In the end, the meal concluded with Kousei finishing thirteen super-large bowls of ramen, claiming first place… though no one was actually competing.
After filling her stomach, Karin couldn't wait to ask her questions.
During their earlier interaction, Kousei hadn't hidden the fact that she knew about, and had even been to, the Konoha Village of this era.
That sense of incongruity had been lingering in Karin's mind.
Kousei didn't keep them in suspense either. She gently wiped her mouth with a napkin and slowly began to recount her experiences.
...
Time went back to the day Kousei and Jiraiya were transported away by the Ryumyaku.
Perhaps because the turtle-shaped device possessed some kind of 'world-crossing' ability, they, like Karin and Sasuke, were sent to another Space-Time.
But unlike them, whether it was the 'parallel world' Karin ended up in or the one Sasuke was in, their historical development processes weren't vastly different from the 'main world' they originally came from.
For certain individuals, the world might have been turned upside down, but zooming out to the entire Ninja World would reveal that the development paths of these three worlds didn't differ greatly.
The world Kousei and Jiraiya were sent to, however, was different.
At first, when the two appeared in a primeval forest, they thought they had been sent to an earlier point in the timeline.
The solution Kousei and Jiraiya found was similar to Naruto's… find the Ryumyaku again and figure out a way to travel back.
But when they emerged from the forest, everything before them completely overturned their imagination of the Ninja World.
Outside the forest, there were no Five Great Nations, not even the title [Ninja] existed.
It was as if the Sage of Six Paths had never passed down the concept of [Ninshu].
Chakra, however, still existed.
At that time, the dominant force occupying this world was a faction called [Utopia].
They used something called [Gelel Stone] to create armor capable of releasing attacks similar to Ninjutsu.
Additionally, there were giant carriers that roamed the seas and land, and surgeries that involved transplanting Gelel Stone into the human body to obtain various enhancements, even transformations into [Beastmen].
All these things relied on that special ore, and those wearing the special armor, called [Knights], were somewhat similar to Ninjas from the main world.
Under the oppression of the Utopia faction, many small countries were forced to become vassals, or even wiped out entirely, with their people enslaved by Utopia.
Just as Kousei and Jiraiya arrived at a certain village, they encountered Knights collecting the so-called [Head Tax].
The impoverished village couldn't afford such high taxes, but that wasn't the Knight's concern.
The Knight directly moved to destroy the worthless village.
Unsurprisingly, Kousei and Jiraiya intervened.
The subsequent development was also as expected.
Utopia continuously sent attackers, and Kousei and Jiraiya dealt with them as they came.
Perhaps because no force could counterbalance them, Utopia's military development was very slow, to the point where Jiraiya alone could easily take on a group of Knights.
During this time, he even went to Mount Myoboku in this world, ended up teaching the toads there Ninjutsu, and signed a summoning contract with them.
Although Ninjas hadn't developed, Ninjutsu could still be used in this world.
Thanks to this, Kousei and Jiraiya also gathered a group of people willing to resist, teaching them combat skills and Ninjutsu.
It could be said that Jiraiya's lineage essentially founded a new school in that world.
Later, more and more people joined Jiraiya's side, Utopia's power was continuously weakened, and they were eventually completely eradicated by these 'new Ninjas'.
Achieving this righteous feat didn't take them too much time, and they had been searching for the Ryumyaku throughout.
It's just that this world seemed to have no Ryumyaku at all.
Just as Kousei and Jiraiya were at their wits' end, the turtle device seemed to finally finish its startup process and actively made an appearance.
This was the first time Kousei learned how to use the thing since finding it among the pile of miscellaneous items.
Through the 'user guide' knowledge contained within the device, Kousei finally understood her and Jiraiya's current situation.
Simply put, if many parallel timelines with different paths were lined up side by side, then two worlds with more similar historical development would have a shorter 'distance' between them.
It seemed they had been 'thrown' into a very, very distant parallel world.
But fortunately, there was finally a chance to return.
Afterwards, Kousei used the turtle device to begin traveling to other worlds with Jiraiya.
As long as they found their original world, they could start searching upstream and downstream along the timeline.
-If only things had gone that smoothly.
At this point, Kousei took a few small sips of the tea Teuchi brought over to moisten her throat.
The others listening were already stunned.
The most impacted among them was Boruto.
He never imagined the girl before him was also his father's child… albeit from another world's father.
Naruto, meanwhile, remembered that he too had encountered the so-called Utopia in his youth, defeating the evil leader of that faction at the time and liberating the clan.
Where did they go afterwards... It seemed they went across the sea.
Only Karin, who seemed to already know what happened next, involuntarily took Kousei's hand.
She carefully examined Kousei's face.
It bore a maturity that didn't belong to her age.
"Many, many things happened after that."
"Because the crossing device consumes more energy for each additional person it carries."
"And not every world has a Ryumyaku to replenish its energy."
"So for efficiency, and to ensure we wouldn't run out of energy, I left Grandpa Jiraiya in a previous world… ah, that's also the world I need to take you to."
As she spoke, Kousei cheerfully made a [V] sign.
"Kousei-chan, you… how long were you traveling alone?"
Karin asked, her voice somewhat choked.
"Hmm... roughly... six, no, about seven years."
Kousei gently counted on her fingers.
Then she looked at Karin, whose eyes were already reddening, and comforted her instead.
"Hey, don't be sad, Karin-nee."
As she spoke, Kousei used her fingers to wipe away the tears forming at the corners of Karin's eyes.
"That was a really interesting journey!"
She used an exaggerated smile to try and prove she wasn't as lonely as Karin imagined.
Over the past seven years, Kousei, initially with Jiraiya, traveled to many worlds.
She visited the Ninja World before the Otsutsuki arrived, reached a future where Naruto had died, and even became friends with a childhood [Uzumaki Naruto] who understood nothing.
When it came to the history of the Ninja World, Kousei could be said to understand it better than most people.
As for why she stopped taking Jiraiya along and chose to leave him temporarily in a 'relatively closer' world, that happened about two years after she started traveling through time and space.
That day, the six-year-old Kousei clearly saw a few more wrinkles on Jiraiya's face.
It was then she realized that the endless cross-time, cross-world search brought not only unknown risks but also the passage of time.
Lifespan was a very real topic.
Although Jiraiya, as a sage of Mount Myoboku, had his original lifespan greatly extended, it was still confined within the 'human' category.
Faced with an unknown future where it was unclear how many more years it would take to find her comrades, Kousei made that decision.
She chose to leave Jiraiya in that world… no matter how much he tried to persuade her otherwise.
After all, only she could use the device.
For Jiraiya, from his perspective, Kousei would disappear for a day or two every now and then, and return having grown a bit taller.
Jiraiya felt both relieved and anguished about this.
Fortunately, this pain didn't last too long.
In the sixth year of her search, Kousei successfully found Sasuke, who had been sent to the [Gender-Swapped World].
Then, less than a year later, she found this world and successfully encountered the Karin she was familiar with.
With that, Kousei finally finished recounting her long journey.
What awaited her was a hug from Karin that was almost suffocating.
Karin, holding the girl tightly, could no longer control herself, tears streaming down her face.
She gently rested her chin on Kousei's head, silently embracing her.
"Soon, we'll be able to go back very soon."
Kousei, being hugged, didn't show any sign of weakness, even patting Karin's back in return to comfort her.