Simultaneous Time Travel: What Villain? I'm the Protagonist!

Sheng Ren's gaze swept across the crowd and landed on the four shadows:

"And you?"

Ai raised her head and stared at Sheng Ren:

"Kumakuya," he said, "has no Raikage who has surrendered."

Sheng Ren looked at him.

Ai suddenly smiled.

The smile was brief, fleeting, like a harbinger of an impending thunderclap. He turned to face north, the direction of Hidden Cloud Village. It was invisible from here, separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, by the still-snowy Thundercloud Valley.

After staring for a moment, Ai turned her head:

"Bi," he looked at his younger brother, who caused him the most trouble, and said softly, "Take care of yourself!"

"Big brother," Bi said, at a loss for words, his speech becoming erratic.

"Old man," he looked at his father, the Third Raikage Ai, "I've lost the village."

He paused.

"The two-tailed beast is also lost."

He placed his hand on his chest, where his heart was.

"sorry!"

After he finished speaking, lightning exploded, signifying the severing of his own heart meridian.

Ai's body fell straight backward, crashing onto the ice with a dull thud. His eyes were still open, gazing at the northern sky he could never return to.

The Third Raikage looked down at his son.

"Idiot... is that how you use Hell Strike?"

The Impure World Reincarnation technique sheds no tears. He turned around and looked in the direction of Cloud Village:

"Kumogakure, you have no Raikage who surrendered. I am proud of you!"

Darui knelt beside him, his lips trembling violently, unable to utter a single word.

Sheng Ren shifted his gaze to Onoki, who was not far away.

Onoki hovered in mid-air, motionless.

His aged hands remained in the hand seal position as he looked down at Ai's corpse and at the pool of blood slowly spreading across the ice.

"...This old man," he suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse like sandpaper, "has lived for seventy-three years."

He paused.

"I've seen the First Hokage, I've seen Madara Uchiha, I've witnessed the three Shinobi World Wars, I've seen my students defect, and I've seen my disciples die before me."

He looked down at his hands. Those hands, which had been used to practice Dust Escape for a lifetime, now resembled withered branches.

"Old Zi is dead too."

He murmured.

"Die before my eyes."

He looked up at Sheng Ren.

"Iwagakure," he said, "is a Tsuchikage who has not surrendered."

He paused.

"But there can be one... a Tsuchikage who died in battle."

He turned around to face Wu. The Second Tsuchikage stood three zhang away, his impure earth body badly damaged, mostly torn apart by the explosion of the First Style, and was slowly repairing itself.

"Teacher," Onoki said, "I have embarrassed you."

She looked at him blankly.

His face, covered in cracks, was expressionless, but he reached out and placed his hand on Onoki's shoulder.

"You've done enough," he said. "Take a break."

Onoki turned to look at his son, whose face was streaked with tears:

"Thank you for your hard work, loess soil!"

He raised his hand, and the light of Dust Escape shone on his palm for the last time, but this time it wasn't aimed at an enemy, but at himself.

The light engulfed his body.

There was no loud noise, no struggle. The Second Tsuchikage stood behind him, watching the light disintegrate his disciple inch by inch into atoms, scattering them in the wind of the icy plains.

He didn't retract his hand, nor did he speak. He simply stood there, his empty eyes staring at the vast, desolate sky.

Huang Tu knelt on the spot, his whole body stiff, unable to utter a single word.

Sheng Ren glanced at it, then looked away.

Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The Third Hokage knelt before the First Hokage.

That face looked so much older than Hashirama remembered. His nasolabial folds were deep, like they'd been carved by a knife; his eye bags drooped; his cheekbones were prominent; and his lips were chapped and peeling. This was no longer the boy who stood beneath the Hokage Rock, looking up at him and saying, "I want to be like you."

That was fifty-five years ago.

"Teachers," Hiruzen Sarutobi began, "two teachers."

Tobirama stood beside Hashirama, and Orochimaru had released the restrictions at some point.

Tobirama remained silent.

He simply looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"You've done enough," Tobirama said.

The Third Hokage suddenly laughed.

"But I didn't do a good job," he said. "The village was built under your care, but it almost collapsed under my care."

He paused.

"That night with the Nine-Tails, Minato died in my place."

He paused again.

"I'll turn a blind eye to Danzo's affairs."

"I didn't find out about Shuomao's matter immediately either."

"Orochimaru..." He paused, his voice lowering, "When Orochimaru ran away, I should have killed him with my own hands."

Hashirama listened, and then asked, "Then why didn't you kill him?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi remained silent for a long time.

"...I can't bring myself to do it."

His voice was so soft that it was almost carried away by the wind.

"He is my student."

"...Hiruzen," Tobirama said, "everyone has moments of weakness."

No one answered.

Only a kneeling body remained on the ice, lifeless and without a heartbeat.

Tobirama turned around.

Sheng Ren didn't look at him; he turned in the last direction.

Luo Sha.

The Fourth Kazekage knelt on the ice, gold dust scattered all over the ground. He didn't run, he didn't resist, he didn't even raise his head.

"...Sunagakure," his voice was low, as if squeezed from the depths of his throat, "cannot afford to fight this war."

He paused.

"We can't afford to lose."

He looked up at Sheng Ren.

"Gaara has been taken away," he said. "And the One-Tailed Beast is gone too. Sunagakure was poor, weak, and had nothing to begin with."

