Chapter 612: The Real Trump Card

Minato’s confident expression vanished, replaced by seriousness.

He hadn’t expected the enemy to be not only fast enough to react, but decisive enough to immediately cut away the piece of flesh carrying the Flying Raijin mark the instant he sensed the technique activating.

As long as the attack didn’t strike an eye directly, an Ōtsutsuki body could shrug off something like an explosive tag with ease.

“Tailed Beast Bomb!”

Kushina finally arrived.

From high above, she immediately fired a massive Tailed Beast Bomb straight at Teuchi.

What?

They were still inside Konoha, and a Tailed Beast Bomb might kill innocent villagers?

Did Kushina look like she cared?

They were her villagers.

If she died, they could die with her.

As long as the enemy was defeated, however many villagers were lost could simply be replaced by relocating people from elsewhere in the Land of Fire. New shinobi could always be trained over time.

But if the enemy survived, plenty of villagers might die anyway—

and then their deaths would have accomplished nothing.

Unfortunately, just like Jiraiya’s Rasengan earlier, the enormous Tailed Beast Bomb shrank to the size of a tiny pill before it even reached Teuchi and was casually absorbed.

Watching the hopeless scene, Naruto suddenly understood why Makoto and Akatsuki had gone to such ridiculous lengths preparing for the Ōtsutsuki in the real shinobi world.

And this was only a mentally unstable Isshiki who wasn’t actively trying to attack anyone and even went out of his way to avoid hurting people.

If the real version appeared…

Naruto looked around.

Kakashi-sensei.

Pervy Sage.

Everyone here would probably die.

“Naruto, don’t worry.”

Minato noticed his son’s gloomy expression and assumed he had fallen into despair.

He walked over with a smile and patted Naruto on the shoulder.

“Your father still has one final trump card.”

“It’s the last contingency Kakashi and I prepared to protect the village and everyone in it.”

“One more trump card?”

Naruto stared at him.

Was this really the same father who had died during the Nine-Tails incident in the real world?

How did this version have so many backup plans?

More importantly—

Did this world’s Minato genuinely care about protecting the village and everyone in it?

Naruto was skeptical.

“Ahem.”

Minato immediately noticed the doubt in his son’s eyes.

“Of course I want to protect the village and everyone in it.”

He puffed out his chest.

“Because everyone in Konoha is one of my wings.”

Naruto understood immediately.

Right.

Of course.

Konoha was basically Minato’s personal paradise.

There was no way he would let Ōtsutsuki Isshiki destroy it.

That made much more sense.

“Dad, hurry up and do it!”

Naruto urged him.

“I’m worried Old Man Ichiraku might change his mind and start actually killing people.”

“Don’t rush.”

Minato’s confidence returned.

Did Teuchi still have another Flying Raijin mark on him?

No.

Of course not.

However—If someone looked down at Konoha from above, they would notice something extraordinary.

The village’s central street layout appeared chaotic and unplanned.

But viewed as a whole, those streets just happened to form four enormous characters:

Sword of Shinobi Love.

One by one, the streets forming those characters began to glow.

Minato turned toward Kakashi.

“Kakashi!”

“Now!”

“Kamui!”

Kakashi’s Mangekyō spun.

In an instant, Minato was sucked into the Kamui dimension.

Naruto stared.

His entire plan for today had been to trick his father into entering Kamui.

And now, before Naruto had even done anything—

Old Man Ichiraku had somehow caused his objective to complete itself?

Thud.

“Ow!”

Naruto was still standing there in shock when the ground suddenly vanished beneath his feet.

He fell hard.

And he wasn’t alone.

Cries of pain erupted all around him.

When Naruto looked up—Konoha was gone.

The entire village.

Buildings.

Roads.

Foundations.

Everything!

Namikaze Minato had used Flying Raijin to teleport all of Konoha, along with the ground beneath it, directly into the Kamui dimension.

This was Minato’s final act of stubborn determination to protect all his beloved companions.

His ultimate contingency.

It didn’t matter who the enemy was.

It didn’t matter how overwhelmingly powerful they were.

As long as they stepped onto the land of Konoha—

Minato could seal them inside Kakashi’s Kamui dimension along with the entire village.

The only drawback was that afterward, Kakashi could no longer casually use his Mangekyō Sharingan ability.

Otherwise, the imprisoned enemy might find an opportunity to escape.

But as a finishing move?

It was devastating.

Especially against an Isshiki whose mind was already unstable.

It was practically the perfect counter.

After being transferred, Isshiki didn’t even realize anything was wrong.

Minato simply teleported himself back out of Kamui almost immediately.

Meanwhile, Konoha descended into complete chaos.

Every building had vanished.

The whole village looked as though someone had come through and carried away every last sack of rice, leaving behind nothing but a gigantic crater.

And because it was already evening, most people had been at home—

eating dinner,

taking baths,

or indulging in other forms of pre-dinner entertainment.

Then Minato abruptly teleported the entire village, Isshiki included.

Countless people suddenly found themselves standing outdoors with nothing between them and the evening air.

Some particularly unfortunate—or fortunate—apartment residents had all been bathing on different floors at the exact same time.

Third floor.

Second floor.

First floor.

With the building gone, they all dropped into the same place at once.

Chaos erupted instantly.

Minato returned to Konoha and stood amid the empty ruins, staring at the increasingly suggestive disaster around him with undisguised excitement.

“Take it slow, everyone!”

“I’m coming too!”

Pretending that he was merely another innocent victim of the village suddenly disappearing, Minato immediately threw off his outer clothes and charged into the crowd.

The crisis was over.

Naruto stood amid the ruins, utterly lost.

He watched his father dive into the chaos like some kind of lunatic and had no idea what he was supposed to do next.

He had promised Obito that he would lure Minato into the Kamui dimension.

So…

Did this count as completing the mission or not?

Minato had entered Kamui once.

But then he immediately left.

Judging by the intended result of their plan, it was obviously a failure.

They hadn’t extracted the Nine-Tails from Minato before he escaped.

But strictly speaking, Naruto had fulfilled his personal objective.

His job had simply been to get Minato into Kamui.

Keeping Minato trapped there had been Obito’s responsibility.

So technically—

Obito was the one who had failed.

And indeed—Obito’s mission had failed spectacularly.

…

Inside the Kamui dimension, Obito had been patiently waiting for Naruto to complete the plan and send Minato-sensei inside.

He was focused.

Alert.

Completely prepared.

Then, without warning, it felt as though someone had cast a genjutsu over the entire dimension.

The empty Kamui space vanished.

In its place appeared—

Konoha.

Its streets.

Its buildings.

Its people.

Everything.

Obito nearly jumped out of his skin.

What the hell had just happened?

Had someone somehow cast genjutsu on him inside Kamui?

Or had someone forcibly transported him out of Kamui and back into Konoha?

Either possibility was terrifying.

While Obito stood frozen in shock, Minato had already finished teleporting Konoha and Isshiki inside.

Then Minato casually tossed out one short farewell—

“Later.”

And vanished.

By the time Obito finally processed that the voice had belonged to Minato-sensei—

it was too late.

Minato was already gone.

Obito was filled with regret.

Everything had been going so smoothly since entering this world that he had let his guard down.

The sudden appearance of the entire village had distracted him so completely that he had failed to stop Minato-sensei when he finally appeared right in front of him.

Now there was only one question.

Could Naruto somehow get Minato-sensei into Kamui a second time?