"That bastard Urashiki's aura... disappeared." Boruto immediately entered a state of alert. His sky-blue eyes carefully perceived their surroundings.
However, apart from the inherent Natural Energy of the forest and scattered human voices in the distance, he did not perceive the insidious Otsutsuki Urashiki's Chakra.
"Did he escape? Or..."
Boruto looked down at the 'culprit' that had fallen with them into the pile of leaves.
A small turtle, about the size of a palm, with a peculiar appearance.
Its head and limbs were an adorable pink, while the shell on its back was light blue, with rings of white, like annual rings, and a conspicuous red ribbon tied around its shell.
At this moment, the little turtle was withdrawn into its shell, its head only slightly protruding, its eyes tightly shut, and its mouth continuously repeating a mechanical voice:
"Warning... warning... detection of severe Space-Time turbulence interference... significant Space-Time coordinate deviation... error... error... target Space-Time anchor point lost... repositioning in progress... positioning failed... warning..."
"Hey! What Space-Time error?!" Boruto squatted down angrily and poked the little turtle's hard shell with his finger.
"Where in the world did you send us?!"
Sasuke, however, paid no attention to Boruto's argument with this turtle-like creature.
His right hand, covering his eye, slightly relaxed. He forced himself to endure the discomfort, once again concentrating his remaining meager Chakra and perceptual ability.
Although his left eye was temporarily unusable, his basic perception and keen insight of his surroundings remained top-notch.
He captured extremely subtle human voices carried by the wind, coming from a certain direction in the forest.
"Boruto, follow me. Don't make a sound." Sasuke uttered a low command, interrupting Boruto's complaints. His figure flashed, already dashing silently towards the direction of the voices.
His movements were still swift, but his one-armed posture and slightly heavy breathing revealed his poor condition.
"Eh? Wait for me, Sasuke-sensei!" Seeing this, Boruto forgot about questioning the constantly 'warning' little turtle. He grabbed it and quickly chased after him.
The two swiftly wove through the trees and soon approached the edge of the forest.
Pushing aside the last dense bush, the view suddenly opened up.
A fairly sizable town appeared outside the forest.
Most of the buildings were traditional wooden structures, with some brick and stone houses interspersed. The streets were neatly planned, shops stood in great numbers. Although not as futuristic and technology-filled as the Konoha of the future, with its towering buildings, it was still full of vitality and the liveliness of daily life.
In the afternoon, there were not many pedestrians on the suburban streets, just a few scattered about, appearing quiet.
Boruto followed Sasuke as they jumped out of the forest, landing in a secluded alley at the edge of the town, and curiously looked around: "This town is...? Looks a bit familiar, but not quite the same..."
His gaze was quickly drawn to the metal forehead protectors, reflecting sunlight, worn by several passing pedestrians on their foreheads or necks.
The shape and pattern of those forehead protectors were exactly the same as the one on his own forehead.
"Konoha's forehead protectors? Could this be..." Boruto's heart skipped a beat.
Sasuke didn't answer. His gaze had already passed over the houses before him, looking towards the distance, beyond the town center.
He pushed off with his feet, leaping lightly onto the roof of a two-story residential building nearby, finally landing on one knee atop a water storage tank on the roof, looking down from his vantage point.
Boruto followed closely, landing beside him, and followed Sasuke's gaze.
The next moment, Boruto's eyes widened, his face showing an incredulous expression of shock.
There, to the north-northwest of the town center, a familiar yet strange mountain rock, carved with several gigantic heads, stood majestically.
That was Konoha's landmark, the Hokage Rock!
However, looking closely, Boruto noticed that the number of statues on the Hokage Rock was wrong!
On the far left was the visage of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
Then came the stern face of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
Further along was the likeness of the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Finally, the statue of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato.
And then... nothing more.
There was no statue of the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade-, nor of the Sixth Hokage, Hatake Kakashi.
Even less so the Seventh Hokage, his father, Uzumaki Naruto… that face always carrying a bright smile, as if it could illuminate the entire village!
