"Dad!"
At this moment, Boruto rushed down from the hilltop and trotted up to Naruto, his eyes shining.
"That glowing technique you just used was so cool. You were glowing all over, flying, and shooting out pew-pew beams of light. And that technique where you kicked the Raikage away... Hurry up and teach me, I want to learn."
"Want to learn? Sure. It just depends on whether you have the talent for it." Naruto smiled.
"Really? Don't worry, Dad, I'll definitely be able to learn it." Boruto patted his chest, looking confident.
He was already fantasizing about the scene where he would show off in front of Sarada after learning this technique.
"Naruto!"
Just then, a loud shout came from afar.
Naruto turned his head to look in the direction of the voice, and saw a trail of dust rolling forward. At the front of the dust was a humanoid figure, legs moving incredibly fast.
Jiraiya's running posture couldn't be called graceful but he was fast. It took less than ten seconds from his appearance to running to the edge of the battlefield.
He skidded to a halt in front of Naruto, his shoes grinding a shallow mark into the ground.
"Jiraiya-sama!"
The three Anbu saw Jiraiya arrive and bowed simultaneously.
Jiraiya nodded at them, then rushed to Naruto in a few strides. Before he could even catch his breath, his eyes fell on the three people lying side by side on the ground.
A, Darui, and C!
The current Raikage of Kumogakure, along with his two most capable personal guards, were lying on the ground of the Land of Fire.
"You... you already took care of them?"
"Pervy Sage, why are you here?" Naruto asked.
Jiraiya scanned Naruto's face, and then scanned Boruto, who was standing next to him.
Jiraiya withdrew his gaze from Boruto and spread his hands towards Naruto. "I rushed here without stopping as soon as I got the news. But it turns out I was still too late."
Looking at Naruto's clean windbreaker and the fact that he hadn't even gasped for breath, then looking at A, who was barely clinging to life on the ground, Jiraiya looked regretful.
He wanted to see with his own eyes how Naruto faced the Fourth Raikage head-on. Given the scene before him, this battle was most likely a one-sided affair.
"You came just in time, Pervy Sage. If the Raikage isn't treated in this state, he'll probably die."
"Take them back to Konoha and have Granny Tsunade keep him alive for now. Then Granny Tsunade can send a formal letter to Kumogakure in Konoha's name, telling them to bring something to exchange for him."
"Indemnities, border treaties, forbidden techniques—you can handle the negotiations for these terms yourself."
"Anyway, I only have one request: don't let them go easily."
"By the way, Pervy Sage, I'm quite interested in Lightning Release Chakra Mode and the Heavenly Transfer Technique."
"Huh? I just ran here and you're already telling me to go back?"
He revealed a meaningful grin. "You kid, you really know how to pick the good stuff. Lightning Release Chakra Mode and the Heavenly Transfer Technique are Kumogakure's trump cards."
"If these things are put on the negotiating table, those old geezers in Kumogakure will definitely be in so much pain that they'll want to eat you alive, but since we have the Raikage in our hands, they'll have to swallow it whether they like it or not."
"By the way, aren't you planning to go back?" Jiraiya asked.
"I have some things to handle here, I'll go back in a couple of days." Naruto said.
As he spoke, his gaze swept over Boruto. The movement was very subtle, but Jiraiya caught it.
He followed Naruto's gaze toward Boruto, whose facial contours were almost exactly like Naruto's, as if cast from the same mold.
As someone with an intelligence background, he was very sensitive to these kinds of things.
A child who looked remarkably like Naruto, who was also being brought along by him to carry out a mission, and whom Naruto subconsciously glanced at while speaking.
Putting these pieces of information together, his mind had already begun to form several guesses.
Jiraiya opened his mouth, then closed it again. He chose to trust Naruto's judgment. Regardless of who this child was, where he came from, or why he was here, since Naruto had brought him along, it meant this person was trustworthy.
"Alright then."
Jiraiya nodded. "Take care of yourself."
Then, he crouched down to examine A's injuries. After confirming that A would not die for the time being, he called over three Anbu to help.
The three Anbu supported the Raikage, Darui, and C separately, preparing to return to Konoha.
"If there are any problems, use the Flying Thunder God Technique to notify me."
Having said that, Jiraiya disappeared into the night with the Anbu.
Watching their figures disappear into the night, Naruto touched his left eye.
