Amegakure, Ninth Floor of the Tower.
Before the war begins, Naruto Uzumaki is about to reveal the third matter of utmost importance he promised earlier.
In a dimly lit room, four sofas and tables are arranged in the cardinal directions.
Naruto sits in the southern seat, facing north, with Konan standing silently behind him.
Hashirama sits in the east, Tobirama in the west, and Hiruzen leans against the northern window, listening to the rain.
Minato stands awkwardly in the center of the room. "Um... where's my seat?"
Konan responds coolly, "The village's budget is tight. This meeting room has always been arranged like this. We only added a sofa to the north temporarily."
Hiruzen straightens up and offers, "Minato, why don't you take my seat?"
Minato waves his hands hurriedly. "No, no, it's fine. I'll just stand."
Konan then leans toward Naruto and whispers, "It's about time. If you keep teasing him, your father might start questioning his life as a ninja."
Snap!
Naruto snaps his fingers, and Violet emerges from behind the scenes, carrying a chair and table.
Minato smiles gratefully. "Thank you! That was a big help!"
As Violet retreats, her expression betrays a subtle emotion that puzzles Minato. "Strange, have I met this girl somewhere before?"
Meanwhile, Violet's heart races. To think I'd see my savior again in this lifetime...
Naruto rests his chin on his hands, his gaze deep and commanding. "Let's begin."
Konan takes out a remote control and presses a button.
A white screen slowly unfurls from the wall.
"What is this?"
Hashirama and Tobirama, relics of an older era, gaze curiously at the unfamiliar device.
Hiruzen, having lived long enough to see many things, explains, "This is a projection screen. I've seen it in movie theaters."
([TN: Movie theaters exist in the Naruto world, as seen in the movie Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow].)
Hashirama nods in understanding. "I see! Minato, you were born in a good era!"
Minato scratches his head sheepishly. "Sorry, I died too early to experience this."
Tobirama interjects, "By the way, what is a 'movie theater'?"
Hiruzen turns to Naruto. "Naruto, are you showing us a movie?"
Naruto smiles enigmatically. "Please pick up the small devices on the tables in front of you and wear them over your eyes."
Tobirama picks up the device and examines it. "I've been curious about this. What does it do?"
Naruto explains, "This is a new kind of glasses invented by Akasha no Sasori using the Asura Path. Paired with the projection, they create an immersive experience."
"Oh? That sounds impressive." The four Hokage put on the glasses. "We put them on, but nothing seems different."
Naruto closes his eyes and forms a hand seal.
"Asura Path: Neural Link!"
In the underground chambers of the Loulan Shrine in Amegakure, the cortex of the neural core within a cultivation tank begins to heat up as the black rods of the Six Paths Technique embedded in it activate.
Gurgle gurgle!
Golden bubbles rise in the cultivation liquid, evidence of the oxygen consumption spike caused by Naruto synchronizing with the neural core.
Naruto changes his hand seal.
"Neural Core: Mind Projection Technique!"
Nerve signals travel through pipelines to the signal tower at the center of Amegakure, directly opposite the meeting tower. Panels open, revealing a rotating lens that emits a beam of light.
The light pierces through the rain and enters the ninth floor of the tower from the north, just above Hiruzen's head, projecting onto the screen behind Naruto.
The image comes to life.
The four Hokage, wearing the special glasses, suddenly find themselves immersed in a vivid scene.
On a vast plain, an army of ninja clad in diverse attire but unified by headbands bearing the kanji for "Shinobi" stands in formation, their expressions tense and vigilant.
At the front lines, advanced scientific ninja cannons are arrayed, with every ninja equipped to the teeth with cutting-edge scientific tools.
The four Hokage, now observing from a bird's-eye view, are astonished to see two familiar yet unfamiliar faces leading the charge—an older Naruto and Sasuke.
Behind them stand Boruto and Kawaki, both in their prime, alongside Boruto's wife, Sarada Uchiha, and Kawaki's wife, Himawari Uzumaki.
Whoosh!
A phantom of Naruto appears beside the four Hokage, his voice deep and somber. "In the 98th year of the Hidden Leaf calendar, the Great Toad Sage foresaw a calamity and warned us to prepare for the worst."
