Perish Together

A bandaged hand appeared in Naruto's field of vision as he lay on the ground.

"Pervy Sage..."

Several patches of Jiraiya's hair were blackened. He smiled faintly. "Naruto, well done."

Naruto grinned, grabbed Jiraiya's hand, and got to his feet.

"Sasuke, Hinata, wait here a moment." Naruto called out to the two behind him, then walked with Jiraiya toward the former barrier's perimeter. It had now become a smoking ruin.

The Third Hokage, Tsunade, and Kakashi were already there, with twelve Anbu standing behind them, ready for orders at any moment.

As for the two old toads, seeing that the matter had been settled, they had returned to Mount Myōboku.

"What terrifying vitality..." Naruto marveled as he looked at the blurry human figure still twitching in the center of the ruins.

The figure was covered in burns and lacerations... Half its face had been destroyed, and it had fallen unconscious.

Yet it still clung to life. Orochimaru was not dead.

"It's a good thing he isn't dead." Tsunade snorted, while the Third Hokage wore a complicated expression.

Jiraiya looked at the human-shaped figure struggling to survive amid the scorched earth at his feet and fell silent... After a while, he asked Naruto, "Naruto, about that... How did it go?"

Naruto understood what Jiraiya meant and nodded. "It may not be accurate, but earlier, I vaguely... sensed a malicious presence lurking underground nearby."

"It should be that one from the Akatsuki... Zetsu."

Jiraiya nodded lightly.

Then—

Rustle, rustle...

Hearing the disturbance, they abruptly turned their heads. It was the First Hokage, who had previously been sealed by the Fuinjutsu Squad! He had been ground to ashes by Naruto's earlier devastating attack, yet now he was gradually reforming!

With a rustle, the Impure World soil reshaped the First Hokage's head.

"What!?" The Third Hokage and the others were startled and instinctively assumed fighting stances.

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't attack..."

The God of Shinobi from that era hurriedly waved his hands, signaling for the younger generation not to attack. Seeing them lower their guard in confusion, he smiled. "Hiruzen, kids, the Impure World Reincarnation... won't be released even if the caster dies..."

He scratched his head, glanced at Orochimaru's half-dead state on the ground, and sighed. "Fortunately, the effect of the talisman kunai in my head has disappeared. That means I can regain some clarity, so don't attack again."

Naruto and the others exchanged looks. Not long after the Second Hokage developed the Impure World Reincarnation, it had been sealed away. Even the Third Hokage, known as the Professor of Ninjutsu, only had a limited understanding of it and had never personally cast it.

But clearly, as the elder brother of the Second Hokage, the First Hokage understood the mysteries of this technique.

"The dead ultimately do not belong to this world," the First Hokage said slowly.

The Third Hokage was moved, his expression complicated. "First Hokage-sama... There is one question Hiruzen has never understood." He looked at the man before him, the one who had quelled the wars with his own hands and personally founded Konoha Village.

He had even been hailed as the living god among shinobi!

"Why did you suddenly pass away back then? With the vitality of your body, you should at least have lived longer than I did. Everyone at the time thought you might even be immortal!"

Tsunade could not help but be moved. She remembered how heartbroken she had been when Grandpa Hashirama died... After growing up, she had investigated the cause of his death, but found nothing.

Kakashi, however, did not feel much about it. His generation had grown up beneath the Third Hokage's radiance. They respected the legendary, godlike First Hokage, but that respect was ultimately distant and shallow.

"Hahahaha!" The First Hokage threw back his head and laughed. He said freely, "What immortality? Hiruzen, you're exaggerating... As for my cause of death..." His smile faded as he slowly said, "That was not long after Madara was killed by me... Well, it wasn't too different from the result I had sensed before."

As he spoke, the God of Shinobi glanced at Naruto, then at Hinata in the distance, who looked so nervous that she did not even know what she should do in a situation like this... and Sasuke, standing beside her with a frown and in silence.

"Did you also get that feeling? A premonition that if one person dies, the other will inevitably perish with them?" the First Hokage asked Naruto. From the very first moment he saw this young man, he had sensed it... Naruto was the same kind of person as him.

