"You damn blondie! Put him down! I'd recognize you even if you were reduced to ash!" Nagi raged. Today, he was determined to kill Sasuke. Not even God could stop him.
"You cannot kill him. In the future, a more terrifying enemy will appear. This world needs this child," the masked man in black, the blondie, said in a low voice.
"Interesting. It seems you chose not to seal your memories last time. You changed your own future, and now you want to play the hypocrite and tell me not to kill him?" Nagi sneered. "I'm going to kill him today, and that's final. Not even God can stop me."
With a flash of lightning, Nagi, faster than a Body Flicker, instantly appeared beside Sasuke and brought his sword down. But the blondie was just as fast. The moment before Sasuke was cut down, he used a space-time ninjutsu and teleported away again.
Nagi threw a kunai and teleported after them. The blondie teleported again, and Nagi followed closely behind.
Realizing that teleporting with Sasuke wasn't a viable solution—after several jumps, Sasuke was already dizzy and foaming at the mouth—the blondie teleported to a location out of Nagi's sight, pulled out the kunai marking their position, and took it with him. Without a coordinate, Nagi couldn't find Sasuke. Only then did the blondie return to the battlefield.
"The Flying Thunder God technique, right? It seems you've forgotten your last lesson. Not only do I know the Flying Thunder God, but I can also break your formula."
As soon as Nagi finished speaking, he flickered to the blondie's side and slashed down. This was his own time, not the past or the future. Nagi had no qualms about killing here; it wouldn't cause him to disappear.
The blondie flashed away again, tossing out several kunai and teleporting behind Nagi, slamming down with a Rasengan.
Nagi teleported again, appearing behind the blondie's son, Naruto, and prepared to cut him down. The blondie panicked and instantly teleported over, taking the full force of Nagi's blade.
Hm?! Nagi was surprised to find that his attack hadn't sliced the man in two. Instead, his body was glowing with a golden light.
"Sage Mode? Plus the Nine-Tails? You've got to be kidding me!" Nagi's eyes widened. The Minato of the past would have been easy to kill.
But this one, with Sage Mode and half of the Nine-Tails, was a different story. He wasn't confident he could kill someone who could use space-time ninjutsu so flawlessly.
Nearby, Naruto and Sakura were stunned. Their eyes couldn't keep up with the two figures flashing back and forth, a complete blur.
Kakashi had already forgotten the pain of his lost eye. He strained his remaining eye to keep up with the yellow-haired figure, muttering to himself, "Impossible... absolutely impossible... I saw Sensei's burial with my own eyes..."
But in the entire shinobi world, there were no more than three people who knew the Flying Thunder God and possessed such speed. One was the long-dead Tobirama Senju, another was Uchiha Nagi, and the last was his sensei...
Nagi and the blondie teleported to a mountaintop and clashed once more. The blondie used a massive Rasengan, and Nagi met it with his Sun Breathing, Thirteenth Form, shattering the Rasengan on impact.
"I'm done fighting," Nagi said, sheathing his sword in frustration. Fighting someone who also possessed space-time ninjutsu was incredibly annoying. Although he had broken the other's formula, the man had the second stage of the Flying Thunder God.
Everywhere he went—the ground, the trees, the rocks—he left behind a marker. The number of Flying Thunder God markers on the battlefield was increasing at an alarming rate. It was clear the man had figured out a way to counter him.
By increasing the number of markers to an uncountable degree, Nagi wouldn't be able to launch a surprise attack. They would be at a stalemate. But his opponent had half of the Nine-Tails inside him, plus Sage Mode. His chakra reserves were no less than Nagi's.
More importantly, the Nine-Tails' chakra regeneration was terrifyingly fast. It was how Naruto could supply chakra to the entire Allied Shinobi Forces for days without rest. As long as it wasn't a massive expenditure, the rate of recovery was faster than the rate of consumption.
If this kept up, Nagi would run out of chakra while his opponent would still be full of energy. People who could use space-time ninjutsu were truly disgusting.
