No matter which point in time they traveled to, how many people's fates they changed, or how many regrets they prevented, their actions only altered branches that split off from the main timeline because of their arrival.
Under the guidance of the mission scroll, whether the futures of those parallel worlds became better or worse, they would never affect the main timeline in the slightest.
In this world, Sasuke and the young girl named Sarada before them were the only Uchiha left.
Naruto, Obito, Sasuke, and the others all looked somewhat downcast.
The adult Obito and Madara Uchiha were especially silent.
After all, this outcome had been caused by this world's Madara Uchiha and Obito Uchiha.
Sarada had countless questions about the Uchiha clan and the Sharingan. Now that she had finally met so many people who possessed the Sharingan, including one who looked remarkably like her father, she could hardly contain herself.
"Um..."
Unfortunately, she had barely spoken when a pale hand stopped her.
The arm was slender, long, and strong. The delicate bones of the hand and the nails at its fingertips looked slightly like demonic claws, yet they were not unattractive in the least.
Following the hand, Sarada looked toward the white-haired woman whom she and Boruto had not yet had a chance to pay attention to.
She was beautiful, with long, straight hair that nearly brushed the ground. Her ethereal presence made her resemble a celestial maiden.
Kaguya's sudden gesture not only stopped Sarada from speaking but also drew everyone else's attention toward her.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki raised her head slightly, her furrowed brows fixed on the sky. The veins that appeared when she activated the Byakugan slowly spread across both sides of her face.
Kaguya's tension put everyone else on edge as well.
Following her gaze, they saw what appeared to be a black speck in the sky.
"There's someone standing up there."
With the Sharingan, Sasuke's eyesight was far sharper than Naruto's. He told Naruto and Sakura what he could see.
Kakashi asked Obito beside him, "Who is it? Can you see him clearly?"
Obito Uchiha could make out more detail. The man floating in the sky shared almost all the same distinctive features as Kaguya Ōtsutsuki beside them, Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki and Urashiki Ōtsutsuki from the recordings, and even Six Paths Madara, whom they had seen in the illusion.
Grayish-white skin like porcelain, white clothes, and unusual eyes.
Just then, Shikamaru Nara received a telepathic message from Ino Yamanaka.
["Shikamaru! Naruto! Where are you?!"]
["An extremely powerful, unregistered chakra has appeared above the village."]
["This is different from what Shikamaru investigated earlier! We suspect this one may be an invader!"]
Ino Yamanaka had originally intended to contact only Shikamaru Nara and the Seventh Hokage. However, because the Naruto who had come from the mission scroll world possessed the same chakra wavelength as the Seventh Hokage, he unexpectedly received their internal communication as well.
[Seventh Hokage: "Notify the entire village immediately! Initiate the second and third stages of defense! Evacuate everyone to the designated safe zones! Shikamaru, have you finished dealing with the situation on your end?"]
[Shikamaru Nara: "Sorry. Everything happened too suddenly, so I didn't have time to report it. Compared to the Ōtsutsuki targeting Kawaki, the situation here may be even more troublesome."]
[Seventh Hokage: "What do you mean?! Something even worse than Isshiki Ōtsutsuki?! Have more members of the Ōtsutsuki Clan appeared?! Didn't you say their chakra signatures weren't very strong?!"]
Konoha received plenty of visitors and tourists every day, so unless a newly detected chakra was exceptionally powerful, they did not have the manpower to investigate every single one.
[Shikamaru Nara: "Isshiki Ōtsutsuki is directly above us right now. Have Ino prioritize the evacuation. Naruto, get over here as quickly as possible. There's one..."]
Shikamaru paused midway through his sentence and glanced at Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, Madara Uchiha, and Obito Uchiha across from him.
He forcibly changed "one" to "a group."
["There's also a group of major problems here that you would never expect."]
Ino replied that she had already begun the evacuation.
Only a dozen seconds later, the people from the mission scroll world noticed a change in the surrounding pedestrians.
They froze for three or four seconds before immediately beginning an orderly evacuation. Even the noncombatants made no commotion and hurried toward the shelters beneath Konoha's Hokage Rock.
Konoha shinobi who had received orders were also appearing throughout the area, directing the civilians to safety.
"It's the Yamanaka Clan's secret technique," Tobirama Senju said after recognizing it.
[Ino Yamanaka: "What exactly is going on, Shikamaru? I didn't sense any powerful chakra fluctuations earlier! What is this trouble you're talking about?!"]
Her question was exactly what the Seventh Hokage wanted to ask.
[Shikamaru Nara: "That's because they're suppressing their chakra. Some of their chakra signatures were probably registered a very long time ago as well."]
That answer only confused Ino Yamanaka and the Seventh Hokage further.
[Seventh Hokage: "The villagers are already evacuating. Sasuke and I are heading toward you now. Give us ten seconds."]
[Shikamaru Nara: "All right. That gives you ten seconds to prepare yourselves mentally. I've also notified the Fifth and Sixth Hokage and asked them to return."]
[Ino Yamanaka: "You called Tsunade-sama and Kakashi-sensei back?! Shikamaru, is the situation really that serious?!"]
[Seventh Hokage: "..."]
Currently in Sage Transformation Mode, a combination of Sage Mode and Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, the Seventh Hokage sensed Shikamaru Nara's chakra rushing toward this location at full speed.
