Chapter 252 : Departure

"So I came here out of nowhere," Kirito asked with confusion on his face. 

"Yes, we sense chakra in the ancient array. I thought that you came back, not wrong in my assumption besides you being in a worse state than what you left Konoha last time.

Hahaha." Ashina said with a little laughter.

Kirito realized that the copy of the ninjutsu array he put in his hand was responsible for bringing him here. It most likely has something to do with the Sage Of Six Path. 

He surely did something, ticker with that tattoo, somehow.

Good thing that he put that Array as a tattoo when he came here last time.

[Ashina is the clan leader of the Uzumaki clan]

Kirito hearing this smiled aback, he couldn't believe how long it had been. It was only 2 years at best but it felt like forever. Clearly, he has grown quite a buit but after coming back he felt like that war never happened and he was still worrying about how to introduce Asuna to Ino.

Suddenly his mind clicked and he immediately looked at Ashina who was going on and on about what had happened in the past two years. 

"Ashina, where is Asuna ?" Kirito asked. He was a little eager to meet the girl now. Last time she clearly confessed to him before he went back in his time. It would be troublesome if he didn't look for her after coming back for the first time in the last 2 years.

His mind was already coming up with many excuses he would need to coax the spoiled girl.

"Huh, don't you think I should be the one who asked this question," Ashina asked, his demeanour changing immediately. 

It almost felt like the man from the very beginning wanted to talk about her granddaughter but being a good conversationalist he started with a normal ideal chat. 

But not anymore.

"What do you mean ?"

"Isn't Asuna with you, she went with you to the future," Ashina asked with much heat in his voice, not angry but rather worried for her granddaughter.

 "What makes you think that? I would never take her with me without telling you." Kirito was serious. According to what he heard from Ashina, it means that Asuna has been missing for the last 2 years. 

"What....

'Man... this isn't gonna be pretty...

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It took much shouting on both sides before both of them came down. 

"So Asuna went missing just after I went back in my time. The last time you saw her was with me when I came to meet you. Her last trail was in the ancient array. 

Are you sure about that ?" Kirito asked with worry settling in. 

"I am positive," Ashina replied firmly. 

" This ain't good. I need to check that array. If I am right then your granddaughter has fallen in the tunnel. 

Most likely she has gone to some other time altogether. " Kirito said with much dread in his voice. 

These words almost felt like a stab in the old man's heart. There was so much expression on his face that Kirito could bet that it was more than all the expression the man had shown in the last decade if the war at Uzu which happened two years ago wasn't included.

"Asuna ?" Ashina said with a pale face

"We need to find her, don't worry, she is also a Kunoichi. At best, she went to a different time unknown to us or ..." Kirito didn't complete the sentence. 

"Or....

"Or a different world unknown to us...

...

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There was much that Kirito wanted to do, like going to Konoha and meeting both Mito and Tsunade, he was under their care for an extensive period the last time he came in here. He knew them and made friends with them.

He also wanted to meet many people in Uzu as well but there was no time. Asuna has been gone for the last 2 years. 

So many things can happen in 2 years. He has no time. He has to find where Asuna is and bring her back.

"Take me there," Kirito said. 

"Are you sure, you are still healing?" Ashina asked.

"Yeah, it's not gonna be anything stressful or anything. Just gonna look around and check the array." Kirito nodded.

Seeing the determination on Kirito's face, Ashina too nodded.

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Kirito stood before the ancient ninjutsu array, its intricate patterns glowing faintly as the last time, this place really doesn't age.

He examined the symbols carefully, his mind racing to decipher their meaning. Each kanji was making him more confused, he almost forgot how confusing and complex this array was but he couldn't give up.

He traced his fingers over the markings, sensing the residual energy. "This has to be it," he muttered to himself, piecing together the fragments of the puzzle.

The array's purpose was clear: it was a teleportation seal. 

After finally finding the part he wanted, now its was time to check all the places this teleportation was connected to. 

Kirito's heart pounded as he focused on the symbols representing space and time. That last part didn't look good. 

If it was only time then that would have been fine but also space. 

He never used the space side of the array before. It was dangerous. And even for him, it was very hard to understand the array completely. 

The last destination on the array, when it comes to the sender's signal was somewhere else entirely. Completely unknown to him.

He could almost feel Asuna's presence through the faint remnants of her energy. How come she ended up thrown in another time and space in the first place?

