"Hands still. Don't move, and don't even look around."
A ring of Konoha shinobi surrounded Eden, whose whole body was radiating space-time ripples.
Eden cooperated without fuss, but the ninjas stayed wound tight, nerves strung like bowstrings.
Under Fifth Hokage Makarov, everyone in the Leaf knew: twelve years ago—the Night of the Nine-Tails—was a catastrophe caused by a powerful shinobi who wielded space-time jutsu.
So Lord Makarov had inscribed a village-wide technique: any space-time fluctuation would trigger an alarm and ping the nearest jōnin.
Which meant the dozen men hemming Eden in were all jōnin—the backbone of Konoha's combat strength.
Even so, facing Eden, their expressions stayed grave. If he really was the culprit behind the Nine-Tails Night, even a dozen jōnin jumping him at once had zero chance.
The Fourth Hokage had fallen to that enemy, after all.
"Haven't I been cooperative enough?"
Eden yawned. He'd even let them put on a jutsu-sealing pair of cuffs.
(Useless against him, of course.)
"Er… in any case, please come with us. The Fifth Hokage wants to see you."
His question shaved some of their bravado off. Keeping tight formation, they escorted him toward the Hokage Tower.
"This is surreal…"
They passed a street with a clean view of the Hokage Rock—First Hokage Hashirama Senju, Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze… and then the Fifth: Makarov. Eden's eyelids twitched at the sight.
"So this is the Hokage Tower?"
At the base of the cliff, they brought him to the building stamped with the giant "火" character. Eden nodded, a little nostalgic for reasons even he couldn't name.
"Leave it to me from here. You can go."
A cool voice floated out from inside.
"Yes, sir. We'll leave him in your care, Jōnin Uchiha Itachi."
The jōnin bowed the moment the man stepped out of the office.
Shff—
They flickered away one after another.
"Huh?"
"You didn't defect?"
"Mr. One-Versus-Seven Weasel himself?"
Eden stared at Itachi Uchiha—walking out of the Hokage's office like a proper secretary—and felt his brain go numb.
At this point the only familiar thing left in this whole "Naruto" world… was the Hokage Tower.
"Apologies for the rough handling."
"You must be the Eden Lord Makarov is always talking about."
Itachi ignored Eden's astonishment. He produced a key, popped the cuffs, sealed them into a scroll, and offered a courteous bow. "This way, sir. Fifth Hokage Makarov is waiting."
"…"
This Itachi wasn't just "not what Eden remembered"—he was someone else entirely. Eden let the silence hang, then inclined his head.
A minute later, they pushed open the office door.
"Oh? Itachi, that you?"
"Thanks for bringing him. Head on back—you've got a little brother to pick up, don't you? It's a crucial year; graduation's coming up. Spend more time with Sasuke."
Beneath the kage hat and ceremonial cloak, Makarov was buried in paperwork.
"Understood, Lord Fifth."
Itachi glanced at the wall clock, then vanished in a blur.
"This is so wrong."
"No matter how I look at it, everything screams 'wrong.'"
Eden watched Makarov working and felt his eye twitching again.
"Hey, Eden. Grab a seat."
"Give me a second to clear these."
About ten minutes later, Makarov tossed the last file aside, pinched the bridge of his nose, and exhaled. "Everything you want to know is in here."
Hum—
A bead of golden light dropped into Eden's mind.
"Mm…"
From Makarov's implanted memories, the story unfolded.
Makarov had slipped into this timeline in Konoha Year 51—on the very day the infamous beast Obito Uchiha attacked the village and the Night of the Nine-Tails began.
He pulled scores of civilians from the fire. When the Fourth Hokage teleported the Nine-Tails away, Makarov followed—and walked straight through Minato's barrier, forced to watch as Minato and Kushina died before his eyes.
With his last breath, Minato entrusted his son—new Nine-Tails jinchūriki Naruto—to Makarov. "I don't know who you are—but I can feel you're a good man. From above, I saw you save so many villagers and shinobi. Please… watch over my son, Uzumaki Naruto. I want him to live as the village's hero—its hope."
"And tell the Third Hokage this tragedy was caused by a man with a Sharingan who uses space-time ninjutsu—likely the long-missing… Uchiha Madara."
Smiling, Minato and Kushina passed on together—leaving Makarov standing there, stunned.
"…Seriously?"
Even Makarov had gone speechless. Who dumps their newborn on a total stranger they met five minutes ago—because "he saved a lot of people"?
When the barrier faded and Makarov stepped out cradling a wailing Naruto, the Third and the elders surrounded him.
"Which of you is the Third?"
"The dying young man had a message for you…"
Makarov didn't bother with pleasantries. He delivered Minato's last words.