"I can let Sasuke go today. But I'm curious, how long can you stay in this timeline? The forces of space-time must be constantly trying to reject you. Once you're gone, I can still kill him," Nagi said with a sarcastic smile.
"I cannot stay here for long, but you will soon understand why. A terrifying enemy is coming. This child is the key to saving this world, so he cannot die," the blondie said in a low voice.
"Oh? What about the Nine-Tails then? If he's not the one, I'll just kill him. The crisis of the shinobi world has nothing to do with me," Nagi quipped, his killing intent locking onto Naruto.
"You can't kill Naruto either."
"Hmph. You can protect them for a day, but you can't protect them for a lifetime." Nagi sheathed his Nichirin Blade and slowly turned away. "Let's leave it at that for today. I can't kill them, and you can't kill me."
In any case, he had already obtained Obito's Sharingan. It didn't matter. He'd let Sasuke go for now. He could always kill him later if he felt like it. Nagi had no reservations about killing Sasuke.
The Sage of Six Paths cared about his sons, but the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura were not his sons. As long as Nagi didn't try to pull an Orochimaru and absorb Indra's soul hidden within Sasuke, the old Sage couldn't be bothered to intervene.
Didn't you see? When Madara was killed by a sneak attack, the Sage didn't show up. To him, his sons had been reincarnating for so many cycles, he was used to them dying.
And Orochimaru's failed possession, despite his perfect preparations, was highly suspect. It was hard not to wonder if it was because of Indra's soul hidden within Sasuke, and the old Sage secretly intervening.
Nagi left. He had other business to attend to. He needed to meet up with Orochimaru to discuss the Konoha Crush during the Chunin Exams. He didn't care about the interruption from Minato Namikaze. What could he do?
It was clear that the blondie was the same one from the Lost Tower. For some reason, he had come to this world, but it proved one thing: the blondie had changed his own history. He hadn't died on the night of the Nine-Tails attack in his timeline, and he had become much stronger.
"Sensei... is that you?" Kakashi asked, looking hopefully at the black-clad, yellow-haired man walking toward him.
"Kakashi, there are many things I cannot tell you. But I can say this: a terrifying enemy will appear in the future. You must train hard." The blondie was still wearing his mask, unwilling to reveal his true face.
"Hey, Sensei's sensei? He seems really strong! Kakashi-sensei, can I train with him...?" Naruto asked, scratching his head sheepishly. He wanted to switch masters.
"Naruto, when you return to Konoha, someone will train you. Alright everyone, I must be going. Sasuke is on that small hill over there." The blondie smiled faintly and vanished with a Flying Thunder God.
To him, the Naruto before him might be his son by blood, but he wasn't his real son. His son was waiting for him in another world, where his wife also was.
"An enemy...? Is Sensei dead or not?" Kakashi scratched his head, staring blankly at the spot where the blondie had disappeared. He had a faint suspicion that this sensei was from another world, not theirs, but he didn't want to admit it. This child who was so starved for affection, who had been in a slump for over a decade, had just seen a loved one again...
"Sensei said I have to train hard. I should step it up when I get back." Kakashi touched his eye socket. The Sharingan was gone, but surprisingly, his body felt incredibly comfortable. Although he was completely out of chakra, he felt light, as if a great weight had been lifted. Every cell in his body was lazily relaxing, as if for the first time in over a decade.
After cleaning up, Kakashi's team pieced together the body of their client, the old bridge builder, and gave him a proper burial. Faced with the mission's failure, Naruto was at a loss.
"Kakashi-sensei, do we need to inform his family? After all, we failed to protect him."
"There's no need. The mission is a failure. We'll just return to the village. As for his death, someone will deliver the news to his family later. And he was the one who hid the intelligence and filed a false mission request in the first place."
Kakashi sighed. "If he hadn't filed a false mission request, he might not have died. The client himself bears the primary responsibility for this failure."
"Of course," Kakashi said, smiling and patting Sasuke's head. "Without you all, I would be dead. Faced with a choice between the mission and your teacher, you chose your teacher. I'm very happy."
