"Aaaah!!" Naruto grabbed his head, his face going pale with fear.
Sasuke shot him a sideways glance. "Super idiot."
Young Kakashi looked at Naruto too. "Minato-sensei was a fully capable, well-rounded elite..."
The unspoken message: You shouldn't be like this.
"No, you don't understand him," Sasuke said. "He's completely capable of leaving every question blank and handing in an empty sheet."
Minato Namikaze awkwardly scratched the mask over his face. During his own Chūnin Exams, he'd helped Kushina guess the written test questions, and when that failed, he'd helped her cheat so she could pass.
Looks like Naruto really didn't inherit that part of him.
(If Kushina were here, she'd definitely have something to say. Who was it that wrote a big, flashy pen name—"Radiant Whirlwind"—after his own on the exam paper, making the proctor almost think Minato Namikaze didn't show up for the test?!!)
Young Kakashi told Sasuke, "Except for the third stage, the combat match, the first two stages are team-scored. Meaning if Naruto hands in a blank sheet, none of you get to move on to the second or third rounds."
"!!!!"
The three of them were struck like thunder.
Naruto panicked because he realized failing the first round meant zero chance of advancing.
Sasuke panicked because he was terrified that a certain idiot would drag him down.
Sakura, as always, lacked confidence. She was good at written tests, but she worried she'd drag Sasuke-kun down in the later stages and make him dislike her.
"Anyway, you have five days," Adult Kakashi said. "Sign the confirmation form then. Report to Academy Room 301 at 3 p.m. Understood?"
Naruto answered weakly, "Got it…"
Adult Kakashi bowed to Minato Namikaze. "Sensei, I'll head out first."
With that, he vanished using the Body Flicker Technique.
Young Obito stared at the direction he disappeared, feeling miserable.
"You made my future self mad, idiot," Young Kakashi said flatly.
Everyone had noticed—Adult Kakashi hadn't given Young Obito a single glance from beginning to end.
Obito clutched his hair in distress. "It was just crossing out a name! My own name!!"
He knew deep down it had hurt the future Kakashi a lot, and he had apologized. But Stupid Kakashi was still that angry… which made Obito feel completely defeated.
Naruto crouched beside him. "What do we do, Obito?"
Even Sasuke said, "Kakashi is really mad this time." In the past half year, none of them had seen Kakashi like this.
"Minato-sensei…" Obito looked at Minato pitifully.
Minato sighed and tried to comfort him. "I think things will settle down naturally… eventually. Maybe?"
Even as he said this, Minato had no confidence in that outcome.
In his two days investigating around Konoha as ANBU, he'd seen Kakashi visiting the memorial stone every single day for ten years, talking to "Obito." That bond had become an obsession. Unless Kakashi found something to fill that hollow in his heart, it would be hard for him to truly let go.
...
That night, having learned from yesterday's mishap, Naruto slept wearing his orange training clothes and carrying his ninja pouch. The clothes and pouch from his father's childhood—retrieved during the Nine-Tails night—were stored safely away.
And since the Kakashi-version punching bag had been left behind in that parallel world, Naruto spent the afternoon making a Sasuke-version punching bag instead.
So when everyone gathered again, what they saw was Naruto lying on the ground, hugging an unbelievably ugly but still recognizable Sasuke-shaped pillow, sleeping soundly.
Without a word, Sasuke stepped forward and kicked Naruto squarely in the backside.
"Ah!!" Naruto bolted upright, clutching the Sasuke pillow. "Nine-Tails?! The Nine-Tails is attacking the village again?!"
"......"
A thick silence filled the air.
Naruto rubbed his eyes, realizing—they'd time-traveled again.
"Where's Obito? And Kakashi-sensei?" He scanned around, but neither Young Obito nor Adult Kakashi was anywhere.
Young Kakashi said, "That idiot and my future self went to carve the Memorial Stone."
He had no idea how to complain about his future self. He obviously cared, yet insisted on going anyway. Was that self-inflicted torture?
Young Kakashi once again resolved that he would absolutely not grow into such a weird person.
Rin asked, "But why didn't they appear with us?"
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and the others had all materialized close together—so why weren't Obito and Adult Kakashi here too?
Minato Namikaze looked around their surroundings. "This is Konoha's Training Ground Forty-Four. As for the era… unclear for now."
