Minato and Rin stood near the doorway, watching the exchange in total silence.
They offered no judgment, simply observing the raw, unpolished reconciliation for a long ten minutes.
Eventually, Kushina’s fiery temper burned out, leaving only a fierce, protective warmth.
She remembered that Obito’s severely depleted chakra network couldn’t handle kneeling for extended periods.
She gently hauled the boy up, practically dragged him back to the futon, and aggressively tucked a thick blanket around his shoulders.
“Rest,” Kushina ordered, her tone brooking no argument.
“Stop drowning in your own head.
Minato and I don’t blame you anymore.
The past is erased.” She turned to the girl standing quietly in the corner.
“Rin, make sure he actually sleeps.”
“Yes, Kushina-nee,” Rin replied softly.
Minato and Kushina stepped out of the apartment, the morning sun warming the quiet streets of the Uchiha compound.
Minato looked at his wife, noting the immense tension that had evaporated from her shoulders.
“Have you truly forgiven him?”
Kushina stretched her arms above her head, a long sigh escaping her lips.
“I don’t think I ever actually hated him.
The monster you described in those memories…
that wasn’t my Obito.
It was too alien for me to truly accept.
But seeing him break down and apologize today?
That was the boy I knew.
The one who charged headfirst into trouble and screamed about becoming Hokage.”
Her violet eyes softened.
“He’s just grown up in the worst way possible.
You can see the weight in his eye now—the responsibility, the commitment, the sheer terror of what he did.
It broke him, but he survived it.”
Kushina turned to Minato.
“He suffered unimaginable pain and injustice in that timeline.
But we can use that.
Those memories will be the fire that drives him forward.
He’s going to be stronger than he ever was in those future timeline.
With our guidance, I genuinely believe he’ll become one of the greatest shields this village has ever seen.”
Minato exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
Kushina caught his look of relief and smirked.
“Don’t look so worried, Minato.
I know exactly what’s at stake.
I am not going to let the ghosts of a dead timeline chain us down.
Naruto gave us this second chance to rewrite history, not to wallow in old hatreds.
We need to focus entirely on building our combat strength.
So, what’s your plan?”
Minato shifted into command mode.
“I’m heading to the training grounds.
I need to consult with Might Guy and Might Duy.
I want to analyze their taijutsu and see if my body can handle the Eight Inner Gates.
The Otsutsuki can absorb ninjutsu; physical combat is going to be our primary win condition in the future.
I also need to refine my Sage Mode.
After that, I’m heading to Kumo.
I need to negotiate with the Raikage for their cell activation techniques.”
“Go get busy, then,” Kushina said, waving a hand dismissively.
“I can walk myself home.”
“Are you sure?
Be careful,” Minato said, a flicker of hesitation in his voice.
Logically, he knew they were deep inside Konoha’s walls.
Furthermore, Kushina was a powerhouse in her own right, and Kurama would absolutely obliterate anything that threatened the pregnant Jinchuriki.
Naruto’s very existence was currently anchored in her womb; the Nine-Tails wouldn’t let a scratch fall on his future partner.
“I’ll be fine,” Kushina laughed, turning on her heel and strolling down the street.
Minato watched her until she disappeared around a corner.
Then, his chakra flared.
The Body Flicker technique activated, and he vanished from the street.
For the next three days, Minato practically lived at the training grounds.
Aside from returning home to eat and sleep, he spent every waking hour sparring with the two green-clad beasts of Konoha.
Because of Guy’s famously straightforward and passionate personality, the instant the boy had received his future memories, he had sprinted home and confessed everything to his father in a fountain of tears and youth.
When Minato arrived and detailed the Otsutsuki threat, Duy and Guy didn’t hesitate.
They knew the future Fourth Hokage needed raw physical power.
They answered every question Minato had about the Eight Inner Gates without holding a single secret back.
Minato attempted to return the favor by teaching them the theoretical mechanics of the Flying Thunder God, but the father-son duo genuinely lacked the foundational spatial-ninjutsu talent required.
However, their physical prowess was terrifying.
Minato was a certified genius; under Guy’s brutal, enthusiastic instruction, he managed to grasp the physiological triggers of the forbidden technique.
By the end of the third day, Minato successfully opened the Gate of Opening.
It was only the first of the eight, but it was a massive tactical breakthrough.
Today was the fourth day since the memory transfer.
The deadline Minato had set with A.
