"Hashirama Cell. I know Orochimaru has been experimenting with them. I want to inject myself with it to see what would happen," Sinbad said casually, as if he were asking for something as simple as water.
"Secondly, I want to learn the Reaper Death Seal." He leaned back in his chair, still wearing that relaxed smile. "Lastly, I want to have everything I want for the next week completely free… since I'm poor."
His words hung in the air for a moment. Minato's eyes narrowed, meeting Sinbad's eyes, as if trying to see something.
Orochimaru's research into Hashirama Cells wasn't something that anyone should know. It was buried deep and highly classified. So either Sinbad had seen far into the future to gain that knowledge… or someone had told him. Either way, the fact that he knew about it made Minato's chest tighten.
Then there was the Reaper Death Seal. That was worse. How did Sinbad even know about it? It was a jutsu Minato had created himself, something known only to a very small handful of people. Unless Sinbad had seen him use it in the future..
"I, Minato, the Fourth Hokage, will take you on this offer. That I promise," Minato said seriously, his tone heavy with resolve.
"Tomorrow, a masked man would free the Nine Tails. You would die sealing the Nine Tails inside Naruto, and the other half inside yourself. But I would like to change that. Seal the other half of the Nine Tails inside me. For what's to come, Naruto would need the full might of the Nine Tails, and not just fifty percent of it."
The words hit hard. Minato's eyes widened in disbelief, the shock cutting through him like a blade. And slowly—almost against his will—his face twisted, not in fear, but in growing rage.
"Who!" he yelled, the force behind his voice echoing his fury. Minato's expression sharpened, demanding to know who would dare unleash such chaos.
"Madara, at least that's the name he goes by, but it's not really him. Anyways, he has a Sharingan, which would cause a chain reaction that would lead to the slaughter of the Uchiha clan, who had nothing to do with the Nine Tails attack. I'm curious to see how the future would change if they are not forced to take the blame for something they played no role in. Their help would be useful in the upcoming Great Shinobi War."
Sinbad's words bathed the room in a cold silence. Minato didn't speak. He couldn't, not right away.
"I should really stop thinking out loud…" Sinbad said, genuinely confused as to why he kept doing it. It wasn't like him, and yet the words kept slipping free before he could stop them.
"You're hiding so much information… why are you hiding it all?" Minato asked, his voice rising slightly as frustration began to creep in. His anger was building, the tension in his shoulders rising with it.
But then he saw Sinbad's smile, and just like that, he was forced to breathe. The anger faded, and reason returned. He understood a little; every word Sinbad spoke could shift the course of the future, for better… or for worse.
"How is the future? Are you friend or enemy?" Minato asked in a soft voice, though his eyes remained fixed on Sinbad, carefully watching for any hint of deceit. He was calm now, but the tension hadn't left him—he was still trying to read the man before him.
"The future? Well, that was not part of the deal. The deal was for only the knowledge of the tomorrow event. And I'm not your friend or enemy…," Sinbad said, his tone relaxed as always.
But mid-sentence, he suddenly tilted his head to the side—just in time. A blade came slicing down from above, cutting through the air where his head had just been. The strike was fast, clean, and meant to kill.
Root ninja moved in without warning, their intent to kill made clear by the precision of their strikes. But Sinbad moved just as smoothly, dodging each attack with effortless grace, weaving through blades and fists as if he were part of a carefully choreographed dance.
Every motion was fluid, each step precise. To an outsider, it might have even looked beautiful. But the dance didn't last long.
With a sudden step forward, Sinbad extended a single finger, stabbing cleanly through the forehead of one of the Root shinobi.
It was Finger Pistol—one of the Six Powers from the One Piece verse. Sinbad had taken time to learn some of them on his way to the village, and among them, the Finger Pistol had been the easiest to master.
"Anyways, I gave you your answer. I will be awaiting my payment," Sinbad said, his voice calm as he began walking toward the door.
