428 Learning Ninjutsu in a Glance

In the end, things still developed exactly in the direction Shinju had predicted.

Urashiki swallowed his own two eyeballs in one gulp!

Immediately after, a golden portal appeared before Urashiki!

Urashiki slowly stepped forward, his body passing through the portal!

Ōtsutsuki Urashiki transformed into an entirely different form!

His eyes turned gold, and an additional golden Rinnegan vertical eye appeared on his forehead!

Just like Momoshiki back then, strange black markings also appeared on his face!

Moreover, the pair of horns on his forehead that had originally jutted outward like a forehead protector transformed into a pair of spread crane wings, and his legs turned into sharp, birdlike talons!

"So this counts as evolution too?" Shinju asked curiously.

Compared to Momoshiki devouring Kinshiki to evolve, Urashiki's evolution by eating his own eyeballs felt a bit… underwhelming.

Opposite him, the evolved Urashiki had completely changed in aura.

Before, he had at least pretended to be refined. Now he didn't bother at all—his whole being was manic and violent!

"Die for me!! (ꐦ ಠ 皿 ಠ)"

Urashiki roared as black rods appeared in both hands and shot toward several of Shinju's clones!

"Bang, bang…"

The wood clones that were hit instantly turned back into wood.

Urashiki probably felt that this was too inefficient. He spread his hands wide and shouted,

"Shinra Tensei!"

A repulsive barrier expanded, blasting away the wood clones surrounding him!

At the same time, Shinju also used Shinra Tensei…

...

Hokage Office.

Tsunade lay sprawled over the Hokage's desk, reviewing documents, when staff from the Archaeological Research Institute entered and reported everything that had happened in the warehouse…

After listening, Tsunade's expression turned shocked.

"What did you say—Shinju disappeared too?! (´°Δ°`)"

The staff member nodded awkwardly.

"There are no other exits inside the warehouse…"

Tsunade said, "Shinju can use Flying Thunder God to move, but still… that shouldn't be it. Those are things from our own village—why would he steal them and take them away? (ㅎ‸ㅎ)"

At that moment, the door to the Hokage Office was knocked open, and Shikamaru walked in.

Tsunade waved at him. "Shikamaru, you came at just the right time. I—"

Before Tsunade could finish, Shikamaru said excitedly, "Hokage-sama, look at this!"

Seeing how urgent he was, Tsunade curiously took the documents and skimmed through them…

"Traces of a battle involving unknown powerful individuals discovered within the Land of Fire?" As she spoke, Tsunade pulled out the photos attached to the file.

"Huh? This huge crater was found in the forests of the Land of Fire? ≖ ≖"

"It looks a bit like it was blasted out by a Rasengan… but Rasengan isn't this powerful. It should be a Rasenshuriken…"

Shikamaru said, "These traces also look somewhat like Rinnegan dōjutsu to me…"

Tsunade asked, "When was this discovered?"

Shikamaru replied, "A lumberjack found it this morning. It should have happened yesterday. ANBU already investigated—no residual chakra was found, but they did find this…"

As he spoke, Shikamaru took out another photo.

In the photo was a wooden figure pierced through by black rods!

Tsunade frowned. "Shinju? Wasn't he protecting the tailed beasts yesterday? What was he doing in the forests of the Land of Fire? Ծ‸ Ծ"

Just as everyone was utterly baffled, Shinju's body suddenly appeared inside the Hokage Office!!

...

One hour later, Hokage Office.

The conference table was fully occupied.

And at the very center of the table was the turtle used for time travel.

Naruto pointed at the turtle and asked, "So you used this thing to do a time jump?"

Tsunade continued, "You went back to yesterday and killed Ōtsutsuki Urashiki?"

Shinju nodded. "Yes, though it doesn't really count as killing him. I used Sage Art: Multiple Rasenshuriken to blast him into ash. I didn't see a body…"

Naruto said, "That's killing him. (ー_ー)!!"

Shinju explained, "You can't explain the Ōtsutsuki with common sense. When Momoshiki disappeared, he left a mark in my palm. Now that Urashiki has disappeared, maybe something has appeared on me as well."

"It's just that I haven't discovered it yet."

Sasuke continued curiously, "Right, you said you devoured Urashiki's golden Rinnegan?"

Shinju nodded. "Yes. At the time, I had an Aoki-no-Mikoto clone dig out the golden vertical eye in the center of his forehead. The moment I got it, the eye automatically fused into my left Reversion Eye."

As he spoke, Shinju revealed his Reversion Eye—sure enough, there was now a trace of gold in the sclera!

Sasuke: (⊙o⊙)

"After fusing his eye, did you awaken any new abilities?"

Sasuke was a bit jealous!

Shinju nodded and said matter-of-factly,

"Of course. After some preliminary testing, I can now activate a dōjutsu to rewind time…"

Sasuke exclaimed, "How far can you rewind? (´°Δ°`)"

Shinju replied, "At most about thirty seconds. When I use time rewind, I return to a point several dozen seconds earlier, but my main body isn't affected by the rewind… In combat, it looks like I can see the future, because that 'future' is something I've already experienced once."

Naruto was shocked. "That's amazing! (๑ʘ̅ д ʘ̅๑)!!!"

Sasuke said, "You didn't actually understand it, did you? (ー_ー)!!"

Naruto replied, "Even if I didn't understand it, it still sounds awesome!"

Shinju chuckled. "The current Reversion Eye is very powerful. There are still many abilities I haven't uncovered yet!"

Tsunade: "…"

"Save the chatting for when you go home. This is a place for discussing serious matters. ꐦ≖ ≖"

Koharu Utatane tapped the turtle in the middle of the table.

"Right. Now we need to discuss how to handle this turtle that can travel through time."

Homura Mitokado nodded. "The power to twist time—if other villages find out, it'll be another great war!"

"Seal it away," Sasuke suggested. "This treasure can't be allowed to be used by anyone. It's basically cheating!"

Koharu Utatane said, "Agreed. This kind of power can't be given to anyone!"

Tsunade nodded. "I agree too!"

Naruto said, "Then… I agree as well!"

Shinju didn't speak immediately. Instead, he looked at the motionless turtle and asked,

"What do you think?"

The turtle froze!

∑(°Д°)

For the first time since it was created—after countless years—someone was actually asking for its opinion! (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)

[I've stayed in one place for far too long… I want to travel.]

Tsunade shook her head immediately.

"No. If it falls into someone else's hands, it's over… Think about it—what if someone uses it to go back in time and kill you when you were defenseless…"

[If my benefactor is willing to set me free, I will do my utmost to prevent others from obtaining me and traveling to earlier eras…]

Even so, the high-ranking members in the room still disagreed.

"It's too risky. If it leaves and goes looking for the Ōtsutsuki, I'd say this little turtle isn't something good at all! Ծ‸ Ծ"

"Exactly. People can go back on their word, let alone a turtle…"

"Konoha can't take this risk!"

At that moment, sunny Naruto looked at Shinju and said,

"But it's really pitiful… It's been lying at the bottom of the sea for thousands of years… Is there any other solution…"

Shinju thought carefully and suggested, "How about I place a mixed-chakra mark on it, so I can keep track of all its movements at any time?"

Tsunade looked at Shinju seriously and asked,

"Why do you insist on respecting a turtle's wishes?"

Hearing this, Shinju's expression turned solemn as he pointed at his left eye.

"I… saw its future."

"Haa…" Tsunade let out a long sigh.

"Fine. Set the turtle free!"