Chapter 571: Karma
The realm of time was not just complex; it was extraordinarily so. Even though Minato Namikaze considered himself quite intelligent, he felt completely bewildered at this moment. This matter truly touched upon a blind spot in his knowledge.
"With Ino there, Sasuke should be fine. They went later, so their return time should also be a few days later than ours," he could only speculate based on common sense to comfort Naruto.
Naruto punched the wall in frustration. He had been fighting with all his might, only for this damn timeline to force him to abandon his comrades and run back like a deserter. The feeling was utterly infuriating.
They waited for another two days.
Ino and the others returned.
Except for Sasuke, whose face was still a bit pale, the other three were fine.
Ino's sage body recovered quickly. With her ninja headband on, the new wound on her forehead was completely invisible.
Choji had eaten fish for two days and had replenished a little bit of fat. His figure was still thin, but his movements were no longer a problem.
Sakura let out a huge sigh of relief. It's good that they're back. She tore up the last will. Here's your Shinigami prayer bead back. The rest has nothing to do with me!
"What? Hayate Gekko didn't come back?! Then where did he go?" Receiving this news from Minato, Ino was also surprised. How could that be? A perfectly fine living person, just disappeared like that?
"Could he still be in the city of Rōran?" Minato asked.
Ino had been meditating and recuperating in Rōran, studying the golden Rinnegan, so she didn't know the situation. She looked at Shikamaru and Sasuke.
These two energetic young men had wandered around the city several times.
Both of them shook their heads.
Shikamaru said, "Lord Hokage, all three of them were injured. After the people of Rōran evacuated, I specifically scouted the area again. There was no one left in the city, and I didn't see Senior Hayate."
Minato scratched his head. "Then where could Hayate have gone? Sigh... how am I going to tell Yūgao about this?"
Even Ino couldn't give an answer.
But she had a guess in her heart.
Three groups of people had gone to the Rōran of twenty years ago: Hokage Minato's team, Ino's rescue squad, and Urashiki Ōtsutsuki.
If Hayate hadn't returned to this original timeline, then he had likely gone to Urashiki's timeline, to a more distant future.
Of course, this was just her guess. Whether it was true or not required careful investigation.
Minato could wait for Ino in Rōran for two days, but he couldn't wait for Hayate Gekko here any longer. He had to return to the village immediately.
If he hadn't returned in time, Koharu and Homura would have been discussing the selection of the Sixth Hokage with the Feudal Lord.
Adding to that the sudden coma of Kakashi, Choza, and Shibi, the village was in a state of panic. He had to go back immediately to stabilize the situation.
He left Naruto and Shizune in Rōran and returned to the village using the Flying Thunder God. Before leaving, he entrusted Ino, "I'm counting on you for Hayate Gekko's matter."
Ino nodded. "I'll do my best."
Hayate had been in the city of Rōran the whole time. He had watched as Minato, Naruto, and Shizune disappeared. Yet, he couldn't make a sound, like a transparent person trapped in the gap between two tight walls of air.
Then, Ino returned with Urashiki's tattered clothes. Shikamaru went fishing, Choji busily helped roast the fish, and Sasuke trained alone. All these scenes fell into his eyes.
He was extremely anxious. What is going on! He tried to shout, to punch the air walls around him, to attract Ino's attention. Unfortunately, Ino didn't see him at all.
After Ino left with the other three, he fell into complete despair. I can't go back, can I? I hope Yūgao won't be too sad when she gets the news.
He didn't know how much time had passed.
One day, he suddenly found himself hallucinating.
He seemed to be at the lakeside again, and by the lake sat a thin figure in a white robe with blue hair, holding a fishing rod.
"Impossible, you're already dead! Miss Yamanaka killed you herself!" he said sternly.
Urashiki Ōtsutsuki smiled sarcastically. "Dead? Sorry, the Ōtsutsuki clan doesn't have that concept. However... the power I have left is indeed not much."
Hayate shouted, drew his katana, and stabbed Urashiki's body three times.
Urashiki laughed. "What are you doing? Where do you think I am? Use your brain and think carefully. If that greedy woman didn't see my body, didn't confirm that I was truly dead, how could she have left? I am in your memories."
"Memories?" Hayate was dumbfounded. How was he supposed to deal with this?
Urashiki looked at Hayate. Luckily, I left this backup plan during our first meeting. Otherwise, I would have been completely finished.
"You are a very excellent ninja, Hayate Gekko. I admire you." Urashiki's voice was sinister and unsettling.
Urashiki suddenly teleported in front of him, his right index and middle fingers together, and tapped his forehead.
Hayate felt the chakra that had been snatched away by the fishing rod that day return, but it seemed to be mixed with something else.
"Hayate Gekko, we will meet again..."
Urashiki turned into light smoke before his eyes and completely disappeared.
Without this final restraint, Hayate also returned to his own timeline a minute later and was found by Konoha ninja in a valley thirty miles west of Rōran.
"Urashiki Ōtsutsuki is not dead! He seems to have done something inside my body. I don't know what it is, but it must be something bad! Ahem, ahem! If necessary... ahem, please kill me. Don't hesitate! Don't let me do anything to betray the village!"
Hayate felt uncomfortable all over. It was as if something was taking root and sprouting in his head, and he couldn't stop it. He told Shizune, who was in charge of the rescue, everything he knew, and then he fainted.
Shizune examined him carefully and then notified Ino.
"They found him already? I thought he had gone to the future..."
"Look here."
Shizune gestured for Ino to look at Hayate's left hand.
There was a very conspicuous black diamond-shaped mark in Hayate's palm. "Hayate's physical recovery is much better than expected. The only extra thing is this. I checked it. There's a very strange chakra inside."
Is this the Ōtsutsuki clan's Karma? This was the first time Ino had seen it.
The Ōtsutsuki clan digitized themselves, like a backup file, copying all their information and compressing it into a sentient being in the form of a "Karma." They called this sentient being a "vessel."
When the data in the "Karma" was decompressed to a certain extent, the Ōtsutsuki who had implanted the data could be reborn from the "vessel's" body.
Using this method, the Ōtsutsuki clan had almost achieved immortality.
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