In Sasuke's world.
Inside the Hokage's office, the desk of Uzumaki Naruto—now the Seventh Hokage—was piled high with mountains of paperwork as usual.
Although processing those documents was tedious, Naruto normally found ways to enjoy it despite the drudgery.
After all, becoming Hokage had been his dream. It was just that after achieving it, the job turned out to be a lot less hot-blooded than he'd once imagined.
Lately, however, Naruto had been different. He was no longer as focused on his work as before. His mind wandered easily, and he always seemed to be worried about something.
As the Seventh Hokage's most trusted aide, Shikamaru had arranged for the administrative staff to handle much of the paperwork, leaving only the most important matters for Naruto to review.
The results proved that most of it could be delegated to the secretarial division without affecting Konohagakure's operations in the slightest.
After obtaining Naruto's approval on several major matters concerning both Konohagakure and the Land of Fire, Shikamaru asked, "Still worried about Sasuke and Boruto?"
Rubbing his temples, Naruto sighed.
"Yeah. They've been missing along with Urashiki for over a month now, and there's still no sign of them. I really want to know what happened back then."
Shikamaru replied, "With Sasuke there, I believe Boruto will be fine."
How could Naruto not be worried?
Things weren't like they had been during the Fourth Shinobi World War anymore. He had lost the Six Paths Yang Power.
Now, even with Kurama backing him up and his Uzumaki vitality, he still couldn't properly balance work and family.
Whenever he tried creating extra shadow clones to process documents faster, he only ended up becoming more exhausted.
Sasuke had it even worse.
His Six Paths Yin Power was gone, his left arm was gone, and his body was so weakened that he could barely function properly.
'If I'd known, I should've forced him to accept a Hashirama-cell prosthetic arm.'
"Still no clues at the place where they disappeared?" Naruto asked.
Shikamaru shook his head.
"No. Surveillance footage from that night showed Urashiki, Sasuke, and Boruto entering the artifact archive, but none of them ever came back out."
"The artifact disappeared as well."
"If neither Sasuke nor Urashiki used a space-time ninjutsu to leave, then the only explanation is that it was related to that mysterious object."
Naruto let out a sigh and stood by the window, gazing at the increasingly modernized village below.
"I hope it was the artifact. If they'd left through a space-time ninjutsu, they should've returned by now."
Shikamaru didn't respond.
He understood exactly what Naruto meant.
If they hadn't returned, then something had gone wrong.
They might even be dead.
Just as he was about to change the subject and distract the Seventh Hokage, he noticed Naruto suddenly sense something.
The next moment, Naruto leaped straight out the window.
Shikamaru immediately ordered the ANBU guards to follow.
...
Inside the transit corridor, Boruto asked curiously, "Sensei, since we traveled to another parallel world instead of traveling through time, doesn't that mean we can't return to the night we disappeared?"
"You already knew that, didn't you?" Sasuke replied.
"That's exactly why it's a problem! Hey, Karasuki, can you take us back to the moment before we left?"
Karasuki answered, "Apologies. That is impossible."
"When you activated me, I discovered that from a certain point onward, the timeline became impossible to jump across."
"Furthermore, I have confirmed that the two worlds initially connected by me have already become synchronized in time."
Boruto blinked.
"What does that mean?"
Karasuki explained, "It means that however much time you spent in that world, the same amount of time has passed in your own world."
"Ahhh—I'm dead."
Sasuke glanced at him.
"What are you worried about? Don't you have that photo of your grandfather and grandmother?"
Boruto's eyes lit up.
"Right! Good thing I prepared for this. Hahaha! Let's see what that old man can do to me now!"
Looking at his foolish student, Sasuke felt the boy was being far too optimistic.
Using grandparents from another world to pressure your father in this one?
His grandmother had spoiled him so much that he was starting to hallucinate.
At that moment, Karasuki suddenly spoke again.
"We're almost there. Gentlemen, this transit is about to conclude."
Boruto looked surprised.
"Already? Sensei, what should we do with Karasuki afterward?"
Sasuke looked at the little turtle, wondering whether he should keep it.
It would certainly make future trips to that other world much more convenient.
Unfortunately, their plans were doomed from the start.
Karasuki spoke calmly.
"I will be leaving now. Until we meet again."
Boruto blinked.
"Huh? Karasuki, where are you going?"
"Naturally, to the place where I belong."
Sasuke frowned.
He had a feeling there were still secrets hidden within this thing that neither he nor Boruto knew about.
But before he could act, Karasuki flashed with light and vanished.
The next instant, Sasuke and Boruto emerged from the void.
Before them lay the familiar sight of their modern-day Konohagakure.
Boruto stared blankly.
"It... it ran away?"
Sasuke nodded.
"Yeah. A very mysterious artifact. At least it managed to bring us back."
Boruto looked around suspiciously.
"Are we really back in our own world?"
"What if this is just another parallel world that's almost identical to ours?"
