"Don't tell me the Uchiha's massa—!"
Lee blurted out, unable to stop the forbidden word from escaping.
Snap!
Sasuke moved with impossible speed. Before Lee could even finish the single word, Sasuke was on his feet and standing over the taller ninja. Sasuke reached down and clamped his hand firmly, instantly, over Lee's mouth, cutting off the catastrophic word just as it was being fully formed.
Lee froze, eyes wide with terror and sudden physical restraint, realizing he had just made a monumental, unforgivable error.
Neji, reacting with cold, calculated speed to mitigate the damage done, addressed the only innocent bystander immediately.
He focused his stern gaze on the small Uchiha child.
"Why don't you go somewhere else for a bit, Sasuke?" Neji said, deliberately using the child's name. "We are talking about something very complex right now, something which you might not understand."
Mini Sasuke, startled by the sudden violence between the adults and confused by the stern tone, shifted nervously.
'Is he saying that I should get out from here? Are they talking about me? Did I do something wrong?' the child thought, feeling the heavy atmosphere of the boy's conversation weigh on him.
He quietly pushed himself up, clutching the makeshift pillow he'd been using, and started to move slowly away toward another group of trees.
Once the child was moving out of earshot, Sasuke slowly let go of Lee's mouth, his own eyes blazing with cold fury.
"I told you not to mention anything in front of my younger self about the future events in his perspective!" Sasuke shouted, his voice lethal and low, a stark warning to the entire group about the catastrophic consequences of their timeline mixing.
Neji quickly added his reprimand, his expression severe and unforgiving as he looked at Lee. "Lee! Remember this! Don't say it again!"
"I am sorry! I am sorry, I forgot!" Lee stammered, rubbing his jaw and shrinking slightly under the intense, combined glares of both Sasuke and Neji.
Neji ignored Lee's apology, swiftly returning his attention to the true problem: Sasuke.
"Leave him, Sasuke. His lack of subtlety is a liability, but your point is understood. What were you saying about your younger self's vision?"
"Listen closely," Sasuke commanded, his voice demanding immediate focus. "See, my younger self witnessed an event which I can't tell you all the details about. But understand this: I was never a witness to the event he saw."
He continued, his gaze sharp as he recited the conflicting facts. "That night, there were originally only two people present near the Naka River in my clan district. But according to my younger self, three people showed up. Also, out of those three, one person was supposed to die."
Naruto threw his hands up, completely lost.
"Wait, wait, wait, Sasuke! Can you give us names? It's too confusing with just 'one person' and 'the other person'!"
Sasuke let out a quiet sigh of pure exasperation—the kind only Naruto could elicit.
"Fine. Imagine this. Imagine that all four of us sitting here—the adults—are present."
He pointed at Naruto. "If Naruto is the person who is supposed to die."
"Hey! Don't make me dead, Teme!" Naruto instantly protested, though he kept his hands still, realizing this was an analogy.
Sasuke glared briefly, then continued the analogy, pointing to Neji. "And Neji is the person alongside Naruto, the one who was supposed to be there. And Lee is the person who came and saved Naruto, who shouldn't have originally been there at all."
He finished, tapping his own chest. "And I am my younger self, the witness. Everyone understanding the parts?"
All three boys—Naruto, Lee, and Neji—nodded slowly, the analogy finally clarifying the complex roles.
"So, according to my memory... Naruto died, and no one came to save him. So neither Lee nor I were present."
'A life was lost, and only the one who took it was left,' Sasuke confirmed in his mind, feeling the cold weight of his past.
"But according to my younger self..." Sasuke paused, letting his eyes sweep over them, emphasizing the change.
"Naruto never died. He was saved by Lee. And the witness to this entire event was me, in my younger body."
Naruto looked from Sasuke to Lee, a nervous sweat breaking out on his brow. 'Wait, so the person should be dead right now? And the other person saved him in a past that never happened? This is beyond messed up!'
Naruto thought, realizing the danger wasn't just physical, but existential.
Lee looked deeply confused, then suddenly worried. 'If the person saved a life he shouldn't have, does that mean his youthful action caused the entire timeline to break? Was it un-youthful to save a life when it was destined to be lost? No! But Sasuke-kun looks so serious!'
