Chương 141: Obito: Someone Blew My Cover

Lord Hiruzen had tutored Jiraiya, who in turn had trained Minato Namikaze. Meanwhile, Danzo and the two elders were the Third's old guard, thick as thieves. With his fundamentally optimistic disposition, Minato loathed the prospect of a fractured leadership. Discord at the apex was a death sentence for any hidden village—one only had to look at the bloody anarchy of the Hidden Mist to see the endgame. Internal schisms would force the shinobi to choose sides, fracturing the military into bitter factions.

A single spark from an outside instigator would inevitably ignite a civil war. And if the Leaf bled from within, rival nations would relish the chance to tear the prosperous village apart, instantly rekindling the embers of the Third Shinobi World War. It wasn't an apprehension; it was an absolute certainty. The war had never truly ended. The Hidden Cloud and Hidden Mist had yet to sign peace accords, and even if they did, ink on parchment was no barrier to raw ambition.

Minato's keen intellect easily mapped this trajectory, arriving at the one outcome he refused to tolerate. If a petty struggle for the throne would plunge the elemental nations into chaos, he would gladly abdicate. He had worn the Hokage mantle for less than a year. Unlike the Third, whose decades at the apex of power had transformed him from a heroic shinobi into a political beast, Minato held no obsession with sovereignty. If the office was a cage of compromises, he would take Zhen's counsel: a strategic retreat.

He would return to the quiet joys of fatherhood and dedicate his downtime to refining his strength. Tonight had proved that dangerous entities were lurking in the margins of the world; without absolute power, he could protect nothing. Let Hiruzen hold the reins. If the old master cleared the administrative rot, Minato would willingly shoulder the mantle once more and lay down his life for the village. Hokage or civilian, his vow remained unbroken.

He would protect his home, his flesh and blood, and his comrades, remaining true to the boyhood dream that had driven him to the summit. This, he realized, was the unadulterated Will of Fire. The moment he severed his attachment to the office, an immense weight evaporated from his chest, leaving him with an intoxicating sense of liberation. He exhaled a long, cleansing breath and pulled Kushina tight against his side.

"We'll follow Zhen's plan," he murmured.

"It gives us the time we need to raise Naruto together. Let the Third handle the bureaucracy. I trust he will make the right choice."

"Hard to say," Zhen countered dryly.

"From where the Third sits, free will is a luxury. He faces the same structural traps you do." Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't inherently malicious; his flaw lay in his compromise. Indecisive and yielding, he was a man dragged along by the inertia of the interest groups behind him, unable to dismount the tiger he rode. But Zhen remained indifferent. The shinobi world wasn't a mundane aristocracy.

In a realm where personal might dictated reality, political machinations meant nothing if a single god-like entity could simply flip the table. Power games? A waste of breath. Minato, entirely at peace with his decision, offered a faint smile.

"I still prefer to believe in him."

"Exactly!" Kushina beamed, her effervescent spirit returning.

"Our focus belongs to Naruto now. Let that old fossil drown in his paperwork." Minato tightened his embrace, burying his face in her hair.

"Whatever you say."

"You know," Kushina mused, her eyes twinkling, "automatically freed of the Fox, I don't have to worry about the seal cracking during childbirth ever again."

"Then we should have a few more," Minato murmured smoothly.

"Naruto carries the Uzumaki name. The next one will be a Namikaze."

"Deal! I'm bringing down the barrier now." Zhen watched them, utterly exasperated. In the span of an hour, the narrative had lurched from a tragic, death-defying extraction to a sickeningly sweet display of marital bliss. They were already planning a second child. What are you two trying to do? Zhen thought. Give birth to Menma Namikaze? Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The saccharine aura emanating from the two lovebirds was delivering severe critical damage to the lone bachelor present. Was Zhen the type to simply suffer in silence like Jiraiya? Absolutely not. A petty retaliation was in order—a tax for flaunting their romance in his face.

"Kushina-senpai, wait," he interjected. She paused, her hand hovering over the seal-release sign.

"Hmm? Is something else wrong, Zhen?"

