"So in your world… there's no such person as Kaguya Ren. Is that right, Kakashi?"
"There is," Hatake Kakashi said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. "But the Kaguya Ren on our side seems to have died young—because of a bloodline illness."
Hearing that, Jiraiya closed his eyes and let out a long, heavy breath.
"I see…"
So that was it.
The "possibility" that could clarify and anchor fate and the future… was something like this.
Erase the variable that created the divergence. Bury the changes and differences that person brought along with him in the depths of history. Then the future, under the constriction of destiny, would converge back onto the proven road that led to peace…
Other than the small problem of not knowing how to kill a Kaguya Ren who had already grown into a monster, it really was the perfect option for giving up—lying flat, letting the current carry you.
But Jiraiya wasn't the kind of man who could truly lie flat.
Even if this plan came from the Great Toad Sage—whose prophecies could see the future—and even if the very existence of a middle-aged Hatake Kakashi proved it could work… he still couldn't stop himself from trusting and hoping in his two disciples.
What if Nagato could draw out the full power of the Rinnegan… break free of the mental trap Kaguya Ren had laid for him… and bring peace and change to the shinobi world with his own will and dream?
What if Minato, after becoming Hokage, could take another step forward—master senjutsu more deeply, and the forbidden techniques passed down within Konoha—growing to the point where he could stand against Kaguya Ren?
What if Kaguya Ren's overwhelming ambition forced every nation in the shinobi world into an alliance under pressure… and they finally, truly, fought as one?
Maybe those outcomes weren't likely.
But they were real possibilities rooted in this era—proof of generations of effort and accumulation—power that could genuinely change the world.
Compared to borrowing a strength he didn't understand from the future, Jiraiya would rather believe in the possibilities of the people living and struggling in the present.
And even if Konoha lost in the end—if Kaguya Ren and Kirigakure ruled the world—then that would be the result after the people of this era fought their fight. Outmatched, they'd accept defeat. No lingering paradoxes. No debts the future couldn't pay.
So when Jiraiya opened his eyes again, he gave an answer that made Kakashi visibly loosen his shoulders.
"What a waste of excitement. I really thought that brat Minato, once he became the Fourth Hokage, might surpass Kaguya Ren across the board…"
"I can't answer that," Kakashi said, wiping the sweat from his temple, his gaze holding a hint of gratitude as it settled on Jiraiya. "But honestly, before you spoke, I was wrestling pretty hard with whether I should agree to your request."
"The will of the unyielding is what the predecessors should leave behind," Jiraiya said, stepping forward and patting Kakashi's shoulder. He flashed him a reassuring smile. "You can't go asking the next generation to solve the problems you're supposed to face in your own time. If I did that… I wouldn't have the face to meet the people who once sheltered us from wind and rain."
Hyuga Hanabi looked at the two middle-aged men—both wearing expressions that said everything without saying it—and timidly raised her hand.
"Um… Sixth Hokage-sama, and Jiraiya-sama…"
"Hm? Hanabi, you have something to say?" Kakashi turned back, puzzled.
"Sixth Hokage?!" Jiraiya's face lit up. He clapped Kakashi's shoulder with the kind of joy only a teacher could feel toward a student's student. But almost immediately, his expression sank—because of what that title implied.
Minato was twenty-three this year. Kakashi was thirteen. If Minato became the Fourth Hokage as he should, then the prodigiously talented, perfectly aged Kakashi would be one of the obvious candidates for Fifth.
Even if Minato held the seat for thirty years like Hiruzen Sarutobi and only then passed it to the next generation, Kakashi would be in his early forties—still at the peak of a shinobi's prime. There was no world where Minato would ignore an exceptional disciple like Kakashi and hand the hat to someone else.
Unless… Minato met with an accident. Unless he died before Kakashi had grown enough to command the village.
And when Jiraiya connected that with the earlier mention of the Uchiha clan being wiped out for no apparent reason, an ominous premonition surged up from the pit of his stomach.
Even without Kaguya Ren… would Minato still die in the near future?
Watching Jiraiya's face switch through delight, shock, grief, and dread like a mask changing mid-performance, Hanabi hesitated—then forced herself to speak.