Neji looked at the analogy—Naruto (the target), Lee (the savior), and Sasuke (the witness).
The analogy hung heavy in the air, the roles of the dead, the saviour, and the witness terrifyingly clear.
Neji was the one to summarize the catastrophic result. He looked at Sasuke, his gaze sharp and calculating.
"And as a result of that one life's change—Naruto being saved by Lee—we encountered your younger self, and all of us from different times are now trapped in the same time."
Sasuke nodded once, sharply. "Exactly." The confirmation of their shared knowledge felt like a grim step forward.
Naruto threw his hands up, unable to contain his frustration with the technical details. "So the past we think happened isn't real, and the past Mini-Sasuke saw isn't real either? It's just confusing messes piled up! What does that mean for us, Teme? Are we stuck inside a lie?"
Neji calmly met Sasuke's eye, ignoring Naruto's outburst. "We still can't say which timeline is the absolute truth and which is the absolute lie."
Sasuke immediately dismissed the idea of surveillance in the current forest. He was talking about the evidence seen in the past.
"Forget which timeline is 'true' for a moment," Sasuke stated, cutting through the confusion.
"We have evidence that not only our timeline is altered but the future and the past also."
He paused, looking directly at Naruto. "My younger self told me something else he saw."
Sasuke continued, emphasizing the location and timing. "This was during the moment the life was being saved—in the Uchiha Clan area, near the Naka River, which is the past for us."
"He saw two people," Sasuke continued, his voice low and pointed. "Two tall, strange men. They were standing in the forest near the Naka River."
Then Lee said, " Isn't the description of 'Talk Men' strange?"
Then Sasuke looked at Lee and continued, " Well this is the description given by a child so understand it... "
Naruto looked baffled. "Two strange men? In the Uchiha Clan? But they didn't do anything?"
"Their presence is the key," Sasuke countered. "He gave me a very clear description."
Sasuke then recited the details he had gotten from his younger self. "One man had black hair, black eyes, and his clothes were all black...."
He gave a pause and continued, "The other... he had blonde hair, blue eyes, and it really shined in the night. Also, he wore a white cloak and had whiskers on his face."
Neji thought, 'The description of the 'black man' fits completely perfect with Sasuke. Maybe his Future... But we can't say anything yet, he can be someone related to him in the the past. "
Sasuke. thought, 'But the blonde man... Tall, blonde, whiskers, a white cloak? That could be Naruto, or someone who is going to become him. This confirms that our present is mixed up with my most sensitive past and maybe the future.'
Neji leaned forward, his calm demeanor faltering slightly at the specific details. "If these two people were present at the exact moment of the pivotal change, it suggests they were the cause of the cause, not just observers...."
"Not only is your Uchiha history mixed up, Sasuke, but the fact that a man matching Naruto's description was there means our timelines are completely tangled together."
Naruto instinctively touched his own blonde hair and then his cheek, where the whisker marks were. A look of profound shock and suspicion crossed his face.
"Wait, whiskers and a white cloak? That's... that's Hokage style! You think... you think that was me, Sasuke?"
"I didn't say it was you," Sasuke snapped, his gaze moving sharply between Naruto and Neji. Then Neji continued "I said the description fits you, or someone you will become. The point is this: Not only is our timeline altered, but the presence of that blonde man proves that multiple timelines—ours and possibly others—are mixed up in the past we are currently stuck in."
The chilling implication of time manipulation was briefly overshadowed by a more immediate physical threat.
Naruto quickly focused on the tangible enemy. "Okay, so someone's messing with time, but we can't forget about the Iwa shinobi!"
He looked around the group. "When the boulder sealed the cave, and Gejimayu and Tenten found that small opening, they ran into that one Iwagakure shinobi who attacked us, right? What was that about?"
Neji nodded grimly, confirming the escalation of that initial threat. He addressed Sasuke, delivering the tactical update.
"That initial lone shinobi encounter was just the beginning," Neji stated.
"Just yesterday, when the girls were out, they were chased by a whole squad—fifteen of them! That entire group of Iwa shinobi was actively chasing Ino, Karin, and Tenten."
