The sudden surge of violent energy far exceeded Asuka's conversion speed. Caught off guard, his body was quickly covered in purple patterns formed by the Dragon Vein's energy.
Even so, Asuka had no intention of giving up.
He was unwilling to abandon the Dragon Vein's power at this point. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to endure the overwhelming pressure.
Pushing his body to its limits, he desperately guided the surging Dragon Vein energy into the mutant gene pool.
Under the assault of this violent power, the genetic sequences within the gene pool began activating one after another. Perhaps because the rampaging Dragon Vein energy was extremely active and of exceptionally high quality, the abilities that awakened were no longer weak or minor ones.
Many mutant powers familiar to Asuka began activating continuously.
Nightcrawler, Colossus, Pyro, Sunspot, Red Devil, and more.
However, Asuka had no time to examine these newly unlocked abilities. At that moment, he felt as if his body might explode at any second.
The Dragon Vein's energy was powerful enough to distort space and time, and now it was rampaging more violently than ever before.
These chaotic energies had already surpassed the Black King's absorption limit. Even though Asuka was desperately converting the energy into his mutant gene pool, he could clearly feel that his body was nearing its breaking point.
Just as he was about to give up, the faint trace of the Phoenix Force that had been dormant within his soul suddenly stirred.
It reacted almost instinctively—like a sleeping person swatting away an annoying mosquito.
In a single moment, it compressed the chaotic energy and forcibly packed it into the mutant gene pool.
Asuka, who had been enduring the rampaging Dragon Vein energy directly, had somehow remained conscious until then. But the Phoenix Force's casual movement immediately knocked him unconscious.
The Dragon Vein's source energy was also affected. Most of it was directly devoured by the irritable Phoenix Force.
The energy it consumed, combined with the compressed energy that continued flowing into Asuka's body, drastically weakened the Dragon Vein.
The once-glorious Dragon Vein quickly lost its power. The massive pillar of energy that had been erupting moments earlier gradually withered away.
Perhaps because of this, a white light slowly began appearing around Naruto's body.
The clone—who had just endured a Tailed Beast Ball and was still launching energy attacks at Naruto—noticed the change immediately.
"It seems the time is almost up," the clone thought.
When the Dragon Vein had gone out of control earlier, he had wanted to return to the main body. Unfortunately, the rampaging Six-Tails Naruto had been too dangerous to ignore. The clone had been forced to stall him to prevent the situation from becoming even worse.
Now that Naruto was glowing with white light, the clone immediately realized that the time-travel effect was coming to an end.
After kicking Naruto away, the clone rushed down into the deep Dragon Vein chamber. He retrieved the unconscious main body and carefully laid him on the ground.
Seeing that the main body was also emitting white light, the clone understood that the moment of return had arrived.
If he failed to return to the main body now, it might create a spacetime paradox.
After confirming that the surroundings were safe, the clone merged back into the main body.
In the next instant—
Asuka vanished.
At the same time, Naruto—who had regained some of his senses under the Dragon Vein's influence—and Yamato, who had barely played any role during the entire incident and was nowhere to be seen until now, also disappeared.
With the two of them gone, Minato and the others finally emerged from the shadows and escorted Sara to the Dragon Vein's source.
Looking at the now-calm Dragon Vein, Minato decided that it would be safest to seal it completely.
After receiving Sara's permission, he inserted a special kunai into the Dragon Vein's core and began forming a series of hand seals.
Just before the sealing technique fully activated, Minato spoke to everyone present.
"To prevent disturbances to the timeline, I will seal a portion of everyone's memories. Once the sealing is complete, all of you will forget everything related to the future."
When the sealing jutsu took effect, everyone clearly felt a portion of their memories disappear.
All they remembered was battling a mysterious black-robed figure of terrifying strength.
Minato later recorded this information in the mission report and submitted it to Hiruzen Sarutobi. From that day forward, Konoha kept a hidden record of a mysterious and powerful individual—Asuka—whose true identity remained unknown.
…
When Asuka finally regained consciousness after returning to the future, he slowly opened his eyes.
Above him was an unfamiliar ceiling.
He shook his head forcefully until his thoughts gradually cleared.
Looking around, he realized he was lying inside a luxurious room.
Asuka sat up while holding his head, trying to recall everything that had happened before he lost consciousness.
After organizing his thoughts, he decided to examine the gains from this operation.
He focused his mind and entered the mutant gene pool.
Soon, he sorted through all the newly unlocked mutant abilities. The corners of his mouth slowly lifted in satisfaction.
The harvest this time had been enormous.
Not only had he awakened numerous powerful abilities, but he had also obtained something extremely valuable—
A portable energy source.
Just as Asuka was enjoying the moment, the door to the room suddenly opened.
He looked up.
A figure with long red hair entered.
"You're awake? How does your body feel?"
The person who entered was Sara.
After the Dragon Vein went out of control, she had been rescued and officially took on the heavy responsibility of ruling as the Queen of Roran.
One day, the palace guards reported that the Dragon Vein's seal had begun leaking energy and that a suspicious individual had been discovered nearby.
When Sara arrived, she immediately recognized the man.
It was Mr. Wu—the same person she had made a deal with.
Recognizing Asuka, she ordered the guards to bring him back to the palace and take care of him. Every day since then, aside from managing state affairs, she had personally come to check on his condition.
From their conversation, Asuka learned that he had been unconscious for nearly a week.
When he checked the time more carefully, he discovered something surprising.
Three months had passed in the Ninja World since the Dragon Vein incident.
It seemed that the Dragon Vein had carried him through a period of time in addition to the time he had spent unconscious.
Asuka then asked Sara why she had saved him.
Sara smiled faintly.
"We made a deal, didn't we? Even though some accidents happened, Anrokuzan was still defeated. And you showed me the truth about Roran."
"Otherwise… I might still be deceived by him, or even killed by him."
"I'm very grateful to you."
Her answer left Asuka slightly puzzled.
Was he really that kind?
Had Sara developed some kind of psychological attachment because of the incident?
After thanking her, Asuka enjoyed a hearty meal prepared by the palace.
Once he had recovered, he sought out Sara again to say goodbye.
"You're leaving?" Sara asked.
"That's right. I have other matters to attend to."
She hesitated for a moment.
"Then… will you come back?"
"Of course," Asuka replied calmly. "I promise I'll return to see you."
He reached into his pocket and handed her a pure white feather.
"If you ever want to see me, just channel your chakra into this feather. I guarantee I'll appear by your side immediately."
The feather had been plucked from an angel's wing and contained energy unique to Asuka. He had also engraved sealing runes onto it, allowing him to sense it instantly anywhere in the Ninja World.
After saying farewell to Sara, Asuka left the palace and disappeared into the night.
Sara stood by the window, quietly watching the dark horizon, her eyes filled with reluctance.
Meanwhile, after leaving the palace, Asuka immediately thought about the clone he had left on the battlefield in the Land of Water.
After confirming the direction, his figure vanished instantly, leaving only faint red energy particles drifting through the air.
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