There is great terror between life and death.
The first person to truly see through this terror was Orochimaru. The reason he so relentlessly pursued eternal life was that he had seen too much life and death on the battlefield and realized that if a person could not live forever, life was completely meaningless. So, his gaze jumped beyond everything else. Konoha, the title of Hokage—he didn't care about any of it. In his eyes, the so-called position of Hokage was nothing more than a flower that bloomed for a brief moment.
Now, it was Minato Namikaze's turn to ponder this question. The joy he once felt slitting others' throats was now matched by his own turmoil.
The Nine-Tails within the little blondie confirmed he was a jinchuriki.
Then the little blondie had introduced himself as Uzumaki Naruto.
Uzumaki… Uzumaki Kushina…
That meant Kushina had died for the Nine-Tails to be transferred to a new jinchuriki.
And Naruto was the name of the protagonist in his sensei Jiraiya's novel. Not long ago, he had even told Kushina that if they had a son in the future, they should name him that.
From all the intelligence he had gathered, there was a ninety percent chance that what the other Uchiha had said was true. He and Kushina would die on a certain day in the future.
At this thought, Minato's mind began to race. What kind of enemy could be so powerful that the entire village of Konoha would be no match, and he himself would die in battle?
"Minato, don't overthink it. Konoha belongs to everyone. If there's a problem, we'll face it together," Choza said, patting Minato's shoulder comfortingly.
"Mm." Minato smiled, a warmth spreading through his heart. That's right. He still had all his friends and family. If an enemy appeared, they would all face them together.
Meanwhile, the little blondie, Naruto, who was protecting Sara, had put his talk-no-jutsu to good use, making the heroine of Roran trust him again.
"I swear on my ninja way! I will definitely protect the Land of Roran with you! I won't let that Mukade guy destroy it, and that includes destroying the Ryumyaku!" Naruto declared, pounding his chest.
"Then what if that Konoha squad wants to destroy the Ryumyaku?" Sara asked a sharp question.
"Then they'll have to get through me first! I'll protect the Land of Roran with you. I won't let them destroy the Ryumyaku!" Naruto blurted out without a second thought, his conviction unwavering.
Sara stared blankly at this little blondie, who was brimming with positive energy. If a person's body had a magnetic field, then his was surely one of positive energy, making one feel incredibly warm and sunny.
"Mm, thank you. I believe you, Naruto," Sara said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, moved.
"Ah, don't mention it! It's our fault for bringing you trouble. If we had caught Mukade sooner, he wouldn't have come to the Land of Roran to cause all this chaos…" Naruto scratched his head, embarrassed.
During the day, after hearing Uchiha Nagi's words, Sara had been terrified. She couldn't imagine the Land of Roran, the place where she was born and raised, turning into a desert. But she had firmly remembered what he said about Konoha wanting to destroy the Ryumyaku to destroy Roran.
After running away, she had been accosted by a group of masked people. Naruto, who had followed close behind, had protected her. After some questioning, it turned out to be a misunderstanding. These people were all civilians of Roran. They were the old, the weak, women, and children. The men and youths of their families had all been captured, so they had formed a group to try and rescue them. They never expected the royal palace of Roran to be so lightly guarded; they had mixed in with ease.
It was only then that Sara slowly began to believe what they said. The guards of Roran, and the few ninja they had, had been secretly murdered by Mukade long ago. They had probably even been turned into puppets. And her own mother had likely been secretly killed by him as well.
At this thought, Sara gritted her teeth in hatred.
"That Mukade… he came to the Land of Roran six years ago. My mother saw he was capable and made him a minister to help manage the country. I never thought he harbored such wolfish ambitions. Oh, right, his name here is Anrokuzan," Sara said.
"I see. So even though he was sucked into the time tunnel with us, he arrived here six years earlier than we did," Naruto realized.
"If only Captain Yamato were here. I can't figure this stuff out at all. I'm just a slacker when it comes to studying." Naruto grabbed his blond hair in frustration. He was fine with fighting, but thinking about things like space and time was harder for him than taking the Chunin Exams.
"Yooshi! Naruto, there you are!"
A ninja with large eyes and a square face jumped in with a smile. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
"Ah, Captain Yamato, that's great! I thought you were lost!" Naruto said happily, running up to him.
"Haha, how could I get lost? I was just checking out the surrounding intelligence," Yamato said, scratching his head. "By the way, we've come to the Roran of over ten years ago, you know that, right? I've already confirmed that Mukade has changed his name to Anrokuzan and is now this country's minister. And that guy went from being a skinny guy to a fat one. The food here must be good."
At this point, Yamato leaned in and whispered mysteriously to Naruto, "Guess who I ran into while I was investigating?"
"Who?"