"Sixth Hokage-sama… does that mean you won't provide any help at all to Jiraiya-sama and the others?"
"Hm?" Kakashi lifted a brow, genuinely surprised. "Wasn't it you who panicked and ran around confirming everything because you were afraid you might change history? Why are you the one insisting on changing something now?"
"B-because…" Hanabi lowered her head, eyes drifting to the patterned fabric over her chest, her voice small. "You said this world is only… sort of like ours. And it won't affect our future."
"If changing the past won't impact the future we came from… then giving them some information—helping them avoid tragedies we can already foresee—should be allowed, right?"
When Hanabi said that, what flashed through her mind was her cousin, Hyuga Neji—dying so meaninglessly in the Fourth Shinobi War.
But for Kakashi, with a lifetime of blood and funerals behind him… the tragedies he could recall, the ones he could want to change, were far too many.
Uchiha Obito, gradually pushed into extremism under Uchiha Madara's guidance until he finally crossed the point of no return.
Minato and Kushina, dead in the Nine-Tails incident.
The Uchiha clan, their relationship with the village worsening after that night until they were annihilated.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—spared Orochimaru out of softness, and eventually killed by him.
Jiraiya himself, infiltrating the Hidden Rain alone for intelligence on Pain… and dying for it.
So much sacrifice. So much tragedy on the road to the era he knew.
And in a sense, it was precisely those tragedies that forged Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke into the miracle boys who could seal the Rabbit Goddess again.
If those sacrifices changed… would anyone still stand up to stop the Infinite Tsukuyomi? And the Otsutsuki enemies that followed?
Kakashi didn't know.
And he didn't want to gamble.
Even if this was a past that wouldn't affect his own world—an already diverged, "similar-but-not-quite" timeline—he still didn't want a moment of impulse to rob this world of its chance to resist the Otsutsuki.
"But carrying the will of fallen comrades and continuing forward… that's the fate of shinobi in the first place, young lady of the Hyuga," Jiraiya said, stepping in when he saw Kakashi hesitate. His tone was brighter, but his eyes were steady. "Whether it's shinobi or villages, they only truly mature after pain and reflection. If we keep relying on information from the next generation to fix the present… we'll become dependent on you. We'll grow lax."
"And if some change appears that even you don't know about, we'll be caught completely off guard. The losses could be worse than the tragedies you think you've prevented."
"I appreciate the kindness," Jiraiya continued, "but what you've already revealed is more than enough. If you keep talking… I might have to seal away all of today's memories myself."
Kakashi joined in, offering an example that left Hanabi with no clear rebuttal.
"Speaking of knowing the future and sealing memories… when I was still a chūnin, I once followed the Fourth on a confidential mission to the Land of Lōran—back when it still existed. I remember the mission was completed, but I can't recall the process at all."
"Afterward, I heard from the locals that beneath Lōran slept a force called the Dragon Vein. They said that if someone could control it, they could do anything—even time travel. I think… that's why the Fourth sealed the details from all of us."
After being lectured by two veteran shinobi back-to-back, Hanabi couldn't even tell whether her impulse was right or wrong anymore. Hugging the turtle-shaped treasure tightly to her chest, she muttered, sullen—
"But I still feel like… if we don't try to change something… then this whole opportunity to cross time is wasted."
"I agree. Doing something is always better than doing nothing."
"…Huh?"
A voice—strange, yet somehow familiar—spoke in agreement from behind Hanabi.
But Hanabi didn't feel happy at all.
Because its owner radiated a terrifying pressure that made her body lock up—while his hand reached past her guard and calmly took the turtle-shaped Otsutsuki treasure from her arms.
"I'll hold onto this for now," Kaguya Ren said, tone mild, almost courteous. "Wouldn't want you to feel too unburdened and slip back to your era using some method I don't understand, halfway through our conversation."
With a flick of his wrist, he shoved Karasuki—Kāru… no, the turtle-shaped treasure—into the mouth of a summoned giant serpent. Then he dismissed it back to Ryūchi Cave.
Only then did he look at Hanabi, Kakashi, and Jiraiya—faces gone pale—and smile, warm as sunlight.
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