By then, he had a feel for where he stood on this world's power scale.
"So people… die fighting that sixty-meter fox?"
"Am I… invincible here?"
He frowned at the thought.
They imprisoned him, of course. Danzo and the Third clashed over how to "handle" the old man.
"Lock him in Root. We'll extract who he is by any means necessary. Don't take his word for anything—he could be the Nine-Tails' handler."
Danzo pressed hard.
"Shut it."
"'Mastermind'? He's an old man older than me."
"And we have eyewitnesses—he ran all over the battlefield saving civilians and shinobi. He has an alibi."
"Besides, if Minato trusted him, then so do I."
Hiruzen's glare never wavered.
Konoha also needed a civilian hero to lift morale. If even an eighty-something elder was out there fighting for the village, what excuse did anyone else have to mope?
"Mark my words, Sarutobi—you'll regret this."
"I'm the Hokage, Danzo."
Door slam. Danzo stormed out.
Then war erupted with Kumogakure.
Hearing Konoha had lost the Fourth and suffered a Nine-Tails rampage, the Raikage moved to plunder.
Danzo and Hiruzen were swallowed by the war. With Konoha's elites depleted, even the jōnin guarding Makarov were pulled. The village sagged, gray and breathless—
—and Makarov finally couldn't stand it.
"Looks like I have to step in."
He sighed and walked onto the battlefield.
"We can't win!"
"Damn it—if only the Fourth were still alive…"
"Do we surrender land and pay reparations?"
"Humiliating! When has Konoha ever sunk this low?!"
On the front with Kumo, Konoha's forces were getting pummeled. With the Legendary Sannin gone, the White Fang dead, and the Fourth fallen, the village had no middle-generation Kage-class left.
Just as the line started to crumble, a giant five-ten-thousand-meter colossus stepped into the war zone.
"Don't be afraid, children."
"Invaders—die."
His thunderous voice rolled across the battlefield for thousands of kilometers.
"Uh…"
Konoha shinobi stared up, brains blanking out. A jōnin actually dropped to his knees, whispering, "Heaven favors Konoha. The village had a hidden monster all along… Even if the First Hokage returned, could he be more than this?"
Boom—
One punch. Hundreds of kilometers of battlefront launched into the sky.
Cloud Village, Land of Lightning.
"What do you mean my one hundred thousand troops got slapped into the stratosphere?!"
The Fourth Raikage froze at the report.
"This is nonsense."
"Rumor says Konoha produced a man who perfected the Akimichi Expansion Jutsu—ten thousand meters tall. A match for the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju. He erased the entire line with a single slap."
The intel chief rattled it off.
"Ten thousand meters?"
"That's ten kilometers."
A's eye twitched. He'd seen Akimichi jutsu—ten meters, maybe dozens at the limit. Ten kilometers?
Boom—
The whole of Kumogakure shuddered.
"An earthquake?"
"Lord Raikage! Konoha's giant is here—the one who pushed Expansion Jutsu to the extreme—Makarov!!"
"Do I need your report?! I can see him!"
A stepped to the window. Not far away, a shape that pierced the clouds—so tall you couldn't even see it whole—took thunderous, village-shaking steps toward them.
"Ten thousand?"
"Try twenty… no, thirty thousand at least!"
"Is this genjutsu?!"
He smacked his own skull.
Sadly for the Raikage, this wasn't a gag manga—he couldn't "no-sell" reality.
"Peace—or die."
Makarov's voice, swollen with power, laid down the final line.
A stared up at the upper body swallowed by clouds, face unreadable. In the end, he bought peace with a mountain of concessions.
From that one war, "Hero Makarov" was born.
Publicly, Hiruzen Sarutobi announced Makarov as an elder of the Akimichi clan—one of the co-founders of the Expansion Jutsu…
A man from the era of the First and Madara. One of Konoha's deepest foundations, not to be mobilized unless the world was ending.
Undisputed—beyond the level of "Kage."
If it won the war, Hiruzen would've christened Makarov the founder of the Sarutobi clan and called him "Dad" without blinking.
He chained Makarov to Konoha's cart with all his might.
By Year 51's end, the Kumo war was over.
Kumo opened all missions below S-rank to Konoha again.
Iwagakure, Land of Earth.
Onoki—the only man left from the Hashirama/Madara days, still in his prime in his sixties—read the report and spat, "Utter crap. If Konoha had someone like this, I'd know."
"What trick are Kumo and Konoha playing?"
"I'll see for myself."
Onoki knew how monstrous the First and Madara really were. He feared nothing more than Konoha birthing another power on that level—especially if the new one leaned hard like Madara instead of soft like Hashirama.