"Hehe, your Kakashi-sensei. A Kakashi as small as you."
"Ah, a little Kakashi-sensei?!"
Kakashi, of course, didn't know Yamato, but Yamato knew Kakashi. The moment they met, they knew from their headbands that they were from the same village. This was a common weakness in the ninja world; few people would go out of their way to impersonate ninja from other countries. Unfortunately, Uchiha Nagi was not among them.
Yamato felt a great sense of familiarity with the chibi version of Kakashi and chatted with him for a while before returning to find Naruto.
"I see. So you've met quite a few people. A blond-haired guy who can teleport? And an Uchiha with the Sharingan…" Yamato scratched his head, unable to figure out who they were. Oh well, I'll find out tomorrow. Anyway, our target should be the same: Mukade.
The next morning, as the birds were just waking up to look for worms, the civilians of Roran, who usually rose with the sun and rested with its setting, were scarce on the streets. The constant disappearance of familiar faces had made the people uneasy lately, and they rarely went out. The festival had been a rare occasion when the most people were out and about.
Sara, trapped in her ivory tower, would probably have remained oblivious to all this if not for the arrival of Naruto's group, living day and night with a bunch of puppets.
This made one worry about Mukade's intelligence. You killed the queen, so why not kill the princess too and turn her into a puppet? That way, no one could ever sever the Ryumyaku. But Mukade didn't do that. Half the people in Roran had been turned into puppets by him, yet he had specifically left Sara, the one person who could destroy the Ryumyaku. It could only be called plot armor. Otherwise, Mukade could have comfortably ruled Roran as a mountain king. Anyone who came to fight him would have to consider whether they could outlast his infinite chakra and puppet army.
At that moment, Sara, in disguise, was walking down the street with Naruto. She saw that at the grand ceremony outside, another "Sara" had appeared. It was a puppet made by Mukade. Since the real one had been rescued by Naruto, Mukade had to put a fake one up there.
Naruto seemed to have noticed something. He leaped onto the heads of a few people and, with a chakra blade, slashed at the empty air a few times. Several civilians immediately collapsed, the disguises on their faces cracking. They were all puppets.
"How could this be… They… they're all puppets," Sara said in shock.
"That bastard! I won't forgive him!" Naruto said angrily.
"Come on, let's sneak into the factory."
In the factory, there were large numbers of puppets under construction, and, more importantly, their target: the Ryumyaku. The Ryumyaku could be temporarily severed, but it could also be reconnected. If Minato Namikaze hadn't sealed the Ryumyaku, Sara could have just reconnected it, and Roran wouldn't have turned into a desert.
But at this point, Sara hadn't decided whether to sever the Ryumyaku. Naruto, on the other hand, comforted her, saying that one Mukade was nothing; he would defeat him.
The group entered the palace to rescue the captured civilians. With Sara, who was familiar with the layout, leading the way, they were able to sneak directly into the palace by taking a roundabout route.
But they didn't expect that just as they walked into the palace, a voice would come from above.
"Heh heh, Sara, I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Just as the voice finished, a giant puppet descended from the sky, landing in front of them.
"It's you, Anrokuzan! No, Mukade! You shameless bastard! My mother took you in with kindness, yet you murdered her!" Sara's eyes were red with rage.
The giant puppet laughed. "She was just stupid. The power of the Ryumyaku is so great, so wonderful! To use it just to nourish the land is such a waste. It would be much better given to me. Look at me now! Not only am I powerful, but I'm also immortal and indestructible."
"You bastard! I won't let you get away with this! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto, right from the start, used his signature technique, the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Hundreds of shadow clones instantly charged at the giant puppet, some with their fists, some with kunai.
Mukade waved his hand casually, and with each swing, dozens of clones vanished in a puff of smoke. But this was just Naruto's smokescreen.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
Naruto used his trump card, the windmill Rasengan that had killed Kakuzu. Its special property was that it incorporated multiple nature transformations, so anyone hit by it wouldn't just be cut in half, but would be destroyed from every cell in their body. When Kakuzu was dissected in Konoha, the doctors found that his body was completely worthless for research because every single one of his cells had been damaged. This showed just how terrifying the windmill Rasenshuriken was.
However, when this incredibly powerful Wind Style: Rasenshuriken hit Mukade, he simply opened his large mouth and swallowed it whole.
"He… he swallowed it? That guy swallowed my Rasenshuriken?!" Naruto was beyond baffled. His strongest trump card, a jutsu that not even Kakuzu could withstand, was just swallowed in one gulp?
Just as a chakra cannon from Mukade was about to hit Naruto, a golden flash leaped past, whisking Naruto away from the spot.
The tall blondie, Minato Namikaze, smiled at Naruto. "Against him, ordinary moves probably won't work."
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"