Naruto jabbed a thumb at his chest. "I'm all it takes to deal with you guys!"
His words stunned the two generals of the Land of That and every soldier behind them for a moment. Then came a wave of mocking laughter.
"Since you're just a kid who doesn't know any better..."
General Genbu had been prepared to let the people before him leave, but General Suzaku, who had already suffered at the hands of the "Heavenly Maiden," still harbored a grudge against the entire Land of Ancestors.
He stopped General Genbu and ordered the men behind him to ready their bows.
The soldiers of the Land of That raised their flaming arrows in unison.
Naruto formed the hand seal for Multiple Shadow Clones while silently asking the Nine-Tails to lend him some chakra.
["Hmph. Didn't you just say you could handle them all by yourself?"]
Deep within his subconscious, the Nine-Tails teasingly poked Naruto on the head with the tip of one enormous claw.
"Oh, come on! Why are you separating the two of us? We're a two-man team, right?" Naruto mischievously raised his pinky. "How about I turn into a female fox and give you a little fanservice?"
["Uhh..."]
Kurama's expression visibly stiffened for a moment.
As a being made entirely of chakra, he genuinely had never thought about that sort of thing.
Embarrassed and annoyed, he tossed a lump of chakra at Naruto and told him to get the hell out of his subconscious and deal with the enemy.
Having successfully "borrowed" the chakra he wanted, Naruto grinned.
"Multiple Shadow Clones!"
With the Nine-Tails' chakra backing him up, creating a few thousand shadow clones to make an impressive showing was no great feat for the current Naruto.
But even in the Ninja World, producing shadow clones on this scale would leave people speechless, much less in this ancient era where no one even knew what chakra was!
The moment Naruto produced several thousand shadow clones, the Land of That's army fell into chaos.
They pointed at Naruto Uzumaki and shouted that he had to be some kind of fox Yōkai or tanuki monster, using sorcery to turn leaves into people and frighten them.
To be fair, at least half of that accusation was true. There really was an incomparably enormous fox Yōkai inside Naruto, baring its fangs at them in mockery.
But the shadow clones were an illusion?
A ninjutsu developed by the Second Hokage-sama himself, straight from the Ninja World's catalogue of forbidden techniques, was supposed to be fake?
What a joke!
"Who the hell are you people?! Why are you stopping us?!"
Minato Namikaze answered, "We are 'ninja' hired by the Land of Ancestors. We're here to protect this land and its people. If you insist on advancing, we won't hesitate to attack again."
"Ninja?"
They had never heard of such a thing.
But the sorcery displayed by that blond brat was more than enough to make them wary.
While General Genbu hesitated, the lecherous General Suzaku remained determined to flatten the Land of Ancestors and avenge the humiliation he had suffered at that woman's hands.
"Who cares whether they're ninja or sages?! Fire!!"
"Wait..."
Before General Genbu could stop them, the soldiers under General Suzaku had already released their bowstrings!
Flaming arrows traced arcs through the night sky as they rained down toward Naruto and the others.
Adult Kakashi, who had been flipping through Icha Icha Paradise, sighed. "The book says people who refuse to listen to advice... usually don't survive past the third episode..."
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall.
He tucked the book back into his ninja pouch, formed the hand seals, and cast his ninjutsu in one seamless motion. A wall of earth engraved with a dog's head rose up and blocked every incoming arrow.
"What is that?!"
"The earth obeyed his command?!"
"Our arrows were stopped! Isn't this supposed to be another illusion like before?!"
If they had been able to dismiss the shadow clones as mere trickery before, then the Earth Release technique that had physically stopped all their attacks left them with nothing to say.
Besides...
Since when had the Shadow Clone technique developed by the Second Hokage become some cheap illusion?
"They attacked first. Let's begin."
At Minato Namikaze's command, Young Kakashi shot forward like a silver peregrine falcon, moving with astonishing speed.
