Uchiha Nagi had no idea that because of their brief contact, a fragment of spatio-temporal memory had flooded into Naruto's mind.
The matter of time travel was a difficult thing to explain, a classic chicken-and-egg problem.
After resting for a night, Uchiha Nagi took Kimimaro to a barbecue restaurant. It was an Akimichi clan establishment, and their business was excellent because the food was not only delicious but also reasonably priced.
"Mmm~ The barbecue here is so much better than in the Land of Wind! It's tender, flavorful, and not nearly as greasy..." Yukihime's little belly was round and full. She couldn't eat another bite and could only watch Kimimaro with envy.
Uchiha Nagi, after a few plates himself, was also full. In the end, the two of them sat quietly, watching Kimimaro feast.
"Um..." Kimimaro felt a bit awkward being stared at and looked down shyly.
"Sir, another ten plates of barbecue, please," Uchiha Nagi called out.
"Right away, customer! Coming right up!" The person who answered was a large man, but not a member of Choji's family; he was clearly an employee.
Not every member of a ninja clan has the potential to become a shinobi. So, just like the Uchiha clan, there were many ordinary people within the Akimichi clan as well.
It was a pity that the Third Hokage and Danzo were so ruthless, not even sparing the unarmed civilians...
Uchiha Nagi sighed, a wave of nostalgia mixed with sorrow washing over him as he looked at the familiar sights of Konoha.
"Mama, I want meat..."
"Just a minute, Kenta, the meat isn't cooked yet..."
A familiar voice drifted over. Uchiha Nagi looked up to see a woman, now a new mother, happily eating barbecue with her two- or three-year-old son. And this woman...
Her name was Yuriko. Before he had defected, she was one of the girls who had actively pursued him. Now, she was a woman.
But time, like a blade, cuts all things. Uchiha Nagi had no regrets. If he had accepted the pursuit of any of those girls back then, knowing Danzo's cruelty, the only outcome would have been one more corpse to accompany him to the grave.
"Sigh..." Uchiha Nagi sighed again.
Hm?! Yukihime glanced from Nagi to the mother and son, her big eyes darting back and forth. Could there be a story there?
Yukihime gently nudged Kimimaro with her foot. Kimimaro, a large piece of meat in his mouth, looked up in confusion. Yukihime jutted her chin in the direction of the mother and son, as if to say, I think your teacher has some history over there...
Hm?! Some inside scoop on Sensei? Kimimaro looked over curiously...
Seeing Yukihime's little mind already spinning up all sorts of inappropriate scenarios, Uchiha Nagi simply flicked a finger.
"Ow, that hurts!" Yukihime whimpered, rubbing the red mark on her forehead, her eyes welling up with tears.
"Hehe..." Watching this scene, Kimimaro felt a warmth spread through his heart and let out a goofy laugh.
"Let's go once you're full. We should head to the Land of Iron soon and see if I can get the weapon I want forged there..."
The Land of Iron, a nation of samurai. They were a military class that had been phased out by the new era.
But that wasn't to say the samurai were weak. The reason they were able to remain neutral through several Great Ninja Wars wasn't because they were peace-loving, but because their military strength was off the charts.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that their entire population was a standing army. Before the profession of the ninja emerged, the world belonged to the samurai. In a world without chakra, they had physical energy, and most of them used swordsmanship.
There were also a few, rare as pandas, who could use natural energy. But with the rise of the ninja, the samurai had no choice but to recede from the stage of history.
Because samurai, with their high-offense, low-defense builds, could not block ninjutsu, no matter how powerful their swordsmanship was. Except for those at the absolute pinnacle of swordsmanship, the mid-to-low-tier warriors couldn't slice through jutsu with their blades.
But there were pros and cons to everything. In the Land of Iron, the entire populace trained their physical energy, so they were all samurai. Those who could use chakra integrated it into their swordsmanship. Coupled with the Land of Iron's geographical location and lack of fertile land, no one bothered them during the Great Ninja Wars.
To put it bluntly, the Land of Iron was a tough nut to crack. There was little to gain from attacking them, and you were likely to lose a few teeth in the process.
As a nation of samurai, they naturally forged many weapons. Some might say, what about the Land of Artisans? Judging by the name, shouldn't that be the go-to country for weapon forging?
In reality, that wasn't the case. The Land of Artisans was more like a factory, mass-producing kunai and shuriken. In other words, they were all about wartime production volume.
They specialized in supplying the major ninja villages with bulk orders of ninja tools. While the quality was decent, this kind of mass-produced ninja equipment couldn't compare to the craftsmanship of the Land of Iron.
To forge a personalized, extremely high-quality weapon, one had to go to a country of artisans like the Land of Iron.
After finishing the famous Akimichi barbecue, Uchiha Nagi had no more lingering attachments. He had no ties left in Konoha. He set off with Kimimaro and Yukihime.
The three of them led their horses out of the gates of Konoha Village. Before leaving, Uchiha Nagi glanced expressionlessly at the faces on the Hokage Rock. The explosive tag trap buried up there, the one capable of blowing Konoha to kingdom come, had probably been dismantled by now...
"Hey! Mister... wait... wait..."
Hm?!
Just as he stepped out of Konoha's gates, Uchiha Nagi stopped in confusion. A moment later, the little blond kid came running up, panting heavily.
"Oh, so there you are! I've been looking for you for ages! Mister, this frog is for you. Thanks for treating me to ramen yesterday."
