The moment Namikaze Minato arrived on the battlefield, the outcome of the fight was basically decided.
After all, before Minato even showed up, Yuu had already reduced Madara's Shapeshifting Clone to critical condition.
The only real problem had been dealing with the Three-Tails sealed inside Rin.
Now that Rin's condition had been stabilized as well, there was nothing left to worry about.
All that remained was cleanup.
Gamabunta, of course, knew none of this.
After finally psyching himself up and charging toward Uchiha Madara with the resolve to die, he unleashed his strongest move—
Toad Short-Sword Slash!
He had barely swung a few times when he suddenly saw Madara's Susanoo begin to collapse and disintegrate.
Madara himself was sent falling toward the ground amid the blade winds.
"…Huh?"
Gamabunta froze.
"Wait… am I actually this strong now?
"Even Uchiha Madara can't beat me anymore?"
For a moment, Gamabunta was completely dumbfounded.
Then—
unexpected ecstasy surged through him.
This was Uchiha Madara!
The man who had once controlled the Nine-Tails with a single glance and, together with Senju Hashirama, suppressed the entire ninja world!
And now—
Gamabunta had shattered his Susanoo with one slash!
Whatever objective circumstances had contributed to creating that scene no longer mattered.
From this day onward, Gamabunta had gained one hell of a story to brag about.
The next time he saw the other toads—
or that stinking snake from Ryūchi Cave—
he could mock them to his heart's content.
Thinking this,
all the resentment Gamabunta had felt about being inexplicably summoned here vanished without a trace.
Who would've thought that Namikaze Minato was actually such an honest and loyal guy?
Whenever there's something good, he really does remember me…
Nearby,
Minato paid absolutely no attention to what Gamabunta was thinking.
At the same moment the giant toad swung its blade, Minato used Body Flicker and leapt down from Gamabunta's head.
He appeared directly in front of Madara and slammed the freshly formed sphere in his palm toward his face.
"Rasengan!!"
…
Cold.
Shaking.
Inside an underground cave near the buried-mountain base,
Uchiha Madara opened his eyes once again after losing another controllable body.
His expression became extremely ugly.
He was out of moves.
Madara had genuinely taken psychological damage this time.
Originally, he had approached Yuu's group with the mentality of educating the younger generation.
He had thought that with his overwhelming strength, he could casually end the battle, bring Obito back, brainwash him, unplug himself, and then wait comfortably for the Eye of the Moon Plan to progress toward the stage he wanted.
Instead—
he had been killed twice in a single night.
The extreme contrast between his plan and reality made Madara feel deeply humiliated.
He even wanted to curse out loud.
But Uchiha Madara was, after all, the former clan head of a prestigious thousand-year clan.
His status was too high for him to behave like some uncultured thug.
Besides…
as his emotions surged, the wound across his chest began stinging again.
The cut on his palm also showed signs of reopening.
The effect of Yuu's previous slash had naturally been reflected onto Madara's true body as well.
It simply hadn't reached a directly fatal level.
"AHHH!!"
Madara punched the ground.
Why was this Senju Tobirama so damn evil?!
Back when Hashirama was still alive, Tobirama had used underhanded methods to kill Izuna.
Then he pushed Madara out of Konoha when Madara had originally possessed a real chance of becoming the Second Hokage.
And now, after reincarnating, that bastard had come back to sabotage the Eye of the Moon Plan—
a plan that would bring happiness to the entire ninja world!
He was truly the lifelong nemesis of both Uchiha brothers!
Madara needed to invent a word even more vicious than "inherently evil" just to describe Senju Tobirama!
At this moment,
several White Zetsu, including Tobi, stood nearby.
They exchanged glances.
None dared step forward and provoke Madara while he was in this state.
A long while passed.
It wasn't until Black Zetsu appeared that Madara finally suppressed his anger and returned to his usual expressionless face.
"Lord Madara?"
Black Zetsu cautiously spoke.
"…We're leaving.
"This place is no longer safe."
Madara took a deep breath.
"We'll find somewhere else to settle down first.
"I need to study that brat's swordsmanship before deciding what to do next."
Madara actually still had around half of his chakra remaining.
That was enough to activate the Shapeshifting Technique one more time—
or even personally pursue them with his real body.
But…
after experiencing those two battles and receiving two bizarre wounds,
Madara had become somewhat wary.
Yuu's methods were simply too strange.
One after another.
Endless.
If Madara chased him again, who knew whether that brat would suddenly pull out another hidden trump card?
And now Namikaze Minato had arrived too.
If Madara somehow capsized in a gutter,
the entire Eye of the Moon Plan would collapse.
