A strange power radiated from Urashiki Otsutsuki and surged toward Yuzuru Uchiha, threatening to swallow him whole.
The next instant, Yuzuru froze in place, his expression completely blank.
A faint smile appeared on Urashiki's face.
"Remain here and sink into oblivion forever."
"This is the power of the Otsutsuki clan. Even if natives like you happen to obtain power far beyond what you deserve through sheer luck, you are still destined to become nothing more than obstacles in our path."
With that, Urashiki prepared to use Karasuki to open a time tunnel and travel back to a point before Yuzuru had grown powerful enough to kill him.
The difference between them was simply too vast now. Even if Yuzuru stood perfectly still, Urashiki could not kill him.
However, just as Urashiki was about to act, the man who should have remained trapped forever slowly curled his lips into a smile.
Urashiki flinched and stumbled several steps backward.
"H-How is this possible? You... You... You..."
He stammered for a long time without managing to finish a single sentence.
Yuzuru casually rolled his shoulders and stretched his limbs.
"You didn't honestly think you could defeat me, did you?"
"I was only playing along."
Urashiki muttered in disbelief, "I used the power of time. No matter how strong you are, you shouldn't have been able to break free..."
Yuzuru scoffed.
"The power of time?"
"Are you talking about this?"
Dōjutsu Power surged within Yuzuru's eyes.
Beneath his feet lay a shark that had been killed as collateral damage during their battle. Its wounds began closing at a miraculous speed.
Within moments, it returned to life, thrashing vigorously before swimming away.
After the shark disappeared, the artifact in Urashiki's hand suddenly spoke.
"That is the power of time..."
"You... You have actually mastered the power of time!"
Yuzuru looked at the talking turtle-shaped artifact and smiled.
"An artifact with a consciousness of its own?"
"You'll belong to me from now on."
He then turned his gaze back to Urashiki, who had already fallen into despair.
"Having the courage to challenge me is adorable. Unfortunately, that is the only thing about you worthy of praise."
"Because challenging me was, in itself... utterly foolish."
Yuzuru stopped holding back.
A force field descended over the surrounding area, firmly pinning Urashiki in place.
An All-Killing Ash Bone appeared in Yuzuru's hand, and he thrust it directly through Urashiki's heart.
Puchi!
Urashiki coughed up a mouthful of blood as he felt the life force within his body rapidly draining away.
He desperately tried to activate his final trump card, but it had no effect whatsoever.
"How can this be? Why isn't Time Rewind working...?"
Hearing his muttering, Yuzuru replied mockingly, "Because my ability far surpasses yours."
As soon as those words fell, Urashiki could no longer endure.
His body crumbled into ash and vanished from the spot.
Yuzuru gave a quiet snort.
Compared to Momoshiki Otsutsuki and Kinshiki Otsutsuki, Urashiki truly was much more troublesome to deal with.
Aside from the assortment of strange artifacts he carried, his abilities were also extraordinarily powerful.
The strongest among them were most likely Time Freeze and Time Rewind.
In the original story, Urashiki had used Time Freeze to imprison Toneri Otsutsuki on the moon.
Time Rewind, meanwhile, allowed him to reverse his personal timeline by several seconds from the moment the technique was activated.
Combined with Karasuki's existence, killing Urashiki should have been nearly impossible.
Unfortunately for him, his opponent was Yuzuru.
When Yuzuru awakened the Rinnegan, both abilities he obtained were related to time.
He could rewind his own time as well as the time of the external world. As long as he was willing to expend enough Dōjutsu Power, he could continue rewinding time indefinitely.
By comparison, Urashiki's control over time was far too limited.
Urashiki himself had probably never imagined that he would die so easily.
After dealing with him, Yuzuru turned his attention to Karasuki.
The artifact resembled an ordinary turtle and looked completely unremarkable.
Had it not spoken moments ago, no one would have sensed anything unusual from it.
"No wonder I couldn't find you even after mobilizing the entire shinobi world for several years. Even if something like you passed right in front of someone, no one would spare you a second glance."
Yuzuru examined Karasuki carefully before engraving a spatial marker linked to the Kamui Dimension onto its body.
Only after finishing did he ask, "Tell me about your abilities."
Karasuki immediately answered, "My lord, my name is Karasuki. I come from the Otsutsuki homeworld."
"As long as enough Chakra is injected into my body, I can open a time tunnel and take you to any point in time you wish to visit."
Yuzuru nodded silently.
Karasuki's abilities were largely identical to what he remembered from his previous life.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Karasuki, are there many artifacts like you among the Otsutsuki clan?"
Karasuki shook its head.
"Strictly speaking, I should not be called an artifact. I am a Divine Artifact."
"When Shibai Otsutsuki became a god, he devoured every Divine Artifact similar to me in order to complete his power. I was the only one that escaped."
Yuzuru raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Something like that happened?"
"That is correct."
"Do you know the location of the Otsutsuki homeworld?"
"I do."
Yuzuru's heart stirred at Karasuki's answer.
With Karasuki, he no longer had to worry about being unable to locate the Otsutsuki homeworld within the vastness of the universe.
After considering it for a moment, Yuzuru asked the question he cared about most.
"If I use your power to travel through time and change something that happened in the past, will the present be affected?"
"Of course."
Karasuki nodded as though the answer were obvious.
"Even the slightest change can affect everything that follows. Altering a single event in the past could create a tremendous storm in the future."
"Take Urashiki as an example. Had he traveled into the past and killed you, the timeline would have been rewritten from that moment onward."
"Similarly, if the future changed too drastically, he would no longer be able to use the time tunnel to return to this exact point in time."
Yuzuru spoke in a low voice.
"In other words, if someone travels into the past without causing any major changes to the future, they can freely move between the past and the present."
"However, once they alter the future too drastically, they will only be able to move between the past and the moment created by those changes. Is that correct?"
Karasuki chuckled.
"Exactly."