Natsuro leaned back in his chair, lost in thought. Why did he want to become strong in the first place?
When he first arrived in this world, he was completely lost. At that time, he hadn't even considered becoming strong, he hadn't even thought about staying alive in this world.
But then, because of Shinai, he found a reason to keep living. For the sake of that strong mother, he couldn't allow himself to die so easily.
Once he seriously began thinking about how to survive in a world full of bizarre abilities and powerful bloodlines, he came to a single conclusion: He needed to become strong, strong enough to take control of his own life.
To that end, not only did he train relentlessly, but he also constantly strategized how to draw attention to himself, specifically, how to make sure his performance reached the Third Hokage.
After all, in that kind of class, with Naruto and many heirs of prestigious clans, if he stood out as someone clearly more talented than the rest, it would be hard not to get noticed by the Hokage.
Then, taking advantage of the Third Hokage's age, he was no longer the fearsome ninja who once shook the Shinobi World. Old people tend to grow sentimental, and may make decisions their younger selves never would have.
Especially someone as soft-hearted as the Third Hokage.
A clean background, a lack of training resources, yet still outperforming all the clan heirs. That could only mean his talent was extraordinary. Given the right guidance, he could at least become a top-tier jōnin, maybe even a shinobi on the level of the Sannin.
And so, he successfully attracted the Third Hokage's attention and investment.
At that time, his initial plan was just to replace Sakura and become a member of Team 7. He had considered the possibility of becoming a Sannin's student, but that seemed far too ambitious.
Given the circumstances of the Sannin at that time, Natsuro didn't think any of them would return to the village just to take a disciple.
So, to gain better resources, his eyes were on replacing Sakura. But plans never keep up with change, he unexpectedly became Jiraiya's student.
Even though it seemed Jiraiya didn't teach him much, the identity of Jiraiya's disciple alone cleared so many obstacles in his path. Things he previously couldn't do, he now had the license to pursue openly.
That's why he never resented Jiraiya's "favoritism." Because for his situation, the most important thing was simply that title, Jiraiya's student.
In fact, even if Jiraiya wanted to teach him, he might not have wanted to learn. He had his own plans and path.
And later, Natsuro continued to grow stronger. Now, he no longer needed to worry about mere survival.
In fact, until those monsters appear, Natsuro was arguably the strongest being in the Shinobi World. Only Naruto, in his Sage Fox Mode, could put up a fight, but even so, he had not stopped striving for more power.
Not just because of the enemies to come, but also because this world simply doesn't offer much entertainment anymore.
At this point, his greatest joy was watching himself steadily grow stronger.
After all, for him, becoming strong was a kind of enjoyment in itself.
He also wondered…If he reached a level of power that no one in history ever had. Would he gain the ability to travel between worlds?
If so, maybe he could return to his original world just to take a look.
And even if there were countless parallel worlds and he couldn't find his old one. Well, visiting other worlds still sounded like fun.
As for worrying about future enemies, he no longer did. Naruto had already reached the peak state of pre-Six Paths Sage Mode Naruto, so there shouldn't be any immediate danger anymore.
Even if his original plan didn't succeed, things certainly wouldn't end up worse than the original story. So he was completely at ease.
At that moment, Natsuro stood and walked to the window, staring at the distant sky.
Sometimes, he felt bored, so he needed to find interesting things to do.
Right then, Shikaku entered, carrying a scroll. Natsuro returned to his desk.
"Something happened?" Natsuro asked, taking the scroll.
"Lord Hokage, it's a request from Sunagakure," Shikaku reported. "A rogue ninja named Mukade has appeared in the Land of Wind. They're hunting him down but he keeps slipping away."
"So, Suna is requesting help from us under the terms of our alliance?" Natsuro asked.
"Yes," Shikaku nodded.
"Just follow the standard fee for the mission rank," Natsuro said casually. Even for allies, they couldn't be expected to work for free.
"Understood," Shikaku replied, preparing to handle the dispatch. For most missions that weren't high-level, Natsuro had delegated the authority to others.
But just then, Natsuro froze.
He had spotted a detail in the scroll: The rogue ninja had vanished in the ruins of the Land of Rōran.
Immediately, his narrowed his eyes and his heart skipped a beat.
"Wait a second!" Natsuro called out to Shikaku.
"Is there something else, Lord Hokage?" Shikaku turned back, puzzled. To him, this was just another routine mission.
