---Third POV---
This syringe really was quite handy. Unlike regular medical ninjutsu, which consumed the body's ability to divide cells, according to Orochimaru, this "White Zetsu Experimental Type-1 Reagent" heals wounds by using internal, stored life force.
The principle behind it was unknown, typical of his unique brand of black-tech.
Naruto was moving his body around, and suddenly, as if remembering something, bowed toward Ryouma and said, "Oh right, this reagent must be really valuable, huh? Sorry for using it…"
Ryouma waved his hand, signaling it wasn't a big deal. "Compared to the reagent, I'm more interested in you. Let's go somewhere else to talk."
As soon as he said that, he reached out and tapped Naruto's shoulder. The Flying Thunder God Technique activated immediately, and the scenery around them instantly changed into a secluded alley.
"Where is this place?"
Before Naruto could get his bearings, Obito glanced at the Konoha headband on Naruto's forehead and spoke first, "What squad are you from? Do you even realize that rescuing you blew our secret infiltration cover?"
His words of reprimand went in one ear and out the other. Naruto leaned closer to Obito and scrutinized his goggles.
"Hmm… Your goggles look like the ones Obito-sensei wears."
"?" Obito understood every word Naruto said, but strung together, it was all incredibly confusing.
"Ahem, even if you call me Sensei… well, whatever. We've basically gathered the intel we needed anyway. This time I'll forgive your reckless behavior."
He suddenly found this brash Konoha ninja kind of likable.
Kakashi rolled his eyes at Obito, who had been swayed by just being called "Sensei," and turned to Ryouma. "What now? Are we taking this unidentified kid with us?"
Although the boy was indeed wearing a Konoha headband, he didn't believe any Konoha ninja would just coincidentally show up here at this time.
"Speaking of which," Rin said, "don't you think he looks a bit like Minato-sensei?"
She remembered that Minato didn't have any relatives, but this kid's hair and face did look remarkably similar.
Naruto, who had been worrying about how to explain his identity, suddenly heard the girl's words and quickly said with excitement, "Exactly! Since you're a Konoha ninja, you should know who I am! My dad is the Fourth Hokage! This mission was assigned to our team by him… uh, did I say something wrong?"
As he kept talking, he suddenly noticed that the people in front of him were looking at him strangely, and he hurried to think back on whether he had said something he shouldn't have.
Obito slightly opened his mouth and looked at Ryouma in shock. "You mean… he's also one of them?"
"Yep," Ryouma hadn't explained earlier just to enjoy this moment. The corner of his mouth curled into a mischievous smile. "Just like that Mukade, he's also traveled from the future to this timeline. He just arrived earlier."
"No wonder," Rin said with a look of realization, nodding. "So that means we got to meet Minato-sensei and Kushina-neesan's kid before even they did."
The more Naruto listened, the more confused he became. He clutched his head and shouted, "Ahhh, what the heck is going on here? Where even is this place? And Mukade? Our mission was to capture that guy!"
"Alright," Ryouma decided to stop joking around. "Let me explain everything to you clearly. You're currently in Rōran, about 20 years in the past from your original time. According to legend, the Ryūmyaku that Rōran has protected for generations possesses the power to send people through time. You probably touched its chakra somehow."
After hearing the analysis from the guy who saved him, Naruto finally had a general understanding of the situation. But that understanding only made him worry more about one thing.
"Does that mean I can't go back? What do I do? I don't even know how Kakashi-sensei and the others are doing…"
Seeing his crestfallen expression, Ryouma didn't keep him in suspense and continued on his own. "About six years before you appeared here, another ninja named Mukade also suddenly appeared in Rōran. As long as you defeat him and sever his connection to the Ryūmyaku, you should be able to return to your original time."
"Oh! So that's how to fix this!" Naruto clenched his fists, finally feeling like he had some direction.
"Thank you… um, are you the Ryouma from the past?"
"Oh, you recognized me? Sounds like we must've gotten along pretty well in the future."
