Hiruko held a few key "anchors" to ensure he wouldn't get lost in the void. Though Sasori suspected Hiruko was hiding something vital, his impatience to traverse time and space overrode his caution. He didn't care to haggle over details anymore.
"No need to be so anxious, Sasori. Have you packed your gear? A puppet master without puppets is just a waste of space," Hiruko teased.
"I've been ready for ages."
"Then we depart!" Hiruko's voice echoed through the vast, empty chamber.
In an instant, the surging purple Dragon Vein chakra on Hiruko's body acted like a living serpent, slithering down Sasori's arm from where he gripped Hiruko's shoulder. Within a heartbeat, the mysterious, potent chakra enveloped Sasori entirely, causing him to glow with a violet radiance as if bathed in ethereal flame.
Hiruko's gaze sharpened. He reached out and firmly grasped the glowing tri-pronged kunai on the altar. He pulled his hands apart in a slow, heavy motion that seemed to carry the weight of the world.
BOOM!
The massive Dragon Vein chakra transformed into a pillar of purple light that pierced the ceiling, looking like a galaxy pouring downward. Sasori and Hiruko were instantly swallowed by the beam, vanishing into the brilliance.
Thanks to Hiruko's meticulous preparations, the exterior of the Sun Furnace Tower remained calm, the wind blowing through the desert as if nothing had happened. Inside the altar, the light pillar dissipated within minutes, and the hemispherical shield slid shut.
Simultaneously, the electronic programs Hiruko left behind began to run at high speeds, data flickering across screens as they tirelessly analyzed the space-time fluctuations. Eventually, the program displayed a "Signal Interaction Failure" with the original world.
Hiruko had planned for this: he intended to build a signal base in the other world using its Dragon Vein as a foundation to maintain contact with home.
CRACK-BOOM!
A purple pillar of light appeared without warning in another dimension. Two exceptionally handsome men were hurled out, tumbling across the ground like spinning tops for dozens of rotations, kicking up dust before finally coming to a stop.
Being elite shinobi, they adjusted their postures mid-roll and regained their senses quickly.
"This is Roran," Sasori said, standing up and scanning the desolate surroundings. He frowned in confusion. He could clearly feel the lingering Dragon Vein chakra in the air, confirming the location, but the Roran before him was a graveyard of ruins—silent and uninhabited. It was a far cry from the bustling, technologically advanced Roran Hiruko had built in their home timeline.
"It seems the Roran I transformed into a metropolis exists in our world, while the one we've arrived in is... well, the original," Hiruko mused, examining the hemispherical altar. He checked the unstable chakra and quickly wove signs to reseal it.
He stood up and looked at the wasteland, a glint of insight in his eyes. "Using Dragon Vein chakra as a medium seems to have opened a path to a parallel version of Roran." He grinned. This meant that in the future, when traveling through the Naruto multiverse, he wouldn't have to worry about falling into a volcano or being swallowed by a monster's stomach. A little caution would go a long way.
"See? I didn't lie to you," Hiruko chuckled.
Sasori shot him a cold look. "Evidently."
Hiruko pulled a miniature scroll from his pocket, tossed it onto the clearing, and flicked his wrist. The tiny scroll expanded into a massive one. He slapped the ground—POOF—and a giant airship bearing a Konoha logo appeared, its metallic hull gleaming in the desert sun.
It was a tech-chakra passenger craft Hiruko had developed. Extremely convenient.
Sasori looked at the craft with a hint of professional admiration. Through special modification, these scrolls could now replace traditional sealing scrolls, performing even better. In Hiruko's blueprint for the future, these functional scrolls were a priority project. They were similar to magic scrolls in Western fantasy or capsules from Dragon Ball. They could be compressed to millimeters and launched from a wrist-mounted device.
However, the launch method wasn't as intuitive as casting a jutsu. It felt a bit clunky, the effects often falling short of a manual cast. Furthermore, the manufacturing process was grueling, requiring roughly seven or eight distinct types of rare materials. It was a tool for tactical players and tech-heads.
Hiruko had already stockpiled many for himself, but he had handed the bulk of the research over to Konoha's lab teams. Personally, he was obsessed with the space-storage function. While crafting spatial devices was a nightmare, he had developed a few capable of sealing living creatures. Spatial ability was, after all, a universal "God-tier" power.
Hiruko pressed his palm against the airship's hatch. Chakra flowed into the lock; the ship initiated a scan, recorded his fingerprints, and performed an iris authentication.
CLANG. The hatch dropped heavily to the ground. "Let's go. We need to get away from these ruins." Hiruko retrieved the scroll, gestured to Sasori, and stepped inside.
