"Truly hardworking, huh."
At this moment, Natsuro opened his eyes, gazing at the Rinnegan high above in the sky. He could see Sasuke's progress and felt a twinge of emotion.
After all this time, Sasuke had finally realized his childhood goals.
The first was to kill Itachi Uchiha. The second was to revive the Uchiha clan.
And now, with these infants as the foundation, the Uchiha clan's revival was already within reach.
Moreover, knowing Sasuke's mindset, he would undoubtedly lead this new Uchiha clan down a path completely different from its old one.
Natsuro withdrew his gaze and stopped paying attention to the matter. With Sasuke's current strength there wasn't a single opponent in this timeline who could stand against him, even if Madara suddenly jumped out of his grave right now, it wouldn't change anything.
"Time-space..." Natsuro murmured. Compared to Sasuke, he was more focused on his own recent gains.
In truth, at his current level, as long as he possessed a set of spacetime coordinates, traveling through time wasn't all that difficult.
However, during the process, he had discovered an ability he hadn't noticed before.
And with this newfound power, it seemed he might be able to do something...
But he wasn't sure whether he should do it, or where he might end up if he did.
Yet for the current him, the unknown might just be more exciting.
He didn't overthink it. Bringing Umbreon with him, he arrived at a certain location, his old home.
There, he saw his younger self standing inside, lost in emotional turmoil.
Natsuro remembered that at this moment in the past, he had been wondering whether to take advantage of the chaos to steal a pair of Sharingan eyes.
But in the end, his reason had triumphed over greed.
Back then, in order to protect his own life, he never did anything outrageous. The only "outlandish" act he committed was probably showing a shred of pity toward Naruto.
Now, however, he could no longer suppress his own desires.
So, when exactly did I become like this?
Natsuro pondered and quickly arrived at a simple answer... It was when his own life was no longer in danger.
When he no longer had to constantly worry about survival, his entire logic for taking action began to shift.
Ask yourself, who in their right mind would dare to mess around in a spacetime corridor?
Yet Natsuro had.
Back in the Dragon Vein's spacetime corridor, he'd intervened without even knowing the destination, and ended up in an alternate timeline's version of the Naruto world...
He'd been lucky nothing terrible had happened, but back then, he hadn't even considered the danger, or the possibility of never coming back.
Even then, when he wasn't as powerful as now, he still had the guts to act recklessly.
So why was he hesitating now, when he had already reached the peak of this world's power?
A smile crept onto Natsuro's lips. He quietly left without leaving behind the slightest trace.
On Sasuke's side, his Rinnegan had turned blood-red as he personally witnessed everything that had happened to the Uchiha clan.
It wasn't the same as seeing it in one of Itachi's genjutsu illusions.
He was now truly watching, with his own eyes, as that man slaughtered the clan while crying, even raising his blade against their parents.
Even now, seeing it all over again, Sasuke couldn't help but feel a surge of murderous rage.
Of course, that rage wasn't directed solely at Uchiha Itachi... It also included Danzo and his faction...
And more than that, Obito and White Zetsu, who were behind the scenes during the massacre.
After all, with White Zetsu's infiltration abilities, no one could escape his gaze.
Itachi handled the visible massacre, Danzo secretly cleaned up the leftovers and harvested Sharingan eyes, and Obito and Zetsu hunted down those who tried to hide...
With these three forces working together, it was a miracle that anyone from the Uchiha clan survived.
Watching all of this, Sasuke had the urge to destroy everything in that very moment, but in the end, he restrained himself.
Whether or not he had the power to change it all was still uncertain. After all, he was someone from the future.
Swapping out infants as he had done, so long as he wasn't discovered, wouldn't change the timeline.
But if he made a drastic move now...
Would the current him even continue to exist?
Perhaps the moment he revealed himself, he would simply vanish.
In any case, in his time, these people were already dead, that was enough.
Sasuke clenched his fists so tightly that his nails pierced his palms, yet he felt no pain.
Time passed slowly, and eventually, everything came to an end.
The Uchiha clan had been "wiped out," with only Sasuke left alive.
"Leaving now?" Natsuro appeared beside Sasuke and glanced at the infants around them who were still crying.
"Let's wait a bit longer. I want to make sure those 'infant-shaped meat clones' Orochimaru gave me look convincing enough..." Sasuke said cautiously.
"Alright," Natsuro nodded. He actually trusted that Orochimaru wouldn't make such a rookie mistake.
Given Orochimaru's expertise in human biology, while it would be difficult for him to create a living being with consciousness from nothing, creating a lifeless body in the form of an infant was trivially easy for him and baby-like bodies are hard to identify except by their own parents.
Now that all those parents were dead, the risk of discovery was extremely low, even if someone later dug up the graves, they would only find bones.
These artificial infants, aside from lacking life, were identical to real ones, complete with flesh, bone, and natural decay patterns.
Still, if Sasuke wanted to double-check, so be it. Natsuro had no urgent matters to attend to anyway.
While playing with Umbreon, he looked up at the moon and wondered:
Should I go meet the Kaguya Ōtsutsuki of this time? Let her meet Umbreon too?
In the end, he shook his head. Kaguya had already seen Umbreon once before and hadn't recognized it which meant she probably hadn't seen it in this timeline.
Natsuro had his mischievous side, but he wasn't reckless enough to deliberately break spacetime laws.
He waved a finger, opening a spatial rift in front of him.
This wasn't the Yomi no Hirasaka, just a simple spatial rift. Natsuro stared at it in silence for a moment,
Then erased it.
Let's wait a bit longer, he decided.
