A Head Full of Question Marks

There wasn't much left.

After dozens of episodes about Obito, and about Hashirama and Madara's past, this farcical Fourth Shinobi World War—where everyone coasted along as the reanimated fulfilled their dreams—finally reached its end.

Six Paths Obito, who had become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, appeared, only for Uchiha Madara, the true mastermind behind it all, to seize the fruits of victory.

Revived through the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique that Obito had cast using the Rinnegan, he became the new Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. With Six Paths Level power that surpassed even his own peak, he became the final big boss of the war.

Meanwhile, the protagonists, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, had been beaten to the point of severe injury and near death.

The whole world was on the verge of falling into despair.

Naruto felt nothing at all. There had to be a twist here, right? It was a hot-blooded shonen manga, after all. A happy ending should have been the bare minimum. Plenty of fantasy works he had read before were like this.

Things did not turn out differently from what Naruto expected.

The Sage of Six Paths, that old man who handed out cheats, made a grand entrance.

He brought out his life savings and spent a huge sum on Naruto and Sasuke—the protagonists and vessels for the reincarnated Chakra of his two sons, Asura and Indra—successfully upgrading them from V15 to V18.

Naruto, who had reached V15 through his own training and the premium item Kurama that his parents had given him, received the Sage of Six Paths' Yang Power. Borrowing the power of the Nine Tailed Beasts, he attained Six Paths Level combat strength.

Sasuke, who had reached V15 through his own training and the premium item Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan that his brother Itachi had paid for with his life, received the Sage of Six Paths' Yin Power. He awakened the Six Tomoe Rinnegan and likewise attained Six Paths Level combat strength.

With the two of them joining forces against Six Paths Madara, there should not have been any problem.

Then, just as Naruto was looking forward to the two defeating the big boss Madara, clearing away all their past grudges, and living happily ever after, the plot took another turn that Naruto had not expected!

Black Zetsu had a few heart-to-heart words with his good brother, Uchiha Madara.

Then this cool, overbearing big boss Uchiha Madara, who had finally grinded his way to first place on the entire server and was ready to destroy the world, got his account stolen.

Uchiha Madara's decades of effort had all been spent making a wedding dress for someone else. He had become the ultimate wage slave.

Thus, the true final boss, Kaguya Otsutsuki—the princess of the Otsutsuki Clan who had come from outer space to Earth to plant the Divine Tree—Princess Kaguya, officially appeared.

The plot of Naruto and Sasuke fighting the final big boss and ultimately sealing her away still played out. By then, though, Naruto, watching it all, felt completely numb.

Princess Kaguya was exactly the kind of cash-shop player with absurdly high stats but no sense of how to play. All her damage came from Black Zetsu, that fountain-side commander, wildly barking orders beside her.

The gap in combat strength between Princess Kaguya and Uchiha Madara was like the difference in Honor of Kings between a Bronze player and a hundred-star King player, both with full six-item builds and maxed inscriptions.

It was so hard on the eyes that even Naruto, an apprentice who had not yet graduated from the Ninja Academy, could barely stand to watch.

And the plot Black Zetsu explained while fighting Naruto and Sasuke—the true history of the Shinobi World—left Naruto's head filled with question marks.

????

"So this hot-blooded shonen manga called Naruto got its name wrong, didn't it?" Naruto could not help complaining.

Five Village Melee: Legend of the Eyes???

Chronicles of the Otsutsuki Clan???

The Prince of Konoha's Pursuit of a Wife???

Black Zetsu: The Tale of Saving His Mother???

And this Divine Tree setting—were they sure it was not the Tree of Might from Dragon Ball?

Other than the one planting it being a beautiful Byakugan princess instead of Saiyan Monkeys, the setting where its fruit increased one's power and the danger of it draining all life force from an entire planet were completely identical, weren't they?!

Naruto's heart was full of complaints he could not possibly finish. With extreme speechlessness, he kept reading.

After defeating the ultimate big boss, Naruto and Sasuke, who had become the strongest in the Shinobi World, did not share the same vision for the path to future peace.

Naruto insisted on believing in everyone and on the idea that everyone could understand one another, naïvely wanting to keep things as they were.

To preserve a false peace that had already been proven wrong, the kind that would end the moment Hashirama died.

Sasuke, meanwhile, wanted to become the new ultimate villainous big boss. He wanted to kill the Five Kage and make the entire world hate him, maintaining peace through that extreme ideology.

The two argued endlessly, so they decided to use their fists to convince one another.

After that, they began their final battle in the Valley of the End, openly fighting while secretly showing off.

Although Naruto was a straight man and did not have any strange thoughts about Sasuke, his good friend in reality, he still felt that this fantasy work called Naruto was incredibly gay.

Even if Naruto and Sasuke had ended up together, it would not have been strange at all.

"Tch. That's why brothers are so likely to fight. An older sister and younger brother, or siblings of opposite genders, would not have so many problems. If Sasuke, the Uchiha family's second young master, were replaced with Sana, the Uchiha family's second young miss, none of these plots would feel out of place at all."

As he grumbled inwardly, Naruto looked toward the last bit of the story.

The Ketsuryūgan arc was too idiotic and completely illogical. The Fourth Shinobi World War was already over, and they still wanted to steal the Sharingan? Did they not have brains? Skip it.

Combining it with the content of The Last: Naruto the Movie, Naruto pieced together the final outline.

The battle at the Valley of the End ended, the Infinite Tsukuyomi was undone, and Sasuke, who had saved the world alongside Naruto, became a criminal. He survived for the ridiculous reason that Naruto stubbornly protected him from punishment.

Then Naruto beat up Toneri, who wanted to steal his wife, gave up on Sakura, whom he had chased for half his life, and successfully got together with Hinata—a girl who liked him, though he did not feel all that much for her.

And Sasuke, whose parents and clan had all died, lost an arm alongside his best friend in their final battle. He had spent more than ten years standing against the world, his youthful ambitions soaring higher than the sky, only to accomplish nothing in the end.

Then he returned to the village and faded into the crowd, having children with someone he had no emotional foundation with. Barring any surprises, he would live out the rest of his life that way.

After that, the Boruto Next Generations movie had them fight a villainous boss from the Otsutsuki Clan.

"So in the end, he still lost to gender, huh? They drew a pair of lovers and stubbornly called them friends. Was this Konoha's brotherhood???"

After sorting through the entire plot, Naruto's head was full of question marks.

In the end, though, he let out a sigh.

Setting aside all those unimportant things, now that he knew about this future, he began to truly examine his own heart, determine what he really wanted, and decide what he truly wanted to do with his future.