Hokage Tower.
A corridor that should have been silent was shattered by a rush of footsteps—so urgent they bordered on panic.
"Move! Emergency!"
Namikaze Minato's figure, like a golden gale, flashed past the stunned chūnin on duty and charged straight for the Hokage's office door.
He didn't even stop to knock—he shoved the heavy wooden door open.
"Third Hokage-sama!"
The office was brightly lit.
Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his broad desk, reviewing documents.
Smoke curled up from his pipe.
Startled by the sudden intrusion, he looked up, his brows knitting at once.
Minato was rarely this uncomposed.
"Minato? What happened?"
Hiruzen set down his pen. His voice stayed steady, but his eyes sharpened.
"Kushina…"
Minato panted, trying to steady his racing heart and breath, yet the urgency in his voice—and a lingering trace of fear—was unmistakable.
"She was taken—at the edge of the forest outside the village!"
Hiruzen's pupils tightened.
He sprang to his feet; the pipe knocked against the desk edge with a crisp tap.
"What did you say?! Report in detail!"
His voice shot up, and the imposing authority of the "Professor" filled the room in an instant.
"Yes!"
Minato spoke fast, forcing himself to stay clear.
"About half an hour ago, a patrol sent an emergency distress signal through a summoning beast. The location was marked at the eastern forest boundary—suspected foreign ninja activity, with the target indicated as Kushina."
"I immediately used the nearest Flying Thunder God kunai marker and rushed over."
He paused—images of that heart-stopping scene flashing before his eyes again.
"When I arrived, I found three ninja wearing masks that weren't Konoha-standard—possibly Iwagakure or Kumogakure—already stripped of their ability to move."
"Their condition was extremely abnormal—like statues. Their vital signs were so faint they were almost undetectable."
"And Kushina… was taken away by an unknown man."
"Unknown man?"
Hiruzen stepped around the desk and stopped in front of Minato, his gaze like a blade.
"What did he look like? What jutsu did he use? Did he leave any clues?"
Minato drew a deep breath, recalling the man's appearance—and that nightmare-like glance.
"Male. He looked very young. Black hair. Simple black clothes. Very striking features, but that's not the point."
Minato's face went a shade paler.
"The point is, I couldn't understand his method of appearance at all."
"There was no chakra fluctuation. No hand seals. No conventional signs of spatial distortion. It was like he simply stepped out of the moonlight."
Hiruzen's brows tightened further.
Space–time ninjutsu?
But even Flying Thunder God came with a burst of chakra and a detectable marker response.
"What did he do? How did he take Kushina?"
Hiruzen pressed, fingers unconsciously rubbing the pipe stem.
"He…"
Minato's voice came out dry.
"After he appeared, he only pointed at those three ninja—from a distance."
"No light. No sound. And they completely locked up, becoming the state I described."
"Then he picked Kushina up."
Minato lifted his head and met Hiruzen's eyes directly. In his clear blue gaze, deep shock still lingered.
"I tried to stop him, Third Hokage-sama. I warned him. I was ready to fight."
His throat bobbed.
"But he only looked at me—once."
The air in the office seemed to freeze.
"Just one look…"
Minato's voice trembled in a way even he didn't fully notice.
"My chakra flow instantly went into chaos. My body wouldn't respond at all—I couldn't even move a finger."
"I… I saw something I can't describe."
"Death? Nothingness? I don't understand it."
"But I'm sure of this: if he'd had killing intent, I would already be dead."
Namikaze Minato—hailed as a prodigy, already beginning to show the edge of the "Yellow Flash"—didn't bother to hide the fear on his face.
And that made Hiruzen's heart sink.
Anyone who could draw that kind of reaction from Minato was no ordinary enemy.
"Then what?"
Hiruzen's voice dropped low.
"Then he carried Kushina and took a single step forward—and vanished."
"Just like when he appeared: no trace, no residual chakra, as if they'd never existed there at all."
Minato clenched his fist until his knuckles went white.
"I couldn't even determine his direction or distance. Every sensory method failed."
Hiruzen fell silent for a few seconds, then turned back toward the desk—without sitting.
With his back to Minato, he stared out at the still night, at the Hokage Rock in the distance, and let out a heavy breath of smoke.
A jinchūriki.
The Nine-Tails' jinchūriki—Uzumaki Kushina.
She wasn't just an orphan of the Uzumaki clan, the child Lady Mito had entrusted to them.
She was the crucial vessel meant to carry Konoha's strongest tailed-beast weapon in the future.
Her disappearance wasn't merely the loss of a promising ninja.
It was a direct threat to Konoha's strategic power—a gaping hole in the village's defensive system!
"Where are those three enemy ninja now?"
Hiruzen asked without turning around.
"Still at the scene. I didn't dare move them—what happened to them is too bizarre."
"I had the patrol that arrived afterward lock the area down."
Minato answered.
"Good."
Hiruzen spun back around, his gaze now razor-sharp and decisive.
"Send orders immediately!"
His voice echoed through the office.
"Anbu emergency assembly. Dispatch three elite squads. Center the search on the incident site and conduct a carpet sweep within a fifty-kilometer radius!"
"Priority: any abnormal spatial fluctuations, traces of unknown strong individuals, and any sign of Kushina's chakra!"
"Notify the Barrier Team—reinforce all sensory barriers in and around the village. Increase sensitivity, especially for monitoring unknown space-time anomalies!"
"Have the Medical Team and the Sealing Team proceed to the scene at once and examine the three enemy ninja in detail."
"I want to know exactly what happened to their bodies—extract memories or intelligence if at all possible!"
"Activate Level-Two alert. Increase security at all outposts and strengthen patrols inside and outside the village!"
A string of orders spilled out rapidly, showing the Third Hokage's decisiveness in a crisis.
"At any cost."
Hiruzen looked straight at Minato, speaking each word clearly.
"We must bring Kushina back safely. She is an important jinchūriki. There can be no mistakes!"