Tsunade found herself frozen in a ridiculous pose.
Her fist was extended fully forward, her right leg was positioned awkwardly between Makoto's legs, as if she had just passed right through his body like a ghost.
But she had no memory of what had actually happened just now.
One moment, she was charging up a punch to break his spine.
The next moment, she was standing past him, staring at a destroyed forest, with Makoto standing unharmed behind her.
She had been as unpredictable as possible, yet Makoto still reacted.
Could he really see the future?
"Did you move just now?"
Tsunade casually withdrew her leg from between Makoto's, straightened her posture, and dusted off her kimono.
"Originally, I didn't want to move," Makoto said calmly. "I wanted to give you a reference point."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Tsunade frowned.
"To prevent clipping through," Makoto pointed to where Tsunade had been standing moments before.
"If I hadn't taken a small step back, when you passed through my body while maintaining your current pose... part of your hip would have overlapped with where my leg originally stood."
"..."
Tsunade mentally compared the positions.
If Makoto hadn't taken a small step back, when she passed through his body while maintaining her current pose...
It seemed part of her body would have overlapped with where Makoto originally stood.
Is this what he meant by "clipping through"? Tsunade fell into thought.
If Makoto didn't use his ability, the result would be him being sent flying into orbit. So her standing in that position wouldn't cause any spatial paradoxes.
But after using his Time Erasure ability, her movements remained unchanged and the punch still followed through, but Makoto wasn't hit.
Hence, the need to move slightly.
"So how do we prove this?" Tsunade asked, shaking her arm to loosen the muscles. "You dodging doesn't prove you changed the future. It just proves you're fast."
Though disappointed about not hitting Makoto, she didn't press the attack immediately.
She looked at Makoto questioningly.
"It's not over yet," Makoto said, walking in front of Tsunade again.
He turned his back to her once more, exposing his vital points. "Let's do a second round for comparison."
Orochimaru watched from behind, his snake eyes narrowing.
He could tell that Makoto's demonstration wasn't complete yet.
"Hmph."
Tsunade twisted her wrists with a pout.
She was thinking about ways to actually hit him this time!
"I'll hit."
She raised her hand.
"I'll hit—"
She lowered it.
"I'll hit..."
Tsunade kept raising her hands behind Makoto's back, making fake attacking motions like a toddler playing tag.
She was feinting, waiting for a reaction, trying to catch him flinching.
The scene made even Orochimaru speechless.
Shizune facepalmed, covering her face in embarrassment.
'Lady Tsunade... please stop. You look like a brat having a tantrum.'
Shizune suspected that Lady Tsunade might have been acting like a child too much recently, and couldn't break out of character.
Why was she being so childish today?
"HYAH!"
Tsunade finally launched her attack.
But it wasn't a punch aimed at Makoto.
She swung her fist violently toward Makoto, but at the last millisecond, she intended to redirect the force inward—to strike her own left palm in a thunderous clap.
It was an "unexpected" maneuver meant to test if he could predict intent, not just trajectory.
If he dodged a punch that wasn't coming, she would know he was guessing.
A gust of wind from her fist swept behind Makoto—
"No need to hit yourself, is there?"
"Huh?"
Her fist was still hurtling through the air when Makoto's voice suddenly rang out.
Tsunade froze mid-motion. Her right fist halted mere inches from her left palm.
She had indeed planned to feign an attack on Makoto while actually striking herself.
But... he spoke before the action was completed.
"See?" Makoto turned around slowly, a knowing look in his eyes.
"I witnessed the future scene of 'Tsunade attacking herself.' Logically, this future should be inevitable and unchangeable for me."
"According to the paradox Orochimaru just proposed: If I see the future, that future becomes my past. I cannot change it without negating the vision."
"But I spoke up. I said, 'No need to hit yourself.' And because I spoke, you stopped."
"I altered the fact of 'Tsunade attacking herself.' And yet, I still saw it. This is another Paradoxical Loop, yet I managed to break free from it."
Makoto turned to address the group, looking like a professor lecturing a class of idiots.
As he had mentioned earlier, he merely named his ability after a Stand from JoJo, but that didn't mean his ability functioned exactly like the Stand's.
Makoto had actually realized this long ago—back when he first arrived in Amegakure in this era.
In JoJo, King Crimson operates as Makoto described to the others: it cannot change the outcome of a future it has already seen, only erase time to eliminate unfavorable events.
But what about Makoto? In Amegakure, he saw the "future," walked to the spot where Konan was supposed to land, raised his hand, and made a "catching" motion, causing Konan to alter her "future" and land elsewhere.
This very incident was itself a paradox.
After Makoto finished speaking, both Orochimaru and Tsunade fell silent.
It was true.
Tsunade knew best—her punch hadn't even reached the stage where she would retract her force to strike herself.
In fact, to prevent Makoto from using any mind-reading techniques or observing her muscle tension, she had launched her attack the moment the random thought crossed her mind.
"So, why is this happening?" Tsunade frowned, her delicate brows knitting together.
"I don't know," Makoto shrugged. "If I knew why, would I even need to recruit Orochimaru?"
"..."
