Worried

"Absurd! The iron order of the Ninja World will not be overturned by someone who hides their face and skulks in the shadows!"

The Raikage's roar was like thunder. His Lightning Release Armor erupted, and the ground beneath his feet cracked into a web-like pattern from the leaking Chakra.

At the same time, the Third Hokage spoke. "Masked Man, you said you wanted to stop the war?"

"But aren't your actions right now the very act of starting one? Do you realize that what you just said is tantamount to making an enemy of the entire world?"

Menma's Fox Mask tilted slightly, as if sneering. "I said it—I will become war itself."

His black robe snapped wildly in the surging Chakra. The pitch-black Rasenshuriken in his hand spun in his palm, radiating a suffocating pressure.

"You're right. This is my war against the entire world."

The Third Hokage frowned deeply, then suddenly raised his voice. "Wait! Your Space-Time Ninjutsu—is that the Flying Thunder God?! Where did you learn that technique—"

But before he could finish, Menma moved.

The Rasenshuriken, charged for so long, was hurled fiercely backward. The black sphere of energy tore through the sky and plunged straight toward the distant forest.

At the moment of the explosion, heaven and earth fell silent.

"BOOM—!!"

Then, blinding white light swallowed everyone's vision. The shockwave spread outward in a ring, reducing towering trees to dust in an instant. A blazing fireball swelled and rose, dyeing half the sky crimson. The blast swept over them, whipping their robes about madly. Even the Third Hokage and the Raikage had to raise their arms against the searing heat rushing at them.

When the light faded, the distant forest bore the scars of a natural disaster. Everything within a hundred meters had been obliterated, replaced by a massive charred crater nearly a hundred meters wide. Smoke still rose from the soil at its edges, and the air was thick with a pungent burnt smell.

"An enemy of the world?"

Menma's voice was terrifyingly calm, as though that devastating strike had merely been a casual gesture. "If an ordinary ninja said such a thing, he would only be treated as a madman. But what if the one saying it—"

His gaze beneath the Fox Mask swept over the Third Hokage and Raikage, whose expressions had changed drastically. "—possessed the power to make such wild words reality?"

The expressions of the two Kage darkened completely. This man calling himself "Menma" was no empty braggart. When someone possessed enough power to threaten the entire order of the Ninja World alone, "making an enemy of the world" was no longer madness—it was a horrifying reality.

"Come. I have no desire to harm the innocent."

Menma's voice was exceptionally clear amid the aftermath of the explosion. He raised a hand and pointed toward the still-burning ruins of the forest.

"My target is only fools bewitched by ambition—Raikage, I'll be waiting for you there."

The next instant, his figure vanished from the spot without warning, as though erased by an eraser.

The Raikage's muscles tensed like steel. His breathing was heavy and scorching. That level of strength... that kind of ambition... he must be eliminated here!

Without a moment's hesitation, the Raikage turned into a blue-white bolt of lightning. The ground beneath his feet collapsed into a crater at the instant he burst forth. He moved so quickly that he left an afterimage in the air, leaving behind only scorched lightning marks and flying dust.

After Minato Namikaze's death, the worthiness of the Ninja World's fastest speed was fully displayed.

"Lord Raikage!" Shii and Darui stepped forward almost at the same time, intending to follow, but—

"ROAR—!!"

The Nine-Headed Beasts roared, their bodies blocking their path. Darui's mouth twitched, his lazy expression long replaced by gravity. Once again, he drew the ninja sword from his back.

"Looks like we can't..." he muttered, sweeping his gaze over the menacing Summoning Beasts. "These guys seem to have been assigned to stop us here..."

Shii's sensory ninjutsu was at full power as his fingers rapidly formed seals. Cold sweat slid down his face. "Their Chakra signatures... every single one is stronger than me!"

On the other side, the Third Hokage withdrew his gaze from the direction the Raikage had departed. "All Anbu, heed my command! Defeat these Summoning Beasts, then—support the Raikage!"

"Whoosh—!"

Konoha's Anbu surged forth like a black tide, their eyes beneath their masks cold and focused. The gleam of kunai joined into a single sheet. Kakashi's figure silently appeared at the front of the formation, his Sharingan slowly turning as it locked onto its target.

Battle was on the verge of breaking out.