It was a pity that Kotoamatsukami had not yet recovered. Otherwise, he would have gained another like-minded companion.
"Dad, aren't we going back to the village?"
Boruto had been standing next to Naruto waiting for a while. Seeing his dad keep touching his eye without speaking, he couldn't help but ask.
Naruto took his hand down from his eye and looked at Boruto. "Didn't you say that guy called Urashiki is coming to find me?"
"Since he's going to come looking for me sooner or later, we might as well wait for him here."
"This is the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Springs. There isn't anyone for dozens of miles around, so fighting here won't affect Konoha."
Boruto suddenly realized, tapping his fist into his palm. "I see."
At this moment, another voice rang out from his side. "Waiting here is to separate the battlefield from Konoha."
Sasuke walked out, his gaze focused on Naruto. "You are worried that Urashiki will rush straight into the village. If we fight outside, at least Konoha won't be dragged into it. That's what you're thinking, right, Naruto?"
Sasuke had been observing the entire battle from the shadows, from Naruto using a strange light to ambush the Raikage, to the Rasenshuriken crushing the Lightning Release Chakra Mode head-on, and then to Jiraiya arriving to handle the aftermath.
He had to admit that the Naruto of this space-time was calmer and more decisive in tactical thinking and battlefield judgment than the Naruto he knew.
"That's right."
Naruto nodded. "Along the boundary line between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Springs, there are no settlements on either side. Once we let loose inside the village, the damage caused wouldn't be as simple as just restoring the groun—"
He was about to continue speaking when he suddenly paused. Feeling something, he abruptly turned his head to look at a clearing a hundred meters behind Boruto and Sasuke. Golden light suddenly exploded from his entire body and he shot straight out.
After flying about three hundred meters, Naruto suddenly dived downward, plunging into a bush.
The ground immediately erupted with a dull explosion, and the clods of earth and shrub fragments kicked up by the explosion splattered in all directions.
Boom!
Boruto turned his head and saw Naruto's figure shuttling through the firelight of the explosion at an incredible speed, and then suddenly plunging into the ground.
Sasuke's reaction was a beat faster than Boruto's. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan lit up, tracking Naruto's flight path and landing point through the Sharingan's dynamic vision. His gaze locked onto the woods, and his Chakra perception also rushed over simultaneously, attempting to capture the movements over there.
Just then, a streak of golden light shot back from the direction of the bushes. The light stopped abruptly in front of the two, and Naruto's form solidified.
As soon as Naruto appeared, it could be seen that he was clutching a white thing in his right hand, which was still struggling desperately.
White Zetsu.
"Oh no, I've been discovered!"
The White Zetsu in Naruto's hand grinned with an exaggerated expression.
Sasuke's pupils shrank, and he immediately recognized the origin of this thing.
These things lurked in every corner of the Ninja World. Their Mayfly technique allowed them to travel freely underground, making them extremely difficult to detect with conventional perception.
During the Fourth Great Ninja War, he had seen an army of thousands of White Zetsu, and he knew deeply how terrifying this creature was as an intelligence network.
"Dad!"
Watching the White Zetsu struggling in Naruto's hand, Boruto subconsciously struck a fighting stance.
Naruto looked down at the White Zetsu in his hand with a cold sneer. He pulled a blank sealing scroll from his ninja tool pouch. Then he formed seals with one hand, and sealing runes spread from his fingertips onto the scroll.
The White Zetsu's face twitched the moment the Fuinjutsu lit up, and then its entire body was pulled into streaks of white lines and sucked into the scroll. Naruto rolled up the scroll and tightened the strings at both ends.
"It seems this place cannot be used as a battlefield."
Watching Naruto's fluid sealing operation, Sasuke was silent for a moment before nodding.
The Naruto of this space-time was so proficient even in Fuinjutsu. In his memories, Naruto only started learning Fuinjutsu after becoming the Hokage.
Naruto turned around, taking the two of them to quickly leave this battlefield that had just been restored to flatness not long ago.
While moving at high speed in the night, he secretly calculated.
The commotion from the battle with the Raikage just now was too great, attracting a White Zetsu. A White Zetsu suddenly disappearing would inevitably arouse Obito's vigilance.
He had probably received the news by now, and given his personality, he would definitely come to the scene to investigate in person before long.
However, for now, he had to deal with Urashiki first. There was no time to play hide-and-seek with Obito.