Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 369 Return

"How could...we have to part ways so soon?" Sara's voice was full of reluctance. Naruto was the one who accompanied her, helped her, and encouraged her all along the way. Even though they had only known each other for a day, they had a life-or-death bond.

“Sarah, you have rediscovered your true self and are now an excellent queen. You will be fine even without our help.”

"I will never forget Naruto..."

"In order not to change history, it would be better to erase all our memories here. I have already set up a spell to make each other forget each other. Is that alright?" The shrewd Minato had indeed made preparations from the beginning. He said these almost cruel words with a smile.

Naruto tilted his head and asked, "You forget things too?"

“There’s no reason why I should be the only one who remembers this,” Minato replied matter-of-factly.

"Will you be able to discover this seal yourself?"

Minato actually thought about it for a while and said, "Kushina will find out, but whether she can untie it, I don't know."

Is that so? The mother he saw was a remnant of chakra consciousness, and his father showed no sign of recalling that past. Was the forgetting really caused by the seal?

"Naruto, perhaps it's true, as you said, that Loulan will one day be destroyed, but I still have the people of Loulan. For their sake, I will do what I must do, because that's what you taught me, Naruto!"

Looking at Sara's sincere smile, Naruto knew that she would definitely become an excellent leader. This had nothing to do with her royal bloodline, but rather with her strength, optimism, willingness to admit her mistakes and take responsibility.

The Loulan of the future must have taken root and sprouted somewhere.

The moment the sealing technique was activated, Naruto deliberately broke through the net that had formed in his mental space, refusing to be obediently sealed away. After he tumbled a few times in a chaotic space where patterns seemed discernible yet just out of reach, he landed again. The lingering sense of unease disappeared, and time returned to its normal course.

"Naruto!" The giant bird drawn in the ink painting flew towards the center immediately after the purple beam of light faded. Fortunately, the event reacted quickly enough and used the Super Beast Imitation Painting in mid-air, which prevented the two of them from being affected by the beam of light.

Ding was the first to jump off the giant bird, nearly cracking the sturdy cylinder; it was clear he was in a great hurry.

"Naruto, are you alright?!"

"I'm fine," Naruto replied, of course, and suddenly an orange-red fox spirit coat appeared on his body.

"You're fine my ass! Look what you've done now, making yourself look like this!" Kurama opened his eyes and saw the cracks in the false sky in the mental space, almost knocking Naruto over. "You had time to eject those two, but not time to save yourself?"

But Naruto didn't bow his head and admit his mistake as usual. Instead, he turned around and looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

Kurama disliked that look; he had never seen it on Naruto before. He immediately bristled, "What? Am I wrong? You're a speed-type ninja; you can run very fast even without the Flying Thunder God Technique!"

Naruto lowered his head and said, "Sorry, I didn't think of it for a moment. I was too busy saving people."

"You really should change this habit. Stop taking your life so lightly." Kurama had already guessed he would say that. Although he offered his advice, he knew in his heart it was useless. He was already planning how to cooperate to get people out of trouble in the next emergency. Fortunately, this time the purple light only slightly impacted Naruto's body and did not cause any greater damage, otherwise he would have had to find a way to call for help again.

The Nine-Tails' cloak came and went quickly. Naruto's two teammates knew that the cloak was actually Kurama assisting in the treatment. They were a little nervous for a moment, but breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Naruto seemed to be completely fine.

"You kid, think more about yourself. You were the one who rushed in first and should have been the one to avoid danger." It was a miracle that he returned unharmed. While he was flying in the sky, he had already apologized to a whole bunch of living and dead people in his mind, fearing that Minato and Kushina's only child would perish here.

Young people like Matsuri met Naruto when they were teenagers and thought that such near-death experiences were routine. Seeing that everyone was alright, they turned their attention to another important area.

"Where's Centipede? He should have been caught in the pillar of light along with you..."

"Nine Lama, do you remember where Centipede went?"

"Huh? How would I know? What you see is what I see. Isn't he right at the epicenter of the outbreak? He's probably dead."

After confirming repeatedly, Naruto finally realized that Kurama had completely forgotten that past journey. The moment the dragon veins subsided, the dragon vein power within him could no longer maintain its form and was gradually assimilated by his chakra, leaving nothing in his spiritual space as evidence. He clearly refused the seal and broke free of the net at the last moment before falling into chaos, so why did Kurama still forget?

Could it be that his guess was correct, and what caused this amnesia wasn't a sealing technique, but rather... the rules of time? But why does he remember those things now?

The dragon vein still slumbered underground, its pulse weak but not completely extinguished. Naruto absolutely could not afford to get too close to it at this stage, so after searching a few times, he quickly told his teammates to head back.

Centipede was undoubtedly dead; his soul core had been crushed to pieces, leaving him no chance of reaching the Pure Land. But Naruto couldn't say it directly, so he temporarily labeled him missing. The three of them, no longer in a state of urgency, strolled out of the now unstable ruins, only to unexpectedly encounter a caravan.

Surrounded by endless yellow sand, how could there still be caravans heading this way?

With a little focus, Naruto suddenly noticed a familiar chakra sitting in a carriage. However, this aura was no longer as vibrant as it had been twenty years ago; instead, it exuded a kind of frailty from old age.

This shouldn't be happening. Sarah is only forty years old at most, right? How could she be so weak?

The carriage curtain was lifted, and the first to step down was a little girl with light red hair. She looked exactly like Sarah, perfectly inheriting her mother's cheerful and friendly nature. She took the initiative to come over and greet her.