Under Naruto's puzzled gaze, Madara scratched his wild, spiky hair.
"And this payment for breaking the seal, we'll count it all together." Madara looked straight at Naruto as he was about to fade away, his expression solemn. "The Uchiha clan will unconditionally grant the Uzumaki clan one request for reinforcements at any point in the future."
It was only a single favor, but coming from Madara Uchiha, it was a vow made as clan head, one that would be honored for generations.
And there was no limit to the scale or risk of that reinforcement. In other words, if the day ever came when the Uzumaki clan was attacked by several major clans working together, the Uchiha clan would not stand by and watch. They would stand beside the Uzumaki clan and fight shoulder to shoulder.
"!!!!"
Neither Tobirama Senju nor Hashirama Senju had ever imagined Madara would offer such a pledge as Naruto's "mission payment."
Mito didn't know what had happened earlier, nor did she know that the intelligence scroll had actually been obtained because Naruto completed a B-rank mission listed on the mission scroll.
Even so, she understood one thing clearly. It was precisely because of Naruto Uzumaki's existence that the Uchiha clan head had left such a promise to the Uzumaki clan.
"Hey! Madara." Hashirama grumbled, a little sulky as he corrected Madara's so-called mistake. "It's all Konohagakure now. You can't have the Uchiha acting on their own, right? No matter what, you've got to count the Senju in too!"
Tobirama added, "And any other clans that join Konoha in the future."
At the very end, Minato offered a reminder. "Please be extremely cautious of Black Zetsu."
Madara Uchiha replied, "You don't need to tell me that." Even so, reviving Izuna would require Black Zetsu, White Zetsu, and the Rinnegan. None of them could be spared.
Watching Minato and the others leave, Hashirama casually slung an arm over Madara's shoulder. "Relax. As long as I'm alive, there'll be plenty of cells to work with. Leave the research to Tobirama. The two of us combined still aren't as smart as him. No need to worry about that. We might as well go gamble—"
"Brother, I can handle the research," Tobirama cut in calmly, "but all the actual work will fall on you and Madara."
"Uh…"
Seeing Hashirama sink into silence, Madara couldn't help mocking him. "What, were you planning to dump everything on Tobirama alone? What kind of older brother does that make you?" The look in his eyes practically added, I really look down on you, Hashirama.
Hashirama grew even more dejected. Sure, his best friend and his younger brother had each taken a step back for the sake of cooperation and friendship, and that made him happy. But why did it feel like he was getting double-teamed instead?
...
On the other side, the group that returned to Konoha sixty years later appeared together at the old Hatake residence.
The sudden appearance of more than a dozen chakra signatures immediately alerted Zabuza and Haku, who were staying there.
"What's going on?!"
Zabuza stepped in front of Haku, the Kubikiribōchō resting on his shoulder, and locked eyes with a shark-faced man.
"Yo! Kid!"
"...."
The only person who would call Zabuza "kid" was Kisame Hoshigaki, the man who had barely had any presence until now.
After all, the moment he arrived in the early days of Konoha, he had been detained by ninja from both the Senju and Uchiha clans.
"What the hell? Why are there even more people now?!" Zabuza glared at the shark-faced man. Having more or less figured out what was going on, he tilted his head toward the adult Kakashi, who was partly blocked by Kisame. "What is this, Kakashi? You running an inn?"
Before Kakashi could answer, Jiraiya threw his head back and roared, "Why did we have to come back right now of all times?! Couldn't we have come earlier—or later?! I was just about to—"
"Ahem!" Minato cut in with a darkened expression. "Jiraiya-sensei, please remember there are children present."
Choked into silence by his student, Jiraiya could only sigh inwardly. His sharp eyes then drifted toward the girl standing behind Zabuza.
But when he saw how protectively Zabuza was standing in front of her, he paused.
Shaking his head, he said, "Too bad. She's already taken."
Haku: "...."
"........" Zabuza said, "Can I chop this old man up?"
Minato-sensei looked thoroughly embarrassed. "Probably not. Jiraiya-sensei is one of the Sannin. I don't think you could beat him."
"..." Damn it! So pissed!!!
Haku had no desire to clarify anything further about his gender. He only wanted to grow up as soon as possible, shed his youthful appearance, and become a powerful ninja like Zabuza-san.
Kisame tightened his grip on Samehada. The Wood Release binding his spine from Hashirama Senju showed faint signs of constricting again. He hadn't expected to run into one of the Three Sannin, Jiraiya, earlier, and now there was also the Fourth Hokage, someone who should have been dead.
This wasn't like the previous time. Itachi had clearly betrayed the organization. That meant Kisame now had to face three powerful, battle-hardened ninja on his own. The odds were overwhelmingly against him.
What was worse, even after crossing into a parallel world, the Wood Release on his back was still effective?!
Alright. It was obvious there was no chance of winning.
