Colorful radiance began to flash across the system panel.
In the real world, Hikaru suddenly felt everything around him shift completely.
What was once an unbreakable spatial seal now seemed fragile in his eyes—like a pane of ordinary glass that could shatter with a mere touch.
The transformation filled Hikaru with shock and wonder.
It was as if the laws of this world were unraveling before him, laid bare like an ancient tome of divine mysteries, revealing the secrets of existence.
Even more astonishing, Hikaru's body and soul began to undergo a metamorphosis.
He could clearly feel his physical form growing stronger—each and every cell brimming with vitality. And his soul was elevating as well, deepening its connection to the world itself.
His entire being was ascending rapidly, breaching one boundary after another, constantly breaking through his previous limits.
And that once-mysterious voice—unfamiliar and unknowable—now rang loud and clear in his ears.
He could even pinpoint the voice's exact origin: it came from a will beyond time and space.
Hikaru's breakthrough had clearly caught this will's attention.
The pull it exerted—already powerful—became violently intense, as if trying to swallow him whole.
But now, Hikaru had completed his metamorphosis. That power no longer posed a threat.
It was like a soft breeze brushing past his cheek, incapable of inflicting any real harm.
Having now tapped into the deeper layers of this world, Hikaru grasped what was truly happening.
He understood: the force attacking him was the Sacred Timeline—the canonical Naruto world itself. Every other world was merely a branching thread off that central timeline.
Hikaru's emergence and rapid growth had become a direct challenge to the legitimacy of that world.
At first, Hikaru's power remained within normal bounds, so the will of that world ignored him.
But as time passed, his strength surged at an exponential pace.
By the time it realized Hikaru had become a destabilizing threat—it was already too late.
The Naruto world had designated Hikaru as a protected entity. The world itself prevented this will from striking him directly.
Now, both sides stood on equal footing. What followed was a battle of fate.
For Hikaru, reaching the peak of this world presented two choices:
One—abandon everything, and like Ōtsutsuki, transcend the dimensional boundary to enter a higher realm.
Or two—replace the Naruto world, making his world the new Sacred Timeline, and ascend as its god.
The will assumed Hikaru would choose the latter, believing he would never forsake all he had built.
So it laid careful traps: engineered accidents, unexpected crises—all designed to suppress his rise.
From dispatching Isshiki to chase Hinata Hyūga, to activating the Ōtsutsuki's apocalyptic moon plan decades ahead of schedule, to provoking the clan's invasion prematurely—every step was orchestrated.
But Hikaru's growth far outpaced its projections.
These obstacles didn't stop him. They fueled him.
Seeing its plans collapse one after another, the will made its move.
It consumed its own source power to manifest most of its strength through Ōtsutsuki Urashiki, hoping to annihilate Hikaru directly.
But it failed.
Hikaru had grown beyond its reach.
And when it realized Hikaru posed a mortal threat to its own existence, it tried again—burning even more source power—to banish him from the world entirely.
But fate didn't bend to its will.
At the pivotal moment, Hikaru's Idle Training System surged with unimaginable force, propelling him to breakthrough and granting him absolute dominance.
Now understanding the full picture, Hikaru couldn't deny that some luck had played a role in his victory.
Without it, he might have truly been exiled—lost to the void, far from the warmth and familiarity of this world.
And without knowing this world's coordinates, finding his way back could've taken eons.
But reality is cruel, and the law of the victor reigns supreme.
Hikaru had secured his place at the top—and it was time to settle the score.
He prepared to unleash his full might and end the will once and for all.
But just as he raised his hand for the final strike, the will sent a signal of surrender.
It proposed a merger between its world and Hikaru's—uniting under the starry sky to seek a new sanctuary, a place where Hikaru's planet could rest.
This way, both worlds would be elevated into Sacred Timeline status—sharing glory and dignity.
To Hikaru, the offer was laughably absurd.
He remembered clearly: not long ago, this will had tried to kill him.
And when that failed, it had immediately turned to banishment.
Though the world's will had no emotions—just cold, calculated logic—Hikaru couldn't stomach its treachery.
He rejected the offer without hesitation.
To him, peace with such a being was never an option.
Then, at that decisive moment, a force capable of annihilating everything surged forth from the stars, aimed squarely at the Shinobi World.
The will had long known that cooperation was unlikely. So it spent its source power to forge one last, devastating attack.
Even worse, it aimed not at Hikaru—but at the Shinobi World, hoping he wouldn't be able to evade without sacrificing others.
But Hikaru only sneered coldly.
He had anticipated this.
For a being like that, untouched by emotion or honor, every act was guided solely by logic and gain.
But this time, it had miscalculated.
Hikaru was ready.
Just as the apocalyptic force approached, it suddenly vanished.
Then came the sound of space-time itself wailing—in the realm where the will resided.
It was Hikaru.
With the powers awakened through his ascension, he had reflected the attack back to its source—embedding a rule of destruction into the strike.
The blow was so powerful that it obliterated the will entirely.
And in that instant, the Naruto world made its choice:
It chose the stronger existence.
Hikaru's world was granted the mantle of Sacred Timeline, becoming the supreme reality.
Meanwhile, the residents of the former Naruto world had no idea what had just transpired.
They merely felt the world shatter for an instant—only to return to its usual peace.
Everything that had just happened faded like a forgotten nightmare.
They didn't know that their world had been relegated to a mere branch.
And the true Sacred Timeline... now belonged to someone else.