Naruto froze, then fell quiet for a moment. "Yeah, more or less..." He naturally thought of that thing inside him... the strange presence he would not have noticed if not for the appearance of his Future Self.

At the same time, he could sense that Sasuke had something similar inside him.

Some kind of destiny? Saving the world? Perhaps.

The fox inside him was silent as well.

The Third Hokage, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi were all baffled. As for the Anbu, they each dutifully stuck to their roles. Anything they were not supposed to hear went in one ear and out the other, leaving no trace behind.

"First Hokage-sama..." The Third Hokage still wanted to say something, but the First Hokage cut him off.

"Say no more. I am merely a dead man. Hasn't Konoha's future already been entrusted to you younger ones?" He paused, then continued, "Are there still members of the Yamanaka Clan in the village? Find one. Use the Yamanaka Secret Technique to control the person who reincarnated me, then release this Impure World Reincarnation..."

"Grandpa..." Tsunade could not help calling out.

"Little Tsunade..." The First Hokage smiled gently. At that moment, he was simply a kind and benevolent elder. "Take good care of this village for Grandpa."

Tsunade nodded through her tears. "Mm."

The Third Hokage fell silent, then ordered, "Take Orochimaru back. Notify Inoichi."

"Yes!" The twelve Anbu nodded and walked toward Orochimaru on the scorched ground, beginning to deal with him.

"Release the technique as soon as possible. I..." The First Hokage looked toward Konoha in the distance and said with a trace of longing, "want to see the scenery there one last time."

Whoosh. He vanished in a leap.

The next day.

Team 7 trained beside a small river in the morning.

They had long since gathered all the scrolls, but the exam still had a five-day time limit. There was nothing to do if they arrived too early, so the three simply trained in the wilderness. As the saying went, skill bred courage. After witnessing Naruto's true strength at full power, even Hinata felt that there was no need to worry too much about an exam between mere genin.

Naruto had already told Hinata what had happened to him. What he had done yesterday could no longer be explained by common sense... It was precisely because of those inexplicable circumstances that he had grown so quickly.

"Then... Naruto-kun, you..." Hinata looked a little downcast. Was Naruto-kun paying special attention to her because of the memories he had received? She felt a little... unwilling to accept that, but such a question was difficult to voice. Hinata hesitated, sighed softly, and ultimately could not say it.

"Hm? What?" Naruto had no idea about the complicated thoughts of a girl. After Hinata lightly shook her head and said, "Nothing," he merely scratched his cheek and wondered about it for a while.

"So..." Naruto was bare-chested. He had just gone diving to catch fish. Looking at the distant blue sky and white clouds, he said, "It was for that reason that I was able to make such tremendous progress in such a short time... But accordingly, after reaching this point, aside from the slight growth that comes with age... it has become very difficult for me to improve my strength any further."

"Having more Chakra only amounts to that much. As for combat methods... the Rasengan and Kurama's power are enough."

"How exactly can I... break through myself?"

"In the end, I thought of my father's famous ninjutsu, the Flying Thunder God Technique." He smiled, spinning a kunai around his finger. A black foxfire mark was inscribed on it.

"But Sasuke... do you know? You're the same as me."

"The height I've reached now is also one you will inevitably reach... You simply haven't unearthed all of it yet." Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, who sat quietly beside the fire where fish were roasting, and said seriously, "The potential in those eyes of yours is still sleeping!"

Hinata looked at Naruto's sincere, serious expression, then at Sasuke beside her, whose expression was silent and complicated.

Finally, Sasuke spoke. There was a trace of confusion in his voice as he asked, "Why? Naruto, what exactly are you worried about?"

"You seem to be desperately concerned about something."

"I'm not an idiot."

"I noticed it. Every time you show overwhelming strength in front of me..."

"You always try to reassure me afterward?"

Sasuke's brow furrowed as he asked one question after another:

"I've already said it. I'm not that fragile. And you didn't become strong purely because of those memories the way you imagine. I've seen all of that."

"But why?"

"Could it be that the me in your memories... the me from before... did something?"

"Naruto, can you tell me..." Sasuke asked with a serious expression. "What did that Orochimaru do during the original Chunin Exams? And what exactly happened to that version of me...?"