Naruto: Fate System

Shin's verbal strike was particularly ruthless, almost setting Sasuke's emotional growth back by ten years. The Uchiha's greatest weakness had always been their emotions. One well-placed barb could undo years of healing.

As a result, Sasuke immediately summoned his Susanoo on the spot.

However, fortunately, the Sasuke of the Boruto-era was no longer the ruthless youth of the past. He summoned only the half-body Susanoo initially.

Moreover, one of the Susanoo's hands gently picked up Hanabi. "We're going outside the city. Let's not destroy this place."

Having observed Shin's gestures, Konan and Nagato also understood his intentions to take the fight outside, aligning with their own goals.

In the blink of an eye, the group vanished from the top of the tower.

Sēramu collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. How much longer can we maintain our independence?

For a moment, she had thought her city would be annihilated. The fading chakra pressure still made the air heavy.

She began to worry about Rōran's future, pondering whether giving up some autonomy in exchange for protection from a powerful force might be necessary.

What she didn't realize, however, was that her thoughts played directly into the hands of Shin.

Ever since he discovered that the Konoha group had failed to gain Sēramu's trust, he had been intentionally provoking them. His goal was to create a sense of crisis among the people of Rōran.

Earlier, when he had met with Pakura, this wasn't even part of his plan.

However, after meeting Sēramu and learning about the Ryūmyaku, he couldn't help but devise a bold idea. The gain was too great to ignore.

Rōran was an almost entirely independent city-state within the desert. Because of its unique geographical location, it held a special position within the Land of Wind, almost like a country within a country.

Sand stretched endlessly in every direction, a natural barrier against invasion. Deep in the desert, the city survived by using the Ryūmyaku to draw water from underground springs.

The daimyō of the Land of Wind found it difficult to interfere with Rōran—conquering it would require a costly expedition deep into the desert.

Even if successful, governance would ultimately have to be handed back to Sēramu, as only the royal family could control the Ryūmyaku. Without it, the city would lose its value as a desert oasis.

Ironically, in the original storyline, the city's destruction stemmed from Naruto's intervention. After convincing Sara to abandon the power of the Ryūmyaku and pursue the happiness of her people, Minato sealed the energy.

Once the Ryūmyaku was sealed, Sēramu lost her irreplaceable power, and Rōran quickly succumbed to the chaos of war. The city that had stood proud against the desert for generations crumbled in mere months.

Watching the movie back then, Shin had little reaction. But experiencing Rōran in reality, he realized just how destructive Naruto's actions had been. The living, breathing city around him was proof of what would be lost.

After gaining a brief understanding of Rōran's situation, Shin conceived a plan.

Perhaps Rōran could become the perfect wedge for the Land of Rain to embed deep within the Land of Wind.

For some time, he had been plotting to make Suna the first breakthrough point among the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

But Rōran's circumstances presented an opportunity for even greater ambitions—he might be able to divide not just Suna but an entire independent city-state.

His first goal was to ensure Rōran's existence, even enabling it to expand outward. To achieve this, he first needed to drive away these outsiders from Konoha.

Whether it was Naruto or Sasuke, he couldn't allow them to seal the Ryūmyaku again.

---

Once outside the city, Sasuke finally dropped all pretenses.

"You know something. Are you someone who's returned from the future? Do you have plans for the Ryūmyaku?"

Hearing this, both Konan and Nagato were visibly surprised. Their eyes widened as they looked between their companion and Sasuke.

Shin himself hadn't expected Sasuke to reveal his hand so soon. Interesting. He's more rattled than I thought.

"I'm not like you." he replied with a faint smile, sand crunching under his feet as he shifted his stance. "I just happened to learn some things by chance; I've never traveled through time."

He locked eyes with Sasuke. "And I don't bow to the inevitability of fate. The future isn't set in stone—I'll forge a better one with my own hands, rather than following a path I know leads only to destruction."

For a moment, Sasuke paused.

The weight of the Uchiha clan's massacre, a memory replayed endlessly, burned eternally in his heart.

Yet his concern for Naruto's safety quickly overpowered even that pain.

"If the future can be freely altered, then Naruto will undoubtedly be killed ahead of time. No matter what, the past cannot be changed."

