The wind blew with a hushed whisper as it swirled around the sculpted mountains, its billowing arms dragging a few leaves to perform a dance of nature with every gust.
Then suddenly, in what seemed like a fraction of a second— the waves were suddenly brought to an abrupt and unnatural pause, the leaves freezing in the air like frozen trinkets.
CRACK!
A yellow flash rent the air in two, birthing an inconspicuous spark, before a cloaked man blurred into focus.
His arrival let the rivers of time flow once more.
He fixed himself atop the final hokage monument dauntlessly, allowing his cloak to flutter in the breeze.
And adorned on his very cloak stood two words hemmed in crimson.
4TH HOKAGE.
"As the Fourth hokage of Konoha." Minato's eyes hardened. "It is my duty to protect everyone in the village and ensure my family's safety."
As though his internal alarms went haywire, the nine tails' gaze cut through the distance, his eyes burning with a devilish scarlet gleam immediately he sighted Minato.
"So he's found me?" Minato asked rhetorically, and his eyes narrowed probingly as he watched the beast raise its head into the air.
But it wasn't the monster's motion that surprised him.
It was what the beast was currently doing. An act that now made the ground beneath its feet rumble like a hurricane.
Layers upon layers of red and blue chakra swirled in magnanimous amounts, the sheer force of their fusion releasing gusts of wind to billow in all directions.
The Shinobi released to counteract the beast immediately froze, their eyes sinking in despair as they watched what hovered above the creature's mouth…
The tailed beast bomb.
Like a scene born from a horror movie, the Ninetails twisted its neck in the Fourth hokage's direction, releasing its attack with a deafening roar.
The ground tremored as the planet-like ball of destruction swallowed whatever stood in its path to the Fourth Hokage, obliterating both buildings and the earth alike.
'It's coming!'
Minato yelled internally, swirling large amounts of chakra around his body before weaving numerous hand signs in the blink of an eye.
"Flying Thunder god technique—" The gargantuan mass of dark chakra immediately hung in the air, its hurried motion stopping as though frozen in time.
"Guiding Thunder."
Minato raised his arm just inches away from the attack, and suddenly strange symbols emerged from thin air, slowly swallowing the attack till the once monstrous biju bomb was nowhere to be found.
BOOM!
An explosion erupted in the distance, expelling rays of blue light and gusts of wind as it obliterated the area around it.
One could only wonder the destruction that would have ensued, had the attack landed in the village.
The Fourth Hokage let out a sigh, tightening his gaze as he watched the Village Ninjas' futile efforts against the beast.
"I have to rendezvous with everyone on the battlefield—" He immediately cut his sentence short, feeling a cold shrill run down his spine.
An ugly sensation that warned him that someone was behind him, someone that would have even him on the ropes.
As though his reflexes had been bred with lightning itself, a metal gleam sparked under the moonlit night as the yellow flash instinctively pulled out a kunai, swinging it towards the usurper's head with killing intent.
But to his surprise, his arm went right through his attacker, as though traveling past a ghost.
The masked man's eyes gleamed with a crimson glow, his hand shifting strategically before grabbing onto the Fourth Hokage.
"It's over." A cold voice resounded past the man's mask, and immediately after his words, Minato felt like his body was being stretched through a dimensional blender.
"I've got you." The man confessed victoriously. "Fourth Hoka—"
BAM!
Before he could finish his statement, a flash of red blurred in his vision, sending him flying with a kick across the side of his face.
"Ah, sorry for the kick." Kagero confessed mockingly.
"It's just that your face looked like a great place to wipe my feet."
Kagero cocked his brow and slid his arms into his pockets, doing his best to look as cool as he could. But within him…
He was barely keeping himself together.
'Obito and Minato are right before my eyes! They look so freaking amazing!'
"Thanks for the assist." Minato confessed, dragging Kagero out of his thoughts as he watched the curious boy with a degree of caution.
Despite the fact that he had saved him from possible doom, Minato couldn't trust Kagero too easily just yet. At least not with all the unnerving uncertainties.
Was he from Konoha? And how did he know where he would teleport to?
Several questions swirled like a flash through Minato's mind.
But despite all the unknowns, there was one big detail that weighed heavily on the Hokage's mind.
'That hair.'
There were only two people that Minato knew had red hair in the village. If so, just what exactly was the identity of the boy standing a few feet away from him.
Minato's eyes narrowed, his face adopting a stern look. "Who exactly are you—"
"You need to leave right away." Kagero's words cut the Fourth Hokage short. "The village comes first doesn't it?"
Minato let out a breath, acknowledging the validity of the boy's words. After all, no matter how suspicious things looked, saving the village was top priority.
"Don't worry, I'll handle things here." Kagero shifted his attention to the masked man who was now getting up to his feet.
Minato turned, lifting his arm in order to teleport to the village, but right before he did, Kagero showed him a sight that was oddly familiar.
"But when the village is safe, you'll treat me to some ramen later Minato."
Kagero let out a reassuring smirk, watching the yellow flash's eyes widen, before he blurred out of his vision with a flash of lightning.
"And there he goes." Obito cracked his neck, shrugging off Kagero's earlier attack like it was nothing. "I guess I'll have to join the battlefield."
"Nope!"
Kagero interrupted Obito, pointing at him with a bodacious grin.
"You'll have to get past me first."
Obito's eyes narrowed with contempt. He then shifted his gaze to the anomaly that stood before him, someone that he couldn't wrap his mind at how he appeared.
'Did the leaf send the Hokage back up? And if so, how did they know my location?' Obito adjusted his mask. 'Even weirder, why send a kid?'
'Well, it doesn't really matter. My goals remain the same.'
Obito cast a probing glance at the red haired child, before turning his back on Kagero, waking off as though the boy was nonexistent.
"Hey, aren't you gonna fight me?!" Kagero yelled at Obito, his face flushing red from embarrassment.
"I'll pass."
Obito replied nonchalantly.
"I can't waste time playing baby sitter with you Kid." He locked his eyes forward.
"As you can see, I've got a village to destroy."
"…"
"…"
There was a moment of silence between the two parties, leaving only the audible steps of Obito's retreat to fill the softly swirling wind.
However, Kagero's next words left even the ears of the wind— frozen in shock.
"Hmmm?" Kagero cut the silence.
"Aren't you gonna play with me for a bit?—" The red haired child twisted his face into a shrewd smirk.
"Obito?"