Iruka tilted his head and noticed the man beside him wearing an unusually dark expression.
Even though Minato Namikaze and the others had used Transformation Technique to conceal their real appearances to avoid causing a stir in Konoha, no disguise could suppress the aura he released when he was angry.
Then, as if giving the group a history lesson, he suddenly said:
"The Uzumaki clan was once the nobility of Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools. Later, they formed close ties with Konoha and the First Hokage. Some members of the clan eventually settled in Konoha, where they lived and thrived."
This was the first time Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and many others in Konoha had ever heard anything about the Uzumaki clan.
Minato continued, "The crest on the back of every Konoha jōnin vest is the Uzumaki crest, symbolizing the bond between Konoha and the Uzumaki. Even though Uzushiogakure was destroyed, the Uzumaki will always be part of Konoha."
The two Kusagakure boys were only genin. Bullying the "outsider" they'd always treated like a servant back home was one thing, but in a major village like Konoha, they didn't dare act so cocky. They didn't really understand what the Konoha ninja was saying, but they sensed enough to wonder whether they should still be eating—or how they'd ended up offending him in the first place.
At this point, they were probably even more nervous than Karin had been earlier.
One boy stammered, "W-what does K-Konoha's business have t-to do with us?" All we did was eat ramen! It's not like we didn't pay!!!
Minato didn't answer. Instead, he simply snapped his fingers.
ANBU stationed nearby by the Hokage dropped down silently, one after another, surrounding the trio.
The squad leader glanced at Karin, then stepped up to the three Kusagakure genin.
"This girl's identity needs to be reverified. If she truly belongs to Konoha's Uzumaki Clan, then Kusagakure must explain why it has been privately detaining a descendant of one of Konoha's most important clans."
That statement alone completely shattered the composure of the two inexperienced Kusagakure boys who only knew how to bully their own teammates.
Especially after hearing what the blond man said:
A noble from the Land of Whirlpools?
A clan connected to the First Hokage?
So important that Konoha engraved their crest onto every jōnin's vest?!!
That "outsider"?!!
With a background like that?!!!
Her mother… apparently…
Had been used to death by ninjas from their own village—drained until she collapsed.
Before Karin was taken away, Minato quietly paid for her bowl of ramen, and Teuchi set the freshly prepared bowl in front of her.
Karin was terrified. She had no idea what disaster she'd stumbled into, nor who this blond man and his companions were, or why they had such overwhelming authority in Konoha.
Minato hadn't revealed his identity, but when reporting to the Hokage earlier, he had regained certain permissions. He had to deal with this world's masked man and with Danzō Shimura before he could leave.
Naruto tugged on his dad's sleeve. "Who is she?"
Truthfully, Minato didn't know the name of this girl who looked about Naruto's age. He only recognized her chakra and red hair—both unmistakable traits of the Uzumaki clan.
Minato hoped that after he was gone, Naruto could at least have a clan relative by his side. So he let Naruto ask her himself.
Naruto didn't hesitate. He darted right to the ramen counter.
"My name's Naruto Uzumaki! I'm gonna be the greatest Hokage one day. What's your name?"
Looking into eyes bluer than the sky, clear as polished glass—
Karin's gaze seemed to hold nothing but those blue eyes.
"—So blue…"
"Your name's Blue? That's a pretty weird name, dattebayo."
Karin jolted, realizing she'd spoken her thoughts aloud.
"N-no, I… I'm Karin."
"I see," Minato said with a smile. "Karin Uzumaki, huh? That's a very good name."
Naruto was slow on the uptake, only now realizing what his father meant: this girl—whose hair matched his mom's—was a clan relative!
His eyes widened even further.
Karin felt the same. Though she'd understood the Konoha ninja's words earlier, she had never imagined having any family besides her mother.
All her life, she and her mother had been "outsiders"—stateless, belonging neither to Kusagakure nor anywhere else. Her mother had never once told her about their surname or clan.
As she stared at the dazzling Konoha sunlight, memories flashed: the dark medical room in Kusagakure, her mother's dying face, the bite marks covering her own body. Naruto Uzumaki's cheerful voice recommending ramen echoed in her ears, and her vision blurred as her eyes stung.
She asked softly who the blond man was.
Minato thought for a moment before answering, "Just an ordinary son-in-law of the Uzumaki clan."
"..."
Asuma, passing by, considered the only two Uzumaki sons-in-law Konoha had ever had… His eyes drifted toward the Hokage Rock, and the cigarette in his mouth fell straight to the ground.
Sasuke watched Naruto, joyful to discover he still had a clan relative, and once again thought of Obito's mission.
After Obito Uchiha left… the only clan relative Sasuke had left in this world was Itachi Uchiha.
In his dark eyes, a faint sadness flickered.
…
After that, Karin and the Kusagakure ninja were taken away by Konoha Special Jōnin and ANBU.
Under Iruka's lead, Team Kakashi took a short break, then went right back into the one thing Naruto hated most: book study.
...
With less than five days left, the difficulty of his S-rank mission had Naruto going all in.
He even used Shadow Clones to study with him.
