["The captain has arrived!"]
[People dressed in all kinds of uniforms formed an enormous army. As the camera pulled back, the shinobi of every village, ordinary villagers, feudal lords, and even Kage-level missing-nin watching the footage finally realized that "enormous" didn't even come close to describing it. The vast force stretched for thousands of meters, packed tightly column by column—fifty columns per unit, five units combined into an indescribably overwhelming sea of humanity!]
"That flak jacket—those are Konoha ninja!!"
"There are guys from the Land of Earth—Stone Village!"
"That's someone from the Land of Lightning's Cloud Village! I've fought him on a mission before!!"
"And there are people in armor… those don't look like ninja."
"Those are samurai… from the Land of Iron! They're here too?!"
"Not just them—there are people from the Bloody Mist as well!!"
"Hey! Why are you Sand ninja standing in our Konoha formation?!"
"What do you mean? It's clearly your Konoha people standing in our Sand formation!"
Temari turned back and snapped, "Get it straight! This is footage!"
"They already said it's the Allied Shinobi Forces…" Shikamaru Nara yawned. "Besides, it's not even happening to us. What's there to argue about? Such a pain."
Neji Hyuga nodded. "Right. Their headbands only have the character 'shinobi.' There's no village distinction."
Shikamaru glanced at the rowdy Konoha genin over there and snorted.
"Tch… women are such a pain."
The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, stood to the side with his arms crossed, calmly observing. He already had a rough idea of when this footage was from. A Nara kid, huh? Looks like he's about to be proven wrong.
[The image zoomed in again, clearly showing the faces of the ninja in the footage. Their hairstyles hadn't changed much, but their features and builds were more mature than they were now—it was the Sand kunoichi Temari, about to eat her words, and the Konoha ninja Shikamaru Nara…]
Temari, Shikamaru: "..."
Temari: "Why are you standing next to me?"
Shikamaru: "How should I know? Women are such a pain."
They glanced at each other, clicked their tongues in unison, and turned away.
Shikamaru's father, Shikaku Nara, shifted his gaze between his son and the blond kunoichi from the Sand Village. Such a pain… Why do troublesome things keep piling up? If I get home late, will Yoshino lock me out again?
[The viewpoint shifted from the ninja army upward, toward a massive platform built into a cliff. From the architectural style alone, it was clearly the Land of Lightning—Kumogakure!]
[Five figures gradually came into view…]
[With stirring music, cheers erupted from the Allied Shinobi Forces below. The five figures who had just appeared were clearly the leaders of this earth-shaking army.]
[A burly ninja with the characteristic dark skin of the Yotsuki clan was highlighted in the frame. With only one eye visible, he gazed coldly down at the ranks below.]
["First Division Captain—Kumogakure's right-hand man to the Raikage: Darui!"]
That narrator's voice…
Shikaku looked at his son. Having already guessed what was coming, a quiet sense of pride rose in his chest.
The current class of Konoha genin gathered around Shikamaru.
Naruto: "Shikamaru! When did you run over there, huh, dattebayo?!"
Shikamaru glanced at him, feeling that explaining something this complicated to Naruto might be even more troublesome than dealing with women…
Ino slapped Shikamaru on the back. "Looks like you're going to grow into someone amazing!"
Shikamaru: "What a pain. Give me a break."
Inside the Cloud Village—
"Darui! It's Darui!!"
"As expected of the Raikage-sama's right-hand man—what presence!"
[Next, a man with a thick beard similar to Asuma-sensei's appeared. His square face was filled with authority.]
"He looks huge."
["Second Division Captain—Stone Village: Kurotsuchi's father, Kitsuchi!"]
Inside the Stone Village—
"Kitsuchi-sama! Kitsuchi-sama is the Second Division Captain!!"
"He doesn't look that different from the current Kitsuchi-sama… Could this footage be from the near future?"
"R-Really? Then I want to join the Second Division and serve under Kitsuchi-sama…"
Inside Konoha—
"So it really is him! The son of the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki of the Two Scales!! He actually became the Second Division Captain of the Allied Shinobi Forces? Incredible! Just as expected of the Third Tsuchikage's son!"
"Tch…" Many who knew these two ninja from the Cloud and Stone villages felt uneasy. "Just what kind of person is that masked man? Not only did he storm the Five Kage Summit alone and escape unharmed—now it takes the combined forces of the five great nations to deal with him?!"
Someone tugged at the speaker's sleeve. "Don't forget—Sharingan."
Right. That masked man has a Sharingan!
"Spare us, please. This has nothing to do with Konoha. Besides… when all's said and done, the Uchiha are already—"
Sasuke sat on the ground, teeth clenched, fists shaking as he squeezed them tight.
Uchiha Mikoto sighed softly to herself. If it were Minato, it might have been fine… but the one revived now is the Second Hokage, Tobirama-sama, who's said to be extremely wary of the Uchiha…
Itachi…
Looking at her younger son, whom she hadn't seen in years, and thinking of her elder son, Mikoto's heart ached.
In truth, aside from Danzo's manipulations, she and Fugaku both understood the problems within the Uchiha themselves. Honestly speaking, it was hard to say whether the village leadership or the clan bore more responsibility.
But Fugaku, as clan head, carried too much responsibility and was too reserved—bad at expressing himself.
If Minato and that child Obito were still alive… With their personalities, they could have helped improve how the villagers saw the Uchiha. Especially Obito—people in the village didn't like the Uchiha, but that boy was well liked by the villagers, especially the elders.
After the Nine-Tails incident, Mikoto had thought this more than once.
A sudden wave of noise snapped her back to reality. A familiar figure had appeared in the footage—someone who had been right here just moments ago…
[In the image, a silver-haired ninja appeared, his entire face hidden except for his right eye. The lower half of his face was covered by a mask, his headband pulled down to cover his left eye. Even though the Konoha symbol on the headband had been replaced with the single character "shinobi," who wouldn't recognize the Copy Ninja who had copied over a thousand techniques—the Sharingan Kakashi?]
["Third Division Captain—Konoha: Kakashi Hatake!"]
"!!!"