[Minato's Timeline]
After Rengoku left, Minato used a sealing technique to seal all the memories of Choza, Shibi, Kakashi, and the others who had come with him.
Not only that, even the Queen of Roran, Sara, was not spared.
Although Roran's Dragon Vein had been drained, the supplies there were still sufficient to support the citizens of Roran for a period of time.
After some discussion, Minato and Sara reached an agreement.
He would return to Konoha first to make the necessary arrangements, and then send people to escort them.
Not long after, Minato led his team back to Konohagakure at top speed.
At this time, the shinobi world was in turmoil, and the shadow of war hung over every corner.
Minato knew he might head to the battlefield to kill enemies at any moment, yet he did not rest.
After completing the mission handover, he quietly concealed his presence.
Like a ghost, he moved through the village, and finally found Orochimaru, who had just returned from the battlefield.
Orochimaru, who was researching ninjutsu in his room, sensed someone approaching and suddenly looked up.
"What are you here for, Minato?"
Even Orochimaru, who was known for his calmness, could not help but feel a trace of surprise when he saw Minato Namikaze come to him.
What surprised him even more was that Minato had not come openly, but had slipped in silently.
At this moment, both of them were fiercely competing for the highly anticipated position of Fourth Hokage. They were political rivals in every sense.
Under normal circumstances, if Minato wanted to harm him, he would not show up in front of him so openly.
Yet it was precisely this seemingly unreasonable move that made Orochimaru wary.
Minato smiled apologetically and said softly, "Orochimaru sama, to be honest, I had no choice but to sneak in like this because there is an extremely important matter I need to discuss with you."
Orochimaru remained silent, but with his keen intuition, he knew that what Minato called important must be no small matter.
He curled his lips slightly, revealing a wicked and meaningful smile, and replied lightly, "Oh? In that case, let's hear it."
Minato took a deep breath, his expression becoming even more sincere, and slowly said, "Orochimaru-sama, after careful consideration, I have decided to withdraw from the election for Fourth Hokage."
The moment these words came out, it was like a thunderclap exploding in Orochimaru's ears. The smile on his face instantly disappeared, replaced by deeply furrowed brows.
"What do you mean?"
Orochimaru was an extremely proud and arrogant person.
If Minato was giving up the position of Fourth Hokage for some shady reason, then for Orochimaru, who had always regarded that position as something already in his pocket, it would be a great humiliation and absolutely unacceptable.
As a powerful and influential figure, Orochimaru had many followers behind him.
Among those followers, there were plenty capable of carrying out certain actions.
And now, Orochimaru had gradually become more and more unrestrained in his style.
In such a situation, people's first suspicion would naturally point to him.
Seeing Orochimaru's unfriendly attitude, Minato was momentarily stunned and did not immediately understand what Orochimaru was thinking.
Even so, Minato still answered honestly, "During my mission to Roran, I encountered two people. One of them was my son from eighteen years in the future…"
Hearing this, Orochimaru's tightly furrowed brows twitched slightly.
The anger on his face eased a bit, but his expression turned even more serious.
"As for the other person," Minato continued, "he was someone from another space time. His name is Uchiha Rengoku."
Minato then told Orochimaru the entire course of events without holding anything back.
Orochimaru listened quietly the whole time. Sometimes he frowned, sometimes he nodded slightly.
When Minato finished speaking, Orochimaru fell into a long silence.
After a while, Minato broke the silence and said sincerely, "With my current abilities alone, it is truly difficult to handle this series of complicated situations by myself."
"Therefore, I boldly ask Orochimaru sama to join hands with me and work together to change the possible course of history."
"At the very least, we cannot just stand by and watch the shinobi world head toward destruction."
Orochimaru's scientific ability and intelligence had not yet fully shown at this time.
But in Rengoku's eyes, Orochimaru was the smartest person in this world.
It was precisely because of Minato's recommendation that he came directly to Orochimaru in the face of such a complex situation.
Now, faced with such a sincere request, Orochimaru had to start thinking deeply.
Soon, Orochimaru's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and he became visibly excited.
What did a scientist like him love most? Of course it was broadening his horizons.
