The Konoha ninjas suddenly had no idea what to do with their hands!
The person they had just held at knifepoint with kunai was the previous incarnation of First Hokage-sama and Seventh Hokage-sama?!!!
They had truly failed to recognize one of their own!
More importantly...
"Excuse me, but this older brother you mentioned..."
"Oh, my older brother Indra's chakra reincarnations are Madara Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha."
Ashura explained it to them seriously.
"But my brother doesn't seem to get along particularly well with Madara and Sasuke. I was actually looking forward to seeing him get along really well with his own chakra reincarnations. I get along great with Hashirama and Naruto, for example. Hahahahaha..."
That hearty laugh and sunny personality were exactly like Seventh Hokage-sama's. There was no mistaking it!!!
But if anything, his explanation only made the Konoha ninjas even more terrified!
No wonder this guy had kept saying that his brother would definitely get angry if he saw them holding kunai against his neck!!
Think of Madara Uchiha.
Then think of Sasuke Uchiha...
Holy crap!!!
Had they accidentally offended someone they absolutely should not have?!
Sixth Hokage Kakashi asked, "So besides you and your brother, Madara Uchiha and the First Hokage are here too? Where are they now?"
"Yeah. Besides my brother and me, there's Madara and Hashirama, Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura, Izuna and Tobirama, Uncle Hamura and Grandma Kaguya, Obito and the you from another world, plus Minato and his students. In other words, you, Obito, and Rin when you were younger."
Ashura rattled off the entire list of people who had come this time in one breath.
The Sixth Hokage and the other Konoha ninjas nearly suffered a complete mental shutdown!
Did this entire group come here to raid a dungeon together?!!!
Sixth Hokage Kakashi did everything he could to calm himself and force his mind, which already felt like a set of rusty gears, to keep turning.
"Then where are they now?"
"In Obito's Kamui's Dimension. The Naruto from this world, the Seventh Hokage, said we couldn't damage Konoha's buildings, so the Obito who came with us took Isshiki Ōtsutsuki and everyone else into the space created by his Mangekyō Sharingan Dōjutsu."
At the mention of that, Ashura immediately looked dejected.
"But my brother has forbidden me from joining the battle, so I got thrown back out again."
Sixth Hokage Kakashi fell silent.
He honestly had no idea what to make of that.
"But the younger Naruto and Obito should still be outside with the kids from this world. They had already left by the time I was sent out, though. Grown-up Shikamaru is with them, so there probably isn't anything to worry about."
Sixth Hokage Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief.
Shikamaru was still reliable.
But if Boruto and Naruto were involved...
"Let's check Ramen Ichiraku and Lightning Burger."
At least when it came to this, father and son were surprisingly easy to read.
The shelter was some distance from both restaurants, but at their speed, getting there would take ten or fifteen minutes at most.
They checked Ramen Ichiraku first.
No one was there.
But when they reached Raiburger, sure enough, they found the group of more than a dozen kids.
...
The only adult among them, Shikamaru Nara, was sitting by the window smoking.
When Sixth Hokage Kakashi saw the thirteen-year-old Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, he felt as though he had suddenly returned to the days when he had first taken charge of those three problem children.
But then he saw Young Obito, Young Kakashi, and Rin.
Those memories were already decades old, yet not one of them had faded.
"Rin?!"
The moment Sixth Hokage Kakashi spoke, Naruto spotted him and immediately greeted both him and Ashura behind him.
"Kakashi-sensei! Ashura-san!"
"Kakashi," Sasuke greeted him.
Sakura noticed that both of his eyes had ordinary black pupils and guessed, "Is that Kakashi-sensei from this parallel world?"
As soon as she said that, the Genin around her called out one after another.
"Sixth Hokage-sama!"
Only one voice sounded distinctly out of place.
"Grandpa Kakashi!"
There was no need to ask who it was.
Naturally, that voice belonged to Boruto Uzumaki.
Young Obito had experienced Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki's life all the way through the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War, so the moment he saw the Kakashi standing before him, his heart softened.
For some reason, he felt that this world's "Obito Uchiha" had owed Kakashi far too much.
Young Kakashi and Rin beside him greeted Sixth Hokage Kakashi naturally.
But Sixth Hokage Kakashi could not possibly remain as calm as they were.
Behind his mask, he took several deep breaths before finally walking over. He forced himself to smile as best he could and greeted the three people before him.
That expression made both Obito and Rin's hearts ache.
Naruto noticed it too. He took the others over to talk with Ashura-san, leaving this era's Kakashi-sensei alone with Obito, Rin, and the younger Kakashi-sensei.
"Hey, Ashura-san, how come you're the only one who came back? Where's everyone else?"
Ashura immediately became as dejected as Hashirama Senju and recounted what had happened to him.
Naruto slapped the table and burst out laughing, thinking Indra was making far too big a deal out of it.
"I never would've guessed Sasuke and Madara-san's ancestor would have that kind of personality! After Ashura-san was accidentally killed by Kaguya from another parallel world last time, it really scared Indra, dattebayo!"
"I guess once you've been bitten by a snake, you're afraid of ropes for ten years, dattebayo!"
The corner of Sasuke Uchiha's mouth twitched, his face full of disdain for Indra's needless worrying.
