Chapter 111: Replacement
Minato Namikaze did not speak, he simply snapped his fingers.
The world overlapped, intersected, flipped, and then returned to calm.
Minato's talent in space time ninjutsu was unimaginable. As a self taught user, he wielded the Flying Thunder God Technique, created by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, with unmatched mastery.
During his time in the Konoha Ninjutsu Research Institute, he absorbed its theories and technologies like a desperate sponge, constantly turning them into his own power and weaving them into his techniques.
In terms of technique development and the mastery of all kinds of space time ninjutsu, Minato had evolved to a level almost impossible for normal people to even picture. Within Konoha, he had already stepped into a near godlike realm. The land, the air, the environment, everything around Konoha bore his marks. The same was true for Konoha's ninja.
If ninjutsu is developed to its ultimate extreme and every possible variation is explored, then teleporting everyone to another dimension with a snap of the fingers, like now, becomes entirely possible. It was something only a ninja like Minato, who had pushed every space time ninjutsu variation and capability to the limit, could accomplish. With this alone, he could have defeated Hiruzen back then.
As the space around them blurred into an expanse where sky and water seemed to merge, almost a pure white world, everyone finally saw clearly who Minato had brought with him.
Minato, Tsunade, and Dan Kato, all in white haori. Kakashi Hatake and Sakumo Hatake in their Hueco Mundo gear, white stand up collar trench coats. Orochimaru alone in traditional robes. And then the figure standing farther away, wrapped in ominous black chakra, wearing a Konoha vest like a rampaging beast.
Within that dark surge of chakra, only a pair of crimson eyes, spinning like windmills, fixed themselves on Sakumo. In the blink of an eye, a violent torrent of chakra burst out, dyeing the pure white space in layers of black mist.
So here was a small question. Among all these people, who was truly loyal to Konoha?
Everyone knew that those wearing white haori belonged to Aizen's faction. Minato was the Hokage. Tsunade was the granddaughter of the First Hokage.
How were you supposed to solve this? Was there something wrong with this whole picture?
The man who had charged in like a mad beast froze for a moment when he took in the lineup, and his wild killing intent immediately faltered.
He glanced left and right, scanned the faces around him, then lowered his head in thought for a moment before finally fixing that intense gaze on Sakumo again. The raging flames of chakra roared up around him once more, turning into a tangible pressure that crashed down on the returning visitor.
"Sakumo Hatake. You have come back to the village again. What are you planning to do to the village this time?"
"Who is this...?"
Staring at the figure wrapped in black chakra, Sakumo frowned, then leaned closer to Minato and whispered in confusion.
"Is he from the Uchiha clan? Why is he looking at me like I killed his father? Did I ever do anything to him? I do not remember."
"Go, go, go..."
Why are you, a rogue ninja, leaning in on me like this? Get away from me.
As Sakumo edged closer, Minato, wearing his white haori, stepped aside with an expression full of distaste. The black clad creature opposite them was momentarily stunned.
It was not entirely his fault. The situation was simply too surreal, and the relationships between everyone present were absurdly complicated. He could not just fight, but he could not not fight either. It felt like everything had been building up to a massive brawl, and yet after a few sentences, the anger did not feel quite as simple as it had at the start.
"...It is me."
Within that torrent of black chakra, the hoarse, grating voice slowly smoothed back into its original tone.
Uchiha Kagami, the Uchiha ninja who had once been manipulated by Aizen, had somehow awakened a second stage of power and now possessed strength far beyond before.
The immense surge of chakra even made Sakumo widen his eyes. He looked the man up and down, studying the enemy he had literally torn apart once, unable to hide his surprise.
As if the malice, ugliness, and pain of his past had been compressed into something new, an ominous aura seeped out of the black chakra. Within it, those crimson eyes slowly turned as they locked onto Sakumo's relaxed figure.
"It is understandable that you want to protect your son. But I must take my revenge on Aizen. I must make him pay for what he did to me."
"Then let him pay. It is not like we are stopping you."
"..."
"Oh, is this that weird logic of yours again? You have to find one of Aizen's subordinates first, prove your strength against them, and only after proving yourself are you allowed to go to Aizen and defeat him head on. Otherwise, it does not count as a real victory, right?"
