"Or maybe I flip the order," Noah said lightly. "Wipe out the village first, then deal with Itachi. I'm flexible."
Orochimaru stared at him, caught somewhere between disbelief and calculation.
"You really think Sasuke can survive that?" he asked. "Without the village backing him… without you around?"
"That's where you come in," Noah replied. "After I leave, he's your responsibility."
He said it like he was handing off a package.
Simple. Final.
Sasuke wasn't just another person in this world. He was a fixed point. A connection. If something happened to him after Noah left, there would be no easy way to fix it from across dimensions.
Orochimaru, for all his flaws, knew how to cultivate talent.
If anyone could keep Sasuke alive—and make him stronger—it was him.
Still, Noah leaned back slightly, resting his chin against his hand.
"Honestly," he added, almost to himself, "I've got too many options."
Orochimaru said nothing.
Noah continued, tone casual, like he was choosing between dinner plans.
"I could just erase the village. Or take over the entire Land of Fire. Or push further and deal with the whole world while I'm at it."
He shrugged faintly.
"All of those sound pretty doable."
Orochimaru's expression didn't change, but inwardly, he dismissed half of that as arrogance.
No one person could dominate an entire world.
Not like that.
Not without consequences.
Noah glanced at him again. "So. Help me out. Once the village is gone, you can run what's left."
Orochimaru's eyes sharpened.
"And what do I gain?"
"What do you want?" Noah asked. "Time? Power? Control? I can give you all of it."
There was no hesitation in his voice.
No bluff.
Orochimaru studied him for a long moment.
Then, slowly, he smiled.
"Then I suppose there's no reason to refuse."
His voice dipped, thoughtful now. "With your involvement… I'll need to rethink the plan entirely."
"Plan?" Noah echoed, amused. "You're still thinking about plans?"
Orochimaru frowned slightly.
Noah spread his hands. "If you want something gone, you just remove it. Why complicate things?"
For a second, Orochimaru didn't respond.
Then he let out a quiet breath.
Different philosophies.
Very different.
—
At the Hokage Tower, things were moving just as quickly.
"Are you certain?" Hiruzen asked, his voice steady but sharp.
A ninja knelt before him. "Yes, Lord Hokage. The summoning worked. Not just him—others as well. All have been sealed immediately after."
Hiruzen exhaled slowly.
That was one problem reduced.
"Good," he said. "That removes a major risk."
Before he could say more, a wave of noise rose from outside.
Loud. Chaotic.
Relentless.
Hiruzen frowned and stepped toward the window.
What he saw made him pause.
A crowd had gathered below, filling the street in front of the tower.
And they were shouting.
"We can survive anything else… but Noah Vale has to die!"
The chant rolled through the air, repeated again and again, louder each time.
Hiruzen's grip tightened slightly.
This wasn't spontaneous.
It couldn't be.
Behind this kind of momentum, there were always hands guiding it.
The village wasn't just civilians. It was clans. Interests. Influence.
And right now, those forces were pushing in the same direction.
Noah Vale had become a problem they wanted solved.
Immediately.
—
Elsewhere in the village, Naruto stood at the edge of the crowd.
He watched, silent.
The anger. The shouting. The way everyone focused on a single person, blaming him for everything.
It felt… familiar.
Uncomfortably so.
He didn't say anything.
But something about it didn't sit right.
—
Back at the tower, Hiruzen stepped outside.
The moment he appeared, the noise surged.
"Lord Hokage!"
"You can't let him stay!"
"He's too dangerous!"
Voices overlapped, rising into a wall of pressure.
Hiruzen raised a hand, trying to bring some order to the chaos.
"Everyone, calm down," he said, projecting his voice.
It barely helped.
"Please," he continued, firmer now. "What's written in that book isn't guaranteed to happen. I've spoken with him. He's not what you think."
That only made things worse.
The crowd didn't want reassurance.
They wanted action.
And they weren't backing down.
Hiruzen stood there, caught between two immovable forces.
The village… and the truth.
—
In a quiet, dimly lit room on the edge of the village, a different conversation was taking place.
"We've got a problem."
A man in partial combat armor leaned against the wall, arms crossed, tension evident in his posture.
"The story's completely off-track now," he said. "And we're not in it. Not even a footnote."
Another man paced slowly. "Which means if we act, we stand out."
"Exactly," the first replied. "And the moment we stand out, we get noticed."
He exhaled sharply. "We're already on their radar. I can feel it."
These weren't villagers.
They didn't belong here.
They were outsiders—players dropped into a story that had suddenly stopped following its own script.
"The mission was tied to the village's collapse," someone else muttered. "But now? The main instigator vanished. The timeline's broken."
"And if we don't complete the objective…"
No one finished the sentence.
They didn't need to.
Failure wasn't an option.
Not for them.
—
Back at the hotel, the atmosphere had settled again.
Orochimaru was gone.
In his place, a masked operative stood quietly near the door.
"Mr. Vale," the agent said, voice low. "The Hokage would like to see you."
Noah looked up. "This about the crowd?"
"I wasn't told."
Noah stood, stretching slightly. "Alright. Lead the way."
—
They moved through the village in silence.
At first, the path made sense.
Toward the tower.
Then, gradually, it didn't.
The streets grew quieter. Narrower. Less traveled.
Noah noticed.
Of course he did.
He just didn't say anything.
Instead, he followed.
Curious.
Amused.
So that's how it is.
They turned a corner into a narrow alley.
And then—
Steel flashed.
The strike came fast. Precise. Meant to kill.
It never landed.
There was a sharp, wet sound.
Then silence.
The attacker froze mid-motion for half a second before collapsing.
By the time the body hit the ground, it wasn't whole anymore.
Noah stood there, unmoving, his hand lowering slowly.
The alley was quiet again.
He glanced down at the corpse, then toward the shadows beyond, where more eyes were undoubtedly watching.
A faint smile touched his lips.
"Can't really blame me for this one," he said calmly.
"You made the first move."
—
The game had officially begun.
...
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