Chapter 109: Awkwardness
Minato Namikaze had imagined meeting them countless times.
For example, on a dark, rainy night, he would unleash his Limitless Breaking Light Silver Wheel Three Styles, defeat Aizen, and then roar at him, demanding to know why he had betrayed the village and betrayed him.
Or, under the bright sun in Konoha, the two of them would exchange hundreds of blows using familiar techniques. In the end, Minato would use his newly developed Celestial Maiden Return Limit Breaking Pressure Exploration Seven Style to reverse Aizen's ninjutsu, beat him unconscious, and lock him in a basement.
Of course, Kakashi and Sakumo would also appear in these imagined confrontations, but usually only as background support characters. Because for Minato, the only thing that truly lodged in his heart was Aizen's betrayal.
If it had not been for Aizen, Minato might still be hiding in the shadows. He might have continued to rely on Kushina alone, treating her as his number one support, and would never have truly fallen in love with the village and with the world.
But it was Aizen who taught him how to love this world. Because of him, Minato found his lover, found what he cherished, and then had to face this cruel reality.
Even now, as Hokage, possessing a power that only five people in this world held, and in some ways being the strongest and most capable shinobi alive, Minato still played out those scenes in his head every night before sleep.
He had never once imagined that Kakashi and Sakumo would appear in front of him so casually, and greet him with such indifferent expressions.
"Oh."
"Is that Minato Namikaze? It is not the first time we have met, but congratulations on becoming Hokage."
"..."
Why does he look at me like that? As if a relative just crawled out of a grave and is calmly cooking dinner in his kitchen.
"Don't mind him. He has always been this awkward."
"..."
Watching father and son mutter to each other, then calmly turn back to the signal tower, Minato was completely lost.
Who is this rogue ninja?
You betrayed Konoha, caused a huge incident, and even though no one died and the economy was fine, you still vanished and built Las Noches in the ruins of Uzumaki Village. And now you come walking into the chakra signal tower of all places, treating it like your own backyard and chatting about your business? Are you not going a bit too far?
Seeing the two white haired men in front of him completely ignore his existence, Minato's heart filled with suppressed rage and hostility. He gritted his teeth, stomped his foot, and landed beside them, still not striking.
"So? What exactly did you two come here for?"
"Huh? Did I not just say it? We came to hook it into the Land of Fire network."
Kakashi raised his head from beneath the seemingly complex chakra signal tower, glanced at Minato's strange expression, then casually waved the intricate stone slab in his hand.
"Also, it seems you have been tricked by the Sand and Rock ninja. The only truly important part of this signal tower is this receiver and converter. It is expensive, sure, but from what I heard, the price you paid was at least one digit too high. You can even erase some of those fancy looking patterns. A few of them interfere with the signal and might cause brain damage if you use it as is."
"What nonsense are you talking about, you brat! We constructed everything exactly according to the design plans."
"I never said you did not. I am saying the design plans themselves might be flawed. But that is something for Konoha and Sunagakure and Iwagakure to argue about later. It will not have much to do with me."
Wearing a white stand up collar trench coat and a pure white mask, Kakashi expressionlessly shut the lid of the chakra signal tower.
With a strange buzzing hum, a peculiar sensation rippled through everyone's minds.
It was similar to the signal of the Moon Dream he had once felt, a tug that pulled his consciousness away. However, compared with the direct pull of the Moon Dream that dragged a person to the moon while they slept, the guidance of this chakra signal tower was far gentler. It even required one to actively accept and comprehend it before that strange layer of perception settled into their mind.
Because this signal tower and receiver were built atop the collective will of the people, actually using its broadcast and linked functions was almost instantaneous. In that single instant, Minato roughly understood the specific functions of the chakra signal tower. Simply put, it worked exactly as the Sand and Rock ninja had described when they sold it.
The chakra signal tower in Konoha could receive signals and abilities from those with the proper authority, constructing imagined battle fields and training environments.
However, because there was only one coordinating module, the base plate of the chakra signal tower, it was currently impossible to implement any many to many hybrid mode beyond a one to one link.
