What's Wrong With the World of the Infinite Tsukuyomi!

"The Fifth Hokage... Who was that? Lady Tsunade?"

Minato froze for a moment, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the railing twice as his brows knitted slightly.

He thought it over for a moment, then looked up and gave his answer.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Lin Zi didn't answer right away. Instead, he suddenly burst into earth-shaking laughter.

He laughed so hard he doubled over, one hand clutching his stomach while the other waved wildly in the air. Then he leaned toward Minato's ear, pretending to be secretive.

"I'm not telling you. But after our conversation today, you'll definitely find it unbelievable."

Minato stood frozen, his pupils suddenly contracting.

He stared at Lin Zi's face, lit by moonlight and beaming with the glee of a successful prank. An absurd thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

"Could you mean..."

Lin Zi watched Minato's eyes light up with excitement. He raised a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture, mischief glinting in his eyes.

"That's right, that's right. Don't say it out loud. It's him."

Minato pressed a hand to his forehead, rubbing the spot between his brows with his knuckles, his face full of disbelief.

"So it really is him... But after everything we talked about tonight, I'm actually a little afraid to use him now."

Lin Zi acted completely out of character, nudging Minato's arm with his elbow. He lowered his voice, but couldn't hide the teasing in his tone.

"Whether you use him is up to you. If you do, I can ask him about it. That guy... is a truly 'extreme' Hokage."

Then he burst out laughing, his expression clearly showing that he was looking forward to the spectacle.

Minato gave a wry smile, then straightened his expression and took a deep breath. His gaze grew firm again.

"Of course I dare to use him."

As he spoke, he suddenly raised a hand and lightly tapped Lin Zi on the head. It wasn't hard, but the gesture carried a familiar fondness.

"Ow!" Lin Zi clutched his head and shrank back.

Minato paid no attention to his protest. He simply gazed at him warmly, his eyes seeming to pierce through the young body and look straight into his soul.

"Besides, you're a rogue ninja now, too, aren't you?"

The night wind suddenly stopped.

Minato's voice was as light as a feather, yet every word rang clear.

"But I've always believed in you, so there's no problem. The person you recommend wouldn't do anything bad. Besides, the Fifth Hokage, huh?"

He paused, then smiled again.

"I'd like to see for myself this 'extreme' Hokage you told me about."

"Sure, then it's settled." Lin Zi rubbed the top of his head. His teasing expression, along with Minato's, had eased. "I'll talk it over with him when the time comes."

"Hmm..." Minato tilted his head, looking thoughtful, and rubbed his chin. "By the way, why is your personality a little like that Orochimaru senior's? You both love watching the excitement."

Lin Zi jolted in alarm and stammered.

"Ha ha, do I? Maybe we both just enjoy a good show."

Minato stared at him for two seconds, a flicker of doubt crossing his eyes, but in the end he didn't press further. He turned and opened the door. The night wind slipped inside, stirring the curtains.

"Let's go back inside. We've pretty much covered everything we needed to talk about today."

Then he stepped across the threshold and looked back, shrugging with an utterly helpless expression.

"What I learned today... However you look at it, it's all pretty astonishing."

"Ha ha, right?" Lin Zi followed him inside and closed the door behind him.

Kushina was sitting by the bed, knitting a little outfit. When she saw them return together, she immediately set down her needles, relief spreading across her face.

"You're back! Was it cold outside?"

"It was fine. Not especially cold."

Lin Zi plopped into the chair nearby and grabbed the cup on the table, taking a gulp of water.

"I was just talking with Minato about some things from before. You were worrying too much."

Before he'd even finished speaking, Minato had already gone into the bedroom next door. The closet door opened and closed, followed by the rustle of bedding being searched through.

"Naruto, you're staying here tonight." Minato's voice came from the bedroom, muffled but gently firm. "I'll get your bedding ready."

"Oh, got it."

Sitting in the living room beside Kushina, Lin Zi answered without looking back, as casually as if he were at home.

Kushina was taken aback by how readily Lin Zi agreed. Then her eyes curved with delight, and she smiled.

She picked up her needles again and worked beneath the lamplight, softly humming an old folk song.

Deep into the night, with all of Konoha utterly quiet, Lin Zi flopped onto the bed Minato had prepared. The mattress was so soft that his waist sank halfway into it.

He stared at the pitch-black ceiling and called out in his mind:

"System, activate character."

[Ding! The host has a selected character card. Please choose a character.]

Lin Zi sat up cross-legged, unable to suppress the smile on his lips. He looked like a fox that had just stolen a chicken.

He rubbed his hands together, barely able to contain his excitement.

"Draw—Fifth Hokage, Obito Uchiha."

[Ding! The host has confirmed the character. Beginning draw—]

[Congratulations, host! You have drawn the character "Fifth Hokage of the Infinite Tsukuyomi World: Obito Uchiha"!]

The next second, a sudden transformation took place.

Cold chakra crawled up from the soles of his feet like a venomous snake. As it passed, Naruto's blond hair receded like the tide; his blue eyes faded, and the Six Paths whisker marks on his cheeks vanished without a trace.

In their place came a gloomy, deranged aura, laced with the oppressive presence of someone in power.

Chakra surged into his eyes. Lin Zi felt his eye sockets grow hot, as though someone had stuffed burning coals into his pupils.

He raised a hand to cover his eyes, and an eerie red glow shone between his fingers.

Mangekyō Sharingan, awaken!

Inside his pupils, the three Tomoe spun wildly, coalescing into a pattern resembling a Shuriken that glimmered faintly in the darkness.

"What's so bad about the world of Infinite Tsukuyomi?!"

Lin Zi sprang up from the bed and clenched a fist. His voice was low, but it carried a certain feverish fanaticism.

At the same time, the Hokage Cloak appeared over his shoulders, and the Hokage's hat appeared behind him. A black mask covered half his face, leaving only the other half exposed, its skin covered in grotesque scars.

He looked down at his palm, then suddenly clenched his fist.

"Kamui!"

Space around his body rippled into a vortex, like a reflection disturbed on the surface of water. With a whoosh, he was sucked inside and vanished from the room.

Inside the Kamui Dimension.

A gray-white void stretched in every direction, with no up, down, left, or right. Countless enormous stone pillars floated through it, like a graveyard forgotten by time.

Lin Zi raised his head and slowly turned his Mangekyō Sharingan, surveying the silent space.

"Whoa," he whistled. "This place is pretty big. And it looks pretty hellish."

He asked in his mind, "System, is this dimension connected to the Kamui Dimension of the Obito in this world?"

[Ding! They are not connected. However, the host can use his higher authority to forcibly break through the other dimension's spatial barrier and invade it.]

"That's pretty good, then."

Lin Zi grinned, the half of his face beneath the scars twisting into a dangerous expression.

With a thought, the spatial vortex appeared again, spitting him back into the bedroom at Minato's house.

By the time he landed, he had already shed every trace of Obito's appearance, reverting to Naruto's blond-haired, blue-eyed form as if nothing had happened.

Lin Zi lay back down and pulled the covers up to his chin. He stared at the ceiling, the red afterglow of the Mangekyō still lingering in his eyes.

"Now... things are going to get interesting."

He rolled over, buried his face in the pillow, and soon fell into a deep sleep. Only the meaningful smile at the corner of his mouth remained, faintly visible in the moonlight.