"Ryūmyaku Expedition – Day 33 Record: After extensive exploration, the long-lost ruins of the Ryūmyaku have finally been fully unearthed through our tireless efforts.
The sealing formula left behind by the Fourth Hokage around the Ryūmyaku's core remains remarkably clear, even after fifty years of wind and sand!
According to the chakra detection equipment, faint traces of chakra still linger within the ruins. Unfortunately, our research shows that these residual chakra fluctuations cannot be collected or utilized.
Just as we unanimously concluded that the Ryūmyaku now held only archaeological value and no usable resources, the chakra detector suddenly spiked violently.
Before our astonished eyes—the Ryūmyaku came back to life!"
"When the blinding purple light finally faded, we brushed off the sand from our clothes and looked toward the center of the Ryūmyaku site—only to find a stranger standing there!"
"Recalling what the Seventh Hokage said in his interview before authorizing the excavation, our breathing grew heavy. There was no doubt—this was the power of the Ryūmyaku that he spoke of!
And that mysterious stranger who had appeared before us… might have come from the past or the future!"
"Whether this traveler through time came from the past or future became a mystery. His strength far surpassed all our expectations.
When he noticed us, this traveler who had crossed space and time showed no goodwill at all.
He rejected all our attempts to communicate and—stepping on a beautifully crafted sword—took off into the sky!
Was that a scientific ninja tool from the future, or an ancient art lost to history? We had no way of knowing.
All we could do was request help from the village. Hopefully, the Seventh Hokage or Lord Reiichi can find that mysterious traveler."
Morishita Yūsuke, a researcher at the Konoha Science Institute, let out a long sigh after finishing that day's field report. Slumped in his chair, he couldn't stop replaying the morning's events in his mind.
That strange figure emerging from the sandstorm… just remembering it made him clench his fists.
Lord Reiichi, Lord Seventh—you have to find that man.
What Morishita didn't know was that the "time traveler" his entire expedition team couldn't stop thinking about…
was currently lying in the middle of the Wind Country's desert, questioning his own life choices.
...
Gekko Hoshiyomi lay sprawled on the cold yellow sand, tossing bits of kindling into a weak campfire, his thoughts wandering back to everything that had happened.
First, the fight with Mukade in Rōran.
Then, the ambush by Tobi at the Ryūmyaku.
And now—this inexplicable place he'd somehow ended up in.
"Maboshi… what a troublesome ability," he muttered. "Combined with the Ryūmyaku's surge, it's practically unstoppable.
If I hadn't accidentally pulled that move off, I really might've died."
Even now, thinking back to what happened in that sealed chamber made Hoshiyomi break into a cold sweat.
When he was locked inside Maboshi's twisted space and felt the Ryūmyaku exploding, the violent distortion of time and space around him was enough to make anyone's blood run cold.
Luckily, in the final moment, Tobi—worried about being caught in the explosion himself—had instinctively widened the distance between them.
That brief lapse gave Hoshiyomi just enough of an opening to use a technique he'd never before attempted:
Ultimate: Flash of the Heavenly Soaring Dragon!
Under the enhancement of his "Ultimate" state, the first draw of the Flash of the Heavenly Soaring Dragon produced a vacuum shockwave so sharp that it caused time around the target to freeze for one second.
Any enemy caught within that vacuum—unless protected by a spatial technique—would find all their abilities temporarily sealed.
It was precisely this overlooked detail of the technique that, in that critical moment…
saved Hoshiyomi's life.
Faced with the spatial distortion caused by Maboshi and the temporal turbulence triggered by the Ryūmyaku's explosion, the power of Ultimate allowed Hoshiyomi to barely weaken Maboshi's control over him.
The first draw of Ultimate: Flash of the Heavenly Soaring Dragon—which freezes time for one second—forced the chaotic time flow around Hoshiyomi to stabilize for that single, precious moment.
In that life-or-death second, Hoshiyomi unleashed his strongest space-time ninjutsu—Heavenly Rift Flowing Light.
Using its space-jumping effect, he took a desperate gamble and dove headfirst into one of the temporal vortices created by the Ryūmyaku's collapse.
As it turns out, the movie hadn't lied—Hoshiyomi's gamble paid off. Just like Naruto once did, he had slipped through time itself and arrived in a version of the shinobi world whose exact era he could not yet determine.
Hoshiyomi was certain this was still the shinobi world for several reasons—the most important being that the white-robed people who had surrounded him earlier all emitted faint chakra signatures. Moreover, he could still sense and refine chakra within himself.
"Tomorrow, I'll find a way across this desert and figure out exactly where—and when—I am," he muttered.
But as he was thinking this, his expression suddenly changed. He could faintly sense a chakra signature rapidly approaching—at an incredible speed.
"Damn it… already discovered? No—this speed… what the hell? It's almost on par with old Madara at full power!"
Cursing under his breath, Hoshiyomi raised his sword fingers and swiftly stepped onto the Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade, soaring upward. He had no intention of clashing with any local powerhouse before he understood the nature of this world.
About half an hour after Hoshiyomi's departure, a white-robed figure appeared beside the dying campfire he'd left behind. Looking down at the smoldering embers, the figure smiled faintly.
"You run fast, don't you? To have gotten so far in such a short time… but if you think you can shake me off that easily, you're sorely mistaken."
As he spoke, a flicker of blue light flashed through the white-robed man's eyes. In the next instant, he stepped forward—and vanished from sight, heading straight in the direction Hoshiyomi had flown.
Meanwhile, standing on the Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade, Hoshiyomi took a deep breath and entered Sage Mode. The sensory amplification made his chakra perception far sharper. With every bit of his focus, he pushed his speed to the limit, racing desperately to widen the gap.
The two figures—one chasing, one fleeing—continued their pursuit for nearly two hours.
Seeing that his pursuer still refused to give up, Hoshiyomi's lips curved into a faint smirk.
"I'll admit, your persistence is impressive. But to catch me—Gekko Hoshiyomi—you're about a hundred years too early."
As soon as he spoke, Hoshiyomi's form blurred and vanished. In the blink of an eye, he had returned to the very place where he'd made his camp earlier—this was the effect of the second stage of Dance of the Startled Swan.
With that ability, he easily escaped the pursuer who had been closing in on him. The distance between them now was vast—roughly one-third the span of the entire Land of Fire. Hoshiyomi doubted his pursuer could possibly track him from that far away.
Still, in this unfamiliar world, Hoshiyomi preferred to err on the side of caution. Without lingering, he activated Transparent Release and silently fled in the opposite direction.
If his memory was correct, Rōran lay to the northwest of Konoha. So by heading southeast, he estimated that—after about three days of travel—he should reach this world's version of Konohagakure.
...
Drop some POWERSTONES to push the story forward!
PS: Read Advance Chapters at https://www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin