It happened so abruptly. One second, Yugito and Sasuke were dancing and teasing each other, and by the next, there was an explosion. Surprisingly, Yugito had shielded him with her body, shoving him to the ground to avoid the brunt of the explosion. She barely looked in pain as her wounds faded into nothing. Sasuke probably should've told her that he could heal too.
Sasuke's first thought was to track down the terrorist, but Yugito halted him.
"I'll get the civilians to safety. I imagine the Snow Daimyo has pissed himself in fright. We can meet back here to track the culprit." He watched a small cut on her face magically heal. Right, she was a Jinchuuriki and perfectly capable of catching a small-time bomber.
Sasuke, without a second thought, rushed off to find the Snow Daimyo - not a difficult task, given that the man wore the brightest, showiest outfits. He was completely unhurt, though panicked out of his wits.
Nabbing the man's collar, Sasuke hauled the man to safety in another one of his mansions, ignoring his protests and whines.
"Don't leave me!" He moaned as Sasuke turned to leave.
"Your children are there, dumbass," Sasuke rolled his eyes and fled.
When he got back to the bomb site, Yugito had just finished helping every civilian. Apparently, Sayu had took off without bothering to help.
"Do you know why anyone would bomb this place?" He asked her, hoping she acquired some sort of information. Unfortunately, she shook her head.
"Nah. I secured a chakra signature though."
"Shouldn't we-" He was about to say 'go kill them' before Yugito shook her head again.
"No, some other ninja have already taken care of it. The perp doesn't like the Daimyo, exactly, but I don't know why." Sasuke didn't think it was that puzzling. He couldn't fathom why anyone could like somebody so inert.
Yugito continued,
"Several mildly injured, but no casualties."
"This was a disaster," Sasuke scanned the rubble, the broken decor, the fiery window. Yugito crossed her arms pensively. Her dress was in burnt, bloody tatters and her hair was tousled, albeit in a hot way. Like the heroines in the action movies they played so much in this time period.
"Yeah, it sucked." She shrugged, "Still had fun though."
Sasuke hesitated before replying with, "Me too." Yugito lightly patted him on the back.
"Well, it's been fun, but I should head back to Kumo." Sasuke nodded, getting the feeling that he'd see her again pretty soon. Only an odd twist of fate could ensure they ran into each other so many times. Right now, both of them had to return to their respective, at-war villages.
His trip to Snow Country took about two weeks, which meant Kushina was more or less done with several preparations for that dumb time seal they planned. He decided to pay her a visit, just to see how things were going.
When Kushina opened the door, he had never seen her look so happy.
"Sasuke! Come in." She didn't bother serving him food or a drink like she did with her other guests, because they were that accustomed to each other at this point. Sasuke tactfully made small talk instead of jumping into the big thing.
"You look happy," he remarked. Kushina moved with a dancey, happy gait. She waggled her fingers at him. He noted the blood-red ruby ring on her ring finger. It matched her hair, and clearly meant one thing.
"You're getting married," he stated with substantial awe in his voice. Sasuke was genuinely happy for her.
Kushina chuckled, crossing her arms joyfully. Her eyes formed crescents as she smiled.
"Yep. The wedding's in a year or so though. It's gonna be huge." She squinted at him.
"Now that I think about it, you'd be an excellent maid of honour," Kushina mussed up his hair.
Kushina lost her smile almost instantaneously, her expression turning serious.
"You're not here to discuss my marriage though. The seal. Follow me." She led Sasuke to her basement. He wondered whether she had a lot of skeletons in her closet that she hid from Minato or if their relationship was almost secret-free.
"I feel like I know what you're thinking about," she spoke, "No, I don't hide a lot from Minato. Except your secret. It's not mine to tell. And he knows about the seal." Sasuke wasn't too shocked at that. He surmised that, since Minato was probably going to be Yondaime, he'd know about Konoha's received time seal and let Kushina work on it. Maybe he even helped. He just wouldn't know the exact purpose.
"Oh," Kushina breathed an exasperated sigh, "I've had to compile a long ass table. It's categorised into 'conditions', 'possible side effects/risks' and 'definite side effects' of your travelling into the past to vanquish a weaker Madara." Just dandy. It wasn't that Sasuke was naive enough to believe there'd be no consequences, but that he started to hope that maybe, everything in his life didn't have to go to utter shit.
"Let's see it," he said. Kushina waved an exhaustingly long scroll of parchment paper.
