"Where's my big brother?!"
Kakashi was momentarily stunned, then immediately turned to Sara and asked.
Sara looked down at the empty void below. Hearing Kakashi's voice, she suddenly sank down beside him, her voice trembling as she said, "He... jumped down..."
"Huh?!"
Kakashi's expression changed sharply. He stared at the abyss beneath the stone platform. After a moment of assessment, he took a deep breath and leapt down along the edge, disappearing quickly into the darkness.
After a while, Kakashi reappeared, his face grim. "There's nothing down there... So what exactly happened?!"
Sara's voice trembled as she answered, "He took the full force of the Ryūmyaku energy's explosion. That immense power... no human could withstand it..."
"Impossible!"
Kakashi immediately refuted in a deep voice, "My big brother wouldn't die. If what you say is true, that he absorbed the Ryūmyaku energy, then maybe he was sent to another point in time. With his abilities, he'll come back sooner or later!"
Hearing Kakashi's words, Sara, who had already started crying, looked up at him again. Seeing the unwavering conviction in his eyes, her own sorrow was momentarily held back. Thinking of Kaede's previously displayed incredible power, she couldn't help but believe Kakashi.
Kakashi stood by the platform and glanced down once more. Then he said in a serious tone, "You go handle things outside. I'll stay here and wait for my big brother to come back."
Sara was silent for a moment. She wanted to say she'd wait here too, but thinking about how the situation outside still needed her after Anrokuzan's death, she grit her teeth, nodded, and quickly ran off.
After rescuing the underground people and regaining the trust of the Rōran citizens, Sara returned to the platform and found Kakashi sitting alone on the edge, gazing down into the abyss.
She sat down beside him and looked down as well.
...
Time flew by.
Kakashi never saw Kaede return.
He waited at the stone platform above the Ryūmyaku for three months. His spirit grew more and more downcast until one day, he quietly disappeared from there.
When Sara discovered Kakashi was gone, she bit her lip and looked down into the abyss but refused to give up hope. She continued to come here every day after finishing her tasks.
Three months...
Four months...
Half a year...
A whole year...
And then nearly two years passed.
During these two years, Kaede's disappearance caused a huge stir throughout the ninja world. Although the major ninja villages suspected it was a Konoha ploy and dared not act rashly, after six months they could no longer hold back. The previously calm ninja world situation erupted once again.
The Third Great Ninja War flared up anew, and Kaede still never appeared.
One day, some rogue ninja happened to enter Rōran and brought back news that Kaede and Kakashi had once been there over a year ago, records showed Rōran was the last place Kaede was seen.
After gathering some intelligence on Rōran, the news quickly spread throughout the ninja world, and the major villages finally found what they thought was the 'reason' for Kaede's disappearance.
As time went on, the record of Kaede's disappearance was slowly replaced by a record of his death, and silence fell. Taking the place of Kaede's once brilliant legacy was The Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato.
In one battle, Minato had slain fifty Jōnin from the Iwagakure, shocking the Tsuchikage Onoki and completely collapsing the frontline.
That battle made Minato a legend in the ninja world.
All the major villages grew wary of Minato's power, and the raging Third Great Ninja War finally began to settle down.
Many still remembered the once-famous "Silver Flash", but that name gradually faded away.
"Didn't expect that ninja to die too," some would sigh when they remembered.
Though none of the major villages, including Konoha, had confirmed the Silver Flash's death, after two years of no sign of him, no one expected anything else.
Gradually, no one spoke of the Silver Flash anymore.
Though not yet forgotten, with time's ruthless march, his name would soon be only a memory in the history of the ninja world.
...
Somewhere in a dim space.
Calling it a space wasn't quite right, it seemed no concept of space existed here, only the scale of time.
After absorbing the Ryūmyaku energy, or rather, after diving inside the Ryūmyaku energy, Kaede's consciousness appeared here.
The devoured Ryūmyaku energy seemed to flood into his body, but in truth, it was compressed and twisted into a power that distorted time itself.
Whoosh!
This indescribable energy surged into the inner world of the illusory clock of consciousness, making the golden glow on the clock suddenly brighten.
Kaede's awareness saw the fog at the "3 o'clock" mark on the illusory clock rapidly dissipating. What should have taken years or even over a decade to clear was vanishing in moments until it completely disappeared!
Buzz!
With the fog at the "3" mark gone and the light shining brightly, the twisted space-time energy drawn from the Ryūmyaku seemed to be exhausted as well.
This dark, seemingly spaceless world, the curtain of darkness, was torn apart, and images reappeared before him.
...
Rōran, two years later.
Somewhere beneath the Ryūmyaku stone platform.
Countless points of light swirled rapidly, converging into Kaede's figure. Then, he opened his eyes.
Realizing he was falling through the air, Kaede quickly formed a hand seal and used a Shadow Clone to push his true body upward.
Whoosh!
Kaede landed atop the stone platform above the Ryūmyaku.
Noticing the platform and tower around him showed no signs of damage or wear from time, Kaede let out a slight breath of relief.
"Looks like I wasn't sent to the distant future…"
"But it also doesn't seem to be the original time either."
He pondered for a moment, entered the illusory space with his consciousness, briefly merged with the illusory clock, and quickly learned the specific changes from inside it.
No spatial leap.
This was still the same world.
Only two years had passed. It was now Konoha's 47th year.
During the absorption of the Ryūmyaku energy, he disappeared from the time scale. Although it was only for an instant, when he returned, the world had skipped forward two years.
"So it's like being sealed for two years, then breaking out of the seal..." Kaede muttered, shaking his head with some awe. "Time really is a terrifying thing."
Fortunately, it was just two years, not straight to the Fourth Great Ninja War.
No big problem.
Though now, it seemed Kakashi was actually a year older than him.
Hmm.
Better not tell him. Even after two years, Kakashi was still his younger brother in terms of physical age, he was only twelve now.
"Oh right..."
"Looks like the ability corresponding to the '3 o'clock' mark has been unlocked."
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