"What do you mean, Lord Kaito? Of course it was an accident", Hinata asked, confused.
[You know, I have been thinking about it, but there is no way I was the one who taught you, right?]
Hinata reacted with surprise for a second, but after a moment, the innocent smile disappeared from her face, deciding to stop pretending.
"So you figured it out, huh? That is right, you disappeared exactly five days into the future counting from today. I had not even been born yet".
[It was pretty obvious, I just never stopped to think about it. Besides, the only one who would continue with this after I leave is Kaguya].
"Yes, Lady Kaguya, I love her as much as I hate her".
[Why?]
"Well, in my childhood there were two people who basically raised me. The first is Lady Kaguya, the second is Lady Kushina.
But while Lady Kaguya treated both of us the same for a time, as soon as she realized that by going back in time I could save you, she focused completely on me, ignoring Lady Kushina entirely".
[Even if it sounds selfish, it does not sound like a reason to hate her, right?]
"That is because you do not know", Hinata said in a deep voice, as if an important topic had been touched for her. "For Lady Kushina, loneliness is the worst thing anyone could do to her. After all, besides Konoha, the entire world hated Lady Kushina".
[The entire world, huh?] Kaito murmured. Although he felt pity for a second, it quickly passed, being hated by the world is something she accepted from the beginning and Kaito was ready to even take her out of that world later.
'But I will not be there anymore', he suddenly realized.
"Lord Kaito, do you know what Lady Kushina always wanted?"
[...to be loved], Kaito replied.
And at his answer, Hinata smiled, an impotent smile.
"Hehe, if you had answered 'to be Hokage'", she murmured. "But in the end, the one who knows Lady Kushina best will always be Kaito, the person she waited for so long, but who never came back".
[I will prevent her from being alone this time, you do not have to worry about that].
[Better tell me, what is your goal?]
"Of course, my goal is for the entire world to hate Lady Kushina", Hinata replied with a smile, as if she were saying something completely normal.
[Did that not already happen?]
"No, you are wrong", Hinata shook her head. "Last time, the entire world hated Lady Kushina, except Konoha.
But this, far from being something good, became a cage. Despite being hated by the entire world, Lady Kushina remained as Hokage, always giving her best. Even while thousands of people threw stones at her in the streets, she stayed there for that one person who gave her flowers. That is the personality of the kindest and cruelest Hokage in history.
No, more than kindness, it is selfishness. Lady Kushina clung to that little bit of love Konoha gave her and was willing to live in a world where she was hated just to keep receiving that love".
[World?]
"That is right", Hinata replied. "With the exchange system I can trade anything, even people. But when I offered Lady Kushina to go to your world, a world where she is not hated, she rejected the idea, she stayed here, because of Konoha".
[So your plan is for the entire world to hate her from the start so that Kushina agrees to leave?]
"That is right. With small actions like the one with Orochimaru before, I will create a Konoha that does not trust her. That when the entire world hates her, it joins the side against her.
It may sound harsh, but in the end, it is all for Lady Kushina's sake".
'Yeah, that is the kind of thing Kaguya would think. Or at least a more unhinged version of her', Kaito thought with irony, realizing the similarity between this situation and when Kaguya made hundreds of Lords kill him just so Kaito would take Gaia more seriously.
[I am here this time, I will not leave her alone. And even if she does not want to, I will take her out of the ninja world in the end. You do not have to do that nonsense].
"But, Lord Kaito, I do not trust you", Hinata said without stopping smiling at any moment.
[You will not be able to continue your plan if I stop giving you technology].
"It does not matter, I already told you that you will disappear in five days".
[What if I come back this time?]
"In that case I will not need to do this anyway, right?"
[...It seems you planned everything too well].
"I had a good teacher".
...
"Good teacher, huh?" In his room, Kaito murmured, not really knowing what to say.
At least Hinata did not turn out to be an enemy, if an enemy knew his entire future, it would be terrifying.
"But it does not matter, the future will start to change soon anyway".
Kaito had complete confidence that he would return safe and sound from wherever he disappeared to.
For now, the only thing Kaito knew about the situation is that he would disappear out of nowhere.
As for how he knows he disappeared and did not die, that is because Hinata and Shiho used the term disappear the entire time and never die. Gaia has numerous ways to confirm if someone is dead, so there should not be such a mistake, especially considering that Kaguya is literally the concept of death.
"So in the end, does it all come down to trusting my luck?" Kaito muttered with a frown. No matter how much luck he had and how well it had worked, leaving everything to luck left a bad taste in his mouth.
The last time he did it, when he had a curse, he did not think much about it and decided to trust it, but now it was different, he had witnesses from the future who told him what happened.
And that made him realize that dying would not only be bad for him, other people would be hurt and would live in loneliness or even madness because of him.
While Kaito thought about that, a nearby artifact began to react.
The communication sphere on the furniture next to the bed began to blink.
"What is it now?" Kaito wondered before answering.
Since he got the sphere, he had only received calls from one person, so he did not really wonder who it was.
"Luna, what is it?"
"Kaito, are you... okay?" Luna asked as she saw Kaito's state.
"Yes, just... I have not been resting well lately and I have a lot on my mind".
"I see. I will pray to the gods for you to get better", she said kindly, worried.
"Thanks, I guess", Kaito said, hearing gods only reminded him of another topic. "By the way, what did you need?"
"Yes, I have some news, although I do not know if it is good or bad".
"Oh?" Kaito said with curiosity.
"It turns out that the Darkfrost house actually swore loyalty to a Lord. While everyone else is preparing to attack you, the entire Darkfrost house gathered in that Lord's territory, so they stood out easily. I will send you their location, although I do not fully understand the dynamics between Lords, if you subjugate that Lord you could have the entire Darkfrost house at your service".
After chatting for a while longer, Luna said goodbye, quickly sending him the information she mentioned.
"As expected, it is Yukinoshita's territory", Kaito murmured, having already guessed it.
After all, she is the only powerful Lord left in the dark forest who has not been subjugated.
"Either way, I have nothing to do right now".
Just like that, Kaito headed toward Yukinoshita's territory, a territory that only still existed because interfering with mid level territories would be suspicious and draw attention from the elven capital.
But now that they had already been discovered, it did not really matter.
...
Yukinoshita's territory is located in the northwest area of the mid level zone of the black forest, separated by about 3000 kilometers from Kaito's territory in the same zone.
That means it only took Kaito about 2.7 minutes to get there.
However, before entering, he stopped, because he sensed a barrier around the territory.
The strange thing was that he could feel that the barrier was strange.
It was not dangerous and he did not feel like it would harm him, but he was sure it would do something that Kaito could not avoid.
With all that, the exact word he found to describe it was precisely that, strange.
"System, do you know anything?"
[Yes, but I cannot detail those things to Lords or it would be cheating. At least I can tell you it is not dangerous].
"I had already realized that", Kaito muttered, realizing the system would not be useful this time. "I am supposed to still have five days before disappearing, right? I do not think it is this".
Finally, he decided to cross the barrier, entering the territory.
In seconds he appeared in front of the ice castle at the center of the place and passed through a wall, heading toward the only sign of life inside it.
Kaito saw how the girl opened her eyes in surprise only to disappear the next second in a bright golden light.
In reality, at the speed she disappeared, Kaito could have caught her.
The problem, Kaito also disappeared from the place, wrapped in the same golden light as the girl in front of him.
The room fell into absolute silence due to the disappearance of all life within it.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)