In the world of Naruto, outside of a few weird movie scenarios, organized air forces didn't exist. Though this airship was a bit "out there," Hiruko didn't worry about being shot down. Even if they had landed in the Boruto timeline, the world was largely at peace under the Seventh Hokage's reign.
Hiruko piloted the craft away from Roran and landed near Sunagakure. They quickly locked onto an target: a "lucky" Suna ninja with face paint and a forehead protector. To get intel in a desert, you start with the locals. Suna, as one of the Five Great Nations, would have much better data than any small country.
"Interesting... so it's this timeline," Hiruko murmured. He used a Yamanaka secret technique to forcibly extract information from the ninja's mind before tossing the brain-scrambled "unlucky" guy aside like trash.
He turned to Sasori with a mischievous, almost wicked expression.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Sasori asked, his brow furrowing in irritation.
"The current time is roughly fifteen years ahead of our original timeline. The Fourth Kazekage is dead. The Fifth Kazekage is a Jinchuriki, but he's currently... let's say, 'unavailable.' The scars of the Third War have left Suna in a tragic state," Hiruko explained, crossing his arms.
"According to that Jonin's mind, the Fifth Kazekage—the Jinchuriki—was kidnapped by a mysterious organization. And Lady Chiyo, upon hearing that the kidnappers include her long-lost grandson Sasori, has ignored her old age. She's dragging her withered body along on the rescue mission."
Hiruko's grin widened. "This is very interesting!"
"A brainless old hag," Sasori muttered indifferently. He tilted his head, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes. "And what about the me of this world? Where is he? I'm quite interested in seeing myself fifteen years later."
"And your grandmother, Chiyo. I'm curious what she looks like now," Hiruko added. "I know where they are. Let's go—we shouldn't miss this historic 'Grandmother vs. Grandson' showdown."
Hiruko was genuinely looking forward to it. Whether it was the "Puppet Sasori's" mastery of self-modification and the Core of Living Flesh, or Chiyo's One's Own Life Resurrection (Kishō Tensei)—developed specifically for Sasori—these were mortals treading into the domain of the gods.
Kishō Tensei was a miracle. It required the user to transfer their entire life force through chakra to another, even bringing the dead back to life. It was one of the few true resurrection jutsus in the world, rooted in the essence of Yang Release. Hiruko's own resurrection of Nawaki used a similar principle, though he used "substitutes" instead of his own life.
It was essentially the same power Hagoromo used to breathe life into the Tailed Beasts. And now, Sasori had evolved his own body to the point where everything except his core was replaceable. If he developed remote wireless control, he'd basically be a shinobi Lich with a phylactery.
Inside a dark, eerie cave, two members of the Akatsuki—Deidara and Sasori—were locked in a heated debate. They completely ignored the presence of the Konoha reinforcements: Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Lady Chiyo, who was silently observing her grandson.
"Deidara, you clearly don't understand what true art is," Sasori said, his voice cold and echoing through the cavern.
"I think you're the one who's lost, hm!" Deidara snapped back, arms crossed.
"No, no. Eternal beauty is the only true art. Fleeting things don't even deserve the name," Sasori insisted with unshakeable conviction.
"Don't be stupid! Art is an explosion! That moment of breathtaking intensity—that is the ultimate peak of art, hm!"
The two argued until they were red in the face, the tension in the cave so thick it seemed to solidify. Naruto, who had been treated like furniture up until now, was reaching his boiling point. His eyes burned with fury. He snatched a giant shuriken from his pouch, his muscles tensing.
He hurled it with a roar at the two men sitting atop Gaara's corpse. "You bastards! Stop playing around!!"
CLANG.
Sasori casually flicked his mechanical tail, swatting the shuriken out of the air like a bothersome fly. He didn't even blink, remaining entirely immersed in his argument with Deidara as if the outside world didn't exist.
Naruto, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, looked ready to explode. Veins popped on his forehead as he screamed, "You... you're doing this on purpose just to piss me off, aren't you?!"
Sasori continued to lecture Deidara, viewing his junior's philosophy as a grave error that required correction. "Art must be eternal. That is why I said... I would probably make you angry."
He manipulated his tail, and a few drops of purple liquid began to seep from the tip—a poison so lethal it shimmered with a sinister light in the gloom. In the Akatsuki, this was considered "playful."
Deidara smirked. "I'm always serious about art. Only my art is true art, hm!"
Deidara stood up, the mouth in his right palm beginning to squirm and chew.
A single relevant follow-up question: As the "future" Sasori and Deidara prepare to fight Naruto's team, how does the "original" Sasori from Hiruko's timeline react to seeing his older, fully-puppetized self?
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