Naruto and Sasuke really had heard the footsteps of the Senju Clan ninjas leaving, but they had been careless. Only four of the five had gone after the decoys.
In the Warring States Period, the status of ninjas was far lower than in Naruto and Sasuke's era.
Back then, ninjas were taught that they should be able to die without hesitation if it meant completing a mission.
To protect the scrolls they were escorting, or important people of higher status than themselves, it was perfectly normal in the Warring States Period for "sacrificial pawns" to run out and draw the enemy's attention, then wait while their clan members followed the special signs they left behind to locate the real mission target and continue the mission.
Compared to a few little kids, adult ninjas had far more experience. They had already guessed that if the children had run out on their own even though no one had found them, then in all likelihood, they were trying to protect the mission target hidden at their hiding place.
So, without Naruto, Sasuke, or the young Uchiha ninja they had rescued, Myoko Uchiha, noticing, the Senju ninjas exchanged several hand signals.
Four of them would chase the three Uchiha brats, while the last one would go to their hiding place to find the mission target...
But the Senju ninja who stayed behind never expected this.
The three kids who had run out were fake!
The real ones were all still in the hiding place!
A Clone Technique?!
Impossible! He had never seen a Clone Technique with physical bodies before!!
Remembering the blue chakra ball the blond brat had used, the Senju ninja immediately made his decision.
Kill the black-haired ones!
Then torture the two special secret techniques out of that blond brat!
The Senju ninja's blade struck without hesitation, cutting into Myoko Uchiha's neck and slicing diagonally down through the boy's body all the way to his waist!
The horror in Naruto and Sasuke's eyes was still frozen on their faces.
"Myoko!!!"
Naruto shouted his name. The next instant, red chakra filled with anger wrapped around his arm, and he punched the tall, sturdy adult Senju ninja more than ten meters away!
"Boom!"
As the man was sent flying, Naruto immediately turned back to look at the young ninja from the Warring States Period whom he had only just met.
The grief building in his chest nearly broke loose then and there.
However...
Myoko Uchiha stupidly felt around his own body. He had clearly seen himself get cut down, so why was nothing wrong? He was not injured, and apart from the wounds he had already had, he did not feel any pain.
No, something did feel a little different about his eyes.
"One tomoe," Sasuke Uchiha said. "Your eyes awakened."
"!!!" Myoko froze. At the brink of life and death, he had actually awakened the Sharingan! Earlier than his older brother?!
Naruto let out a breath of relief. "You scared me to death. But how can a one-tomoe Sharingan have the effect of a Mangekyō Sharingan? Or was that the Izanagi technique?"
"Idiot, the Izanagi technique requires at least three tomoe." Sasuke had also been startled just now, and now he felt as if he had been played with. His tone was not pleasant. "Since you're here, come out. Don't act like a child pulling pranks."
Sure enough, after Sasuke spoke, a vortex appeared in empty space, sweeping two young men out of it.
"Hehe, I only just got here too. Good thing we made it in time."
Obito really had just arrived, right in time to see the adult ninja about to ambush them. There was no time to save the boy standing across from Naruto and Sasuke, so Obito could only press his hand against the adult ninja and make him intangible.
That meant the blade that struck Myoko had been nothing more than a false afterimage, so naturally it had not injured him or caused him pain.
Young Kakashi said, "We were closest to you, so we came as soon as we saw your signal."
He glanced at the shocked Myoko Uchiha, then said to Naruto, "You really do run into trouble wherever you go."
"But saving people is still a good thing!" Obito leaned against Kakashi and revealed his Sharingan. "I'm Obito Uchiha, your savior!"
"Sharingan...
No, that pattern isn't an ordinary Sharingan!!"
Myoko Uchiha froze in shock.
Could those eyes be...
"Oh, this is my Mangekyō Sharingan. You saw its ability just now."
Obito said it casually, but Myoko Uchiha did not look as delighted as they expected. Instead, he became even more guarded.
"Who exactly are you? You saved me and my brothers, and I'm grateful for that. But if someone in the clan awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan at your age, there's no way my brother and I wouldn't know about it!"
A thirteen- or fourteen-year-old with the Mangekyō Sharingan.
As the son of the Clan Head, Myoko Uchiha knew one thing very well.
Although the position of Clan Head was usually passed from father to son within the clan, if an outstanding clan member appeared whose talent far surpassed the Clan Head's son, then whoever could lead the Uchiha higher and farther would have a stronger claim to becoming the next Clan Head.
In other words, even though this person was also a member of the clan, he could very well become his older brother's enemy in the future.
Naruto stammered, not knowing how to explain that he came from a future parallel world and was a time traveler.
Off to the side, the Senju ninja who had looked unconscious suddenly got up and tried to send a signal to call the other four back!
A young ninja who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan had to be killed as soon as possible, no matter what! Otherwise, once he grew up, even if he did not become the Uchiha Clan Head, he would still become one of the strongest fighters in the Uchiha Clan. Who knew how many Senju would die by his hand then!!
"Not good! He's going to fire a signal flare!" Young Kakashi formed hand seals at high speed, intending to use Earth Release to stop him.
But Earth Release would almost certainly be too slow!