Sasuke activated his Sharingan, and his physical performance immediately rose sharply. He was at least as fast as Kakashi, if not faster.
The two boys raced forward on the left and right, forming hand seals at the same time.
"Try not to kill anyone."
Minato Namikaze called after them.
"Got it, Minato-sensei!" Young Obito answered for Kakashi and Sasuke.
The two really did avoid highly lethal attack ninjutsu such as Chidori. Instead, they used a Lightning Release technique with a much wider area of effect and plenty of power, but one that was unlikely to be fatal.
Shiden!
It was a ninjutsu Adult Kakashi and Young Kakashi had developed together earlier.
Because Obito had safely obtained the Twin Kamui, along with Hashirama's cells and White Zetsu components, Young Kakashi was still using both of his own eyes.
Without the Sharingan, neither Chidori nor Raikiri could truly be perfected.
No matter how powerful a ninjutsu was, it became useless if it could not be controlled and could not reliably hit its target.
Adult Kakashi had always planned to return the eye, his Jōnin gift, to Obito someday. That was why he and Young Kakashi had developed Shiden, a Lightning Release ninjutsu that could be used without the Sharingan.
They had used Shiden before, but no one had expected Sasuke to have learned it too.
Seeing everyone's surprise, Naruto felt oddly pleased, almost as though he himself were being praised.
"Of course! Sasuke is the student of Kakashi the Copy Ninja!"
In other words, neither Adult Kakashi nor Young Kakashi had taught Sasuke Shiden.
He had copied it himself with his Sharingan!
Young Kakashi and Sasuke charged forward with Shiden at the same time, weaving what looked like a massive net of violet lightning from opposite sides. The sharp crackle of electricity rang in everyone's ears.
The flaming arrows fired by the Land of That's army were reduced to ash the moment they struck the lightning net!
At that moment, Young Obito stepped up beside Naruto Uzumaki.
"We've been wanting to try this combination technique for ages, right, Naruto?"
"Yeah!"
A combination technique?
The others had no idea Young Obito and Naruto had secretly developed one together.
Young Obito's eyes suddenly widened. His black pupils instantly turned scarlet, and the three tomoe transformed into a windmill-like pattern.
"Kamui!"
A spiraling vortex opened in front of Naruto's vast army of shadow clones.
Before anyone could figure out what they were planning, thousands of Naruto's shadow clones poured into Obito's Kamui's Dimension one after another!
At the same time, another "gate" to Kamui's Dimension opened right in the middle of the Land of That's army.
The Naruto Uzumaki clones that entered from one side emerged directly from the other.
It was like a space-time gateway, continuously transporting Naruto's shadow clones straight onto the battlefield.
Fortunately, Naruto only intended to drive the enemy back and teach them a lesson. He did not even use a kunai, relying purely on punches and kicks. Even when one of his shadow clones was destroyed, he only lost a tiny amount of chakra.
Otherwise, with this combination technique, Young Obito and Naruto might well have become another version of the Yellow Flash.
Even Minato had never imagined Obito and Naruto would come up with a combination technique like this!
Sooner or later, they would return to the Third Shinobi World War. The fact that Obito had already thought of using his Mangekyō Sharingan this way meant he might be able to influence the course of the war even more than Minato himself.
Silently appearing within the enemy's territory without triggering any Fūinjutsu or barrier, then transporting all of their own forces directly onto the battlefield, even straight to the enemy's weak point?!
In the distance, Young Kakashi and Sasuke brought down whole groups of samurai from the Land of That with Shiden, while thousands of Narutos overwhelmed the rest with punches and kicks from every direction.
With nothing else to do, Sakura and Rin began treating the wounded samurai of the Land of Ancestors who had previously fought against the Land of That's army.
Minato Namikaze, Adult Obito, and Adult Kakashi, meanwhile, were the ones who had absolutely nothing to do...
"It's incredible. Just three months ago, Naruto and the others were struggling badly against Zabuza and Haku," Adult Kakashi remarked.
