Roran — the site of the Dragon Veins.
What had once been a perfectly intact underground space now had a massive hole torn open in its ceiling. The final clash between Taiichi and Urashiki had not only delivered the killing blow to the Ōtsutsuki, but had also completely blasted the underground chamber open, exposing it to the sky above.
Sunlight poured down through the opening and fell upon Taiichi's swaying figure. He looked up at the bright sky and the brilliant sun, and a weary but genuine smile appeared on his face.
Thud.
The sound of a heavy body hitting the ground.
Taiichi's eyes finally closed. He collapsed unconscious.
Attribute points could restore stamina and chakra, but they couldn't replenish mental exhaustion. After such a long, grueling battle, the enormous amount of chakra he had burned, and the accumulated injuries, even his spirit had been pushed to its limit.
Now that the enemy was gone, he could finally rest.
---
While Taiichi and Urashiki had been locked in their final, devastating battle, Rin had already escorted Queen Seramu and Sara out of the underground palace.
The frantic escape had given the queen time to calm down. The moment they reached the surface, she immediately gathered the palace guards and ordered them to begin evacuating the surrounding area.
The guards were confused, but the queen's orders were absolute. They moved quickly to carry them out.
It didn't take long for them to feel grateful for that decision.
As the evacuation was nearing completion, deep tremors began rising from underground. The shaking grew stronger and stronger until even the palace itself started to tremble.
Queen Seramu felt the vibrations beneath her feet, and unease gripped her heart.
"Captain of the Guard!"
"Your Majesty." A powerfully built man stepped forward.
"Take the palace guards and evacuate all residents within a one-kilometer radius. The battle below may affect an even wider area."
The queen's eyes were filled with anxiety, but her gaze never left the direction of the palace.
"Your Majesty, is that… really necessary?"
The captain hesitated. This wasn't a small matter. If handled poorly, it could seriously damage the queen's authority.
Before he could say more, Kakashi came running toward them at high speed, carrying both Naruto and Yamato on his back.
The moment Kakashi saw the large group ahead—especially the queen—he shouted urgently, "Get back! It's not safe here!"
Queen Seramu's expression changed drastically. She turned and snapped, "Captain, follow orders!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The captain no longer hesitated. He and his men immediately dispersed to carry out the evacuation.
Rin rushed forward and took Naruto from Kakashi, but before she could ask anything, Kakashi grabbed her arm and pulled her farther back.
As they moved, the tremors grew even more violent. Parts of the palace began to collapse.
"Kakashi, where's Taiichi? What's happening inside?"
Rin asked anxiously as they ran. This mission had been nothing but one crisis after another.
"He's still inside. Their fight has gone far beyond what we can handle."
Kakashi glanced back toward the palace. In just that short time, the once-grand structure had already been reduced to rubble. Occasionally, purple energy blasts would shoot out from the ruins into the sky.
By now, the entire city of Roran had been alerted by the battle at the palace. Fortunately, the guards had mobilized quickly, preventing widespread panic.
---
A long time later, a group of several dozen people stood watching the palace from a safe distance.
Kakashi and Rin were on their feet. Naruto and Yamato could only sit weakly on the ground. Queen Seramu held her daughter tightly. Ministers and guards surrounded them.
Everyone stared anxiously toward the palace, waiting for the final outcome.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion shook all of Roran.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The palace collapsed like a toy. Rubble was blasted high into the sky, and several nearby buildings were caught in the blast and came crashing down.
A brilliant white sphere of light shot straight up into the sky and burst into a massive firework of smoke and energy.
Then… silence.
Only the occasional sound of collapsing debris could be heard.
There was no sign of the enemy.
And no sign of Taiichi returning.
Kakashi and Rin exchanged a glance. Both could see the worry in each other's eyes.
"Rin, stay here and protect the queen. I'm going back to check."
Without waiting for a reply, Kakashi flickered away.
---
The scene up close was far worse than it had looked from afar.
As Kakashi made his way through the ruins, he realized this place could no longer be described as mere rubble. Everywhere he looked were the scars of high-level ninjutsu. Most striking were the countless glassy, scorched marks—evidence of Taiichi's overwhelmingly powerful Fire Release.
When he reached the deepest part of the ruins—the center of the explosion—the area was strangely open. In the very middle lay a single unmoving figure.
