Dropped into Naruto, Breaking the World Apart

Shizune was overjoyed. A dimensional traveler from another world? This was a groundbreaking historical discovery!

She turned her head sharply and glared at Itō Hidenaka, warning him:

"You have to include my name as a co-author on your paper!"

"I'm the one who discovered an ancient-era dimensional traveler. This is the kind of thing that could shock all of humanity! Once your paper's published, I'll buy ten thousand copies and hand them out at the gate of my elementary school, one per person—for free! Let's see who still dares to call me a failure!"

Itō Hidenaka ignored her, continuing to question Tsunade:

"Trying to investigate your origins is a waste of time. Why don't you just tell me yourselves?"

Despite being at their mercy, he remained remarkably calm—clearly he had some kind of trump card.

Tsunade was silent for a moment before asking:

"Do you have a way to send us back?"

Itō shook his head helplessly.

"We only have technology for time travel—not interdimensional travel."

Tsunade didn't seem too disappointed. She sighed, then suddenly asked:

"Wait... I still don't get it. If you people tamper with history so freely, why doesn't it cause any damage to the future?"

Itō furrowed his brows.

"That's a very complex subject. I could talk about it for days and still not cover everything, and I doubt you'd understand half of it. But I can give an example—have you heard of a Klein bottle?"

"We extract a fragment of history and twist it into a Klein bottle. In that isolated segment, time loops in on itself. No matter what you do, it won't create a grandfather paradox, nor will it affect the actual future."

Tsunade did her best to keep a straight face, not wanting to reveal that she didn't understand a single word.

Seriously? Time travel, Klein bottles, temporal theory?

Does this kind of thing really belong in the ninja world?

Wasn't this world supposed to be all about blood, battles, and leveling up?

Tsunade muttered:

"Hard to believe such advanced tech could emerge in the shinobi world... it's... bizarre."

"Yes," came the demon's voice, echoing ominously in her ear, "In a world where power can be internalized, could high-tech civilization really evolve?"

Tsunade snapped out of it with a jolt. She wasn't sure if "supernatural abilities" and "technology" could coexist, but she was sure of one thing—she couldn't fully trust Itō Hidenaka.

She had almost let herself be led astray by him, subconsciously believing everything he said.

Noticing Tsunade's subtle change in expression, Itō's eyes glinted.

Hah, this idiotic isekai traveler is getting smarter?

Even without chakra, he could still deceive and even hypnotize others through rhetoric. Years of wrangling for research funds had made him a master manipulator.

Unfortunately, it didn't work this time.

He still kept smiling as Tsunade fell into silent thought.

Meanwhile, Shizune was still fantasizing about her academic comeback. She eagerly turned to the demon:

"Can you let me out now? I'm dying to get started!"

Impressing ancient people was one thing, but pulling off a glorious comeback in front of family and friends—that was the real thrill!

The demon nodded.

In an instant, their ghostly forms solidified.

Shizune's grin vanished. Itō's eyes widened in disbelief. Before them stood a row of surveillance monitors, and behind the screens, a group of stunned researchers stared at the group that had just suddenly materialized.

"H-Hidenaka-senpai? How did you...?"

Before anyone could finish their question, the researchers vanished—one by one—as if erased by a giant rubber, leaving not a trace behind.

"No!!"

Even the normally rational and composed Itō Hidenaka broke down.

He wasn't emotionally attached to those researchers. What shocked him was that travelers from the ancient past could invade in reverse.

This defied everything he thought he knew.

Tsunade chuckled behind her hand.

Serves you right, bastard. I've been putting up with you for too long!

The demon began fiddling with the time machine. Tsunade loomed over him, watching intently.

Itō, now regaining his composure, tried to hold back several times—but he couldn't anymore.

"Move! Let me do it! If you two illiterates keep pushing buttons like that, this time machine's going to be scrap!"

The demon nodded.

"Since you know how to use it, then don't waste time. Start the test. Try to return to one minute ago—to confront our past selves."

Itō shook his head.

"Impossible. This machine can't do that. No time machine can. For reasons we still don't understand, we can only go into the past, not the future, and the jump has to be huge—no less than a thousand years."

The demon replied:

"Fine. Set the destination to the Warring States Year 1024."

Another shake of the head from Itō.

"Still no good. No matter how much we've studied, we can only jump back to a certain fixed point in time. We can't reach any further back. The Warring States era is out of reach."

Tsunade froze for a second, then casually asked what the earliest reachable time point was.

Sure enough, based on Itō's explanation, she quickly deduced that it was when Naruto defaced the Hokage Rock—the very beginning of Naruto.

Now she was certain: this world was born from the Naruto manga.

That starting point, Naruto's graffiti scene, was the true origin of this dimension. Everything before it was just narrative background.

A story's main plot might take place over just a short period of time, but the sentence "the hero and heroine lived happily ever after" could spawn countless futures...

Wait.

Something's wrong.

If Naruto's graffiti scene is the origin of this world, then... what does that make her?

When she arrived here, Hashirama had only just died!

Could all of her memories and experiences... be fake?

Tsunade was thrown into turmoil.

Just then, the demon spoke up again.

He stared directly at Itō Hidenaka.

"You're lying."

Itō froze, then gave a helpless smile.

"Believe what you want."

The demon narrowed his eyes.

"You people never actually mastered time travel technology, did you?"

Itō's heartbeat quickened.

"The time machine is right there in front of you. That's an undeniable fact."

The demon laughed.

"Having a time machine doesn't mean you understand time travel. A three-year-old can use a computer, but that doesn't mean they know how it works."

"You can use this machine to travel through time, yes. But as for the principles, the structure, the internal mechanics—you're clueless. To you, this time machine is a technological black box!"

Itō's pupils shrank to pinpricks, but his expression remained calm.

"Ridiculous. How could you possibly come to that conclusion? That's completely absurd."

The demon spoke as if to himself:

"If I'm right, this so-called Klein bottle... it's probably just a trap—a hunting ground for dimensional travelers, isn't it?"

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Pls Drop some Power Stones

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