Sakura looked at Sasuke, then at Naruto, lost in thought.
When Naruto asked what was wrong, Sakura merely shook her head.
She did not dare say it aloud.
For just a moment, an unsettling thought had crossed her mind.
Minato-sama had previously said that beyond the main timeline were countless parallel worlds, including all kinds of derivative worlds that none of them could ever imagine.
Then could there be a parallel world where Naruto died?
If so, what would Sasuke-kun do?
She could not be certain, but her intuition told her not to ask and not to think too deeply about it.
If the Sun of Konoha ever fell, it would surely be a world plunged so deeply into despair that none of them could see even the slightest glimmer of hope.
By her estimate, the others had already been inside for three hours.
There was no telling whether the battle had ended. Not a single piece of news had come back.
Shikamaru Nara was growing increasingly restless.
They could not keep all of Konoha waiting inside the shelters forever.
...
In reality, inside Kamui's Dimension, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki had long since run out of options.
With the information Kaguya had provided, and with so many Rinnegan and Mangekyō Sharingan arrayed against him, there was truly nothing he could do.
His strength was already exhausted. His remaining vitality would only sustain him for another dozen or so hours, and while trapped in this space, he could not transmit any information to the outside world.
Everywhere he looked, all he saw was despair.
No matter how hysterically he raged, it changed nothing.
The "inferior beings" he had spoken of were defeating him again and again, forcing him to understand that before absolute strength and strategy...
No!
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki raised his head.
He saw Madara Uchiha's wild grin, with Hashirama Senju standing excitedly beside him.
Izuna Uchiha and Tobirama Senju stood shoulder to shoulder like conductors leading a symphony of war, controlling the rhythm of the entire battlefield.
It almost felt as though all they were missing was a declaration of, "Gentlemen, I love war!"
The Seventh Hokage and Sasuke Uchiha were even more incomprehensible to him.
He did not know how else to describe it.
The two of them were like diamonds buried beneath layers of dust. With every perfectly coordinated clash, their souls struck against the seal covering them, as though cracks might appear in that dull, dusty shell at any moment!
"Why...?"
"We Ōtsutsuki are supposed to be the strongest race! The only beings truly capable of becoming gods!!"
"And you inferior humans don't even qualify to serve us! You're nothing more than an insignificant fraction of the nutrients required by the God Tree!!"
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki screamed hysterically.
Sasuke Uchiha said, "It's precisely because you aren't strong enough that you'll never understand just how united humans can become when faced with a crisis."
Everyone from the mission scroll world turned to look at him.
None of them had expected Sasuke Uchiha to be the one to say something like that.
Even Madara Uchiha wondered if the kid had been infected by Naruto.
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki's eyes suddenly widened.
Sasuke Uchiha's words had made him realize something.
The overwhelming strength these people possessed, their ninjutsu, and even their strategies were not the true keys to their victory.
The reason these humans could defeat the Ōtsutsuki Clan, the race closest to becoming gods, again and again was...
The bonds between humans!
Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki said, "Because there are things behind us that we have to protect, we can't retreat even half a step, no matter what."
A dream they would never abandon until death!
Kannabi Bridge Minato froze.
Those words were far too familiar!
They were the very words he had once spoken to the A-B Combo of Kumogakure when he fought them!
"Snap!"
Outside Kamui's Dimension, Boruto Uzumaki, who was sitting inside Lightning Burger, seemed to hear something.
He looked around, but there was nothing there.
Inside Kamui's Dimension, however, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki seemed to see it.
The souls of Sasuke Uchiha and Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki had finally broken through the dusty seal that had covered them!
Minato Namikaze seemed to notice something as well.
Above Seventh Hokage Naruto's head, a faint bar-like object seemed to have appeared.
At the same time, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, who had been hiding within the Beginning Dimension with her future son beside her, finally finished gathering the power she had been accumulating for so long.
A tiny slit opened on her forehead, revealing a deep crimson light like a gemstone.
She frowned.
With two lives growing inside her, she had only one chance.
She raised her hand.
Something gray and sharp began to emerge from the center of her palm.
A bone spike slowly pushed its way out, growing to a length of thirty or forty centimeters.
It was the All-Killing Ash Bones!!
"Yomotsu... Hirasaka..."
The bone spike sank into the black boundary of space, left the Beginning Dimension, and appeared in Konoha!
"Kamui!!!"
Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi stood side by side.
Their twin Kamui locked onto the All-Killing Ash Bones with incredible speed. Space twisted violently around it, transferring the bone spike into the Kamui's Dimension where they currently stood!
The instant the All-Killing Ash Bones appeared inside the space, it was directly behind Isshiki Ōtsutsuki!
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki sensed the fatal danger as well and tried to dodge.
He was certain he could avoid it!
With a flash, he disappeared!
Just as he expected, he dodged the All-Killing Ash Bones!!
But in the next instant, he found himself standing exactly where he had been a moment earlier!!
It was Tobirama Senju's Flying Thunder God Technique.
Isshiki's entire body was covered in Flying Thunder God marks left by Tobirama Senju and Minato Namikaze!!
"You bastards!!!"
But it did not matter!
He still had Sukunahikona!
As long as he shrank his body to the size of an ant!!
"Naive."
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