The young Obito Uchiha turned in a slow circle, recognizing almost everyone present.
Only when his gaze finally landed on Ebisu did he hesitate.
"Uh… who are you?"
"It's Ebisu!!"
"Why am I the only one you forgot?! Damn it!"
Those he had recognized all cried out in disbelief.
"Obito?!!"
Obito Uchiha—who had been dead in their world for nearly twenty years—was standing right in front of them again, looking exactly as he had back then.
"Pretty shocking, huh?"
Rin Nohara slipped out from behind Obito and Kakashi, smiling playfully as she looked at their former classmates.
"It really is unbelievable," she said.
"When we heard you were coming today, we were all so nervous. Obito, Kakashi, and I even made a bet about whether we'd be able to recognize everyone when we met."
"Rin!!"
Anko Mitarashi threw herself straight into Rin's arms, crying so hard she nearly wiped her nose all over her.
"Rin!"
She sobbed, her voice breaking as she called her name.
Rin's expression softened.
"I'm sorry, Anko…"
She was apologizing on behalf of the version of herself from this world, and to her friends as well.
When they were kids, they'd promised that if anyone ever got a boyfriend, they'd report it immediately. They'd also sworn to keep their routine of going to the Amaguriama sweets shop together whenever they weren't on missions. Somewhere along the way, all of that had fallen apart.
Kurenai felt a pang of sadness too.
A streak of golden light flashed past.
With a gentle smile, Minato Namikaze spoke up.
"I hate to interrupt, but why don't we go inside and talk?"
His eyes flicked toward the items each of Kakashi's classmates was carrying.
"You really came well prepared."
There was even alcohol. What they had planned was obvious.
"Fourth Hokage-sama!!!"
The Fourth Hokage's guards—Genma Shiranui, Raido Namiashi, and Iwashi Tatami—shouted in unison.
Minato had no choice but to explain again, a little awkwardly.
"Even though I'm the Fourth Hokage in your world, Kakashi, Obito, Rin, and I all come from before the Kannabi Bridge mission. So for now, I'm just an ordinary jōnin."
Even so, the guards—who hadn't seen him in over a decade—were already beside themselves with excitement.
They could barely contain the urge to pour out everything they'd wanted to say to the Fourth Hokage of this world, all to the Minato Namikaze standing right in front of them.
"All right, you guys," Adult Kakashi said, rubbing his temples in exasperation. "Where was all this sentimentality in your day-to-day lives?"
He glanced at the red clouds along the horizon and urged them on.
"Let's talk inside. It's about time to start cooking."
Kurenai and Anko looked a little surprised.
"You're cooking yourself?"
Young Obito and Rin Nohara spoke at the same time.
"Kakashi's cooking is really good! We've eaten it before!"
Young Kakashi spoke up calmly. "Even if it were me and my other self, the two of us still couldn't make enough food for all of you."
Minato Namikaze smiled.
"I can help too."
Naruto froze on the spot. He hadn't even known his dad could cook.
Lately, Rin and Sakura had been handling most of the meals. Sometimes Haku would make extra out of personal interest, and other times they would simply grab takeout from Konoha's commercial district. Minato Namikaze had never really been given a chance to show his skills.
But everyone here had once been his students or subordinates. How could they possibly let him cook?
Besides, they had all brought more than enough food for themselves.
Kurenai Yūhi had brought a homemade bento, an enormous box with enough for everyone to get a taste.
On top of that, she had prepared a dress she had specially chosen for Rin, along with makeup like lipstick and eyeshadow.
She still remembered Rin saying she wanted to see what she would look like when she grew up, so Kurenai had carefully prepared all of this.
Oh, right. There was also a long wig in the same color as Rin's hair.
Anko Mitarashi was the same as ever. Despite being a woman, she could be surprisingly scatterbrained, and her souvenir gift turned out to be more than two hundred skewers of dango…
The only one who might actually be pleased by that was probably Itachi Uchiha. Heh.
Asuma Sarutobi was just as straightforward. Even though he had said earlier that he wouldn't be going to the Yakiniku Q gathering, the food he brought back from Yakiniku Q was still enough to fill more than half the people here.
Like him, Ibiki Morino had also brought meat dishes.
