The Scroll of Sealing

A swirling, pitch-black hole suddenly appeared in front of Qiuyang. He reached into it with his right hand and pulled out ten small formation flags.

Like his Mangekyo, the flags were black and white, and he could feel the immense energy contained within them.

The flags fluttered without a breath of wind, giving off an indescribably eerie air.

Obito had never seen anything like them in his life. He hurriedly jumped back as the shuriken-shaped Mangekyo spun wildly, warily watching the flags in Qiuyang's hand.

The moment Qiuyang used the Mangekyo's God-Meeting Machine to retrieve the flags, he already knew how to use them. He couldn't help but rejoice.

It looked like he wouldn't have to die on the spot after all!

While Obito hesitated to approach, Qiuyang immediately tossed four flags around himself.

Obito saw the little flags land, then stand upright against all common sense. He backed away another two steps, even more reluctant to come closer.

Was he really that much of a coward?

Qiuyang tossed out two more flags, bringing his big brother's corpse, a few meters away, inside the formation as well.

Then he formed the "Tiger" Hand Seal. As the Yin-Yang Bagua Mangekyo spun wildly in his eyes, the flags rang with a metallic clanging and flashed with dazzling white light.

"Not good! It's a teleportation formation!"

Obito realized what was happening a beat too late. He rushed over, trying to kick away one of the flags and stop Qiuyang from escaping, but he was a step behind.

After a flash, everything within the area enclosed by the flags vanished, sent to some unknown place.

A second before he disappeared, Qiuyang covered his two stinging eyes with his hands and still managed to issue a threat:

"Uchiha Madara, I'll be back!"

Obito cursed himself for being too careless. He hurriedly tried to use his own eyes, which were equally adept at Space-Time Ninjutsu, to track Qiuyang's exact destination.

But he couldn't find the slightest trace. Hearing voices outside, he guessed the Anbu had already arrived and could only give up.

After a twist of space, he left the scene of the massacre.

Qiuyang's haphazard teleportation had taken him to a primeval forest dozens of kilometers from Konoha. He had landed in the branches of a large tree.

So as soon as the teleportation formation ended, he plummeted from a height of five meters and slammed into the ground.

The grass softened his fall, but Qiuyang still grimaced in pain and rolled around for a long while.

Once he had recovered a little, he shakily used a tree to pull himself upright.

"Ptooey..."

He spat a large mouthful of blood onto the ground. Then a sharp pain shot through his chest, nearly making him collapse back onto the ground, but he managed to endure it.

Damn, he must have broken several ribs in that fall.

Cursing the heavens, Qiuyang gathered the flags from the ground, their luster gone.

He shook his head and tried to glance at his predecessor's big brother's corpse, only to discover that his vision had blurred so badly he could barely see. But this didn't panic him.

He knew it was a side effect of overusing his Mangekyo's ocular power. Unless you had Hashirama Cells, using those eyes meant taking one step closer to blindness.

Qiuyang spent about a month in the forest recovering and processing his predecessor's memories. Then he slipped into a nearby village and lived there for half a year.

Later, he dyed his hair white and returned to Konoha under a new identity as a war refugee, becoming an unnoticed Genin.

They said the most dangerous place was the safest.

As far as he knew, Obito never appeared in Konoha during the early part of the Naruto storyline.

So as long as he didn't reveal his Uchiha identity for the time being, this was undoubtedly the safest place for him.

Every day, he took on low-level missions, like finding lost cats and dogs or gathering herbs. He lived in the darkest corner he could find, waiting for his moment to come.

--

And now, he had finally gotten what he wanted.

Pulling himself out of his long recollection, Qiuyang jumped down from the water tower and returned to the dark little shack where he lived.

He dragged out a battered box from under his bed, opened it, and kissed the dozen or so Explosive Tags inside that he had bought with his hard-earned mission money.

Whether he could seize the first big opportunity depended on these expensive Explosive Tags.

Ten days later...

Qiuyang erased his tracks and looked with satisfaction at the small ignition devices he had made from piles of dry grass and three Explosive Tags apiece.

In another ten minutes, these devices would cause quite a commotion. Of course, the fires would be harmless little ones: they'd look dramatic, but be easy to put out.

Even a ninja who knew a little Water Release could handle them in just a few minutes.

He had gone to all this trouble simply to draw the Third Hokage's attention and get him to turn his crystal ball "surveillance" toward this area.

In the original story, that crystal ball's capabilities were absurdly overpowered:

It could track and lock onto specific people within a certain range, and even zoom in and out to show them in real time. What would he do if it kept him locked on?

How the hell was anyone supposed to play if they didn't nerf this thing?

There was no way Qiuyang, with his current abilities, dared to confront it directly. That was why he had set up all this to divert attention.

The people-loving Old Man Sarutobi would surely turn his crystal ball toward the commotion at once and see what the hell was happening in the village.

Yeah... that was the plan!

"Transformation Technique."

With a poof, Qiuyang transformed into... young Sasuke, with a high collar that almost covered his face.

Looking at his reflection in the water, Qiuyang nodded with satisfaction. He had followed Sasuke around for several days to get his appearance this close.

Sasuke really was the second male lead. He was pretty handsome, but not as handsome as me, Qiuyang thought smugly.

With all that done, Qiuyang followed his memories and waited along the route Naruto would take while carrying the Scroll of Sealing.

Given the invisible bond between Uchiha Sasuke and Naruto, Naruto was sure to stop.

As for how he'd get Naruto to hand it over and let him have a look, well... using genjutsu was obviously the best option!

In an open clearing, Qiuyang began forming Hand Seals and gathered chakra in his left eye...

Qiuyang's plan was proceeding smoothly. Meanwhile, things were going badly for the Third Hokage, Old Man Sarutobi.

When he discovered Naruto sneaking in and stealing the Scroll of Sealing, he rushed out to stop him. But just as he caught Naruto in the act, Naruto used the Transformation Technique.

"Poof!"

"Naruto, a technique like the Transformation Technique... Uh... Ugh..."

The Third Hokage had meant to lecture Naruto that this technique was no use for escaping. But once the smoke cleared, what he saw was a naked, voluptuous beauty with wavy hair.

A stream of blood shot from his nose, and he fell to the ground, twitching.

"Now you've seen how powerful my Sexy Jutsu is, haven't you, Grandpa Third Hokage?"

Naruto cheerfully flashed a V sign over Old Man Sarutobi's body, then slung the Scroll of Sealing over his back and ran in the direction he had planned beforehand.

Just as Teacher Mizuki had told him:

If he learned a jutsu from this scroll, he'd be able to graduate from the Ninja Academy and earn Teacher Iruka's recognition, right?

But as he ran past a river, he hadn't expected to run into his nemesis, Sasuke.

"Heh, if it isn't the dead-last Naruto?"

To give him credit, Qiuyang was good at provoking people. One line was enough to make Naruto temporarily forget his original goal. He immediately rolled up his sleeves, ready to fight him.

"You dare call me the dead-last?"