Such was the charm of time travel, just a few words from someone in the future could reveal a lot to those in the past.
Now that Naruto had figured out Ryouma's identity, he relaxed considerably. Looking around, he began asking each person in turn.
"Then you must be Obito-sensei, and with those eyes, you're definitely Kakashi-sensei. And the mark on your forehead, you're Rin-neesan, right?"
"Oh, right! And you, Shukaku, I didn't recognize you at first because you've slimmed down a lot, haha."
"What a rude brat… just like Obito," Shukaku muttered with a click of his tongue.
Still, at least Naruto could name everyone here. If he had hit someone with a "Who are you? I don't know you," this would've turned into a ghost story.
"All your guesses were right. So what's your name?" Rin tilted her head and asked curiously.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! My dad named me after the main character in the novel written by Pervy Sage!" Naruto introduced himself proudly.
"Uzumaki?" Rin looked at Ryouma in surprise. "That's Kushina-neesan's family name, right?"
"Yeah, that's right," Ryouma nodded.
In the culture of the shinobi world, it was rare for children to take the mother's surname, but not unheard of. And since the Nine-Tails wasn't in Naruto, Kushina was probably alive and well.
Seeing that Rin was curious about his surname, Naruto took the initiative to explain. "Well, my dad was the one who wanted me to use my mom's surname. Haha, a lot of people found it strange at school too, but I really like it."
He didn't really need to explain it, Ryouma could more or less guess why. Knowing Minato's personality, he probably wanted the Uzumaki name to live on.
"Earlier, you called me Sensei. Does that mean I'm your teacher in the future?" Obito asked, clearly excited.
"Nope, my instructor is Kakashi-sensei. Your student is—"
"That's enough." Kakashi cut Naruto off before he could finish. "Don't ask too much about the future, Obito."
"Oh, come on," Obito protested. "What harm is there in asking a small question like that?"
"And what use is knowing something like that?" Kakashi shot back.
Naruto stood awkwardly between the two, scratching his head. So these two used to bicker all the time as kids too, huh?
---
Inside the tower of Rōran's ministers, a man dressed in traditional Rōran attire, with a full beard and a slightly overweight middle-aged physique, sat on a luxurious chair, eyes closed in deep thought.
He was none other than the ninja from the future that Naruto was hunting, Mukade. However, in this timeline, he went by the name Anrokuzan.
He raised his hand and pressed an unknown mechanism on the chair. The wall beside him began to shift, revealing a hidden chakra elevator behind it. Stepping into the elevator, he quickly descended to a secret base beneath Rōran. This was the weapons factory he had painstakingly built from scratch over the past few years. Countless Rōran citizens had been captured and forced into hard labor, working around the clock in this base to manufacture puppet weapons.
From a high platform surrounded by railings, he glanced coldly at the pale and emaciated citizens below, then snorted and entered the control room. Inside the control room, a red-haired youth with delicate features was rapidly manipulating a complex control panel.
"You called me here, what's going on? Don't tell me it's someone from Suna again?"
Hearing Mukade's voice, Sasori slowly swiveled his chair to face him.
"If it were Suna ninjas, my puppet forces would have dealt with them already. The ones who came this time are not so simple."
"Oh?" Mukade asked with curiosity. "Who is it?"
With a faint smile, Sasori replied, "It's the Leaf's Gale, Aotsuki Ryouma."
"What?"
The moment he heard the name, Mukade's face turned extremely grim. He had always thought he was being cautious enough, advancing steadily ever since he was teleported to this time period. Yet Konoha had still managed to track him down, and had even sent that troublesome one. Even though his puppet army now numbered in the tens of thousands, he still lacked confidence in facing that monster directly.
As he gritted his teeth, racking his brain for a way out of this crisis, he suddenly noticed Sasori's calm expression, as if he didn't consider this predicament to be anything serious.
"Do you have some method to deal with him?"
