Revitalizing the Uchiha clan starts with becoming a Kage.

These words were full of gentle warmth, and most importantly, they had an extremely infectious quality that was as refreshing as a spring breeze. Anyone would easily develop a good impression of them at first glance. This made Jiang Si sigh inwardly, thinking that this person truly deserved to be a character with maxed-out charm, just like in the original work!

From this perspective, he truly deserves to be called Naruto's father!

Shoji glanced briefly at Naruto sitting to the side, thinking to himself.

Based on the original story, the three's unique attire, and the technique they just used, if Shoji still couldn't recognize their identities, then something really must be wrong. The golden figure in the middle is naturally the famous Minato Namikaze. Of course, at this time, he was not only not the Fourth Hokage, but he also didn't have the title of Yellow Flash yet, because the Third Shinobi World War hadn't broken out yet!

The plump man on the left must be Choji's father, Akimichi Choza, and the other one is Shino's father, Aburame Shiki.

Furthermore, if Shoji remembers correctly, Kakashi, who had only graduated two years prior, was also involved in this mission to Loulan Kingdom in the original story. Minato Namikaze, who was on the opposite side, naturally didn't know this. Shoji was an overpowered person; this was only their first meeting, yet he had already guessed their identities with a high degree of accuracy.

Minato himself was still speculating about the identities of Shoji and Naruto. The reason he said those words was because he saw the Konoha ninja headband on Naruto's forehead, and also because Shoji and Naruto didn't seem to have any ill intentions. But in the end, Minato still found many doubts about the identities of Shoji and Naruto!

Especially Shoji, who was dressed like an ordinary person, but his previous performance clearly showed that he was a powerful ninja. The immense chakra aura that emanated from him the moment he made his move was enough for Minato to be certain that the person in front of him was at least as strong as, and in a very high probability even stronger than, himself!

Of course, his exact strength is unknown before a formal confrontation, but that move alone was enough to make Minato wary. This is a top-tier powerhouse even among the Five Great Nations. In Minato's knowledge, there is no such person in Konoha. However, Minato cannot rule out this possibility entirely. The current Minato is not the Minato who will succeed as the Fourth Hokage; he is merely a Jonin with a relatively high status in Konoha. There are certainly some secrets of the village that he cannot know!

Minato couldn't be sure whether Shoji was a secret ace trained by his own Third Hokage, or someone from another powerful ninja clan in the village, such as the Uchiha clan!

Indeed, at this moment, it must be said that Minato's guess was very close to the truth. Of course, no matter how hard Minato racked his brains, he could never guess Shoji's true identity. Before witnessing and confirming time travel, no one would think of that aspect.

Therefore, Minato could only guess to this extent. The mysterious aura surrounding Tsukasa was too strong. Naruto, who was sitting next to him, was similar. However, the more Minato looked at Naruto, the more familiar and friendly he felt. This made Minato himself full of doubts. Could it be that he had seen this blond boy somewhere in the village before?

"To protect Her Majesty the Queen?"

Jiang Si raised an eyebrow slightly, but instead of directly revealing the identities of the three, he spoke with a hint of doubt.

"Hehe, this isn't a very suitable place to talk. Shall we go somewhere else?"

During the period between Sara being rescued by Naruto and the arrival of Minato and the other two.

An Lushan had clearly realized that Sara was not dead. Puppet soldiers controlled by An Lushan had already come to search the area high in the sky. Although these people did not need to fear these puppets whose strength was at most at the level of ordinary Chunin, they would definitely need to change locations if they wanted to have a safe conversation.

Jiang Si did not answer immediately, but turned to look at Sara and Naruto in the seats behind him.

The former was naturally on guard. The words of Shoji and Naruto had already made Her Majesty the Queen completely suspicious. Now, the three of them, including Minato, were all wearing masks and looking mysterious. Sara subconsciously felt that these three were also Shoji and Naruto's accomplices. However, everything that had just happened was enough to prove that she had no ability to resist at the moment.