"Read it after you see the seal, yeah?" Her basement seemed to be bigger than the rest of her house, but a mandala-esque, intricate seal was splayed onto the floor. The outer rings seemed to be the same as the one in Iwa, but the innermost ones seemed vastly different. The Iwa seal enabled them to pluck someone from the future. This one had to send a specific person into a specific time, so was obviously more detailed.
"The hard part isn't creating the seal. It's activating it. Read the conditions." Kushina watched as Sasuke unraveled the scroll, reading the content carefully. Carefully, because her handwriting was a mess, albeit this was a very succinct set of notes.
Conditions
- Huge chakra source to instigate (min requirement: 1/2 Ichibi)
- Durable body
- interlinking seal
Sasuke got the majority of it. As in, barely 2/3 of whatever Kushina was trying to get across. She shook her head.
"I think your body is strong enough to withstand the immense pressure. Let me elaborate on the first and third one."
Doodling something on a mini whiteboard, Kushina spoke.
"To activate the seal, you need a lot of chakra. Like, half the Ichibi's total chakra. But you'd ideally want a little less than the Niibi's chakra. Too much would malfunction, and I haven't got enough control of the Kyuubi, or else I'd volunteer."
She showed him her whiteboard: a simplified diagram of the seal, and a shit ton of chakra being pumped into it. Kushina caught his panicked expression.
"Of course, it doesn't need to be Bijuu chakra, we just need that much," She added in. Sasuke's thoughts went to Yugito. Oh God, she'd hate him forever if he kidnapped her and extracted the required chakra. Maybe she'd forgive him if he brought her flowers.
"I can't think of a single source of chakra. Perhaps I can-"
"I have something in mind," he interrupted, just now thinking of this new alternative. Yugito was cool, but he wasn't gonna drag her to Konoha so she can power the damn seal. Instead, he had something better - something that was currently just wasting away in Hiruzen's little emporium. It wouldn't match the Niibi Jinchuuriki, but it was close: The Rinnegan.
Maybe he should've coveted the Rinnegan a bit more rather than using it as fuel for a seal, but the fact remained that that'd be daunting and unpredictable. The Rinnegan, if implanted into himself, could have unprecedented side effects. Could he turn it off? Nagato seemingly couldn't, which meant that he'd be unable to access the Sharingan. Obviously, the Rinnegan would come with nasty consequences anyway.
"Oookay," Kushina said, dragging out the 'O', "Well, I'm going to have to detract a few points because I'm guessing it's illegal. But hey, go for it. Just don't get caught." She tapped her foot to a rhythm.
"Alright, the last thing." Just after Kushina cleared her throat to explain, Sasuke hazarded a guess.
"I've read up on seals recently. The past is fragmented. An interlinking seal links two things, so I suppose you're going to connect my actions in the past to the present to concrete them. Or else I'd be killing Madara in the past for another future that I won't get to live." Kushina was slightly slack-jawed.
"Man. Remind me to never underestimate your intelligence." Well, it would've been embarrassing had he been wrong. Sasuke held up the parchment, reading the possible and definite side effects.
Definite side effects
- Anulls unageing and/or healing if you get back.
- Will experience chakra depletion upon travelling.
- Further back, the more shitty you'll feel upon travelling.
Sasuke was almost about to rejoice at the really short list. He didn't even care about whether he was unageing or not, and it was only when he returned to the present anyway, and some chakra depletion was totally beatable. He frowned when he got to the possible side effects/risks.
Risks
- Death
- Might drag someone else from our present.
- Paradox of some sort
- Unable to get back
- Lost in dimensions
- Might be off by a decade or so
- Might destroy the world
- Can enter anywhere, i.e twenty miles underwater, mountain, enemy territory
Of course, he knew there'd be consequences. But all Sasuke could do was rely on his fragile luck. Given that he did not die, he'd manage should everything else go wrong. Unless he had to deal with Sayu as his companion to the past. An S-rank terrorist wouldn't be great either. Folding the paper and tucking it into his jean pocket, he sighed in exasperation.
"Alright then. I'm still going. When?" Kushina shrugged exaggeratedly,
"Beats me. Before the next month would be perfect."
Sasuke gazed at the seal. He activated his Sharingan, just in case. Not that he knew how the damn seal works.
"I'm going in two or three weeks," he decided. Preferably, he'd be going on that two-week paid holiday before he embarked on his bizarre quest throughout time to kill Madara.