So retreating for now and planning carefully was the only sensible option.
As for Obito…
"It's impossible to win him over this time.
"I'll have to find another opportunity."
"Or…"
Perhaps he should simply abandon Obito and search for a new candidate.
But after investing so many years into Obito, Madara was reluctant to throw away that sunk cost.
And within the Uchiha clan, there really weren't many suitable replacements.
After a brief silence,
Madara let out a long sigh.
Then he left with Black Zetsu and the White Zetsu.
…
Back at the riverside battlefield,
Minato dismissed Gamabunta and looked down at the mutilated White Zetsu corpse beneath his feet.
The thing had been completely disfigured by his Rasengan.
Surprise appeared on Minato's face.
"So this is the Shapeshifting Technique you mentioned, Yuu?
"It looks somewhat similar to Lord Tobirama's Reanimation Jutsu…"
He sighed.
"For just a remote clone to possess this level of strength…
"As expected of the 'Ghost of the Uchiha,' someone once spoken of in the same breath as the First Hokage."
"Indeed."
Yuu nodded.
To be fair,
Madara's strength really was somewhat excessive.
He existed on an entirely different level from ordinary Kage.
Even outstanding Kage such as Ōnoki or the Third Raikage could only match or approach Madara in certain specific areas.
Overall, the gap was still enormous.
If Madara had personally arrived with his true body instead of using the Shapeshifting Technique,
this battle might not have ended so quickly.
After all, because of chakra limitations, a Shapeshifting Clone couldn't use trump cards such as Perfect Susanoo, Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence, or the Uchiha Flame Formation.
At best, its overall combat strength was probably only around half of Madara's real body.
However…
if Mushin: One Slash actually landed,
then things would be harder to say.
That attack didn't care whether the target was a clone or the original.
Nor did it care what stage of Susanoo the opponent was using.
As long as the blade genuinely connected,
the minimum result would still be severe damage.
By comparison,
Three Dragons Turning Destruction seemed slightly inferior overall to Mushin: One Heart.
It could threaten Susanoo below Perfect Form.
But against Perfect Susanoo,
it probably wouldn't accomplish much.
Yuu would need to strengthen it into Four Dragons Turning Destruction before it could truly threaten opponents at the super-Kage level.
The question was—
where could he find a fourth "dragon"?
That was worth thinking about.
At that moment,
Kakashi, Obito, and Fugaku gradually walked over from nearby.
The first two looked somewhat excited.
They surrounded Minato and began asking questions.
Obito even diverted some of his attention toward Gamabunta, astonished by just how enormous the toad was.
In response, Gamabunta took a deep drag from his pipe and blew a huge cloud of smoke straight at Obito.
Obito immediately clutched his chest and began coughing repeatedly.
Fugaku, meanwhile, looked at Minato with a slightly complicated expression.
"Minato.
"You came."
Minato nodded gently.
"Brother Fugaku.
"Thank you for helping look after my students during this period."
"Uh…"
Fugaku's expression immediately became a little awkward.
Strictly speaking,
the amount of help he had given Yuu and the others was rather limited.
Most of the time, he was actually the one being taken care of.
He had recently awakened the Mangekyō and should theoretically have been enjoying his moment of glory.
Yet aside from using Amaterasu several times during reconnaissance,
he had barely contributed much…
Compared with exceptional juniors like Yuu—
or even Shisui—
it was honestly a little embarrassing.
"Well, let's not talk about that right now.
"Let's go check on Rin and the others first."
A few minutes later,
Fugaku and Kakashi remained behind to clean up the battlefield.
Yuu's group reached a forest clearing about a kilometer away.
There, they found Shisui, Hizashi, and Rin.
Rin was already fully awake.
She was looking anxiously toward the direction of the battlefield.
The moment she saw Yuu—
Rin stumbled forward and threw herself directly into his arms.
Her voice carried a faint sob.
"Yuu!
"I finally get to see you again…
"I really thought I'd never see you anymore!"
"…It's alright.
"It's alright now."
Yuu's body stiffened slightly.
Then he raised his arms and hugged her back.
His right hand gently patted Rin's back while he quietly comforted her.
"…"
Obito stood nearby.
He wanted to say that he had also participated in the rescue mission.
And that he had contributed quite a lot.
But after opening his mouth several times,
he ultimately just lowered his head in disappointment and rubbed his increasingly sore eyes without saying anything.
A short while later,
Rin finally finished releasing her emotions.
Only then did she remember that Minato and everyone else were still standing nearby.
