Just one mber was already described as unrivaled beneath the heavens.
And according to Kaede Kitahara, more of them would co in the future?
Just the thought made Namikaze Minato's breathing grow heavier.
That kind of future was suffocating.
Ignorance really was bliss. The more you knew, the more unbearable it beca.
Kage Level. Super Kage Level. And even the vaguely ntioned realm of the Six Paths.
"Sage Mode… it has to be Sage Mode."
After turning it over in his mind again and again, Minato reached a conclusion. With what he currently understood, if he wanted to contend with a being on the level of the Nine-Tails, then Sage Mode might be his only real option.
The problem was that he had only heard of it.
He had not even begun training.
There had always been too much to do. No ti to set aside for specialized study.
Before, he had never felt any urgency. Mount Myoboku was not going anywhere. He could visit whenever he wished.
Now that no longer felt true.
Within a few short years, he would likely face Uchiha Kenji.
He did not have as much ti as he once believed.
He would have to formally request leave and travel to Mount Myoboku to study senjutsu.
Sage arts were his only answer against the enemies waiting in the future.
At that mont, he began to understand what Kaede ant when he called this a world ruled by legendary eyes.
Without a dojutsu, one would always be at a disadvantage.
Fortunately, senjutsu still existed.
He was not completely without a path forward.
After finishing the diary, Minato closed it and stored away his own notes as well.
Since sealing his mories was no longer possible, he would have to face the most terrifying future head-on.
And he would need to ensure that Naruto's birth remained unchanged.
That thought alone gave him a headache.
Was it even possible to keep everything from shifting?
Minato looked out the window at the bright moon hanging in the night sky and fell into deep thought.
Several days later, Kaede Kitahara and his team returned to Konoha.
The three of them were quickly summoned to et the Third Hokage.
"Hokage-sama, that's roughly how the mission went. The barrier set by the Fourth Hokage was not destroyed," Kaede reported calmly.
Naturally, he could not say that it had been broken and later restored by the Fourth Hokage from the past.
Nor did he intend to ntion that he planned to quietly seize the Dragon Vein chakra in the future and seal it into his own body, becoming a Dragon Vein Jinchuriki.
Leaving a chakra source comparable to the Nine-Tails buried there was a waste.
Kaede's own chakra reserves had already reached Kage Level standards. Against ordinary Jonin, he had more than enough.
But against true Kage Level opponents, his reserves were rely above average. Slightly higher than most at that tier, but far from overwhelming.
It would take several more years of growth before his chakra beca abundant even among Kage Level fighters.
If he could beco a Dragon Vein Jinchuriki and draw upon the Dragon Vein's chakra, he could reach sothing closer to Uzumaki Naruto's level.
He might even be able to develop a Dragon Vein Chakra Mode.
And the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, which had stubbornly refused to take shape, might finally beco possible.
"However, we were ambushed on the way back by rogue ninja and Missing-nin from various villages," Kaede continued. "I heard my bounty at the Bounty Station has reached ten million ryo."
"At Roran, we also encountered Kakuzu from Takigakure. We barely escaped after a hard fight."
He did not tell the full truth. He certainly did not ntion traveling twenty years into the past.
He simply described it as a desperate joint battle by their team.
"Ten million ryo? Hah. They're pricing you like a Jonin," the Third Hokage said with a cold chuckle.
He did not need to think hard to guess who had placed that bounty.
Shimura Danzo.
Who else would spend ten million ryo targeting an otherwise unremarkable Chunin? That amount already matched a Jonin-level bounty.
Even under surveillance, his old comrade still managed to stir up trouble.
A stance of relentless hostility.
Behind the faint smile on his face, the Third Hokage's anger was boiling.
Again and again, Danzo pushed the limits. Secret moves. Constant provocations.
It felt like a direct challenge to his authority.
But he did not show it.
"Kakuzu? The one from Takigakure?" he asked instead, stroking his chin.
Kakuzu was no stranger to him. A long-ti bounty hunter active in the Bounty Station network, known across nations.
He had once even attempted to assassinate the First Hokage.
An old monster.
The fact that Kaede and his team had returned alive was already fortunate.
"Yes, him," Kaede replied, letting a trace of relief show on his face.