"Of course. Right now, only you are exposed out in the open. As long as you lure them near the Ryūmyaku, I can secretly tap into its chakra and activate that technique. If executed properly, there's a chance we can eliminate him."
After hearing Sasori's plan, Mukade immediately rejected it. "No way! That would put me in far too much danger. Is there another option?"
Sasori snorted coldly. "At this point, this is the only way. Or do you still plan to confront him head-on? If so, I must say I admire your courage."
Mukade's expression turned extremely ugly. Yet, Sasori wasn't wrong, the enemy's strength had already grown to the point where direct confrontation was impossible. Their only hope now was to bet everything on Sasori's technique.
Seeing that his pressure was having an effect, Sasori continued, "Relax. The one you fear so much is, for now, just a teenager. As long as you protect your core and don't expose it, no matter how strong his attacks are, what real harm can he do to you? Or… do you want everything you've built in Rōran to be destroyed?"
"This… fine…"
Sasori's tempting words echoed in Mukade's ears, becoming the final straw that broke his inner resistance.
Watching Mukade turn and leave the control room to make preparations, Sasori slowly withdrew his calm expression.
Can that fool really handle it?
He had his doubts. Fortunately, he still had a plan B. Even if Anrokuzan failed, he had other ways to lure Ryouma toward the Ryūmyaku.
"Ryouma… I wonder how powerful a human puppet made from your body would be."
---
Meanwhile, on the other side of Rōran, Ryouma was leading Kakashi and the others as they infiltrated Mukade's secret base through an underground tunnel. Walking through the complex network of pipes, Naruto looked at Ryouma, who was leading the way up front.
"Where exactly are we going?"
"We're going to rescue the citizens that Mukade captured," Ryouma replied without looking back.
"Why would he capture the people of Rōran?"
"Probably to mass-produce puppets."
Thinking about the puppets they had already encountered, Naruto felt uneasy.
"Then… the place we're heading to must have a lot of puppet guards, right?"
"Mm. Excluding those stored in warehouses, I'd estimate a few hundred active ones."
Ryouma didn't count precisely, just gave a rough estimate. In any case, to him, these weren't worth worrying about.
When he first used his Observation Haki to scan the area. He detected nothing out of the ordinary. What did surprise him, however, was when he used his Rikugan to scan, and unexpectedly saw someone he didn't expect to find.
Sasori of the Red Sand, the man who had killed the Third Kazekage and triggered the Third Great Ninja War. Judging by his appearance and the fact that his Observation Haki didn't detect Sasori, he had likely already transformed himself into a human puppet.
When Ryouma first met Naruto, he had already noticed that these puppets were far more advanced in performance than those from the story in his previous life's memory. They also looked very different, more humanlike in design.
Thinking about it now, these puppets were probably the result of joint research between Sasori and Mukade.
While he felt a few hundred puppets were no big deal, Naruto, hearing this, was clearly more nervous.
Rin noticed Naruto's anxiety, patted his shoulder, and tried to encourage him.
"Don't worry. You'll definitely make it back to your own time."
"Thank you. By the way, where's Shiori-neesan? Isn't she with you? Ryouma-nii, did you sneak out without her?"
Only now did Naruto realize that Ryouma seemed to be missing someone.
"Shiori? Uchiha Shiori? That violent girl? Of course she's not here. The four of us are more than enough for any mission. Sneak out? As if we need to sneak out. Ridiculous."
Obito, on the other hand, was puzzled as to why Naruto would suddenly bring this up.
Kakashi furrowed his brows. Well-read as he was, he sensed there was something more to Naruto's words. Glancing at Ryouma's back, he quickly tugged on Obito's sleeve.
"Hey, Obito… I think we better stop talking about the future…"
"What? Why are you pulling my sleeve? Did I say something wrong? She—"
"All right, that's enough. We've arrived."
At Ryouma's voice from up ahead, Obito immediately dropped the subject, hurried over to Ryouma's side, and looked around. The area didn't seem much different from the pipes they had just passed through.