Chương 168: Post-Festive Queries

Out with the old, in with the new. Time rolled onward into Konoha Year 52. According to the traditions of the shinobi world, January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were known as the Three Days of Celebration. The New Year season then continued until the fifteenth, with the entire month serving much the same role as the first lunar month in Dongye zhen's previous life.

Beyond the hidden villages, holiday schedules varied from region to region depending on local customs and professions, but most places wrapped up their New Year festivities by the fifteenth and returned to business as usual. The ninja villages were different. Shinobi valued efficiency and had little patience for prolonged holidays. After the Three Days of Celebration, they allowed themselves a single day to readjust before everything resumed on January 5th. Traditionally, the first day was spent with family.

The next two were reserved for visiting relatives and friends, or making pilgrimages to temples and shrines to pray for good fortune in the coming year. The dominant faiths of the ninja world were Buddhism and Shintoism, both far older than the shinobi profession itself. As for Ninshu? The people of this world had never been particularly diligent historians. A thousand years was a long time. Countless truths had long since been buried beneath layers of myth and legend.

Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and his mother, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, had already been absorbed into the Shinto pantheon. One was revered as the Sage of Six Paths, the other as the Rabbit Goddess. Humanity had forgotten that the goddess they occasionally worshipped was not only a lunatic tyrant—but also an alien. The horned kind with a third eye in the forehead. The major clans of Konoha all maintained their own shrines. The Uchiha had Naka Shrine. The Hyūga had one as well.

Even the fallen Uzumaki Clan possessed their own place of worship. It had originally been established by Uzumaki Mito. After the destruction of Uzushiogakure, Konoha relocated the surviving relics from the village's shrine. The structure now stood in the mountains behind Konoha, near the former Senju shrine, known as the Uzumaki Mask Temple. The clan's customs were peculiar. Rather than worshipping idols, they revered masks. According to legend, each pattern represented a different deity.

These days, however, Kushina's family was probably the only one still paying their respects there. Families like the Dongyes simply visited the village's central grand shrine. Religious faith remained deeply rooted throughout the shinobi world. Ninjas themselves were the exception. After all, this was a supernatural world. Nobody knew whether the countless gods truly existed, but shinobi who could spit fire and summon floods certainly did.

Most people reasoned that if humans could wield such miraculous powers, then the gods must surely be real as well. One of the reasons ordinary citizens harbored prejudice toward shinobi was precisely because many believed ninjas had stolen power that belonged to the divine. A sacrilege. The Dongye household was livelier than ever. What had once been a family of three was now four. For Yamato, this was the first New Year he had ever experienced within the warmth of a family. Before this?

It was difficult to imagine someone like Danzō wishing his subordinates a Happy New Year. The man only cared whether their strength had improved and whether the training division had produced any promising talent. Those who failed to meet expectations were typically assigned to other purposes before quietly vanishing from the world.

"Happy New Year!" When the family raised their glasses during lunch on the first day of the year, a strange warmth welled up inside Yamato. For the first time in his life, he truly felt that he had a home. A family. Following tradition, Dongye Jiro and Dongye Hui each handed the boys a red envelope. The shinobi world had its own version of New Year's money. The difference was that it was given on New Year's Day rather than the eve before. The envelope wasn't particularly thick. You could be reading stolen content.

Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. For Yamato, who already earned a salary and mission rewards, the amount itself was insignificant. Even so, he accepted it with utmost care. Because what it contained wasn't money. It was home. That afternoon, like most residents of Konoha, the family visited the village shrine and joined the long queue to offer prayers. It was also Yamato's first time seeing so many people gathered together in Konoha. Yet he didn't find it crowded. What he felt was warmth. Life.

The vibrant energy of humanity. Things he had never encountered within the cold darkness of Root. For the first time, he found himself thinking that perhaps the people down there deserved days like these as well. They shouldn't spend their lives as machines buried underground—training in obscurity, dying in obscurity. Months of living with the Dongye family had gradually reshaped his outlook. Now he had begun to question Root's very purpose. Were those people truly protecting Konoha?

Or were they merely serving one man? The remaining two days of the Three Days of Celebration passed in a blur of family visits and social calls. On the evening of January 3rd, the three families once again gathered in the Uzuki household's courtyard for a shared meal. Slowly but surely, it was becoming a tradition. Even the Namikaze family had joined in.

"Hey, who's this guy?" Little Uzuki Shige pointed at Yamato. He had never seen him before.

"Brat, learn some respect for your elders." Dongye zhen smacked him squarely on the head.

"Call him Big Brother Yamato."

"Oww!" Clutching his head, Shige immediately surrendered.

"Big Brother Yamato." Yamato awkwardly patted the boy's head. The kid had just turned seven and would enter his second year at the Academy in April. Unfortunately, he possessed the standard mischievous gremlin energy common among Konoha's children.