Lee pounded his fist into his thigh, his earlier confusion replaced by battle readiness.
"A direct confrontation! A clear group of foe! We must engage them with the power of our unified youth and interrogate them! So that they don't get in our way!"
"No, we won't," Sasuke interjected, his voice sharp and final.
"We won't engage a squad of that size when we are still debating the nature of the reality we're standing in."
Neji's eyes locked onto Sasuke. "The timeline is shifting around the Uchiha past, and now we are dealing with a full Iwagakure patrol. There is no coincidence here. This is a staged trap...."
He gave a pause and said, "We need a tactical assessment of our immediate threat, not a philosophical one."
The discussion about the Iwagakure squad dissolved as Sasuke moved. He didn't argue with Lee or Naruto; instead, he pushed himself up, picked up a sturdy stick from a fallen branch, and walked toward a patch of open, damp soil directly in front of where the group was sitting.
The others watched silently, recognizing the cold intensity that meant he wasn't just planning, he was revealing a strategy.
Without saying a word, Sasuke knelt down and quickly, firmly, began to draw and write in the dirt. He used precise, angular strokes, carving three distinct sets of Kanji characters into the earth.
In the middle of the drawing, centered right before them, he wrote:{岩隠れ}
He then moved his stick to the right side of the main symbol and wrote:{鉄の国}
Finally, he drew a line to the left side and wrote: {砂隠れ}
He dropped the stick and returned to his original spot, settling down with the same silent intensity, leaving the freshly drawn symbols for the others to decipher.
The group immediately glared at the letters engraved on the soil. The Kanji was simple, yet terrifying in context.
Naruto squinted, instantly recognizing the first word. "Iwa..!"
Lee's gaze flicked between the symbols, his posture becoming rigid.
Neji leaned forward, his eyes narrowed, the full implications of the map hitting him instantly.
The message was clear, sudden, and utterly devastating: they were completely surrounded by hostile territory.
The group stared at the Kanji symbols Sasuke had just carved into the earth: 岩隠れ, 砂隠れ, and 鉄の国. The visual map instantly made the threat palpable.
Sasuke placed his hands on his knees, his eyes sharp and serious. He made direct eye contact with Neji, Naruto, and Lee, bypassing the silent realization.
"We are here, 岩隠れ," Sasuke stated, pointing the tip of his stick at the center symbol.
"And if we are in Iwagakure territory and there are only two major places we can reach without immediately triggering an all-out war with a major nation."
He then slowly lifted the stick and placed its tip directly on the symbol to his left.
Lee instantly read the characters and spoke, his voice serious. "Sunagakure?"
Sasuke then moved the stick, placing it on the symbol to his right.
Naruto squinted, laboriously reading the unfamiliar Kanji aloud. "Tee-tsuu-noo-kunii...!"
Naruto immediately broke the strategic silence, his confusion overriding the danger. He scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly.
"Heh! A place called 'Tetsu no Kuni' also exists, dattebayo?"
Neji, Lee, and Sasuke all looked at Naruto simultaneously.
Neji let out a barely audible, highly controlled sigh of utter exasperation. 'His knowledge gap is a liability,' Neji thought, the frustration evident in the stiff set of his jaw.
Lee's entire face scrunched up in annoyance. His expression clearly conveyed.
'How can Naruto-kun not know the name of the Tetsu no kuni?! This is not youthful ignorance; this is simply laziness!'
Sasuke merely stared at Naruto, his dark eyes radiating pure, concentrated annoyance. The strategic information he was relaying—the lifeline to their survival—was clearly wasted on the blonde idiot.
Sasuke made direct eye contact with Neji.
"We are surrounded by this territory," Sasuke stated, pointing at Iwagakure in the center.
"But where, exactly? Neji, what are your thoughts? If we choose a general direction to escape Iwa territory, will we reach Sunagakure, or the Tetsu no Kuni?"
Neji maintained his calm demeanor but his expression was serious. "We don't have clear proof of our exact location, but I have this feeling that the border of the Tetsu no kuni is closer."