Far away, atop a tall rooftop somewhere in Konoha, a small blond figure stared helplessly at the smoke-filled battlefield in the distance. Three-year-old Uzumaki Naruto could not help rubbing his forehead with a sigh.

So this is what I'm like on the inside... such a cringe edgelord?

Naruto's eyes were full of speechlessness. That was right—the "Menma" confronting the Raikage and Third Hokage was a Shadow Clone using the Menma Uzumaki Experience Card. The one standing here was his real body.

"Become war itself"... "make an enemy of the whole world"...

Naruto rubbed his hair, recalling that impassioned declaration he had just made. His toes nearly dug a three-bedroom apartment into the ground. It was too embarrassing! The lines had certainly been dramatic, but thinking back on them made him cringe so hard he wanted to explode.

His actual goal was nowhere near that lofty!

His plan was actually very simple. First, create a villainous identity, making it easier to recruit powerful rogue ninja with differing loyalties in the future, such as—

Deidara, who went around shouting, "Art is Explosions."

Kakuzu, who only cared about money.

Zabuza, who had failed to assassinate the Mizukage and instead become an idol among the Hidden Mist ninja.

Second, stage a crisis himself and make "Menma" into a threat feared by every nation, while he himself rose as a "Konoha genius" and became the "protector" who fought against that threat. That way, he could legitimately obtain more cultivation resources, rack up system points, and unite their fighting strength at crucial moments.

Third, deal with future threats. He did not know how strong the so-called Otsutsuki aliens were, but if Earthlings spent all day fighting among themselves, wouldn't they be finished the moment a true foreign enemy arrived?

Civil war... if it can be avoided, it should be avoided.

"Naruto!"

An urgent shout suddenly rang out beside him. Naruto jolted and nearly slipped off the roof. He hurriedly turned his head, only to see a familiar figure—long black hair slightly disheveled from running, cheeks flushed red from exertion, her chest heaving violently. She had clearly rushed here at full speed.

"S-Satsuki?"

Naruto's eyes widened. He had never expected to see her here. Why was Uchiha Satsuki here? Shouldn't she have been in the shelter with the other villagers?

Before he could react, Satsuki rushed forward in a single stride and viciously grabbed his ear.

"Wait! Ow, ow, ow! What are you doing?!"

Naruto struggled in pain, but the instant he looked up and met Satsuki's eyes, he froze. Those proud black eyes were now filled with lingering fear, their corners slightly red, with traces of unfallen moisture still clinging to her lashes.

"What do you think?!" Satsuki's voice trembled noticeably. "The village has been invaded! Everyone went to the shelter! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is outside?!"

Naruto opened his mouth, but the excuse he had intended to make suddenly caught in his throat. Only then did he realize that Satsuki had deliberately run out to find him.

What had happened just now?

When the alarm had sounded, Satsuki had hurriedly evacuated with the women and children of the Uchiha Clan. Fugaku had led the Uchiha ninja in evacuating the civilians, while Itachi had been away on a mission and was not in the village. Excluding the Nine-Tails' Attack, which she had no memory of, this was Satsuki's first experience with an invasion.

And when the chaos in the shelter had eased slightly, the first thing Satsuki did was look around for that blond figure. When she discovered Naruto was absent, she anxiously asked the ninja responsible for the evacuation, only to receive a cold response.

"That demon fox brat? Who knows where he is."

For some reason, no one cared whether he lived or died.

That realization gripped Satsuki's heart as though an invisible hand had clenched it fiercely. She had not even had time to explain things to her mother before running out of the shelter. She raced through the nearly deserted village for only one reason: to make sure he was safe.

That white light that had illuminated the entire sky just now...

Remembering that world-destroying explosion, Satsuki's fingers unconsciously tightened. Her father and sister could not perform ninjutsu of that level, could they? No... was that even something a human could do? If it had landed in the village...

"Satsuki... were you crying?" Naruto asked softly.

"I wasn't crying!" Satsuki abruptly turned her face away. "Forget about that! Let's go! You big idiot! If that ninjutsu had exploded in the village, you would definitely have died!"

Without allowing him to argue, she grabbed Naruto's hand and dragged him away, her grip astonishingly strong. Naruto could feel the cold sweat in her palm and the faint tremble in her hand.

She was scared... for me?

An unprecedentedly complicated feeling spread through his chest, sour yet warm. He allowed Satsuki to pull him toward the shelter.