Sasuke carefully observed their surroundings. After sensing a familiar chakra rapidly approaching, he said, "Yeah. This is our world."
The moment the words left his mouth, Naruto appeared in front of them.
"Sasuke, Boruto, you're finally back."
"Yeah," Sasuke replied. "We're back."
"Where exactly did you go during that month and a half? And what happened to Urashiki?"
"We went to Konoha twenty years in the past and killed Urashiki there."
"I see." Naruto let out a sigh of relief. "Then I can finally stop worrying."
Unable to contain his excitement, Boruto immediately bragged, "Dad, I got to see Grandpa and Grandma when they were young!"
Naruto: "..."
What kind of nonsense was that?
Twenty years ago should have been right around the time I graduated.
How could there have been a grandpa and grandma back then?
They died when I was born.
At the time, I didn't even know the Fourth Hokage was my father.
How could you possibly have met them?
He turned a questioning look toward his best friend.
Sasuke replied, "It's complicated. Let's talk about it after we get back."
...
Inside the Hokage's office, Sasuke gave a rough account of everything that had happened in the other world.
After listening, Naruto remained silent for a long time.
Staring at the family photograph of Boruto, his father, and the rest of the family, he felt both dazed and strangely conflicted.
His father and mother looked exactly as he remembered.
There was no difference from the appearances he had seen inside the seal.
The only odd part was the other version of himself.
Although they looked identical, that Naruto's temperament and style were completely different from what his younger self had been like.
Naruto was no longer the idiot he had been in his youth. As the Seventh Hokage, he quickly understood the reason behind the difference.
Was it because his parents hadn't died?
Because he'd grown up receiving proper care and guidance?
Suddenly, he found himself envying that version of himself.
"A parallel world..." he murmured. "Can something like that really exist?"
Shikamaru explained from the side, "According to several cutting-edge theories that have emerged in the shinobi world over the past few years, parallel worlds are actually highly likely to exist."
"And Sasuke and Boruto's journey has effectively turned that possibility into certainty."
"Based on their descriptions, that world was nothing like the Konoha we graduated from."
"Yeah," Naruto said softly. "My parents were alive and well there."
Boruto immediately leaned forward.
"Hey, Dad, weren't Grandpa and Grandma really young? Were they different from how you remembered them?"
"No difference at all," Naruto replied. "In fact, they looked even younger than when I saw them inside the seal."
"But that's exactly the problem."
"The versions I saw in the seal were how they looked when they died at twenty-four."
"By the time that photo was taken, I was already twelve years old. They should have been nearly forty."
"How could they still look that young?"
Sasuke answered, "Your counterpart's mother and my mother both trained in the True Sage system and also possessed improved versions of the Strength of a Hundred Seal. Naturally, they could maintain their youth just like the Fifth Hokage."
"As for the Fourth Hokage, he began practicing Senjutsu very early."
"And the natural energy training system promoted throughout Konoha in that world is genuinely suited to humans and even has life-extending effects."
Naruto sighed.
"A completely new natural energy training system..."
As a master of Mount Myōboku's Senjutsu, he deeply respected the toads there.
Yet even someone as kind-hearted as Naruto couldn't help but wonder at a time like this.
The Great Toad Sage was over a thousand years old.
Fukasaku and Shima were both more than eight hundred years old.
Then why had none of Mount Myōboku's human contractors ever lived that long?
He wasn't suspecting Mount Myōboku of any conspiracy.
Rather, he felt that perhaps the Senjutsu of the Three Great Sage Regions truly wasn't suited for humans.
Shikamaru nodded.
"Fortunately, Sasuke and Boruto have already learned it."
"In the future, Konoha on our side will possess that power as well."
His heart was burning with anticipation.
After all, what human wouldn't want to live a few more years?
Unfortunately, the moment he said that, Boruto practically exploded.
"Ah! We're screwed!"
"Now that we're back, there's no way we can keep training!"
"This world doesn't have any Secondary White Natural Energy!"
"And we can't use Primordial White Natural Energy at all, can we?"
"Sensei, what are we supposed to do now?"
"Didn't you think about this before leaving?"
As expected of his foolish student.
Sasuke replied calmly, "Even if I hadn't thought about it, someone else would have prepared for it in advance."
"Am I right, Higashino Makoto-senpai?"
"How long are you planning to stay inside my body?"
"Huh?" Boruto blinked. "Makoto-sensei came with us?"
The moment he finished speaking, visible chakra began flowing out of Sasuke's left arm.
The chakra rapidly took shape, forming a tall, slender figure.
The instant he appeared, Higashino Makoto corrected Sasuke's wording.
"Sasuke, how can you slander an innocent man out of nowhere?"
"Do you realize how easy it is to cause misunderstandings when you say things like that?"
"What do you mean, 'inside your body'?"
"I was only inside your left arm, alright?"
"Say it like that and aren't you worried Naruto standing over there might get the wrong idea?"
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