Time moved on. Once Sasuke confirmed that all the Uchiha bodies had been buried, he returned to Natsuro's side.
"It's all... finally over," Sasuke said, with a tone that seemed like a release.
"Mm. Then let's head back. These babies are already starving," Natsuro said, glancing helplessly at the wailing infants around them.
Even someone as strong as him had zero experience in comforting babies.
"O-okay," Sasuke replied, looking at the crowd of crying babies.
Up until now, he had only been focused on changing the outcome, not on how to actually deal with so many infants afterward.
"Don't worry. I'll have people find enough wet nurses to care for them," Natsuro said.
"Yeah." Sasuke nodded hard and let out a breath of relief.
Honestly, if he had to take care of all these babies on his own... He might have preferred dying instead.
As Sasuke was about to use the Ōtsutsuki Clan's sacred relic to travel back through time, Natsuro suddenly paused and stepped in front of a baby that seemed a little different from the others.
He locked eyes with this infant of the Uchiha clan. The child, unlike the rest, wasn't crying or fussing. His dark, shiny eyes stared back at Natsuro in silence. Slowly, his lips curved into a faint smile.
Then, as if realizing something, the baby glanced at his wailing peers and finally joined in the crying.
Natsuro found the baby's exaggerated performance amusing. So I really do have a fellow countryman here after all…
It was just unfortunate that this fellow countryman had been born into such a tragic time, an infant on the eve of the Uchiha massacre…
If Sasuke hadn't changed the fate of the Uchiha infants, this guy would've likely… died before he even had a chance to start.
Natsuro stroked his chin thoughtfully. Once this fellow traveler learned the language of this world and saw how mangled the history was, along with the all-too-familiar names of nations, he'd probably be stunned speechless.
The idea made Natsuro chuckle. Judging by the baby's age, he'd likely grow up to align with the Boruto era, right around the time the Ōtsutsuki invasion begins.
So maybe this fellow transmigrator would get his chance to shine during the Ōtsutsuki invasion after all.
Either way, he had no intention of interfering. If he stepped in, it would be too boring.
"Natsuro, what is it?" Sasuke asked, noticing that he had been staring at a baby for a while.
"It's nothing. Just discovered something interesting," Natsuro replied.
Sasuke glanced curiously at the baby, deciding to take note. If Natsuro had singled this infant out, there must be something unusual about him.
If, in the future, the child displayed any remarkable traits, Sasuke could always nurture him, or even take him on as a disciple.
Little did Natsuro know, merely laying eyes on this baby had already altered his fate significantly. Becoming Sasuke's disciple wasn't something just anyone could achieve.
"Let's go," Natsuro said, and a swirling black spatial portal opened beside him. He stepped into it with Umbreon in tow. Now that his powers had grown, he no longer needed to use Umbreon as an anchor point for time travel.
Sasuke watched enviously. All he could do was activate the sacred relic and lead the infants into the shining dimensional portal.
The baby that Natsuro had taken an interest in was, at this moment, utterly shocked.
He had recognized Sasuke, especially the Rinnegan…
Wait, what? Doesn't Sasuke have just one six-tomoe Rinnegan in canon? How come the one in front of me has one six-tomoe Rinnegan and the other with five tomoe?
And that turtle… he knew what it was. That was the Ōtsutsuki's sacred relic!
So, he was about to travel through time?
With Sasuke?!
The baby mentally scrolled through all the events from the original story, but nowhere did he recall a scene where Sasuke carried a bunch of infants through a time portal...
At this point, he understood, he must've transmigrated into a very different version of the Naruto world. And the one who changed this world… was probably that unfamiliar man earlier, clearly someone who never appeared in the original series.
And Sasuke even seemed to respect him. Unbelievable…
Amazing!
Because now the baby had figured it out, he had become an infant of the Uchiha clan, taken away from his parents shortly after birth.
But he didn't feel bad about it, on the contrary, it was clear that if he hadn't been taken away he would've been dead soon.
If Sasuke had shown up at this exact moment to rescue them, then the Uchiha massacre had to be right around the corner.
The baby was filled with relief. His fellow transmigrator had changed everything. Otherwise, he'd have died before he could do anything.
He quickly started fantasizing...
This really feels like a god-tier start!
He had reincarnated into the Naruto world, as an Uchiha, meaning he had Ōtsutsuki blood running through his veins.
He didn't have to live through the Uchiha massacre, he had a leader who had awakened the Rinnegan, and most importantly... A fellow transmigrator who had noticed him and didn't kill him. That meant the stranger probably had good intentions.
With all that stacked in his favor, the baby thought...
This couldn't possibly be a better start! I'm set for life!
Even when the Ōtsutsuki show up, there are big shots to handle it.
I mean, just look at Sasuke with a dual Rinnegan and eleven tomoe in total. He might even be stronger than Six Paths Sasuke.
If Sasuke is this powerful, then Naruto must be just as strong.
A Naruto stronger than his Six Paths version, a Sasuke stronger than Six Paths Sasuke and that absurdly powerful fellow transmigrator...
Even if the Ōtsutsuki invade, there's nothing to fear.
What the baby didn't know was...
Natsuro had no intention of interfering...
In fact, he even hoped Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't step in too quickly either, to give the next generation more opportunities to prove themselves...
Back in his original time, Natsuro looked around at the familiar world around him. The thought that he might've gained another fellow transmigrator didn't concern him much.
Nor did he plan to lend a helping hand, after all, in a world with such a favorable environment for training, if someone still needed his help to succeed… they were probably just trash.
As for himself… perhaps it was time to start saying farewell to this world.
If you want to read more...
Check out the patreon and get 55 chapters in advance -> SaintXI