Chapter 311: Is This the Truth?
Minato Namikaze's childhood dream had always been to become the Hokage of Konoha Village.
He never expected that, though he had once been the most likely candidate, the position of Hokage would ultimately be snatched away by Uchiha Dali.
Although he felt a pang of regret, Minato never dwelled on it.
He had never imagined that, even if he could not become Hokage, he would eventually end up as the leader of a unified and powerful nation.
And so, in a rather muddled way, under the expectations of the people, Minato accepted the decision of everyone present.
Soon, the conference room was filled with warm congratulations.
But just as everyone was basking in this joyous atmosphere, a figure suddenly appeared before them.
At once, the entire room fell silent. Looking closely, they realized it was none other than Uchiha Dali's clone.
"What is it?"
Uchiha Dali, seeing his clone return, was a little surprised.
A thought crossed his mind—perhaps the investigation at the barrier had yielded results.
"Nothing special, I just came to tell you something."
The clone spoke.
His words immediately drew the attention of everyone in the room. They all pricked up their ears, watching him intently.
Even Dali himself felt a flicker of anticipation. But then, the clone said, "I came to tell you, our time is up."
"Time is up? What do you mean?"
"What time is up? Is some kind of crisis upon us again?"
"What's going on? What… what does this mean??"
"…"
Everyone was baffled.
Uchiha Dali, however, frowned slightly, inwardly cursing.
Sure enough, the next second, his clone burst with a poof, vanishing before their eyes.
In that instant, a flood of memories rushed back into Dali's mind.
This meant that the other clones had also dispelled themselves at the same time.
Their duration had reached its limit.
Now, all their experiences and memories had returned to the original body.
From the information within those memories, Dali gained more intelligence regarding the barrier.
"So it was just the shadow clone's duration reaching its limit? What a false alarm…"
"Fourth Hokage-sama's shadow clone really played a trick on us!"
"…"
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
At the same time, they all looked at Uchiha Dali.
Everyone here could use shadow clones, and they knew what they were capable of.
At this moment, they knew Dali must have something to say.
Sure enough, Dali nodded slightly, cleared his throat, and said, "Minato, you're now the leader of the new nation. I'll leave this to you. I'm going out for a while."
With that, he stood up.
Everyone was startled by his words. Minato couldn't help but ask curiously, "Where are you going?"
"There's been a discovery at the barrier. I'll go confirm it and be back soon. I'll explain the situation to you then. Since it's far away, out at sea, it's inconvenient to bring you all along."
Dali didn't explain further.
With those words, he vanished before their eyes.
He left the conference room so abruptly that the others hadn't even processed what had just happened.
The thought of what might lie behind that mysterious barrier made everyone uneasy.
The Ōtsutsuki clan, the legends of the Nine-Eyed God…
In short, all of those powerful enemies were beyond their ability to resist.
Now, all hope rested on Uchiha Dali alone.
"Hopefully the Fourth Hokage-sama can uncover the truth. Only he can protect us."
"I never imagined there would be other life forms beyond outer space. The universe is so much bigger than we thought…"
"In any case, let's hope nothing bad happens! Our new nation has only just been established, and people haven't even begun to live well yet!"
…
Uchiha Dali returned to the sea where the mysterious barrier had first been discovered.
This place lay thousands, even tens of thousands, of kilometers from land.
No ordinary human could reach it by a small fishing boat.
Once there, he did nothing else but let his body fall freely, plunging into the ocean.
With a splash, he sank beneath the waves.
About a hundred meters down, Dali opened his eyes.
From the memories of his clones that had returned to him earlier, he had gleaned some clues—they had glimpsed something strange in the depths.
They had seen bizarre creatures. That was why Dali had come down personally to investigate.
Sure enough, the moment he opened his eyes, he saw it.
Before him, beyond a shimmering barrier wall made visible by refracted light, loomed a massive shadow.
That colossal figure in the deep ocean dwarfed Uchiha Dali on this side of the barrier to a staggering degree.
Judging by scale, the creature was at least ten thousand times his size.
And even so, what Dali could see was not its full form—most of its body was still deeper in the abyss. What lay before his eyes was only part of its back.
Looking at the behemoth before him, as vast as a mountain, Dali was deeply shaken.
In the memories of his clones, their Observation Haki could not penetrate the barrier.
So although they could see the giant beast behind it, they could not sense what else lurked in that pitch-black abyss.
Dali tried activating his own Observation Haki, but it was just as ineffective.
What he sensed was only a small area before him; beyond that was nothing but silent void, as if it were not part of this world at all.
Boom!
He summoned more than thirty clones at once.
One immediately said, "If I'm not mistaken, that thing should be a Sea King, right?"
Another looked at Dali and added, "If that's a Sea King, then what kind of world lies beyond that barrier is obvious, isn't it?"
The other clones all started chattering among themselves. Only Uchiha Dali remained calm.
"You're right. That really is a Sea King."
"Looks like we've solved the mystery. The threat behind the barrier is practically zero."
He smiled lightly as he spoke.
Yet at the same time, he couldn't help but wonder—why would that guy set up such a powerful barrier here? Could it really be just to keep mere Sea Kings from invading the shinobi world?