Ren stared at Sasuke for two and a half seconds, let out a slow sigh, and shook his head. "It seems you aren't particularly bright."
Sasuke merely offered a brief smile, entirely unbothered by the blunt assessment.
Beside him, Sakura, who had remained quiet until now, interjected thoughtfully, "Could it be that the Dragon Vein's raw chakra distorted the local space-time fabric, mapping our baseline coordinates onto this exact period?"
"Distorting time? To think the Dragon Vein's origin energy scales that high..." Minato murmured, his sharp mind immediately cataloging the temporal physics.
"Holy crap, that's insane! Even my raw chakra output can't fracture time, yet this static core managed it seamlessly!" Nawaki blurted out, thoroughly impressed.
Sasuke glanced around the perimeter, failing to locate Naruto's specific chakra beacon. Just as he opened his mouth to inquire, a blur of motion materialized directly beside him.
The newcomer boasted spiky blonde hair and unique, whisker-like whisker marks running across his cheeks. Scanning the assembly, a look of absolute verification crossed his face.
"It seems we truly did breach the twenty-year temporal barrier," Naruto sighed, rolling his shoulders.
"So this is Naruto..." Ren observed, tracking his features. He had crossed paths with Sasuke during a prior multiversal shift, but this was his first time seeing the protagonist face-to-face. Aside from the updated tactical gear, his baseline features perfectly match the core universe data.
Simultaneously, a wave of genuine relief washed over Sakura and Sasuke upon seeing their teammate integrate with the cell.
Sakura brightened, stepping forward. "Naruto! I knew your internal compass wouldn't let you abandon the perimeter!" She made a move to pull him into a tight embrace.
Naruto fluidly slipped past Sakura's incoming trajectory with practiced ease, turning to the older shinobi with a warm grin. "Greetings, sirs. I assume our operational mandates across this sector align perfectly!"
Minato looked upon this teenage version of his future son, a wave of profound, unspoken pride swelling within his chest. Look at him. He grew up beautifully—a radiant, disciplined shinobi. Though a thousand personal questions raced through his mind, he firmly locked them down to prevent destabilizing the future timeline.
Minato couldn't entirely subscribe to Ren's cold mathematical view of history. In his estimation, future data was only safe if volunteered naturally; actively extracting future intel was a high-risk vector that could trigger an aggressive butterfly effect across the timeline.
Naruto, possessing a keen awareness of his father's psychological stance, purposefully kept his technical data locked down, avoiding any specific reference to future events.
Seeing their mutual restraint, Ren didn't press for details either. It mattered little to him anyway; with his multiversal Shura frameworks fully online, even if a Primordial Otsutsuki god manifested tomorrow, it would simply end up as a premium biological sample in his research lab. As for Kaguya? A potential assistant for his household, nothing more.
Through their subsequent tactical data exchange, the group verified that the future cell had been tracking a rogue ninja named Mukade. The criminal had intentionally destabilized the Dragon Vein's primary seal to escape capture, triggering the temporal distortion that swept them into this era.
"Given the sheer caliber of your squad's combat output, how did a mid-tier rogue ninja manage to seize the operational initiative?" Ren asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice. "Did this Mukade possess third-party reinforcement?"
Faced with the question, the future trio looked thoroughly embarrassed.
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, coughing awkwardly. "We... underestimated his desperation. We permitted him to breach the terminal room, giving him the window to overload the core..."
Ren watched them squirm for a moment before offering a light chuckle. "Meaning this Mukade currently possesses the system authorization to manipulate the Dragon Vein?"
The future cell exchanged a quick look before Naruto clarified, "No. He simply dropped a high-yield explosive matrix directly into the primary core to detonate it. Beyond that blunt disruption, the system parameters dictate that only the sovereign Queen of Roulan can actively regulate the Dragon Vein's output."
"I see~" Minato noted, his posture relaxing. "Then this Mukade doesn't constitute a macro-scale threat."
"He was never a threat to begin with," Nawaki rolled his eyes. He then slid closer to Naruto, asking in a low, conspiratorial whisper, "Hey, future traveler! Who do I end up marrying in the native timeline?"
