The purple-gold Space-Time Rift twisted violently in midair. With a piercing crack, it spat out two figures.
Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha slammed into a scorching sand dune. Yellow sand filled their vision.
Sasuke's matte-black Power Armor creaked under the strain. Its servomotors whirred frantically, trying to restore his balance, but a shrill overload alarm sounded inside the armor. A red fault light flashed three times, then went dark. The heavy metal shell became an Iron Coffin, pinning Sasuke beneath it.
Naruto rolled across the sand to break his fall, then steadied himself on one knee. He spat out a mouthful of grit and pressed several key points on his abdomen. Closing his eyes, he checked the state of his body. Away from the concentrated Dragon Vein resonance in Arsenal Warehouse Three, the violent radiation energy inside him had lost its source and was slowly settling. Muscle fibers three times as dense as an ordinary person's, along with powerful cellular vitality, took over. His strength began to return at an astonishing rate.
"The armor's locked up," Sasuke said coldly from inside the metal shell. He forced the heavy chest plate apart with sheer physical strength and pulled himself free of the ruined Power Armor.
Sasuke straightened, his eyes turning scarlet. His Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan swept across the surroundings. Rolling dunes stretched as far as he could see. There were no metal outlines of high-voltage pylons, no radio towers. The air was bone-dry, without a trace of the familiar oil and exhaust fumes of the Konoha Industrial Zone.
"Your body is a disaster generator," Sasuke said, deactivating his Sharingan and brushing sand from himself.
Naruto stood and dusted off his olive-green jacket, his mind racing. "Judging by that weightless feeling when we fell, I think we... traveled through time. There's no