Chapter 180: Chapter 180 – Guess Who I Just Ran Into?!
According to Yamanaka Shinno's original plan…
The story was supposed to go like this: he'd arrive in Rōran, take control of the current queen—who had the power to influence and manipulate the Dragon Vein—and then deal with the guy hiding under the alias "An Lushan," who was actually the centipede-like puppet master.
After exposing the enemy's identity, he'd read their memories, find out what the future had in store, and then finish them off with a flick of the wrist.
But now?
Well… that's clearly not how things are going.
In the original timeline, Queen Sara's mother, Sēramu, had already passed away.
But here she was—still very much alive and still holding the title of Queen. Regal, elegant, and—cough—a rather charming widow.
As for the centipede? He hadn't shown up at all.
She was looking at him like he was some kind of idol.
Those big eyes of hers were blinking so fast it looked like she might pull a muscle.
...
Shinno followed Queen Sēramu into the lavish tower ahead. Behind them, Saya quietly shut the massive doors, doing her best to contain her excitement.
Once the trio ascended to the top of the tower via elevator, two fast-moving shadows leapt in from the balcony.
The moment they laid eyes on Shinno, both of them lit up like children spotting a long-lost friend.
Wait... was that... Tenten? And Hinata?!
"Captain Tenten! The mission scroll, hurry!"
Saya rushed up to Tenten like an overexcited bear, twisting at the waist with impatience and barely-contained energy.
"Lord Shinno! This is our mission scroll, for the three of us. Please sign it. Oh! And there's a Sage Art seal—only your chakra can activate and remove it!"
Tenten's voice was practically trembling with excitement. She fumbled with the scroll, which was carefully wrapped in several layers of oil-paper, and handed it over to Shinno.
Then, without hesitation, she swept aside her bangs to reveal the seal on her forehead.
"Me too! I have one too!"
Saya did the same—one hand yanking her thick bangs away from her forehead, the other pointing at the pea-sized seal between her brows.
"M-Me as well," Hinata added softly, her cheeks flushing red as she revealed her own seal.
"Uh…"
Shinno glanced through the mission scroll quickly, then raised his right hand and activated his Sage Art chakra.
He tapped each of their seals in turn.
In an instant, the sealing symbols began to glow, and a rush of illusion-based memory fragments surged into his mind.
He saw why the three had come here, how the underground Dragon Vein operated, what had been arranged for Rōran's future, their specific roles, and the rewards they were owed.
...
"We did it! Three years turned into six—six whole years! Mission complete!"
Tenten grabbed Saya's hands and started bouncing around the tower's hall like a hyperactive bunny, completely unable to contain her joy.
"My fried chicken! My cola! My burgers! My games—I'm coming home!"
Saya was just as overwhelmed, her twin-tails swinging wildly behind her like whips.
Hinata clasped her hands in front of her, not jumping around like the other two, but the glimmer in her eyes said it all.
Six years... she missed Hanabi, her father, her mother—so, so much.
...
"Woohoo! Mission complete! Power up! Time to rise to the top—perfect life, here I come!"
"Perfect, perfect! Totally perfect! Hahaha!"
"So uh... what time are we supposed to return to again?"
"The scroll says we're supposed to—"
Tenten and Saya locked eyes, blinking at each other in confusion.
Then they both grabbed Hinata and pulled her in front of Shinno.
They exchanged a look and gave her a nod.
Hinata's blush deepened, but under her friends' intense gazes, she finally gave a tiny nod.
"Three... two... one!"
The three of them struck their cutest, most pitiful poses, and in a sweet, pleading tone, called out together:
"Lord Shinno~"
"...You can return anywhere from six days to six years later. Your call."
Shinno instinctively took a step back.
He touched the bridge of his nose, relieved to find nothing strange happening to it.
Seriously.
Girls from the future really knew how to weaponize their charm.
It wasn't fair!
...
"Lord Shinno! Love youuuu~ (^U^)ノ~YO~"
Tenten made a giant heart over her head with her hands and turned to consult her teammates on when exactly to return.
"Six days sounds good. Six years is way too long—our parents would be worried sick."
"Y-Yeah. If it's family, they probably want to see us as soon as possible, no matter what we look like."
