Due to the urgency of the war, this assessment was conducted exceptionally at the front lines instead of requiring the participating ninjas to return to the village.
The village had dispatched examiners to evaluate the candidates' skills and ideology one by one.
Exceptional circumstances require exceptional measures, one examiner muttered to another, watching a young candidate demonstrate lethal efficiency in his assessment.
After the assessment ended, the chief examiner, a jonin, entered Minato's tent. After some hesitation, he offered a suggestion.
"Minato-sama, your student's personal strength is indeed outstanding, but his understanding of the Will of Fire seems rather extreme. Shouldn't you—"
Kakashi's recent performance flashed through his mind—the boy's movements had been perfect, his jutsu flawless, but there was something in those dark eyes. Such skill at his age... but that coldness in his eyes... This isn't the loyal soldier we expected to shape.
In this timeline, ever since a year ago when Shin planted a seed of doubt in Kakashi's mind, his development had already diverged completely from the original narrative.
Just days ago, a team member had questioned him about village traditions, only to receive a chilling response: "The Will of Fire burns differently for each of us," Kakashi had said, "Traditions built on lies are worth nothing."
He had grown much stronger, but his heart had grown colder. His relationship with the village's leadership had become increasingly distant, a far cry from the absolute loyalty portrayed in the original story.
After all, some truths can be ignored if one kept their eyes closed forever. But once those eyes were opened, the truth became an elephant in the room—impossible to unsee.
At this point, his understanding of the Will of Fire could hardly be called extreme; it was outright heretical.
However, to the chief examiner's surprise, Minato interrupted him before he could finish.
But instead of promising to guide Kakashi, he responded dismissively. "If Kakashi's strength isn't an issue, then grant him the jonin title immediately. I need his ability to lead a team independently in the upcoming battles."
The chief examiner grew anxious.
"Minato-sama, didn't you hear what I just said? This child's interpretation of the Will of Fire—"
But Minato cut him off again. "Choki, you've changed your surname to Sarutobi, haven't you?"
The examiner was momentarily stunned and nodded reflexively. Why bring that up now?
"Yes, Minato-sama."
He failed to notice the distance and chill in Minato's tone.
"Is there anything else from the village?"
"Ah, yes. Sandaime-sama asked me to bring you a few words."
"Choki, return to the village."
"What did you say, Minato-sama?" The words came out as barely more than a whisper.
"I said, return to the village. Deliver the Sandaime's message to Shinno instead. With the assessment over, leave the front lines as soon as possible. Don't stay here too long."
Only then did Choki realize the severity of the situation. He trembled all over, remembering the whispers he'd heard from other shinobi about changes in their commander.
At this point, it seemed that Kakashi wasn't the only one with a problematic interpretation of the Will of Fire—Minato himself had shifted as well.
But under Minato's gaze, he could not muster a single word of rebuttal.
He had no idea what had transpired recently on the front lines. All he could feel was that the warmth once radiating from Minato's gaze was gone. The man before him was a stranger wearing a familiar face.
The rising sun had turned into a scorching blaze, its fiery rays drenching him in sweat. Every instinct screamed at him to get away from those cold blue eyes that seemed to see right through him.
Without the courage to argue further, he withdrew as instructed.
He immediately used the Body Flicker to find Shinno. The technique felt clumsy in his panic, but he couldn't waste a moment.
But before he could report his grievances, Shinno anxiously grabbed him, as if clutching a lifeline. The man's face was pale, his usual composure completely shattered.
"Choki, you must hurry back and tell my father! Minato has changed! He's completely changed! He plans to assign all the most dangerous missions to the Sarutobi clan! You must return and have my father stop him!"
Choki was utterly dumbfounded.
As part of Minato's strategy to end the northern warfront, the Battle of Kannabi Bridge was far more than the brief account left in the original story.
In reality, all factions in the north were planning an unprecedentedly large-scale decisive battle.
His upcoming actions weren't merely a solo raid on the Kannabi Bridge. To support the bridge demolition, he had orchestrated a massive diversionary offensive.
The planned frontline spanned over 10 kilometers on the map. Even seasoned commanders drew sharp breaths at the sheer scale of the operation.
His most surprising decisions in this campaign was to assign nearly all the most dangerous offensive missions to the Sarutobi clan.
When Minato announced the plan, the front-line ninja clans immediately recognized his unshakable resolve.
