Urashiki's eyeballs almost bulged completely out of their sockets.
He looked hideous and terrifying.
All three of his eyes landed at the same time on the little golden turtle balanced on Kai's fingertip.
Above its shell, mysterious space-time formulas were lighting up one after another.
Like neon-red lamps connected to electricity, they flickered between light and dark.
Buzz.
Buzz, buzz.
Soon, a faint golden-pink ripple visible to the naked eye slowly spread from the edge of the turtle shell.
At this moment, even the space around the turtle seemed to gain a mysterious hue.
"This is impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Urashiki cried out in shock once again. Blood foam gurgled out nonstop from the corner of his mouth.
"Karasuki… Karasuki… how could it respond to an insect?"
"Still calling me an insect?"
Kai pinched the buzzing turtle shell and casually shook it.
"Then what are you, being pinned to the ground by an insect? Insect feed?"
"At least insect feed can fill a stomach. You… at most, you're a punching bag."
Pfft!
With just two sentences, Urashiki was so furious that he spat another mouthful of old blood.
He even wanted to struggle free.
But with the chakra throughout his entire body sealed, he simply could not move.
Zzzzt—buzz!
At that moment, the golden light on Karasuki's shell suddenly withdrew. All the glowing formulas that had been blooming across it also instantly dimmed.
Karasuki turned back into that limp little turtle again. After scraping the air twice with its tiny claws, it stopped moving completely.
"Tsk. So it really ran out of battery?"
Kai shook it with some disdain. After confirming that it truly had no reaction, he casually stuffed it into his pocket.
In his heart, he now had a rough guess about this thing's use.
Just now, he had consumed nearly a million chakra before this thing reacted.
And even then, it had only lasted for that short moment.
In other words, if he wanted to truly open a Gate of Time and Space, perhaps he would need at least three million chakra?
Wouldn't that drain him dry on the spot?
And in the future time-space or the past time-space…
Whether his spore army could still absorb chakra and rapidly restore him was also a problem.
If it could not…
If he had to rely purely on his own recovery, then it would take at least a full day to recover four million chakra.
After thinking silently for a moment, Kai made a quiet decision in his heart.
"Looks like I need to stockpile more chakra…"
In the past, Kai had never thought about time-space travel.
But now, since this clever fool Urashiki had delivered himself to his doorstep, Kai did not mind becoming a time traveler for once.
Touching corpses here and there in his spare time sounded excellent too.
Only, perhaps because he was not truly an Ōtsutsuki, the chakra conversion efficiency seemed a little low.
To be safe, it would take four million chakra to open it.
To guarantee his own safety, he would need five million chakra.
To be even safer, six million chakra…
"Second Brother!"
Just as Kai was frantically raising the required budget for himself, Sasuke finally could not hold back anymore. With one Body Flicker, he landed in front of Kai.
One red eye and one white eye stared fixedly at Kai's pants pocket. His voice was somewhat tense.
"That thing is… a secret time-space treasure. Carrying it around with you is very dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
Hearing this, Kai turned his head and looked at Sasuke, who was two heads taller than him.
Unable to help himself, he stepped on the air and floated upward until he was half a head taller than Sasuke before continuing.
"Can it be more dangerous than the two of you getting chased here like homeless dogs?"
Sasuke: "…"
Boruto: "…"
Don't cue me. I'm just a child.
Kai glanced at the two of them, then his gaze once again fell on Sasuke's empty left sleeve. His brows furrowed slightly.
For the sake of so-called atonement, he had kept himself in a half-health state all year round?
His brain really had gone bad.
"Cough, cough…"
Seeing that the two brothers were about to start arguing, Jiraiya coughed and hurriedly walked over.
"Well… Kai, how are we handling this Ōtsutsuki thing? We can't just nail him here and use him as a landmark, right?"
As he spoke, he pointed at Urashiki, who had been stabbed into the crater.
"Landmark? You know, don't say that—you really might be onto something!"
Hearing Jiraiya's words, Kai's brows suddenly lifted.
A landmark actually sounded pretty good!
"Forget it, forget it. If he's only used as a landmark… that'd be too wasteful!"