It was not entirely an act.
If things had gone wrong during his trip to the past, he might have been stranded in another tiline entirely.
If the Fourth Hokage had sealed the Dragon Vein differently, there was no guarantee Kaede would have returned to the present at all.
"I understand. You may go. I will adjust this mission's classification to A-rank. Submit a written report later," the Third Hokage said.
"Yes."
Kaede bowed slightly and left with his two teammates.
The mont the office door shut, sothing heavy shattered inside.
Kaede paused briefly but did not linger. He led his teammates away.
"From today onward, freeze all funding requests from Advisor Danzo. Root is to be dissolved and rged into Anbu," the Third Hokage ordered coldly.
"Yes."
An Anbu operative stepped out from the shadows and vanished at once.
Once outside the Hokage Building, the three of them wasted no ti heading ho. The mission had been exhausting. Travel. Combat. Pursuit.
They desperately needed rest.
Kaede hurried back as well.
His mother, Fangko Kitahara, was watering the flowers in the yard. When she saw him, she simply asked what he wanted for dinner before heading inside to prepare it.
For a ninja family, departures and reunions were routine.
After washing up, Kaede returned to his room and pulled out the book left to him by Namikaze Minato, filled with knowledge about sealing techniques.
He had been studying it frequently.
The diary contained nurous sealing techniques. Not particularly advanced, but they solved a key problem for him.
He had theoretical knowledge of sealing jutsu.
What he lacked were practical applications.
The first technique that caught his attention was the Evil Sealing thod, the one Hatake Kakashi had once used to suppress Uchiha Sasuke's Cursed Seal.
It could restrict chakra flow within a specific area, as Kakashi had done, or extend across the entire body.
Once sealed by the Evil Sealing thod, a ninja's chakra circulation would be suppressed, similar to losing internal energy in a martial arts novel.
It was extrely useful for capturing enemies.
Bind them afterward with rope, and even a Jonin, perhaps even a Kage Level fighter, would struggle to break free.
Though classified as B-rank, its practicality was undeniable.
Then there was the Fire Sealing thod, a technique Jiraiya had used. Designed specifically to seal away Fire Release jutsu.
Considering the Uchiha Clan's mastery of Fire Release, it was entirely possible that the Uzumaki Clan had developed it during the Warring States period to counter them.
But what truly made Kaede's eyes light up was the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.
It was an improved version of the Uzumaki Clan's ancestral Four Symbols Seal, refined by Namikaze Minato.
Minato had used it to seal the Nine-Tails into Uzumaki Naruto.
Through the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, one could continuously draw chakra from the sealed entity.
For Kaede, this was exactly what he needed.
If he wanted to seal the Dragon Vein's power into himself, he could not do it without the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.
Once he mastered it, he could begin preparations.
The sooner, the better.
After all, aside from himself, Kakuzu had also witnessed the Dragon Vein's power.
Kaede did not know why Kakuzu had retreated that day.
But if Kakuzu had discovered the Dragon Vein, then Akatsuki might eventually target it as well.
Ti was not on his side.
"Too bad my talent for sealing techniques isn't great," Kaede muttered with a sigh.
He faced the sa issue he had encountered while training the Flying Thunder God.
Without innate talent, he had to rely on accumulated knowledge and painstaking practice. Progress was steady, but slow.
After studying Minato's notes and several sealing techniques, he finally understood how the second stage of the Flying Thunder God operated.
It was essentially another type of burst-style sealing application.
He could take the ti to inscribe the Flying Thunder God formula.
But achieving Minato's instantaneous activation? Impossible without extraordinary sealing aptitude.
When you thought about it, Minato's talent was outrageous.
Exceptional in standard ninjutsu.
Gifted in space-ti ninjutsu.
Reflexes that rivaled dojutsu users.
And remarkable aptitude for sealing techniques.
No wonder Jiraiya never stopped praising him as the most outstanding genius of his era.
A true six-sided warrior.
Compared to him, most shinobi seed painfully ordinary.
Unfortunately, by the later stages of the ninja world, talent alone was no longer enough.
It was all about bloodline.
Minato had climbed to his strength through pure talent and relentless effort.
And Sarada only had to fall in love to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan and reach that level.
Where was the fairness in that?
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