As Kagami stood there in silence, the air around him starting to twist, Sakumo let out a helpless sigh and glanced at his son.
"Even if it is a bit different from the plan to have more people watching, it does not really change much, does it?"
"Should we still do it the way Aizen wanted?"
"I do not mind a bit of ceremony."
"But at my age, doing that kind of thing is a little embarrassing..."
"It is just right for someone my age. Kakashi, you need to be a bit more optimistic sometimes."
"Heh."
Kakashi gave his father an awkward little smile, then turned to the others who were watching.
None of them interfered with the conversation between Sakumo and Kagami, because what they had just said carried a critical piece of information. The class of power capable of replacing shinobi would begin to reveal itself in this fight.
Neither Kakashi nor Sakumo, the two representatives, gave off any sense of fierce rivalry. Even as Kagami quietly formed hand seals and the surrounding chakra started to tremble, Kakashi did not spare him a glance. Instead he turned his back on the imminent clash and spoke to the others in a low voice.
"To be honest, connecting to the network was partly for fun and partly because we had our own needs. Inside Aizen's Las Noches network, combatants are identified and ranked by numbers through simulated battles. Normally, only the top twenty receive numbers, and unfortunately, we happen to be in that top twenty."
"What is really annoying is that Aizen always goes overboard with the theatrics, so he insists that we display those numbers somewhere visible on our bodies. But putting them where everyone can always see them is a bit much, so we made a few small changes."
"However, I think Aizen was just waiting for us to do that. Afterward, he announced a rule that we have to show our numbers whenever we fight outside. So, I am sorry you all have to see something so unpleasant."
Kakashi and Sakumo exchanged a glance, then turned back to the Konoha ninja and opened their mouths with similarly resigned expressions.
"Number 06, The White Fang of Nothingness, Sakumo Hatake."
"Number 17, Future Return, Kakashi Hatake."
As the two of them spoke and revealed the numbers on their teeth and tongues, everyone present felt a chill run down their spine.
They all knew the true level of Aizen's rebel force. It was a gathering of monsters, including a large portion of Konoha's former top combat power.
Just the three Mangekyou Sharingan users from the Uchiha clan alone had all joined Aizen's side. Add to that a large number of jonin, elite members of the Konoha Research Institute, and so on. Out of hundreds of Konoha's strongest, making it into the top twenty meant an absurd level of power.
And from what they had just heard, these rankings were well deserved. They were earned through countless simulated battles. The weight of that prestige was terrifying. Even without counting an outlier like Aizen, judging only by the potential implied by these ranks, any one of them might be on the level of an Uchiha with Mangekyou, or even beyond.
"Be careful, Hokage. What is really terrifying is not their ninjutsu, but their other techniques."
"Huh? Oh, right."
I was not planning on fighting.
Watching the dark figure rush straight at Sakumo without a word, Minato was a little lost as to why he would be the one getting that warning.
Then he saw Kakashi looking at him. That gaze carried no hint of respect for the Hokage. Instead, it held challenge, and a quiet, tightly wound excitement.
It was as if he had been suppressed for a long time and had finally found a chance to let everything burst out. That look instantly dragged Minato's memories back to a year earlier, when everyone had still been together in Konoha, and the afternoon sun still felt gentle.
Back then, Kakashi had worn that same expression when he, as a jonin, had stood there stubbornly challenging Minato.
But at that time, Kakashi's strength had not been nearly as frightening as people liked to imagine. With only ninjutsu at his disposal, he had been effortlessly toyed with by Minato again and again.
Looking at him now, it was clear that he had gained a very different level of confidence.
"...No way."
"This is a personal grudge."
Looking at Minato, who seemed troubled, Kakashi slowly drew his sword, reversed the hilt, and drove the blade into the ground.
"Give him what he wants, or I will accept it in your place."
"Do not fight here. Neither of us can move freely in this space."
A flash of light cut across the world, and in that instant, two pairs of figures were flung to opposite ends of another space.
Left behind, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Dan looked at one another, completely unsure what they were supposed to say in the middle of this chaotic situation.
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