"Is that so?"
The white-robed man soared into the sky, a savage grin spreading across his face. He raised a single hand, and a sphere of black and red energy—a chakra ball forged from yin and yang—rapidly coalesced above him.
"A Tailed Beast Bomb?" Namikaze Minato's expression turned grim. It was the last thing he wanted to see.
The wide-area devastation of a Tailed Beast Bomb was a life-threatening attack.
Otsutsuki Urashiki was an enemy from his own world, an otherworldly visitor. However, due to Uchiha Nagi's intervention, history had been slightly altered, and Minato had chosen not to seal his own memories, thus surviving.
Naturally, he became one of the strongest Hokage in history, even sealing half of the Nine-Tails within himself as a personal power source.
By the time he passed the title of Hokage to his student, Kakashi, Minato had already mastered Sage Mode, becoming the third person after Hashirama Senju and Jiraiya to successfully do so.
Faced with the strongest Hokage in history—the "Yellow Flash," the fastest shinobi in the world—the otherworldly invader met with repeated failure. Finally, in desperation, he chose another path.
He traveled through time to the past, thinking the shinobi world of old wouldn't have so many powerful individuals. He would just capture the Tailed Beasts from a past era.
But he never expected the Yellow Flash to follow him. Armed with mastery over chakra nature transformations, Sage Mode, the Flying Thunder God technique, and half of the Nine-Tails as a backup battery, Minato had given Otsutsuki Urashiki a severe beating.
"Hahahaha! But this time, you're a step too late! I've already captured Shukaku! The power I'm using now is his! Have a taste of a Tailed Beast's ultimate skill, the Tailed Beast Bomb!"
Otsutsuki Urashiki laughed maniacally, hurling the Tailed Beast Bomb down from the heavens. But an attack like this wasn't enough to stump Namikaze Minato.
Minato produced a kunai, holding it horizontally in front of him with both hands. As the Tailed Beast Bomb descended, it was drawn into the vortex of his space-time ninjutsu. A dense web of space-time formulas materialized in the void, successfully teleporting the attack away.
BOOM!
A massive mushroom cloud erupted in the Forest of Death, far from Konoha. The wave of superheated energy flattened the entire forest. The Konoha ninja, who had just finished repelling the invasion, were left stunned by the scene.
Anyone with a bit of knowledge could recognize that technique as a Tailed Beast Bomb—the most powerful "nuke" in the shinobi world. Had a Tailed Beast appeared?
Many sensory ninja turned their attention in one direction, for it was there that several powerful presences had just emerged.
"Ninja Art: Multiple Shadow Shuriken Jutsu!" Minato tossed a three-pronged kunai into the air and formed a hand seal. A dense cloud of over a thousand kunai soared into the sky, sealing off all of Urashiki's escape routes.
[Flying Thunder God Technique]
"Is that? Sensei's Flying Thunder God?" Amaru, Kimimaro, and the others stared in astonishment at the golden flash in the sky.
Namikaze Minato showed them exactly what it meant to be the Yellow Flash. His blond hair was a blur as he zipped between the kunai scattered across the sky. Meanwhile, Urashiki used one of the unique abilities of his Rinnegan to constantly predict the future, finding the perfect positions to dodge.
For a moment, the sky was filled with streaks of white and yellow, their movements so fast that the onlookers on the ground could only see a flurry of afterimages.
Without the advanced perception of a Mangekyo Sharingan, it looked as if two people were using hundreds of shadow clones to battle in the heavens.
"Hey, that old guy knows my Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto exclaimed curiously.
[Hmph, idiot,] the Nine-Tails inside Naruto sneered.
"Who are you calling an idiot, you stupid fox?! You better believe I'll make things difficult for you from now on...!" Naruto stomped his foot, fearlessly yelling at the beast sealed within him.
[Moron, imbecile...]
"You...!"
Kimimaro and the others, unaware that Naruto was arguing with the Nine-Tails, just stared at him strangely. Is this kid alright? He's talking to himself...
The battle in the sky reached a fever pitch. Eventually, the shadow shuriken began to fall, pulled down by gravity, bringing Minato's assault to a temporary halt. He teleported back to the ground.
High above, Otsutsuki Urashiki laughed. "You humans are so useless. No matter how powerful you are, your inability to fly will always be your greatest weakness."
