"Did you just teleport us back to Konoha, Sasuke?!"
As soon as he was pulled into the special space, Naruto pointed at the villa in the center of the clearing and exclaimed in shock.
He was very familiar with the environment here.
The surrounding forest, and that villa...
Wasn't this his own personal territory?
Naruto held his chin, lowered his head in thought, and then added another sentence, "Sasuke..."
"Did your Mangekyo awaken back then during that cross-dressing gatheri..."
Bang…
Sasuke raised his leg to give the yellow-haired delinquent a kick.
'This guy knew full well what happened...'
'Did he really have to say it out loud in front of him?!'
Naruto stumbled and almost fell. He turned around and wanted to say something else, but seeing the fury on Sasuke's face, he wisely shut his mouth.
"Nagato... Yahiko..."
Meanwhile, Jiraiya's low muttering caught Naruto's attention.
Turning to look, he saw Jiraiya sitting dazedly between Nagato and the Deva Path puppet.
As soon as Jiraiya noticed that he had left Amegakure, he looked down and saw Nagato and Yahiko lying next to them.
He was about to step forward to check their injuries, but to his horror, he realized both Nagato and Yahiko had already stopped breathing.
Jiraiya had never imagined that his reunion with his students would turn out like this.
'Perhaps…'
'If Yahiko hadn't saved me before, he wouldn't have died.'
Naruto stood there stunned for a while.
'Wait...'
'Why did it feel like there was something wrong with the way the old man was sitting beside Senior Brother and crying sadly?'
After all, in the original timeline, it's Senior Brother who had personally impaled him to death.'
Remembering how Nagato had saved Jiraiya earlier, Naruto felt like this world was becoming more and more absurd.
Seeing Jiraiya's sorrow, Naruto walked forward and knelt down to check on Nagato.
He reached out and touched his neck. Just from the temperature of the body, he knew he had been dead for some time.
Jiraiya didn't notice Naruto beside him, and still continued to weep over Pain's body.
"Alright, alright!"
"Old man, shut your mouth already."
"Crying like this at your age..."
Naruto couldn't stand the sight of the man's sobbing, so he took out a Totem of Undying and pressed it on Nagato's withered body. Then, he took out a bottle of potion and forced him to drink it.
After three consecutive potions, Nagato's emaciated body began to visibly recover at an astonishing rate.
Within moments, his corpse had regained the appearance of a healthy human, and even his faded red hair regained its luster.
Glancing at Pain in Jiraiya's arms, Naruto thought for a moment before taking out another totem.
However, Naruto estimated that the chances of resurrecting Yahiko were slim.
After all, Yahiko had long been turned into a puppet by Nagato, so whether he even counted as a corpse was debatable.
"Naruto..."
"What are you doing?"
Seeing Naruto instructing him to place the statue next to the body, Jiraiya looked confused.
He had no idea what the kid was up to now.
But seeing Nagato's body seemingly recovering, even showing faint signs of life, as if there was still a sliver of hope, he immediately complied.
"Just do it."
"I'll go check the situation outside first."
As soon as Naruto finished saying this, Sasuke next to him showed off a little.
"You can't leave."
"As long as this space is maintained, no one can leave..."
"And all Space-Time Ninjutsu are disabled here."
Sasuke felt a little excited.
Originally, he was thinking of giving this guy a little shock when he fought with Naruto in the future.
Though it was happening earlier than expected, he was sure Naruto's reaction when he realized his portal wouldn't work would be priceless.
But before he could savor the moment, Sasuke watched in disbelief as Naruto vanished right in front of him.
A purple portal remained open where he had been standing...
"WHAT THE…?!"
"HOW?!"
Sasuke's brain immediately short-circuited.
'This... This wasn't right!'
'Wasn't all Space-Time Ninjutsu supposed to be disabled?!'
'Then why the hell was Naruto's portal still working?!'
Outside, Naruto's figure emerged from the portal. He transformed into Ichigo, and observed his surroundings.
The former Amegakure was now a scorched wasteland, with no trace left of the village that once stood there.
And the monster Hidan transformed into was also nowhere to be seen.
"That's some serious firepower..."
Seeing the current situation, Naruto couldn't help but marvel at the power of Sasuke's new version of Angry Buddha Lotus Flame.
"Ichigo Bro!"
"Over here!"
"Help me out!"
Hidan's familiar voice came from below and behind him. Turning around, Naruto saw the guy's head shouting from inside a crater.
The sight was honestly a bit creepy.
"You're still alive?!"
Naruto blurted out without thinking.
He knew about Hidan's immortality, but he hadn't expected the guy to survive after being possessed by the corrupted Momoshiki.
'Could it be...'
'This was a legendary 'Natural Born Cultist Saint Body' or something?'
"Of course!"
"I am blessed by Jashin-sama."
"I've never felt better!"
Hidan started rambling about divine summons, divine mercy, and other nonsense.
Anyway, Naruto didn't really understand the gibberish, so he he just walked over, grabbed Hidan by the hair, and lifted him up.
"Ichigo Bro, be gentle! Be gentle!"
"Stop swinging me around by my hair!"
"You're gonna make me puke."
Naruto: "…"
'Dude, you don't even have a body...'
'How the hell are you going to puke??'
Tap tap…
Suddenly, Naruto heard the sound of footsteps behind him, and without thinking much, he used Hidan's head as a weapon and hurled it backward.
"AAAHHH!!"
"STOP IT!!"
Hidan screamed in protest.
When he turned to see who it was, Naruto immediately relaxed.
"Oh, it's just you, Kakuzu."
Kakuzu didn't say anything, staring at Naruto and Hidan's head.
His face was ashen, and the resentment on his body seemed to be about to overflow.
"TELL ME!!"
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!"
"WHERE THE F*** IS AMEGAKURE?!"
"WHERE'S THE BASE?!"
Kakuzu looked like he was about to have a stroke.
'Goddammit!'
'I had just gone out for a mission...'
'Why is my home gone in the blink of an eye?!'
'I had saved a lot of gold and money in the base, but where are they now?!!!'
Kakuzu's eyes couldn't help but get wet at the thought of all his savings over the years vanishing into thin air.
When Naruto and Hidan heard this, their eyes met at the same time.
Although Hidan didn't know what happened after the 'Jashin' possession, but when he saw the situation at the scene...
He knew it was probably related to the Jashin ritual.
After a few seconds of internal struggle, the two decided to tell Kakuzu a white lie.
"I don't know!" x2
"We just got here too!" x2
Hearing this, Kakuzu's expression turned even uglier.
If it weren't for the fact that one of them was his sponsor and the other literally couldn't die, he would've blasted them with a few Ninjutsu on the spot.
'F*** YOU!!'
'AT LEAST TRY TO MAKE IT BELIEVABLE?!'
'DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT WHILE LYING TO ME!!'
'DO YOU THINK I'M BLIND?!'
"Kakuzu, I'm leaving Hidan with you."
"I need to leave for now."
Naruto placed Hidan's head down and kicked it toward Kakuzu.
"Ichigo Bro! If you keep treating me like this, I swear I'm going to be really angry!!!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Naruto replied perfunctorily, then ran to a corner, opened a portal, and returned to Sasuke's space.
"Huh?"
"Sasuke, why are you squatting over there?"
As soon as Naruto returned, he saw Sasuke crouching under a tree, staring blankly into space.