"Cursed Fourth Hokage!"
A cold voice, brimming with chilling malice, sliced through the air, so intense that Minato instinctively took a few steps back.
"My body?"
Minato had previously tried to move but failed to control his own form. Yet now, those glaring crimson eyes—once mere inches from him—seemed slightly more distant.
"Fourth Hokage?"
Confusion stirred within him. He thought back carefully—it was only now that he realized he had just heard this voice for the second time.
Until now, only three people had ever held the title of Hokage in Konoha. Where did this "Fourth Hokage" come from?
"Damn you, Fourth Hokage—Minato Namikaze! You dared split my soul and seal it together with your own? I'll rip you apart piece by piece!"
The voice rang out again. What had once been pitch blackness before Minato's eyes brightened slightly. Before him loomed a monstrous head lined with jagged fangs. In comparison, Minato's figure appeared tiny and insignificant.
"Wait..." A buzzing sound echoed inside Minato's mind. Though unseen, his face undoubtedly wore an expression of shock.
"Fourth Hokage... Minato Namikaze... is that really me!?"
Boom!
As doubt surged within Minato, his consciousness seemed to explode. Buried memories—long sealed deep within—broke free like a tidal wave crashing over him.
Then, one memory after another flashed before his eyes at blinding speed.
Minato stood frozen in disbelief—for in those flickering images was a boy unmistakably himself, with golden-blond hair.
"This is... my memory?" Minato whispered, stunned.
Shattered fragments of recollection reassembled themselves, flooding into his mind one after another.
At first, everything felt familiar. But soon, things grew strange.
The person shown was undeniably him—but the experiences were completely different.
The divergence began on the day Kushina entered the academy.
In these scenes, instead of confronting the boys who had bullied her, the young boy merely watched her from the sidelines, slightly bashful.
That went on for years—until the boy eventually found himself on the battlefield amid the chaos of war.
He was still quite young then, mostly assigned support duties.
One late night, the boy discovered Kushina had vanished. Only then did he reveal his true strength, killing every enemy ninja who had kidnapped her.
Beneath the moonlight, the two shared their first tender moment together.
Scene after scene kept flashing by until finally, both had grown up.
Unfortunately, peace lasted only a few years before war erupted once more.
Konoha found itself in dire straits—it was under simultaneous attack from the four great elemental nations. Such hardship had never before occurred in Konoha's history. The severe shortage of ninja left the Third Hokage constantly struggling to keep things under control.
Yet suddenly, a savior appeared on the battlefield.
The boy grew up, relying on a speed unmatched in the ninja world. Alone, he led Konoha to victory across battlefields of many nations.
His blonde hair and unmatched Body Flicker Technique became a nightmare feared by ninja across the world.
At that time, high-ranking officials from various countries awarded him a title that shook every battlefield—and even the entire Ninja World:
Konoha's Golden Flash!
This flash of light terrified the ninja world so much that opponents fled at the sight of it, refusing to engage in battle.
Because if one were too slow by just a step, their life would be lost in a flash of golden light.
Alone, he turned the tide of war for Konoha, which had previously been at a disadvantage.
Shortly after the war ended, the man was honored with divine robes surpassing his predecessors—becoming The Fourth Hokage!
At last, peace returned to the village—no enemy dared challenge Konoha again.
Good news followed: Kushina became pregnant, and their long-awaited child was about to come into this world.
Yet this peace was shattered on the very night the child was born.
A masked man who seemed to know all his secrets kept The Fourth Hokage constantly on the defensive.
The masked individual released the Nine-Tails sealed within Kushina, unleashing it upon Konoha. The entire village instantly fell into chaos and destruction.
However, as the Fourth Hokage, how could he allow such wanton destruction?
Eventually, he identified the flaw in his opponent's jutsu and defeated him using that incomparable speed.
Even then, his heart remained tied to Konoha. Without wasting time chasing the enemy, he quickly drove them away before returning to the village.
Ultimately, he decided to seal the Nine-Tails inside his newborn son.
Faced with Kushina's tearful pleas, his expression hardened with a solemnity he'd never shown before.
She made him the Fourth Hokage, his wife, and the mother of his child.
And yet, he had failed to protect her.
For Kushina's wish—and for the sake of their child—he willingly chose death, finally unleashing a sealing technique regarded as forbidden.
He sealed himself along with half of the Nine-Tails forever, prepared everything he could for his child—and then died.
Countless fragments reassembled in his mind at that moment, forming a brief yet brilliant and tragic life.
"Ahh!"
Kushina let out a roar, her crimson hair turning bone white in an instant. She couldn't accept the man's death, and finally resonated with the Nine-Tails' chakra that also refused to be sealed.
Even space-time itself... warped under the force of this jutsu.
Thus ended the man's final memory.
Minato momentarily couldn't process the overwhelming information, his expression frozen.
Right now, he was deep within his consciousness, still feeling tears welling up around his eyes.
There was no sense of time within the mind—one moment could flash by, while another stretched into eternity. No one knew how long had passed.
At some point, he raised his head, once again looking toward those crimson vertical pupils not far ahead.
But panic and anxiety no longer existed in his eyes, replaced instead by calmness—a readiness to handle any adversity with composure.
"So... I've really gone back in time?"
Minato muttered, even to him, this was something unfathomable and hard to believe.
But the memories from just now were no illusion—they had truly existed.
"Nine-Tails..."
What's more, the beast standing before him was proof enough. Long ago, he had cast the [Dead Demon Consuming Seal], binding his soul together with this creature.
Therefore, it too had been brought back.
And he could feel it—deep within his consciousness, there had once been another will intertwined with his own.
Only, the damage he had suffered was far too great. He could no longer sustain an independent existence, so that foreign consciousness had fused with his own.
Since both originally came from the same source, there was absolutely no sense of rejection.
That... was none other than his future self...
...
...
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