No one dared to raise objections.
Even Shinno, whose expression resembled a mourner's, cowered under Minato's steely gaze and dared not publicly oppose the decision.
Hearing Shinno relay this news, Choki felt as though lightning had struck him.
"How did this happen? What has Minato gone through recently?"
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Deep down, Choki already knew the answer. His hand unconsciously touched the Sarutobi clan symbol he now wore.
He hadn't forgotten the reason he himself changed his surname to Sarutobi.
They had grown accustomed to Minato's strength, tolerance, and concessions, thinking his kindness would be endless, his miracles unending.
This time, it was Minato's turn to teach them what the "Will of Fire" truly meant. The lesson, Choki realized with growing horror, would be written in the blood of the Sarutobi clan.
His forehead dripped with cold sweat, but his mind remained blank. No clever solutions presented themselves.
Time passed in silent waiting for three more days.
---
The first to sense the impending storm was surprisingly Kumo, seemingly the least involved.
"Raikage-sama, bad news!" The ANBU burst through the door, his mask slightly askew in his haste. "The village's Two-Tails jinchūriki is rampaging! The cause is still unknown!"
A's muscles tensed as he processed the news.
"How could she lose control?! And at a time like this!" His fist slammed into his desk, splitting the sturdy wood like paper.
Kumo had always prided itself on effective jinchūriki management. Their training methods were rigorous but effective, their control mechanisms precise and reliable.
Unlike Iwa, where jinchūriki frequently rebelled, or Konoha and Suna, which confined theirs within the village, Kumo had achieved unparalleled utilization of their jinchūriki.
The village's military strength relied heavily on this advantage.
But now was not the time for pride.
Years earlier, Kumo had replaced the jinchūriki for both of its tailed beasts. The Second Great Ninja had just ended, and they had assumed peace would last, using the lull to transition their jinchūriki.
Now, both the Eight-Tails and Two-Tails jinchūriki were young and inexperienced. Especially the Two-Tails' jinchūriki, a girl barely in her early teens, with even less time as a host than Killer B.
She had been kept in the village for safety, only for disaster to strike at this critical juncture.
The Raikage smashed through a wall in his rush to return to the village and handle the situation personally.
Dodai, the commander on the front lines, displayed far more composure. "Could this be Konoha's doing? Intelligence suggests they're planning something big," he pondered aloud.
"You think Konoha spies triggered the jinchūriki's rampage? But Danzō is bedridden, isn't he?" inquired Mabui.
Dodai replied, "Danzō being incapacitated doesn't mean Konoha's spies have stopped moving. Plenty of reports indicate that Minato now commands their northern intelligence network."
At that moment, silence descended upon the room.
After a while, someone sighed.
"Ah, why did Akatsuki have to cripple Danzō so badly? Couldn't they have just let him return to his village healthy?"
The consensus was clear: compared to Minato, Danzō was nothing more than a useless relic.
---
The day after Kakashi successfully advanced to the rank of jonin, just like in the original story, Minato and Rin gave him congratulatory gifts.
Only Obito, due to his carelessness, forgot to prepare anything.
Rin sighed, shaking her head at her teammate. "Obito, you always do this..."
As Obito loudly protested, "It's not that I didn't prepare anything, I just haven't decided what to—"
"Minato, intelligence personnel from the former Root report that Kumo's distraction plan was successful. Additionally, preparations on the frontlines are complete. However, there has been a small disturbance in the southern part of the village, and Jiraiya-sama's promised third wave of support might not make it," Shibi arrived to report.
The war waits for no one, not even on a day of celebration, Minato thought grimly.
He nodded and said, "Then we won't wait any longer. It's time to act!"
He then placed his hands on Kakashi and Obito's shoulders. They're not children anymore. It's time they stood on their own.
"Kakashi, I'll leave Rin and Obito in your care this time. You're a jonin now. It's time for you to shoulder the responsibility of leading a team."
Obito, with a shocked expression, looked like a startled cat, his goggles slightly askew as he jumped back.
"Wha—what?! You mean I'll have to call this smug guy 'Captain' from now on? No way!"
Unfortunately, Minato, by this time, had no energy to comfort his tsundere disciple. He gave a faint smile before immediately using the Flying Thunder God to teleport away.
He couldn't wait any longer after planning for so many days. This time, he would personally bring an end to the war in the north.
