MTLNOVEL Chapter 36: Rōran in sight.
2 WEEKS LATER
My human body was whistling as I was walking across the desert that made up most of Wind Country, approaching my destination.
Wind country is mostly empty, lots of sand and rocks, only a few spots suitable for civilization. It honestly didn't take long to find out where the ruins of Rōran were, they might be called ruins, but they were only about 20 years old.
From what I remember, the city feel into ruin after an unspecified war happened, I asked around about that, since the only War I knew happened in that timeframe was the Third Shinobi War, which meant as soon as Minato and companions dipped from the city, Rōran got fucked over.
All I got as an answer was that ninjas fought there, and Rōran was destroyed in the process. People weren't exactly fond of talking about it.
Well, none of that actually mattered now, did it? Either Time was set in stone, or it wasn't.
I don't know if Time Travel works on either a Stable Time Loop theory or Multiverse Theory, if it's the first one, then everything I do here has already been accounted for and my actions have already happened.
If it's the latter, then nothing matters anyway, since I'm creating a new reality by going back in time.
Upon cresting a dune, I saw it. A collection of massive towers emerging from the sands, few were standing, none were standing straight, most had crumbled over the years, leaving massive ruins carpeting the ground.
The place I was looking for wasn't too hard to find, it was located inside a gigantic hole in the ground, visible even from here.
I made my way down, well, I just jumped down the hole. Upon landing, the center of the tower was easy to reach.
Within was what I was looking for, a stone eye, a very distinctive kunai stabbed through its iris, surrounded by a massive seal.
"Fucking Seal-Masters..." I muttered annoyed as I observed the giant fucking circle. "They gotta make everything so me-damned complicated."
Wait, why was this here if I was about to use it? If I unsealed it now, then the puppet guy would never be able to use it to travel back in time.
Which would lead to Minato never sealing it, and it not being here when I came to find it.
...
Fucking Time Travel... Just ignore that, don't think too deeply on it. Either it works or it doesn't.
I sat down and gathered my Divine Power, sending it into the Eye.
Time to see if I can break the seal in just the right way to Time Travel.
***
1 DAY LATER
I stared at the thing with dead eyes as I felt it stare back at me mockingly. I was no closer to finding out how the seal worked than I had been yesterday.
But thankfully, I didn't need too, I think I know how to use it, the seal was feeding off the Ryūmyaku to stay active, and it was based on the Hirashin formula.
And while I am not a Seal-Master, I could see the 'parts' of the seal, if I forced enough power into one part, specifically the part responsible for the space-time component of the formula, it would probably jump through time. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.
If it didn't work, I lost a body that was worth about a week's worth of DP and the Land of Wind lost a historical landmark.
Was that really worth it just to steal some genetics and knowledge off Minato?
No.
But I'm doing it anyway.
"Alright you bastard," I muttered as I reached out with my Divine Power. "Let's go on an adventure."
Divine Power flooded into the seal, flowing into it like a river, I wrapped it around the flow of Chakra coming from the Ryūmyaku and then forced it all to converge on the component I wanted.
Then shit got weird.
My human body suddenly felt like someone had grabbed its spine and was now trying to play Jump-rope with it, my god body, on the other hand, got flash banged by my connection to my human self being dragged through Time.
Eventually, it stopped, and I blinked. I could no longer feel my Realm or any of my followers.
I was back to floating in an endless black void in my god form. And my human body was in the middle of falling.
The ground was rushing up to meet me, so I hurriedly twisted mid-air to land on my feet before rolling to bleed off the rest of the momentum.
After coming to a stop, I took a look at my surroundings. Yup, this was definitely Rōran again. The towering building were still standing straight, and I could hear people yelling as they fought nearby.
Well, all things considered, it wasn't the worst time travel trip you could have, I suppose.
That also confirmed that the past wasn't altered, even though it wasn't possible for puppet guy and Naruto to travel there anymore...
Does that mean the past is unchanged because it happened before my arrival? When I first arrived in Wave all of this had already happened, and now I travelled back to this time, it remained as it should because it already happened?