A solid, no-nonsense pot of stewed meat. If the container hadn't looked so much like an instrument of torture, it would have been even better.
Hayate Gekkō was very thoughtful. He had bought Obito Uchiha a lot of sweets he seemed to like back then. Not knowing exactly which ones were his favorites, he simply bought a little of everything.
Genma Shiranui, Raido Namiashi, and Iwashi Tatami had all brought takeout from restaurants along the shopping district. The three of them had also brought plenty of alcohol, clearly planning to make sure no one stayed sober.
There was one more person present.
Ebisu.
In order to leave a good impression on the Fourth Hokage and the legendary "future Seventh Hokage," he had spent a full three months of his salary reserving an ultra-premium seafood feast, all so he could appear more "rule-savvy" among the group.
Adult Kakashi looked around.
"Where's Guy? He didn't come?"
"He went to get Iruka," Genma said. "That guy always finds an excuse to turn these things down."
Hayate Gekkō laughed while coughing.
"And that's exactly why you guys are still single."
Because they were all classmates who knew each other far too well, even though more than ten years had passed for them, the three teenagers—Obito, Kakashi, and Rin—didn't feel awkward sitting among them at all. If anything, they chatted happily.
Especially Obito. Back when he had been the dead last of the class, this was the first time he hadn't been overshadowed by Kakashi in front of everyone.
The only thing that felt a little strange was the way they were handing him things.
Why did it feel so much like offering tributes at a grave?
Seeing their hesitant expressions, Obito spoke up directly.
"After we came here for some special reasons, we learned about the future and even returned to our own era two or three times. The mission at the Kannabi Bridge has already been completed perfectly!"
"I will return safely to Konoha."
He quietly shifted the meaning from "I didn't die" to "I will return safely to Konoha."
"And I've awakened the Sharingan," Obito said, pointing at his own eyes before glancing in the direction of Young Kakashi. "And that dumb Kakashi didn't injure his eye either! All in all, it's something worth celebrating, really worth celebrating!"
"That's really great! Cough… cough, cough…"
"You're still the same as ever?" Obito looked at his childhood friend Hayate Gekkō with a conflicted expression. Back then, they had all been afraid that Hayate wouldn't live to adulthood and would die young from illness.
Hayate finally managed to suppress his coughing.
"My lungs aren't great. It's congenital. I've held on for this many years already, so I probably won't die that easily."
Obito rolled his eyes.
"You should seriously think of a solution. I heard you even got a girlfriend, didn't you? You should at least try to get healthier."
At the mention of Yūgao, Hayate couldn't help smiling. At the same time, he started giving off a thick, lovestruck aura that made Genma, Ibiki, and the others want to stay far away from him and Asuma.
"By the way, why are there people from the Kirigakure Village here?" Ibiki Morino asked after taking a sip of sake.
Just as Adult Kakashi was about to answer, a very clear disturbance came from outside.
It was unmistakably the sound of fighting.
In an instant, every ninja's expression changed as they rushed outside.
What greeted them were three or four thick, square wooden pillars. Might Guy, who had just arrived, was frozen mid-kick, his foot planted firmly against one of them. The point of impact had shattered badly, but the wood had still managed to block the blow.
Ordinary wood wouldn't have appeared here in the first place, much less stopped a kick from Might Guy.
So…
"Wood Release?!"
Looking toward the other end of the wooden pillars, they saw the Konoha jōnin they had encountered earlier. His name seemed to be Yamato.
Over by the wooden apartment building, others who had heard the commotion stepped out as well.
There weren't many of them. Zabuza Momochi, Haku, and Itachi Uchiha.
As for Kisame Hoshigaki, he was the source of the conflict itself, currently being held back behind Captain Yamato.
Might Guy leapt back a few steps and stopped beside Iruka Umino, who had arrived with him. Both of them were visibly on guard.
Kisame raised both hands.
"I didn't do anything. That strange beast kicked me without warning the moment he saw me."
Might Guy was just as stubborn.
"It's Konoha's Green Beast, not a strange beast! But speaking of which…"
He stared straight at Kisame, then asked in a completely earnest, airheaded tone.
"Why can a shark talk? And why can it walk on land instead of staying in the sea?"
"..."
The air turned awkward.
