Chakra really was a ridiculous power.
Even though Kenichi had long known about the Tailed Beast Bomb, seeing it with his own eyes was something else entirely.
The pressure that rolled over him in that instant—
For a split second, it felt like being back in high school, secretly playing on his phone in class, and the teacher suddenly calling his name from right behind him.
That kind of heart-drop.
He watched as the compressed sphere of black-and-white chakra arced overhead.
"Huh… it's not aimed at the village?"
The trajectory was off.
Not toward the streets. Not toward the crowd.
Toward—
"The Hokage Rock?"
Before the bomb could hit, it blinked out of existence—
And a few seconds later, an enormous explosion detonated somewhere far beyond the village.
Kenichi narrowed his eyes.
"Must've been the Fourth."
Flying Thunder God. Teleporting even a Tailed Beast Bomb like it was a thrown kunai.
Now that's a broken technique.
If it could relocate something that volatile, then in theory…
What about a thermobaric bomb?
A fuel-air explosive?
Leave a mark at a target location, teleport the payload in, get out, and trigger detonation.
That wouldn't be a jutsu anymore.
That would be strategic warfare.
No wonder the man was called the Yellow Flash.
Speed, pushed to that level, is a kind of power.
Kenichi suddenly imagined another blond man with frightening mobility.
"Have you ever been kicked by light?"
He shuddered.
…No. Minato was definitely not that kind of person.
As Minato vanished and reappeared on the battlefield, Konoha's shinobi surged forward again, pressing their attack on the fox.
Kenichi stifled a yawn.
Honestly, there wasn't much space for him to get involved in that side of the disaster.
But that didn't mean there was nothing he could do.
His gaze turned thoughtful.
"Right now… Naruto Uzumaki should've just been born."
Son of the Fourth Hokage.
Kushina's child.
And more importantly—
The current Asura reincarnation.
Kenichi's fingers twitched with the itch of curiosity.
He wanted to know how that worked.
How much of Naruto's fate came from being Asura's vessel…
And how much was just his own nature?
Could Asura be removed from him?
Separated?
If Naruto stopped being Asura's reincarnation… what kind of person would he become?
Scientifically speaking?
That was an experiment he really wanted to run.
Sure, he could wait until Naruto grew up and left the village on missions. It would definitely be safer then.
But that meant waiting years.
He hated wasting time.
And right now, there was a perfect window of opportunity.
"The Fourth definitely isn't keeping his newborn son by his side."
Kenichi muttered to himself as he moved.
He remembered just enough of the original events to know that.
Minato had stashed Naruto somewhere before everything went to hell.
That somewhere…
Would be his best shot.
But the Namikaze household was empty.
Kenichi checked quickly, systematically.
No baby. No cradle. No bloody towels. No lingering sealing chakra.
"Umbilical cord blood would've been ideal…" he clicked his tongue. "But I don't even know where Kushina gave birth."
Not even Orochimaru knew, which meant the location was locked behind high-level security.
Top secret.
Fine.
Then, if he were Minato—
"If it were me," Kenichi thought, "I'd put the kid somewhere safe. Somewhere the Nine-Tails can't hit easily. Hidden. Far away."
So not inside the village. Not near the rampage.
Probably the farthest point from the fox's current location.
He turned, recalculated the Nine-Tails' position, then sprinted in the opposite direction, moving rooftop to rooftop as fast as he could.
He didn't know how long Obito could keep Minato tied up.
But he knew one thing:
He had to be faster.
Block by block, building by building, room by room—nothing.
Just when he was about to give up, his fingers brushed against something wrong.
A faint ripple of chakra. Ordinary people would've walked right past it.
"A barrier?"
Kenichi pressed his hand against the wall again.
There it was—a light protective seal. Simple. Subtle. Almost invisible unless you ran directly into it.
He couldn't help but grin.
"This has to be it."
Minato had clearly chosen stealth over defense; the barrier was cleverly concealed, but not especially strong.
Which, frankly, worked out beautifully for Kenichi.
A few quick seal reversals, a pulse of chakra—
The barrier shattered with a muted flicker, and the door gave way.
Inside, nestled in a simple bundle of cloth, lay a tiny, wrinkled, utterly unaware baby.
Bright blond fuzz. Whisker marks.
Naruto Uzumaki.
Kenichi didn't hesitate.
He pulled out a sterile tube, plucked a single hair, then pricked the infant's skin and drew a single drop of blood.
Hair. Blood. DNA.
All he needed.
"Sorry, future protagonist," he said under his breath. "This is for research."
The entire process took seconds.
Then he was gone.
By the time his chakra signature faded from the area, the Fourth Hokage flashed back into the room in a burst of yellow light.
Minato was breathing hard.
His flak jacket was torn, one side of his cloak scorched, a faint scorch mark blooming along his waist.
He'd forced himself free of the masked man just long enough to return.
He looked around sharply.
The barrier was broken.
"Damn…"
He instantly scanned every corner of the room—
Then finally saw Naruto, still lying there.
Safe.
Alive.
He exhaled a shaky breath and scooped his son into his arms, pulling the baby close to his chest.
"…Good."
For a moment, he simply held the child and let the tension drain.
Then, his eyes hardened again.
"Uchiha Madara… are you really still alive?"
The masked man's power, the Sharingan, that crushing force—
Even if it wasn't truly Madara, he was certainly someone on that level.
Minato had noticed earlier—someone had been fleeing the area when he arrived too late to stop the barrier from being breached.
But right then, Naruto had mattered more.
Now that the baby was confirmed unharmed…
That thief was already too far.
He'd have to be dealt with another time.
For now, there was a fox to stop—
And an enemy in a spiral mask to confront.
Kenichi, meanwhile, slipped back underground into Orochimaru's lab, closing the entrance behind him.
Down here, it was quiet.
Safe.
Nobody had time to worry about what he was doing.
Orochimaru was busy devouring the contents of the Scroll of Seals.
The Third Hokage was busy driving the Nine-Tails out of the village.
Danzō and Root were busy tightening the noose around the Uchiha compound.
Obito was busy beating his own teacher half to death.
Kenichi stretched lazily.
"Good. Let everyone stay busy."
He glanced at the tube of Naruto's blood, the tiny hair, and the scroll of Nine-Tails chakra.
Outside, it was chaos.
In here?
It was the perfect night… to start new experiments.
And if the "original story" never showed Minato setting a barrier around Naruto?
Well.
Kenichi smirked to himself.
Of course the Fourth would've set one. Anything else would just be sloppy.