Seated on his throne, Jugo closed his eyes as his mind drifted away. Soon, Jugo began to see a scene, not from the anime, but a memory from reading a fanfic a long time ago: Dragon Veins!
As soon as he saw that name, his eyes widened as he jerked forward, becoming excited.
He hadn't seen that movie, but he'd heard of it and seen it appear in fanfiction, something about a chakra capable of time travel!
Time is exactly what he lacks! This so-called "dragon vein" could enable time travel!
Normally, Jugo would stay far away from anything related to time, because he watched "Back to the Future" as a child and was horrified by the possibility of going back to the past and preventing his own birth.
But now he didn't care, he wanted to move forward. Besides, the dragon vein is considered an unclaimed object, right? In that case, if he brought that chakra to the Tenebrous World, with the power of the Sephirah and the path of the chained, he could perfectly control this thing, greatly reducing the risks.
He doesn't yet have the exact answer on how to control this thing, but at the very least, it's better than waiting centuries to be able to make progress.
With that in mind, Jugo began to act!
//-//
Finding Roran wasn't difficult, but what really surprised Jugo was what he found.
Roran wasn't destroyed! In fact, there were still people living here, it was still clear that it wasn't destroyed.
Looking out over the small town surrounded by the confusing desert, he floated like a Wraith observing everything, it didn't seem any different from a normal village.
Jugo spent several hours gathering information before reaching a conclusion.
It was his fault!
Roran was destroyed because Mukade went back in time, but Jugo came here today precisely to "steal" the dragon's vein. However, Mukade would only go back in time in a few years, which means that if he steals the dragon's vein before Mukade arrives, Roran would never have been destroyed.
Jugo came here years before the event began, but this raised another question, did the changes in the past affect the future? So far, nothing seems to have changed for him, but does this mean that this world has a fixed plot, or does it mean that the changes in this small and isolated place weren't enough to affect the global scenario?
Or perhaps there had been changes, he just never noticed.
Furthermore, in the first iteration, before this whole time travel event began, when Mukade arrived in Roran, was Roran already destroyed or was it still the city that Jugo saw now? After all, if Roran's fate changed because his act of going back to the past had destroyed it, the first time Mukade arrived here, before the cycle opened, it was likely that Roran was not yet destroyed and the events were quite different.
Just as opening the dragon's veins forcefully sent him to the past, starting the cycle, the question remains, is the world the original Mukade came from the same as the world where the cycle ended?
Jugo remained thoughtful for a long time, trying to understand the implications of the event before shaking his head. In the end, Jugo himself had already caused enough change since the moment he chose to leave that cell, he shouldn't dwell on possibilities and should focus on his objective. (A/N: Who still remembers the Bucket, give a shout out, Lmao.)
The important thing now is to figure out how to deal with the Dragon Vein.
Jugo had already reached the seal and with his current sealing knowledge, after months of studying with the clones, he had long surpassed Karin and Orochimaru. His talent for sealing only grew with each sequence, it was practically a ninja art made especially for him.
He could open the seal without Roran's royal lineage, but the problem came later, would opening the seal throw him straight into the future or the past? He didn't want to travel through time.
His goal was to seal that chakra.
To be honest, the amount of chakra here was even greater than Jugo's, it's worth remembering that Jugo's chakra was already approaching the level of a Ten-Tails, perhaps in the next sequence he would surpass that value.
Jugo's last feat, consuming 2/3 of his chakra to seal Jashin, was no small feat. Besides the strong visual effects, Jashin himself is not weak and, if he were to arrive in this world, would likely cause a great calamity.
Sensing all that chakra, Jugo felt no awareness within himself. Thinking about this, his eyes gleamed and with a flick of his hand, four Snake Clones emerged from within him. The next moment, each one positioned itself at one end of the seal.
Jugo, on the other hand, entered directly into the Tenebrous World.
The clones knelt as they prayed, and in the next moment, their bodies began to disintegrate, their flesh and blood turning black and putrid, but soon the four clones clustered together as a huge door formed above the seal.
Jugo in the Tenebrous World moved his hand and the door opened, pointing directly at the seal.
Taking a deep breath, he mobilized the power of the Tenebrous World, like something without an owner, this chakra could be considered an object. If it were just Jugo, he didn't think he could handle so much chakra at once, even if the Dragon Vein lacked consciousness.
He mobilized all the power of the Tenebrous World that he could, he had no paper figures, not even cards of blasphemy, but Jugo was willing to pay more.
Ripping out his heart once more, Jugo repeated what he did to Jashin, unleashing an extremely powerful sealing curse.
The black blood from the heart turned into black bandages as it flowed downwards, bypassing the seal and going straight for the chakra.
Jugo felt the power struggling, something unconscious, but Jugo didn't care. Through the Tenebrous World, he took control of the vein, not only did the resistance stop, but the chakra began to surge through the black bandages, racing faster and faster toward his heart.
The massive energy made all of Roran tremble and the fluctuation in the Dragon Vein would alert the royal lineage of Roran, but Jugo wouldn't care much about that now, he used all his strength to absorb all the chakra.
The tremors intensified as an earthquake ravaged the entire region. Jugo clicked his tongue, but now there was no stopping it. Finally, when Roran was nearly reduced to ruins again, the chakra was completely absorbed by the heart.
Jugo looked at the heart that exuded a tremendous fluctuation of chakra, not only had the chakra been drained, but also its roots. Roran's seal was no longer of any use, but Jugo didn't care.
Looking at the heart that hadn't turned black, but a crystalline purple, he smiled slightly, the first step was complete.
Waving his hand, the heart vanished, buried deep within the Tenebrous World.
Sighing, Jugo, who had fully entered the Tenebrous World, emerged again, looking at the collapsed space around him and sensing that several souls above were disappearing, his lips trembled, it seemed he had messed up again.