Lee quickly supported the instinct. "Certainly! The number of shinobi we encountered just gives us a clear sign that we are in Iwagakure's firing range!"
Sasuke nodded, accepting the combined evidence. "It doesn't matter if the evidence is indirect. We need to confirm which border we are closest to. You all tell me what the environment suggests."
The group fell silent, evaluating the risks and clues.
Naruto thought, 'Sunagakure is familiar territory. This Tetsu no Kuni place is an unknown risk. I hope Teme is wrong about the reaching of the place.'
Neji thought, 'The environmental changes are too strong to ignore. We must trust the climate signals over pure logic, even if it confirms the more difficult path.'
Lee thought, 'The dryness and the cold are undeniable. This must be the way to Tetsu no Kuni indeed!'
Lee spoke first, using the simplest clue. "The weather conditions state that we are leading to a much colder place!"
Neji confirmed, "The short days and the cold nights confirm a northern climate."
Sasuke added, pointing out the most dangerous clue. "Along with Sakura's wounds, which aren't healing due to the cold, and the change in the trees, all the signs point to right. Right side leads to the Tetsu no Kuni."
Naruto threw his hands up in confusion again. "Alright, wait, wait, wait! So we have our instincts telling us that this whatsoever place called Tetsu no Kuni is a cold place where we are about to reach but.....
.....wouldn't it be better if we take the route back and go towards Sunagakure instead of this harsh weather?"
The reaction was immediate and explosive.
"YOU DUMB!"
Neji shouted, his voice tight with rare exasperation, furious that Naruto would suggest moving against all the environmental evidence.
"USURATONKACHI!!!"
Sasuke shouted, slamming his fist down, the patience he had carefully maintained finally snapping.
Lee quickly jumped in before the argument could escalate. "Tetsu no Kuni is a better option as…"
Suddenly, a clear, authoritative voice cut through the shouting from just beyond the nearest screen of trees, completing Lee's sentence for him.
"...as it is open to all visitors, and we can disguise ourselves as some visitors."
The familiar voice was clear and sharp, cutting through the explosive anger of the boys. Sakura stepped out from behind the screen of trees, her face serious despite her just having bathed.
She walked right up to the small map Sasuke had drawn in the dirt.
She planted her hands on her hips, her eyes focused entirely on Naruto.
"Naruto, what are you saying?" Sakura demanded, her voice rising in frustration.
"You want us to travel once again through these weird, endless jungles, risking encounters with more large Iwagakure Shinobi, just to reach Sunagakure?"
She paused, gesturing emphatically at the surrounding forest. "There is so much more risk in that direction! Who knows what Kazekage they have now? Who knows of which timeline they are of?"
Her gaze hardened, reflecting her knowledge as a medical ninja and her strategic understanding.
"What changes have been done to the people living there? We could walk straight into a Konoha-Sunagakure war which we know nothing about! We have to go with the safest option, not the easiest one!"
Sasuke thought, 'She saw the risk instantly and the threat is the timeline, not the Iwa ninja.'
Neji thought, 'Who is the Kazekage? That is the perfect question. She cut right to the core problem.'
Tenten emerged first, her backpack and scrolls indicating she was prepared for travel.
Behind her walked Ino and Karin, both looking strained but ready.
Then came Hinata, her expression serious, gently guiding Mini Sasuke by the hand. He kept his head down, still unnerved by the tension he had witnessed earlier.
Sasuke noticed his younger self immediately. He let out a long, quiet sigh, the sound a mix of weariness and deep frustration. The sight of the child was a constant, frustrating reminder of the immense, chaotic problem they were trying to fix.
The entire group of seven boys and a young child was now assembled, all looking at Neji, waiting for the final word.
Neji pushed himself up from the ground to his full height. He looked around the circle—at Sasuke, the mastermind; at Naruto, the wildcard; at Lee, the unwavering spirit; and at the girls, the essential support.
His eyes finally settled on Hinata and the small, silent child. He knew the burden of their survival rested on him now.
His voice was clear, controlled, and resonated with the unshakeable will of the Hyuga Clan.
"We have reached a decision," Neji stated, his eyes boring into each person.
