A New World

Violent dark-red lightning rapidly spread along the edges of the portal. Chenshu Senju stood at the center of the vortex as the surrounding pull suddenly intensified. He stopped and took one last look at this world, his gaze passing over Kakashi's shoulder to settle on the brightly lit new commercial district below and the tall, imposing Senju Manor in the distance—nearly every brick and tile here had been forcibly set back on track by his fists.

He withdrew his gaze and turned directly into the space-time vortex glittering with starlight. As his body completely disappeared into the portal, the enormous spatial rift snapped shut. The violent suction vanished at once, leaving not even a trace of Chakra in the air. Only several scratches on Hokage Rock proved that someone had just departed from there.

Kakashi looked at the empty cliff top and chuckled softly. He slowly straightened up, dusted off his Hokage robe, picked up the bottle cap that had been knocked away, and casually slipped it into his pocket.

The previously boisterous crowd seeing him off at the foot of the mountain had become eerily quiet. Tens of thousands of villagers looked up at the lightning portal that had vanished into thin air atop the mountain. No one spoke for a long while, until the oppressive pressure completely faded and reluctant sighs erupted from the crowd. Naruto held up the banner covered in writing, staring eagerly toward the mountaintop as the wooden pole in his hands creaked under his grip.

Half a month later.

In the conference room on the top floor of the Hokage Building, the Kage of the Five Great Nations sat around a broad round table. Thick stacks of trade proposals lay before each of them, yet no one was in a hurry to open them.