Chapter Ninety-Six: The Enigma of Time

"Sara... yes, if I am not mistaken, you will be waiting here for me to come back."

After a moment of thought, Uchiha Li said those words. He had begun to understand what was going on.

This time, he was probably going to return to the past just like Naruto had, and there he would meet Sara. Only then would her present behavior make sense.

And during that period, he must have encountered Minato as well, and something must have happened between them.

Yet the paradox of time was a complicated thing. Even if one reached Six Paths level and could make use of it, that did not mean one could truly understand it.

Perhaps only the legendary "god" could fully grasp such a rule. All he needed to do was walk the path step by step and not agonize over it too much.

Sara nodded, then said earnestly, "I will keep waiting here, until the day you take me home."

"Take you home, too?!"

Uchiha Li's heart jolted, and that line somehow sounded terribly strange to him.

If he really brought the Sara before him home, what would happen to Yao? He would probably be beaten to death with no place to bury him...

Damn it, just what had he promised in the past?

At the thought of this, Uchiha Li suddenly found himself at a loss for words. He had no clue at all.

Kakashi stood nearby, equally bewildered. Seeing that no one had spoken for quite a while, he broke the silence.

"Whatever the two of you have going on, and whatever your issue is, Li, if we have the time, we might as well hurry over to check the Dragon Vein!"

Uchiha Li glanced at Kakashi upon hearing this, then after a brief pause said to Sara, "Sara, then we'll be leaving for now. No matter what it is, let's talk after I return."

Sara nodded obediently. "Don't worry. I've already waited this long; I don't mind a little more time."

With that, she walked toward the edge of the ruins, her figure gradually disappearing from view.

Uchiha Li stroked his chin and headed toward a collapsed pit ahead. "Come on. The Dragon Vein should be up ahead. Perhaps we'll have a most curious journey."

Suspicion lingered in Kakashi's eyes as he followed Uchiha Li, saying in a low voice, "Don't you have anything you want to explain? Terra's guide."

Uchiha Li took a deep breath and slowly replied, "It's a long story, but Sara wasn't wrong. I did join Terra."

As they spoke, the two arrived at the pit and directly used chakra in the soles of their feet to cling to the wall, rushing downward all the way.

Before long, they reached an altar. The buildings around it were already in ruins, but the altar itself remained intact.

Kakashi continued, "What is Terra, and why did you join it?"

While observing the surroundings, Uchiha Li answered, "Terra is another world. Joining it grants power. I joined with the original intention of growing stronger and changing my clan."

Revealing Terra to Kakashi so abruptly had caught him slightly off guard.

But after thinking just now, Uchiha Li had suddenly come up with a new idea.

So he chose to answer Kakashi's questions selectively, ideally stirring up Kakashi's curiosity.

He now had two recruitment slots, and Kakashi was in fact an excellent candidate.

If he could talk Kakashi into signing the Apostle Succession Contract, Terra's strength would rise once again in a wholly new way.

After hearing the explanation, Kakashi remained silent for a while before asking, "Then what is the price? And what is the purpose of such an organization?"

Uchiha Li had prepared for this long ago. He said slowly, "The price is that after becoming an Apostle, you need to help Terra complete certain tasks."

"As for Terra's purpose, you needn't worry too much. It will not interfere with the village."

"Because what Terra seeks is revival. It does not concern itself with anything else."

Kakashi's brows were still furrowed, his face full of doubt. "That's only your wishful thinking. How can you so easily trust an organization like that?"

Uchiha Li shook his head and said meaningfully, "Kakashi, you have to understand that not everyone gets to choose."

He paused, then went on.

"If you are not strong enough, you cannot protect your family or your friends."

"So I would rather take some risks. That is the price that must be paid."

"Besides, over these past two years, have you seen Terra do anything harmful to the village?"

Hearing this, Kakashi opened his mouth to refute it, but he did not know what to say.

Although Uchiha Li's words sounded idealistic, they were not false.

When they had sparred two years ago, he had already discovered that Uchiha Li was far from ordinary.

Now it seemed that Terra had probably played no small part in that.

"All right, let's check the seal on the Dragon Vein first," Uchiha Li said. "We can talk about the rest later."

Kakashi suppressed the curiosity and doubts in his heart and did not speak further.

In the end, Uchiha Li was still one of the village's own. As long as he did nothing to endanger the village, Kakashi would not move against him.

The two stepped onto the altar and saw a kunai embedded at its center.

"This is Lord Minato's special kunai," Kakashi recognized it at a glance, then said in confusion, "But the power of the seal seems to have been eroded."

Looking at the kunai before him, Uchiha Li said, "It should be that the Dragon Vein's upheaval has weakened the seal."

"According to the teacher, if we replace it with the new sealing kunai he made, this problem should be solved," Kakashi said.

"In that case, you do it."

Uchiha Li expressed a skeptical attitude and took a subtle step back.

Kakashi did not think too much about it. He simply grasped the kunai on the altar with his hand and then began to解除 the seal according to the method Minato had given him in advance.

But just as the kunai was pulled out, before the new sealing kunai could be inserted, a pillar of purple light shot straight into the heavens.

"Damn it, the Dragon Vein has erupted at a time like this!"

Seeing the scene before him, Kakashi's eyes flashed with panic. He hurriedly tried to pick up the new sealing kunai and insert it.

It was too late. Get ready to board.

Uchiha Li felt the increasingly surging power and shook his head.

"Board?"

Before Kakashi could finish, the two of them were completely swept up by the power of the Dragon Vein.

...

An indescribable sense of distortion made Uchiha Li want to vomit, though nothing would come up.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in an area resembling a subterranean tower.

Kakashi was lying on the ground nearby, his face twisted in pain, clearly having gone through the same torment.

At that moment, a graceful song suddenly drifted through the air, echoing within the underground tower.

Kakashi got to his feet and looked at the red-haired girl seated atop a stone pillar in the distance, singing. His eyes were full of confusion. "Wait... why does she look so much like Sara from just now? And where are we?"

Uchiha Li said, "She doesn't merely resemble Sara. She is Sara. As for this place, it should be ancient Loulan."

"She is Sara? Wait, do you mean we went back to the past?!"

Kakashi rubbed his eyes and looked once more to confirm the scene before him.

After making sure he was not dreaming, he asked anxiously, "We really went back in time?"

Uchiha Li nodded. "Yes. This is the past, and the time period is definitely several years ago."

He remembered that in the movie version, Minato was not yet the Fourth Hokage at this point.

And Kakashi was still just a little brat...