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Ryoichi continued substituting, not even realising how long and where he was heading. His blurring consciousness only had two tasks which was to stop his body from absorbing any Natural energy lest Kaguya tracked him through that and keep substituting while having his Haki continuously activated. Ryoichi didn't realise how much time passed since he started substituting… minutes, hours or even seconds. He only knew he had to get away. And only when his mind couldn't take it anymore he lost consciousness and stop substituting.
Before he fell unconscious Ryoichi noticed a pale humanoid with left side of that face mechanical, looking at him with a serious look.
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The Otsutsuki Cyborg looked at Ryoichi's fallen body with a serious look as a blue light flashed out from his mechanical side of the face and scanned Ryoichi's body.
*Identity confirmed* A mechanical voice spoke.
*The target's physical appearance and DNA matches with Ryoichi Senju's*
The cyborg's human side became even more serious as he contemplated something in silence.
"What do you suggest AI?" The cyborg asked as the mechanical voice chimes again.
*I would suggest sending Senju Ryoichi back to the future.*
"But he would be lost in the time stream and end up in the wrong future without me personally guiding him."
*That is very likely the case, but once you kill Otsutsuki Hagoromo, Senju Ryoichi would be back to his original timeline as he would never interact with the Shinobis of your timeline.*
"But wouldn't killing Hagormo will also remove Ryoichi from ever existing? I heard his technological advancement and research in Soul made my existence possible." The cyborg asked worriedly.
Unlike other mechanical beings, he has a Soul which made him feel emotions and it was only possible due to Ryoichi's studies in the subject. He does not want to become completely mechanical like the AI chip in his head.
*Your existence won't be affected after killing Otsutsuki Hagoromo because Senju Ryoichi would still be born very much like Uzumaki Naruto due to them being Fate Nexus.*
"You mentioned Fate Nexus many times but what is a Fate Nexus?"
*…Fate Nexus is an absolute point in the timeline that cannot be changed, if you try to do so, the Universe itself will remove you and that is also the reason I never suggested killing Uzumaki Naruto.*
"Fine."
*I would suggest you quickly send Ryoichi Senju as the Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Otsutsuki Hamura will very soon confront Otsutsuki Kaguya, and that will be the perfect time to kill them as they would be injured and tired after sealing Otsutsuki Kaguya.*
"Why do you want me to use this moment to attack, can't I go back more in time and kill him when he was a child, or fight him and kill him any other time? Why this time specifically?" The cyborg question with a hint of frustration.
*…* The AI chip was silent for a moment before replying.
*Killing him as a child is not possible due to Otsutsuki Kaguya's protection and later when he grew up he would be strong enough to escape from you, not to mention Otsutsuki Hagoromo otherwise known as the Sage of Six Paths is in the list of 10 strongest beings to ever exist beside the Otsutsuki Patriarch, Senju Ryoichi, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and other so-called monsters.*
"So I can only kill Hagoromo when he's at his weakest." The cyborg asks with some reluctance.
*Affirmative* The AI replied.
The Cyborg sighed as he opened a portal and sent Ryoichi off without any protection which the AI quickly warned him of, but it was already late as the portal immediately closed with Ryoichi not having any armours to protect him from the volatile energy of the Timestream.
And the AI's words became true, especially when Ryoichi's Sage body was absorbing Natural energy like never before due to the dense near infinite Natural energy available inside the Timestream.
The healing speed of Ryoichi's body increased as the burned marks started fading, but the increased healing didn't last longer as a painful scream released from Ryoichi's unconscious body.
Ryoichi's body started shaking and twitching as the Natural energy heavily mixed with the pure Time element started destroying his body. His Sage started absorbing more energy to prevent his body from collapsing, but that only increased the pace of Ryoichi's body's collapse as more Time element got absorbed by him.
Amidst this agony and self-destruction, Ryoichi woke up and instinctively ran Iryōjutsu through his body to help his body heal.
He scanned his body with what little consciousness he had and immediately notice the problem. Ryoichi stopped Natural energy absorption and only used his natural healing and Iryōjutsu to counter the Time element.
After an hour or so Ryoichi finally managed to counter the Pure Time element and completely dispersed it. His consciousness blinked for moment as his body started healing again, but Ryoichi forced himself to stay awake as he didn't want his passive Natural energy absorption to start absorbing the pure Time element again.
Ryoichi attention turned to Timestream as he manipulated his Chakra and converted it into Spacetime Chakra through Thunder God Jutsu, hoping to open the gate like Aina did, and it worked as a blue portal opened some distance away.
Ryoichi moved towards the portal, but just as he did a sudden pain assaulted him, a pain never like before! He felt his veins pumping magma rather than blood throughout his body. He felt his bones cracking and grinding till dust, his veins bursting one after another.
Ryoichi tried to find the reason which he did before blanking out and falling into the portal.
Last thing he remembered his blank Sage cells developing a blood limit very like Hashirama's Wood Release. His blue Chakra reservoir turning emerald green, exactly the same colour as the Timestream. And his Chakra veins breaking and rebuilding again with emerald sheen.
The portal swallowed Ryoichi and threw his half-dead body to the other side before closing.
Ryoichi's body ended up in an underground sewer-like structure where blood and dead bodies were littered around.
Many humans with malnourished bodies and crippling injuries were moving around and pillaging the dead body for money, clothes, equipments, any valuable possession, or simply their… meat…
An old man with no legs saw Ryoichi's body and approached him with his wooden trolley and checked him. The old man's eyes widened as noticed Ryoichi's shallow breaths. He pulled Ryoichi in his wooden trolley with a surprising level of strength for a sickly body and brought Ryoichi to a cave at some distance from the body dumping area.
The old man brought out some old washed-up bandages and applied some green slimy paste before wrapping Ryoichi's whole body with it. Once he was done, he let Ryoichi who looked like a mummy rest and recover.
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[AN: If you want to read more go to my Patr*on/41_Claws. There are 10+ advance unedited chapters on it…]
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