Kakashi said this to mend the rift between Sasuke and Naruto. Faced with a choice, the two had chosen different paths, but Sasuke had acted faster and thrown the client out.
"Let's go."
The mission was a failure. The most important thing now was to bring Naruto back to the village. The Nine-Tails could not be compromised. Although it had been peaceful for many years, who knew if an enemy would come for the Nine-Tails.
"Should I save the Fourth Kazekage or not?" Uchiha Nagi mused as he traveled.
Orochimaru had invited him and the Kazekage to participate in the Konoha Crush plan, but he had never been able to figure out what that snake was truly up to.
If he and the Fourth Kazekage had attacked together, Konoha would have been caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. After all, with the Kazekage's Gold Dust Imperial Funeral, a super-massive ninjutsu, no one could have stopped it. And Orochimaru, with his Manda and a few Edo Tensei puppets, could have turned the village upside down.
But the strange part was that Orochimaru had betrayed the Kazekage, killing him halfway through and disguising himself as him to enter Konoha.
Could it be that Orochimaru was a double agent? On the surface, he wanted to destroy Konoha, but in reality, his heart was still with the village, and the attack was just to test Konoha's new generation?
It seemed possible. So, should he save the Fourth Kazekage? After all, the Kazekage had said he wanted to buy cannons from him this time, paying with gold dust.
After thinking for a long time, Nagi decided not to bother with the Fourth Kazekage. He was too weak, unable to even protect himself. At the very least, he should have brought a proper Kage guard. Not a thousand, but at least two hundred. He was too weak, so he deserved to die.
Shaking his head, Nagi gave up on the Fourth Kazekage. His fate was sealed, just as it had been in the original story. Nagi then headed to Konoha to meet up with his students.
He had made all three teams from the Swordsmith Village travel to Konoha on their own to train them. Aside from the elite team with Kimimaro, the other two teams were truly being tested. He was the Kage, not a babysitter. He couldn't protect them all the time.
Fortunately, all three teams had arrived in Konoha safely, though not without some close calls. Karin Uzumaki's Mind's Eye of the Kagura was the main reason for their success; she could predict and avoid any danger in advance.
"Listen up," Nagi said, addressing his village's genin in a hotel conference room. "I don't expect you to get a high ranking, but if you encounter danger during the competition, you must forfeit. Your own safety is the priority. The purpose of these Chunin Exams is to let you see the world, not to get you killed here. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sensei!" +9
"Cough, cough... Sensei, do we really not care about the rankings?" Kimimaro asked, coughing up a little blood. His kekkei genkai illness had finally manifested, just as it had in the original future.
But fortunately, Nagi hadn't let him use his Shikotsumyaku too frequently, so he wasn't bedridden like in the original story. Still, he was entering the late stages.
"That's right, Kimimaro. If something major happens in Konoha, you will lead your classmates in a retreat. I have other business to attend to, and I will also be looking for a cure for you. You don't have to wait for me."
Nagi looked at Kimimaro. "Kimimaro, stop taking the medicine I gave you for now. You've developed a resistance to it. I will find a cure for you during this operation."
"Sensei..." Kimimaro choked up as he looked at Nagi. A samurai will die for one who appreciates him, not to mention the deep bond they had formed as teacher and student.
Nagi had been grooming Kimimaro to be the next Sword Kage. He was currently the strongest and most promising of the younger generation in the entire Swordsmith Village.
"I will definitely become the second Sword Kage of the Swordsmith Village."
"Keep it up." Nagi smiled and patted Kimimaro's head. The boy was almost as tall as him now.
He then looked toward the Hyuga Clan compound. They were the only remaining great clan in Konoha. Every time a main family member died of old age or in battle, Nagi refused to believe that the Hyuga clan would just throw those precious Byakugan eyes into an incinerator.
Over the course of a thousand years, they must have accumulated a significant number. Just look at how many three-tomoe Sharingan Madara had collected. It was impossible that the Hyuga hadn't done the same.
So, the Hyuga clan must have a large number of Byakugan. A very large number...