Along with Shikamaru, Boruto and the others were also within his sensory range.
Beyond those unexpected presences, he could sense several chakra signatures that felt both familiar and dear to him.
The image of his father, Minato Namikaze, surfaced in his mind, but reason told him that such a thing was impossible.
["Naruto, I can also sense another presence identical to mine."]
The Nine-Tails inside the Seventh Hokage had barely finished speaking when an identical voice entered their communication channel through the Yamanaka Clan's secret technique.
It belonged to the Nine-Tails inside Naruto Uzumaki, who had been listening to the channel the entire time but had not known how to announce his own existence.
["Heh. Try not to be too shocked, other me inside the Seventh Hokage."]
["!!!!"]
Whoosh—!!
Exactly ten seconds later, the Seventh Hokage appeared!
Following close behind him was Sasuke Uchiha, the man known as Konoha's other Hokage!
Meanwhile, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, still floating in the sky, had no idea that Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, who had once nearly killed him by catching him off guard, was directly below.
His Byakugan remained active as he used its penetrating vision to search for Kawaki.
"Isshiki... Ōtsutsuki..."
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, who had remained silent for so long, finally spoke.
"That really is Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, dattebayo!"
The young Naruto Uzumaki and the Seventh Hokage spoke in perfect unison. Even the dattebayo at the end sounded exactly the same.
The Seventh Hokage looked at his younger self, then at the young Sasuke beside him, the Young Sakura, and Kakashi-sensei, who looked almost unchanged from the present.
Finally, he turned toward Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, Obito Uchiha, Madara Uchiha, and Minato Namikaze.
He stood frozen, muttering blankly to himself.
"I really hope I'm still asleep in my bed at home."
Perhaps he was having a wonderful dream in which everyone from the Pure Land was gathered together in peace.
"Running away from reality isn't like you, Naruto."
Minato smiled warmly, accepting the thirty-two-year-old Naruto Uzumaki before him with surprising ease.
"No! Dad! How are all of you here?! Am I dreaming, or did I work myself so hard that I somehow ended up in the Pure Land without noticing?!"
The Seventh Hokage dismissed the golden chakra surrounding his body. Ten seconds had definitely not been enough time to prepare himself for this.
"And Kakashi-sensei, Obito, and all the Hokage old men. Why are you here too...?"
The Seventh Hokage looked just as flustered as he had as a teenager during the Fourth Shinobi World War, utterly bewildered by the situation.
Behind him, Sasuke Uchiha had already prepared himself for battle the moment he saw Obito Uchiha, Madara Uchiha, and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
This truly was the worst possible situation. He and Naruto had already learned from Amado and Kawaki just how terrifying Isshiki Ōtsutsuki was.
Yet now Obito Uchiha, Madara Uchiha, and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, enemies who had nearly destroyed the entire Ninja World during the Fourth Shinobi World War, had all appeared before them at once.
"Don't worry," Minato Namikaze said. "We're all on your side."
He gestured not only toward himself and the other Hokage but also toward Madara Uchiha, Obito Uchiha, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, and several young people whom the Seventh Hokage and Sasuke did not recognize.
Madara Uchiha and the others did not object.
That left adult Sasuke, adult Naruto, and the people of Konoha stunned.
"But right now..." Minato Namikaze looked up at Isshiki Ōtsutsuki in the sky. "We don't have much time to explain our circumstances. Shall we deal with that man first?"
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki.
"Yeah." The Seventh Hokage nodded. "After we defeat him, there's so much I want to tell you, Dad."
About Konoha, the Ninja World, himself, his family, and how to be a father.
"I'll listen to every word."
The young Naruto rubbed his nose, touched by the scene. He realized that his counterpart in this world had not seen his father for fifteen years, ever since the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Still, he had not forgotten that Aunt Kaguya was pregnant and could not participate in the coming battle.
"Aunt Kaguya, a fight's about to break out here. You and young Hamura should find somewhere safe to rest. You can pass any information about Isshiki Ōtsutsuki to me through a Shadow Clone."
With that, the young Naruto created a Shadow Clone and motioned for Hamura Ōtsutsuki to take his mother somewhere safe.
His attentiveness beneath his rough exterior, especially his idea of using a Shadow Clone to relay information, made the Hokage and even Madara Uchiha view him in a new light.
Hamura nodded in thanks. Kaguya knew how powerful Isshiki was, so she looked at the boy who had shown her nothing but kindness and said, "Be careful."
Then she hurried away with her son from the future.
Although the Seventh Hokage still did not understand what was happening, he insisted that the young Naruto and Sasuke, the young Obito and Kakashi, and the two girls, Rin and Sakura, evacuate as quickly as possible.
"Running away won't solve anything. If we really end up in danger, we can escape into Kamui's Dimension."
The young Obito pointed at his eyes. When he revealed his twin Kamui, adult Sasuke and adult Naruto were both stunned for a moment.
By then, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki had grown tired of flying through the sky and searching with his Byakugan.
His time was limited. Such a slow method would not help him find Kawaki quickly enough.
"As I thought, asking for directions will be faster."
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki descended from the sky and landed before the group.
"I'm looking for someone," he asked. "A boy named Kawaki. Do you know where he is?"
His tone was courteous and polite, almost gentlemanly.
That might have been fine...
Had the person he asked not been Madara Uchiha.
He was done for.
***
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