Man, this shit is giving me a headache.
At least I could feel a connection to the Ryūmyaku, it probably meant that if it was sealed again I would be sent back. Hopefully.
Oh well, may as well get going and see if I can find the current, shouldn't be too hard, just follow the explosions and screaming.
***
I stared at Naruto fighting, well, more like struggling against three puppet's attacks. They were clearly overwhelming him, using their superior numbers to keep him on the defensive.
Also, he was using some sort of Chakra Blade to cut the strings. That's cool.
But why wasn't he using Shadow Clones? Actually...
"Use your Shadow Clones, Dumbass!" I yelled at him from below him.
He glanced at me before crossing his hands together. "Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
The fight turned into a mess of smoke and purple laser as the puppets tried to contend with the new odds.
After a minute or so of intense combat, Naruto's clones had successfully brought down all three puppets, the massive weak point of having to be connected with Chakra strings giving him a big advantage when it came to taking them down.
He jumped down next to me.
"Yo! Thanks for that!" He said brightly, smiling widely. Before frowning. "Wait, don't call me a dumbass!"
I simply gave him a flat stare.
"You were getting overwhelmed by numbers, when you can literally spawn an army of yourself, and didn't use it."
He just stared back at me stubbornly. "Well... I was going to! You distracted me!" He responded confidently.
Before I could answer, he suddenly pointed at me dramatically.
"Wait! Who are you? How do you know my Jutsu!?" He asked suspiciously.
Man, this dude did not have a single filter, did he?
"You can call me Osamu, and I know that because I'm a big fan." I said casually.
"A fan?" Naruto muttered before smugly smiling. "Of course, I should've known! The Great Naruto Uzumaki is already being recognized as a super awesome shinobi!"
His shouting was maybe a bit too much in this situation because just as he finished speaking, a squad of puppets flew from around a tower nearby and immediately targeted us.
Naruto quickly turned to face them and raised his Chakra Blade in front of him. "Alright then, round two!"
I stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder and stepping past him.
"Let me, I want to test something," I said simply.
He grumbled slightly but didn't object further.
As the puppets closed the distance between us, I started preparing.
The most basic Jutsu were usually simple, the Great Fireball Jutsu for example, was basically gathering Fire natured Chakra inside your lungs and then breathing out. That's it.
The simplicity of it meant that it also had a simple way to expand it, just use more Chakra. As long as your body could handle it, you could theoretically fire an absolutely massive Fireball at someone.
On the other end of the scale was the Gale Palm Jutsu, another simple technique that didn't require complicated hand seals to use, if you have good enough Chakra control, then there was no reason you couldn't perform it and the Great Fireball Jutsu at the same time.
I finished the hand signs for the Great Fireball Jutsu, holding it, and started weaving them again, this time for the Gale Palm Jutsu.
The puppets came within range and I unleashed both Jutsu's at once.
"Combination Jutsu: Gale Inferno!"
A massive ball of fire shot out from my mouth and at the same time I thrust my palms forward, a blast of wind feeding the flames into an inferno that engulfed all the puppets in a single wave of fire.
I watched the remains fall to the ground with satisfaction. It had worked as I had hoped, both elements being compatible meant they could be combined into something much greater than just one element.
Which wasn't a new thing, people had been aware of combination Jutse for centuries at this point, but doing it in one body was something I had not seen before.
I did use a bit too much Chakra tough, I once again thanked myself for being a perfectionist regarding this body, if it wasn't designed to be perfect, then I would be currently coughing up chunks of my lungs.
After making sure there were no other threats, I turned around and found Naruto staring at me wide-eyed.
"Duuudeee..." He said quietly. "That was awesome!" He yelled.
"That was impressive, but foolish."
The sudden new voice startled Naruto, he immediately jumped back into a fighting stance and faced it.
Minato was standing there, wearing his ANBU uniform, behind him the Akimichi and the Aburame, both also in their ANBU gear.
I immediately spend a good chunk of DP to scan their bodies, Yoink.
Guess I can fuck around now, maybe plant some seeds that will bloom in 20 years?