After leaving Konoha, Takuno headed straight towards the Ancient Kingdom of Rōran.
With his astonishing speed, the outline of the town, which had once collapsed due to the ravages of war, soon came into his view.
Sand and wind eroded the broken walls and ruins, and the prosperity of the past had long since been replaced by desolation.
However, when Takuno truly stepped into these ruins, the scene before him was vastly different from the silence he had anticipated.
On the dilapidated streets and in the plaza, there were actually people scattered about!
They wore peculiar clothing, with fabrics and tailoring that were vastly different from the styles of the Five Great Nations; they were clearly not travelers or merchants just passing through.
"Survivors of the Ancient Kingdom of Rōran?" Takuno's heart stirred slightly.
Fragments of information in his memory regarding this fallen small nation surfaced; although the nation had perished, some of its people had survived, struggling to continue their existence near their ancestral land.
But the scene before him made him instantly overturn this information; these people were by no means just survivors eking out a living here.
The large number of people gathered above the ruins and their calm expressions made it seem more like they were... waiting for something?
If it were just an ordinary visit to mourn their ancestral land, why such a turnout?
What shocked him even more was the reaction of these strangers.
When his figure appeared in their field of vision, the air seemed to solidify instantly.
Every face was filled not with vigilance toward an "intruder," but with joy and respect!
At this moment, someone who appeared to be their leader stepped out from the crowd.
He walked with steady steps, bowed deeply in a posture that was almost devout, and his voice carried irrepressible excitement.
"Your Majesty! You have finally arrived! Her Majesty the Queen has been waiting for you in the palace for a long time!"
"Your Majesty?!"
These two words exploded in Takuno's mind, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
After a brief moment of astonishment, a keyword closely linked to the roots of this land instantly awakened him: the Dragon Leyline!
This place is a singularity where the powers of spacetime converge!
In an instant, a conjecture emerged.
Could it be his future self, traveling upstream through the long river of time to this point, and in the history of the past, becoming their... King?
His chaotic thoughts were suppressed in a flash.
Takuno's expression remained calm, his gaze sweeping over the respectful crowd before finally landing on the speaker.
"Lead the way."
"Yes!"
Takuno followed the Rōran citizen in silence, stepping into the weathered and dilapidated castle.
They proceeded along an ancient, winding stone staircase that spiraled into the gloom, as if leading to the depths of the earth.
This staircase was exceptionally long, and the edges of the stone steps were severely worn, which should have been difficult to survive through years of war.
Takuno walked with steady steps, but a conjecture that was becoming clearer and clearer surged in his heart.
If that hypothesis were true... then it would be no surprise that this staircase remained intact.
He even felt that the fact that the entire town was destroyed to such an extent seemed somewhat unreasonable; it must have been done intentionally.
Before long, the guiding Rōran citizen stopped in front of a heavy and majestic giant stone door.
The surface of the stone door was carved with intricate and ancient patterns, exuding an air of solemnity.
He bowed respectfully, his voice carrying deep awe: "Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Queen is waiting inside."
"My duty is fulfilled, so I shall take my leave. This is not a place for me to set foot."
"Hmm." Takuno responded in a low voice, his gaze locked onto the stone door.
After the attendant's figure disappeared at the end of the dim staircase, Takuno raised his hand and pushed open the heavy stone door.
Accompanied by a dull "rumbling" sound, the doors opened, and an extremely vast and magnificent stone hall came into view.
Light shone in obliquely from the narrow windows high above, casting long, narrow beams of light onto the dust-covered floor.
In the center of the hall, a red-haired woman dressed in gorgeous attire stood with her back to him, standing quietly.
"You have finally come." Hearing the sound, the woman slowly turned around, her face appearing exceptionally clear in the light and shadow.
When her gaze touched the clothing on Takuno, a flash of deep nostalgia instantly swept across her lavender eyes, like a stone cast into a calm lake.
"Are you the Queen of the Ancient Kingdom of Rōran?" Takuno asked, his tone carrying a sense of confirmation.
"Yes," the red-haired Queen Sara's voice was gentle and clear, "I am Sara."
Takuno's sharp gaze scrutinized Sara.
