Although Hinata and Neji were saved, many other companions on the battlefield were not so lucky.
In this brutal battle, they ultimately could not withstand the Ten Tails' fierce and savage assault, and fell one after another into pools of blood.
Looking at the tragic scene before him, Obito shouted angrily at Naruto, "Didn't you say you wouldn't let anyone hurt your comrades?"
"Naruto!"
"You said you would never let anyone hurt your comrades, didn't you?"
Large beads of sweat formed on Naruto's forehead.
With a face full of fear, he lowered his head to look at the crimson Nine Tails cloak glowing around his body, and felt a wave of lingering dread.
Just a tiny bit more earlier, and Neji would have died under that Cutting Sprigs Technique.
'No, that's not right!'
It was as if Naruto's head had suddenly been struck by lightning. Countless memories surged in like a tidal wave.
In just an instant, those memories flashed rapidly through his mind like scenes from a movie.
The first thing that appeared was Neji rushing toward him without hesitation, using his body to block the fatal blow.
Right after that, a series of later scenes followed one after another.
However, just as those images were about to fully take shape, they shattered like fragile glass.
As the fragments of memory scattered, a figure dressed in Uchiha clan clothing gradually appeared.
The man smiled and said, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Uchiha Rengoku."
"If you're seeing this, then it means Neji should have been successfully saved by you."
"According to the original path of fate, he would have sacrificed himself here to save you."
"But with my intervention, you were able to change that ending."
At this point, Uchiha Rengoku paused slightly, then solemnly instructed Naruto, "Now there's something important you need to do. After your son takes Sasuke as his teacher, you must make him swallow this bead."
As soon as those words fell, the memory buried deep in Naruto's mind, about once traveling back twenty years to Loulan, surged back like a flood breaking through a dam.
Only then did Naruto clearly recall the scene.
Uchiha Rengoku had personally fed him a mysterious bead.
When he came back to his senses from that long stream of recollections, he was surprised to find that hardly any time had passed around him.
After all, that rapid replay of memories in his mind had happened in less than a heartbeat.
At the same time, Obito's vicious voice rang out from outside.
He stood high atop the Ten Tails' head, his face twisted almost to the point of distortion, glaring fiercely at the people below.
"The killing will continue."
"Your childish words and ideals will eventually turn into nothing."
"This is the result of empty talk about dreams and hope."
"This is reality."
"Naruto, what is there worth holding onto in this kind of reality? Your parents are gone, and your master Jiraiya has left you too."
"And if you keep resisting, your comrades will keep falling one by one like this."
"You'll live in a world where no one acknowledges you."
"What's waiting ahead for you is something you know well and fear the most."
"Loneliness!"
Hinata and the fortunate Neji who survived looked at Naruto with deep worry, afraid he would not be able to bear such immense pressure and would collapse mentally.
But at this moment, Naruto had already received the memory fragments Rengoku passed to him about the later course of the great war.
Those tragic scenes kept flashing through his mind, and his gaze changed completely.
Naruto's eyes were sharp as he stared fixedly at Obito not far away, his expression extremely serious, as if he wanted to see right through him.
Even without being slapped awake by Hinata like before, he no longer felt lost.
Because in the original path of fate, Neji had already sacrificed himself once to save him.
Now, that heavy past had become an unshakable pillar of faith deep in Naruto's heart.
Naruto looked at Kurama inside him and asked in a low voice:
"Kurama, are you ready?"
At this moment, Kurama was sitting quietly on the ground. He had also witnessed those shocking images Rengoku had poured into Naruto. He replied, ["Yeah. Thanks to that guy called Uchiha Rengoku, my power has already recovered ahead of time."]
Meanwhile, outside, Obito was still rambling on, trying to use words to crush Naruto's will. But it was clear his scheme was destined to fail.
Because a dazzling golden light suddenly burst out from Naruto's body, and a magnificent Tailed Beast cloak instantly covered him.
Through his actions, he declared to everyone that he had not taken a single word of Obito's speech to heart.
With a fierce swing of the sharp claw formed by the Tailed Beast cloak, Naruto easily pulled Neji behind him and said with concern:
"Neji, your chakra is almost completely drained. Fall back to the rear and recover for now. Leave the rest of the fight to me!"
Seeing that Naruto had not been shaken at all, Neji showed a relieved smile.
When Naruto saw that Neji was still alive, something stirred deep inside him, and he almost burst into tears.
Silently, he said in his heart, 'Thank you, Lord Rengoku. I will make my son swallow this bead.'
———
Inside the space time passage, Rengoku floated forward as if he were swimming.
All around him was chaos. There was no clear sense of up, down, left, or right, as if he were inside an endless void maze.
However, relying on the special connection between himself and his clone, Rengoku could always clearly sense the clone's location.
He adjusted his posture, moving forward slowly as if swimming.
Not long ago, after he absorbed the Dragon Vein in Naruto's timeline, the Dragon Vein energy inside his body had been greatly strengthened.
He could now remain inside the space time passage for a period of time.
Just moments ago, he had already sensed that his clone in Naruto's timeline had been activated once.
That meant the Fourth Shinobi World War had already begun over there.
And at this moment, he himself had only just stepped into this strange space time passage not long ago.
'As I expected, time flows very fast here,' Rengoku thought to himself.
As far as he knew, the time point Naruto returned to after traveling through space time was only about half a year before the Fourth Shinobi World War.
So, following that logic, in Minato's timeline and in his own original timeline, how much time had passed?
'Half a year as well?'
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