Once his horizons expanded, he could come up with countless ideas on a higher and better level.
"How interesting. It seems this world is far more exciting than I imagined."
.
.
.
After Minato successfully obtained the compressed memories Rengoku had given him, he spent a long time digesting them.
After deep thought, Minato knew that facing so many problems alone would be difficult.
But if he joined forces with Orochimaru, the situation would be completely different.
To that end, Minato spent quite a bit of time explaining in detail the complicated memories in his mind to Orochimaru.
Not only that, in order to fully win Orochimaru's trust, Minato even expressed his willingness to give up the position of Fourth Hokage.
After listening to everything Minato had described, Orochimaru could not help but feel waves stirring in his heart.
Although, after broadening his horizons, he was no longer as obsessed with the Hokage position as before, at present, Hiruzen still firmly controlled the highest authority in Konoha, and it was inconvenient for him to do many things.
In this situation, if he could successfully take over as the Fourth Hokage, it would undoubtedly bring great convenience to his future actions.
So the two of them hit it off immediately, began close cooperation, and started planning a series of major events.
The first task before them was the battle of Kannabi Bridge and Obito's path to darkness, which could be called a crucial turning point.
Now that they already knew the reason Obito would fall into darkness, after long and detailed discussions and research with Orochimaru, they finally reached a conclusion. They would let things play out and follow the plan.
Thus, a foreseen course of history slowly unfolded: The battle with Iwagakure, Kakashi unfortunately losing his right eye, then Minato allowing Obito to be crushed by the rocks and taken away by Uchiha Madara.
The reason for doing this was that, according to Orochimaru's precise calculations, if Obito could successfully awaken the Kamui Mangekyo Sharingan, then it would bring the greatest possible help to the future situation.
When Minato emerged from the Dragon Vein, he used a sealing technique to completely seal Kakashi's memories related to that event.
So Kakashi had already forgotten everything about the trip to the Dragon Vein.
In this way, the wheels of history seemed to continue moving along their original track.
But in fact, they were already slightly different. The most crucial change was that Minato specially arranged for Rin to go to the hospital for a comprehensive and detailed physical examination.
Orochimaru disguised himself as a medical ninja and mixed in.
Taking advantage of this opportunity that Minato deliberately created, he used advanced imaging equipment to conduct a full, no dead angle scan of Rin's heart.
Not only that, Orochimaru also secretly drew an extra tube of Rin's blood sample without anyone noticing.
———
In some distant, unknown space time—
The original ninja planet had already undergone earth shaking changes.
Its volume had expanded dramatically and become enormous, and on the vast land stood a giant spire thousands of meters tall.
Such a magnificent architectural wonder was almost impossible to appear in a normal shinobi world.
If it really existed, either it came from the technology of the Otsutsuki clan, or it meant that this shinobi world had long undergone great changes and was completely different from the original one.
At the top of this towering spire was a uniquely shaped funnel like device.
It continuously received all kinds of mysterious signals from the sky.
Fifty meters below the tip of the tower was a huge hollow platform.
This platform looked like a giant flying saucer, hanging steadily beneath the tower's peak, creating a shocking yet wondrous visual impact.
Inside this hollow platform, the surrounding walls were densely covered with screens of various sizes.
Every screen glowed brightly, and all of them displayed nothing but strings of green numbers.
At this moment, a group of people wearing strange forehead protectors were staring intently at the screens without daring to relax.
Surprisingly, the symbol on their forehead protectors formed a complete sphere, and upon closer look, one could vaguely make out the outlines of continental plates.
Not long ago, when Rengoku left his two clones in Minato's timeline and Naruto's timeline, two of the many screens that had been running calmly suddenly changed without warning.
They instantly turned from green to bright red, and a sharp alarm sound echoed throughout the space.
Facing this sudden change, everyone working there changed expression at once.
But instead of fear, what showed on their faces was uncontrollable excitement.
Their eyes shone as if they had discovered a rare treasure. They stared tightly at the two red screens and shouted excitedly, "Look! A space time variable is changing space time!"
"Hurry and inform Lord Natsuki!"
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