"Classified data stream!" Naruto rejected the inquiry with absolute, ironclad finality. Sasuke and Sakura locked their expressions, showing zero intent to volunteer a single syllable.
Nawaki deflated in massive disappointment, thoroughly depressed. Seriously? Look around the circle! Ren already has a dual-wife household running smoothly, and Minato and Kushina have been acting like textbook childhood sweethearts since they were academy brats! Even Mikoto was just arranged to marry the Uchiha clan head's son, Fugaku! And me? Decades into the future, and I can't even get a hint...
"Am I fated to remain a permanent bachelor?!" Nawaki's expression warped into sheer horror.
Sensing his uncle's impending psychological collapse, Naruto quickly offered a reassuring smile. "Relax, Uncle Nawaki! Your future lineage is completely secure; you have a wonderful family back home!"
That single line dragged Nawaki straight back from the edge of despair as he patted his chest frantically. "Thank the heavens! That's all I needed to hear!"
"Alright, that concludes the preliminary intelligence sweep," Ren interjected, shifting into a clinical command tone. "The data indicates that Roulan's mechanical degradation is entirely driven by Mukade's systemic exploitation of the core. We locate the target, execute a total termination, and restore the nation's baseline."
"Terminate him directly? Wouldn't that constitute an aggressive intervention in another nation's internal governance?" Minato hesitated, his analytical mind tracking the political clauses.
Sakura answered immediately, "Rest assured, Lord Fourth! In our native timeline, the sovereign territory of Roulan has already integrated cleanly as an official protectorate under Konoha's administrative jurisdiction!"
"I see..." Minato nodded, the political restriction lifting. "Then we partition the search sectors. Locate Mukade immediately!"
"Acknowledge!" Naruto nodded. In a flash of body flickers, the cells scattered into the shadows.
High atop a towering mechanical spire.
Ren's squad didn't bother running a blind search pattern; moving through the intricate corridors like headless flies was a highly inefficient utilization of their operational window. Mukade was a rogue ninja driven by pure ambition; now that he possessed access to a universal energy core, he would inevitably execute a macro-level move. They simply needed to wait for him to expose his position.
Ren produced a premium, home-cooked bento prepared by Hikari, eating at a leisurely pace. Minato and Nawaki unsealed their own lunches, enjoying the premium meals their respective partners had prepped.
Meanwhile, Kakashi stood at the edge of the parapet, popping a handful of dry military ration pills into his mouth, chewing with a deadpan expression.
"Yo, Kakashi," Nawaki noted, mid-bite. "Did Senior Sakumo fail to prep a travel meal for you?"
"A true elite shinobi does not contaminate their tactical loadout with domestic luxury items!" Kakashi spat back coldly.
"Oh wow! So edgy!" Nawaki laughed, popping a piece of premium chashu into his mouth, thoroughly enjoying himself.
While the older cell was enjoying their break, Naruto's group ran directly into an automated puppet ambush down in the lower plazas.
Though these crude mechanical constructs scaled lower than basic action figures in Naruto's estimation, the infinite chakra feedback loop from the Dragon Vein meant that even when completely pulverized, the puppet matrices reconstituted themselves instantly.
"It seems that foolish Queen expanded the seal parameters, granting Mukade systemic access to the energy streams," Naruto noted coldly.
Sasuke's Sharingan flared, his ocular perception instantly mapping the infinite web of chakra threads connecting the units. He executed a clean sweep with his Kusanagi blade, cleaving a massive swathe of puppets into scrap. Yet, a fraction of a second later, fresh chakra streams descended from the upper networks, realigning the joints and snapping them back into combat configuration.
Sasuke's brow furrowed. "Sustaining a war of attrition here is a waste of parameters; these units are endless. We bypass the vanguard, locate the Queen directly, and deploy a genjutsu to force her to clamp the primary valves!"
"Agreed. We move on the royal quarters!" Naruto nodded.
Sakura maintained absolute silence throughout the transit. As a woman who understood the long-term strategic grid, she had already sworn a silent psychological oath within her mind: The exact moment my Strength of a Hundred Seal finishes compiling its absolute reserve, I am shifting the dynamic to claim Naruto permanently!
