After leaving the battlefield, Obito quickly departed the Land of Fields and returned to the Land of Fire.

At this point, he was in poor condition, his chakra reserves were heavily depleted. If he stayed to investigate Akatsuki’s new base in the Land of Fields, he might run into danger.

Besides, Obito believed the intel he’d gathered was important and needed to be reported to Nagasawa right away.

With Nagasawa personally taking action, Obito was confident Nagato wouldn’t be able to cause much trouble.

While Nagato could suppress him in battle, it wasn’t a complete beatdown, but Nagasawa? That was a total one-sided obliteration. The power difference was clear.

Even though he didn’t have dual Kamui back when Nagasawa crushed him, Obito was very aware of the gap. Given the sheer power Nagasawa had shown, even if he had four Kamui eyes, it probably wouldn’t matter.

Simply put, Nagasawa’s strength was on an entirely different level. Nagato was powerful, yes, but Obito never felt Nagato was unreachable. Nagasawa, however, felt like a towering mountain with no summit in sight, or a sea with no visible shore.

On the way back, Obito encountered no trouble and quickly returned to Konoha.

Since it was nearly nightfall, Obito didn’t go to the Hokage Office but instead went straight to Nagasawa’s house.

Nagasawa usually only stayed in the Hokage Office during weekday mornings. Outside of that, he was either, at the Training Corps office handling affairs, at home doing nothing, or wandering the streets of Konoha, perhaps even fishing by a river, just relaxing.

Obito was lucky, Nagasawa was at home.

"That was fast. Did you finish the intel mission?"

Nagasawa asked.

"Yeah, just as you said. That newly established Hidden Light Village in the Land of Fields was created by Nagato using Yahiko’s name."

Obito replied.

Nagasawa nodded. It was clear Nagato had no respect for him as a transmigrator, using Yahiko’s name so blatantly.

Yahiko had been dead for years. What, was he supposed to believe it was Yahiko’s ghost who built a new village?

Nagasawa was genuinely confused. Even if he hadn’t existed, there was still Jiraiya, Yahiko’s old teacher. Didn’t Nagato worry Jiraiya might hear about this and go check it out?

Or maybe "Yahiko" was just a super common name in this world, like how in his past life "Li Tao" could show up twice in a single class.

"I also uncovered Nagato’s objective."

Obito’s expression turned serious.

"He’s more dangerous than before."

Previously, their plan was simple, gather strong shinobi, work in pairs, and secretly hunt Tailed Beasts.

But now? Nagato planned to unite the power of small nations and directly wage war against the great nations. If things went south, the resulting war would dwarf any previous Shinobi World War. No nation would be spared.

"He founded Hidden Light Village to amass strength, then ignite the conflict between small and great nations. Eventually, he wants to start a Shinobi World War."

Obito said gravely.

"I suspect Hidden Light is only the beginning. He might push other small nations without shinobi villages to form their own, triggering total war."

Nagasawa fell into thought.

He had suspected Nagato’s motives weren’t pure, there was no way he cared about revitalizing the Land of Fields. He wasn’t even from there. If anything, he’d care about the Land of Rain.

But the idea of having every small nation form its own ninja village, then uniting them to challenge the Five Great Nations? That caught even Nagasawa off guard.

After all, in the Kakashi Template’s notes, only Hidden Grass and Hidden Light were mentioned.

"Could it be those other villages are fighting other great nations? Or maybe... this Kakashi isn’t from my future at all, but from a parallel world that’s just similar?"

Nagasawa wondered.

If all the small countries formed ninja villages and consolidated their power, it would be no small force.

Sure, their individual shinobi might be weaker and fewer than those from great nations, but there were a lot of small nations.

United, they’d outmatch any great nation except perhaps the Land of Fire.

Not every country lacked a village due to weak shinobi or poor funding.

For example, the Land of Rivers had plenty of shinobi. Much stronger than the Land of Fields.

They lacked a central village not because of weakness but because of internal complexity, many clans and ninja groups refused to unite under one banner.

These clans ruled their own territories and didn’t want to give up power.

This highlighted the importance of a truly powerful leader.

Without Madara and Hashirama, the first ninja village would’ve never formed.

It’s not like the Fire Nation’s clans were inherently stronger than the River’s.

Beyond Uchiha and Senju, there were powerhouses like Hyuga, Sarutobi, Shimura, Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka, none of them were pushovers.

Yet even with all that power, the Hidden Leaf was born first, thanks entirely to Hashirama and Madara.

"You did well."

Nagasawa nodded.

"Do you have any more questions?"

Obito asked after a brief silence, confused why Nagasawa didn’t ask whether he succeeded in persuading Nagato.

Since Nagasawa didn’t ask, Obito brought it up himself.

Nagasawa gave him a blank look.

"If you’d convinced Nagato, would you be here talking about how dangerous he is?"

Nagasawa said plainly.

"If you’d actually succeeded, your first words would’ve been, ’Don’t worry about Nagato anymore. I’ve reformed him.’"

"Also, your chakra’s weak, you fought him, and lost."

