"Rustle..." In Shi Mei's hand, Kabuto's body crumbled into powder and scattered.
The ninja fell silent in terror.
Kabuto... was dead?
—Omotaru!
Sasuke immediately reversed time, returning to the moment before Shi Mei killed Kabuto.
But... Kabuto did not appear!
Sasuke's heart sank.
Unwilling to accept it... he traveled straight back thirty years!
To the moment when he had first joined Orochimaru!
Yet... a scene of utter despair awaited him!
Everything was just as it had been!
But inside the hideout, Kabuto was nowhere to be found...
I don't believe it.
Still refusing to accept it, Sasuke jumped even farther back.
It was a time before Sasuke had even been born as a ninja, at the Konoha Orphanage.
Danzo sat before Yakushi Nonō, with Orochimaru and Aburame Ryoma behind him... using the orphanage's funding as leverage, he threatened the Wandering Witch Nonō into serving Root as a spy again.
Kabuto, who should have stepped forward at that moment, was not among those children.
It was as though the ninja named Kabuto Yakushi had never existed in the world of the Hokage!
Sasuke's heart went cold.
Was this... absolute death?
Sasuke flashed back through the white feathers and shook his head at everyone behind him.
An oppressive, deathly silence settled over them.
Naruto stammered, his throat tightening. "Kabuto isn't dead. He inherited Orochimaru's teachings—he's a cockroach you can't kill! How could Kabuto die? He's just hiding!"
The Deathmatch Circuit's resurrection process, which had never failed before, showed no response.
Naruto shouted into empty space, "Hey! You're a Celestial Ninja, Kabuto! The old Toad Sage personally chose you as one of the candidates with the potential! How could you just die like this without accomplishing anything?!"
"Enough, Naruto..." Sasuke cut him off sharply.
Kabuto had not accomplished nothing. He had fulfilled his