"How should I handle this?"
Naruto was deep in thought.
He had messed up.
Originally, when he arrived, he should have ignored Uchiha Itachi and Konan and gone straight to take or destroy the Rinnegan.
No…
That wouldn't have worked either.
Because Konan and Uchiha Itachi would never allow Naruto to do that.
No matter how strong Naruto was, Konan and Itachi were both at least Kage-level.
So after he defeated Nagato, if he didn't immediately rush over to seize the Rinnegan…
Then no matter what happened afterward, Obito would definitely take it.
A mistake…
But it wasn't fatal.
Although Obito was hard to kill, and Black Zetsu was extremely insidious,
Naruto was no longer afraid of either of them.
He only needed to protect the people who carried the small fragments of Kurama within them, and Obito would certainly come looking for him.
By then, Naruto could kill Obito.
But when he thought carefully, he realized—
Naruto didn't actually have the ability to kill Obito quickly.
Even though Obito himself wasn't very strong, Kamui was a huge problem.
An Obito with Kamui was extremely hard to kill.
An Obito with double Kamui was even more terrifying.
If Obito couldn't beat Naruto, nothing prevented him from taking back the Sharingan he gave Kakashi.
This thought made Naruto's mind suddenly clear.
Return to Konoha and obtain the barrier technology and materials.
Then find Kakashi and take his Sharingan for safekeeping.
No!
Better to destroy it directly.
Even if he kept it, Naruto couldn't watch it constantly.
If destroyed, Obito could never regain double Kamui.
Naruto formed a plan in his mind and observed his surroundings.
Uchiha Itachi had already defeated the manifested mind-state controlled by Fuyuuma (name flagged).
On the other side, the battle on Tsurugi Fubuki's side (name flagged) had also ended.
As expected—
Tsurugi Fubuki lost.
Naruto sighed softly.
It seemed that the Snow Country ninjas were rubbish. Even with high-tech ninja tools, they still couldn't display full combat strength.
But Naruto still used the Flying Thunder God Technique to seal the souls of Fuyuuma and Fubuki back into the kunai.
He knew they were weak, but they were still part of his configurations.
He could wait until he found a stronger combination before releasing them again.
Uchiha Itachi sensed something was wrong and fled after defeating his manifested self.
Scorpion and Deidara also escaped.
Jiraiya stabilized Nagato and Konan's injuries, planning to take them back to Konoha and hand them over to Tsunade.
After all, Tsunade was the professional.
Jiraiya only had basic medical knowledge.
Before leaving, Jiraiya asked Naruto beside him, "Naruto, do you want to come back to Konoha with me?"
"No…" Naruto answered subconsciously, but remembering that he intended to return anyway, changed his words: "It's not me going back with you. I'm taking you back."
Before Jiraiya could understand what he meant, Naruto exited Sage Mode, Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, and Lightning Style Armor.
Then—
Naruto went down, placed Nagato onto his shoulder, picked up the unconscious Konan, and said to Jiraiya, "My Flying Thunder God can take three people at once. Come here."
Jiraiya didn't even know how to react.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was extremely difficult to learn.
Even if learned, one needed high proficiency to teleport with another person.
Let alone three.
And how difficult was Flying Thunder God?
Back then, Namikaze Minato searched Konoha for someone who could inherit it.
He found several prodigies, yet none could perform the technique alone—they had to combine their strength to use the Flying Thunder God Formation.
But Naruto could not only use it effortlessly—
He could teleport three people.
This was beyond outrageous.
Naruto's talent was the greatest Jiraiya had ever seen.
…
Naruto had left Flying Thunder God marks in Konoha.
So appearing there was normal.
Several figures appeared inside Naruto's hut.
After arriving, Jiraiya looked around, and his expression stiffened slightly.
He asked Naruto, "Naruto… is this where you live?"
Naruto looked at him and replied, "What else?"
Jiraiya fell silent.
This didn't look like a normal home. Although it was furnished, it clearly wasn't a proper residence.
How to describe it…
It looked more like emergency housing for Konoha's refugees.
There was no one around, and the environment was shabby.
No wonder Naruto never wanted to come home…
But Jiraiya didn't say anything.
Naruto had grown up. He had his own thoughts, opinions, and ways of dealing with things.
Even if Jiraiya wanted to comfort him, it probably wouldn't help.
And Jiraiya had urgent tasks, so he said, "Then I'll go first."
He took Nagato and Konan and jumped out the window.
Their destination—the Konoha Hospital.
Naruto didn't pay Jiraiya much attention.
After returning to Konoha, he immediately activated Kagura's Mind's Eye and started scanning.
But unfortunately, Naruto couldn't detect Kakashi's chakra.
So he expanded the range.
Still nothing.
Was Kakashi on a mission?
Naruto frowned, teleported via Flying Thunder God in front of the Hokage Building, and walked inside.
The ninjas on guard saw someone approaching and instinctively moved to stop him.
But when they saw it was Naruto, they froze.
Because Naruto was no longer part of the village!
It wasn't until Naruto disappeared at the end of the corridor that the two guards reacted.
Naruto was a missing-nin!
They couldn't let him walk in freely!
The two chased after him, but Naruto had already entered the Hokage's office.
Because of Naruto's earlier actions, the original events had changed.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was still alive.
When Hiruzen saw Naruto, he froze slightly before saying seriously, "Naruto… this is my fault."
The guards caught up, but Hiruzen waved them away.
Naruto went straight to the point and asked, "Where is Kakashi?"
Kakashi?
What connection did Naruto have with him?
Hiruzen thought quickly and said, "Naruto, only Konoha shinobi can—"
Before he could finish, Naruto lost patience.
Naruto narrowed his eyes and said, "This concerns the peace of the entire ninja world. Don't waste my time."
At this crucial moment, Hiruzen didn't argue further. He took out Kakashi's mission log.
After checking it twice, Hiruzen said, "Kakashi went to the Land of Demons on a mission."
Naruto finally felt relieved.
Thankfully, the Land of Demons wasn't close to the Land of Rain.
This meant Obito wouldn't find Kakashi before Naruto did—
And couldn't obtain the other eye.
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