Misalignment

"Huff!"

The strong wind whipped up sand and dust, and a figure passed through the dust, slowly approaching the canyon.

The figure stopped, took off his hood, revealing a delicate face and a head of red hair, and looked expressionlessly at the vigilant crowd.

The Fourth Kazekage, Chiyo, Ebizo, and many Sand Ninja Village Jonin were gathered together. It could be said that this was the entire fighting force of the Sand Ninja Village.

"Lord Sasori," Yura, who was being held down, said respectfully with his head lowered.

Sasori seemed not to hear his subordinate's words, and simply said, "If it's just cooperation, there shouldn't be such a big show, right? Or are you planning to get rid of me?"

"Get rid of me, the traitor who killed the Third Kazekage?"

As soon as these words came out, the Sand Ninja Village Jonin became agitated. Many of them showed indignant expressions, wishing they could kill this madman on the spot.

"Sasori," Chiyo looked at her grandson, who hadn't changed at all from back then, and her expression was somewhat dazed. "I didn't expect we would meet in this kind of situation."

"Grandma Chiyo, it's a pity you've aged too much." Sasori looked at his grandmother, his expression and eyes unchanged. He only regretted that the woman who was once unparalleled in the field of Puppet Technique had become so old and frail.

This made him even more convinced of his eternal art.

"Sister," Ebizo reminded her, and then took the initiative to speak, "You passed on information to Maki saying you could repair the Third Kazekage puppet, is that right?"

"The eternal work of art that I personally created can only be repaired by me," Sasori said calmly with a hint of arrogance.

"Then, what's the price?" Ebizo didn't sound like he was talking to his junior at all, his expression and tone were very stern.

He wanted to see what this traitor, who almost destroyed the village, really wanted.

Sasori's gaze shifted and fixed on the Fourth Kazekage's face for a long time before saying, "Kazekage, I want to become the Kazekage."

"What?!"

"What are you daydreaming about, you bastard!"

"Impossible!"

The Jonin were in an uproar. The cooperation was already unacceptable, and the condition for the deal was the position of Kage.

No one would want to let a monster who had turned himself into a puppet become the Kage.

"Silence."

The Fourth Kazekage stopped the noisy shouts of the crowd and said with a calm face, "What's the reason?"

Of course, it's to cooperate with Lin Ke...

Sasori thought in his heart. After discarding most of his emotions, he was a very rational person.

All his actions were extremely purposeful.

Leaving Akatsuki was because Akatsuki would not allow him to act recklessly at this time. Attacking Lin Ke was to test whether he could obtain 'that Seal' without relying on other methods.

The result of the test was obvious: his power was not enough.

When he proposed cooperation, he guessed that the other party would not agree. That kid was a loyalist of Konoha Village, and the possibility of him betraying the village was almost zero.

Leaving information as sincerity was to tell the other party that he really intended to cooperate, in order to clear the key obstacle to cooperation—

His identity as a rogue ninja.

Sasori quickly formulated a plan. He wanted to use the importance of the Third Kazekage Human Puppet to clear his name, and then cooperate with Lin Ke to sublimate his eternal art to the extreme.

As for whether he could become the Kazekage, that didn't matter. It was just an excuse.

"Does wanting something need a reason?" he said.

The Fourth Kazekage was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Impossible. A guy like you becoming the Kage might destroy the village."

"It doesn't matter." Sasori still had that calm look. "I'll show my sincerity first."

"Let me see the Third Kazekage Human Puppet."

Ebizo took out a Scroll and released the damaged Human Puppet.

Sasori walked forward to the Human Puppet, ignoring the vigilance and killing intent of the Jonin, observed it carefully for a while, and reached out his hand.

"Snap!" Chiyo gripped her grandson's cold arm.

The grandmother and grandson stared at each other silently for a few seconds, then she said with a deathly tone, "I will be watching you. If you try to do anything to harm the village..."

"Old hag, when did you start getting senile?" Sasori tilted his head and said, "Do you think you can kill me?"

The atmosphere dropped to freezing point.

"Sister," Ebizo spoke again.

Chiyo slowly released her hand. Sasori picked up the Third Kazekage Human Puppet as if no one else was around, fiddled with it for a while, and reported a series of materials, saying, "One month. I can repair it in one month."

The Fourth Kazekage exchanged a glance with Ebizo, and said, "Okay, but you can't leave the village, and you must be under constant surveillance."

Although these materials were very expensive, if they could repair the Third Kazekage Human Puppet, everything would be worth it.

Most importantly, they had to keep an eye on this guy so he wouldn't sneak away with the Human Puppet. Even if the village couldn't repair it, they couldn't let the murderer who killed the Kazekage run away with the Kazekage's remains.

"No problem," Sasori agreed readily.

...

Konoha Village, Lin Ke's home.

"?!"

A boy wearing a Konoha Forehead Protector and at least eighty percent similar to Uzumaki Naruto appeared in the living room out of thin air, with a look of tension and surprise on his face.