"That's more like it." Dongye zhen ruffled his hair as well. As Dongye zhen's reputation continued to soar throughout the village, he had gradually replaced Kakashi as the new idol of Academy students. As a result, Shige no longer dared act out in front of him the way he once had. Instead, he'd found a new target.

"Being my big brother requires serious strength." Yamato scratched his cheek.

"Well... I guess I'm pretty capable." Dongye zhen immediately stabbed him in the back.

"He can beat a hundred of you." With an authoritative expert having rendered judgment, the boy instantly deflated.

"Seriously? How are you guys only a few years older than me and already this strong?"

"If you study hard and train hard," Yamato said earnestly, "you can become strong too." Dongye zhen couldn't be bothered with him anymore and wandered over to Kushina.

"Nah, Naruto sure is energetic." The little guy would be three months old soon. Like his father, he had brilliant blond hair and blue eyes. Three faint whisker-like marks adorned each cheek. Curiously, these hadn't appeared because he became the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. He'd been born with them. Honestly, it almost made people suspect the Nine-Tails was his biological father. At the moment, Naruto lay in his mother's arms.

Influenced by the surrounding chatter, he was babbling away in baby language, apparently attempting to join the conversation.

"Of course he's energetic." Kushina looked completely unsurprised.

"He's my son." Then she lowered her voice.

"Hey, Zhen. My seal's fine, right? Naruto's so adorable. I don't want to suddenly leave him one day." Dongye zhen checked it briefly.

"Don't worry, Sensei. It's extremely stable. Besides, I've improved again recently. I'll adjust it further in the future. Eventually, you'll be no different from a normal person."

"That's good. Thanks for all your hard work." Beside her, Minato wore the goofy grin of a man whose life was complete. Wife. Son. Happiness. As for being Hokage? What's that? Of course, that was a joke. The Fourth Hokage was an exceptionally responsible man. He had never forgotten his other role. Otherwise, why would he be here? Dongye zhen knew that throughout the holiday period, Minato had also been maintaining contact with many of his former subordinates.

He could temporarily step back to spend time with his family. But he still needed everyone to know one thing. The Fourth Hokage was very much alive and kicking. After dinner, everyone lingered around the table, sipping tea and chatting idly. Seated beside Kushina and Minato, Dongye zhen suddenly asked:"Minato-senpai, the Flying Thunder God Technique lets us travel through space, right?" Minato nodded.

"Of course. Otherwise it wouldn't be classified as a space-time ninjutsu."

"But space-time techniques only seem to involve space. What about time? Do you think someone might eventually develop a true time-based ninjutsu and travel to the past or future?" Minato considered the question carefully.

"That... shouldn't be possible."

"Why not?"

"Because traveling through time means altering history. If history changes, the traveler themselves could be affected and cease to exist. But if they don't exist, how did they travel through time in the first place?" The room fell silent. As expected of Minato. A shame he never became a scientist. He had casually stumbled onto the Grandfather Paradox and instantly confused everyone present. Kushina blinked.

"Minato, what in the world are you talking about?"

"..." Dongye zhen chuckled.

"Hard to say. Maybe future Naruto already learned how to do it and traveled back here. He could be hiding somewhere right now, secretly watching us." Kushina immediately snapped her head around.

"What?! Really?" Minato pondered the idea seriously before shaking his head.

"I still don't think time travel is possible. Even if an adult Naruto suddenly appeared right now, would he truly be from the future?"

"Then where would he come from?" Dongye zhen prompted.

"Maybe... maybe..." Dongye zhen finished the thought for him.

"A world parallel to ours?"

"Parallel world..." Minato's eyes lit up.

"That's it. A parallel world. Zhen, that's exactly the concept I was trying to describe." Time ninjutsu. Time travel. Parallel worlds. The discussion quickly drifted into territory so abstract that everyone else became completely lost. The only conclusion was that genius minds operated on a frequency ordinary people couldn't follow. Dongye zhen hadn't asked the question on a whim. Long ago, he had indirectly sounded Kakashi out about the matter.

During the war, Kakashi had never accompanied Minato to Rōran on any mission. Which meant Minato had never met a future Naruto. Nor had he sealed away any memories. If that were true, then only two possibilities remained. First, there was only a single timeline, and Dongye zhen's arrival had completely rewritten the future. Second, timelines were not unique, and the ninja world he now inhabited was an entirely new branch. Personally, Dongye zhen leaned toward the latter.

After all, his own soul had originated from another world. Perhaps his arrival had altered history enough that Mukade, the future rogue ninja from Sunagakure, would never travel to the past. Perhaps Rōran would never face disaster. And perhaps no Konoha ninja would ever need to investigate it. Like Minato, Dongye zhen found it difficult to imagine time itself being traversed.

He was far more inclined to believe that Rōran's Dragon Vein—or even the Ōtsutsuki artifact known as the Plow—connected parallel worlds rather than truly crossing the river of time.