Therefore, Sarah remained silent throughout.

Needless to say, from the moment Minato and the other two appeared, Naruto was filled with curiosity. Just as Minato felt a strange sense of kinship with Naruto, Naruto also felt a certain degree of kinship with the three of them, even though they were all wearing masks. Naruto always felt that he should know all three of them.

Seeing the two of them looking so different.

Shoji could only shrug, then looked at Minato in the opposite position and said, "Well, let's find another place then!"

"Then let's go this way!"

Although Jiang Si desperately wanted to eliminate An Lushan as soon as possible, return to his own era, and then take the Dragon Vein Seal with him, he still needed to exercise some restraint when Minato Namikaze appeared. Clearly, Minato's target was also An Lushan, and if he didn't reach a certain agreement with him, he would easily be restricted in his subsequent actions.

Even though Shoji is definitely the strongest among those present, he can't really act recklessly. First, he might not be able to defeat the combination of Naruto and Minato. Second, even if he could, Shoji would be crazy to do that!

Isn't this putting the cart before the horse and wasting even more time? And it doesn't bring any benefits at all. So, the best choice is to act with Minato and the others. That's the easiest way!

As for other things, Jiang Si didn't care at all.

Immediately afterwards.

Led by Minato, the group left the open space and arrived at a secluded high-rise corridor where few people could find them and the puppet soldiers could not easily spot them. Although Sara had followed them all the way, she remained silent and kept a very subtle distance from Shoji and Minato. When they arrived at this corridor, she leaned against a stone pillar not far away, as if she was ready to find an opportunity to escape at any time.

Although Shoji and Minato noticed this, they didn't care much. After all, she was only a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl, and it was normal for her to be wary of such a sudden change and a group of strangers.

All they care about is ensuring Her Majesty's safety.

"Could you please tell us your purpose in coming here, and your identities? Are you truly Konoha ninjas?"

For Minato, the most important thing was to find out the identities and intentions of the two mysterious young men in front of him as soon as possible. He was sent to the Kingdom of Loulan this time for two reasons, one was Loulan itself, and the other was Sunagakure. Although the Third Shinobi World War had not yet broken out at this time, the relationship between the Shinobi world had become very dangerous and strained. Given that the Kingdom of Loulan was so close to Sunagakure, Minato Namikaze was sent by the Third Hokage to find out if there was any connection between the Kingdom of Loulan and Sunagakure. The power of the Dragon Vein was still highly valued among the Five Great Nations!

With tensions escalating in the ninja world, the Third Hokage couldn't afford to overlook any potential threat to Konoha. Minato had initially thought there was only one key figure—An Lushan—but now, two unknown individuals, Shoji and Naruto, had suddenly appeared. Even though he had a strange fondness for one of them, Minato still had to proceed with caution. His intuition told him that the two before him were unlikely to be enemies, but what if…?

You can't be too absolute about anything!

In the ninja world, many strange and unpredictable things happen.

"Well, it's not exactly a secret. My name is Shoji. First of all, I should clarify that Naruto and I are both here to see Minister An Lushan. I am not a ninja from your village, while Naruto is, to be precise, a future ninja of your village! I am the same; I am not from this era. Like Naruto, I was accidentally caught up in the turbulence of time and space because of the power of the Dragon Vein. An Lushan should also not be from this era, if my guess is correct!"

Jiang Si smiled slightly and said meaningfully.

These words caused the expressions of Minato, Shimi, and Choza, hidden beneath their masks, to change drastically.

Sarah, who was not far away, suddenly looked up with a look of shock, but more than that, she looked extremely suspicious.

what?

A ninja of the future?

What does this mean? Is this a new type of scam in the ninja world? So direct, and so blatant?