"Lord Minato, you mentioned earlier that the masked intruder claimed to be Madara Uchiha, correct?"

"He did," Minato replied, his tone turning serious.

"Though I doubt the legendary ghost has returned."

"I agree. But as you know, my sensory reach is exceptional. The moment his Wood Release went into a frenzy, I caught a distinct, familiar resonance beneath the chaos. It's someone we all know."

"Who?" they asked in unison.

"Your student. Obito Uchiha." Kushina froze, her breath catching. She had doted on that boy, treating him more like a younger brother than a student. The idea that he would orchestrate her demise at her most vulnerable moment—that he would personally rip her life away—was a psychological impossibility.

"No... that can't be. Not Obito." Minato's eyes widened in profound shock, but the tactical mind of the Yellow Flash overrode the emotion. He rapidly processed the data.

"No... Zhen's perception might be flawless. Think about it, Kushina. We never recovered Obito's body after the battle at Kannabi Bridge. Kakashi and Rin only saw him buried by the collapse; they never saw him draw his last breath. He must have been pulled from the rubble by that second intruder—the same entity that snatched him from my grasp tonight. And his survival? If he was grafted with the First Hokage's cells, it explains both his miraculous recovery and his mastery of Wood Release. Yes... the pieces fit."

With his formidable intellect, Minato swiftly pieced the mosaic together. As Hokage, he possessed the clearance to scour Konoha's most classified archives. His brief foray into the records regarding the First Hokage's cells had nearly shattered his optimistic worldview; discovering that the Third had quietly sanctioned those horrific human experiments just to resurrect a lost bloodline had permanently stripped the golden filter from his perception of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Zhen played his part, tilting his head with calculated innocence.

"The First's cells? Those are supposed to be Konoha's property, aren't they? How did an outsider acquire them?"

"If Obito is masquerading as Madara, there must be a tangible link," Minato mused aloud.

"Given the history between the First and Madara, it is highly probable that Madara secured a sample before his alleged death. If Obito's power stems from that ancient phantom, it implies Madara might have survived far longer than the history books claim. If not... it means someone within our own borders has been trafficking classified biological material to our enemies."

As the deduction reached its zenith, the sinister silhouette of Danzo Shimura naturally loomed in Minato's mind—a consequence of the man's well-earned reputation. He briefly considered the Uchiha clan, only to dismiss the thought; the Third's faction guarded the First's cells with paranoid vigilance, ensuring the Uchiha never came within arm's reach of them. The realization that the currents running beneath the village were an impenetrable swamp only hardened his resolve to step down.

From the periphery, he could observe without blinders; from the throne, his view would always be obscured by those who controlled the flow of information.

"I still can't accept it," Kushina whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek.

"Obito was so gentle. He wouldn't do this."

"People change under the weight of tragedy, Kushina," Minato sighed softly, the guilt apparent in his eyes.

"We were never the anchor of his world. Rin was. And Rin is gone. As his master, I failed to shield her from that fate. Perhaps that failure is the crucible that forged his hatred."

"Lord Minato, should we disclose this to Kakashi?" Zhen inquired.

"You know the state he's in. A revelation like this might shake him out of his lethargy." Minato's expression hardened into one of absolute authority.

"No. Not a word. Like Naruto's true status, Obito's identity remains strictly confined to this circle. Not even the Third is to know. As for Kakashi... that is a burden Kushina and I will shoulder. It is our duty as his guardians."

"Understood."

"Kushina, lower the dome," Minato instructed gently.

"It's time to play our parts." The exhaustion was absolute. Kushina's vitality was running on fumes, while Zhen and Minato were physically spent. Yet, the moment before the golden barrier dissolved into particles of light, the Yellow Flash performed one final, deft maneuver. He wove a subtle seal upon his own sternum, instantly suppressing his chakra network and draining the color from his skin.

To any outside observer, the vibrant young Hokage now appeared as a broken man, his foundational strength shattered, requiring years of absolute seclusion to survive. The brilliant sun of Konoha, it turned out, harbored a remarkably deceptive streak.