Sasuke Uchiha froze on the spot!
He had never expected that simply giving it a try would actually work.
It was far too unexpected.
His hand was still raised, but his whole body seemed rooted in place, his mind utterly blank.
It worked?
It really worked?!
Sasuke held his pose, the Space-Time Portal hovering silently in midair, its black-and-red light reflected on his face.
The next second, the portal's edges suddenly began shaking violently, and cracks spread from its center.
Before Sasuke could react, the portal collapsed with a crash, dissolving into fragments of black light that vanished into the air.
But before collapsing, it had remained there for nearly two seconds.
Naruto Uzumaki, who was sitting cross-legged nearby, widened his eyes.
He froze for a moment, then sprang up from the ground and slapped Sasuke on the shoulder, nearly sending the still-dazed Sasuke stumbling a step forward.
"Sasuke! You did it! You just did it!"
The slap brought Sasuke back to his senses. He turned to look at Naruto's face, which was almost contorted with excitement, and fell silent for a moment.
"...Yeah."
"It worked."
He lowered his head and looked at his right hand.
His palm was still trembling slightly.
The sensation from that instant still lingered within him: space tearing open under his eye power, then gradually stabilizing.
That sense of precise control was unlike any of his previous attempts.
"It really worked."
Naruto had already circled him once, talking nonstop.
"I knew you could do it!"
"That portal you just made was way bigger than those cracks before! And it looked really stable!"
"If it hadn't shattered at the end, I think we could've gone right through!"
Sasuke raised his head. Seeing Naruto looking even happier than he was, he smiled too.
After training hard for