"Yes, just like Brother Si said, I must have traveled through time and gone back to the past. You three are also ninjas from Konoha, right? My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Uh... I don't know what year it is, but in my time, the Hokage was Tsunade, oh, one of the Third Hokage's disciples. Uh... what? Brother Si, aren't you from this era either? Were you also caught up in time travel because of the Dragon Vein's power? Uh... but..."

Naruto remained nonchalant, seemingly without any wariness, and laughed as he agreed. However, upon hearing the second half of Shoji's sentence, Naruto's eyes widened once again, and he looked at Shoji with a look of surprise.

Naruto's words caused Minato and the other two to change their expressions once again.

Minato, Shiki, and Choza all knew very well what the surname 'Uzumaki' meant!

At that moment, even Minato felt that the other side might be deceiving him, but his intuition told him that the other side was not deceiving him.

"I see. So your goal is to determine whether An Lushan is the person you are searching for, is that right?"

Minato, as expected of someone who became the Fourth Hokage at only twenty-three or twenty-four years old in the original work, quickly composed himself and said softly.

395. Agreement and Progress

Although the clues were scattered and unverifiable, Minato still managed to deduce what he believed to be the 'truth' through Tsukasa and Naruto's statements. The two were indeed from the future, and the blond boy named Naruto Uzumaki was probably a ninja from Konoha. As for Tsukasa, he was definitely a ninja from one of the other four great nations in the future. As for why he wasn't wearing a headband, Minato didn't know. It was very likely that he was hiding in a corner to seize the power of the Dragon Vein and happened to run into the Dragon Vein's power eruption.

The two were swept into a time vortex, traversing timelines and returning to the past!

Of course, Minato could never have imagined that his guesses were both right and wrong. The most crucial point is that even if Minato were beaten to death, he could never have guessed that Naruto and Shoji were not from the same era at all, and it was almost certain that they were not from the same timeline, but rather from another parallel world!

However, this cannot be attributed to Minato. It is already quite remarkable that he was able to understand what was happening in such a short time, and then quickly summarize and organize the information to arrive at a relatively 'reasonable' conclusion!

No one else could have achieved this level of accuracy, and expecting them to take it a step further is simply asking too much.

"Well, you could say that. If you're truly here to protect Her Majesty the Queen, there shouldn't be any conflict between us. We've already shown our sincerity, so shouldn't you also show your sincerity?"

Jiang Si raised an eyebrow slightly and said with a gentle smile.

Minato was taken aback at first, but then he understood.

"Yes, it was indeed our rudeness. My name is Minato Namikaze, and I am indeed a ninja from Konoha. This time, I came to Loulan on the orders of the Third Hokage to protect Her Majesty the Queen and to investigate some strange events that have occurred in Loulan during this period!"

As Minato introduced himself, he also removed his mask, revealing a handsome face that bore a slight resemblance to Naruto. It has to be said that he truly deserves to be called the pinnacle of good looks in the original work. With such appearance and such temperament, it's no wonder that Minato was able to win over Kushina Uzumaki's heart.

This made Jiang Si sigh inwardly.

Zhiwei and Dingzuo, who were sitting to the side, also took off their masks one after another and gave a brief self-introduction.

"Huh? Huh? This face... it looks like I've seen it somewhere before?"

Shoji wasn't curious about the three men's appearances at all, but Naruto, who was sitting to the side, was different. Minato's face was carved on the Hokage Rock, and Choji and Shino were Naruto's classmates and had a very good relationship. Naruto had even met Choji and Shino.

As soon as Minato and the other two revealed their appearances, Naruto naturally reacted.

"Oh! You're Choji's father, you're Shino's father, right!? Eh? You really look so young, it seems I really have gone back to the past! Eh? Wait a minute? Your face!"

Naruto first frowned, then his eyes widened, and he clenched his right fist and slammed it hard into his left palm, raising the decibel level several degrees.