Nagasawa added bluntly.

Obito scratched his head, feeling like Nagasawa had followed him around. How did he know he lost?

"Nagato’s completely stuck in his beliefs now. Even when I told him peace was already here and he didn’t need to fight anymore, he claimed it was fake peace, and that he’d fight to bring about true peace."

Obito admitted.

He had overestimated his own influence.

He thought opening his heart would make Nagato change, but Nagato didn’t care.

He only remembered Obito’s betrayal, and dismissed any talk of "current peace" as an illusion.

"I don’t know what method he used, but his legs have recovered, and his power’s increased. After I destroyed some of his puppets, he showed up himself."

"His real body is insanely strong. Even going all-out, I couldn’t beat him. If it wasn’t for your talismans, I wouldn’t have gotten away."

Obito confessed.

"Recovered legs and boosted strength..."

Nagasawa wasn’t surprised. Zetsu only had Nagato left to rely on, so of course he’d power him up.

Nagasawa went into his room and came back with three more Summoning Steel Talismans, handing them to Obito.

"Take these and rest. Use them to stay alive."

Obito accepted them gratefully, then asked,

"Do you want me to keep gathering intel on Hidden Light Village and Akatsuki?"

"If you’re willing, go ahead. Just stay safe."

Nagasawa replied.

The idea that Nagato might build ninja villages across the small nations had surprised him a bit, but everything was still under control.

If Kage level was one threshold, then Six Paths level was a whole different realm, and Nagasawa had reached that realm.

He didn’t care how many enemies there were. Whether it was 1,000 or 10,000, he’d wipe them out with a single slash.

He was more wary of the Ōtsutsuki who hadn’t shown up yet.

No matter how Zetsu powered up Nagato, he couldn’t reach Six Paths level, unless he repeated history and gathered the Tailed Beasts to revive the Ten-Tails.

But Kurama was still in Konoha. Good luck collecting them all.

Besides, Nagasawa was focused on strengthening Konoha. Nagato couldn’t touch Fire Country anyway.

Killing Zetsu, however, that interested him.

Nagato wasn’t much of a threat and was actually useful.

Nagasawa kind of wanted Akatsuki to go all out and shake up the other four great nations.

Otherwise, a true Five Kage alliance would be hard to form.

In the original story, it was only because of Akatsuki’s terror that the second Five Kage Summit happened.

Watching Obito walk away, Nagasawa thought deeply.

Maybe it was time to address the small nations.

Right now, the balance between great and small countries in the shinobi world was absurd, no one even pretended to care.

Maybe it’s time to form a "Shinobi World Community of Shared Destiny"...?

Wonder if that boosts prosperity. If it does, great.

---

"Where... am I?"

Hinata looked around the unfamiliar surroundings, her face full of confusion.

As the Hyuga clan heiress, she had gloriously gotten lost.

Hinata rarely went out to play. As the first daughter of the Hyuga clan, she was expected to eventually take over as clan head.

So her education had been strict. Even at age three, she was already training in Gentle Fist. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Normally, Hyuga shinobi would accompany her, but this time, Hinata felt Konoha was safe, and being followed felt awkward. So she refused.

And because the village had good security, Hiashi didn’t object.

But as Hinata wandered farther, she grew more and more confused, and scared.

The houses thinned out. There were no shops nearby. The only thing that gave her comfort was that there were still people around.

"There are people here... I should be okay, right?"

Hinata thought.

She wanted to ask for directions, but was too shy. She’d never talked to strangers before and didn’t know how.

But to her dismay, the moment she felt comforted by the crowd, it started raining, heavily.

The sudden downpour made everyone run home, leaving the once-busy street empty.

Fat raindrops splashed against Hinata’s pale skin. The cold rain stung, but she wasn’t stupid, she quickly hid inside a rundown, seemingly abandoned house nearby.

Staring at the storm, she felt a wave of sadness.

"Father must be so worried... I shouldn’t have refused protection. I wouldn’t have gotten lost... I wouldn’t be like this..."

Hinata blamed herself.

If only she’d been braver and asked someone for directions, maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess.

Eventually, she sat down, hugging her knees, blankly watching the rain, hoping it would vanish as quickly as it came.

But luck was not on her side. The rain showed no signs of stopping, only getting heavier.

Tears welled up in her pale eyes.

Then, she heard voices.

"Stupid Naruto! It’s your fault we came here to train. Now it’s raining like crazy and we’re way too far from home!"

"But Sasuke, you said this place was perfect for training!"

Naruto retorted.

That’s when Naruto spotted the little girl huddled under the old house.

"Sasuke, look, someone’s there!"

He pointed and ran over.

"Are you okay?"

Naruto wiped the rain from his face and smiled.

Hinata stared at them blankly, unsure how to respond.

"If you’re in trouble, you can tell me. Don’t let my size fool you, I’m already training to be a ninja!"

Naruto grinned.

His warmth and friendliness gave shy little Hinata the courage to speak.

"I... I got lost... and I didn’t bring an umbrella..."

Hinata said softly, cheeks blushing.