"Konoha has a training ground like this?" Naruto tilted his head.
Sasuke looked upward. At first, he assumed it was nighttime, just like the moment they had traveled from.
But after observing carefully, he realized the darkness wasn't from night at all—
It was the towering trees overhead, so massive they blocked out the sunlight entirely.
Minato said, "This area is dangerous. Stay close to me."
The warning was mainly for Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura.
Rin and young Kakashi had been here before during the Chūnin Exams, and with one being a Chūnin and the other a Jōnin, they didn't need Minato's special attention.
Once they pushed through the densest part of the forest, they saw dawn beginning to break.
"This place is easy to get lost in," Minato explained, pointing toward a tower in the distance.
"Use that tower as a landmark. Keep track of your distance and angle from it, and you won't lose your way."
"And also..."
Swish.
Minato's hand flashed across Naruto's head faster than anyone else could catch.
When he opened his palm, a worm wrapped in chakra was slowly turning into a butterfly.
"Most insects and snakes here have paralytic venom. So either bring repellent powder or stay alert at all times."
He tossed the contaminated chakra and the bug away.
"And the water sources here…"
"The way to exchange passwords…"
"Food gathering also requires caution…"
Naruto listened with absolute focus. Ever since he was little, he'd always dreamed of hearing this kind of out-of-school ninja teaching from his parents.
But time was short. Before long, Minato had led them to the edge of Training Ground 44.
A worn metal fence stood there, covered in sealing tags.
Young Kakashi said, "With Minato-sensei's face carved into the Hokage Rock, this must be a future parallel world."
Minato nodded. "Moving together will draw attention. Wait here for me."
He vanished in a flicker...
...
Meanwhile, young Obito and adult Kakashi were still locked in an awkward silent standoff at the Memorial Stone—already half an hour long.
"You said you agreed," Obito muttered, glaring upward at the man even taller than Minato-sensei. "You may look different, but deep down you're still that stubborn, tsundere Kakashi!"
Adult Kakashi snapped, "Agreed?! I only 'agreed' because you nearly carved a whole trench into it—right?!"
"And if we carve just a bit more, we'll get the A-rank mission payout! Then we can find more intel on the masked man, right?!"
Adult Kakashi was so overwhelmed he couldn't get a word out, chest tight with frustration.
He simply ignored Obito and stared sorrowfully at the intact name on this world's Memorial Stone—
[Obito Uchiha]
That sadness seeped into young Obito too. Knowing it was his own and Rin's deaths that had twisted Kakashi into his future self, he felt a heavy ache in his chest.
Just then, Minato arrived.
"So you two were here." He approached and pressed his hands together respectfully in front of the Memorial Stone, honoring Konoha's fallen heroes.
On the stone lay Obito Uchiha's name—but Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki's names were nowhere to be found.
From this, Minato deduced that this world existed after Obito's sacrifice, and during his own time as Fourth Hokage.
Judging by that, this parallel world should be earlier than the "Nine-Tails Incident" world they last visited.
Adult Kakashi asked, "Should we speak to this world's Fourth Hokage?"
Minato thought for a moment. "We probably won't stay here long. But we should still warn him about the masked man."
"Yeah!" Obito nodded firmly. "We absolutely won't let that bastard get away with it!!"
Minato used the Flying Thunder God to take Obito back to Naruto and the others, then he and adult Kakashi went to find this world's Fourth Hokage.
It was 7:30 a.m. This world's Minato Namikaze was just about to leave for work.
"I'm heading out."
"Be careful."
"I'm not dying before the baby is born! Not a chance."
"Once the baby comes, the people making me worry will double."
A simple exchange between husband and wife—but hearing it from outside, adult Kakashi and Minato from the Kannabi Bridge era both felt their hearts twist.
Especially Minato. He had learned quite a lot about Naruto lately.
And honestly, most of it tore at him.
"Don't worry!"
The Fourth Hokage's voice came again from inside.
"I'll protect this child! No matter what happens! No matter what it takes! I'll protect him!"
Adult Kakashi heard the soft crackle of Minato-sensei's clenched fist beside him.
He knew exactly why.
Because in their world… Minato-sensei hadn't been able to keep a single one of those promises.
Surely…
Minato already understood the treatment Naruto had endured in Konoha.