"But we did live six whole years... we were twelve, and now we're eighteen..."
"Isn't that a good thing? Little Lee's gonna be shocked for a whole year! Oh—wait! Does that mean Neji has to call Hinata big sis now?!"
"W-What?! I—um... that..."
"Good point! Six days it is! I want Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji to call me 'big sis' too!"
"Saya, th-that might not be appropriate..."
The three of them bickered back and forth for a while, but eventually came to a consensus: they'd return to their original timeline six days later.
Six years apart from their families and friends was already more than enough.
There was no need to make the people who loved them suffer even more.
...
"Lord Shinno, thank you for bringing them to Rōran."
Queen Sēramu looked at the three girls, now bouncing with happiness, and her elegant features softened with warmth and affection.
...
When the girls first arrived, they'd only been twelve or thirteen years old.
Simple. Innocent. Pure-hearted.
All they cared about was helping rebuild Rōran, which at the time was nothing more than a collection of crumbling mud huts.
Now, six years later, the city had become something entirely new.
How could Sēramu not be grateful?
...
"Don't thank me—thank them. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. They're the ones who chose Rōran."
Shinno waved it off casually.
From the illusions sealed in their memories, he could sense just how difficult these six years had been for Tenten, Hinata, and Saya.
He understood that struggle.
After all, when he first crossed into the world of Naruto, he'd gone through the same adjustment period.
From a high-tech world more than a decade in the future to this backwater nowhere land called Rōran.
He'd spent six years eating sand.
Because of the binding seal that linked him to the Dragon Vein, he couldn't stray too far from the city, protected and imprisoned by it all at once.
Unless you had massive ambition like the centipede guy in the original story, surviving here was a true test of willpower and endurance.
...
Sēramu smiled softly.
After six years, she'd come to love the three girls like her own younger sisters—or daughters.
To her, they were family.
...
"Lord Shinno, we've made our decision! We're going back six days after we left!"
Tenten stepped forward with her teammates and announced their final decision.
"Alright. Let's begin your mission rewards."
Shinno smiled and nodded.
He took a moment to gather his thoughts, then began to channel the necessary chakra.
First, he copied his entire training experience with the Flying Thunder God technique—passed down through the system when he first acquired it—as well as the space-time jutsu insights he'd mastered since then, plus the blade training and combat techniques tied to his [Guaranteed Decapitation Slash] trait.
He compressed all of it into a condensed memory package using Yin-style Sage chakra, and gently pressed his index finger to the glowing seal on Tenten's forehead.
Perhaps due to the Dragon Vein's influence, Tenten's spatial awareness talent was way beyond what it had been in the original story.
With the seal's help, she began to absorb the experience slowly.
Once the transfer was complete...
Shinno moved on to Saya.
This time, he sealed his complete mastery of more than ten inherited Yamanaka clan secret techniques into her seal.
After the Five Great Nations united, most clan techniques had become public, obtainable through mission contribution points. What mattered wasn't the jutsu themselves—but Shinno's experience in using them.
He was, after all, now operating at a level comparable to the Six Paths.
The ceiling for jutsu had been raised significantly because of him.
If Saya could fully digest this gift, she might one day become one of the strongest ninja in the world.
...
Lastly, there was Hinata.
Blushing furiously, she trembled slightly as Shinno gently tapped her seal three times.
With a puff of chakra smoke, a glass vial emerged from the seal.
Inside, a pair of glowing blue-green Tenseigan eyes shimmered softly.
Hinata blinked in confusion.
Shinno popped the vial open and began rapidly weaving signs, drawing on the illusion-based memories from earlier.
After a flurry of fifty seals, the Tenseigan eyes dissolved into light and entered Hinata's body.
Her Byakugan flared faintly, and the pure Hyuga blood in her veins began to stir.
The transformation had begun.
...
"Your eyes and bloodline should fully awaken in about two weeks. Be careful during that time—you might accidentally hurt someone."
Shinno gave a soft warning.
According to the illusions, this Tenseigan was also cultivated by Orochimaru.
That guy had so many Tenseigan and Mangekyō lying around, he probably needed a warehouse just to store them.
Still...
One memory stood out—his future self had mentioned needing to start matchmaking between Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
The hell?
Was that serious?!
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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