If it hadn't come from Suna, he wouldn't have even reported it to the Hokage.
"Rōran, have you heard of that place?" Natsuro asked.
Shikaku thought for a moment and said, "Of course. It was once famous for possessing the Dragon Vein. But the energy of the Dragon Vein mysteriously disappeared some time ago. I remember there was a mission involving Rōran before. Chōza Akimichi, Shibi Aburame, and Minato Namikaze the man who would later become the Fourth Hokage all participated."
Natsuro nodded and headed straight to the archives.
Shikaku followed without asking further, though he was curious about his sudden interest in Rōran.
Soon, Natsuro found the mission report from that time, filed under the Fourth Hokage's records.
"It's really here…" he muttered, brushing off the dust and unrolling the scroll.
He quickly read through the report.
Just as he suspected, nothing unusual. No mention of anyone from the future.
Natsuro rubbed his temples.He had previously assumed this mission didn't exist in this timeline. But now it seemed the mission did happen, it just didn't go the same way.
Otherwise, Natsuro's current self would have sensed some sign left by his past self, something he would have definitely left behind.
Yet there was nothing.
No trace.
Natsuro narrowed his eyes. No matter what, he would join this mission.He wanted to attempt going back in time, and see if he could change the past.
Because something this interesting absolutely couldn't go on without him.
Back in his office, he started thinking:Who should he assign?
In the original timeline, this mission was handled by Team 7 which consisted of Yamato, Naruto, Sakura, and Sai.
But in this version, those team dynamics didn't work as well. Yamato and Sai weren't that familiar with Naruto and Sakura.
Also, based on Yamato's reports, Sai had slowly been regaining human emotions, though he still acted a bit weird. But Natsuro didn't blame Sai for that.
Honestly, he didn't think Yamato had any room to criticize, he was kind of the same.
Both of them had been twisted by Danzō.
In fact, Sai and Yamato were among the lucky ones...
After some thought, Natsuro gave the order:
"Have Kakashi lead this mission. Team members will be Naruto and Sakura."
He had wanted to include Sasuke, but Sasuke was still recovering from his eye transplant and training in Sage Mode.
So he had to leave Sasuke out for now.
Shikaku looked surprised and asked, "Isn't this a bit of overkill, Lord Hokage, sending Naruto for a mission like this?"
After all, Shikaku knew just how strong Naruto had become. Did this mission really warrant sending him?
"Mm, it is," Natsuro admitted. "So when you brief him, make it clear, unless there's an emergency, he is not to use the Nine-Tails' power."
Shikaku was left speechless. Once he confirmed Natsuro wasn't joking, he simply nodded and left.
He figured Natsuro must have a good reason for this arrangement.
Soon, the mission was handed down as instructed.
Shikaku also passed on Natsuro's restriction to Naruto.
When Naruto heard it, he immediately understood. This was meant to help him train his taijutsu.
So, without question, he accepted.
After Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi departed, Natsuro himself quietly followed behind. As long as Naruto wasn't in Sage Fox Mode, there was no way he'd detect his presence.
Two days later, Kakashi led Naruto and Sakura to Rōran. But Mukade's exact location still needed to be investigated…
Trailing behind them, Natsuro had already sensed subtle chakra fluctuations. He looked around carefully, these were all puppets crafted using Sunagakure's unique puppet techniques. And the chakra he was sensing naturally came from the chakra threads used to control them.
It seemed both Kakashi and Sakura had noticed them as well, but...
Natsuro rubbed his forehead as he watched Naruto walking carelessly at the front of the group.He suddenly questioned whether it was truly a good idea to have let Naruto gain something as powerful as Sage Fox Mode.
It was painfully obvious, Naruto's current experience level was nowhere near a match for his power.
After thinking for a bit, he concluded he needed to assign Kakashi a follow-up mission, monitor Naruto during missions.
What Naruto needed now was to take on a large number of missions without using Sage Fox Mode, to build up his experience. But to prevent him from being exploited, Kakashi would need to keep a discreet eye on him.
Otherwise, in Natsuro's eyes, Naruto was like a child wielding a Desert Eagle, he might have the strength to pull the trigger, but could just as easily hurt himself or his allies.
To prevent that, Naruto still needed to keep growing.
Natsuro rubbed his temples again. This was the key difference between Naruto and Sasuke.If it were Sasuke, he wouldn't have to worry about any of this.
