+1 extra chapter because you surpassed the goal
(I think so. Actually, I scheduled the chapters for the whole month to have more time to write, so whether we reach the goal or not, two chapters will be published on the first day of each week. I trust you all.)
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"Should we...?"
"No need, now that we know the queen of Roran is associated with those who did this. Let's just find a high ranking officer and ask about the origin, going directly to the company responsible is impossible since we don't know what they are capable of", said Shisui.
"I understand", Minato replied, showing no concern about planning to enter the mind of a high ranking officer from another country without permission.
They waited until night to make their move. Once the sun disappeared over the horizon and the moonlight illuminated the surroundings, making sure no one saw them, they entered the mansion of the person in charge of human relations at the castle.
Or at least that was what the villagers called him.
After investigating a bit more while searching for the perfect target, Minato and Shisui discovered that this title referred to the person responsible for connecting the castle, and by extension the kingdom, with the partner company that provided the new knowledge, as well as any merchant who wanted to use it.
Once a business connected to the system, the kingdom charged a tax of 2 percent on its profits. Minato thought it was little, but with the rise of the company's structure and methods, anyone who joined them would see their sales increase greatly.
Not only that. Even if sales did not increase too much, the simple act of not adapting would end up reducing them, because customers, now used to a different environment, would have difficulty returning to old habits.
Someone who leaves a clean tavern, built with good materials, with a dark atmosphere and soft music in the background, crystal glasses, and someone preparing different drinks in front of you, would hardly want to return to a place made of old wood where all you hear are the shouts of drunk people everywhere and where there is only beer, and maybe wine, at an exaggerated price.
But none of that mattered to Minato, at least not during the mission. His objective was to find the source of Roran's technological advancement, discover whether they truly had information coming from the future, and, if possible, find out whether this source had anything to do with Tasogare.
Minato knew that last part was probably hidden from Kushina, but even so he decided to follow Hiruzen's orders.
So that same night they infiltrated the house of the so called person in charge of human relations.
The house was quite luxurious and was full of futuristic architecture everywhere.
As soon as they approached, several guards tried to stop them using strange batons that Minato and Shisui easily avoided before knocking them out.
Shisui crouched and picked up one of the batons. When he placed his hand on the area where it was used, he noticed a button and pressed it.
Bzzzt.
"This thing has lightning chakra inside. Fascinating", Shisui said while storing the object so Konoha could study it later.
After knocking out the guards, they quietly opened the door without making any noise. Not even their footsteps or breathing could be heard.
But that did not prevent a red light from suddenly beginning to flash throughout the house the moment they crossed the threshold, while a loud sound echoed, alerting both the inhabitants and the surrounding area.
Shisui and Minato threw several shuriken, destroying all the flashing lights, but the noise did not stop.
"They found us, let's do this quickly."
Several more people did not take long to arrive.
Unlike outside, where there were only normal people with strange technology, the guards inside were real ninjas.
"Intruders!"
"Stop them!"
"They are trying to reach Lord Kobeni!"
Facing the approaching guards, Shisui opened his three tomoe Sharingan, causing all of them to fall into an illusion, unable to move.
Meanwhile, Minato disappeared.
He appeared two meters behind them, right behind the ninjas preparing to attack from the back, completely catching them by surprise.
"Where is..." The ninja who spoke spat blood before falling dead without knowing how he died.
When the others reacted and looked back, Minato had already disappeared again.
"Kugh..."
The sound repeated itself, but when they looked, Minato was no longer there.
The scene repeated itself in rapid succession for about five seconds, until all the ninjas behind them fell dead.
Shisui easily killed all those in front, who remained motionless, trapped inside his genjutsu.
"There are none left. Let's go."
Shisui spoke, Minato nodded, and there was no more conversation.
They climbed the stairs and went directly to the largest door on the floor.
As soon as they opened it, they found the man the previous ninjas had called Kobeni. The man was holding a strange thin rectangular brick connected by a cable to a square on the wall.
After a day observing that type of technology, Minato already knew the device was used for long distance communication, so he threw two shuriken at the same time. One went directly toward the device, destroying it, while the other grazed Kobeni's cheek, leaving a thin line of blood as a warning not to make any other movement.
However the threat was not really necessary because the moment they entered Shisui activated his three tomoe Sharingan at full power and placed him under his control.
"We don't have time, ask quickly", Shisui said after briefly reading his mind and discovering he had already called reinforcements.
And those reinforcements belonged to the strange company, so their methods could be even more unpredictable. Shisui was not willing to take risks.
Although the Sharingan could read the mind superficially, it was not useful for obtaining specific details, so Minato still had to interrogate him.
"The technology. Where do you get it from?"
"Future Company", Kobeni replied in a monotone voice, his eyes completely black.
"The Future Company needs something, a source, to build all of this. What is it?"
"The..."
