The notebook that had appeared out of nowhere landed squarely on the desk in front of Uzumaki Naruto, instantly putting him on alert as his eyes swept the room.
"Hokage-sama!"
An Anbu stationed in the corner spoke up at once.
There was always a squad of Anbu on standby inside the Hokage's office, ready to act on his orders at any moment.
"It's nothing."
Naruto checked his surroundings carefully. Even with his ability to sense killing intent, he couldn't detect any enemy presence, nor was there any sign of space-time ninjutsu. The lack of anything suspicious only deepened the unease in his chest.
"Did you notice anything?"
Within the sealing space, he spoke to Kurama.
"No."
Kurama's answer matched his own senses perfectly.
And yet, the notebook sitting right in front of him was undeniable.
Naruto examined it carefully, confirming there were no hidden traps.
Kaede Kitahara's Diary (Seventh Hokage Uzumaki Naruto Copy)
Naruto flipped it open, and the moment he saw the date, his pupils shrank slightly.
Konoha Year Sixty-Three.
His thoughts were pulled back to the past. That was the year he had just graduated. In the blink of an eye, he had already achieved what once felt like an impossible childhood dream—becoming Hokage.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary chunin's diary.
But what was anything but ordinary… was seeing himself written inside it.
[Today, I passed by the Ninja Academy and saw the famous Uzumaki Naruto. He's completely ostracized. Demon Fox? Heh. Those villagers are truly foolish—it's almost laughable.]
Someone from that time… knew him?
And didn't treat him like the Demon Fox?
Naruto froze for a moment as he read.
The entries mentioned Kakashi-sensei, Orochimaru, and others.
But what truly shocked him was that this diary could actually play videos.
The very first one showed Kakashi back then, helping Sasuke suppress his Cursed Seal, only for Orochimaru to suddenly appear—Kakashi raising his Raikiri, ready to die together with him.
That's impossible.
Naruto's eyes widened.
How could a notebook—something so clearly tangible—play scenes like a movie?
For a moment, he almost thought he'd fallen into a genjutsu.
But he quickly dismissed the idea.
At this point, there were almost no genjutsu in the entire shinobi world that could affect him. Even as a child, genjutsu hadn't worked well on him, especially with Kurama breaking them using his chakra.
Let alone now.
With his current strength and willpower, who could possibly trap him in an illusion?
He was far from an ordinary Kage Level shinobi.
Realizing this, Naruto immediately understood that the diary was anything but simple. He dismissed the Anbu directly under his command from the office and continued reading in earnest.
This chunin named Kaede Kitahara was strange.
He knew the future. The diary even mentioned the Fourth Great Ninja War.
That alone made no sense. At that point in time, no one should have known about it. Naruto briefly wondered if someone had fabricated the diary in the present, pretending to be from the past to deceive him.
But he couldn't find a reason for anyone to do that.
And those videos couldn't be faked.
Many of the things recorded inside clearly went far beyond what a mere chunin should know.
The diary mentioned that this Kaede Kitahara had interacted with him back when he was still a genin.
Yet Naruto had no memory of it at all.
That alone was troubling.
Even more unsettling was that this Kitahara knew about his connection to Asura, and Sasuke's connection to Indra.
That wasn't knowledge an ordinary shinobi could possess.
In fact, across the entire shinobi world, the only ones who should know that he was the reincarnation of Asura's chakra—and that Sasuke was the reincarnation of Indra's—were himself and Uchiha Sasuke.
They had learned that truth directly from the Sage of Six Paths during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
At the time, Naruto had taken it in stride. Even knowing about his past life, he never thought of himself as Asura. He was Uzumaki Naruto, nothing more.
And Sasuke was Sasuke, not Indra.
After their final battle, they had returned to being friends. Naruto had personally guaranteed Sasuke's pardon, and ever since becoming Hokage, Sasuke had spent most of his time traveling, atoning while quietly dealing with threats in the shadows.
The end of the Fourth Great Ninja War hadn't meant the world was completely safe. Dangers still lingered.
Every so often, Sasuke would send back reports summarizing his activities.
In a way, it felt a lot like how Jiraiya used to operate.
And perhaps, just as Kitahara had written, it could be seen as cutting off the long cycle of conflict between Asura and Indra.
When Naruto reached the part where Kitahara's contact with him had drawn Shimura Danzo's attention, he couldn't help but smile faintly.