He had received zero intelligence from the front lines indicating a Kumogakure retreat.
It was time to infiltrate the Land of Lightning.
Minato needed Obito’s Kamui to bypass Kumo’s sensory barriers.
Fortunately, the Uchiha possessed a terrifyingly resilient physique.
Obito had managed to drag himself out of bed by the third day, spending the next twenty-four hours in deep meditation to restore his chakra.
He wasn’t at peak capacity—his current chakra reserves would only allow for a single Kamui insertion and extraction—but it was enough for the mission.
Minato had briefly considered asking Kushina to channel some of Kurama’s chakra into Obito to accelerate the recovery, but the great fox was currently giving the Uzumaki couple the silent treatment.
No matter how much Kushina nagged her stomach, Kurama completely ignored her.
In the future memories, Minato had successfully tamed the Yin half of Kurama within the Reaper’s belly.
He theorized he had only achieved that cooperation because Naruto had already purged the hatred from the Yang half in the living world; the resonance between the two halves had likely smoothed the diplomatic process.
But right now, the Kurama sealed inside Kushina was still entirely consumed by decades of bitter resentment.
Minato pushed the logistical problem aside as he arrived at the Third Training Ground.
Obito sat on a wooden stump.
He looked noticeably older, the boyish arrogance completely burned away by the phantom memories of war.
But his core nature remained intact.
Driven by a crushing need to atone for the thousands of lives he had ended in the future, Obito had spent his limited recovery time helping the village elders.
If he was running late, he simply deployed Shadow Clones to finish carrying the groceries so his true body wouldn’t miss a tactical rendezvous.
Rin and Kakashi stood a few paces away.
Rin was talking animatedly about medical theory, while Kakashi offered short, quiet grunts of acknowledgment.
Rin occasionally shot a glare in Obito’s direction.
She was still actively giving the Uchiha the cold shoulder, furious at the sheer scale of the pain he had caused in the future timeline.
Obito didn’t take the bait.
He sat in quiet, accepting silence, waiting for his sensei.
As Minato’s boots hit the grass, all three snapped to attention.
“Good morning, Minato-sensei,” Obito said, bowing respectfully.
Kakashi and Rin immediately echoed the greeting.
“Good morning,” Minato smiled.
“Are you two here to see Obito off?”
Rin crossed her arms and looked away.
Kakashi stepped forward.
“No,” Kakashi said, his visible eye locking onto his sensei.
“I am requesting permission to join the infiltration team.
My affinity is Lightning Release.
I intend to use this op to study Kumogakure’s advanced lightning techniques firsthand.”
Kakashi had spent the last three days brutally analyzing his future combat data.
Initially, he had planned to replicate his future invention, Purple Lightning.
But the Otsutsuki threat rendered standard ninjutsu obsolete; the aliens simply absorbed chakra.
Kakashi’s greatest vulnerability right now was his physical stamina.
He needed raw, overwhelming speed and physical resilience.
He had concluded the Eight Inner Gates were incompatible with his physiology.
Instead, he wanted to observe the Raikage’s Lightning Release Chakra Mode—the ultimate fusion of ninjutsu and taijutsu.
Having fought alongside the future Fourth Raikage during the war, Kakashi believed he could leverage that future camaraderie to secure the training methods.
As for Rin, her motivation was entirely transparent.
Obito was still physically fragile.
She wanted to deploy as the squad’s field medic.
Minato rapidly calculated the variables.
Kumo was packed with veterans who possessed the future memories.
The risk of immediate execution upon discovery was low.
Furthermore, if the situation went entirely south, Minato could instantly warp the entire squad back to Konoha using his Flying Thunder God markers.
“Request approved,” Minato said.
“We deploy immediately.”
Hundreds of miles away, the tension inside the Raikage Tower in Kumogakure had reached a boiling point.
A stood in the center of the office, his massive arms crossed, glaring a hole through his father’s desk.
The Third Raikage sat completely still, matching his son’s glare with terrifying intensity.
They had been deadlocked for forty-eight hours.
The Third Raikage was a man forged from pure, unyielding loyalty.
Even though A had abandoned his post on the front lines and stormed into the office screaming about the end of the world, the old man couldn’t bring himself to throw his own son in the Blood Prison for treason.
But A inherited his father’s legendary stubbornness.
Since he couldn’t convince the old bull to issue the retreat orders, the future Fourth Raikage simply planted his feet in the center of the office and absolutely refused to leave.
The standoff continued.