"And your Flying Thunder God requires coordinates. That will always be the flaw in your space-time ninjutsu. As long as I watch out for your kunai, you can't touch me."
"Hahahaha—"
Urashiki cackled. So what if he was the fastest shinobi in the world? If he couldn't win on the ground, he could win in the air. As long as he stayed airborne, Namikaze Minato would be helpless against him.
Moreover, his Rinnegan had an ability different from Madara's: it could predict a few seconds into the future. That was how he could so easily evade all attacks.
"Is that so?"
A cold voice spoke from directly behind Otsutsuki Urashiki.
What?
Urashiki was bewildered. Where did that voice come from? Just then, his Rinnegan foresaw an extremely dangerous image: he was being attacked by a man with an unbelievably profound sword style, a single form containing hundreds of slashes that would mince him into paste...
Yomotsu Hirasaka.
It was a space-time ninjutsu that only Otsutsuki clan members with the Rinnegan could use, allowing them to travel freely through dimensions.
But he was a step too late.
[Sun Breathing, Thirteenth Form: Round Dance]
The twelfth form, "Flame Dance," shared a similar name with "Round Dance." Thus, the cycle from the first to the twelfth form was completed in this final, circular dance.
The twenty strikes of the Round Dance slammed into Otsutsuki Urashiki's body. He had only half-activated his space-time jutsu; an arm and a leg were too slow to escape. They were pulverized by the twenty-hit combo of the Thirteenth Form.
"Argh...!"
Blood rained down from the sky. Otsutsuki Urashiki reappeared in another location, his face a mask of fury and terror as he stared at the man who, like him, was flying in the sky.
"Sensei!"
"Sensei's here!"
"Lord Sword Kage has arrived!"
Kimimaro and the others from the Swordsmith Village began to cheer. Uchiha Nagi, however, simply stared coldly at Urashiki. He recognized this guy.
No wonder Blondie was willing to cross dimensions and had warned of a powerful future enemy. It was this clown.
Damn it. The wings of this little butterfly have flapped too hard, Nagi thought. Not only did I keep the parallel world's Blondie alive, but I also brought out the Otsutsuki clan. No, to be precise, this is the world of Boruto.
The good news is, this Otsutsuki seems pretty weak compared to the peak powerhouses of our world...
Otsutsuki Urashiki stared at Uchiha Nagi in shock. "You can use the Flying Thunder God, too? No, that's not right. You don't even need kunai as coordinates. You're using a space-time ninjutsu? A Mangekyo Sharingan?"
Urashiki saw the pattern of Nagi's Mangekyo and understanding dawned. "I see. Your eyes possess a space-time ability. No wonder you can teleport to my side without coordinates."
That was why he had been caught off guard. His Rinnegan had predicted the attack, but he hadn't been able to dodge it. It didn't matter. He could fly. What was a missing arm and leg? He could still move freely in the sky.
And with Shukaku's power, regenerating his body was only a matter of time.
Nagi also found his opponent extremely troublesome. His own flight, using Magnet Style, wasn't as agile as Urashiki's. It was like the difference between Gaara flying on a cloud of sand and Onoki flying under his own power; the latter was far more flexible and fast.
But he had another way.
[Magnet Style: Multiple Shadow Shuriken Jutsu]
Nagi threw a single kunai and recreated the earlier scene. The difference was that while Minato's kunai fell with gravity, his floated in the air, endlessly circling under the control of his Magnet Style.
A thousand kunai swirled around Otsutsuki Urashiki. In the next second, Nagi vanished.
[Damn it, the prediction...]
Urashiki's Rinnegan flickered with images of the next few seconds. No matter how he dodged, he would be hit. The reason was that his opponent wasn't just using the Flying Thunder God with its coordinates; he was also using Mind Teleportation, which required no anchor at all.
The latter was completely unpredictable. No matter how Urashiki used his Rinnegan to predict the future, there was always a fifty-percent chance of being hit.
"Just you wait! I'll be back for revenge once I've gathered all the Tailed Beasts!"
Otsutsuki Urashiki shot a venomous glare at Uchiha Nagi, activated Yomotsu Hirasaka, and vanished.
Nagi watched him disappear and sighed internally at his miscalculation. He should have planted a Flying Thunder God mark on him first. He'd thought a sneak attack would be enough to kill him.