Behind him, the remaining Root shinobi collapsed in a blur, taken down so swiftly that none had the chance to react. It was clean, efficient, and left no opening for retaliation.
Minato remained where he stood, his expression unreadable at first. "… I can't do that. Not after you took the life of a Leaf shinobi," he said finally, his tone low and filled with conflict.
A complex look crossed his face. The truth was, he had already been searching for a reason to back out of the deal. Hashirama's cells were not something he could hand out freely. Not to a stranger. Not to a potential threat.
"You will, if you're smart," Sinbad said with a smile, the edge in his tone unmistakable.
Minato's eyes narrowed at the subtle threat,
"Be smart. Do you want me to be your enemy around this point in time? I'm not your enemy—don't be foolish and make me one. I did my part of the deal, do yours. I will be expecting everything in a few hours, so get moving," Sinbad added, his voice calm but firm as he turned to walk toward the door.
But before he could reach it, Kakashi stepped into his path, blocking the way with a silent resolve. More Anbu and Root shinobi followed, dropping in from the shadows, surrounding Sinbad with weapons drawn.
"I can't… as Hokage, I can't give you Hashirama Cells. But I can give you everything else," Minato said lightly.
To that, Sinbad let out a quiet sigh. His expression didn't shift at first, but then his gaze sharpened, and the entire mood of the room changed. His Conqueror's Haki flared out, thick and overwhelming.
In an instant, cracks spread out across the floor beneath him, spiderwebbing outward with Sinbad at the center. The pressure in the air became suffocating.
Bodies dropped one after another, their wills crushed beneath the force of his presence. Even Kakashi fell—at this point in time, his willpower simply wasn't strong enough to resist.
Minato's eyes widened, watching the scene unfold with disbelief. He thought Kakashi might be dead. Without hesitation, he threw a kunai.
Sinbad smoothly tilted his head, the blade barely grazing past his cheek. But Minato was already in motion—he teleported to the kunai mid-flight, appearing in a flash of light with another blade ready in his hand.
Already knowing this was going to happen, Sinbad's fist shot forward to meet Minato's kunai with perfect timing. But the fist and blade never connected. Minato had already teleported again—this time back to his desk.
Without hesitation, he launched himself forward, hurling another kunai toward Sinbad in the same motion. Sinbad's fist met only air.
'He can see the future. But he didn't see the fact that I was going to teleport again,' Minato thought, reading Sinbad's movement closely.
He watched as Sinbad smoothly dodged the thrown kunai, unaware that when Minato had first teleported to him, he had already thrown a second kunai into the sky. And now, that kunai was falling.
'He dodged the kunai without even looking. Did he see the future to avoid it? He hadn't foreseen me teleporting back… and the time between when I attacked and teleported back, and threw that kunai was only 0.1 seconds. Is that the window I have to strike—before he can see the future again?' Minato thought, analyzing everything in real time.
Without hesitation, he teleported to the falling kunai—the one Sinbad had just avoided—and reappeared right beside him, stabbing forward with a kunai in hand.
Sinbad's eyes widened. Forced to react, he punched forward despite not having proper footing. It lacked power, but it was fast—instinctive.
Yet it never landed. Minato vanished again—teleporting at the very last second. This time, he reappeared in midair, directly above, beside the kunai he had thrown high into the sky during his very first teleport.
Boom.
Minato was sent rocketing through the air, crashing through multiple buildings in his path before finally slamming into the stone faces of the Hokages. The impact sent him into his face, and rubble rained down around him.
A mouthful of blood spilled from his lips. His eyes were wide—not just from pain, but from shock. The power behind that strike had been overwhelming.
What happened? Simple. Sinbad had drawn Minato in—baited him into committing to an attack. Minato was clever, a master tactician, but Sinbad had expected that.
And who said he needed time to see the future? All Sinbad needed was a thought. In the middle of combat, he could peer into the future again and again, without delay, reading movements, outcomes, and reactions back to back with no pause between.