On the Hokage Rock, only the visages of four Hokage were carved, silently overlooking the village in the sunlight.
"Th-this... what's going on?" Boruto pointed at the distant Hokage Rock, his voice cracking with surprise. "Why aren't there statues of Dad, Granny Tsunade, or Uncle Kakashi? Is this... is this really Konoha?"
"Because here..." Sasuke's voice was so low it almost dissolved into the wind.
"Is the Konoha of 'the past'."
"We were probably sent by that Otsutsuki Urashiki, using this tool, to the Konoha of before you were born."
Just then, Sasuke's extremely keen perception, honed through countless life-and-death battles, made him suddenly aware of something.
He looked down, following the direction of his perception.
On the small street directly below, several people were walking unhurriedly.
In the lead was a youth with silver hair, a black mask, and a forehead protector tilted to cover his left eye.
He wore the Konoha's Jonin uniform with a green flak jacket over it, one hand casually in his pocket, the other holding an orange-covered book, reading it with great interest, his steps lazy.
A young Kakashi!
And following behind Kakashi were three children, about the same age as Boruto, dressed in various outfits.
The one in front had a head of golden, sun-like spiky short hair, wearing an orange and blue tracksuit. He was yelling and 'wrestling' with a struggling black kitten in his arms, his face showing childish excitement and a tenacious, never-give-up spirit, shouting things like "Don't run! I'll get you this time!".
Uzumaki Naruto.
But Sasuke's gaze, after passing over Naruto, locked tightly onto the two people behind him.
One was a girl with long black hair, a delicate, fair, and somewhat shy face. She wore a pale purple tracksuit and was holding a docile white kitten. A faint blush of shyness adorned her face, and when she occasionally looked up at her companion beside her, her eyes were gentle.
Hyuga Hinata.
And walking beside Hinata, shoulder to shoulder with her, was a black-haired youth Sasuke had never seen before.
The youth had a well-proportioned figure, wearing a simple black tracksuit, a brand new Konoha's forehead protector tied neatly on his forehead.
He had short black hair, a few strands casually falling over his forehead, a handsome face, and a calm, gentle expression.
He also held an orange kitten in his arms, which was exceptionally docile.
At this moment, this youth, unknown to the adult Sasuke, was slightly tilting his head, seemingly whispering something to Hinata beside him, a faint smile on his lips.
Suddenly, the black-haired youth, who was talking to Hinata, raised his head without any warning.
His gaze precisely targeted the adult Sasuke, who was standing on the roof's water storage tank, staring intently at them.
In the moment their eyes met, although there was slight surprise in the youth's eyes, there was no vigilance, only an indescribable sense of amusement.
Their gazes briefly crossed under the clear afternoon sky of Konoha.
Time, at this moment, seemed to freeze.
Boruto followed Sasuke's stunned gaze downward and also saw Kakashi and the group including the young Naruto.
He naturally also saw Hinata and that unfamiliar black-haired youth, in the positions behind Naruto that should have been occupied by Sasuke and Sakura.
"That's... Dad? Mom? And Uncle Kakashi? Wait, who's that guy?" Boruto exclaimed.
"Sasuke-sensei, that person isn't you! What's going on?!"
Down on the street below, the young Naruto, startled by Boruto's cry, also looked up and saw the two strangers on the rooftop. He immediately pointed up and shouted: "Kakashi-sensei! Look! There are two weirdos on the roof!"
Kakashi slowly lifted his gaze from Icha Icha Paradise, lazily glancing at the rooftop.
When he saw the one-armed Sasuke, his brow above his right eye furrowed slightly.
Menma, holding the orange kitten, slowly withdrew his gaze from the adult Sasuke. The faint smile on his lips seemed to deepen slightly.
'Tsk, tsk, now this is interesting.'
"Sasuke-sensei, should we go down and say hello to them?"
Boruto also noticed the gazes from Kakashi, Naruto, and that unfamiliar black-haired youth on the street below.
Especially the look in that black-haired youth's eyes gave Boruto an inexplicable sense of unease, but he still instinctively asked his teacher beside him.