Adult Obito hesitated. "Kakashi, I..."
Because the world had suddenly been altered, everyone now remembered Kakashi as a member of the Fourth Hokage's ANBU, while the person who had become Naruto and the others' mentor was instead Obito, the man who had once committed unforgivable crimes.
For Obito Uchiha, who had once been the Masked Man, it was deeply unsettling.
He constantly felt like a liar, a thief, a fraud who had taken one precious thing after another away from Kakashi and claimed them as his own.
His guilt toward Kakashi had grown so severe that Adult Obito had spent this entire period barely able to sleep or eat. He could not even bring himself to think about how he would face Rin Nohara when they eventually met.
All he could think about was how he could possibly compensate Kakashi.
"Hm?"
Adult Kakashi looked at the hesitant Obito and waited for him to continue.
Minato Namikaze suppressed a smile and made an excuse about checking on Naruto and the others, deliberately leaving the two of them alone to talk things out.
That left only Obito and Kakashi from the mission scroll world with nothing to do.
Obito Uchiha took a deep breath.
"I haven't figured out how yet, but I'll definitely make it up to you."
"Once everything settles down, I'll talk to Minato-sensei..."
He paused.
"I'll ask the Fourth Hokage-sama to let me join the ANBU. You'll still be the Jōnin instructor for Naruto, Sasuke, and the others."
Kakashi looked at him. "And how are you planning to explain that to your clan?"
"Don't forget, the Uchiha Clan was revived too. Every one of them is hoping Obito Uchiha will become the first Uchiha Hokage."
If Obito suddenly insisted on joining the ANBU without any proper explanation, he would easily disappoint the clan elders, his peers, and even the younger generation who looked up to him.
Had Kakashi not brought that up, Obito might not have felt quite so uncomfortable.
But once he did, Obito felt even more like some contemptible bastard who had cheated his way into gaining everything.
He had once caused the deaths of Minato-sensei and Kushina, killed countless comrades from Konoha, and even driven Itachi into wiping out his own clan to preserve Konoha's peace. In exchange for allowing Itachi into Akatsuki, Obito had even helped him kill members of the Uchiha Police Force.
And now...
Even though those people had all been revived through the reversal of the rules of time, Obito Uchiha still could not bring himself to enjoy any of it with a clear conscience.
His clansmen greeted him with smiling faces.
"Obito, the whole clan is counting on you! You've got to become the first Uchiha Hokage!"
"Obito, you've accomplished way more than old guys like us ever did. Got enough eye drops? I've still got some here. Come grab them whenever you need more."
"Obito, my kid absolutely worships you. When you have a few minutes, could you give him some pointers on throwing shuriken? I'd really appreciate it!"
And yet...
In Obito Uchiha's memories, these same people had once been helpless against the attacks of the "Masked Man," their blood splattering across the Uchiha Police Force headquarters.
Under the red moon, their screams drowned out the chirping of insects.
Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, illuminating face after face twisted with unwillingness as they died.
His actions had left Naruto and Sasuke with such miserable childhoods.
Yet when the three of them walked through the streets of Konoha together, people would greet them casually.
"Hey! Just get back from a mission with Team 7, Obito-sensei?"
Sasuke and Naruto would lower their heads without answering.
The resentment, hurt, and indignation buried in their hearts were easy enough to imagine.
Once, Obito Uchiha had been the mastermind behind Akatsuki. In another world, he had dared confront the Five Kage head-on and forced them to look up at him.
Yet now, he did not even have the courage to look Naruto and Sasuke in the face.
It was like death by a thousand cuts. Agony spread through every part of him, but he could not even escape it by dying quickly.
The feeling left him utterly ashamed of himself.
Minato Namikaze thought, You two go ahead and talk. Hopefully, after Naruto and Sasuke, and the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha, manage to reconcile, you two can come to terms with yourselves as well.
What a considerate and thoughtful sensei.