Chapter 249 Minato: Is this my son?
"Alright! Then, let's go to the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Loulan together tomorrow!" Naruto patted Gaara on the shoulder and made the decision.
"Hey, Naruto, don't be reckless! Oh well, Loulan's been abandoned for so long, it shouldn't cause any major trouble." Jiraiya wanted to warn Naruto not to act rashly, but seeing the kid's determined expression, he could only give up. If the kid were a good listener, he wouldn't have abandoned the hot springs and beautiful girls of the Land of Hot Springs to eat sand in the desert.
The next morning, after waking up, Naruto and Gaara set off for the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Loulan.
Approaching the ruins, Naruto looked up at the eroded remains of the buildings, still showing traces of their former grandeur. He was lost in thought for a moment, then turned to Gaara.
"Gaara, do you know why this place became like this?" Naruto asked, somewhat confused.
"I don't know either," Gaara said.
"When the ancient Loulan Kingdom began to decline, you two weren't even born yet, so it's normal that you don't know," Jiraiya explained to the two. "The ancient Loulan Kingdom once built a brilliant civilization in this desert using puppetry techniques driven by a special energy. However, when their puppets lost power, they were no longer able to support such a large country, so the ancient Loulan Kingdom declined to its current state."
A sigh appeared on Jiraiya's face as he finished speaking.
"Special energy?" Naruto's face showed astonishment. What kind of energy could support the establishment of such a large and prosperous empire, and then cause it to collapse after the energy disappeared?
For some reason, Naruto had a feeling that this matter was related to his father, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
At this moment, a look of recollection appeared on Jiraiya's face: "It was around shortly after your father came here on a mission. The Third Hokage suspected your father was involved, but neither your father nor his team members remembered what exactly happened on that mission."
The three of them strolled through the ruins of the ancient Loulan Kingdom, and soon arrived at a tower that had been eroded by wind and sand, standing alone in the desert.
Naruto looked at the ruins of the tower, feeling a sense of disorientation, and an inexplicable urgency urged him to go inside.
Naruto thought for a moment, then stepped into the tower.
Jiraiya and Gaara followed.
After walking through the darkness for a while, Naruto reached the center of the tower. When he saw light again, he was in a room with faded sealing runes covering the floor.
Naruto glanced down at the sealing technique formula on the ground, scratched his head for a long time, and then said uncertainly, "What is this? The Five Elements Sealing Technique?"
"Who did you learn this sealing technique from? This is clearly the Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique." Jiraiya, who had followed him in, observed the situation in the room for a while, and then couldn't help but retort after hearing Naruto's words.
"Oh, so it's the Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique." Naruto stuck out his tongue and said, "No wonder it looked familiar."
"It seems this is the place Minato visited back then," Jiraiya said. "After all, back then, the only people in the entire ninja world who mastered the Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique were probably your parents. But why does this seal look like it's been damaged?"
Naruto stared at the center of the room, where the remaining sealing runes converged, and a unique kunai was quietly stuck in the ground.
"The Sword of Love?" After Jiraiya and Naruto arrived next to the kunai, while Naruto was still wondering what it was, Jiraiya had already recognized it. After all, such a three-pronged kunai was practically unique in the entire ninja world.
"This is… my father's kunai?" Naruto turned to look at Jiraiya and asked.
"Yes." Jiraiya nodded.
After getting the answer, Naruto immediately reached out for the Sword of Love.
"Wait!" Jiraiya quickly called out when he saw this.
However, the next second, Naruto suddenly felt his chakra resonate with the remaining chakra within the kunai, and a blinding white light flashed before his eyes.
After an unknown amount of time, the three slowly awoke.
Upon waking, they first observed their surroundings.
"Where is this…the place from before?" Jiraiya barely recognized the room where the Sword of Love had been stuck, but now, both the Sword of Love and the remaining sealing techniques on the ground had vanished. Furthermore, the room's furnishings looked much newer than before, and more importantly, a purple pillar of light stood where the Sword of Love had been, radiating immense chakra fluctuations.
Suddenly, a cacophony of voices came from outside, sounding bustling with activity. Seeing this, the three exchanged incredulous glances.
"Could there be someone else here?" The three quickly headed towards the source of the sound. However, when they stepped out of the tower, the scene before them left them utterly stunned. The desolate place they had just left behind was gone, replaced by numerous strangely shaped, towering buildings.
Before they could even fully register their shock, three whooshing sounds rang out.
"Watch out!" Jiraiya shouted a warning.
Three enormous puppets attacked from behind. The three dodged the attack and turned to face their attackers.
"Puppets?" Jiraiya frowned, looking at the massive puppets surrounding them. "So big?"
While Jiraiya was still marveling at the size of the attacking puppets, Naruto and Gaara had already engaged their respective opponents.
Naruto, riding the wind, dodged a wave of attacks from the puppet. His right leg, wrapped in wind blades, slammed heavily into the puppet. Cracks and cuts instantly appeared on the puppet's surface, which appeared to be made of refined steel, but the puppet's momentum against Naruto remained undiminished.
