"Hashirama fought the Fox," Dan said, his hand tightening. "I'm re-architecting it."
The Battle of the Void
Obito lunged, intending to use Kamui to warp Dan's head off his shoulders. But as he phased forward, the ground beneath him didn't just break—it evolved.
"Inorganic Animation: Frozen Purgatory!"
The very air crystallized into thousands of needle-thin shards of ice, vibrating at a frequency that disrupted spatial warping. Obito found his intangibility flickering like a dying lightbulb.
Zip.
Dan appeared in Obito's space, his stone-hard frost-arm swinging in a horizontal arc.
CRACK.
Obito blocked with his Zetsu-arm, but the Abyssal Frost immediately began to crawl up the white wood, turning the living cells into brittle glass.
"Damn you!" Obito roared, using his Mangekyō to warp the ice away, but Dan was already calculating the next three seconds.
[System Notification: Minato Namikaze has returned to the battlefield.]
A yellow flash appeared on the ridge. Minato stood there, his cloak fluttering, his eyes taking in the scene: his wife collapsed, the Nine-Tails partially frozen in a violet cage, and Dan Uchiha trading blows with the masked man.
"Dan! Get Kushina out of here!" Minato yelled, his hands forming the Rasengan.
"I've got the Fox, Sensei!" Dan shouted back. "Handle the Ghost! He's the one who controls the coordinates!"
The Strategic Swap
Minato didn't hesitate. He trusted Dan's "Architecture." He engaged Obito in the legendary high-speed duel, the Hiraishin clashing against the Kamui.
Meanwhile, Dan turned his full attention to the Nine-Tails. The Fox was roaring, its eyes filled with a confusion it hadn't felt since the era of the Sage of Six Paths. It was being suppressed, but not by a cage—it was being integrated into a new network.
"Itachi! Now!" Dan yelled into the mental link.
From the tree line, a young Itachi Uchiha appeared, accompanied by Shisui. They weren't there to fight. They were carrying four massive sealing scrolls.
"Set the pillars!" Dan commanded.
[System Processing: 98%... 99%...]
[Executing: 'Nine-Tails Sublimation'.]
Instead of the Fox rampaging through Konoha, Dan was using his Sage Mode to siphon the Nine-Tails' excess chakra into the village's underground sensory net.
Suddenly, the lights across Konoha—thousands of lanterns and streetlights—flared with a warm, golden glow. The village wasn't being destroyed; it was being powered.
"What are you doing to my chakra, human?!" the Nine-Tails bellowed in Dan's mind.
"I'm giving you a job," Dan thought back. "You can be a slave to the Uchiha's eyes, or you can be the heart of the greatest fortress in history. Choose, Kurama."
For a second, the Fox stopped struggling. It looked at the violet-eyed boy who didn't smell like Madara, but felt like the very earth itself.
The Defeat of the Ghost
On the ridge, Minato landed his Hiraishin-Level 2 strike on Obito's back, slamming a Rasengan into his spine. Obito fell, his mask shattering completely.
He looked over the cliff and saw the impossible: the Nine-Tails wasn't attacking the village. It was being contained in a glowing violet pyramid of frost and seals, its chakra being drained in a controlled, non-lethal stream.
"The plan... failed..." Obito whispered, his body breaking apart. "The Uchiha... they've won."
"You lost the moment you tried to destroy what I'm building," Dan said, appearing on the ridge beside Minato.
Obito used the last of his strength to trigger a blind Kamui warp, vanishing into the void. This time, he didn't leave a message. He left in silence.