Swish...
Clang!
Faint footsteps and the rattling of a wooden cart echoed across the sandy ground. The Konoha group, disguised as traveling merchants, moved in near silence, creating an unusually quiet and tense mood.
At the back of the cart, a boy leaned toward a girl. Although her appearance now seemed quite ordinary, her eyes remained strikingly beautiful—black and glistening like polished gemstones.
The girl disguised as an ordinary woman was, in fact, Mikoto.
Due to the family members their mission required them to impersonate, Mikoto had joined the team based on their original formation.
Mikoto glanced toward the front of the cart where two people intentionally kept some distance from the others—the two men in their thirties and their "daughter." With a puzzled look, she turned and whispered a question to the young boy beside her.
"What's wrong with those two? They seem like they're deliberately keeping apart."
The boy, of course none other than Minato in disguise, let out a soft chuckle.
"Of course they are," Minato replied. "After all, their identities are our parents... a married couple for over a decade."
"They both lack experience in this department, so they seem awkward."
Minato couldn't help but sigh inwardly; it seemed fate had already linked Sakumo Hatake and Junko Watanabe together.
Within his Jonin squad served none other than Kakashi Hatake — the child prodigy who would become their son.
Actually, if things had followed the usual timeline, Junko should have already been pregnant with Kakashi at this point. But due to certain reasons, their relationship had developed more slowly.
And this mission was the perfect chance to help them grow closer.
Minato certainly wasn't willing to lose such an outstanding student in the future.
"Oh, I see," Mikoto said, then smiled as she looked at Minato. "So that means you and Kushina are much better off in this aspect than Lord Sakumo and Senior Junko."
"Cough, cough," Minato was caught off guard by Mikoto's words, causing him to cough lightly.
A twitch appeared at the corner of his mouth, but he soon returned her gaze with a slight smile of his own.
Mikoto probably didn't realize it yet — in just six or seven years, she would marry Fugaku Uchiha, the future head of the Uchiha clan. And before long, they'd welcome their first child.
As for Minato and Kushina's child, he would be born several months after the Uchiha couple's second son.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Isn't what I said true?" Mikoto didn't understand the meaning behind Minato's smile.
Minato quickly wiped the smile from his face, crossed his arms behind his head, and said, "Nothing..."
...
The cart moved extremely slowly—nowhere near the speed of ninja travel. Therefore, just getting out of the desert had taken Minato's group three days. Then, according to the map, they continued toward Sunagakure.
Three more days passed like this.
...
[Sky Crack] (a narrow mountain pass where only a thin line of sky can be seen)
This was Sunagakure's final line of defense—the most formidable barrier imaginable. The terrain lived up to its name, with towering hundred-meter-high cliffs on both sides and a narrow passage in the middle no more than ten meters wide.
Such natural fortification was practically impregnable and easily defended. Moreover, Suna had stationed heavy guards here. Anyone wishing to attack Sunagakure would first have to overcome this imposing wall standing before the village.
Unless… you could fly.
Minato and his group finally arrived at Sky Crack. Taking in the perilous landscape and spotting hidden Suna scouts atop both cliffs, Minato narrowed his eyes instinctively.
This naturally formed barrier might prove even harder to breach than Konoha's physical barriers.
Shwa!
As Minato's party approached Sky Crack, a Suna ninja dropped down from the rock face ahead.
The six of them couldn't hide their surprise.
"Woah! So that's a ninja—how cool!"
Mikoto exclaimed dramatically, pretending she had just seen something incredibly amazing.
They played their roles well, pretending to be a family from a remote village in the Land of Wind. Hanyu Yamanaka had read the memories of the real family they were impersonating and found that they had never seen a ninja before.
Naturally, the typical person's reaction upon seeing a ninja should be exactly like this.
At her words, the Suna ninja didn't even blink. He merely gave their goods a cursory inspection before allowing them through and returning to his post.
Sakumo and the others continued forward with the carriage. At the very surface of Sky Crack, there were at least dozens of Suna ninjas guarding the area, many of whom occupied positions impossible for ordinary people to reach.
"How did he stand sideways on the cliff like that?"
"And why is he carrying such a big black windmill?"
Mikoto curiously looked around, acting like an endlessly curious child, pretending it was really her first time seeing a ninja—even calling the Fuma Shuriken a black windmill.
A member of the Uchiha clan like herself should've seen more kinds of shuriken than most Suna Jonin...
"Brother, ninjas are so cool! We'll become ninjas too someday, right?" She ran up beside Minato, taking his arm affectionately and acting all sweet and girlish.
"Lian, stop fooling around or the ninja will get angry."
Watanabe Junko, disguised as a woman in her thirties, turned around from the front of the cart and scolded Mikoto sternly, perfectly embodying a strict mother.
Seeing how they acted, Sakumo, Minato, and the others barely managed to suppress their laughter.
These two women—so different in age—got into character faster than anyone could've imagined…
Thanks to all that, they got through Sky Crack smoothly. It wasn't just due to Hatake Sakumo's masterful disguise; more importantly, thanks to the Hyuga Clan's Pressure Point Strike and Sealing Techniques, none of their chakra fluctuations could be detected by Sky Crack's sensor-nin at all.
For a ninja—even one as strong as Sakumo—losing chakra could be an extremely dangerous matter.
Yet compared to a mission like infiltrating Sunagakure—one already full of danger—it was considered nothing in comparison.
Beyond the Sky Crack lay a stretch of land—just the right length to feel tedious but not unbearable—leading up to Sunagakure.
As they moved ahead slowly, the outline of Sunagakure—the Five Great Hidden Villages' peer to Konoha—came into view.
During a previous life in a time of peace, Minato had also visited Sunagakure several times while carrying out high-level classified missions.
But among them, aside from Sakumo Hatake, even Yamanaka Hanyu and Hyuga Kubei—who were both Jonin—had never set foot in another Hidden Village before.
After half an hour's journey, the group finally arrived at their destination.
They stood before the main entrance to Sunagakure.
...
...
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