Because Naruto—or rather, Li—subconsciously knew that the moon would really fall, Iruka's prompt had caused that enormous sphere resembling the moon to come crashing down.
So what now? He had returned to that time again—what did this illusion want him to do?
Li looked over the people in the classroom. The children seemed quite interested in the topic. Sakura wrote Sasuke's name on a piece of paper and quickly folded it up, seemingly very concerned that someone else might see it. Naruto, meanwhile, folded that paper into a plane and tossed it aside.
Iruka naturally gave Naruto a stern scolding. Li rubbed his nose. Sure enough, this was different from last time. When he had been here before, he had directly used Naruto's perspective. But now, he stood here as an observer in his own right, able to see everything about everyone clearly.
As Li walked down, he soon came to Hinata's side. Hinata was still a little girl at this point. In childish handwriting, she slowly wrote, "Uzumaki Naruto," on the paper, then gently folded it and put it away. Li shook his head lightly. Several years had passed since the end of the apocalypse, yet Naruto and Hinata's relationship had not progressed any further. It was as though fate was playing tricks on them.
Li took another step forward, and with that step, the scenery around him instantly collapsed. When he came back to his senses, he was already lying on the ground, several black rods impaled through his body. He had returned to the scene where he fought Pain.
Pain held a black rod and repeatedly drove it into the vital points of Li's body. Once those points were pinned down, no matter how powerful Li was, he would not be able to break free easily.
At