Am I dead?
Kakashi slowly opened his eyes. Before him lay the pitch-black night sky, and stars glittering across it like a flowing river.
"Where is this...?"
Instinctively, he opened his mouth and uttered those words.
"You're finally awake!"
Just then, a familiar voice rang out.
Teacher Minato!
At those words, he jolted upright. The pain and exhaustion in his body had completely vanished, and he blurted out almost instinctively,
"Teacher!"
Minato Namikaze, who had been sitting sideways atop the massive rock, straightened slightly. Looking at Kakashi's astonished expression, he allowed a faint, relieved smile to surface at the corners of his mouth.
"Why...?"
Seeing his teacher, a flicker of confusion crossed Kakashi's face. He looked at him, parted his lips slightly, and asked in bewilderment.
"The formula on this Kunai is a marker that allows me to move using Space-Time Ninjutsu."
Though Kakashi had not asked directly, Minato Namikaze seemed to know what he wanted to ask. Raising the Flying Thunder God Kunai with its three-pronged blade, he explained.
"Then... the enemies?"
Kakashi quickly understood his teacher's explanation and immediately asked another question.
"I took them all down."
Hearing his student's words, the gentleness on Minato Namikaze's face faded somewhat, replaced by a hint of seriousness as he spoke.
Those enemies...
Hearing Minato Namikaze's casual words, Kakashi's eyes widened slightly in surprise.
After Chiba had left, they had been attacked by two waves of enemies—support forces from Iwa. During the second wave, the Iwa forces that had surrounded them, he had finally run out of strength. Though he had killed several of them, he ultimately collapsed after exhausting both his stamina and Chakra.
He did not know what happened after that.
When he woke again, it was now.
Still, although he was surprised by how casually his teacher had