"The time for speculation is over. We are currently caught in a chaotic, altered timeline, and every minute we spend here in Iwagakure territory increases the risk of complete dimensional collapse or execution by enemy forces."
He straightened his posture, placing his hand firmly over his chest, his declaration absolute.
"I am taking full responsibility for the strategy that follows. I will ensure we all return to our correct timelines, no matter the cost."
He paused, letting the weight of the promise settle on them.
"Based on the environmental evidence, the strategic risk, and the fact that we have been compromised by Iwagakure patrols, our path forward is clear. We will move immediately."
Neji pointed decisively toward the direction that led to the mountains.
"The time for debate is finished. We have one path to safety, and that is neutrality. We move now, and we do not stop until we reach the border. Our target is...."
He finished, his voice cutting the air with finality
"TETSU NO KUNI."
----
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Chapter 31: Target: Tetsu no Kuni:
🗺️ Author's Note: Target: Tetsu no Kuni 🧭
What a strategically explosive chapter! We moved past the chaos and into cold, hard planning.
🤯 The Truth Bomb
The core of the chapter was the catastrophic truth! Sasuke's Naka River analogy, breaking down the roles of The Target, The Savior, and The Witness, finally forced the team to grasp the existential danger 💔. And the glimpse of the "Blonde man with whiskers" confirms their present is tangled with sensitive pasts and futures. The timeline is fractured! 🔥
💥 Strategic Clash & Solution
Naruto's explosive outburst about going back to the "easy" path (Sunagakure) was the necessary explosion before the resolution. Sakura's perfect strategic intervention—arguing for safety over ease and highlighting the immense risk of a new Kazekage—was the voice of logic the boys needed. 🎯
🫡 The Final Order
The climax: Neji taking full responsibility and making the ultimate decision. Based on the environmental clues (cold, slow healing) and the Iwagakure threat, the choice is clear. Target: Tetsu no Kuni is the only path to neutrality. The debate is over; the perilous march has begun! ⛰️
What strategic risk do you think poses the biggest threat on the road to Tetsu no Kuni?
AUTHOR'S THOUGHT 😎
The primary goal for this chapter was transforming the messy, emotional argument into a clean, decisive strategy. The pressure of the clock ticking and the surrounding enemy threat needed to be palpable. ⏱️
The Naka River analogy 🌊 was written to serve as both a plot summary and a horrifying revelation for the characters. The sudden mention of the "Blonde man with whiskers" ⚡️ is the essential piece of evidence, emotionally compromising every timeline and confirming the fractured reality. 💔
Naruto's knee-jerk panic 🏃♂️ (suggesting a retreat to Sunagakure) was deliberately used to trigger the final, explosive strategic confrontation. This moment forced the logical characters—Sasuke 🧊 and Neji 🎯—to finally unite their strategic efforts.
Sakura's intervention 🌸 provides the critical, unbiased logic the boys needed. Her focus on the Kazekage gamble 🎲 and the non-healing wound was the key strategic insight that immediately cleared the board and defined the safest path. ✅
Neji's final command serves as the powerful climax. His definitive declaration—Target: Tetsu no Kuni—was the moment the group accepted their immediate peril. The time for debate is over, and the long, difficult march to safety has officially begun. ⛰️👣
📜 TEASER FOR NEXT CHAPTER:
The long, hard march begins beneath a colder sky, 🥶
As the signs of the north start to pass them by. 🌲
Every step taken reveals the environment's threat, 🗺️
And the grim reality they cannot forget.
To shed their identities and avoid the enemy's gaze, 👀
They must find a new look in this bewildering maze.
A desperate stop is made to hide the colors they wear, 🛍️
Before facing the neutral border that awaits them there. 🛡️
SNEAK PEEK LINES 💬
Even Gejimayu is having trouble. This ground is awful. It's like walking on a million marbles. I bet Iwagakure ninja hate walking in these borders and mountains too.
'We need to save the wood. It's dry here now, but finding dry wood will be much harder when we get into the snowy mountains."
"He's right. If we go too fast, someone will twist an ankle on these rocks. Look how rough the ground is."
----
—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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