Naruto was completely blind to her long-term calculations. He had been tightly locked into a childhood sweetheart matrix with Hinata since they were brats, a fact verified by the entire village. But Sakura refused to concede the field. She had grown up alongside him; technically, she was just as much of a childhood sweetheart as anyone else! Why should Hinata claim the definitive pairing? I am going to bend the vector of destiny and lock him down myself!
Fortunately, Naruto remained oblivious to her internal monologue; otherwise, he would have filed a formal marriage proposal with the Hyuga clan the very next morning. Under Minato and Kushina's strict household education, the boy was a fierce, uncompromising purist when it came to romance! He was entirely convinced that his bond with Hinata would echo as another legendary chapter mirroring his parents' legacy.
Naruto had previously tracked Queen Sara's movements during his preliminary recon loop, so navigating to the inner royal chambers was simple. The trio slipped into the perimeter of her personal quarters undetected.
At that moment, Queen Sara stood by the grand balcony, staring blankly out across the mechanical spires. Though lacking advanced political intellect, the unstable tremors shaking the foundation over the last few days had triggered a deep instinctual worry.
"Sigh... ever since the Dragon Vein entered a hyper-active state, a profound sense of anxiety has been weighing on my mind, as if a cataclysmic shift is approaching..."
Staring at the cloud cover, Sara made up her mind to inspect the subterranean core personally. Furthermore, she intended to step down the primary output valves; the energy drain over the last few years had scaled so high that she worried the infrastructure wouldn't sustain the load.
Naruto's cell shadowed her movements from the blind spots. Every single official she crossed paths with was cataloged by their tracking arrays. Finally, a massively obese, heavy-set man blocked her path along the central promenade.
Unlike the common citizens, the look this fat man directed toward Sara carried an entirely different psychological weight—it was the exact gaze a master directs toward a domesticated pet!
"Target locked!"
Naruto and Sasuke mobilized simultaneously! Tearing out of the shadows like twin thunderbolts, they synchronized their trajectories, delivering a brutal dual-kick directly into the sides of the fat man's face!
"AAAAAAAHHH!"
CRASH!!!
Following a squealing roar, the reinforced structural walls exploded into dust. A massive silhouette tore through the smoke screen, stabilizing its footing across the exterior hull of an adjacent tower.
Naruto and Sasuke stood amidst the shattered masonry, glaring across the gap at the heavy-set man. "Mukade, it's been less than a week since our last engagement. How did you manage to bloat yourself into such a grotesque state?" Naruto taunted.
"Did the local security forces deliver too many beatings, swelling your face out of proportion?" Sasuke sneered.
Faced with their raw mockery, Mukade's expression warped into pure, unadulterated malice. He had been embedded in this era for eight long years! Eight years! Did these arrogant little brats possess a single inkling of what he had achieved during this operational window?! Aside from the initial two months spent carefully masking his footprint, he had lived as an absolute god king across this territory! Had the natural resources of this barren desert not been so severely limited, he would have cycled through a fresh rotation of handmaidens every single day! By now, Mukade had entirely forgotten how pathetic and desperate his original rogue existence had been.
"Brats, did your handlers fail to instruct you on the proper deference required when addressing an absolute powerhouse?" Mukade hissed. His hands snapped a sequence of seals, and the surrounding architecture of Roulan began to systematically dismantle and reconfigure!
RUMBLE!!!
The deafening mechanical roar of shifting alloy echoed across the entire sector. High atop their vantage point, Ren's squad tracked the sudden spike in energy, their gazes shifting toward the royal plaza.
Nearly half of the entire city's structural layout dissolved into raw puppet components, driven by the practically infinite chakra reservoir of the Dragon Vein, assembling into a colossal, multi-limbed armored juggernaut! Queen Sara was caught in the structural shift, pulled into the core of the giant machine and locked deep within its internal holding matrix.
Mukade's crazed, amplified voice boomed across the mechanical spires!
