The moment he obtained the Heavenly Imperial Fate, Itachi, who had fallen into confusion, immediately went to deduce his own future.
He saw a scene in the past, where he himself, wearing an Anbu uniform, personally killed Danzō.
This future happened in the past.
Between them existed too many chaotic and blurry space-time barriers, so Uchiha Itachi couldn't see clearly what had happened in between.
But he could be sure that as long as he continued moving forward at the current pace, he would reach that ending. His past self, personally killing the root of all evil, Danzō, and preventing the tragedy of the clan massacre.
This was the origin of everything.
As long as Itachi could reach that conclusion, every tragedy that had happened so far would be reversed.
Even if this body of his died, it didn't matter.
As long as the past version of himself, the one who had not yet chosen to slaughter his entire clan, could survive, that was enough.
Uchiha Itachi asked the thousand-year-old White Snake Sage this question.
"Will the future I saw… be real?"
In response, the White Snake Sage took a puff of his pipe, not directly telling him right or wrong, but only calmly saying, "The Great Toad Sage can no longer see the future nowadays. What you saw… is it really the future?"
Uchiha Itachi knew the White Snake Sage wasn't wrong.
What he deduced indeed wasn't the future.
It was the past.
The Heavenly Imperial Fate, inside Itachi's life full of despair, found a narrow goat-trail leading toward rebirth.
He learned the information, "Undo the Dragon Vein seal, and you can travel through time."
Itachi wanted to return to the past through the Dragon Vein's seal.
This was the reason he had been killing people without restraint.
As long as he returned to the past and rewrote everything, the deaths that occurred would never have happened.
This was also what Itachi had said to Rasa, "The death now will make you gain new life in the past."
———
The chase between Ryosuke and Uchiha Itachi lasted a very long time.
Fused with a large amount of White Zetsu cells, Uchiha Itachi had already long departed from the category of "human." He could basically be treated as a White Zetsu who possessed Sharingan.
He hid underground using the technique of Mayfly, moving through the earth at a speed not inferior to Ryosuke.
One ahead and one behind, they rushed toward the Roran Ruins.
As the distance closed, deep cracks appeared in the earth. These crevices increased the difficulty of Itachi's movement.
But relying on the predictive power of the Heavenly Imperial Fate, he pre-planned his route, constantly flashing and shifting through the deep ground, avoiding Ryosuke's pursuit.
Itachi's gaze stared into the distance.
"As long as I reach there… reach that place…"
"All mistakes will be rewritten!"
The chase looked thrilling and intense.
Several times Ryosuke nearly flipped Itachi out of the ground like a loach.
However, under Itachi's calculations, it was actually not very impressive.
He could calculate a narrow path through countless predicaments, if it could be calculated, then it could be achieved.
Once even the Heavenly Imperial Fate could not calculate it, then Itachi would not need to run anymore.
He could simply accept his fate.
Fortunately, perhaps blessed by his father's spirit in the heavens, Itachi indeed saw an extremely narrow road ahead.
He arrived at the Roran Ruins first.
Itachi gently gripped the kunai used to seal the Dragon Vein. He gazed from a hundred meters away at Ryosuke, who was chasing toward him, and softly said, "The path to salvation lies within."
"Goodbye, Ryosuke."
"No, it should be…"
"Farewell forever."
Itachi once again pulled out the Dragon Vein seal.
With the Dragon Vein's power already drained heavily by Ryosuke earlier, what remained surged out and swallowed Uchiha Itachi.
When Ryosuke arrived a few seconds late, Uchiha Itachi had already disappeared without a trace.
At the same time, Mount Myōboku, Shikkotsu Forest, and Kamui Space, the Great Toad Sage, the Slug Sage, and the White Snake Sage,
The three sages who walked in the future, past, and present, simultaneously felt a change in the timeline.
The Great Toad Sage and the Slug Sage merely sensed the anomaly; they still didn't know the cause of the anomaly.
