Sarah stood on the palace platform, watching the beam of light from the Dragon Vein altar gradually fade away. Only then did she breathe a long sigh of relief.
"Finally... he's gone..."
At that same moment, the Third Great Ninja War erupted.
But the era Uchiha Hikaru was heading to was even more chaotic and blood-soaked—the Warring States Period.
The first time Hikaru had traveled through the Dragon Vein, it was under Mukade's manipulation that he ended up in ancient Rōran.
This time, Hikaru used the chakra resonance between himself and Sword to activate the Dragon Vein once again.
As the beam of light disappeared from Rōran, Hikaru finally grasped just how dangerous time travel truly was.
In that moment of departure, he could feel the terror of the void surrounding him.
At the end of that void stood a colossal and majestic sacred tree, glowing with radiant golden light, divine and dazzling in every direction.
This tree was covered in countless branches, overflowing with vitality—and yet something about it felt wrong. Deeply wrong.
The tips of every branch were tinged with a scorched, yellow hue, like decay creeping into a once-living body.
"Sword... what is this thing?" Hikaru murmured.
"Could this tree be... the World Tree of this universe?"
Upon hearing this, Sword manifested into her humanoid form and peered closely at the shimmering tree.
"I'm not sure," she replied. "But it looks kinda tasty. I wonder what it'd be like to take a bite~"
Whack!
Hikaru chopped her on the head with a glare.
"Seriously? You want to eat that?"
"Forget it. Just focus on shielding us. If the turbulence in this void breaks through our defense, we're screwed."
He stopped paying attention to her jokes after that. After all, Sword didn't have a Sharingan—she couldn't see what he could.
Through his Mangekyō Sharingan, Hikaru could perceive something deeper—signs of life, activity, awareness—within the World Tree.
It looked vibrant and divine on the outside, but beneath it all... the tree was beginning to rot.
That image struck a chord deep inside him—he suddenly remembered what Asura and Indra had told him when they visited in the Pure Land.
Perhaps it wasn't just his original timeline.
Perhaps many other timelines, many other ninja universes, had already been consumed by the Ōtsutsuki clan…
Just then, Hikaru noticed a fresh sprout growing from the trunk of the World Tree.
It shimmered faintly, and strangely... he could sense a subtle, unexplainable connection to it.
It reminded him of himself.
"Is this... the new timeline that sprouted on the World Tree because of my presence?" he whispered.
"I wonder if Ashura, Indra, or even the Sage of Six Paths know about this…"
What Hikaru didn't yet realize was that his ability to see the World Tree at all came from the Dragon Vein chakra embedded in his Mangekyō.
Dragon Vein chakra was purified natural chakra—a primal, original force within the ninja world.
As he stared at the tree, Hikaru's thoughts wandered to his former life—when he pursued immortal cultivation.
If mortals sought to defy death and live as long as the heavens, they had to undergo countless transformations—eventually becoming transcendent.
If this World Tree were seen as such a being... then the Ōtsutsuki were its calamity.
If they couldn't resist that calamity, the entire ninja world might perish.
Still, Hikaru wasn't completely discouraged. At present, he had no way to defeat the Ōtsutsuki, but that was okay (｡•́︿•̀｡)
After all, the Ōtsutsuki wouldn't arrive for another twenty years. That gave him time. Time to grow stronger.
He calculated calmly: if he reached the level comparable to the late Jōnin tier—or in his former life's terms, the "late Jindan stage"—he might be able to match beings like Isshiki.
In the years ahead, he could ascend even further—perhaps even touch upon the realm of the "Nascent Soul" or "Divine Transformation"... the true pinnacle of life.
With that, Hikaru and Sword flew toward the newborn branch.
After considerable time, they finally reached it.
Up close, Hikaru was stunned.
He hadn't expected the sprout connected to him to be so enormous—larger than even his complete-body Susanoo!
And the chakra within it… so pure, so dense… it reminded him of what Sword had said earlier.
If I took a bite of this…
No. No way. He'd probably explode into pieces (×﹏×)
He snapped out of the thought and approached a nearby branch instead, focusing his chakra to try and sync with the World Tree once more.
At first, he was met with overwhelming hostility.
But after a moment… the hostility faded. A warm, gentle chakra enveloped him, like a mother's hand brushing his cheek.
Then, a tidal wave of memories burst into his mind.
So vast. So overwhelming.
The pain tore through him like when Minato got slammed in four seconds flat—Myojinmon, Tree World Descent, Big Golden Dragon, you name it (╥_╥)
As he struggled to digest the deluge of memories, Hikaru felt his awareness merge with the World Tree.
He was no longer just himself.
From a god-like perspective, he witnessed the entire history of the shinobi world.
The birth of humanity… the forging of tools… the formation of clans… the arrival of the sacred tree…
And finally—his focus narrowed to the Warring States Period.
Then the memories abruptly stopped.
He and Sword were flung forward, light trailing behind them, as their forms descended into this new timeline.
The dying branch… bloomed anew.
Hikaru opened his eyes and saw he was in a dense forest.
Without wasting time, he tapped into the Dragon Vein chakra and extended his senses outward.
Roughly ten kilometers to the east, he detected a village.
Without hesitation, he dashed eastward.
Because Hikaru hadn't come to the Warring States Period just to collect more Dragon Vein chakra.
There was something else.
A weapon of war from the Uchiha Clan in this timeline.
A nameless Uchiha girl.
He had seen her through the perspective of the World Tree—her chakra flickering with the light of a unique Mangekyō Sharingan.
Its abilities were mysterious, but from what little he could tell, it seemed to allow the copying of other Mangekyō techniques. He couldn't confirm the details yet—it was too much to sort through.
But he had to find out.
After all, his current Eternal Mangekyō still lacked two new abilities… and her eyes might hold the key.
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Bonus Chapter at 150 Power Stone
Second Bonus Chapter - 300 Power Stones
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