"Starting a business sure isn't easy," Nara Kazuki muttered to himself, watching as the 300,000 ryō he had just received did a perfect loop—from his hands right back into Yamanaka Mai's.
After all, Mai needed the funds to help build up what was, for now, just their tiny little group.
Yes, a group.
At the moment, their "organization" consisted of exactly two people: Kazuki and Mai. And Mai was still on probation. Building anything meaningful from this was going to be a long and difficult process.
Fortunately, Kazuki had time. Lots of it.
The current shinobi world was at peace. The only major crisis on the horizon was the one that might eventually involve the Uchiha clan—a rare big event in an otherwise quiet era. After that, the rest of the timeline was mostly small-scale stuff.
Things like the overly naive Yakushi Kabuto getting emotionally wrecked by Danzō, only to later meet Orochimaru.
Or Nagato beginning to expand the Akatsuki, attracting attention as it started taking on mercenary missions.
Kazuki paused for a moment. Mercenary missions, huh? That could get tricky—he and his group might eventually end up crossing paths with them.
But… that was kind of interesting. He was curious: if he used Dance of the Ritual Sacrifice on the Six Paths of Pain, could they still be reassembled?
Obviously, now wasn't the time to mess with the Six Paths. Nagato was already Kage-level, maybe even super-Kage. If Kazuki wanted to beat him, he had to evolve further. Right now, he was somewhere between jōnin and elite jōnin—maybe borderline Kage when using the Enma Aspect—but still not there yet.
He clicked his tongue. Either way, he'd taken the first step in building his rogue faction.
The rest of the journey was going to be a grind. After all, in the whole of the Naruto manga, how many ninja actually gave a damn about civilians, or seriously tried to overthrow the daimyō system?
Basically none.
But Kazuki wasn't in a rush. He'd take it slow. Research. Test ideas. See what worked. Only then would he make his move.
"Captain!" Just as he was preparing to go home and squeeze in some ninjutsu training, Kazuki spotted a familiar face—Uchiha Shisui. The guy wasn't in his usual Anbu gear today; instead, he wore standard Uchiha attire and carried a bag of groceries.
"Shisui, hey. What's up?" Kazuki burped and scratched his belly with a grin.
Shisui's expression was a little odd. After doing several missions together, he'd gotten to know Kazuki a bit better.
In Shisui's opinion, Kazuki was strong, clever, and skilled—but his logic? That was something else entirely.
He still remembered a friend once whispering, "Is your captain mentally stable?" because what kind of sane person hurls Great Fireballs at the sky for fun, burning through chakra like it was nothing?
"Captain, want to come to lunch at my place? The clan head's son is hosting a celebration," Shisui asked with a smile. Kazuki's eyes drifted to the bag—looked like gifts, typical for a formal event.
"The clan head's son…" Kazuki immediately thought of Sasuke. Yeah, it'd been a while since both Sasuke and Naruto were born.
While the term "first birthday" or "Zhua Zhou" didn't really exist in the shinobi world, there were similar rituals. Celebrations, 100-day feasts, all kinds of odd customs.
The Naruto world felt more grounded here—more real. Naturally, that meant strange traditions were bound to emerge.
He'd once seen people scrubbing themselves at a public bathhouse during a festival. Suzaku had explained it was a minor holiday ritual. Apparently, weird little traditions like that were just normal here.
"I already had lunch—at the Akimichi family's barbecue joint," Kazuki patted his stomach and apologized politely. Honestly, he wasn't in the mood for a formal lunch. Plus, Danzō had been eyeing him lately. Getting too close to Shisui right now might paint a bigger target on his back.
"Ah, that so? I'll bring you something later then! There's tons of good stuff today!" Shisui didn't push—just looked a bit disappointed. Kazuki offered some blessings in return and even bought a few pieces of fruit for Shisui to bring along.
Shisui left happily. Kazuki watched him go, humming softly. He realized now that the timeline was already shifting. He couldn't rely on the anime's events anymore—he'd need to stay flexible.
Still humming, he headed home. But just before he reached his doorstep, he ran into another familiar face.
Uzumaki Kushina.
"Oh, Kazuki! Did you eat lunch yet?" Kushina asked with her usual warmth. Kazuki couldn't help but smile wryly. What was with today? Konoha was supposed to be a big village, and yet he'd run into two people he knew back to back.
"Yeah, I already ate, Aunt Kushina. Are you taking Naruto for a walk?" Kazuki glanced at the baby in her arms. Clearly, that was the plan.
She might have seemed alone, but Kazuki knew for sure there were at least two ANBU teams shadowing her from a distance.
"Yup~ Little Naruto gets bored cooped up in the house," Kushina beamed. Kazuki rubbed his forehead and stayed silent.
Looking at the baby—now officially named Namikaze Naruto—Kazuki's expression grew a little complex. The change from Uzumaki Naruto to Namikaze Naruto might ripple through the future. Who knew what the consequences would be?
But one thing was for sure: it would take years before Naruto grew up.
Kazuki had no plans to wait that long.
A decade or more was too much. He figured that by the time Naruto was old enough, he himself would be cruising through the sky, casting massive Fire Release techniques from atop a chakra mecha, blasting Uchiha Madara back into the dirt.
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