After a moment of silence, Kai shook his head and said with some regret,
"Right now, Konoha's industrial park construction is at a critical stage. This is ready-made forced labor. It'd be a waste not to use him!"
"Forced… forced labor?! And what industrial park construction?"
Hearing this, Boruto's bright blue eyes widened round.
He seemed to have heard some incredible new words again.
Beside him, Sasuke also narrowed his eyes slightly, somewhat curious.
Kai had no intention of explaining to the two of them. He simply beckoned and withdrew the Infinite Locks around them.
"Lord Jiraiya, you should know how to handle things here, right?"
"Mm. Don't worry."
Jiraiya nodded.
He understood the dangers of time paradoxes.
The moment he saw the barrier vanish, he flickered out.
The battle here had undoubtedly attracted plenty of attention. He had to go persuade those people to leave.
Buzz.
Soon, the barrier disappeared.
The messy footsteps outside also became increasingly clear.
Tap.
At that moment, a figure dressed in a gray-blue robe quietly appeared.
Without alarming anyone.
Except Sasuke.
"This is… Body Flicker?"
Future Sasuke's pupils contracted again.
"Such a fast Body Flicker… even the Rinnegan can barely see through it!"
This was the first time he had encountered someone whose Body Flicker ended before the Rinnegan finished noticing!
"Strange… does Konoha at this time still have another expert?"
With doubt in his heart, Sasuke raised his head and looked at the robed figure.
The moment he looked up, he saw a short-haired boy with a youthful, bright, sunny smile on his face.
His eyes blurred slightly.
"This is…"
Before he could finish speaking, he was beaten to it by a young voice beside him.
"Eh? Mirai Sarutobi?! Why are you here too?!"
Boruto looked as if he had discovered a new continent. He circled around Shisui, constantly sizing him up. Then he stretched out a hand to compare heights and became shocked.
"Eh, eh, eh? Wait, no, that's wrong. Why are you taller than me?"
"Don't tell me you shrink as you grow older?!"
Sasuke: "…"
He suddenly realized that bringing Boruto back might not have been a good choice.
This child's brain was practically the same as Naruto's when he was young.
Both of them were missing something!
"Ah? You two are… hm?"
Shisui still wore a warm smile as he turned to look at them.
But when he saw future Sasuke, his eyes could not help shrinking.
He hesitated over his words, then asked carefully, "You are… Sasuke?"
Sasuke: "…"
Why did every person he met recognize him?
Was he, a time-space traveler, really this lacking in dignity?
He sighed and nodded.
Whoosh!
But before he could react, Shisui directly used Body Flicker to appear in front of him. His right hand grabbed toward Sasuke's left sleeve.
Empty.
The moment he felt that emptiness in his hand, Shisui's expression completely darkened.
"Who did this?"
As one of the geniuses of the younger Uchiha generation, they had always treated Sasuke as a little brother.
But now!
Their little brother, Sasuke, was actually missing an arm!
That made Shisui's mood worsen considerably.
"Tell me who did it. To dare touch our Uchiha little genius… he really doesn't want to live, does he?"
By the time he reached the final words, Shisui's voice had already grown much darker.
This scene formed an enormous contrast with his earlier sunny smile.
Even Sasuke fell into a slight daze.
In his memories, hadn't Brother Shisui always been the sunny, handsome, optimistic little sun of the Uchiha?
When did he become like this?
But…
Sasuke's heart felt warm.
This feeling of being protected by someone—
He had not experienced it for twenty years, had he?
Ever since that night began, it seemed his life had held only revenge and becoming stronger.
Even after all the misunderstandings were cleared up, all that remained was self-redemption…
Seeing that the two of them had already drifted off-topic, Kai waved his hand and pulled the conversation back.
"I'll handle the arm matter. I called you here for this thing."
He pointed at Urashiki, who was nailed inside the pit.
That bizarre appearance, along with the shoehorn-like print on his face, made Shisui's brows furrow uncontrollably.
"A birdman? Truly, when the forest is big enough, all kinds of birds show up."
Shisui curled his lip and subconsciously said,
"With one this big, should we stew it or roast it?"
Uchiha Kai: "…"
Sasuke: "…"
Urashiki in the pit: "…"
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