Danzo…
After becoming Hokage and gaining access to classified records, Naruto had learned the truth about many things—including the destruction of the Uchiha Clan. Shimura Danzo, once an advisor and later the Sixth Hokage, had played a deeply questionable role in it all.
Sasuke had also told him about Danzo's arm filled with Sharingan, along with the transplanted cells of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
Everything matched what was written in the diary.
And then—
Kitahara even knew that the Nine-Tails inside him was named Kurama.
At that point, Naruto could no longer treat this lightly. There were simply too many secrets hidden within this diary.
One video after another played.
Uchiha Itachi returning to the village in the morning mist, effortlessly defeating Kakashi.
Sasuke killing Danzo—though compared to what Sasuke himself had told him, the details here were far less flattering. Back then, Sasuke had just awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and had been arrogant, his fight with Danzo riddled with flaws.
From Naruto's current perspective, that battle had been rough.
If Sasuke fought the same battle again now, even with his strength suppressed to that same level, he could likely defeat Danzo without taking a single hit.
That was the difference experience made.
Even though Sasuke hadn't been inexperienced back then, at the Kage Level, it still hadn't been enough.
"Sasuke really knows how to make himself look good," Naruto muttered with a laugh.
But his expression quickly turned serious when the diary mentioned his son, Uzumaki Boruto, and Sasuke's daughter, Uchiha Sarada.
Kitahara had described Boruto as having an "Uchiha-like vibe," which left Naruto scratching his head, unable to picture what that even meant.
Still, thinking about his son gave him a headache.
The kid had been a handful since childhood, always acting out, always trying to play the grown man.
For the first time, Naruto felt like he understood how the Third Hokage had dealt with him back then. You couldn't hit him, couldn't scold him too harshly, and still had to clean up after him. It was exhausting.
What shocked him even more was that Kitahara seemed to know about Boruto's future—when right now, Boruto hadn't even graduated from the academy.
Suppressing his curiosity, Naruto kept reading.
When he reached the mission in the Land of Waves, a trace of nostalgia appeared on his face. It wasn't his first mission, but it had been the first time he truly acted as a shinobi, stepping straight into real combat.
Back then, he had been so scared he couldn't move, watching Sasuke show off.
Thinking about it now almost made him laugh.
That battle against Zabuza remained one of his proudest moments.
Even compared to later battles when he was far stronger, that fight meant more to him, because it had been a victory achieved through strategy while he was still weak.
The weight of that was entirely different.
But as he read Kitahara's description of Boruto, filled with strange phrases, Naruto's brow gradually furrowed.
Standing before you now is Killing Intent Naruto, No-Pretense Sasuke, Go-Home Minato, Intel Jiraiya, Healthy Itachi, Experienced Kaguya, Itachi's Wanted Status, Pain Beyond Pain, Naruto's Talk Release, combined with Sasuke's aura, Naruto's appearance, and Kakashi's calm—a supervillain, Otsutsuki Boruto.
Naruto quickly understood.
This meant Boruto possessed all of those traits.
Killing Intent Naruto…
So, himself when he truly intended to kill.
That alone was rare.
No-Pretense Sasuke?
"Hahaha!"
Naruto burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. Sasuke really had been a show-off back in the day, acting like a full-blown edgy teenager.
Go-Home Minato, Intel Jiraiya, Healthy Itachi, Itachi's Wanted Status, Pain Beyond Pain…
As he read, Naruto's eyes reddened slightly. Many of those names were people he knew well.
The mention of Experienced Kaguya reminded him of his battle against Otsutsuki Kaguya during the Fourth Great Ninja War. She had lacked combat experience, but her raw power had been overwhelming.
Just her presence alone had frozen Sakura in place.
But when all of those traits were combined, Naruto could no longer laugh.
This… was supposed to be his future son?
What did "Itachi's Wanted Status" even mean? Was Boruto going to defect from the village?
And when he saw that the prefix wasn't Uzumaki Boruto—but Otsutsuki Boruto—Naruto felt a chill run down his spine.
There was no one in the shinobi world who understood the Otsutsuki better than he did.
At its core, most of the conflicts in the shinobi world traced back to that clan's internal struggles.
He had fought them again and again—first Kaguya, then the reincarnation tied to Indra's chakra, then Toneri on the moon.
What did this mean?
Was he going to have to fight his own son next?