Taiichi.
Kakashi's heart clenched. He flickered forward and reached out with a trembling hand to check Taiichi's breathing.
…
Kakashi let out a long, shaky breath.
Still alive.
He carefully checked Taiichi's condition and immediately sucked in a cold breath. The external wounds were one thing, but the real damage was internal—his chakra pathways had been pushed far beyond their limits.
Kakashi had seen this kind of injury before. Taiichi had suffered something similar during his first real battle back when they were still in the Academy.
This wasn't something he or even Rin could treat.
Kakashi carefully lifted Taiichi onto his back. For now, all he could do was get him out of here. Once Taiichi woke up, he would have to handle the rest himself.
---
Outside, not long after Kakashi left, something new happened.
The first to notice were Queen Seramu and little Sara. While everyone else was focused on the palace, Sara had been looking around curiously.
"Ah! That big brother and the uncle are glowing!"
Her shout drew everyone's attention to Naruto and Yamato.
The two of them looked just as surprised. Naruto raised his hands and stared at them, then looked over at Yamato.
"Only the two of us are glowing?"
His mouth hung open in shock. A strange premonition rose in his chest.
Maybe… our trip is about to end.
Rin hurried over and quickly scanned both of them with medical chakra, but found nothing unusual.
She stared at the glowing pair, momentarily at a loss.
Thinking back on this mission, she realized she had mostly just been along for the ride. A strange sense of helplessness welled up inside her.
Yamato noticed her expression. Even in his weakened state, he managed a small smile.
"Rin… I hope it's alright to call you that. Don't feel discouraged. You're only a chūnin, and you've already done more than enough. Even I, a jōnin, couldn't do much.
This kind of mission was never meant for people like us. We just got caught up in it by accident."
He looked down at the white light surrounding his body and sighed.
"We're probably about to return to our own timeline. It's a shame we didn't get to talk more… especially with Taiichi. He's truly an incredible person."
Rin pulled herself together and was about to reply when she saw Kakashi running back at high speed.
Taiichi was on his back, still unconscious.
At that moment, Rin stopped worrying about Naruto and Yamato. Right now, Taiichi mattered more.
"Taiichi—how is he?!"
"Badly injured, but not in life-threatening danger. He's just unconscious. He should be fine once he wakes up."
After briefly explaining Taiichi's condition, Kakashi also noticed the strange glow around Naruto and Yamato.
He remained calm and quickly formed his own guess. He opened his mouth, wanting to ask more about the future and Obito, but then remembered Taiichi's warning and closed it again.
"Safe travels. Mukade has been completely destroyed—there's nothing left of him. That Ōtsutsuki was also defeated by Taiichi. Your mission is complete."
In the end, that was all Kakashi could say. It was the only farewell he could offer to his future comrades.
"Hey—hey—little Kakashi-sensei, you have to take care of yourself, okay? And stop reading that little orange book all the time. It's really not good for you."
Whether on purpose or not, Naruto dropped one last bombshell before leaving.
Everyone's eyes immediately turned toward Kakashi, who stood there frozen.
Before Kakashi could say anything, Naruto and Yamato's bodies began to turn transparent. They gradually dissolved into countless particles of light and vanished into the air.
"You—you all, don't listen to him! I—I don't have that kind of habit!"
The still-pure-hearted young Kakashi waved his hands in a panic, completely abandoning his usual cool demeanor. Rin and the queen burst out laughing.
---
The next day.
The sharp smell of disinfectant filled his nose, carrying a faint chill that pulled Taiichi out of deep darkness.
Consciousness rose slowly, like a sunken ship struggling to the surface. Every breath sent a dull ache through his chest.
He slowly opened his heavy eyelids. White ceiling panels and morning light coming through the window greeted him.
"You're awake?"
A gentle, surprised voice came from beside the bed.
Taiichi turned his head slightly and saw Rin leaning over the edge of the bed. She looked like she had just woken up from the sound of his movement.
Relief and joy flooded her face. She immediately started to get up to grab her stethoscope.
"How do you feel? Where does it hurt the most? I'll check right away—"
"Don't rush…" Taiichi's voice was hoarse, like a traveler who had been lost in the desert for days. He forced a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Rin. Just… a bit drained."