According to the original work, she should have already been a young girl over a decade ago, and now she should be at least over thirty, yet the face before him was as flawless as an eighteen-year-old girl; time seemed to have stopped for her.
This abnormal phenomenon further confirmed certain judgments in his heart.
His gaze immediately shifted away, quickly sweeping across the vast hall, and finally fixed on the floor where Sara was standing: a huge and peculiar pattern.
It was a snake!
An ouroboros totem, chasing its own tail but not yet having completed the connection from head to tail!
The lines were ancient and mysterious, containing a certain ultimate truth of cyclic recurrence.
Just as expected!
At this moment, the conjecture in Takuno's heart was like the last piece of a puzzle being precisely inserted; everything suddenly became clear, and there was not a shred of doubt left.
"Can I meet him?" Takuno asked directly, his tone certain.
"No." Sara's answer was equally crisp, without the slightest hesitation, as if she had long anticipated that he would ask this.
Her eyes held a hint of indescribable complexity.
Takuno nodded slightly.
This answer was not unexpected; it meant that at some moment in the other party's 'past,' the other party also failed to see himself.
"What should I do?" He did not ask for the reason again, but directly asked about the next step.
"Stand here with me," Sara stepped aside, yielding the center position of the pattern, pointing to the "gap" where the ouroboros had not closed, her voice revealing a hint of helplessness. "Then, just drip a drop of your blood here."
She had thought she would need to spend some effort explaining things, yet the person before her seemed to have used his own insight to deduce the outline of the matter almost entirely.
This wisdom and tacit understanding that transcended common sense could not help but stir ripples in her heart.
As expected of her future... or rather, her past husband?
No wonder when she previously asked him if there were any precautions, he said nothing; it turned out that it was truly unnecessary.
Takuno stepped forward as instructed, standing steadily in the position Sara had yielded, his feet directly facing the "gap" in the ouroboros pattern.
He stared at the snake shadow chasing itself but unable to bite, a flash of enlightenment passing through his eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, he lightly slashed his palm with his fingertip, and a crystal-clear blood bead containing powerful life energy condensed and then fell.
Drip.
The blood bead landed precisely on the symbolic "eye" position within the ouroboros pattern.
Hum!
In an instant, a sudden change occurred!
The stone-carved pattern on the ground seemed to be endowed with life, suddenly lighting up with a ghostly blue glow!
That stone-carved ouroboros actually began to spin rapidly, light and shadow flowing, frantically chasing its own tail like a living creature, moving so fast that it left afterimages!
At the same time, a strong resonance also occurred within Takuno's body!
The Sharingan in his palm and the Tenseigan in his eyes instantly swapped positions, and they even activated on their own, uncontrolled.
The magnificent and dangerous Mangekyo pattern suddenly bloomed in his eyes!
And deep in the core of his Mangekyo Sharingan, a rapidly spinning miniature ouroboros phantom also appeared, its rhythm and frequency of rotation completely synchronized with the magnified light-shadow snake on the ground beneath his feet!
Boom!
An unimaginably massive, ancient energy gushed out from the spinning ouroboros pattern on the ground!
The violent energy formed a visible ghostly blue vortex, instantly filling the entire hall!
"This is..." Takuno, standing in the center of the energy storm, felt this strange and vast energy, and instantly had the answer in his heart, "The power of the Dragon Leyline!"
His gaze was locked firmly on his feet.
He saw that the ouroboros formed by light and shadow, at the moment its rotation reached extreme speed, its rapidly moving snake head finally caught up to the snake tail that had always been a hair's breadth away!
Click!
A crisp sound of biting seemed to ring out in the void.
The next moment, an indescribable, blazing white light erupted from the center of the pattern!
This light was so pure and so overbearing that it instantly swallowed the ghostly blue, submerging every inch of space in the hall!
The strong light was blinding, making it impossible for anyone to open their eyes.
"Toki-Mayumi!"
In the very last instant before the light completely overwhelmed his consciousness, Takuno clearly recognized this power that manipulated time!
Boom!
When that incandescent light, capable of purifying everything, suddenly receded like a tide, only the lonely figure of Queen Sara remained in the vast hall.
She raised her hand to slightly shield her eyes, which had been irritated by the strong light, and when she lowered it again, Takuno had disappeared without a trace, as if he had never appeared.
