A Treasure That Could Change the Future

"Purple drop?!"

Naruto's eyes widened. The selectable treasure chest before him was exactly like the pick-your-own rewards in games, and as its name suggested, every option inside was a special item from Naruto the Movie!

Naruto's gaze fixed on the second option.

Uzumaki Menma (Template Trial Card ×3)

Instructions: Upon activation, grants the full strength and abilities of the BOSS Uzumaki Menma from "Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja" for one hour. Usable three times.

Uzumaki Menma...!

Naruto was extremely familiar with this character—the "dark version of Uzumaki Naruto" from the Limited Tsukuyomi world. Uzumaki Menma's personality and experiences were completely opposite to his. But what was truly enticing was his terrifying strength.

Nine-Headed Sobek... Great Rasenshuriken...

From what Naruto remembered, Menma's summoning technique, Nine-Headed Sobek, could summon nine different Summoning Beasts. His ultimate technique, Great Rasenshuriken, possessed enough destructive power to destroy all of Konoha Village. He also had Kurama sealed within him and could perfectly control the power of complete Tailed Beast Transformation.

His strength was absolutely far beyond that of an ordinary Kage-level ninja.

Judging by his performance in the movie, Menma was at least on the level Naruto had reached in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, or Sasuke with the Mangekyō Sharingan—perhaps even stronger!

Rather than a template trial card, it was more like the ultimate trump card prepared for his not-yet-grown self. Most importantly, using it carried none of the rampage risks of Kurama's Chakra leaking out and had no side effects whatsoever.

As for the other two options?

Naruto frowned and tried to recall them. That so-called "Zero-Tails Dark Chakra" seemed to be an artificial Tailed Beast created by some guy named Sennō in the movie "Bonds." It sounded impressive, but for him, it was hardly an improvement—just pure redundancy.

Dark Chakra... He seemed to remember it triggering negative emotions? What a joke! Kurama, known as the strongest Tailed Beast, lived inside his body!

Why bother with the Dark Chakra of some artificial Tailed Beast instead of building a good relationship with the tsundere giant fox already living in his home? It was like...

Leaving a top-of-the-line computer at home untouched just to play on one of those big-headed computers at a retro junk shop.

The final option left Naruto even more speechless.

Jackal? It seemed to be that fodder Summoning Beast from "The Will of Fire's Successor."

Naruto even suspected the system was padding out the choices—this thing was not even the main Summoning Beast of Hiruko, the movie's final BOSS. It was merely a chimera belonging to one of his underlings.

And... if he chose Uzumaki Menma's trial card, Naruto might be able to do things that had once been impossible. For the Naruto who had lived an unremarkable life in his previous life, this was undoubtedly a chance to change certain tragedies.

Hizashi's death.

The thought flashed through his mind. It would most likely happen soon—definitely not later than this year. Neji Hyuga's father, Hizashi Hyuga, the most tragic father among the Konoha Twelve Ninja in the original story, was about to meet his end.

Not long after the Third Great Ninja War ended, the Hidden Cloud Village sent envoys to Konoha under the pretense of "signing a peace treaty," while secretly plotting to seize the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan.

They had even targeted three-year-old Hinata Hyuga, attempting to kidnap her. Hyuga Hiashi, the Clan Head, discovered them in time and killed the kidnapper.

Yet what was most infuriating was what followed—the Hidden Cloud Village actually twisted the truth, threatening to start a war on the grounds that "Konoha ninja had killed an envoy." They demanded that Konoha hand over Hyuga Hiashi, who had killed the kidnapper. Konoha had only recently suffered through the Nine-Tails' Attack and the Third Great Ninja War, leaving it severely weakened, and the higher-ups ultimately chose to compromise.

To prevent the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan secrets from being exposed.

The Hyuga Main Family proposed sending Hiashi's twin brother, Hizashi, as a scapegoat. And Hizashi... actually accepted that fate. He even said things like, "I'm dying to protect my brother," dressing up his sacrifice as a heroic act of "resisting the shackles of fate."

...There was no justice, no fairness. A living person was simply swallowed whole by this world. Young Neji lost his father forever.

As for those lofty excuses about "the greater good" and "avoiding war"? The calculations and trade-offs of those higher-ups?

Naruto had no desire to understand them. He knew only one thing: he did not want to stand by and watch a living person be devoured by this world. That was all.

Not to mention Neji's tragic end later on...

At that thought, would the Hidden Cloud Village really start a war? If, after Hizashi was saved, that Raikage dared to suspect Konoha of staging the whole thing...

Naruto would not mind using another trial card to have a fight with the Raikage.

"System, I choose the Uzumaki Menma trial cards."

Congratulations, Host! You have obtained: Uzumaki Menma (Template Trial Card ×3)!

This was a precious item that could briefly elevate someone to the peak of Kage level! Naruto could not wait to see what it looked like. With a slight movement of his thoughts, a card glowing with purple light slowly appeared before him.

He reached out and caught the card, carefully examining the image on it—wasn't this the character art from Headpat Village?!

With another thought, the card turned into a streak of light and vanished from his palm, returning to the system space.