After accepting the Sharingan, Kakashi took Rin back to the Konoha camp to rest. Once Minato had dealt with the Stone Ninja on the other side, he hurried over as well.
When he learned that Obito had died in battle, Minato fell silent for a moment.
"Obito was a hero who sacrificed himself for Konoha."
Kakashi felt little about that.
If Obito had been the one abducted earlier, Kakashi would never have gone to rescue him. They barely knew each other to begin with, and if not for the war, he would never even have joined Team Minato.
As for Rin, it was only because she and Kurenai were close. Kakashi already considered Kurenai his future sister-in-law, so he had gone to save her.
There was just one other strange thing.
"Why didn't that guy die? My blade clearly pierced his heart."
The more Kakashi thought back on what had happened in the cave, the stranger it seemed.
He certainly did not think his blade had gone dull, and the man's heart had indeed been in the normal position, yet he had lived.
Shaking his head, Kakashi could only assume that the man had some special means of survival.
Surely someone hadn't set their sights on them?
Rin was just a medical-nin, and Obito was a complete dead last. Without awakening his Sharingan, he was only at the level of an ordinary chunin.
If the enemy really wanted to kill someone on their side, it could only have been him. Surely it couldn't have been Obito?
His own guess startled Kakashi, but after thinking it over carefully, he found it unlikely.
Shaking his head, Kakashi took out the Sharingan. After much deliberation, he put it away for now.
I'll wait until Yuzuru comes back. Maybe he knows something.
That was what Kakashi thought.
Meanwhile, Yuzuru had already spent almost a year in the lightning pool.
What was originally supposed to be a month had stretched on because the natural energy in his body had run wild, resonating with the lightning-nature natural energy in the pool and forming a giant egg.
Beside the lightning pool, Purple Eagle watched the egg with concern.
"Don't you go dying on us."
Just as Purple Eagle muttered those words, a crisp cracking sound rang out.
Cracks appeared across the giant egg's surface, and it slowly began to break apart.
Yuzuru sat cross-legged and naked inside the shell.
His hair had now turned purple, with only a streak of white remaining in the tips over his forehead.
A vertical purple marking had appeared between his brows, while the same thin, elongated blue eyeshadow remained at the corners of his eyes. Lightning flickered around him, but soon vanished.
"Yuzuru, how are you? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"
Purple Eagle hurriedly asked.
"No. Right now, I feel better than ever."
Yuzuru clenched his fists, an unprecedented sense of ease flowing through his lean, muscular body.
After quickly getting dressed, he leaped onto the bank.
The shell in the lightning pool dissipated completely as well, turning into liquid lightning and flowing back into the pool.
"Looks like you've gained quite a lot over this past year."
Purple Eagle marveled.
"Yes. My Sage Mode is completely perfected now. I even mastered Lightning Release and Storm Release!"
Yuzuru extended his index finger toward a dead tree nearby. A purple laser instantly shot from his fingertip.
"Let's go. Gen'a said to come over as soon as you woke up. There's something to discuss with you."
"Let's go."
Soon, Yuzuru arrived at Gen'a's cave.
"You're awake. Good. Your aura has grown stronger, and your affinity for natural energy has improved. You even..."
Gen'a looked at the vertical purple marking between Yuzuru's brows, finding it somewhat unbelievable.
"You're quite an extraordinary fellow."
"It's all thanks to you. Otherwise, I would never have obtained such an orthodox method of cultivating natural energy."
"It was an equivalent exchange. We gained methods for cultivating chakra and ninjutsu too. Now we can go outside whenever we like."
Gen'a said with a smile.
"Really? That certainly is good news. For birds, being unable to soar through the sky must be the most painful thing of all."
"Yes. Speaking of which, you'll be leaving soon, won't you?"
"Sometime in the next few days."
Yuzuru nodded.
"You've spent almost three years here. It's about time."
"Speaking of which, there's one more thing. I don't know if you'd be willing."
Yuzuru smiled at Gen'a.
"Go ahead."
"It's about being summoning beasts."
Gen'a: ...
A few days later, Yuzuru finally got his wish and sat on Hakujun's back.
As she watched Yuzuru sprawled on her back, having the time of his life, a trace of annoyance flashed in Hakujun's eyes.
"Have you had enough? Hurry up and leave. Stop bothering me."
"Ah, what a shame. Still, there's plenty of time in the future. Hehe, I'll be off, then."
Yuzuru smoothed Hakujun's feathers before jumping off her back.
"Go, go, go. Just looking at you annoys me."
With that, Hakujun spread her wings and left.
Yuzuru chuckled softly, then turned and leaped down, leaving through the exit in Ten Thousand Fathom Peak's barrier.
The moment he left Ten Thousand Fathom Peak, Yuzuru found himself in free fall high in the sky.
"Holy shit, it really is up in the damn sky!"
"Ice Dragon, come!"
Accompanied by a dragon's roar, an ice dragon appeared in the air. Yuzuru landed on it, and it carried him back toward the Shinobi World.
He had forgotten which direction he had come from, but getting back was simple. He only had to keep flying in one direction. After all, this planet was round.
After Yuzuru left, a white figure appeared atop the clouds, silently watching him depart.
Only when he was out of sight did Hakujun return to Ten Thousand Fathom Peak.
"If you miss that little fellow, you can use the Summoning Contract."
Purple Eagle said with a smile.
"Piss off."
Hakujun returned to her snow cave. Looking at the bed simply woven from her shed feathers, she somehow found it rather dull.
Without that fellow chattering away beside her, the snow cave had become boring too.
After flying for about a week, Yuzuru finally spotted land.
That familiar sense of chakra-he had returned to the Shinobi World once more.
"Looks like the Third Shinobi World War isn't over yet. That familiar smell of blood, and all that chaotic chakra."
Yuzuru reached the shore and dismissed the ice dragon, then found a small town to stop in and asked where he was while he was at it.
"The Land of Water? Hmm, I'll keep heading west."
After that, he traveled day and night without stopping, taking the opportunity to observe the Shinobi World's current state.
Unexpectedly, by sheer coincidence, he actually ran into someone familiar.
"It's dangerous ahead. Civilians should turn back immediately."
Mei Terumi said as soon as she saw Yuzuru.
Yuzuru looked Mei Terumi over carefully. She truly was a rare beauty.
"Thank you for telling me, but I need to make a trip to the Land of Fire."
"You're a spy!"
Mei Terumi had been captivated by the handsome face of the young man before her, but those words immediately snapped her out of it, and she filled with killing intent.
"I'm just an ordinary person. I'm not a ninja, much less a spy."
Yuzuru shook his head.
"That's not for you to decide!"
With that, Mei Terumi prepared to attack.
But in the next instant, Yuzuru's body turned into ice fragments.
"The Yuki Clan?"
By the time she reacted, Yuzuru was long gone.
A few days later, Kakashi had just rescued Rin after she was abducted, only to be surrounded by a group of Kirigakure Anbu and jonin.
"Tch, this is trouble."
As Kakashi surveyed the scene, he found it somewhat difficult to handle.