However, just as the dust had not yet settled after the light had dissipated, a figure, as if merging with space, appeared silently beside Sara.
The person who arrived wore seemingly light clothing, but the texture was extraordinarily luxurious, the tailoring was appropriate, and he carried an air of restrained nobility.
But what was most eye-catching were his eyes, which were different from ordinary people.
The left eye was a deep azure, like the ocean, which was still considered normal;
While the right eye... was layers upon layers of purple concentric circles, with three pitch-black tomoe dotted in the center.
This was clearly the legendary Rinnegan, and it was the even rarer tomoe Rinnegan!
He silently watched the place where Takuno had disappeared, and in those heterochromatic eyes containing absolute power, there were no emotional fluctuations.
At this very moment, cause and effect intertwined, and the past and future were completely anchored.
Spacetime... had finally completed its closed loop!
...
Takuno's eyelids twitched, the heavy darkness receded, and the blinding daylight came into view.
His consciousness finally returned, and he opened his eyes abruptly.
What was reflected in his Mangekyo Sharingan was no longer the familiar scene, but the outline of a town.
This was precisely the Ancient Kingdom of Rōran, which was already dilapidated and beyond recognition that he had seen before.
"Time... have I really succeeded in backtracking?"
This was the most urgent question to determine at the moment; Takuno's pitch-black pupils transformed into the mysterious Mangekyo Sharingan the next instant.
Then he immediately began to perceive the Sarutahiko coordinates bestowed upon him by that Mangekyo ability.
The coordinates... were still there!
The result of the perception made him feel slightly relieved.
They were like faint sparks scattered on the map of the Shinobi World; although the number had dropped sharply, the familiar sense of connection proved one point.
This place was still the Shinobi World he recognized.
However, this number was too small!
Just like his Sarutahiko coordinates on the moon, they had completely disappeared from his perception at this moment!
And the coordinates he could perceive were mostly densely gathered in one familiar location, Konoha.
Takuno understood that these coordinates should all be places where his current "time point" self had once stepped and left a mark.
This made him understand that he had indeed returned to the past.
But soon, he realized something was wrong.
Takuno's mind raced; since he, at this moment, could clearly capture and utilize the coordinates left by his self at this time point.
Then, theoretically, it must be true that in the future, that "he" who had just awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan should also be able to perceive and utilize the Sarutahiko coordinates he had left in Rōran at this moment!
But the reality was that when he activated the Mangekyo Sharingan, he was completely unaware of the existence of these coordinates!
"Unless..." A thought flooded into his mind.
Unless... it was his future self who had actively shielded these coordinates, and perhaps some other coordinates, from him!
He, at the present, might not yet possess the ability to perform such precise operations on spacetime marks, but his future self...
That "Takuno" who had become stronger, who knew how many taboo-like powers he had mastered?
A sharp glint flashed in Takuno's scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan.
From everything his future self had done, he seemed to have understood something.
The next moment, Takuno's figure disappeared instantly from the spot; regardless of what truth lay hidden behind this paradox, the priority now was to confirm the time node he was currently in.
Soon, Takuno saw Takuno.
This was not a metaphor, or looking in a mirror, but a concrete fact.
To be precise, it was him from the future seeing his past self.
The young man before him was exactly the self from the depths of his memory.
At that time, he had not yet obtained the Chimera Technique; his constitution was very ordinary, and because he needed to conduct a large amount of research and practice Ninjutsu, he had to constantly squeeze the chakra from his body.
Therefore, this pressure made his complexion often as pale as paper, and his figure so thin that it seemed he could be blown over by a gust of wind, revealing an unhideable sense of weakness.
Seeing his own appearance, Takuno also knew the spacetime node he was in.
This was the short interval after the smoke of the Second Shinobi World War had dispersed, and before the Third Shinobi World War had completely gathered.
At this time, that forbidden technique that rewrote his destiny, the "Chimera Technique," had naturally not yet fallen into his hands.
The future Takuno silently stared at his past self, and a thought suddenly emerged in his mind.
If he were to help him now and hand over the complete Chimera Technique directly to his past self, what would happen?
Would the future change because of this, or...
This crazy hypothesis made Takuno... feel a strong sense of curiosity that he hadn't felt in a long time.