By 4 p.m. that day, Konoha's all-out offensive had finally begun.
Minato had staked almost all his chips on this operation.
Thousands of ninjas launched a comprehensive attack on Iwa from multiple directions to cover the elite squad led by Minato, which aimed to strike deep into the high-altitude mountain regions of Kusa's central area.
When the intelligence about the attack reached the Iwa frontline command center, Ōnoki sighed deeply.
"So Akatsuki guessed it all right again," he said. An advisor stepped forward, "Shall we proceed with the counter-strategy?"
"Yes," Ōnoki replied firmly. "Let's show them what preparation means. Proceed with the planned interception operations."
This time, Konoha's raid was destined to face several times the pressure of the original storyline. Iwa was well-prepared for this.
However, in the first few battlefields where the interception began, even with advance preparations, Iwa forces still suffered a brutal surprise.
Konoha's fighting spirit was unusually high this time, almost miraculously so. The vanguard consisted entirely of ninjas from the Sarutobi clan, who had no other choice. They fought with the desperate fury of those who knew retreat meant death.
Behind them were joint task forces made up of other ninja clans, overseeing and urging them forward.
There was only one path for the Sarutobi clan to take—forward. Retreat was not an option.
At the frontlines, Shinno felt his heart bleeding as he watched his clansmen fall one by one.
No matter the outcome of this battle or the subsequent developments, the Sarutobi clan's twenty years of accumulation would be destroyed.
When news of this reached Konoha, would his father have a moment of regret?
While the full-scale offensive raged, Minato's elite squad pressed northward with incredible speed.
Even Hisashi, a head elder of the Hyūga clan, had been forcibly recruited by Minato for this mission. Using his Byakugan, he scouted their route to avoid enemy encounters.
"No enemy forces within range," he reported.
"Keep moving," Minato responded tersely. "We can't waste this opportunity."
As they traveled, Hisashi recalled how, not long ago, he had taken advantage of Minato's kind heart to rant about the village's flaws with impunity.
Now, karma had come full circle.
As they advanced, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly, lamenting how they had failed to cherish Minato's warm and sunny smile in the past.
The only thing he was grateful for was that they had miraculously bypassed almost all Iwa defenses on their journey north.
After over two hours of travel, his nearly 360-degree Byakugan had only detected two instances of nearby enemies, and both were merely small, scattered squads. His eyes tracked their movements through the dense forest, watching them pass by without noticing Minato's team.
This bolstered Hisashi's confidence, making him believe that their mission might be blessed by fate.
What he didn't know was that their success wasn't due to fate, but to Black Zetsu operating from the shadows.
---
In this altered timeline, with Konoha in dire straits, Iwa and Akatsuki had already prepared their defenses far in advance. Thus, Black Zetsu had been forced to intervene directly, guiding Konoha's elite squad toward the mountains.
This turn of events had even caused Madara, watching from his cave, to laugh uproariously.
"Ha! Konoha has really declined! They're so weak against even one Iwa village that they need your help. How pathetic! Hashirama, if only you could see how ridiculous your descendants have become!"
Zetsu, long accustomed to Madara's obsession with Hashirama and his tendency to mock Konoha, initially dismissed his comments. He believed the situation was still under his control.
But by the time he personally led Minato's team to the mountain path's entrance at dawn, he realized just how wrong he had been.
What lay before the Konoha squad was a nightmare: mountains full of traps and fortifications, raging wildfires sweeping downhill, and boulders and projectiles raining from above.
Chōza was the first to react. "Watch out!"
He immediately swallowed a pill, his body swelling to enormous proportions, and smashed a falling boulder with a single punch. The impact sent debris flying in all directions as the massive stone shattered.
Minato stretched out his hands, placing a Flying Thunder God kunai between his palms to create a circular barrier in front of him.
Using this technique, he teleported the shattered debris far away, ensuring the stones didn't injure the team behind him—much like how he had deflected the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb in the original story.
Yet despite their efforts, the elite squad's morale was deeply shaken at that moment.
"How could this happen? They're so prepared! Did the enemy know we were coming from the start?" someone muttered in despair, their expression filled with hopelessness.
Even Zetsu was stunned.
He had been distracted by Obito for a while, and when he turned his attention back to Akatsuki, he found that their preparations in this area were far more extensive than he'd anticipated.
Did he foresee this as well? Zetsu thought bitterly.