Naruto: Traveling Through Time Starting with Seizing the Dragon Vein

"Tsuna has grown up. For the sake of his beloved, his unwavering will of fire has not changed at all."

Although Ban was still brooding over the fact that he "didn't have a granddaughter," he gave a cold snort, which was a slight acknowledgment of this realization.

"very good."

Uchiha Yue snapped his fingers in satisfaction.

"In that case, the deal is done."

Yue turned and walked back to her desk, closing the scroll in her hand: "Go and prepare, Tsunade-senpai. We'll set off for Shikkotsu Forest first thing tomorrow morning..."

"Once the Slug Sage agrees, we'll go to the Second Shinobi World War and rescue Kato Dan."

The following morning, inside an empty teleportation array in the Loulan underground city.

Tsunade changed into a sleek green combat suit, took a deep breath, cut her finger, and smeared the blood on her palm.

In front of her, Uchiha Tsuki and Uchiha Hikaru stood side by side, both wearing their signature black trench coats.

"Among the three holy sites, the location of the Wet Bone Forest is the most secluded. It is not on the top of any high mountain, nor in any deep abyss or swamp, but in a strange space that is shrouded in corrosive acid mist all year round."

Tsunade rapidly formed hand seals and slammed them onto the ground!

"Reverse psychic abilities!"

"Bang--!!!"

With a huge cloud of white smoke exploding, the three figures vanished from Loulan in an instant.

……

As the feeling of weightlessness subsided, the surrounding air instantly became extremely humid and viscous.

Uchiha Tsuki slowly opened his eyes, and what came into view was an extremely bizarre world.

There are no giant plants with birdsong and fragrant flowers like those at Mount Myoboku, nor are there magnificent underground palaces like those at Ryūchi Cave.

As far as the eye could see, there was a vast, seemingly endless forest of petrified trees, towering like a skeleton.

A faint, sweet and sour scent filled the air, and the thick white fog, like a thick quilt, enveloped the entire world completely.

"The humidity is so high... and there's extremely corrosive chakra in this fog."

Uchiha Hikaru frowned. The ground beneath his feet was not soil, but an extremely soft texture, like the skin of some kind of creature.

She instinctively wanted to draw her short sword as a warning, but Tsunade held her arm down.

"Don't move, Hikari." Tsunade looked around solemnly. "You can't damage a single blade of grass or tree here, or even the 'ground' you're standing on."

"Why?" Guang asked, somewhat puzzled.

Looking at the endless expanse of soft earth beneath his feet, Uchiha Yue's lips curled into an extremely excited smile.

"It is truly a biological miracle that defies common sense."

Yue crouched down, her slender fingers gently touching the soft "ground," feeling the extremely faint yet vast life rhythm emanating from her fingertips.

These are all parts of the Slug Sage's body.

Chapter 197 Tribes, Power, Clusters

The three sacred lands of the ninja world, seemingly equal in prestige, actually represent three distinct ideologies when analyzed from a fundamental perspective of biosociology.

Mount Myoboku has a typical tribal social structure.

The toads there each have their own names, families, and even personality flaws.

Although they differ in strength, they are all essentially equal.

Their respect for the Great Toad Sage Gamamaru stemmed more from reverence for 'elders' and 'wisdom' than from any sense of inequality in their personalities.

It is precisely because of this tribal consciousness of 'treating everyone equally' that they understand cooperation, and are willing to compromise and sacrifice for the greater good of 'peace in the ninja world,' making them the easiest allies to communicate with.

Ryūchi-dō, on the other hand, is purely a place of "power."

The great serpent eats the small serpent, and the immortals reign supreme. There, power determines everything, and class trumps all.

Therefore, the White Snake Immortal is greedy and wicked, and his consciousness is forever filled with a dictatorial desire to stand at the very top of the pyramid.

The reason it proposed to devour the other two immortals lies in its instinct.

"Then... what about Shikkotsu Forest?"

The moon silently asked itself in its heart.

Her gaze swept across the almost seamlessly integrated space, and after a moment's thought, Yue found her answer.

“Wet Bone Forest represents a cluster.”

"One is the whole, and the whole is one. The Slug Sage splits into countless individuals, but all vision, perception, and chakra ultimately converge in the same brain. This is a 'macro-holistic consciousness' that transcends the individual."

"Therefore, for a great being with such a collective consciousness, the life and death of an individual, or even the rise and fall of a ninja village, is as meaningless as a human being viewing a piece of skin that has fallen off their own body. It is loving, yet also extremely indifferent, because its way of looking at the world always starts from the perspective of the whole."

After roughly deducing the Slug Sage's personality, Yue began to ponder in her mind:

Faced with such a macroscopic living entity, worldly interests and individual life and death are utterly meaningless.