In Boruto's simple understanding, meeting his father and familiar Konoha seniors seemed like something he should say hello to, even if this time and space seemed a bit off.
"No, wait first." The adult Sasuke didn't answer immediately.
His full attention was drawn to the little turtle 'Karasuki' in Boruto's hand.
Karasuki's eyes were tightly shut, and its mechanical electronic voice carried an unprecedented seriousness, repeating: "Warning... warning... detection of anomalous Space-Time... significant deviation between this Space-Time and the recorded 'past reference Space-Time-α'... deviation rate continuously increasing..."
"Warning! Strongly advised to avoid unnecessary contact with native residents of the current Space-Time, and especially not to reveal any information about the future or the reference Space-Time. Any improper interference may trigger chain-reaction Space-Time paradoxes, leading to unpredictable consequences, including but not limited to time axis collapse, causal law conflicts, existential erasure, and other extremely dangerous situations... Warning..."
Karasuki's words made Boruto gasp, the eagerness on his face instantly replaced by tension: "Th-this serious?!"
The adult Sasuke's brow furrowed even tighter. His right eye stared sharply at this Space-Time treasure, his voice low and pressing: "But, this Space-Time already seems to have undergone some changes..."
He paused, then asked word by word: "Are these changes related to the Otsutsuki Clan?"
Karasuki seemed to be rapidly analyzing and calculating. After several seconds, the mechanical electronic voice sounded again, this time carrying a pause like 'confusion': "...Searching for Space-Time disturbance sources... Comparing known Otsutsuki energy signatures... No matching records. Searching for key nodes in this Space-Time's history... Multiple logical contradictions and information gaps discovered."
"Preliminary judgment: This Space-Time... is an independent 'anomalous derived Space-Time' or 'parallel world branch' not recorded in 'Karasuki's' Space-Time database. Its cause of formation, specific evolutionary path, and correlation with Otsutsuki Urashiki's current actions... all... unknown."
"Database comparison result: No record."
"Sorry, I cannot answer your question."
"Unknown Space-Time..." The adult Sasuke chewed on these words, his heart feeling heavy.
This meant they had not only lost the advantage of foreknowledge from 'going back to the past', but even the rules and future of this world beneath their feet had become completely bewildering.
'Was Urashiki also in this Space-Time?'
'Was his target still the Nine-Tails within this Space-Time's Naruto?'
In the few seconds since Karasuki issued its warning and Sasuke spoke with it, down on the street, Kakashi's always-lazy single eye had slightly narrowed, locking onto the two on the rooftop.
Although the adult Sasuke had made simple disguises with a black hoodie and hat, and had lost an arm, that unique temperament honed through bloody battles was enough to alert this Elite Jonin.
"This is a bit troublesome." The adult Sasuke clicked his tongue softly.
He knew they couldn't stay any longer.
Before figuring out the ins and outs of this Space-Time, getting into early contact with key figures from the 'past', especially a Ninja of Kakashi's caliber, was too risky.
"Go!" He uttered a low command, no longer hesitating. His only intact right hand fiercely grabbed Boruto's shoulder, who hadn't fully reacted yet.
"Eh? Sasuke-sense—!"
Boruto's cry of surprise was barely uttered before he was swept up by a force.
The next moment, the roof tiles beneath their feet emitted a faint sound, and their figures had vanished from the spot.
At the same time they disappeared, down on the street, Kakashi's brow twitched. He closed the Icha Icha Paradise in his hand, his gaze swept over the spot where the two had just stood, then slowly moved away, as if it were just a casual glance.
"They run fast," He murmured to himself, his right eye scanning every corner of the surrounding rooftops. "The Chakra traces are very unfamiliar... not Konoha's Ninja. But no hostility either."
Naruto looked up and shouted, "Kakashi-sensei! Who were those two people? Why did they run away when they saw us?"
Menma gently stroked the orange cat in his arms, a faint, almost imperceptible smile at the corner of his mouth. "Maybe they're just travelers passing through..."