Other specific functions, such as leaving messages, instantly transmitting notices, or tagging people he cared about, had all been sealed by Minato through access restrictions. Everything that touched the minds of his own people had to be thoroughly checked before entering daily use.
After all, this was completely new ground. Compared with the chakra manipulation techniques Konoha had been familiar with, this expansion of genjutsu derived from the Moon Dream made Minato instinctively cautious. But that caution was precisely what a Hokage needed.
He had to be responsible for more than just himself. He had to be responsible for the village, and for everyone living in it.
While Minato was testing functions in his mind, Kakashi casually kicked a rather ugly test device out of a nearby ditch.
"Reverse engineering is done. Data is fully read. All that is left is to link it to Hueco Mundo encoding. Though making one from scratch would be a bit of a pain."
"It is not that much trouble..."
"If you only want to play on the Hueco Mundo local network, then it is fine," Kakashi said flatly. "Besides, you are not even close to the strongest person there, are you?"
"Hahaha... now you are just being mean. But I am still in the top twenty, you know. Even as just a combat squad captain, I can rank in the top twenty without simulated Bankai. That is not too bad, right?"
"A combat captain should at least be top five."
"That is impossible. Those people in front of me barely count as human anymore. And there is Aizen's creation among them. That guy is overpowered. We absolutely cannot beat him."
"Eh..."
"..."
Oh. So that is how it is. You two made some ridiculous new technology, played with it yourselves first, and when you could not find anyone strong enough to match you, you just decided to dump it on this world, right?
Minato's face darkened.
He wanted to shout at them, denounce their behavior, but after thinking about it, he suddenly realized he did not even know which "side" they stood on anymore. In the end, he stayed silent, unsure what to say.
This was wrong.
Logically, they should be clashing with roaring shouts, exchanging jutsu like rain, forcing each other to bare everything in a raging, beautiful, cruel battle for the sake of the ninja world.
So why had it become like this?
Following behind the two of them, Minato was completely confused.
The two showed no intention of concealing themselves. They simply walked straight down the road into Konoha.
Yes, right into Konoha Village.
Wearing an eye catching white stand up collar trench coat and carrying a long sword at his waist, he walked directly into the village without any disguise whatsoever.
He even greeted the Uchiha gate guards, who were clearly losing their grip on reality.
"Yo, Tetsuya. Thanks for guarding the gate."
"Oh, Squad Leader Hatake..."
Wait. Something is off here, right?
Watching Kakashi casually lead a soot covered Minato and Sakumo into the village, Uchiha Tetsuya rubbed his eyes hard.
As a three tomoe Uchiha still living in the village, he wondered if he was hallucinating.
Was he really seeing the village's rogue ninja, Hatake Sakumo, and the allegedly rogue Kakashi, walking side by side with their own Hokage into Konoha?
So it had all been a lie from the very beginning?
Was the great Tetsuya facing yet another test of faith?
The other Uchiha exchanged helpless looks, clearly at a loss.
Forget the Uchiha. Even the shinobi from the mutual aid squads and patrol units they passed on the street were completely stunned.
They watched as Kakashi, Sakumo, and Minato walked straight into Ichiraku Ramen and, with practiced ease, ordered ramen from Teuchi.
"Oh, three bowls of ramen coming right up!"
Teuchi, an ordinary civilian with no idea what was going on, shouted toward the back to his daughter, then turned and beamed at Kakashi.
"By the way, Kakashi, it has been quite a while since you came by for ramen. It has been almost three months, hasn't it? Are you getting busier at the Academy?"
"It is just that Aizen's side keeps getting more troublesome."
"Well, there is nothing we can do about Lord Aizen's matters. He must be grooming you as his successor. Just like Minato became Hokage, you will definitely become someone great in the future, Kakashi."
"I hope so."
Although, I still do not know how to define what being truly "great" even means.
Kakashi replied casually, then, when the ramen arrived, ignored the dozens of subtle gazes from all directions, pulled down his mask, and began to eat.
Beside him, Minato sat with a bowl of ramen in his hands, watching Kakashi and Sakumo slurp their noodles, his thoughts a tangled mess.
He had no idea what he should say.
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