He cut a deal with Sunagakure and, in Year 52, challenged Konoha.
Konoha couldn't even savor victory before the next war kicked off.
Makarov didn't want to get involved again. He'd sworn off playing politics.
But Konoha was too weak. In the end, he had to move.
Iwa vs. Konoha—Land of Grass, front line.
Boom—
The moment a fifty-thousand-meter giant strode onto the field, Konoha shinobi burst into cheers.
"Lord Makarov!"
"We've already won!"
"Die, Iwa trash!"
"Fifty thousand meters?!"
Onoki snorted. "Even if you're ten thousand meters tall, a big target is a slow target. I'll reduce you to particles!"
He launched his strongest bloodline technique—Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World.
(He says "particles," the guidebook says "atoms." Let's be generous—small targets to atoms, big targets to particles.)
Boom!!
Makarov's twenty-kilometer-wide heel came down. True to his "strongest below super-Kage" title, Onoki shaved a callus off the giant's heel—a slice a kilometer long and fifty meters thick.
Boom!!
Then he watched the foot land.
From that day on, Iwa behaved. Onoki earned a new nickname: "The Sharpest Nail Clip in the Shinobi World."
As for Suna?
Didn't need Makarov. Hiruzen and a squad of jōnin smacked them into line.
The Five Great Nations went quiet.
Makarov's prestige in Konoha hit its peak. "Hero Makarov," they called him.
A ninety-year-old with a legendary résumé attracts myths like a magnet.
They whispered he'd co-founded Konoha alongside Hashirama and Madara but shunned the spotlight, so his name had been erased.
That he'd shone in the First and Second Great Ninja Wars but gave the credit away because he despised fame.
Rumors churned across the Land of Fire.
Under that tidal wave of prestige—and with Hiruzen and Danzo nudging—the inevitable happened.
At the start of Year 53, Makarov became the Fifth Hokage.
Yes.
Even Danzo let it slide.
The man was over ninety. How long could he live?
Konoha's enemies thought the same. They all waited for him to die of old age.
Except… he didn't. At all.
He got younger.
Year 54—his second year as Hokage—Makarov lit his "three fires." He personally tackled the Hyūga main/branch curse, forcing the clan to abolish it.
"Family shouldn't be divided."
Hiashi didn't dare sneeze. Hizashi led the entire branch family in swearing eternal fealty to Makarov—and to Konoha.
Year 58—his sixth year.
With Danzo fanning the flames in secret, the Uchiha were pushed to rebellion.
Danzo kept pointing at Minato's dying words: the Nine-Tails Night was an Uchiha's doing.
Itachi decided to kill his clan for the village.
Makarov stopped him—and slapped some sense back into him.
As for Fugaku and the hardliners who were ready to revolt?
Makarov "shared his blessings" equally—one resounding slap per head—and the rebellion evaporated.
Hokage's Office.
"You'll regret this, Makarov!"
For the first time in years, Danzo let anger blind him and stormed in.
"Get lost."
"I'm the Hokage."
Before he could slam the door, Makarov slapped him out of the tower and ordered him to have those stolen Sharingan removed immediately.
Investigating further, he uncovered the truth about Shisui's eye and fully intended to pulp Danzo as an example.
He couldn't understand preying on your own people.
Hiruzen blocked him, pleading until Makarov relented.
Danzo got a retirement home.
Step outside it and you die.
Thus ended the Uchiha "massacre" that wasn't.
As a bonus, when Obito snuck back into Konoha with Kamui after the village stubbornly refused to collapse, Makarov caught him and slapped half his body into paste.
He never came back.
Time rolled on—to Year 63.
Makarov had been Hokage eleven years.
On his 102nd birthday, Eden finally arrived in Konoha.
A decade of tempering had pushed the old man to the "Great Shield" tier.
Untouchable below Six Paths; against Six Paths-level foes, he'd burn FAIRY LAW to trade one-for-one.
The entire shinobi world was numb.
Every kage shared the same thought: "That damned Makarov… how is he not dead yet?!"
"…Hah."
Watching the decade play out through Makarov's eyes like an anime binge, Eden had to admit, "That was something."
"Gramps Hokage, I'm back!"
Right on cue, the office door swung open. Just as Minato had wished, Naruto—raised as the hero and hope of the village by the strongest Hokage in history—burst in.
"Eden, look—this kid's Naruto Dreyar, the grandson I took in."
Makarov beamed, introducing a blond boy with frankly regal chakra.
"Heh."
"Fairy Tail's spirit fused with the Will of Fire, huh?"
"Interesting."
"With a Kotoamatsukami like that, you could probably talk anyone into becoming Hokage…"
Eden eyed Naruto, the corners of his mouth twitching.
(End of Chapter)
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