He had not only misjudged his opponent's ability to use space-time ninjutsu, but he also hadn't known his Rinnegan could predict the future.
Uchiha Nagi frowned. It seemed that every individual's Rinnegan had slightly different abilities, just like the Uchiha's Sharingan, the "eye that reflects the heart."
But this Otsutsuki was a bit strange. He was strong, in a way—he had easily hooked Shukaku out with a fishing rod. But he was also weak—a single close-range Sun Breathing combo had nearly killed him.
"Are you all alright?" Nagi retracted his Magnet Style and slowly descended to the ground, asking Kimimaro and his group.
"We're fine, but Kimimaro and Amaru..." Karin looked worriedly at the two of them.
Amaru had nearly had the Zero-Tails ripped from her, injuring her spirit, while Kimimaro's use of his Shikotsumyaku had worsened his bloodline disease.
"It's alright. We'll head back to the village first. I've found a way to treat him. As for Amaru, she'll be fine after some rest." Nagi could tell the extent of their injuries with a single glance.
The Zero-Tails wasn't one of the nine great Tailed Beasts. Its jinchuriki wouldn't die if it was extracted. In the original story, Amaru hadn't died after Shinno took the Zero-Tails from her; she was just severely spiritually wounded.
At that moment, the blond man was saying his goodbyes to Naruto. His body was acting strangely, beginning to glow.
He walked over to Uchiha Nagi. "The power of this spacetime is already rejecting me. The more power I use, the faster the rejection becomes. I'll be returning to my own time soon."
Uchiha Nagi chuckled. "What is it you want to say?"
Minato's voice was heavy. "As someone from another world, I know you harbor a deep-seated grudge against the Uchiha's fate. But the enemy of the future poses a grave threat to the entire shinobi world. You saw them today. They are the Otsutsuki clan."
"And if the shinobi world is destroyed, what's that to me?"
"..."
Nagi cleaned out his ear. "But, seeing as you saved my students... as for your little blond brat, as long as he doesn't come looking for trouble with me, I won't make things difficult for him."
"For that, I thank you. Otsutsuki Urashiki will now be gathering the nine Tailed Beasts here. I hope you can help stop him..."
Before he could finish, Minato's body dissolved into a flash of white light. The force of spacetime was ejecting him, just as it had in the ancient land of Roran. He vanished on the spot.
As for sealing everyone's memories, Minato couldn't be bothered. After all, he had changed history himself. His world was now one reality, and Uchiha Nagi's was another.
Though they had once been the same, they were now parallel worlds. The proof was that in this world, Namikaze Minato was still dead, along with his wife, and Naruto was still an orphan.
So, Minato could only sigh. But at the same time, he felt a bit of joy. No matter what happened in this world, it wouldn't affect his own.
"The Otsutsuki clan... this is getting more and more chaotic," Nagi muttered, his head aching. He then looked down at a speck of flesh on the ground—a piece of Urashiki's hand that had been left behind.
He took out a storage scroll and sealed it away.
Otsutsuki clan DNA was worth collecting. Although it was different from Kimimaro's, it all went back to the same source. Kaguya herself was an Otsutsuki; they shared a common ancestor.
"Um, Sensei... a lot of people are coming," Karin said, closing her eyes to sense their surroundings. She moved to Nagi's side. Her Mind's Eye of the Kagura, a biological radar, had detected a large force of Konoha shinobi heading their way.
"It's fine. If they dare to make a move, I'll cut them down," Nagi said flatly.
Nearby, the little blond boy, Naruto, had his eyes darting around, plotting something as he stealthily backed away.
Nagi glanced over just as the main Konoha force arrived. Leading them were Kakashi and Guy, along with members of other smaller clans.
"Uchiha Nagi, you reanimated the Uchiha clan and went on a killing spree in Konoha..."
Guy looked ready to fight, but he wasn't confident.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. What of it? You want to try something? Look up at the sky before you decide." Nagi smiled and pointed upwards.
In the sky, ten thousand meters up, Nakime, having been alerted by Nagi, had already piloted the Sky Fortress into the Land of Fire, where it had remained hidden.
The Sky Fortress's main cannon began to preheat. The massive chakra cannon fired a single shot towards the Forest of Death.
BOOM!
Another mushroom cloud rose into the air. The Konoha pursuit team stared at it in stunned silence.