Already used to Might Guy's way of thinking, Kakashi quickly signaled to Yamato, telling him to take the others back first. He would handle Might Guy and the rest himself.
When Naruto spotted Iruka-sensei arriving, he immediately went over to lead him inside.
Seeing that Iruka-sensei had brought him a half-prepared Ichiraku ramen, Naruto pounced on him and clung tightly, loudly declaring that Iruka-sensei was his favorite.
This left Adult Kakashi, who was busy ushering Might Guy and the others inside, muttering inwardly about where the Naruto who had once said "Kakashi-sensei is my favorite" before the Chūnin Exams had gone.
Naruto just grinned, flashing a huge smile.
Seeing that even genin like them seemed accustomed to having ninja from other villages living next door, Kurenai, Asuma, and the others followed Kakashi's lead and returned to the old Kakashi residence.
Everyone here was either a jōnin or a special jōnin. As the only chūnin present, Iruka felt he probably wouldn't be able to contribute much, so he used helping Naruto cook ramen as an excuse to head into the kitchen.
With Iruka-sensei there and ramen on the way, Naruto was so excited that he kept swaying back and forth in anticipation.
Sasuke, sitting beside him, told him to stop moving around or he would bump into him.
Naruto snapped back that he was stingy.
The way the two of them interacted made many people think of the young Kakashi and the young Obito from back then.
But right now, what they wanted to figure out more was what exactly was going on with those ninja from other villages.
Minato Namikaze explained,
"Kisame Hoshigaki is a Missing-nin from the Kirigakure Village and also a key member of the Akatsuki organization. We have temporarily sealed his chakra and his spine, leaving him unable to move normally. Due to certain special circumstances, we can't hand him over to the Mizukage-sama, and we haven't found a better way to deal with him, so we can only place him here for now. I was the one watching over him before. Now that responsibility has been passed to Yamato, who inherited the First Hokage-sama's Wood Release."
"The other two are Zabuza Momochi and Haku," Adult Kakashi continued, picking up where Minato-sensei left off. "They're also Missing-nin from the Kirigakure. Because of some special missions in the past, we helped them fabricate death certificates. With nowhere else to go right now, they're staying here temporarily as well."
Originally, Zabuza and Haku had stayed here because they shared a common enemy.
But now…
No one had expected that the man controlling the Fourth Mizukage was the very 'hero' Kakashi had gone to pay his respects to almost every day, someone who should have been engraved on the Memorial Stone long ago.
Kurenai Yūhi casually remarked,
"The Land of Water has been enforcing an isolationist policy for years. What's really been going on inside?"
She said it without much thought, not expecting anyone to actually answer.
But while the speaker had no intent behind it, the listener took it to heart.
The young Obito Uchiha stiffened for a brief moment.
Fortunately, he quickly moved past it.
Because someone even more tactless shifted the topic elsewhere.
Ebisu spoke up,
"Didn't I just see a Missing-nin from Konoha among those people? Wasn't it that Itachi Uchiha who wiped out his own clan?"
The moment he finished speaking, combined with Kurenai's earlier question, a subtle and awkward tension filled the air.
Sasuke's expression darkened instantly.
Naruto, having dealt with Ebisu before, knew exactly what kind of person he was.
To shut up this guy who had once looked down on Sasuke and never filtered his words, Naruto pointed straight at him as if only noticing him now and shouted,
"Ah!! That perverted sensei who got a massive nosebleed from my naked body!!"
What do you mean your naked body?!
Ebisu panicked.
Wasn't it you who used the Sexy Jutsu back then?!
You were the one attacking me with the Sexy Jutsu, okay?!
Kids, don't just strip things down to the essentials like that! People can die from this!!
Ebisu's heart rate shot up instantly, hitting one hundred and eighty beats per minute.
Sure enough…
He felt a wave of killing intent crash over him.
Naruto's words made Minato Namikaze's 'overprotective father antenna' snap straight up.
That sharp gaze locked onto Ebisu as if he were an enemy standing on the battlefield of the Third Shinobi World War.
"Could·you·please·explain…"
"…what·exactly·my·beloved·child…"
"…meant·by·those·words?"
Each syllable was deliberately emphasized. When he reached the words "my beloved child," Minato even pulled Naruto behind him protectively, as if worried the creep might look at him one more time.
"..."
...