Sasuke watched silently as Akira finished extracting the Iwa–Jōnin's memories.
The man's body collapsed into the sand, lifeless.
Akira's Rinnegan slowly dimmed.
Sasuke stepped forward.
"…So?" he asked, eyes narrowing. "What's the situation in this world? And what's with that strange forehead protector?"
He pointed at the metal plate that now lay half-buried in sand.
"It says Shinobi. Are people here so weak that even someone like him gets a special headband?"
Kakashi coughed lightly.
Akira sighed and shook his head with a small smile—he understood exactly what Sasuke was implying.
In their original world, special forehead protectors were extremely rare.
Symbols like Jiraiya's "oil," or the rare custom insignias worn by a handful of elites—those were exceptions.
Everyone else had the standard village emblem.
So, seeing a random Jōnin with a custom "Shinobi" protector naturally confused Sasuke.
Akira raised a hand.
"It's not like that. The headband isn't special. The situation of this world is what's special."
The three waited.
Akira exhaled slowly.
"Right now… this timeline is in a full-scale Fourth Shinobi World War."
Kakashi's expression stiffened.
Nagato's brows trembled slightly.
Akira continued, voice calm but heavy:
"Madara Uchiha has collected seven of the nineTailed Beasts. He has united with Akatsuki. He has also revived many strong figures from past eras using Edo Tensei."
The wind blew across the desert.
No one spoke.
"And now," Akira said, "Madara's army of 100,000 White Zetsu plus hundreds of Edo Tensei powerhouses… are battling the combined forces of the Five Great Villages and the Land of Iron."
Kakashi's eye widened.
"That means… roughly eighty thousand Shinobi and Samurai against—"
"Against the Zetsu army and Madara's resurrected legions," Akira finished.
---
Akira partially remembered the events of the war.
The war lasted only two days and two nights. Brutal beyond anything seen before. By the start of the second day… half the White Zetsu were dead—around 50,000. And the Allied Shinobi lost nearly 40,000.
And that is not counting the final battles against Ten-Tails-Obito and Ten-Tails-Madara.
A suffocating silence followed.
Even for veterans like Kakashi and Nagato… the numbers were horrifying.
The group fell completely silent.
For Sasuke's generation—raised under the era after third Great Ninja war and then the era of Imperial Council of Shinobi—war was almost a myth.
Peace had lasted for more than a decade. Conflicts were small, easily resolved, and the concept of mass casualties was nearly forgotten.
---
After a few moments of heavy silence, Kakashi finally spoke first.
"So… what's our goal now?" he asked, eyes narrowing.
"You want the Ten-Tails, right? Because as far as I know, only the Ten-Tails has the kind of chakra you would call… staggering."
Akira nodded without hesitation.
"Yes. We do need the Ten-Tails."
The instant Akira confirmed it, Sasuke's expression changed. A sudden realization hit him.
So that's why Naruto didn't come…
Kurama must have known. Kurama must have sensed Akira's future intentions. The excuse Naruto gave earlier — "My parents are going on a trip so I need to watch Naruko" — felt ridiculously flimsy to Sasuke back then.
Minato and Kushina would never leave their child behind if they were going for a trip. And Naruto, for all his recklessness, wouldn't be that responsible either.
Now it all made sense.
Kurama must have warned him.
That's why Naruto stayed behind.
Sasuke let out a silent breath, suspicion fading.
Akira, meanwhile, looked toward the sky. The sun was dipping lower, its last orange edge barely touching the horizon.
"It's almost sunset," he said quietly.
"And from what I'm sensing… a massive amount of chakra is gathering near the border of Land of Lightning and the Land of Frost."
He pointed toward the distant valley.
"We need to head there. Now."
Everyone nodded instantly.
The atmosphere tightened, no one needing extra explanation. Akira raised his hand, clenched his fist, and with a small twist of his wrist—
Crack!
A huge slab of land tore out of the ground as if lifted by an invisible force. The chunk hovered stable beneath them, forming a floating platform. One by one, everyone stepped onto it.
Akira stepped last and placed his palm on the rock.
The stone platform shot forward, slicing through the evening sky like a meteor.
---
A few hours passed as Akira and the others drifted silently through the darkening sky.
Finally, the battlefield came into view below them.
Even from this distance, the ground shook with explosions, jutsu clashed like thunder, and the cries of thousands echoed across the torn landscape. Yet not a single shinobi below sensed their presence.
That was because all of them were using a special camouflage ninjutsu — a technique developed by the Imperial Council of Shinobi.
Unlike regular invisibility techniques, this one didn't hide the body; it concealed presence itself. Chakra signatures, killing intent, aura — all erased from the surrounding perception. Only if the user attacked or let their chakra flare would they become detectable again.
