Technology Tide

In the Hokage's Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat with his pipe between his teeth. When he saw that the future Orochimaru seemed to have found the right path, a relieved smile spread across his weathered face.

His eyes even grew damp. "Orochimaru, in the end, you chose Konoha."

But when he heard that Orochimaru would kill him in the future, the hand holding his pipe trembled.

After a brief surge of shock and pain, what filled his eyes was a deeper guilt and understanding.

"So that's it! You still hate me that much, Orochimaru?" He seemed to age several years in an instant. "Was it my hesitation and my decision to let you go back then that drove you to that point?"

Then his thoughts turned to the Cloning Technology and Genetic Engineering shown on the Canopy Screen, represented by Orochimaru and Kinos.

As Hokage, he clearly saw their power to overturn the Shinobi World's order and ethics.

"Human Experimentation, Clones, Scientific Ninja Tools, the universe..."

It seemed technology was destined to become an unstoppable tide in the future.

My policy of prohibition might suppress it for a while, but it could never eliminate it.

How should Konoha face and guide that power in the future?

At a Konoha training ground, Sasuke Uchiha heard a Land of Earth Person call his future self someone Naruto Uzumaki had defeated.

A fierce sense of humiliation, as though fate itself were mocking him, burned through his gut.

That future seemed to declare without mercy: All your struggles and choices are futile.

No matter how strong I become, Naruto Uzumaki will always stop me.

Why does he refuse to give up on me? Sakura said I'd even want to destroy Konoha in the future.

*That means we'll have taken completely different paths, even turned our