Naruto shoved a frog-shaped coin purse into Uchiha Nagi's hand. "Even though you look all cold and stuff, I know you're actually a good person!"
"Is that all?" Uchiha Nagi sensed four people secretly following the blond kid.
"Huh? Y-yeah, that's all..."
"Oh. Thanks for the frog. Goodbye!" Uchiha Nagi waved and walked away.
Naruto scratched his head, then suddenly remembered something and shouted, "Hey, mister, what's your name?"
Without turning back, Uchiha Nagi called out, "If you called me 'handsome' instead of 'mister,' I might have told you..."
'Called me handsome instead of mister...'
Naruto froze, standing stock-still. Once again, strange images flooded his mind.
The few Anbu nearby relaxed. Being assigned to Naruto was basically a retirement job. As long as he didn't leave the village, nothing ever happened. They just had to pay a bit more attention when he interacted with strangers.
Swoosh—
"Huh? Did someone just pass by?" Naruto was startled out of his daze.
Two youthful and beautiful figures ran past him. They were heading in the exact same direction Uchiha Nagi had gone.
The two were, of course, Anko and Kurenai. After getting the records from the Konoha guards and spending a long time confirming their target, they had been secretly tailing Uchiha Nagi's group.
But Anko wasn't a Root ninja. She wouldn't just arrest people without proof. To avoid making a mistake and embarrassing herself, she had asked Kurenai to follow them secretly with her. Their plan was to wait until they were outside of Konoha, then have Kurenai use her genjutsu to test the three of them.
Like her, Kurenai was a jonin, but Kurenai specialized in genjutsu. If she were to hypnotize an enemy for interrogation, she could do it without anyone ever knowing.
Granny Chiyo once said that against a genjutsu specialist, in a one-on-one fight, your only option is to run. There is no other way.
If it's two-on-one, you can attack from the front and back. Three-on-one gives you an even greater advantage. But in the end, it all boiled down to one point: genjutsu specialists were better suited for small-scale battles.
In large-scale warfare, genjutsu was pretty much useless. Summoning giant avatars was the true path to victory. Like with Madara and the First Hokage, they could just clap their hands, and a mountain-sized avatar could crush a whole army just by rolling on the ground...
Anko and Kurenai were both jonin. Furthermore, Anko had been trained by Orochimaru, whose ninjutsu was quite comprehensive. So, with the two of them working together, they had no weaknesses and were more than capable of handling another jonin-level opponent.
"Are you sure? It's the girl in that group up ahead?" the red-haired, red-eyed Kurenai asked Anko.
Anko Mitarashi narrowed her eyes and took out a snake.
"I'm ninety percent sure. My snake can't sense that girl at all. She's really strange. It's like she's a rock, or a tree. She's completely undetectable. It seems our collision the other day wasn't an accident after all."
"The other two, an adult and a child, also seem to have chakra. They're not ordinary people. But my Little Red Pill tells me their strength doesn't seem to be very high."
Kurenai nodded. "Then let's find an opportunity to test them. If they're not enemy spies, we'll let them go."
Uchiha Nagi walked ahead, frowning from time to time. Someone was following him?
At first, he thought it was the Anbu who had seen him interacting with the blond kid. But after walking for a while, he realized that wasn't the case. If they were Anbu, they could have just come forward and questioned him openly, or taken his group in for interrogation.
This was Konoha's territory. My turf, my rules. They could have deliberately made things difficult for him, and he would have had to just suck it up.
But these two people behind him just kept following, never approaching. What was their game?
After a while, the two of them seemed to have made a decision. They circled around and got ahead of his group. It looked like they were setting a trap.
Just as his group walked into range, two figures suddenly leaped out.
"Stop right there! Konoha Anbu! We need you to cooperate with an investigation."
Anko Mitarashi jumped down and brazenly held up a hand to stop them. She wasn't even wearing a mask and dared to call herself Anbu. Talk about a half-baked disguise...
Uchiha Nagi asked, "We are just ordinary travelers. We have followed all of Konoha's rules and haven't gone anywhere we weren't supposed to. May I ask why you are suddenly stopping us?"
"Apologies, but the one we wish to question is that girl," Kurenai said.
"Me?!" Yukihime pointed at herself, completely bewildered.
Uchiha Nagi's mind raced, and in an instant, he understood. They must have discovered her unique nature, just like the Fourth Kazekage had.
Oh, well...
A smile suddenly played on Uchiha Nagi's lips. He looked up at Kurenai Yuhi.
"Long time no see, Kurenai. Found a boyfriend yet?"
Anko and Kurenai were both jonin. To become a jonin, it wasn't enough to just meet the combat power standards; one also needed a comprehensive set of skills, one of which was battle experience.
The two of them quickly drew their kunai, explosive tags at the ready. Kurenai looked confused. "Who are you??"
Uchiha Nagi smiled. "I haven't changed my voice. You can't even recognize my voice? In that case, you should be able to recognize this."
He narrowed his eyes, and the next second, when he opened them again, they had transformed into a three-tomoe Sharingan.
"The Sharingan?" Anko gasped.
"You're... Uchiha Nagi?!" Kurenai said in disbelief.
Kurenai remembered now. The survivor of the Uchiha clan, the man she had once had a fleeting crush on.
But—
The first rule of a ninja is to be ruthless. No matter how close you were to someone in the past, once they become a rogue ninja, you absolutely cannot show mercy. Otherwise, you'll be the one who ends up dead.
"Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death—"
Without a shred of hesitation, Kurenai used her signature technique, genjutsu...