Chapter 388: An Old-Fashioned Love Story
Amamiya Kenichi's expression became complicated.
He truly had not expected this to be the reason Anko betrayed both him and his teacher.
"So…"
Amamiya Kenichi pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on.
He never imagined that one day, he would personally witness such a strange case of one-sided puppy love in the Ninja World.
If this kind of plot appeared in some idol drama, Amamiya Kenichi would not be surprised. He might even mock it and wonder how long it had been since he had seen such a clichéd story.
But for it to happen in the Ninja World, right beside him, was genuinely painful.
"Because Minato Namikaze talked to you about the Will of Fire and the bonds of the Village, you decided to betray me and Teacher?" Amamiya Kenichi looked at Anko in front of him, his heart full of mixed emotions.
Anko lowered her head and said nothing.
It was unclear whether she was embarrassed or simply unwilling to speak. But seeing her attitude, Amamiya Kenichi knew that this unfortunate junior sister of his had fallen far too deeply. She was the type to hit a wall and still refuse to turn back.
However, considering that the person she liked was named Minato Namikaze, Amamiya Kenichi strangely felt that it was somewhat understandable.
After all, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was handsome, charismatic, and powerful. If he had not been devoted to the Scarlet Habanero and possessed decent character, he probably could have easily earned the title of Konoha's number one playboy.
Jiraiya once said that compared to Minato Namikaze, every other genius seemed dimmer.
It could be said that Minato's ability to defeat his teacher and become the Fourth Hokage had a great deal to do with his personal charisma and character.
Strong, handsome, and gentle in temperament.
Minato could indeed be called a maiden killer.
Amamiya Kenichi just never expected that this time, the one he had "killed" would be his own junior sister.
What was even more ridiculous was that his junior sister had truly fallen for him to this extent.
If this were a novel, Amamiya Kenichi would have cursed the author for being too outrageous.
"Since you know he is Minato Namikaze, you should also know about the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and his wife, right?" Amamiya Kenichi sighed as he looked at Anko.
At the same time, he was curious about something else.
Had Anko ever revealed Minato's fate?
Although Anko probably did not know much, she only needed to tell him that Minato died not long after becoming the Fourth Hokage, along with Kushina. Then Minato would have been able to take precautions.
So the question arose.
If time was treated as a line, and Anko had traveled back into the past and informed Minato of his death, then normally, the timeline should have changed. But if the timeline changed and Minato did not die, then Anko would not have informed him of his death in the first place.
It was like a chicken hatching from an egg, then traveling back in time and laying an egg.
Could that egg be the very same egg it had hatched from?
Because of that, when it came to the future and time travel, most supplementary explanations suggested that the moment the future was changed, the timeline branched off into a new path and embarked on an entirely different road.
"Yes, I told him. But Big Brother Minato said the future was full of variables, and knowing about them would only add to his troubles, so he sealed his memories." Anko spoke more than usual for once.
Amamiya Kenichi's mouth twitched.
This was truly interesting.
Perhaps this was also a patch for the movie version?
"Then how do you still remember?" Amamiya Kenichi asked again.
"When I… when I came back, the seal was broken. Then my memories…"
Anko lowered her head, but her meaning was clear.
Amamiya Kenichi pinched his forehead.
He understood now.
His junior sister had encountered a strange opportunity of her own. Although he did not know how she had managed to travel through time when that was clearly supposed to be Naruto's opportunity, she had indeed done it.
She had even met the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Afterward, it became an old-fashioned story of falling in love during an adventure.
Yes, just like how heroes always needed to be defeated first, then rise again to defeat their enemies. It was a very old-fashioned story.
When Amamiya Kenichi had watched Hollywood blockbusters in his previous life, he had noticed that this formula applied to nearly every action-adventure film.
Superhero works especially followed this pattern. The superhero was defeated by the villain, grew stronger, and finally defeated the villain in return.
And in films aimed at young girls, it was completely normal for the girl to fall in love with the righteous hero.
If this were a movie world, then it would probably develop into all kinds of melodramatic love, hatred, and entanglement.
Unfortunately, this was the Ninja World.
And as far as the Fourth Hokage was concerned, Amamiya Kenichi found that Minato truly had no impression of Anko.
That proved one of two possibilities.
Either Minato's sealed memories had never been opened, or the Minato that Anko had met and the Minato in this world were not the same person at all.
The Minato whom Anko met had already stepped onto another timeline.
"So you planned to inherit the will of your crush, protect Konoha, and uphold the Will of Fire?" Amamiya Kenichi sighed.
This reason truly…
It made him want to laugh a little.
Amamiya Kenichi looked at his junior sister, a hint of pity in his eyes.
In the Ninja World, shinobi were relatively pragmatic. After all, no one knew whether death or tomorrow would arrive first.
But his junior sister had been blinded by love to the point that she returned to Konoha to uphold the Will of Fire.
Amamiya Kenichi felt that if she had been given a gene from the Uchiha Clan, she probably would have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Anko said nothing. She simply kept her head lowered in silence.
Amamiya Kenichi took a deep breath, rubbed his face, then walked straight out.
Anko still kept her head down and did not move until Amamiya Kenichi closed the door behind him.
"How was it?" Outside the door, his teacher was leaning against the wall, typing something on a computer. He asked without stopping his hands.
"A bit funny." Amamiya Kenichi shook his head.
He truly did not know what to say.
His junior sister was actually a hopeless romantic?
Perhaps he should have let her stay in Konoha back then and instilled hatred toward his teacher into her. In that case, this junior sister of his might not have gone astray.
The current Anko was purely love-struck, to a laughable degree.
"So what do you think should be done?" His teacher asked without raising his head.
