"This is the Sage of Six Paths'…"
The Nine-Tails immediately sensed something different about the human boy in front of it. He knew the name the Sage of Six Paths had given them a thousand years ago.
The beast stopped struggling.
Could this be the one the Sage spoke of?
In the blink of an eye, the Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, completed the sealing and locked the Nine-Tails back inside young Naruto's body.
"I've reduced the side effects of the seal as much as possible," Uzumaki Naruto said quietly.
Since he had come, he wanted to do this right. He refused to let this version of himself suffer the way he had growing up.
"Seventh Hokage," Namikaze Minato called out to him. "Thank you. If you hadn't stepped in… we would've become terrible parents."
"That's not true. Even if… even if I hadn't come, you'd still be amazing. The coolest parents ever."
The Seventh Hokage grinned and gave them a thumbs-up.
At those words, tears welled up in Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato's eyes.
They understood now.
The Seventh Hokage standing before them was their son. Naruto, all grown up.
If he hadn't appeared in this era, they both would have died sealing the Nine-Tails. In that case, they would have had no choice but to leave Naruto alone in the world.
They would've failed him as parents.
They had no right to face him.
And yet, in this situation, Naruto had said something like that. He understood them. He forgave them.
That only made the guilt worse.
"There's something else," Uzumaki Naruto said, turning his back to them. "You need to lie low for a while. Don't show yourselves. Not even to your child. Especially…"
He didn't want his presence to completely rewrite history. That was why he had Uchiha Sasuke knock out the Third Hokage and the others guarding the barrier earlier.
"Don't interfere with the Uchiha Clan's future. Just save one person."
"The Uchiha?" Minato frowned, confused.
"Remember what I said. The details… the toads will contact you and explain. I… goodbye."
With that, Uzumaki Naruto vanished using the Body Flicker Technique. Moments later, he reappeared deep within a forest.
"Why didn't you tell them who you are?" the Nine-Tails asked, puzzled.
The Seventh Hokage answered simply, "A father is a father. A mother is a mother. Naruto is Naruto. There's only one of each, right? If I hadn't promised Sasuke I'd leave the rest to him, I'd really like to punch Obito."
"If that's how you see it, then aren't I still me?" the Nine-Tails grumbled. "Do you think I need you to hold back?"
"What are you even talking about?" Uzumaki Naruto shot back.
"The Seventh Hokage… what an incredible kid," Namikaze Minato murmured as he stared at his son's disappearing figure.
"Yeah. Just like our Naruto. Both of them are amazing," Kushina said softly as she looked down at the baby in her arms. "Naruto, thank you… for letting Minato be your dad. For letting me be your mom."
When Uzumaki Naruto mentioned Obito in the video, Hatake Kakashi felt his heart clench violently.
What did that mean?
Why bring up Obito?
Was this connected to him somehow?
Or… did it mean they could travel back to that era? Back to when Obito was still alive?
It had to be possible.
It had to be.
Kakashi had never felt his heart pound this hard. Not even in the most desperate battles of his life.
Obito's death. Rin's death at his own hands.
He had done it to protect the village, but that wound had never healed. If there was even a chance… even the slightest chance…
He couldn't imagine what that would mean.
If that were true, then maybe Obito was still alive. Just like the Fourth Hokage and Kushina in the video, hiding to prevent history from changing.
His breathing grew uneven.
If that were the case, how would he face Obito?
How would he tell him he had killed Rin with his own hands?
That he had failed the promise Obito entrusted to him?
Kakashi's mind went blank.
"There's something about me too? I came back as well?" Uchiha Sasuke stood frozen, his breathing ragged, his heart nearly stopping.
Why did the Seventh Hokage tell the Fourth Hokage not to interfere with the Uchiha Clan's future?
Why not save them?
Why?
Why?
Why?!
He wanted to demand answers immediately.