Noticing Kobeni's resistance to speaking, both understood there was some kind of mental block. Shisui repeated the order with greater force. After all, he was the one controlling the Sharingan.
"Speak!"
"The... the Dragon Vein."
"What is that? Where is it?" Minato asked, knowing they had finally found the answer to the mystery.
"The Dragon Vein is a powerful source of chakra in Roran. The Future Company uses it to charge batteries that power their technology.
It is located in..."
"We have it", Minato said.
Sensing several powerful presences approaching, one even equal to or stronger than himself, he grabbed Shisui by the shoulder and used the Flying Thunder God to teleport away from the place.
The moment they disappeared, the entire room was cut in half by the sword slash of a silver haired man who had just arrived.
Since they were on the second floor, half of the room began to collapse, so Sakumo grabbed Kobeni at high speed and returned to a safe area.
"Dad, what do we do now?" Kakashi asked, appearing beside him.
After years he had already grown up, and having grown within it, he firmly supported Tasogare's decisions.
With his father's training in person, even without being obsessed like in the original storyline, he had become a genius whose strength had already reached the level of a jonin.
"I will inform Lucifer of the situation.
We will decide what to do then."
At the same time, Minato and Shisui had already appeared in a distant territory. The moment they appeared they moved as far away as possible from their previous location while running toward the direction Kobeni had indicated.
When they arrived they found a huge warehouse. Dozens of gigantic hangars filled with batteries, all separated and protected.
At the center, connected to a strange machine shaped like a circular perimeter through hundreds of cables, there was a crack in the ground from which powerful chakra emanated. However it was not intense enough to overwhelm the machine.
"There is no one here. This could be a trap", Shisui said.
But despite that neither of them stopped.
However, unlike Shisui, whose reason for advancing was that the mission mattered more to him than his own life, Minato's reason for approaching was different.
"I'm sorry", Minato said, both excited and surprised as he observed the structure getting closer. "Powerful chakra, almost infinite, but more importantly, I feel a chakra similar to my Flying Thunder God.
This chakra has space time properties.
And that shape, could it be a gate? With such a large source of space time chakra, it could even be a gate to another time.
It is only a suspicion but if that is the case, I think we may have found the origin of Tasogare."
"If it is something that important, the fact that no one is guarding it makes it even more suspicious. Let's withdraw", Shisui said.
But Minato shook his head.
"No. Interfering with time could have serious consequences. The best option is to destroy this."
"How do we destroy it?" Shisui asked, agreeing.
"I will try to seal the vein. But first we must destroy the machine", Minato explained.
He advanced toward the structure.
He had learned that Roran technology tended to be fragile and would hardly resist a ninja's blow, but even so, to be sure, he stimulated his body with lightning chakra, temporarily reinforcing his abilities.
With that strength he appeared in front of the machine instantly and launched a kick with all the force he could muster.
But the kick did not connect.
Instead it collided with another leg that emerged from the crack and executed the exact same movement, as if someone had perfectly copied his attack.
The moment he noticed the unknown presence, Minato stepped back and positioned himself beside Shisui, who also adopted a combat stance.
After withdrawing the leg, the figure fully emerged from the space time energy.
It was a girl who appeared to be around twenty years old, with hair half black on the right side and half white on the left.
She wore a ninja outfit almost completely black, but somehow elegant, and a mask of the same color that covered the lower half of her face, leaving only her eyes visible.
"Visitor from the future", Minato said, having guessed the girl's origin. "Return to your time. Manipulating the past can bring serious consequences."
The girl looked at him for a second before responding.
"Alright. Someone once told me: 'The present is fine... but it could have been faster.'"
"Who...?"
"Minato, let's not talk. We have to attack."
Shisui interrupted him while activating his Sharingan at full power again.
Interruptions could wait until after they defeated her.
Minato followed Shisui and disappeared using the Flying Thunder God technique.
But she also began to act, her eyes changed color.
Her right eye turned completely white, expanding her vision to three hundred sixty degrees and seeing the internal chakra structure inside Shisui's body, while the left turned red, allowing her to process information at extremely high speed.
Of course these were only her basic and passive abilities.
Thanks to her red eye she resisted the genjutsu Shisui tried to trap her in, and with the vision of the white eye, combined with the accelerated perception of the red one, she located the vanished Minato.
The moment he showed signs of appearing in the air behind her, she attacked in that direction.
Minato, who had just teleported only to be greeted by a direct strike, teleported away again before the blow connected, returning to his original position.
"A Sharingan and a Byakugan at the same time? Who are you?" Minato said with surprise, while Shisui remained at his side.
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Hey, I just published the first chapters of a new fic: To Love Ru: Chaos.
If you're interested or want to support me, go read it and leave some Power Stones.
But it's literally the complete opposite of this series, so I recommend reading the 'Before You Read' section to see if you'll like it.
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)