[One hundred percent, no.]
Three words. Cold and mechanical.
Shinji fell silent for a long time.
Then he spoke.
"Fine, I'll trust you one last time."
[The second simulation is about to begin...]
[Loading world...]
[World Loaded: "Naruto"]
[Loading identity...]
Shinji lay down and closed his eyes.
Drowsiness surged again. But this time, he knew it wasn't ordinary sleep.
His consciousness began to sink. It was like sinking into a deep sea; the surrounding light grew dimmer, and sounds drifted further away.
[Please select the final mission objective for this dream simulation:]
[1. Become an excellent Sunagakure Jonin and survive the upcoming Third Ninja World War. Mission Reward: Mastery of Wind Release Chakra Nature Transformation; Difficulty: C; Identity: Sunagakure Genin]
[2. Become a high-ranking official of Sunagakure, hold real power, and provide key intelligence during the future war between Konoha and Sunagakure in the Third War. Mission Reward: Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai; Difficulty: A; Identity: Konoha undercover agent, trusted Advisor to the future Fourth Kazekage Rasa]
[3. Become the Kazekage and protect Sunagakure. Mission Reward: Master-level Puppet Technique, Mangekyo Sharingan; Difficulty: S; Identity: Ordinary teacher in Sunagakure before the Third War]
Shinji's gaze swept over the three options.
The first one, Rank C, Wind Release mastery. He skipped it immediately. Exchanging a C-rank mission for a C-rank life wasn't worth it. He never even considered it.
The second one, Rank A, Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai. This was indeed tempting. The Third Kazekage's Iron Sand and the Fourth Kazekage's Gold Dust were powers that could change the course of a battle. Furthermore, the identity was a "trusted Advisor to Rasa."
But the problem was, this wouldn't help against Mei Terumī's Mist Release either. What he urgently needed was to enhance his power in a short time; an ordinary Kekkei Genkai didn't mean much to him.
Moreover, this time he really didn't dare to be an undercover agent again.
The third one.
S-rank difficulty, Mangekyo Sharingan. Become the Fifth Kazekage.
Setting aside the Master-level Puppet Technique, just the Mangekyo Sharingan combined with the Sage Body he already possessed...
With these two together, he wouldn't need to worry too much about the burden of using ocular techniques, which meant having the capital to stand at the peak of the Ninja World.
But the hardest question was: how to become the Kazekage?
The timeline of the crossover should be before the Third Ninja War.
There it is, Rasa.
Although the timelines of parallel dimensions generally vary, the main characters usually remain the same.
Rasa. The man who would be appointed as the Fourth Kazekage in a time of crisis.
If he could follow Rasa, it might be possible to reach the highest position.
But anyone who actively approached him would be viewed as having ulterior motives.
There had to be a way for Rasa to notice him voluntarily.
Shinji's mind raced, and three figures flashed through his head.
"The trio of Temari I saw in Konoha before."
Temari. Kankuro. Gaara.
Rasa had three children, but he didn't know how to be a father.
In his eyes, Temari was a future tool, Kankuro was a puppet master prospect, and Gaara was a weapon that needed to be isolated.
He didn't know what Temari was shouldering alone, nor did he know that Gaara couldn't sleep every night.
But Shinji knew.
This was the opening. What Rasa didn't see, he would see. What Rasa didn't care about, he would care about.
It wasn't about bribery or flattery; it was about truly seeing them. Not as the children of the Kazekage, but as children.
"The breakthrough point lies with the eldest, Temari."
Shinji carefully recalled the character of Temari.
In the original work, when she appeared at age twelve, she was already a calm and decisive Ninja.
She was ruthless against Tenten in the Chunin Exams, used Wind Release to slice through a forest during the Sasuke recovery mission, and sat across from the Raikage during the Five Kage Summit with poise.
Later, she married into Konoha and became a bridge between the two villages.
"But those are just the surface-level Temari."
Shinji saw more than just that.
He saw a child who actively chose to be 'normal' amidst the ruins. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father treated her younger brothers as tools.
When Kankuro was trembling with fear, she was the only one who dared to take Gaara's hand.
It wasn't because she wasn't afraid, but because she realized that if even the older sister shrank back, the family would truly be finished.
She gave up the right to act spoiled and became the last link between her brothers and the 'human world'.
This shaped her logic for survival: being strong meant being needed.
She had to be tough, she had to be able to fight, and she had to be at the front, otherwise she wouldn't be qualified to stand by her brothers' side.
But her toughness was forced. She never acted spoiled—not because she didn't want to, but because life never permitted it.
She was just a child. A child carrying two younger brothers.
One was sent to learn Puppet Techniques and became taciturn, while the other was treated like a monster and didn't dare to speak. She had to shoulder it all herself.
Precocious, enduring, and carrying responsibility on her shoulders—these were Temari's shining points, but also her most vulnerable spots.
She would push herself too hard and forget that she also needed to be looked after.
And what Temari cared about most were her younger brothers. They were her weakness and her armor.
This was the entry point!
"I have a plan."
Shinji withdrew his thoughts and fixed his gaze on the third option.
Sage Body and Mangekyo Sharingan. These two things combined were worth gambling decades of his life on.
Gambling that he could stay hidden, gambling that he could enter that circle, and gambling that he could seize the lifeblood of the entire Sunagakure at the critical moment.
"I choose the third one."
[You have selected the final mission objective for this simulation: Become the Fifth Kazekage. Mission Rewards: Sage Body, Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan]
[Selected initial identity: Sunagakure teacher before the Third War]
[Simulation starting, Timeline: Thirty years]
[Your name is Shinji. You are the product of a chance love between an Uchiha and a Senju. At age seven, you were abandoned on the battlefield by your parents. A group of Suna Ninja found you and brought you before the Third Kazekage.]
[The Third Kazekage asked for your name. You said Uchiha Nobunaga. The Sandaime said whether it's Uchiha or Senju, here, you are a person of the Sand.]
[At age ten, you vowed to become the Kazekage, clear away all internal troubles and external enemies, protect Sunagakure, and lead this land to prosperity.]
[At age fifteen, relying on your solid Ninjutsu foundation and patience with children, you passed the teacher examination in Sunagakure and became an ordinary teacher at the Ninja Academy.]
[This teaching stint lasted for three years.]
[At age eighteen, you have established a firm foothold in the school. In everyone's eyes, you are just a taciturn, serious teacher—a peripheral figure who never participates in factional struggles.]
[Such a person is most suited for one thing: waiting.]
The classrooms of Sunagakure were forever shrouded in this kind of hue.
Sunlight slanted in from the high windows, illuminating the tiny dust particles in the air into beams of pale gold light.
Shinji stood on the podium, explaining the basic circulation routes of Chakra. His voice was neither high nor low, steady like the desert wind in the afternoon.
Over twenty children sat below.
His gaze swept across their faces—calm, even, and unbiased—before landing on a seat in the first row by the window.
A little girl sat there, her sandy-blonde hair tied into two pigtails that weren't quite neat.
She wasn't looking at the blackboard; instead, she had her head turned, watching the wind and sand filling the sky outside.
Beside her sat an even smaller boy with red hair, his head lowered as he curled himself into a tiny ball.
Temari. Gaara.
The future Fifth Kazekage. And his older sister.
But at this moment, they were just two children.
Just a child who wasn't embraced by his father, and his sister.