He, too, had been saddened by Anko's misfortune and angered by her lack of ambition.
For Orochimaru, love was simply too illusory.
But no matter what, Anko was now like someone poisoned. Her attitude was extremely difficult to deal with.
Amamiya Kenichi's mouth twitched.
This question was truly chilling.
In the current situation, even Amamiya Kenichi did not know how to handle it. It seemed that sealing her memories of this period was the relatively reliable option.
However, sealing techniques were inherently unstable.
Who knew when the seal might be undone? What if Anko herself undid it?
Would that not be a waste of effort?
Therefore, physically making her lose her memory seemed like the more reliable option. Or perhaps she could remain in his teacher's laboratory. Although she would lose her freedom, at least she could still live.
But for Anko, that choice might be worse than death.
"Teacher, you can decide. After all, you are the teacher." Amamiya Kenichi wisely chose to pass the problem back.
It was better to let someone else worry about this kind of matter. If others worried, then he would not have to.
His teacher looked up at Amamiya Kenichi and sneered.
He knew this sly brat would say that, but he had already thought of a countermeasure.
So now, what needed to be done was…
But before Orochimaru could say anything, Amamiya Kenichi directly dispersed in front of him.
Orochimaru froze.
Then his face turned red.
This little brat had actually used a Shadow Clone in front of him?
And then ran away?
Did he know what Orochimaru was about to say?
Orochimaru admitted that he had indeed been a little careless. After all, that little brat Amamiya Kenichi had always been synonymous with honesty and dutifulness, so Orochimaru's guard against him was not high. In fact, it was very low.
Because of that, Orochimaru had not realized that the person standing before him was a Shadow Clone.
It was like Uchiha Madara facing Black Zetsu standing behind him, never imagining that the other party would suddenly use Black Tiger Steals the Heart.
"Very good, very good. My two wonderful students." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, then licked his lips.
So this was how they wanted to play?
"Teacher really is… But thankfully, I was prepared. I just didn't expect Anko to become like this."
Meanwhile, in the Land of Waterfall, Amamiya Kenichi rubbed his temples.
He had just received the memories transmitted back by his Shadow Clone, and thus understood his junior sister's recent situation.
Amamiya Kenichi had felt that dealing with his junior sister would be troublesome, so he had prepared to pass the burden along. Thus, while bringing Hikari back to the Land of Snow, Amamiya Kenichi had sent his Shadow Clone to follow his teacher.
Now, it seemed that decision had been absolutely correct.
His teacher's expression at the time clearly indicated that he planned to kick the problem back to him.
Fortunately, the Shadow Clone had dispersed. Otherwise, Amamiya Kenichi would be the one agonizing over it now.
Amamiya Kenichi shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
Now that he was in the Land of Waterfall, his teacher could not find him, so he could focus on his own affairs. As for his love-struck junior sister, he would let his teacher worry about her.
"I remember the leader said the organization's base is currently in the Land of Waterfall, but I don't know the exact location…"
Amamiya Kenichi touched the ring on his hand.
He usually did not wear rings. He had long since passed that edgy age.
However, without the ring, finding the Akatsuki's new base would not be easy.
So he obediently put on the ring and sent out his thought waves.
Soon, he learned the location of the Akatsuki's new base.
Takigakure.
"Takigakure? I remember that village is quite hidden. I wonder…"
Amamiya Kenichi raised an eyebrow.
That damned place, Takigakure, was rather secretive. Previous wars had rarely affected this country.
After Amamiya Kenichi entered the Land of Waterfall, he discovered that the people in this small country lived quite happily. Smiles were often visible on their faces, and smiling itself was something that only happened when a person was genuinely happy, unless they suffered from some special illness.
But it was impossible for everyone in the Land of Waterfall to be ill.
Therefore, the happiness index of the people here had to be relatively high. Otherwise, they would not all seem so cheerful.
"Oh, right. Kakuzu."
Amamiya Kenichi thought of the reason.
That scoundrel Kakuzu was a rogue ninja from Takigakure. With him around, the Akatsuki could indeed use Takigakure as their base.
Amamiya Kenichi did not use an airship. There were not many airships above the Land of Waterfall, and using one would easily draw attention. Moreover, this small country itself was not very large. If a ninja had enough stamina, they could cross the border in a short while.
Taking an airship would be far too troublesome.
Soon, Amamiya Kenichi saw the location of Takigakure.
A giant waterfall.
Just by looking at the waterfall, no one would think there was a hidden world behind it. But Takigakure was concealed precisely in this place.
Oh, right. It probably was not called Takigakure anymore.
The current Takigakure had most likely already taken on the shape of the Akatsuki.
"So it's the Water Curtain Cave, huh?"
Amamiya Kenichi stretched, then entered.
After passing through the waterfall and arriving at Takigakure, Amamiya Kenichi found that it was still the same as before, with no obvious changes.
A group of ninja still lived here.
However, after Amamiya Kenichi entered, those ninja merely looked at him once, then did nothing. Amamiya Kenichi even saw fear in their eyes.
"Let's go. The leader is waiting for you."
As Amamiya Kenichi was curiously looking around, Konan flew down from the sky.
Her paper wings were especially eye-catching.
"Who are these people?" Amamiya Kenichi asked while looking at the fearful Takigakure ninja and residents around him.
"They are all our captives." Konan swept her gaze around, her eyes cold.
She had no special feelings toward this small country or this small ninja village.
This was not where she had lived.
Keeping these people alive was merely for the Akatsuki's convenient concealment.
However, Konan had also not expected that Takigakure possessed a unique secret.
Now, that secret belonged to them.
Amamiya Kenichi followed Konan to the Akatsuki's base and saw Deva Path Pain sitting on a chair.
.....
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