Sinbad had made Minato believe there was a delay—carefully planting that assumption, knowing Minato would catch on and try to exploit it. It was a setup from the start.
From there, Sinbad channeled natural energy to form an invisible strike, much like how Naruto could extend his reach using nature energy as a phantom limb. The attack had no visible form, no clear indicator—Minato never saw it coming.
And that was all it took.
"Shocked?" Sinbad asked, his voice calm as he appeared beside Minato, standing over him without effort.
He was parallel to the ground, casually anchored to the vertical face of the Hokage monument with chakra alone, ignoring the unnatural angle as if it were solid ground beneath his feet. His gaze remained steady, focused entirely on Minato, who was still reeling from the hit he never saw coming.
"I went easy on you. Go and get healed up," Sinbad said flatly, his tone calm but absolute as he looked down at Minato. "I expect my reward soon. Or else, when tomorrow comes, the Hidden Leaf will be destroyed. That, I promise. I'm not one to be cheated."
As of now, he was putting himself first. Forget everything, he was just cheated, was he the bad guy here? He didn't think so, he was simply fighting for what was his, against someone who thought they could rob him.
Minato said nothing. He lay still, too injured to speak, his breathing shallow as his eyes tried to remain focused.
"I don't care about being evil," he continued, speaking more to the world around him than to Minato now. "It's not like the doors to heaven are open to me. The only reason I have to be a good person is so that when I die, I return to nothingness… but I have no interest in ever dying."
His words were cold, grounded not in rage, but in certainty. He turned slightly, eyes falling on the Third Hokage as the man arrived in a rush, flanked by a group of shinobi. Their eyes locked, the weight of the scene falling silent between them.
"Lord Fourth!" the Third Hokage cried out, eyes wide as he rushed to Minato's side.
"He'll live," Sinbad said calmly. "I just had to teach him a lesson—that I'm not someone you break deals with."
With little concern, Sinbad lifted Minato's body and tossed him toward the Third Hokage. Hiruzen moved fast, catching Minato carefully, his expression darkening as he looked between the younger Hokage in his arms and the man standing calmly on the monument above.
"I give this village three hours to hand over what he promised me. I'll be right here," Sinbad said, his tone absolute.
With nothing more than a thought, the stone cliffside beneath his feet shifted, growing outward, reshaping itself into a seat-like platform. He took a seat, relaxed and unmoved, making it clear he wasn't bluffing.
"…" The Third Hokage remained silent.
He looked from the battered form of Minato in his arms back up to Sinbad. Every instinct screamed at him to act—but he didn't move. He couldn't.
This man had brought down the Fourth Hokage with ease. Minato wasn't the strongest Hokage in raw power, but his speed was unmatched, almost untouchable in a straight fight. And yet, Sinbad stood there without a single mark on him.
"Go. See to it that he's fully healed…" the Third Hokage ordered, passing Minato's unconscious body to a nearby shinobi. Then, turning back toward Sinbad, he summoned his staff in a puff of smoke.
"As for you," he said coldly, "the might of the Hidden Leaf isn't something that can be so easily challenged."
He wasn't bluffing. This was Hiruzen Sarutobi—the Third Hokage. A man revered across the shinobi world, one of the rare few to ever bear the title God of Shinobi. He had mastered every jutsu available in the world, learned every nature transformation, and wielded decades of battlefield experience.
Who, in the entire shinobi world, could truly claim to outskill him?
(A/N: The 3rd hokage summoned is said to be the most powerful of all of the summons, look it up if you think otherwise. For some reason, every time I try to figure out how strong the 3rd was, I find more and more statements saying he might be strong enough to rival Hashirama in his prime. But I can't believe that, it's too far, yet he was proclaimed as the strongest Hokage of all time. He mastered all forms of chakra, and so many other things, it's almost like Kishimoto wanted him to be the strongest at one point, but changed his mind later down the road and made Hashirama the strongest.
Your thoughts?}