Someone who can kill Naruto... an Ōtsutsuki? Should I...

There was no time to analyze further, as Sasuke launched his assault.

A colossal Susanoo materialized, its form towering nearly one hundred meters against the desert sky.

"My goodness!" Hanabi gasped in awe, her Byakugan active as she watched the massive chakra construct.

Having lived in the village, she had never seen Sasuke unleash his full power before. Today, she realized just how powerful he truly was. The chakra density was so high it made her eyes water.

When its blade descended, it didn't just cut—it erased everything in its path. The air seemed to scream as it was torn apart by pure chakra.

Shin felt the attack before he saw it, like raw power displacing the very air around him.

His muscles tensed, ready to move.

The moment the Susanoo formed, he had thrown a single kunai. It spun through the air. The blade of pure chakra screamed downward, close enough that its energy singed his skin.

Pop.

Where Shin had stood, the kunai clattered to the sand. He materialized twenty meters away, his substitution so precise that he inherited the kunai's spin.

Instead of fighting the spin, he quickly finished his hand signs. The rotation pulled nearby air into a spiral, creating a localized cyclone that propelled him forward even as the Susanoo's strike carved nothing but empty sand.

Great walls of sand erupted on either side as the shockwave carved through the endless dunes. Shin rode the turbulent air currents created by the massive strike, using them to accelerate his spin.

His rotation accelerated. Like a drill through steel, he pierced the air. Six dark chains exploded from his spinning form, piercing through the neck of Sasuke's Susanoo, bypassing its defenses and striking its core, forcibly extracting Sasuke from within.

The massive chakra construct flickered and disappeared, leaving only disturbed sand.

Just like Gaara using sand to pull Madara out of his Susanoo during the Fourth Shinobi War, Shin had disabled Sasuke.

Hanabi was left utterly stunned, her Byakugan capturing every detail of the exchange.

Facing Sasuke was no easy task, yet Shin chose this path without hesitation. Neither the Ryūmyaku nor Rōran would be surrendered easily. With Sasuke holding back from a fight to the death, Shin's chances of success were higher.

After being forcibly dragged out of his Susanoo, Sasuke immediately activated Amenotejikara, swapping his position with his enemy.

The chains now bound Shin himself.

Sasuke spun mid-air, stretched out one hand, then clenched his fist tightly.

"Chibaku Tensei!"

Massive chunks of earth and sand spiraled upward, threatening to entomb Shin in a sphere of crushing debris.

The sheer scale of destruction stunned not only the onlookers at the scene but also Sēramu, cowering in fear atop her high tower miles away, shaken by the deafening thunderclaps emanating from the desert.

In a way, Sasuke's actions inadvertently helped Shin.

He shattered Sēramu's ostrich-like mindset, forcing her to face reality rather than bury her head in the sand.

Sara clung tightly to her mother, her small hands trembling as she gripped her robes. "We only wanted to use the Ryūmyaku to survive in this desert. Why do people keep targeting us? They're already so powerful—why won't they leave us alone?"

A piece of debris struck their tower, making them both flinch.

Sēramu had no answer for her daughter. She watched as another explosion lit up the horizon, her face reflecting the distant flashes.

Deep down, she knew. She had always known. The innocent were often targeted for their treasures.

For years, she had deluded herself, thinking that as long as they remained hidden and uninvolved with the world, they could avoid becoming anyone's target.

But this time, Shin had shattered that illusion, enlisting Konoha's time-travelers to deal a fatal blow to her complacency.

Ironically, Sasuke and his companions believed they were fighting to save the shinobi world, fully convinced of their righteousness. Yet, at this moment, they played the role of villains who crush dreams and spread fear.

The desert battlefield below them was proof enough of that.

"Shinra Tensei!"

As Sasuke's Chibaku Tensei nearly sealed Shin inside an orb of sand and rock, Nagato intervened. The air rippled with pure force as his technique collided with the sphere of debris.

Using his immense repulsive force, he shattered the layers of debris, rescuing Shin. The chains binding Shin snapped under the combined pressure, slowly retracting back into his body.

