One Minute Later, at Training Ground Seven
"Too bad," Link said, sitting nonchalantly in a tall-backed chair, twirling two dangling bells around his index finger. He eyed the four sprawled figures across from him and commented with mock regret, "You guys were so close to succeeding."
Kankurō lay flat on the grass, staring dazedly at the sky. That familiar pain pulsed through his body, leaving him confused. The shadows had grown way too powerful in just one year and a half. Previously, he could at least see them coming. Now he'd been flung helplessly before he even realized it.
What had I been training for, anyway…?
Gaara propped himself up on one hand, giving Link a look of sincere warmth. "You've gotten stronger, Link," he said, all genuine delight and congratulations.
Temari, collapsed not far away, shot Link a sullen glare.
(So if you didn't want to go on a date with me, you didn't have to crush us this hard…)
From the moment they got ready and shouted "Go!" to the moment they all lay face-first in the grass, only a handful of seconds had passed. The shadows weren't just stronger; there were more of them—dense and endless. When they surged from under Link's feet, it looked like a tidal wave sweeping across the battlefield.
Total helplessness.
As for Sasori—he'd been dismantled most thoroughly. Somebody still harbored a grudge, apparently. In an instant, his human-puppet shell was stripped away. He didn't even have a chance to use Summoning to escape before his chakra core ended up in one of the shadows' hands.
"Remember to pay me." Link grinned at Gaara and stood up, walking over to Kankurō.
"Got it…" Kankurō replied feebly, not bothering to rise.
"Hey," Link called over to Temari, who'd gotten herself dirty rolling on the ground. He held out his hand—small, pale, and slender, looking rather nice in the sunlight. It was a side-effect of a certain drug he took, which toughened his outer skin and gave it that faintly translucent, smooth pallor.
"Care for a date, Princess of the Sand?" He struck a pseudo-gentlemanly pose, but with his doll-like face, childish voice, and 150 cm height, the scene instantly fell apart.
"Pfft—!" Temari, cheeks puffed up, burst into laughter, hugging her stomach. "You rascal… you rascal… hahahaha!"
Seeing this, Gaara at the side couldn't suppress a small smile, either. Kankurō silently snickered to himself, not daring to show it openly—someone here could be very petty.
Link's face darkened.
"All right, all right~" Temari rose to one knee, brushing grass and dust from her palms, and then carefully took his small, pale hand. Her voice was as soft as ever. "Of course."
Time can bring not only distance, but also let feelings ferment. What began as admiration for a powerful figure, that longing for Link's innate gentleness, had, over the course of a year and a half, ripened into a mellow "affection."
"Tch—"
Link let her keep hold of his hand. He wasn't especially enamored or anything; it was more like that fleeting moment of realizing someone else likes you can spark a kind of retroactive "maybe I do care, too?" confusion. Rather like Naruto's reaction to Hinata late in the manga.
But he was only twelve. Romance was way too soon. Plus, she was older, from a different village… All excuses aside, he just didn't know how to handle feelings—whether they were friendship, family bonds, or romance.
Suddenly, not far away, the Rashomon gates slammed shut. Link's expression shifted. "Sorry—guess we'll have to postpone that date. I've got urgent business."
Temari, being a shinobi, let go without fuss. "Right. If you have time, come find me."
Link nodded. He signaled his shadow to toss Sasori's chakra core to Gaara. "Sasori's puppet-body," he explained, "is in the scroll I gave Kankurō."
To be honest, Konoha's research teams had never cracked Sasori's advanced puppet tech. After Orochimaru's downfall, Tsunade led most of the top minds toward biological experimentation, leaving puppet science forgotten. Much of Sasori's work was still encrypted. They'd shelved it in the end. So Link figured handing it back, as a parting favor, was fine.
He had a strong hunch that "final preparations" would soon begin. Could Hashirama and Madara gain Six Paths powers from the Sage of Six Paths and actually defeat Kaguya if she traversed across worlds?
Hard to say. In the manga, the sealing sequence was crystal clear, and double-Mangekyō Kakashi with Kamui was the MVP, while Naruto and Sasuke simply supported. Kaguya's casual space-warping, unstoppable attacks—without Kakashi's intangible counters, they couldn't even lay a hand on her.
And crucially, the Funa-tsū technique might now be compromised.
…
Later, Link summoned the translucent "first" Madara.
"How's the situation in the Third Parallel World?" he asked directly.
Madara paused, realizing what he meant by "Third Parallel World." Grimly, he responded, "I assume they told you everything when they came back. We tried to stop that woman who wants to reclaim all chakra and failed. Hashirama… he couldn't get out in time."
He referred to the "second" Hashirama, who fell in the Third Parallel World.
Link shut his eyes for a moment of thought, composing himself. "Tell me exactly what happened."
Madara held back nothing. Kaguya, after seeing Minato cast the Funa-tsū to escape, had tried to copy it—draining so much chakra that she fell into a weakened state, giving Hashirama and Madara a fleeting edge. Her combat experience was pitiful, like a child who'd never been in real war. But that "child" might as well have been a Saiyan or Ultraman, unstoppable on raw stats alone. She shrugged off being sliced in half by the "second" Hashirama, while her "All-Killing Ash Bones" blow annihilated Madara's Complete Susanoo with one hit.
In short bursts, they gained the upper hand, but Kaguya's chakra kept refilling rapidly, her powers soared, and after multiple dimensional shifts and clashes, her raw strength was simply overwhelming. They both ended up killed. It was pure "stat crushing," something Madara and Hashirama usually did to others. Now they'd gotten a taste of being on the wrong side.
From Link's point of view, lasting over an hour against a Six Paths–tier monster was already impressive for two "super-Kage"–level fighters. Part of it was Kaguya's own mistakes, part of it was the duo's battle expertise. But no matter how long they dragged it out, the outcome was the same—no victory possible.
If they'd had Six Paths–grade abilities from the Sage, would they have won? Link doubted it. In the manga, sealing Kaguya was only possible thanks to double-Kamui Kakashi. Naruto and Sasuke alone might have failed. Kaguya's casual dimensional control was far too broken, her attacks unstoppable. Without Kakashi's intangible counters, she would've just hopped dimensions at will.
And the biggest issue: the Funa-tsū technique had been exposed.
~~~
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