Soon after, Mukade launched an attack on Kakashi's team.
As always, Kakashi performed excellently. But it seemed he understood Natsuro's intent and held back, giving Naruto and Sakura the chance to gain combat experience.
Sakura also performed admirably. She quickly recognized the puppets as being from Sunagakure and, knowing the mission ahead of time, had brought along a chakra sword, a weapon designed to channel chakra along the blade, capable of slicing through chakra threads easily.
In contrast, Naruto's lack of experience was obvious.
He had been protected too well until now. Though powerful, he didn't know how to properly use that strength. So when faced with the puppets, his solution was simply to charge in and try to brute-force his way through.
Unsurprisingly, he got into trouble.
Naruto had a sense of pain, but the puppets didn't. Even if broken, as long as their core components weren't destroyed, they could still move and attack...
In the end, Kakashi had to "rescue" Naruto.
At that moment, Kakashi fully realized Naruto's issue and better understood why Natsuro had assigned the mission this way.
Natsuro could only call it a happy accident, it just so happened to expose Naruto's greatest current weakness.
Kakashi rolled his eye in exasperation. He had a feeling that now that Natsuro had seen Naruto's flaw, he would be tasked with helping Naruto overcome it.
And as Naruto's mentor, that responsibility would most likely fall on him...
This gave Kakashi a bit of a headache. Training Naruto in this area was going to be rough, honestly, Sakura might be less of a headache than Naruto when it came to this kind of training.
Despite having enough power to easily kill Mukade, Naruto ended up letting him escape into the ruins of Rōran, and worse, Mukade had found the sealed location of the Dragon Vein.
"That's... my teacher's Flying Thunder God kunai!" Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he finally recognized the area. He had been here before on a mission.
Frowning, Kakashi thought: Mukade shouldn't have the ability to undo the Fourth Hokage's seal. But there were no guarantees, so Kakashi immediately shouted:
"Naruto! Sakura! Stop him from destroying the seal!"
"Hmph! It's already too late, the legendary Copy Ninja, Kakashi!"
Mukade had already placed one hand on the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God kunai.
"You don't have the ability to undo my teacher's seal," Kakashi said coldly.
"You're right. I don't," Mukade replied with a laugh. "But I never planned to undo it in the first place!"
Suddenly, countless sealing marks surged out from his body.
"This is bad, Naruto! Get back!" Kakashi shouted. Naruto had charged the fastest and was the closest to Mukade.
But Kakashi's warning came too late.
A brilliant white light burst from Mukade's body, rapidly expanding outward and engulfing Naruto.
In response, Naruto immediately activated Sage Fox Mode. But to his surprise, the white light wasn't causing any damage...
"Kakashi-sensei!"
Naruto looked around in confusion as the light continued to intensify.
Kakashi, without hesitation, dashed into the light.
Sakura, seeing the ground beneath her crumbling, also charged into the glow without thinking twice.
None of them noticed that, far above the spreading light, a shadowy figure had silently entered it at the very first moment—
Natsuro.
As soon as he entered, he felt a strange sensation, one that reminded him of his previous battles with Urashiki Ōtsutsuki.
It was... the fluctuation of time?
Natsuro opened his eyes.
What he saw was a bizarre space, was this a space that allowed time travel?
Amid the strange atmosphere, he sensed a familiar chakra nearby, surrounding a Flying Thunder God marker.
He realized: He could use Flying Thunder God from within this space.
But what would happen if he did?
Ōtsutsuki wasn't sure.
If he didn't use it, he would most likely arrive at the same time point as Naruto or Mukade.
But... using it might lead to something more interesting.
After all, it was the unknown that made things exciting.
Returning to the past with Naruto? That was something he could already anticipate.Even if he was hoping to change something, it wasn't as thrilling as the truly unknown.
So, after a brief hesitation, he unleashed a burst of chakra and grasped onto that faint connection—
He activated Flying Thunder God.
And he was shocked.
This was the most chakra-draining Flying Thunder God he had ever performed.
Even though he didn't have the Nine-Tails, his chakra reserves were comparable to the Eight-Tails.
Yet even that was barely enough.
This told him just how insane the chakra cost had been.
But that only made him more excited.
More nervous. More exhilarated.
In the next instant...
Natsuro vanished from the strange, glowing space.
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