He looked at Zabuza. "Who would've thought a Kirigakure ninja like you would end up siding with the Land of Fire."
In this situation, the cold-blooded Kisame Hoshigaki decided to gather as much information as possible and pass it back to Tobi.
By now, he had already figured it out. His boss, the masked man known as Tobi, was absolutely not Madara Uchiha.
But since he had seen Yagura Karatachi in this parallel world during Konoha's founding era, that meant Tobi should also be nearby, hiding within the cracks of space-time and quietly observing everything happening here.
"Hey! I've got something to ask you, you stinking shark!" Zabuza stared straight at Kisame Hoshigaki. "Did you know the masked man impersonated Mizukage Yagura Karatachi and carried out that tyranny? And just who the hell is that bastard masked man?!"
Kisame fell silent for a moment, then replied with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "So his identity in Kirigakure has finally been exposed. Did someone from Konoha tell you?"
Zabuza didn't deny getting the information from Konoha. "If you knew the tyranny in Kirigakure was caused by him, why did you still choose to follow him?"
That question reminded Kisame of the betrayal he had once suffered at the hands of his superior, Fuguki Suikazan.
"Do you really think Kirigakure can still be saved? Or do you still have expectations for this shinobi world?" Kisame said coldly. "A world this rotten has only one fate. If it isn't overturned and rebuilt, it will simply rot away."
Itachi glanced at Kisame with a trace of confusion. This man, sent by Tobi to keep an eye on him, had never before shown such extreme despair toward the world.
"That way of thinking is way too pessimistic," Obito said, unable to agree with Kisame's view. "I don't know what kind of nonsense that masked man fed you, but I believe this world isn't as hopeless as you people think."
Looking at the naive kid in front of him, Kisame Hoshigaki thought to himself:
Where did this idiot come from?
A brat who's never seen the real world.
"What the hell do you know?!"
With thoughts like that running through his mind, Kisame Hoshigaki could never have imagined that—
Back during Konoha's founding era, the "Yagura Karatachi" he had seen with his own eyes and believed in without question had actually been this same brat standing in front of him now, the very one he thought knew nothing at all, impersonating him.
After that, on top of the Wood Release seal Hashirama Senju had placed on him, Jiraiya still felt it wasn't secure enough and added another sealing technique from Mount Myōboku. As a result, Kisame Hoshigaki in his current state had lost nearly ninety percent of both his chakra and taijutsu capability.
At the same time, considering that Itachi Uchiha was, no matter what, a missing-nin of Konoha, Jiraiya also sealed his eyes.
Itachi didn't resist at all. Instead, an unnamed anger welled up inside Sasuke. He couldn't even tell whether he was angry at Itachi for not resisting, or angry about something else entirely.
In theory, as a missing-nin of Konoha, Itachi should have been imprisoned in the village's jail.
However, Minato, who knew the truth, believed that while Itachi's role in the clan massacre was unquestionably a grave crime, if responsibility were truly traced back, how should the Hokage and the council who ordered the extermination be judged?
Itachi had taken this original sin upon himself for the sake of the Uchiha clan's honor. To ensure that his suffering was not rendered meaningless, Minato chose not to make public the fact that the Uchiha clan had once attempted rebellion.
Thus, after discussing the matter with the Third Hokage, the status-ambiguous Itachi Uchiha was temporarily placed under multiple seals and arranged to stay at the old Hatake family residence where Kakashi lived.
"....."
The decision caught everyone completely off guard.
"I can understand why Sasuke's brother is living here..." Naruto said, then pointed at Kisame Hoshigaki and asked his dad, "But why does this shark guy also have to live at Kakashi-sensei's place, dattebayo?!"
"...Uh."
"As for Kisame Hoshigaki," Minato explained, "as a missing-nin from Kirigakure of the Land of Water, in theory we should return him to the Mizukage for judgment. However..."
However, the Mizukage himself was under the masked man's control.
In other words, the Mizukage was the masked man. And Kisame Hoshigaki's boss, the true leader of the Akatsuki, was also the masked man.
Wouldn't sending him back just be handing him straight over again?!
The young Kakashi looked at the situation and let out a deep sigh.
"What kind of twisted genius came up with this idea of using one missing-nin to keep another missing-nin in check?"
The moment he finished speaking, the air seemed to freeze for a second.
"It was me," the adult Kakashi said flatly.
That answer almost made Naruto Uzumaki and Obito Uchiha laugh themselves to death.
Naruto even patted Sasuke on the shoulder, saying that Kakashi-sensei back then was even more interesting than he was.
After their journey through the Nine-Tails incident, Sasuke and Naruto's relationship had grown much closer. They had come to understand each other's true backgrounds and had both gained lasting bonds from everything they went through together.
"By the way, dead last," Sasuke said, "how's that S-rank mission of yours coming along?"
The moment Sasuke brought it up, Naruto's face instantly turned livid.