"I remember now, you're the Fourth Hokage, aren't you!? I knew I'd seen you somewhere before, your face is exactly the same as the image carved on the Hokage Rock, and, Namikaze? Hmm, that's right, that's the Fourth Hokage's surname!"

Naruto, whose reaction time was previously somewhat slow, reacted quickly at this moment. As he leaned closer, a look of sudden realization appeared on his face as he spoke these words.

"What father? Kid, you can't just say things like that. I'm not even married yet!"

In the seat next to him, Choza, who was clearly only around 20 years old at the moment, subconsciously glared at Naruto and said something with a hint of anger.

However, Zhiwei, who was sitting to the side, maintained the calm and composed demeanor typical of the Aburame clan and said in a very composed manner, "If they are indeed from the future, then this information should be about events that happened in the future. But why do you say that Minato is the Fourth Hokage? Naruto-kun, um, if you don't mind me calling you that, didn't you just say that the Hokage of the village is Lady Tsunade?"

"Oh? You mean Granny Tsunade? She's the Fifth Hokage, the Fourth Hokage..."

When Naruto heard Shiki's question, he instinctively wanted to continue speaking.

Minato waved his hand gently and said, "It's better if we don't know too much about the future, otherwise it could easily affect the future trajectory. The variables and impacts involved are too great. Since you came to this timeline because of An Lushan's activation of the Dragon Vein, killing him would indeed have a high probability of returning everything to the original timeline. However, the prerequisite is that An Lushan is the person you are looking for!"

While it's not to say that we can completely trust Shoji and Naruto, to be fair, from a purely personal and emotional perspective, Minato is very inclined to accept their views. You can see from Minato's own words that he believes in them, but he still retains a last bit of basic rationality.

Zhiwei and Dingza were both startled when they heard Minato's words.

I won't say anything more.

"Yes, that's true. Naruto and I only have one target: Minister An Lushan."

Jiang Si remained calm and spoke softly.

"Yes, then we don't have any conflict with each other and can cooperate!"

Minato nodded slightly at that moment.

At this moment, they formally reached a preliminary agreement.

"Princess Sara, you must have heard our conversation. We did come for Loulan, but please believe that we have absolutely no ill intentions towards Loulan, nor do we covet the power of the Loulan Dragon Vein. We are merely here to investigate matters. Our Hokage has been very concerned about what has happened in Loulan over the past few years, especially the death of the former Queen, which is shrouded in mystery. We ask for your assistance in our investigation, Princess Sara. I can promise on behalf of Konoha that if everything is a misunderstanding, Konoha will fully compensate and apologize for any losses incurred. Is that acceptable to you?"

Even though Loulan is just a small country, a monarch is still a monarch. In name, the status of monarchs of all countries is the highest in the world, and given Shuimen's character, he would never do anything impolite.

After stepping up to Sarah.

Minato's face also showed a faint respect as he spoke in a very gentle tone.

"Investigate? The death of your mother? What exactly are you trying to say? Are you questioning An Lushan, the minister who brought prosperity to our Loulan Kingdom? I've already said that he was the most important minister of our Loulan Kingdom, and we will absolutely not allow you to slander him out of thin air! You can investigate, but only if you can produce solid evidence immediately!"

Being young is fine, being in a high position is fine, but young girls in high positions are often the most prone to getting stuck in a rut. At this moment, Sara sees everyone as an enemy, including Naruto, whom she initially had some goodwill towards, but Sara has blocked her. The beliefs she has held for so many years are not so easy to change!

"Your Highness Sarah, please..."

Faced with such a stubborn young queen, Minato couldn't help but frown slightly.

And just as Minato was about to say something more.

"Boom!"

Suddenly.

A loud explosion followed.

The stone pillars and ceiling shattered, and rubble scattered everywhere.

High above the corridor of the tall building, thirty or forty flying puppet soldiers suddenly appeared. The moment they locked onto the positions of Shoji, Minato, and Naruto, their pupils glowed red, and they launched a swift attack on the group.