"I've met him, but we're not close. He's Shibi-senpai's student, and he's on the same team as Orochimaru-sama's new disciple, Hyuga Asana. The Hokage has been paying special attention to him," said Namikaze Minato.
"The old man's interested in him? But isn't he from the Uchiha clan?" Jiraiya asked.
"The Hokage believes he's a little different from typical Uchiha clan members. As for how exactly… I'm not sure."
"I see… looks like I'll have to ask the old man myself," muttered Jiraiya, rubbing his chin.
...
For the next three days, Uchiha Yuan finally had some rare downtime. Aside from his usual three hours of daily training, he didn't do anything else. Most of the time was spent studying the Sharingan-exclusive genjutsu techniques. Occasionally, he would spar with Uchiha Shisui.
Before he knew it, the day to depart arrived.
Uchiha Yuan arrived at the village gate fifteen minutes early. A few minutes later, Shibi Aburame arrived.
After half a year apart, the two exchanged a few words to catch up.
During the conversation, Uchiha Yuan learned that Shibi had been reassigned to the Land of Hot Water over the past six months—the main battlefield between Konoha and the Hidden Cloud.
Compared to the Mist ninja, the Cloud ninja were even more brutal—like madmen who fought as if they didn't care about their lives.
Even someone as strong as Shibi had been injured several times during that period.
After a short chat, Namikaze Minato and Kakashi finally arrived.
"Everyone's here. Let's head out," said Minato as he placed his hand on Shibi and Kakashi's shoulders.
Shibi then placed his hand on Uchiha Yuan's shoulder.
The four of them vanished from their spot.
Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique was completely different from normal teleportation—it felt like a smooth spatial transition rather than instantaneous movement.
Uchiha Yuan could clearly sense that the spatial flow of the Flying Thunder God was much gentler, with noticeably less spatial resistance.
Whoosh— In the blink of an eye, the four of them, who had just been at the Konoha village gate, now stood in the middle of a forest.
Minato activated the Flying Thunder God again. After seven consecutive jumps, they appeared in a desert.
After so many jumps, Kakashi felt dizzy, and even Shibi looked a bit uncomfortable. Only Uchiha Yuan remained completely unfazed.
Minato looked at Yuan with surprise. This was the first time he'd seen someone not affected at all after being taken along in so many spatial jumps via Flying Thunder God.
"Yuan, don't you feel disoriented from all the space transitions?" Minato asked.
Yuan shook his head.
"Did you feel anything in particular?"
"It was a little like rapidly passing through doorways."
Minato's eyes lit up at the answer—Yuan might have a natural affinity for space!
This kind of talent was exceedingly rare in the village. Those with spatial affinity could be counted on one hand. And even then, just having spatial affinity wasn't enough—mastering the Flying Thunder God also required incredibly fast reflexes.
Yuan already excelled at the Body Flicker Technique, which indicated he had the necessary reaction speed. In other words, this kid might be capable of learning the Flying Thunder God.
Unfortunately, Yuan was from the Uchiha clan. Getting permission for an Uchiha to learn the Flying Thunder God would be nearly impossible—not to mention the Hokage, even those three elders would likely never allow it.
Minato sighed inwardly. In his eyes, everyone in the village was a comrade. During the war, he had worked alongside Uchiha clan members many times—they fought just as hard for the village.
Why couldn't the village and the Uchiha clan just understand each other?
"Minato, we should be in the Land of Wind by now, right?" Shibi asked.
"Yeah, this is definitely the Land of Wind—just on the border. If we keep heading south a few more kilometers, we'll reach our mission target: Rōran."
The group hurried along. Before long, the city of Rōran appeared before them.
There weren't many guards stationed around Rōran's outskirts, so the four easily slipped past the sentries.
Once inside, Kakashi looked at the bustling city and sighed, "What a prosperous country. Free from the ravages of war, everyone can live in peace."
"Don't jump to conclusions, Kakashi. On the surface, it looks peaceful, but the more I look, the more unsettling it feels," Minato said.
"Minato's right. I agree we should be cautious. Let's not go further in yet. For now, let's scout around the outskirts and see if there's anything suspicious," Shibi suggested.
Everyone agreed, and the four split up into two-person teams.
Minato and Kakashi paired up, so Yuan naturally went with Shibi.
"Yuan, did you notice anything strange?" Shibi asked as Yuan activated his Sharingan and scanned the surroundings.
Yuan nodded. "Yes, at first glance, this place looks like a peaceful paradise untouched by war. But, Shibi-sensei, there's a towering spire in the center of town. My Sharingan can clearly see a massive chakra flow emanating from it, connected to the people on the streets… almost like it's controlling them like puppets."
Hearing this, Shibi frowned slightly and released a few of his kikaichū (parasitic insects) to approach the townspeople.
Moments later, the insects returned. Shibi's expression darkened.
"Yuan, my bugs tell me those walking around aren't human—they're extremely realistic puppets."
Yuan feigned a shocked expression.
The two continued investigating, but fortunately, they didn't encounter any danger—not even the puppet soldiers from the original story, nor the singing voice of Sāra.
While Yuan and Shibi had a smooth time, Minato and Kakashi weren't as lucky.
Shortly after splitting up, they encountered the armored puppets from the Rōran arc in the original timeline.
Initially, Minato didn't want to destroy them—his mission was to stop whoever was trying to control the Dragon Vein, and fighting Rōran's military would complicate things.
But once the puppets identified them as enemies, they relentlessly pursued them. Left with no choice, Minato struck back and destroyed them.
To his surprise, the armored puppets began repairing themselves at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Seeing this, Minato decisively used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport himself and Kakashi back to the place where they had split up from Yuan and Shibi.
(To Be Continued...)