The White Snake Sage, who already knew everything in advance, tapped his pipe to shake off the ashes. He looked toward the direction of the Roran Ruins and bared his sharp fangs,
"The timeline is about to enter 'Black Box Mode.'"
The endless flow of time, due to the existence of a time-traveler, had produced a section that could not be observed from the outside, a black box.
The black box covered a segment of the past timeline.
Once fully sealed, when it reopened in the future and observers from "modern time" viewed that "past," the changes inside the black box would overwrite the original history and become the true history.
"However, the black box is not completely sealed yet, otherwise, the moment Itachi activated the seal and transported back, the timeline would have already changed."
"There is a 'anchor point' dragging the sealing process of the black box…"
The White Snake Sage took another puff, his tail lightly tapping the ground, stirring the fallen ashes.
The ashes tumbled in the air and fell again, forming a special pattern.
The White Snake Sage stared for a moment.
"Two people."
"One anchor point is Ryosuke. He is the origin of the changes in the ninja world. To shake what he has created, the already-established history, requires time."
"The other person is…"
The White Snake Sage inhaled again.
"So it's her… Queen Sara of the Roran Kingdom. That makes sense. A sealed memory rests in her mind."
"A memory forcibly sealed by someone, even she doesn't know it."
"Ryosuke and Queen Sara."
"These are the last obstacles Itachi faces. Once he overcomes them and seals the black box, reversing history, the world will be remade."
The White Snake Sage narrowed his eyes, "That brat Itachi… can he really do it?"
"Who knows."
Kabuto said as he handed a glass of orange juice to the White Snake Sage.
The White Snake Sage took it and lightly clinked the glass with Kabuto's.
The two of them were lying in reclining chairs, drinking and smoking.
On the other side, Hidan was also placed on a wheelchair, flipping through manga with his nose.
Anyway, if Itachi succeeded, their history and present would be overwritten by the new timeline. Why bother working hard now?
So, the evil-god White Snake trio, after Itachi's departure, immediately entered vacation mode.
As their collaborator, Obito looked at them living so leisurely, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
All three of their tragedies happened after Ryosuke appeared, so Itachi's success would rewrite their destinies as well.
But Obito would not accept that.
No, even if Itachi could change Obito's fate, he would never trust others.
So the bargaining chip in his deal with Itachi was, no matter what Itachi wanted to do, before acting, he must first capture Shukaku. At least he had to obtain a portion of Shukaku's chakra.
Now that he had obtained Shukaku's chakra, Obito glanced back at his three laid-back allies, sighed, picked up a shovel, and left Kamui space.
'Itachi should have already buried Shukaku's chakra at the agreed location, right?'
———
Ryosuke stood before the ruins.
He didn't understand anything about timelines or black boxes.
He just felt…
"Something's not right."
Ryosuke recalled Uchiha Itachi's burned, twisted face right before he disappeared, the smug smile on it, and nodded in confirmation, "That bastard is definitely up to no good."
New Moon approached, walked to the Dragon Vein seal, and pinched a chip of crushed stone.
The stone chip rapidly hardened in its hand, shedding dust, instantly becoming brand-new, even showing engraved patterns on it.
But the next second, it returned to being a broken stone chip again.
At the same time, threads of invisible, untouchable power spread from the stone chip, trying to coil around Ryosuke, but were blocked outside by the gravitational barrier released by New Moon.
"Time… is in chaos…"
New Moon spoke stiffly.
As a being that controlled gravity, New Moon had already formed the early buds of time-type power, so it could sense slight changes in time.
But only slightly.
With its dull intelligence, it couldn't express any proper analysis.
Ryosuke picked up the stone chip, stared at New Moon's big dumb eyes for a few seconds, then shook his head, tossing the broken stone away, giving up on getting answers out of New Moon.
"Better go ask an expert."
Ryosuke rose into the air and flew toward the direction of the Roran survivors.
More than ten minutes later, he found their village.
Still mid-air, he saw all the villagers gathered in front of the home of the village chief, Queen Sara.