"Hahaha! Historical records stated that Roulan faced an absolute cataclysm in its early era, only to be salvaged by an unknown powerhouse, permitting the bloodline to sustain itself! To think that I am the very entity destined to bring about that structural annihilation! Tell me, little children... are you the pathetic heroes fated to try and stall my descent?!"
Down on the plaza pavement, Naruto and Sasuke looked up at the mountain-sized mechanical juggernaut, their expressions completely flat.
"Do you truly believe scaling your physical parameters makes you significant?" Sasuke scoffed. His hand settled onto the hilt of his Kusanagi blade, his voice dropping into an icy command register. "Naruto! Total deployment! No containment!"
"Roger!" Naruto clapped his hands together. A pristine, white circular seal flared to life across his forehead.
Simultaneously, a pitch-black crescent moon mark manifested across Sasuke's forehead!
"Sage Art: Phase Two! Activation!"
BOOM!!!
The chakra signatures radiating from their bodies exploded exponentially, multiplying their baseline output instantly! A blinding vortex of golden shroud chakra and deep purple lightning erupted into the sky, the sheer kinetic pressure forcing the colossal mechanical juggernaut back several meters across the plaza!
"What?! How can a pair of mere children manifest a chakra reservoir of this density?! You aren't Jinchuriki!" Mukade's panicked voice echoed from the iron hull, the massive machine trembling as his internal composure fractured.
"Jinchuriki? That is indeed a convenient shortcut for accelerating one's baseline development. But the power disparity between the Nine-Tails and the other beasts is too massive to balance cleanly inside a standard cell. Consequently, we bypassed that framework entirely, choosing to master pure Sage cultivation. By stacking that origin energy on top of the Strength of a Hundred mechanics, we engineered this secondary phase. It multiplies our structural combat parameters twenty times over for a targeted window!"
Naruto's calm, measured explanation struck Mukade's mind like a thunderbolt.
A twenty-fold acceleration active on command?! Developed from the legendary Sage cultivation framework engineered by that monster?!
In that single instant, the deep-seated, pathological envy Mukade had harbored throughout his life exploded into a frenzy of rage! He screamed through the arrays, "You pampered, privileged little bastards! Birthed into a world where you are handed access to legendary resources that I had to burn my entire life just to glimpse! And what about me?! I merely sought to acquire higher-tier puppet schematics, yet your grand council branded me a rogue, forcing me to live every single day looking over my shoulder in terror!"
Sasuke cleaned his ear nonchalantly. "I have zero interest in listening to your psychological manifestos. We stand on opposite sides of a structural war; words mean nothing here. Absolute physical dominance is the only authority that grants the right to speak!"
"Superb! Excellent! You talk far too much, kid! Let me tell you something: after spending eight years embedded in this temporal sector, I finally comprehended how intoxicating it is to exist as a true god! I stand beneath no one, ruling over thousands! A single word from my mouth decrees who draws breath and who perishes! This outclasses being a standard ninja by a cosmic margin!"
Hearing his booming announcement from the ridge, Ren ran a quick sensor scan of the perimeter, thinking to himself: The entire surviving population of this sector doesn't even total three hundred civilians. Where the hell did you extract 'thousands' from?
By now, Naruto and Sasuke had finalized their technical preparations. They brought their fists together in a heavy slam, and a colossal golden chakra titan erupted from the pavement, its crown piercing the clouds! As the construct stabilized, heavy plates of deep purple Susanoo armor manifested over its frame, interlocking seamlessly!
"The dialogue phase is concluded. Let us see if your parameters—or the parameters of the Dragon Vein—can sustain the pressure!"
"Bring it on! I will not disappoint you!"
Seeing the macro-scale clash about to detonate, Ren patted Nawaki on the shoulder. "Go mobilize the civilian evacuation arrays. Clear the local population out of the nation's primary blast radius before the kinetic shockwaves level the infrastructure."
"Eh?! Fine..." Nawaki deflated slightly, looking reluctant. He had genuinely wanted to trade blows with the giant mechanical puppet himself. But tracking the risk to the civilian population, he clapped his hands together, summoning a massive network of Wood Style vines to systematically secure and extract the citizens from the danger zone.