Hidden Earth Village had once created a technique that made a person visually invisible, but even that could be sensed by standard sensory ninjutsu.
Akira's camouflage technique, however, couldn't be sensed at all — not even by the most refined sensory specialists.
Which was precisely why, even after hours passing right above the Fourth Great Ninja War's main battlefield, the Central Division of the Allied Shinobi Forces still hadn't detected the massive chakra reserves of Akira and his group.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the chaos below.
"Akira," he asked calmly, "I don't see you anywhere on this battlefield. So your other self… isn't present? Does that mean we won't have to fight you here?"
As he said this, a faint tension slipped out of his expression — and not just his. The same subtle relief appeared on Nagato's and Kakashi's faces as well.
Until now, all three had assumed they might need to fight this world's Akira just to take the Ten-Tails… along with Madara, the Five Kage, and the entire Allied Shinobi Army.
Akira simply nodded.
But before anyone could respond, he suddenly turned his head sharply toward the east.
The others followed his gaze.
Within seconds—
Four reincarnated Hokage appeared one after another, stepping into the battlefield in a blur of golden light and dust.
And then—
Minato Namikaze flashed forward, teleporting a tailed beast bomb larger than the tailed beast itself far away in an instant.
The ground trembled violently as the redirected explosion lit up the distant horizon and the shockwave of the explosion blew everyone away.
---
Just as Minato redirected the massive tailed beast bomb, a dark figure blurred through the smoke.
Madara Uchiha.
He landed with a heavy crash, cracked earth scattering beneath his feet. His eternal glare locked onto one person.
" It's about damn time !!!
Hashiraaaama!!!"
he shouted, already leaping forward with excitement.
Hashirama pointed to Madara
" You come later !!
Stopping the ten tails is first. "
Madara froze mid-air, .
"Heh, he hasn't changed a bit.
We're never on the same page. "
Hashirama, however, had already moved on, standing beside the other reincarnated Hokage — Minato, Tobirama, and Hiruzen.
With perfect synchronization, the four Hokage formed the Four Red Yang Formation, their chakra pillars rising like blazing crimson towers around the Ten-Tails.
A gigantic sealing barrier snapped into place, trapping the monstrous creature inside.
Then Hashirama pressed his hands together.
Sage Art: Gracious Deity Gates
Ten enormous red Torri Gates fell from the sky and sealed all the tails of Ten-tails restricting it's movement.
The battlefield momentarily stilled as the enormous creature roared and thrashed, its power suppressed under the combined might of the Edo Hokage.
---
Just as Akira and the others were observing the tense confrontation between the Ten-Tails and the Four Hokage, 'Sasuke's( from now on this timeline Sasuke and Nagato name would be written in bold with a mark ) voice from below drifted up to them.
"A lot has happened…
…but I've decided to protect Konoha Village.
And then…
…I'll…
…become Hokage."
For a moment, the battlefield froze.
Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, kiba and even Shikamaru stared at 'Sasuke in stunned silence.
But before anyone down below could react—
A loud burst of laughter exploded from the sky.
Up above—on the floating slab of land Akira had created—Akira and the others were doubled over, laughing so hard they almost lost their balance.
"Pft—HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Akira clutched his stomach. "K-Kakashi, look—Sasuke wants to become Hokage! HAHAHAHAHA!"
Akira wiped a tear from his eye.
"Sasuke, I didn't know you had such a dream. Why don't I give my position to you so you can fulfill it, huh?"
He burst out laughing again.
"Hahahahahaha! Oh gods—Sasuke Uchiha, the Hokage! HAHAHA!"
Sasuke's eye twitched.
Sasuke's fists clenched so hard his knuckles cracked.
A vein on his forehead twitched dangerously.
He really wanted to punch Akira and Kakashi straight off the floating landmass—and maybe drop them onto the Ten-Tails for good measure. But he forced himself to stay still. Barely.
Nagato looked away, pretending he didn't know these people.
And Kakashi?
Kakashi was laughing into his mask like someone had told him the greatest joke in the history of shinobi kind.
To be fair… it was understandable.
Sasuke Uchiha, wanting to become Hokage.
In their timeline, this was practically the funniest thing anyone could ever hear.
After all, Sasuke's daily routine back home included:
– Mocking Naruto for wanting to be Hokage.
– Saying even dogs wouldn't dream of becoming Hokage.
– Claiming Naruto would surely reach "Second Hokage" level before he would personally give "Third Hokage" title of Strongest Hokage to him.
– Declaring Hokage a useless title people fought over for no reason.
– And openly saying he respected literally every office except the Hokage office.
And now hearing it felt like this single sentence mocked Sasuke's entire personality.
---