"Instead of pondering why, focus on what to do," Makoto adopted a lecturing tone. "In this regard, you could learn a thing or two from the Uchiha Clan's way of thinking."
"Uchiha Thinking?" Tsunade was puzzled. "What the hell is that?"
What was there to learn from those emotional psychopaths?
The most common reprimand she'd heard from her grandfather Hashirama was—"That's typical Uchiha thinking."
It usually meant "paranoid," "extreme," and "likely to burn down a village because someone stole your tofu."
"Don't overcomplicate it," Makoto explained.
"Before suspecting if there's something wrong with a person, first question if there's something wrong with the world."
"For example: In the future, there's a Divine Techniqe of the Otsutsuki Clan called Omnipotence. It can swap the identities of two people in the memories of everyone across the entire Shinobi World."
"Suddenly, the hero becomes the villain, and the villain becomes the hero. Everyone's memories are rewritten. Your logic, your love, your history—all flipped."
"And with Uchiha Thinking, you can easily counter it."
"Why?" Tsunade asked.
"Because the Uchiha would not hesitate to choose the latter between 'My family is wrong' and 'The world is wrong.'"
"If an Uchiha sees their brother acting like a stranger... they don't doubt their brother. They assume the entire world has been put under a Genjutsu and try to destroy reality to fix it."
"It's extreme narcissism weaponized as critical thinking. 'I cannot be wrong, therefore the universe must be lying.'"
"..."
Makoto's explanation of "Uchiha Thinking" left Tsunade and Orochimaru speechless once again.
The key is... it was surprisingly fitting.
"A Divine Technique of the Otsutsuki Clan?" Orochimaru's expression turned grave. "To think it has such a terrifying effect—altering everyone's will... mass gaslighting on a planetary scale."
He was beginning to understand why Makoto chose to return to the present.
If such an enemy existed, conventional jutsu were useless.
You needed someone who could break the rules of reality.
"That ability sounds somewhat dubious," Tsunade muttered, crossing her arms. "Like something straight out of one of Jiraiya's shitty smut novels..."
"Ahem, ahem, ahem!" Shizune coughed violently. "Lady Tsunade! Please mind your words! There are children present here!"
She pointed at Hanabi and Karin, who were blinking innocently.
"Alright," Orochimaru stood up, dusting off his kimono. "The doubts in my mind have mostly been cleared up. We can discuss the rest slowly when we return."
"Tsunade," he looked at his former teammate. "Have you made your decision?."
"You've only proven that you have the ability to change the future," Tsunade crossed her arms. "But as for whether you're truly from the future, I still..."
Just as Tsunade was speaking, Makoto handed over a photograph.
Then, he took out a piece of paper and a pen, swiftly drew a sketch, and handed that over as well.
"This is..." Tsunade looked at the photograph.
The content was simple—a panoramic view of Konohagakure featuring the Hokage Rock.
It looked normal at first glance.
But unlike the current four faces... there were seven.
Tsunade saw herself. The Fifth Face was undoubtedly her.
"Is the sixth one Kakashi?" Tsunade squinted at the Sixth Face.
The distinctive mask covering the lower half of the face was all too familiar.
Kakashi becomes Hokage? That lazy ass? What? did everyone else die?
"And..." Tsunade frowned. "Which disabled person is the Seventh Hokage? Why is a part of his head missing?"
She looked at Makoto in confusion.
The Seventh Face looked like it had been blown apart.
"Uh," Makoto scratched his cheek. "The day before this was taken, the Hokage's son and a rich kid crashed a Train directly into the stone face."
"..."
Tsunade carefully put away the photograph. Then, she turned her attention to the drawing Makoto had handed her.
"What is this?"
"Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Boruto," Makoto said seriously.
"They might appear in this timeline alongside a certain Otsutsuki in the near future. They will be hunting for the Kyūbi's chakra."
"After you return to inherit the position of Hokage, if you encounter them... remember to notify us promptly."
"You... what?!"
Tsunade's face was filled with shock.
She had previously thought that only Makoto had come, and the others had failed.
She never imagined they had simply arrived at different times?
"So there are multiple time travelers running around?!"
"Correct."
After making her promise, Tsunade left with Shizune, her expression was deeply troubled.
She was indeed prepared to return and assume the role of Godaime Hokage.
She had to, The village needed her.
As for whether Makoto was from the future... no further proof was needed.
As long as the future Uchiha Sasuke and that so called Otsutsuki appeared, it would confirm that everything Makoto said was true.
"It seems we need to prepare in advance to face that enemy," Orochimaru licked his lips, his scientific curiosity burning.
"I wonder how strong the future Sasuke-kun will be. Will he have surpassed Itachi?"
"...The future Sasuke is still very powerful," Makoto said, a complicated look in his eyes.
"But... never mind. You'd better pray he's weaker." Makoto shook his head with a faint, cynical smile.
"Why?"
"Because in the future I come from," Makoto chuckled darkly. "...The future Sasuke is still verypowerful, but... never mind. Both he and the other one might end up being our enemies."
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Man someone just straight up copy this shit word to word and didnt even bother changing the mc name 😭
And hey fix the spacing too, at least do it properly!
title : Naruto: The Akatsuki Strategist Who Weaponized Common Sense