"Damn it!"
"Why is the space-time turbulence so much more violent than expected?!"
At the edge of the Forest of Death, space suddenly twisted and split open.
In the next second, two figures—one large, one small—tumbled out in a miserable heap and crashed heavily onto the scorched black ground with a dull thud.
The taller one was a long-haired, one-armed man wrapped in a black cloak. His messy bangs slanted across his face, covering most of it and revealing only one eye.
A scarlet eye.
Behind him was a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. Simple, straightforward, and clearly in a sorry state.
Pfft.
The one-armed man dropped to one knee. He could only drive the Kusanagi Sword in his hand into the ground to barely steady himself.
He gasped violently, and the only eye exposed outside his hair was filled with bloodshot veins.
"Are… are you okay?" The blond brat hurriedly moved to support the one-armed man, while his clear blue eyes kept scanning the surroundings in confusion.
He could see the strange scorched earth around them.
He could also hear the faint clanging sounds coming from far away.
"Where… is this? Since when did the village have such a huge crater? And it feels… really weird…"
Hearing this, the one-armed man did not answer immediately.
Instead, his gaze settled on a spot not far away, and his eye narrowed.
There, on the Hokage Rock, only four faces existed.
That discovery made his pupil shrink sharply.
"The Fourth Hokage… So this place is… the village in the past?!"
The moment he realized this, the man's pounding heart seemed to fall silent for an instant.
Then, in the next moment, it began beating again with even greater speed and tension.
For a brief moment, he lost himself.
He simply stared blankly and murmured, "The past… Brother… Father and Mother… and—him… are they all still alive?"
Hearing that, blond-haired Boruto could not help blinking.
Then he asked the question in his heart.
"Mr. Sasuke, you have an older brother too? And who's 'him'?"
Hearing this, Sasuke's heart paused once more.
Even his breathing grew hurried.
In his mind, a mischievous figure who loved lying on walls and basking in the sun quietly surfaced.
After hesitating for a moment, he smiled faintly and murmured, "He… is my second—hm?"
Bang!
Before he could finish speaking, the one-armed man suddenly turned toward the space-time rift that had yet to fully close, his pupil narrowing again.
From within the spatial crack, an enormous and suffocatingly cold malice surged out like a raging frost tide.
It was so powerful that it made it difficult to even think of resisting.
"Huff… Be careful. That guy—he really did follow us."
The one-armed man growled. Immediately after, he grabbed Boruto with one hand and tightened his grip around the sword planted in the ground.
Creak… crack…
Soon, a pale, almost translucent hand reached out from inside the crack.
Then, with a slight pull—
Riiip!
The entire rift was torn apart brutally like a strip of cloth.
Immediately afterward, a man with medium-length light-blue hair tied into a high ponytail crawled out from within.
He had no eyebrows. Only two circular marks sat in the middle of his forehead, and on his head were two horns that looked almost like a forehead protector.
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki.
After crawling out, he smoothed out his high-collared coat. A gentle smile appeared on his lips.
"You two truly made me chase you quite a long way."
Polite and courteous.
Not a trace of resentment from having been kicked several times could be seen.
"However…"
"With only the two of you—one crippled, one child—do you truly think you can stop me?"
The curve of his lips seemed to grow slightly wider.
"Boruto, run. Go find… Naruto!"
The one-armed man's other eye—the Rinnegan—lit up instantly.
Chakra surged violently from his entire body once more.
This time, his consumption within the space-time turbulence had been too great. He might not be able to hold out for long. He could only let Boruto escape first.
As for him, he had to stay behind and stop Urashiki.
Only then could he create an opportunity for Naruto.
Unfortunately, just as he opened his mouth and before he could even move, the high-collared man opposite him flicked his hand.
A red fishing rod appeared once more.
With just a casual swing, the hook dropped, snagged the blond boy's clothes, and dragged him over.
Effortlessly.
"Let go of me! Bastard! Let go!" The blond boy struggled, but it was useless.
The gap between them was far too great.
"Oh my, you're still only a child. How could I possibly treat you like this?"
Urashiki smiled apologetically, but the movements of his hand did not stop in the slightest.
He even swung Boruto up and smashed him down again, playing with him casually.
Only after toying with him for quite some time did he look toward Sasuke, who had almost no chakra left, and ask curiously, "Now, be honest. Where is that child?"
Naturally, the one he was asking about was Naruto as a child.
Sasuke fell silent for a moment, seemingly pretending to hesitate.
Whoosh!
But in that split second, his figure suddenly vanished.
When he reappeared, he had already switched places with a stone in front of Urashiki.
However, with his chakra exhausted and his stamina nearly dried up, Sasuke no longer had any spare strength.
In his haste, he could only wrap both arms around Urashiki's waist and slam him down hard.
Uchiha—
Suplex!
Thud!
But what no one dared believe was that Urashiki was actually thrown down by that suplex…
Thud!
He crashed hard onto the ground.
His originally pure white clothes were now stained by the scorched black earth.
Filthy and smeared all over.
After realizing what had happened, Urashiki froze first.
Then his mind went completely blank.
And then—
Fury.
He could no longer maintain that polite and refined appearance. He roared explosively.
"AAAAAH! Damn it! You actually dirtied my clothes! I'll kill you! I'll kill both of you bastards!"
"Hey, hey, hey. Yelling out here in the middle of the night? Disturbing the industrial park's progress can get you arrested, ponytail boy."
At that moment, a somewhat lazy and teasing voice suddenly sounded above the three of them.
Sasuke, who had been preparing to fight to the death, froze.
Urashiki, who had fallen into a rage, also froze.
Ahead of them, on a charred tree trunk with only half its body left, a tall man with a head of white hair was crouching there.
He wore a red outer robe, with a huge character for "oil" written on it.
Although his tone sounded relaxed, the slightly narrowed toad-like eyes carried shock and gravity.
Especially after he saw Urashiki's blue Rinnegan and Sasuke's Rinnegan and Sharingan, his jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
Since when had two more Rinnegan appeared in the shinobi world?
And Rinnegan this strange and unfathomable, no less.
"You, you, you look so much like… like the person in that photo my dad keeps by his bed!"
Boruto cried out in shock, his eyes instantly bursting with disbelief and confusion.
Behind him, however, Sasuke immediately stopped Boruto and spoke in a daze.
"He doesn't just look like him."
"He is…"
"One of the legendary Sannin…"
"And also…"
"Your father Naruto's teacher."
"Lord Jiraiya."
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/SorenSwiftTL (replace @ with a)