He refused her examination—not because he didn't trust her, but because he understood his own condition better than anyone.
Rin's medical ninjutsu was excellent, but against meridian damage caused by extreme chakra overload and severe mental exhaustion, conventional treatment had limited effect.
With Rin's worried help, Taiichi endured the full-body soreness and slowly sat up. Leaning against the headboard, he immediately closed his eyes and sank his consciousness inward.
First, he needed to see exactly how much of his reserves he had burned.
When his gaze swept across the panel, his heart clenched as if an invisible hand had squeezed it. A wave of genuine pain washed over him.
Ten attribute points. Seven skill points.
That was nearly half of everything he had saved over the past several years.
During that brutal fight against Ōtsutsuki Urashiki, he had instinctively poured points into himself without hesitation. The situation had been too critical—life and death in an instant. There had been no room for restraint.
But now that the smoke had cleared and the danger was gone, looking at those massive numbers left him with both lingering fear and a deep, aching sense of loss.
This wasn't just numbers. It was his safety margin. His foundation for facing even greater threats in the future.
"That monster…"
Urashiki's constantly shifting forms and terrifying power flashed through Taiichi's mind again—especially that final form after he devoured his own eye and sacred tool. The sheer pressure still made his heart race.
The golden Rinnegan. Power that should never have existed in this world.
"Even in a heavily injured state, he was that difficult to deal with… If he had been at full strength…"
Taiichi didn't dare continue that line of thought. A chill ran down his spine.
The outcome probably wouldn't have been as simple as just spending a lot of points.
For the first time, he truly understood how terrifying the enemies outside the shinobi world could be—and how small his own power still was in the face of true monsters.
He took a deep breath, pushed down the turbulent emotions, and focused on examining his body.
He guided what little chakra he had recovered through his pathways like a precise probe.
Pain was unavoidable. It felt like countless tiny needles stabbing into him—the aftermath of pushing his meridians far past their limits.
His muscles and bones also had varying degrees of bruising and tears. These were the "medals" earned from clashing directly with Urashiki.
His spirit felt like a wrung-out sponge. The exhaustion went down to his bones. Even thinking caused waves of dizziness.
The good news was that there were no irreversible, life-threatening injuries. The damage to his meridians and body was something his own medical ninjutsu could handle with time.
The most troublesome part was the severe mental exhaustion. That could only be recovered through rest.
"At least everything is recoverable."
Taiichi opened his eyes and gave Rin, who had been watching him nervously the whole time, a reassuring smile.
"My chakra pathways have some damage. I have multiple bruises and strains across my body, and I've overexerted my mind. I need to rest for a while, but there's nothing serious. Don't worry."
Rin's tense shoulders finally relaxed a little, though the worry in her eyes didn't completely disappear.
"You were unconscious for a whole day and night! When Kakashi carried you back, you were covered in wounds and your breathing was so weak… What exactly was that enemy? I've never seen such strange abilities or fighting style."
She still felt lingering fear when she remembered those purple energy blasts and the earth-shaking final explosion.
"A monster… from beyond this world."
Taiichi chose his words carefully. The truth about the Ōtsutsuki was too shocking. He didn't want to explain too much to Rin right now.
But this was a good opportunity to pass some information up to the higher-ups. Since Urashiki was dead, there was no way to verify anything anyway.
"Still, he's been completely destroyed. There's no need to worry about him appearing again.
How are things in Roran? Is the queen and Princess Sara alright? How badly damaged is the palace? Were there any civilian casualties?"
Rin saw that Taiichi didn't want to talk more about the enemy and tactfully stopped asking. She immediately reported the situation.
"Queen Seramu and little Sara are both fine. They were just frightened. The palace… it's almost completely destroyed. A large area around it has also been reduced to ruins.
Fortunately, the queen ordered an evacuation of the nearby residents as soon as she came out, and later Kakashi had us pull back in time. So… thankfully, there were no civilian deaths."
Taiichi let out a long breath of relief.
No large-scale civilian casualties. That was even better than he had dared to hope.
The palace could be rebuilt. But lives—Roran couldn't afford to lose any more.
"Where's Kakashi?" Taiichi asked.
"He's currently protecting the queen," Rin said softly, her tone carrying a hint of complicated emotion.