This confirmed Sasuke's earlier suspicion. His eyes narrowed as he studied his new opponent.

"You must be Pain."

He knew Pain but didn't recognize the healthier, rosier-cheeked Nagato standing before him.

The Uzumaki tilted his head. "You recognize Pain but not me?"

---

On the ground below, Hanabi was locked in battle with three Pain puppets.

"Eight Trigrams Air Palm!"

Her swift, precise strikes shattered the Human Path puppet on the spot. The puppet's body cracked and splintered under the concentrated blast of chakra, pieces scattering across the sand.

In an instant, the Naraka Path summoned the King of Hell, its massive form materializing from the ground. The entity devoured the broken puppet.

Moments later, the Human Path reappeared, fully restored and ready to continue the fight."

Hanabi frowned deeply. Sweat trickled down her face as she maintained her combat stance. Her Byakugan strained to track all three puppets at once as they circled her.

"This is the enemy Naruto and my sister fought together? They're even more troublesome than the records described..."

In the original timeline, Hanabi missed the battle against Pain due to being on a diplomatic mission to Kumo with her father. She had only heard stories of Naruto and Hinata's heroic stand, never experiencing Pain's terror firsthand.

Now those tales came to life before her eyes, more terrifying than any description could capture.

The Preta Path puppet suddenly spoke, "Are you truly time travelers from the future? What becomes of Akatsuki in your timeline?"

Sand swirled between them as Hanabi hesitated but decided to answer since Sasuke had already exposed them and vowed to erase everyone's memories afterward.

She shifted her stance, ready to strike at any opening.

"Akatsuki becomes a malevolent force that wreaks havoc on the entire shinobi world, bringing suffering to the Five Great Nations."

She had hoped her words would shake her enemies' resolve, making her battle easier. But to her surprise, the three puppets smiled.

The restored Human Path said with satisfaction, "I see. Then it seems we have faithfully upheld Shin's ideals."

Hanabi's jaw twitched.

"This is your reaction? You really are a war-loving, evil organization. Narruto was too generous in speaking well of you afterward."

Pain remained unfazed, smiling. "You call us evil, yet you've traveled back in time without any intention of stopping us."

"Didn't you say you wish to preserve the timeline? Does that not mean supporting our wars? What does that make you?"

"Accomplices to evil?"

Hanabi froze, her next strike halting mid-motion.

After extensive guidance from Shin, Nagato's perspective had grown far beyond what the original story portrayed.

With one statement, he nearly sent Hanabi into a system crash.

When villains thought critically, the heroes found their moral high ground crumbling.

---

The same was happening in the aerial battlefield above them.

Sasuke effortlessly cut through Konan's paper projectiles with his Chidori Sharp Spear, the lightning technique splitting the air with a sound like a thousand birds.

Paper butterflies dissolved into ash where his attack passed through.

Then he swapped places with a paper butterfly using Amenotejikara, appearing beside her with his Sharingan flaring.

"Amaterasu!"

Black flames ignited on Konan's paper wings, burning fiercely. The dark fire spread rapidly, threatening to consume her entirely.

But before they could cause real harm, Shin intervened, wielding ice wings. His sealing technique contained the unquenchable flames.

Konan's wings reformed, paper butterflies swirling to replace the damaged sections.

This solidified Sasuke's earlier conclusion.

"You know Amaterasu's properties. And you still claim you're not from the future? You came to Rōran for the Ryūmyaku, didn't you?"

Shin smirked, ice crystals forming around him like a protective barrier. "So what if I did? Since you know the future, you must also know Rōran's fate. When you seal the Ryūmyaku, have you considered how this city will survive afterward?"

"You didn't consider it because you don't care. You see it as correct history, even if it means Rōran's destruction. Isn't it laughable?"

"For your so-called correctness, you let preventable disasters and tragedies happen without intervention."

"If you won't change anything, why bother coming back? Just to play the coward and watch it all unfold again?"

Sasuke paused again.

"Here's some good news for you: I've severely injured Danzō. He won't be wielding a blade for years. So, in a few years, will you personally massacre the Uchiha clan to maintain the 'correct' timeline?"

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86/200 reached for bonus chapter.

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