"Hey, kid," Lin Ke sat on the sofa and smiled, "I'm Lin Ke, a Special Jonin of Konoha Village."

"That's a lie," Nawaki folded his arms in front of his chest, his face full of doubt, "You look even younger than me, how could you be a Special Jonin?"

His originally tense emotions relaxed a lot, after all, seeing the Konoha Forehead Protector tied on the other person's body, he also recognized that the other person was the voice that spoke in the Pure Land before—

"Eh?" He belatedly thought, did he really come to the real world? The translucent him floated to the window, reached out and wanted to open the window to see the outside, but his arm passed right through.

Realizing that he was in a 'ghostly' state, Nawaki flew out through the window.

"Hey, don't scare other people," Lin Ke had his shadow open the window and shouted, not knowing if this kid heard him.

He really looks like Naruto, no wonder Kato Dan would mistake him.

He watched Nawaki's soul float out a distance and disappear from his sight, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

He really was too similar, the appearance, the temperament, and the rash feeling, were simply identical.

Lin Ke shook his head, not bothering to look for Nawaki, and began to cultivate on his own.

Let that kid wander around Konoha Village by himself, and he'll probably know what's going on.

After summoning his Stand more than a dozen times in the training room without randomly getting Hermit Purple, Nawaki flew back by himself.

"Who is Naruto?" His first question was this, chasing after him with a curious face, "Why do people call me Naruto when they see me?"

"A kid who looks a lot like you," Lin Ke replied immediately.

"Is that so?" Nawaki widened his eyes.

Lin Ke was about to say something when the door was knocked, the shadow opened the door, and Sasuke walked in and said, "I just seemed to see—"

"Naruto?!" He blurted out, staring at Nawaki.

The emotions in his eyes were a little tense, he had seen his parents become like this, that is to say—

"I'm Nawaki, Nawaki!" Nawaki smiled very brightly, "I'm not Naruto."

Lin Ke had the shadow clean up the training room, and then brought the two 'people' to the living room, introducing, "Sasuke, this is Nawaki, the younger brother of Tsunade of the Three Ninja."

"Hello," Nawaki grinned.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke introduced himself, his worried emotions disappearing, seeing such a smile, his tone was not as indifferent as usual when dealing with strangers.

Nawaki's thinking was quite jumpy, one second he was introducing himself, and the next second he said, "Is my sister in the village?"

Lin Ke shook his head, "Tsunade left the village many years ago."

"I see..." Nawaki lowered his head and thought for a while, then raised his head and smiled, "Sorry, I didn't believe you there."

"It's okay," Lin Ke returned a smile.

"If you need to fight in the future, please call me out," Nawaki raised his thumb and said, "I'm very strong!"

"..." X2 Lin Ke and Sasuke were speechless.

"Well, it seems my current body can't really help you guys with anything." Nawaki felt like his mind was a step behind, and immediately added, "Anyway, thank you so much for letting me come back to the village for a look."

He was a little disappointed that he didn't get to see his sister, but he didn't say it out loud.

Soon, the time for the Summoning Jutsu ended, and Sasuke spoke first, "That guy, he really is exactly like Naruto." His tone was slightly concerned.

Someone who looked exactly like his comrade had died in the past.

Most importantly, he had really thought Naruto was dead just now. When that emotion surged up, it made him drop everything he was doing and run back, and it also made him realize that he really cared about his comrades.

"Thump!" Hatake Kakashi jumped in through the window, his expression serious. "Lin Ke, did you use that jutsu just now?"

"..."

Lin Ke felt that things were getting a little out of hand, and explained, "I summoned a village comrade named Nawaki, he's Tsunade-sama's..."

"Special Jonin Lin Ke, the Third Hokage requests your presence." An Anbu landed.

Good grief, where exactly has Nawaki been?

Lin Ke nodded to Sasuke and, together with Kakashi and the Anbu, used the Body Flicker Technique to head to the Hokage Office.

Come to think of it, a soul almost identical to the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki wandering around, in the eyes of the higher-ups who knew he could summon the dead, wasn't that just a sign that Naruto was a goner? When they arrived at the Hokage Office, the Third Hokage, the two Advisors, and Nara Shikaku, all four big shots were present.

Their expressions were serious, as if they were about to start a war with someone immediately.

"Regarding Naruto—" the Third Hokage said with a grave face, "Lin Ke, tell us about your discovery."

Lin Ke quickly explained, and conveniently pulled out Nawaki's soul again.

The Third Hokage's gaze gradually changed from serious to helpless, and then the Hokage Office turned into a scene of three old-timers chatting with Nawaki.

Finally, the Third Hokage looked at his most promising and trusted junior, and sighed helplessly, "Remember, don't abuse this jutsu." He didn't sound stern at all.

-----------

This high quality machine translation is powered by: https:// randomtranslator.com/

To read the full translation, as well as more than 130+ full translations or to request new translations, check out: https:// randomtranslator.com/

You can also join the Random Translator Community on Discord to connect with other readers: https:// discord.gg/NSWvfN7vua

-----------