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"Hey, don't get careless! That guy Urashiki is terrifyingly strong! Sasuke-san, let's go together… Sasuke-san?!"
Madara and Qianyu were treating the situation far too lightly. Boruto, watching from the side, couldn't help but shout a warning. But before he could finish, Sasuke scooped him up and moved him away from the battlefield.
"Boruto. He doesn't need our help."
Sasuke spoke, his expression complicated as he looked at Madara Uchiha's retreating back.
"What are you saying, Sasuke-san? The enemy is an Ōtsutsuki!"
"…"
Faced with Boruto's disbelief, Sasuke didn't elaborate. This brat who hadn't lived through the Fourth Great Ninja War simply couldn't comprehend the sheer oppressive force that was Madara Uchiha.
"Time Freeze!"
At that moment, Urashiki—who had been motionless—suddenly moved. Concealed by his white robe, a small black box materialized in his hand. He slammed it into the ground between Madara and Qianyu.
Fizz! Fizz! Fizz!
A torrent of white mist erupted from the box, spreading like a colossal net to envelop both men.
This was the Ōtsutsuki clan's special ability, capable of freezing an opponent in time. In the original timeline, Urashiki had used this very technique to trap Ōtsutsuki Toneri on the moon.
"Yomotsu Hirasaka!"
Immediately after deploying the Time Freeze, Urashiki hastily opened a dark, swirling portal in space-time. His plan was to make a clean getaway.
"Not a bad attempt. If it were just Madara here, you might have actually pulled it off."
But then, Qianyu's amused voice drifted through the dissipating mist.
The black portal flickered—as if jammed by some unseen interference—and snapped shut. Urashiki's heart sank.
He'd anticipated that Time Freeze might not work on Qianyu. But he never imagined it wouldn't even buy him a single moment. This rendered his planned Time Reversal utterly pointless.
"Hmph! I told you not to interfere!"
Madara Uchiha snorted coldly, striding out from the opposite side of the mist. Feeling his pride had been wounded, he glared daggers at Urashiki, charging forward with the clear intent of venting his frustration directly on the alien's face.
"With a mouth that hard, it's a real shame you never learned Talk-no-Jutsu."
Qianyu shook his head, too lazy to bother with Madara's tantrum. What adult would get genuinely angry at a child's antics?
He raised a hand, erecting a barrier dome to contain the upcoming fight and protect the nearby civilian houses from collateral damage.
Swish!
The moment the barrier solidified, a flash of yellow light blurred past. Minato landed with a picture-perfect superhero pose right in front of Qianyu.
"Minato. The fastest man in the ninja world, yet you always seem to arrive fashionably late to the important parties."
Qianyu stepped forward, clapping a hand on Minato's shoulder with a teasing grin.
"If a certain Hokage didn't shove all his paperwork onto my desk every day, maybe I wouldn't be run as ragged as a dog!"
Spending so much time with Qianyu had even taught the naturally air-headed Minato the art of the sarcastic comeback. He shot Qianyu an exasperated look.
"I handle all the big and small village affairs now. Sometimes, I don't even know which one of us is supposed to be the Fourth Hokage!"
Sasuke: "…"
The progression of events in this world seemed to have veered back onto the main track… but in the weirdest possible way.
"Qianyu, who are these two?"
Seeing Qianyu here visibly relaxed Minato. He glanced at the unfamiliar duo of Sasuke and Boruto, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Ah, let me introduce you."
Qianyu paused for a moment, then spoke with an utterly serious face. "These two are from the future. One is your future grandson. The other is your future son-in-law."
Minato: "???"
Sasuke: "???"
Boruto: "???"
The three of them stared at each other. Even the "involved parties," Sasuke and Boruto, found this utterly absurd. Faced with Minato's bewildered gaze, they silently communicated that they were even more confused than he was.
"Hahahaha! Alright, alright, I'm just messing with you."
Qianyu laughed, waving a dismissive hand. "But I'm not talking completely out of my ass, you know. Boruto, did you know? Your dad and Sasuke here actually kissed once. Though, that was back in their wild youth."
Minato: "…"
Sasuke: "!!!"
Boruto: "???"
Seeing Boruto's utterly stunned face, Qianyu could practically see the question marks popping up over his head.
"The future… Is what Qianyu said… true?"
Looking at Boruto's shock of blonde hair and bright blue eyes—features so reminiscent of his own and Kushina's—Minato found himself believing it a little. Of course, the bigger reason was that he trusted Qianyu implicitly.
Thus, Minato's emotions immediately became… complicated.
So, he would have a son. And in the future… his son played for that team?
"Ah, whatever. As long as he's mine and Kushina's child, I'll love him unconditionally. Even if he does things I can't quite understand from my current perspective… a parent should support their child. Maybe… Kushina and I should try for a daughter instead?"
Minato's thoughts were a tangled mess. Sasuke wasn't faring much better. Under the intense, weirdly speculative stares from both Boruto and Minato, he wished the ground would swallow him whole.
His current mood could be summed up in one sentence: I want to die. But first, I want to kill Qianyu.
"Amatsu Mikaboshi!"
"Limbo: Border Jail!"
While the group was chatting, the other side of the barrier had turned into a dueling arena for Madara and Urashiki.
Stripped of most of his Six Paths power, Madara still overwhelmingly outclassed Urashiki in combat experience. But Urashiki held advantages in sheer chakra volume and his ability to briefly rewind time. They were evenly matched, a true clash of titans, fighting with earth-shattering intensity.
Qianyu watched for a minute before losing interest. He'd thought an Ōtsutsuki would be a god-tier threat, but this one was just a scrub who couldn't even handle Madara.
After all, following several… in-depth exchanges with Kaguya, the current Qianyu could casually wipe the floor with little Madara on any given Tuesday.
Tch. Now I'm getting a craving for that woman again. Her one-point-nine-meter frame always gives me such a… novel sensation.
Qianyu suppressed the rising tide of questionable thoughts. He rummaged in his robes, pulled out a bag of sunflower seeds, and offered it to the other three.
"Why just stand there? Grab a handful each. We've got time. Might as well watch the show and shoot the breeze, right?" Qianyu shook the bag of seeds in front of their still-stunned faces, smiling.
"Okay~ Big Brother! Can you tell me more stories about my dad when he was little?"
Boruto was the first to snatch a handful. He immediately sidled up to Qianyu, his eyes darting meaningfully towards Sasuke the entire time. What he wanted to hear was blindingly obvious.
"Sure. Let me tell you the story of how your dad had a crush on Sasuke's wife since they were kids, then grew up to have a passionate, love-hate relationship with Sasuke himself, chasing him across the world just to bring him back to the village."
Qianyu, fully understanding Boruto's blatant hint, grinned wickedly.
Boruto mirrored the grin. Eating melon seeds while the gossip was about his own father… this feeling was just… way too thrilling!
No, he had to memorize this. He'd get a notebook, write it all down, and recite it to Dad right in front of Mom when he got back!
Sasuke: "…"
It was supposed to be a serious, hot-blooded shonen story. Why did it sound so… wrong coming from Qianyu's mouth?
And you, Minato Namikaze. Can you please stop looking at me with that strange expression? Naruto and I really are just good friends… Our relationship is COMPLETELY PURE!
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