"Sand Binding Coffin!" Gaara quickly formed hand seals, and countless grains of sand surged from the ground, binding the attacking puppet within a few breaths. Gaara, controlling the sand, sensed the immense force of the puppet's struggle emanating from within the sand.
Gaara frowned slightly, clenching his fists tightly, the sand binding the puppet tightening violently. The immense pressure caused the sand within to creak and grind with a teeth-grinding sound.
However, Gaara also realized that his technique, which usually crushed ordinary Jonin into a pulp when hit, seemed less effective against these iron lumps.
"You two! Don't use brute force! Find the chakra threads connecting these puppets! Then cut them!" Jiraiya was somewhat exasperated by the fighting style of the two Jinchūriki in front of him. These two kids lacked basic ninja knowledge, not even knowing the basic common sense of finding the chakra threads when facing puppets. Moreover, it was understandable that Naruto didn't know, but Gaara, the Jinchūriki of Sunagakure who was known for his puppetry skills, didn't know either. It seemed that the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, really didn't train him as a normal ninja.
"Chakra threads?" After hearing Jiraiya's words, Naruto carefully observed the situation of the puppets he was facing. Before long, he discovered that there were indeed several thin threads with a slight blue glow behind them. These threads were very difficult to spot in the sunlight without careful observation.
"Damn it, who's controlling these puppets?" Jiraiya frowned deeply after dodging the puppets' attacks with a series of leaps. These puppets were far more resilient than any Sunagakure puppet he had ever seen. Even more strangely, normally the puppets and their puppeteers shouldn't be too far apart, since chakra would inevitably be lost during transmission through the chakra threads.
However, no matter how hard Jiraiya searched, he couldn't find the puppeteer.
After being alerted by Jiraiya, Naruto and Gaara quickly severed the chakra connections to the puppets in front of them. The massive puppets crashed down in front of the three, and they breathed a slight sigh of relief.
But just then, a kunai shot towards their location.
Naruto and Gaara locked onto the kunai almost instantly, but just as they were about to retaliate, Jiraiya, who had also noticed the kunai, grabbed their shoulders, his face filled with utter disbelief. Just as the kunai was
about to reach them, a golden figure flashed past, seizing the kunai. Then, before Naruto and Gaara could react, this person appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Jiraiya's arm.
The next instant, all four vanished from the spot.
...
When Naruto came to his senses, he found himself in a secluded alley. Only then did he clearly see the face of the person who had led them away. The newcomer had blond hair and wore a peculiar mask.
The newcomer slowly removed the mask, revealing a face that completely stunned Naruto.
"Jiraiya-sensei, what are you doing here?" Minato Namikaze asked, looking at Jiraiya.
"Minato…" Jiraiya stared at the familiar face, momentarily stunned. However, he quickly noticed something amiss.
[Wait… this Minato looks much younger than when he became the Fourth Hokage, so… is this a past timeline?]
"Jiraiya-sensei? Why are you looking at me like that?" Minato was puzzled by Jiraiya's gaze. He hadn't noticed anything unusual about Jiraiya's appearance; after all, Jiraiya looked like he was 40 when he was 30, so at 50, he didn't look much older.
"Dad… Dad?" Naruto suddenly called out to Minato.
Although the man before him looked younger than the father he'd seen in the Nine-Tails' sealing space, the chakra fluctuations emanating from him clearly told Naruto that this was indeed his father.
Minato: ???
What's wrong with this kid? Why does he call everyone he sees "Dad"?
Naruto's address completely stumped Minato Namikaze. After thinking for a moment, Minato looked at Jiraiya: "Jiraiya-sensei, who are these two children?"
"Uh, Minato, they are..." Jiraiya hesitated, mainly because he wasn't sure if revealing their identities to people from the past would have a negative impact on history and the future.
However, at this moment, Naruto blurted out: "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, your son, Fourth Hokage!"
"Hey! Naruto!" Jiraiya was shocked and quickly tried to stop Naruto from self-destructing.
"Uzumaki... Naruto?" Minato Namikaze looked at Naruto in disbelief after hearing his words. Only then did he realize that the child in front of him, besides having the same golden hair as him, also vaguely resembled his lover, Uzumaki Kushina.
[So, what this child said might be true? He really is my son?] Minato Namikaze stared blankly at Naruto's face.
"Uh, Minato, to avoid affecting history and the future, I won't go into too much detail. In short, we returned here about 20 years in the future." Seeing the situation had come to this, Jiraiya decided to stop hiding things and revealed their origins.
"I understand." Minato nodded, but his expression revealed that he wasn't entirely calm. After all, he and Kushina were still in the honeymoon phase, and their marriage was still some time away. Suddenly, a grown son appeared—frankly, anyone would find this hard to accept.
"Minato, can you tell me what your mission is this time?" Jiraiya asked. Now he understood why Minato's mission report had been so vague. It was probably because of their intervention; Minato had sealed this memory to prevent it from affecting the future.
"For this mission, Jiraiya-sensei, come with me first. We'll meet up with Choza and Shiki, and I'll explain then," Minato said.
"Alright." Jiraiya nodded.
"So, this is… the past, 20 years ago?" But just then, Gaara, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly raised his head and looked at everyone, asking.
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(End of Chapter)