But no matter how many shadow clones he made, Naruto Uzumaki was still Naruto Uzumaki. After three to five minutes of studying, dozens of clones would collectively go on strike: some fell asleep, some spaced out. It made Iruka Umino realize that managing one Naruto Uzumaki was basically like managing an entire school year's worth of students.
At least the headcount was there...
This year's Chūnin Exams included not just shinobi from other villages and Konoha's genin who'd failed in previous years, but also the standout rookies from Naruto's own class—
Asuma's team, the Ino–Shika–Chō trio!
Kurenai's team: Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame!
And the slightly older team led by Might Guy!
Iruka collected information on all the teams participating in this round of Chūnin Exams.
With their instructor "irresponsibly" running off to take missions, Kakashi's team was undergoing the strictest possible last-minute exam training.
Compared to them, Minato's team was dying of boredom.
They couldn't take missions, and they had absolutely no way to help with Obito's A-rank task. One by one, they were about ready to go plant fields with Zabuza and Haku...
Speaking of Haku and Zabuza.
At that same time, the masked man once again arrived in the Land of Waves.
When he dug up Haku and Zabuza's graves—
"The corpses… really are fake!"
A few days earlier, he'd seen someone impersonating Yagura Karatachi giving orders to Zabuza and Haku. Thinking Madara had been revived early by someone else, he'd rushed back to that rift between hell and reality to look for Madara's corpse.
But Madara's body was still there, and Black Zetsu didn't seem to be lying.
That forced the masked man to return to the Land of Water—Kirigakure—for another investigation.
No matter how he searched, he found nothing.
Instead, he heard from the returning assassination squad that the "Fourth Mizukage" had told them Haku and Zabuza had already been killed by Konoha ninja?!
Never mind that the real Fourth Mizukage had never left Kirigakure. Those idiot ANBU hunters didn't even stop to think: they had set out first, and Yagura didn't know any Space-Time Ninjutsu. How could he possibly have beaten them to the Land of Waves by several days?!
In a rage, the masked man posing as Yagura wiped out the entire useless squad.
With no other choice, he came to the Land of Waves himself...
Which led to the scene now: he ordered two White Zetsu to dig up Haku and Zabuza's graves.
Sure enough, the two bodies inside were fakes.
"What do we do now~?" White Zetsu #1 groaned dramatically, leaning on his shovel.
White Zetsu #2 poked at the corpses. "Should we go to Konoha~?"
"Oh, right!" The clever little head of White Zetsu #1 seemed to light up. He smacked his fist into his palm. "I heard the Chūnin Exams are about to start. If we go now, we can grab both the One-Tails and the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki at the same time~"
"What do you think, Tobi-chan, should we go?"
The masked man had no patience for the two Zetsu doing their comedy routine.
He pulled his body into the Kamui space of his right eye.
Inside that silent void where nothing existed, he needed to think carefully about exactly which part of the plan had gone wrong. Why had another Yagura Karatachi—one so much like himself—suddenly appeared? And why would that person go so far as to protect Zabuza, a completely useless Missing-nin?
Without his Mangekyō Sharingan, even Black Zetsu couldn't enter this other dimension.
The masked man took off his mask, revealing his true face: the entire right half wrinkled and warped.
If anyone from Team Kakashi or Minato's team had been there, they would've felt that this masked man looked strangely familiar.
More mature now, more weathered, his former recklessness buried beneath a heavy calm.
In his eyes there was no simple hatred—only loathing for this boring world, and a cold, unwavering resolve to escape it.
The masked man's true identity...
Was none other than the target of that SSS-rank mission, [Kill the Masked Man]—
Obito Uchiha.
He had once been the comrade of this world's adult Kakashi. Fourteen years ago, he hadn't died at Kannabi Bridge, yet in a sense, he had died the moment his Mangekyō awakened...
Obito Uchiha.deep, blood-red Sharingan stared into the darkness and emptiness of the Kamui space.
It was just like his heart—long since emptied of everything.
…
A light drizzle fell as the river roared past, swift and turbulent.
The black straw hat did little to shield anyone from the rain, and the black cloak patterned with red clouds clung to their bodies, soaked through.
In weather this wretched, the shark-featured man still let out a low, amused chuckle as he asked his companion, "Itachi-san, you seem to be in quite a good mood."
"..."
The black-haired man called Itachi said nothing.
Kisame didn't mind the silence. "You only ever close your Sharingan when you're in a good mood."
Itachi: "....."
A good mood? If one could call it that...
It was simply that when cold rain washed over him, his heart found a brief moment of quiet.
A life shackled by sin, a soul burning in karmic fire.
Only in moments like this could he dare forget his original sin for just one breath.
After the last Akatsuki meeting, he was supposed to report Konoha's situation to Madara as a double agent.
But for some unknown reason, Madara hadn't appeared—something that allowed Itachi a faint sense of relief.
Kisame was the watcher Madara had placed at his side.
Itachi understood this perfectly. Even so, Kisame might obey Madara, but he wasn't someone who enjoyed causing trouble. Since that was the case, Itachi didn't mind his presence.
But this rare, fragile calm shattered the moment a spatial vortex appeared beside him.
The crimson Mangekyō Sharingan opened once more.
From within the swirling void, a man stepped forward...
"I need you to go to Konoha."