After hours of meticulous study, Kirito finally found a clue—a set of coordinates embedded within the array. "This is it," he whispered, eyes widening with realization. The coordinates pointed to a distant, unknown location, space and time.

Kirito was ready to follow the lead, but first, he needed to completely heal up and prepare.

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So just like that another weak passed. Kirito had to stay in the hospital for a few more days before returning back to the same room assigned to him by the Uzumaki the last time he visited the city. 

But there was no rest for him. He worked tirelessly to come up with the nearest coordinates to where Asuna could have gone. Locating her was hard enough but to use the array and lock at a time close to her was nigh impossible. 

Kirito wanted to choose the same time as she when there but that was turning into a hopeful dream of his as he failed all the time. This wasn't anymore something he could have solved with better seals and more chakra. The complexity level was way beyond his at this time. 

After weeks of hard work, the best he could do was the send himself with a time gap equal to what has gone on in this world. That would be 2 years.

This means he has to find the girl's traces after two years she went there. At least the place he gonna go will be closer. Well, at least he hopes so. 

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There was no fanfare for Kirito, the only one who came to visit him before he departed for this not-so-wanted journey was Ashina. 

Actually, his coming here was kept hush-hush as much as possible. There were two reasons for that. 

One is to prevent the elders of the Uzumaki village from making a big fuzz about this and another is to prevent his coming back from being spread to other villages.

After all Kirito Namikaze was a big name at this time. A 14-year-old who almost destroyed the combined army of 3 major villages, and even killed the third Raikage. 

Now there was much more to this, like him using traps. Him having future knowledge and a lot of help from the Uzu village as well but those ninjas don't care, for them, it's him who did it. 

And this made him a feared name until he was here. Until he suddenly disappeared. 

So its good for everyone that his appearance is kept under the radar as much as possible. 

"Are you sure you are gonna go in there blinded," Ashina asked with a contemplated look. He too was a seal master like most of the Uzumaki are, sealing is an internal part of their upbringing after all, he wasn't a grandmaster though unlike Mito, Kashin or Kirito here. 

So Ashina himself doesn't understand much about this sealing array, currently, there is only Mito Uzumaki and one another elder in the Uzumaki clan who do get these seals besides Kirito himself.

"Yeah, I am sure. Still, now my luck hasn't betrayed me, I believe that it's not gonna change that soon either. And I always had the ability to come back with this seal on my arm anyways so don't worry." Kirito said. 

Ashina after hearing this pursed his lips and nodded. 

Seeing that there was nothing else to talk about, Kirito closed his eyes to reach out for the Nine Tail chakra inside him. But he was slow to use it. 

It was a present surprise for him when he realized that after defeating Kayuga his system hit a 100% completion rate, giving him a complete version of Kurama Chakra. 

Meaning now he has the entirity of Nine Tail's Chakra. 

Good timing as well becuase without that extra bit of chakra it would have been really hard for him to use this array. It was really hard to even teleport from the future to the past. So he could only imagine how troublesome it gonna be to send himself to the same place where Asuna had gone. 

"Are you sure that you don't want a sword?" Ashina asked.

"Nah, they are not as good as the one Kashin gave me, sorry again for losing that sword. If not absolutely necessary then I wouldn't have done that." Kirito bows his head a little as he remembers what had happened.

There was a high possibility that Kaguya would have put a karma seal on him when he killed her so sage of six paths suggested a plan back then.

To seal Kayuga's soul in his sword itself and give the sword to Shinigami for safe keeping. 

That was the reason that Grim Reaper even bothered to enchant his sword with his power. 

But now Kirito doesn't have a good sword to use. The normal sword can't handle his chakra infuse strength. So add power-ups like KCM or Sage mode on that. Even armament Haki can't save those inferior swords.

'I still do have Kubikiribocho, aka Zabuza's sword but that is way too big and I rather not use it if not absolutely necessary' Kirito sighed.

"Don't worry, Kashin will be happy that it was used to save your life and others." Ashina reply.

"It's time Ashina, by the time I come back, I promise to bring Asuna with me. Please don't worry too much and take care, especially say hi to kushina for me" Kirit smiled as a huge amount of golden chakra came to life around him.

He immediately entered into KCM 2 with his full glory, the power was unreal as he now had full power of Kurama. 

Adding Sage mode on top of that, his chakra level broke a new height. 

"The entire clan will be waiting for you. Good luck. 

Bring her back." Ashina said as Kirito's figure engulfed in golden light and ended disappear.

xxx

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