He choked out, "Kazekage... surrenders."

He slammed his head on the ice with a thud, like he was chiseling ice.

"Sunagakure surrenders to the Feathered Immortal Sect."

He pressed his forehead against the ice and didn't lift it again.

Behind them, the Sand Village ninjas remained silent, one after another pressing their foreheads against the ice.

Sheng Ren looked at Orochimaru: "Let's dispel this technique."

"Yes," Orochimaru's fingers flew into hand seals. Those who most want to live are often the most afraid of death.

The scraps of paper were instantly blown up by the wind like snowflakes, swirling and rising into the gray-white sky.

Hashirama looked at the Konoha members, and Madara stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder:

"Let's go. The affairs of the living shouldn't be the concern of the dead."

Hashirama looked at Madara with surprise; such a scene hadn't been seen in many years. He turned to look at Tobirama:

"Let's go."

Hashirama laughed heartily, grabbed Madara by the neck, and called for Tobirama:

"Alright, the monkey didn't finish speaking, let's go down and ask him clearly..."

Sheng Ren watched the scraps of paper dissipate, then turned around.

Obito was still kneeling on the ice.

He kept his head down, one hand supporting himself on the ice, the other hand twisted and hanging by his side. He had been kneeling like this ever since Yi Shi died, without moving.

Shengren walked up to him, but Obito didn't look up:

"...Why don't you kill me?"

Sheng Ren looked down at him.

"Where is the Jinchūriki you captured?"

Obito remained silent for a few seconds.

"...In the Kamui Space."

"Release them."

Obito didn't move.

"Lin is dead," he said.

Sheng Ren did not respond.

"Kakashi is alive, Madara is alive, everyone is alive." Obito's voice was flat, as if he were stating someone else's story. "Only Rin is dead."

He paused.

"Just kill me."

Sheng Ren looked down at him for two seconds.

"Release the Jinchuriki you captured," he repeated.

Obito suddenly looked up: "Is the Eye of the Moon Plan real?" His eyes were filled with hope.

Sheng Ren looked down at him.

two seconds.

three seconds.

"no."

Obito's eyelid twitched.

"...Where is that monument?"

"It's fake," Sheng Ren said. "It was altered by Black Zetsu. It was to revive Kaguya Otsutsuki."

Obito didn't say anything.

He knelt there, his hand still bracing against the ice, his knuckles white from the strain. His lips moved a few times, as if he wanted to say something, or perhaps he didn't know what to say.

"Sixty years," he said, his voice as soft as dust in the wind. "Ban waited sixty years."

"Um."

"Before he died, he gave me his eyes, his name, and the Eye of the Moon."

"Um."

He told me that was the only way.

Sheng Ren did not respond.

Obito lowered his head, looking at his reflection on the ice. The reflection was fragmented by bloodstains and cracks, unable to piece together a complete human face.

"...I killed my master," he said, "I killed my master's wife, and I killed so many people from Konoha. I pulled the Nine-Tails out of Naruto's body and almost destroyed the entire village."

He paused.

"I thought that was the price."

He looked up at Sheng Ren.

"Let's find a world where Lin is still alive."

His voice finally cracked open.

"Now you're telling me that world is fake?"

Sheng Ren looked at him.

"The Eye of the Moon is fake," Sheng Ren said. "Infinite Tsukuyomi is an illusion. After Kaguya is resurrected, everyone's chakra will be drained by the Divine Tree, turning them into raw materials for White Zetsu."

He paused.

"Without Lin, there will be no reunion, nothing you want."

"...I see," he said softly, as if he were saying that the weather was nice today.

Obito remained silent for a long time, then suddenly closed his eyes. A crack appeared in the Kamui dimension, and the captured Jinchuriki fell through it.

"Kakashi," Obito suddenly called out to his former best friend.

Kakashi, whose heart was already heavy with grief over the passing of the Third Hokage, suddenly felt a surge of emotion and stepped forward to help Obito up.

Obito was still kneeling on the ice, his head bowed.

Kakashi stopped in front of him.

"...Kakashi."

Obito did not look up.

"Um."

After a few seconds of silence, he raised his left hand and pressed it against his left eye socket.

Kakashi's pupils contracted slightly.

"...Obito."

Obito gouged out the eye, and blood gushed from the empty socket, running down his cheek and dripping onto the ice.

"Please, I...I'm going to find Lin. Take my eyes with you and help...help me see the future that person is talking about."

Kakashi did not answer.

Obito waited and waited, but received no response: "If you don't speak, I'll take that as a yes."

He raised his hand, forming an incomplete hand seal, and with a very soft sound, he shattered his own heart meridian.

His body swayed and then he fell forward.

Kakashi caught him.

Obito rested his head on his shoulder, his lips moved slightly, and the sound was so soft it was almost inaudible:

"...I'm late...sorry..."

Then there was no sound.

Kakashi knelt on the ice, holding him, and remained motionless.

"Long live the Sect Master!"

I don't know who called out first. The voice wasn't loud, it sounded like someone talking to themselves.

The people next to him turned to look at him.

The man shouted it again, this time louder.

"Long live the Sect Master!"

Silence. Only the sound of the wind echoed across the icy plains.

Then a second voice rang out.

"Long live the Sect Master!"

The third.

The tenth one.

The hundredth.

The sounds surged in from all directions, like the receding tide suddenly turning, from whispers to shouts, and from shouts to a deafening roar.