"I can't let you send that signal just like that." A gentle voice with a touch of elegance sounded. Its owner struck the Senju ninja in the neck with a knife-hand blow, knocking him unconscious.
The signal flare in his hand was also cut in two by a specially made kunai.
"Dad!!" Naruto shouted happily.
Young Obito, Young Kakashi, and Sasuke also greeted Kannabi Bridge Minato.
Seeing an adult arrive, Myoko Uchiha tensed again and blocked the two younger brothers lying behind him.
"Who are you?! You don't look like an Uchiha at all!"
"Uchiha?"
Minato Namikaze was a little confused. He really did not look like an Uchiha. Rather, it would be strange if he did.
"I'd like to explain properly," Minato Namikaze said good-naturedly, "but we can't ignore your injuries, can we? Our camp is not far from here. In any case, there are two Uchiha in our team, and we won't hurt you."
Naruto added, "Sakura and Rin are really good at Medical Ninjutsu. The medicine Sasuke and I gave you earlier was made by them."
Looking back at his two younger brothers, who were sleeping uneasily behind him, neither of them even six years old, Myoko Uchiha decided to take the gamble. If these people had not appeared, the three of them would have died at the hands of the Senju ninjas just now.
Besides, these people had outstanding talents like three tomoe and the Mangekyō Sharingan. His newly awakened one-tomoe Sharingan probably was not even worth their attention. If they really had designs on him, Togakushi, and Kurohi, they would have acted earlier.
And to take ten thousand steps back, even if they really did want to do something to him and his brothers, he did not have the strength to resist right now anyway.
"I won't tell you any information."
He made that clear first.
Young Kakashi said sharply, "We weren't expecting a little kid like you to know anything anyway."
"So you really are after the Uchiha's information?!" Myoko tensed again. He looked at Sasuke and Obito. So far, only those two had revealed the Sharingan. Whether the others were Uchiha or not, he could no longer be certain.
At least, in everything he knew, he had never seen a silver-haired or blond Uchiha!
And for someone around his age, forget awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, even awakening three tomoe would have caused a huge stir in the clan! There was no way he would never have heard of these two.
No matter how he looked at it, these people were far too suspicious.
Young Obito quickly tried to soothe him and scolded Young Kakashi. "Don't be so sharp-tongued. You scared him."
"You think everyone is like you, crybaby?"
"Who are you calling a crybaby?! I am Obito Uchiha-sama, the wielder of the Mangekyō Sharingan!!"
"Sure, sure. Obito Uchiha-sama, the crybaby."
"What did you say?!!"
Minato calmed the two of them down. "Rin and the others are still waiting for us. Let's hurry back." Then he turned to the Uchiha boy from the Warring States Period. "I promise that we have no conflict of interest with you. We won't ask you anything about the ninja clans, all right?"
Myoko stared at him suspiciously for a while. Even though he still felt they were suspicious, he could not help wanting to trust them. More importantly, if his two younger brothers did not receive treatment soon, their situation would still be very dangerous.
Finally, he nodded.
Minato Namikaze used the Flying Thunder God Technique mark left at the camp to bring everyone back together.
When Rin and Sakura were about to treat Myoko, Kurohi, and Togakushi, Myoko asked them to treat his two younger brothers first while he watched from the side.
Naruto sighed. "You're still on guard against us at a time like this?"
Sakura said casually, "What kind of people would try so hard to kill two little kids?"
Adult Kakashi reminded her, "This is the Warring States Period. There's nothing strange about that when you're born into an age of chaos, Sakura."
"You're the strange ones," Myoko said with a slight frown. "Clan members I've never seen or heard of, with unbelievable power, no malice, and they even saved us."
Watching the wounds on Kurohi and Togakushi heal quickly under the Medical Ninjutsu of the two girls, Myoko Uchiha changed the subject. "But no matter what, I owe you a debt for saving us. As long as it doesn't involve the clan's interests, I'll find a way to repay you."
He spoke sincerely, seriously, and solemnly.
It made Naruto and the others feel...
How should they put it? He had a maturity that did not match his age.
Especially when, afterward, as Myoko received Medical Ninjutsu treatment from Rin Nohara, he asked her with the air of an adult, "If you're an Uchiha too, you can consider becoming my woman someday."
"Pfft!"
The entirety of Team Kakashi and Team Minato choked.
Obito jumped over, pointed at his nose, and stammered, "Y-you-you. What are you talking about?!!!" for so long that he was too angry to know what else to say.
Rin smiled and politely refused, then asked him, "Are you already thinking about things like that this early?"
Myoko Uchiha paused. "Mm. I suppose I really should wait until I live long enough to be able to make a woman have children before bringing it up."
To him, it was a perfectly ordinary sentence, but it suddenly filled the ninjas from the future with a sense of sorrow.
They remembered.
In the Warring States Period, the average lifespan was only around thirty years.
To keep fighting, people of that time needed to leave behind more descendants much earlier.
"Speaking of which..." Naruto stared closely at Myoko Uchiha. After the blood and dirt were wiped from his face, Naruto felt as if he had seen that face somewhere before. "You really do look a lot like Sasuke!"
Obito also leaned in to look. "Don't tell me he's Sasuke's ancestor?"