"No… wait. If it's me, maybe I handled it myself," he forced himself to think calmly. Faced with a chance to change his clan's fate, his usual arrogance was nowhere to be found.
Even if it was just a branch timeline. Even if it was a parallel world. Even if he would never see them.
If somewhere, in some world, his family lived peacefully in Konoha… just imagining it brought him comfort.
It has to be real. It has to be.
Then how did he resolve everything?
"There has to be footage of me, right? Of me dealing with the massacre?"
The moment that thought surfaced, a terrifying pressure descended on him.
If he made even the slightest move on his own, he would die instantly.
He forced himself to endure.
Be patient.
The future would reveal it.
"Father… Mother…"
Uchiha Itachi had reached the same conclusion. Tears streamed down his face.
Just like the night he had killed them with tears in his eyes.
If that Sasuke from the future, the one Kaede Kitahara called one of the saviors, truly existed… perhaps that tragedy could be undone.
"If a world like that exists… then even dying by Sasuke's hand would be fine."
He sobbed quietly.
The scene in the diary shifted.
Sure enough, it showed a middle-aged Uchiha Sasuke standing by the sea, about the same age as the current Uzumaki Naruto. The two of them stared out at the ocean together.
"Sasuke," Uzumaki Naruto asked, gazing at the calm horizon, "what do you think seventeen-year-old us is doing right now?"
"Seventeen…" Uchiha Sasuke echoed.
When he opened his eyes again, they transformed.
His ordinary eyes shifted into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. To be precise, one eye was the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and the other was a Rinnegan with nine tomoe.
At the same time, his appearance reverted to that of his seventeen-year-old self.
Standing opposite them was a bald man with a long braid.
Otsutsuki Isshiki.
In the middle of battle, Otsutsuki Isshiki suddenly noticed the change. The Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke before him had become much younger.
"What's going on with these two? They're still the same people… but one has power comparable to the Sage of Six Paths. And the other…"
Before he could finish thinking, seventeen-year-old Uzumaki Naruto spoke.
"What are you staring at, idiot?"
"Heh. Whatever trick you pulled, you're just a pair of brats now," Otsutsuki Isshiki sneered.
"Idiot," Uzumaki Naruto shot back with a cold laugh. "This isn't Boruto. This is Naruto: The Uzumaki Naruto Era!"
In an instant, both Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke shifted into their strongest forms.
Not the noticeably weakened state they had as middle-aged men.
This was their peak. Youthful. Radiant. Fresh from inheriting the Sage's power at its absolute height.
The moment their overwhelming aura erupted, it spread outward, traveling through the diary itself and pressing down on everyone watching.
"D-damn… how can they be this strong?"
Uchiha Sasuke went rigid. Even the fraction of power leaking through was enough to pin him in place.
"This… this is my future self?" he whispered. "But that eye… what is it?"
He recognized the Mangekyo pattern. It had evolved into that shape when he fought that monster.
But the other eye?
"No… I've seen it before."
He forced himself to calm down.
Yes. He had seen it.
"The leader of Akatsuki."
It hit him instantly.
In an earlier diary entry, the Akatsuki leader had destroyed Konoha with a single strike. He remembered the eyes clearly.
No… there was a difference.
That leader's eyes had concentric ripples, but no tomoe.
His own future eye had tomoe.
What kind of transformation was that?
Could he really become that strong?
If he could… then killing Uchiha Itachi for revenge, killing Shimura Danzo, restoring the Uchiha Clan… all of it would be effortless.
"This is the future Sasuke?" Uchiha Itachi stared in shock.
He had never seen Sasuke like this.
Not even during the battle against the Ten-Tails, when Sasuke had already awakened the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, had he looked anywhere near this powerful.
"That eye… is it the Rinnegan? But it doesn't look quite the same."
Itachi thought back to Pain, the leader of Akatsuki, and his Rinnegan.
What kind of evolution had Sasuke's eyes undergone in the future?