She withdrew her arms from Yuu, wiped her eyes, and said somewhat embarrassedly,
"Um…
"Thank you too, Minato-sensei.
"And Obito, and everyone else.
"Thank you all for rescuing me."
"Cough…
"You should mostly thank Yuu.
"If he hadn't specifically gone all the way to the Kumogakure front to find me, I probably wouldn't even be here."
Minato said.
After a short pause, he continued,
"Now that the immediate danger has passed, we should clean things up quickly and return to the stronghold."
Then he looked toward Yuu.
"As for what comes afterward…
"Yuu, will you return to the village with me?"
"Hmm?"
"We still don't know exactly what Madara and Kirigakure were planning.
"But it's a fact that they sealed the Three-Tails inside Rin."
Minato sighed.
"Once a tailed beast has been sealed inside a human body, it can't simply be extracted.
"If the tailed beast is removed, the jinchūriki will die."
"So at this point…
"our only option is to turn Rin into a genuine jinchūriki of the Three-Tails."
Minato continued,
"I've learned several sealing techniques, but I'm not truly specialized in them.
"To be safe, I plan to bring Rin back to the village and ask Kushina to help complete the seal properly.
"And since you've recently discovered traces of Uchiha Madara, Yuu, you can report everything to the village at the same time."
"…Uchiha Madara?"
Shisui immediately caught the key detail.
"Wait, Lord Minato.
"Captain Yuu.
"You mean…
"the person who chased us earlier on the Yatagarasu was Uchiha Madara?"
"The Uchiha clan's legendary…
"Super S-rank missing-nin?"
That was too unbelievable!
At that moment,
Obito finally processed what they were saying and stared at them in shock.
He might have been a little stupid,
but he had definitely heard the name Uchiha Madara before.
So…
the enemy they had just fought—
was actually their own legendary ancestor?
The man who had once stood on the same stage as the First Hokage?
And he was still alive?!
The First Hokage had already been dead for decades!
"Well…
"It's difficult to explain everything in a few words.
"We'll find time to go over the details later."
Yuu coughed lightly and avoided dwelling on the subject.
Instead, he turned toward Minato and brought up something else.
"Right, Minato-sensei.
"There's something I forgot to mention earlier…"
"Actually, besides the Three-Tails—
"we also captured Kirigakure's other tailed beast."
"?"
Minato froze.
Several seconds seemed to pass before his mind finally caught up.
"Huh???"
That was right.
When Yuu had gone to the Kumogakure front to request reinforcements earlier, time had been limited.
He hadn't explained the recent situation on the Kirigakure front in detail.
He had only mentioned it casually.
So Minato was only now learning the complete battle report.
And naturally—
he was utterly stunned.
Wait…
You're telling me that in the few months since you arrived on the Kirigakure front—
you captured both of Kirigakure's tailed beasts,
destroyed the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist,
captured Yagura Karatachi, who possessed Kage-level potential, alive,
and killed or captured several hundred Kiri ninja?
Does Konoha even know how ridiculous you are?
And more importantly…
after losing this many elites,
what does Kirigakure even have left?
An empty shell?
"Probably."
Yuu thought about it and nodded.
Strictly speaking,
the losses Kirigakure had suffered during this war weren't all that different from the original timeline.
After all, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were originally supposed to be destroyed by Might Dai anyway.
And most of those ordinary Kiri ninja would eventually die in Kirigakure's internal conflicts.
Having their lives end a little earlier might not necessarily be a bad thing for them.
At least they wouldn't have to live long enough to watch their beliefs collapse one day.
However…
the impact on Konoha would be enormous.
Originally,
Konoha possessed only the Nine-Tails.
It was unquestionably the strongest tailed beast.
But there was only one of it, allowing the village to maintain a certain balance with the other major nations.
But now…
Yuu had captured two tailed beasts in one war.
The Three-Tails.
And the Six-Tails.
If both could be successfully and permanently sealed,
then Konoha would suddenly gain two additional jinchūriki.
The balance that had been maintained across the ninja world for decades—
would be shattered instantly.
Of course,
they had already captured the beasts.
There was no possibility Konoha would simply return them.
But the potential consequences had to be considered and reported in advance.
"Yuu…
"You really are exceptionally good at giving people surprises."
Minato rubbed between his brows.
"How about this.
"When we get back, I'll first find a way to help seal the Six-Tails properly.
"Then I'll take all of this information back to the village and see what Lord Hokage decides."
He paused.
"Of course, if you personally have any ideas concerning the Six-Tails, you can tell me.
"I'll help coordinate things."
"Mm."
Yuu nodded.
~~~
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