"When we received the news, the Three Great Sage Lands had already been reduced to ashes. To face this formidable enemy, the Shinobi Alliance was reformed. Veteran soldiers who had fought in the Fourth Great Ninja War, retired Kage, and young ninja born and raised in peace all took to the battlefield. This was a battle for survival—we had no retreat."
While the Hokage are still digesting this information, the void shatters.
A man clad in otherworldly white garb, adorned with horns that mark him as something beyond human, descends. His eyes are the Tenseigan, his forehead bears the Rinne Sharingan with nine tomoe, and each hand holds a Rinnegan with six tomoe.
His every gesture exudes disdain for lesser beings—not through words, but through his gaze, as if he were looking at ants.
Under the oppressive aura that warps the heavens and earth, the tens of thousands of ninja in the alliance seem no more significant than insects.
Naruto's phantom remarks lightly, "That is Ōtsutsuki Shinshi, the most powerful being I have ever known. And yet, within his clan, there are likely a dozen stronger than him."
Though his tone is calm, his clenched fists betray the terror etched into his soul—a terror that has haunted him even in his rebirth, waking him from nightmares countless times.
The sheer magnitude of information leaves the four Hokage momentarily speechless.
Naruto simply says, "Watch. Watch it all."
What follows is a scene the Hokage will never forget.
The Shinobi Alliance launches the first attack. A torrent of advanced scientific ninja tools unleashes a flood of jutsu and chakra beams, only to be nullified by an invisible barrier three meters around Shinshi.
Hovering in the sky, Shinshi gazes down at the earth, allowing the "ants" to struggle in vain.
Suddenly, a crimson glow pierces the heavens.
It is Rock Lee, now a taijutsu master and one of the few who have not forsaken traditional ninja training despite the widespread adoption of scientific tools. Decades of relentless practice have finally brought him to the realm of his mentor, Might Guy.
As the battle begins, Lee immediately opens the final gate of the Eight Gates Formation—the Gate of Death.
Knowing the hopeless disparity in strength, he chooses to stake his life in a desperate bid to reduce casualties among his comrades.
He ascends into the sky, unleashing Evening Elephant.
Shinshi remains unmoved, standing as if in a spring breeze amidst the chaotic currents of the attack.
Undeterred, Lee transitions to his ultimate technique, a taijutsu move akin to Night Guy, but uniquely his own—Curtain Call: Lee.
As space itself distorts under the overwhelming force of the technique, Shinshi's cold eyes finally show a flicker of interest. Yet, he counters the devastating move with a single punch.
Curtain Call is deflected.
Lee, his life force spent, sheds tears of despair and regret as his body disintegrates into ash.
Shinshi raises his arms, unleashing a rain of All-Killing Ash Bones, a technique that even Kaguya struggled to wield without cost.
The ninja fall in droves. Kakashi, Tsunade, Mei Terumi—figures who once shaped the ninja world—are mercilessly slain, their bodies torn apart and reduced to dust.
Shikadai Nara, Chocho Akimichi, Inojin Yamanaka—brilliant young ninja who should have been enjoying their lives—all perish.
Sakura sacrifices herself to protect Sasuke.
Hinata falls before Naruto's eyes.
Enraged, Naruto charges into the sky, unleashing a Rasengan tens of times larger than the one that defeated Momoshiki.
But Shinshi simply flicks it away, shattering it into countless fragments of light.
As Naruto plummets, Sasuke shields him from a fatal blow at the cost of his own life.
Boruto, Kawaki, Sarada, and Himawari—ninja raised under Naruto's love and care—sacrifice themselves one by one. Naruto watches helplessly as their bodies are torn apart.
Shinshi, smirking, raises his hand and mimics the Rasengan. The chakra sphere in his palm expands to fill the sky. It ascends beyond the stratosphere, splitting into billions of fragments that rain down upon the earth, annihilating defenseless civilians.
Naruto screams in anguish, powerless to change the outcome.
In the final moments, Kumo ninja shield Naruto with their bodies, using a secret technique to teleport him away from the battlefield, preserving the last ember of hope for the ninja world.
The projection ends. The four Hokage sit in stunned silence, their faces pale.
Naruto breaks the heavy quiet. "Now you understand. That was the future I lived through. Yes, I am a spirit who should have perished, but through a twist of fate, I broke the shackles of time and was reborn in this era."
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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