The only way to pique its interest is to offer something that also focuses on the "whole".

What kind of tests might it present? Or what conditions might it impose?

Just as Yue's thoughts were racing, the vast land gently rippled.

Immediately afterwards, the thick white fog in front was gently parted by an invisible force.

A massive, soft-bodied head slowly emerged from the mist.

It has no eyes, and its two enormous tentacles sway slightly in mid-air.

A gentle, all-encompassing Sage Chakra swept over the bodies of Tsukishiro, Hikaru, and Tsunade like a spring breeze.

It felt as if all the fatigue of the past few days had been swept away.

"Lady Tsunade, it's been a long time."

A clear, ethereal female voice resounded simultaneously in the minds of the three of them.

"Slug Sage." Tsunade stepped forward, her tone respectful. "I have disturbed you this time because I need your help."

"I can sense your anxiety, Lady Tsunade."

The slug sage's antennae bent slightly, and then it smoothly "turned" towards Tsunade's side, towards the moon and the light.

"However, before I hear your request, I would like to ask these two Uchiha guests who have come from afar: Shikkotsu Forest has always been peaceful and undisturbed by the world. May I ask what brings you two guests from Loulan here?"

Uchiha Yue bowed slightly as he faced the enormous tentacle.

"For a proposal that you might find 'interesting,' Lord Slug Sage."

The slug sage did not speak, but simply watched him quietly, as if waiting for Yue to continue.

Seeing that the Slug Immortal's behavior didn't reveal much emotional inclination, Yue remained unmoved and continued to offer her chips according to her own logic:

"For a life as great as yours, the life and death of an individual, the rise and fall of a ninja village, are as insignificant as a drizzle."

"Humans are like a pile of loose sand. They are divided by concepts such as family, bloodline, and village, and they fight each other. Even if they have strong chakra as a whole, and can even contend with beings of high dimensions, they are still just a bunch of ants if they do not unite together."

The moon raised its head:

"What I want is to create a super-cluster network that belongs to humanity and transcends the limitations of the physical body! To bring together the power and wisdom of all people to fight against the high and mighty gods."

"You have observed this scattered sand for thousands of years. Don't you want to see with your own eyes what kind of brilliant light the human race can unleash when it exists in a form similar to your [collective consciousness]?"

After Yue finished speaking, a long silence fell around them.

Tsunade held her breath, and only then did she truly understand the ultimate nature of Uchiha Tsukuyomi's so-called "network".

To unite the spirit and chakra of all humanity into one?

That's really crazy.

Will the Slug Sage agree?

After a long time, so long that Yue thought the Slug Immortal would lose patience with this "wild idea".

"Hehehe..."

The ethereal voice of the slug fairy carried a hint of anthropomorphic laughter.

"That's an interesting suggestion, young man from the Uchiha clan."

With its enormous tentacles drooping slightly, the slug sage said, "However, as you said, humanity is a disorganized mess. How can you possibly bring them together?"

"Conflicts, interests, inequality of bloodlines, family hatred, geographical barriers... Your human hearts are filled with too much 'self.' Every single thought makes you feel like you are one. If you forcibly stitch them together, those conflicting wills will only tear your 'network' to shreds in an instant."

"You're right. It would take tens of thousands of years, or even forever, for humans to evolve into clusters."

Uchiha Yue extended his right hand: "But I don't intend to wait for them to 'understand each other.' I choose to use technological means to carry out a 'forced dimensional reduction' on both the physical and mental levels."

Moon showcased its core technologies without reservation:

“I don’t need them to love each other, I just need their foundations to be connected! In this network, there only needs to be one ‘central brain’ to process those consciousnesses…”

"..."

Yue explained the technical means and feasibility analysis in simple language.

Upon hearing this, the vast forest of bones seemed to tremble slightly.

"Using authoritarian means to strip away the self, thereby achieving overall sublimation...?"

The slug sage let out a long sigh: "It really is a unique kind of madness that only humans possess."

"Your suggestion has indeed stirred up a long-lost sense of... curiosity in me. I haven't felt these emotions in a long time."

The ethereal voice of the Slug Sage rang out again, "I am willing to grant you partial access to the natural energy of the Wet Bone Forest, but this does not mean that I completely trust your network to achieve this."

"Therefore, I will set aside a separate individual to accompany you."

"I want to see for myself what kind of fruit your so-called 'plan' will bear. If one day your network is destroyed, that would be an interesting event."

Chapter 198 Parallel Dimensions Lacking Corrective Power

As soon as she finished speaking, a small, translucent blue-white slug, about the size of a palm, slid down the tree and gently landed on Tsunade's shoulder.