Chapter 90 – The Fated Reunion
The air was electric with tension. As Akira and Kakashi moved with relentless speed across the sandstone ridges toward Minato's vivid chakra signature, the desert wind howled behind them, carrying fine dust. Sand swirled under their feet, glowing faintly in the stark, setting sun.
Akira's mind wasn't on the immediate mission—the Suna threat had been eclipsed by the temporal crisis. He was thinking—about Naruto Uzumaki.
In the original flow of time… Naruto was just a reckless boy, Akira thought, his golden eyes dimly reflecting the brutal horizon. He didn't even know his father's face. When they met in Rōran, he only felt a strange, inexplicable bond—something deep in his heart, a chakra echo of their kinship. And when time began to correct itself, Minato erased those memories… so the past and the future wouldn't violently collide.
But this time, everything was fundamentally different.
This Naruto wasn't a reckless, knuckleheaded teenager relying on raw Kyūbi power. He was the Seventh Hokage—a man who had seen total war, profound loss, and achieved global peace. He was the savior of the Shinobi World, bearing the weight of generations. A man who understood both the weight of love and the ultimate cost of power.
At least this time, Akira mused, a dry sense of relief settling over him, he won't throw punches first like a certain younger brother did.
Kakashi glanced at Akira, sensing the quiet intensity radiating from his teammate.
"You seem deep in thought," he said softly, keeping his voice low against the wind. "You look like you're watching a dream."
Akira only smiled faintly. "Just… thinking about what's coming. The inevitability of things."
As they moved closer, Akira suddenly halted. His golden Byakugan flared open with full power, scanning the massive central structures ahead. His vision expanded instantly, penetrating through the sand, the stone, and the thick, residual chakra of the Dragon Vein, until he saw the scene unfold clearly within his augmented sight.
Inside the crumbling structure of the central tower of Rōran—
Naruto was there, his brilliant cloak of orange and black flickered like flame in the dusty, internal light. He was holding Queen Sara—protecting her in a frantic, yet graceful princess carry—as they fell from a devastating breach in the tower's structure. Naruto had clearly just jumped, using meticulous chakra control in his feet to slow their descent against the tower wall, cushioning the impact before leaping outward toward the central square.
The moment made Akira pause, a shiver of déjà vu running down his spine.
"So… this is it," he murmured, half to himself, confirming his worst suspicions about the temporal loop. "Naruto saving the queen of Rōran… just like before."
But the chakra around this Naruto—this time—was profoundly different. It was Stronger. Older. More controlled. The power of a demigod, not a student.
Akira's golden eyes narrowed slightly, sensing the dangerous ripple in the flow of time itself—the moment of intersection.
"The story is repeating… but the players have changed," he whispered.
Kakashi, hearing the change in his voice, turned sharply toward him.
"What did you say? Did you see something?"
Akira deactivated the Byakugan and smiled faintly, looking back at his confused teammate.
"Nothing. Just that history… always has a way of testing fate. We've arrived at the show. Let's go."