Inside the Light Village's laboratory within Sun Stream Plaza.
Arthur's clones, Ryugetsu and John, were lined up one by one. He placed his hand on each of their foreheads and mentally relayed what he'd learned from Toneri's books.
With that information successfully transmitted to them, they knew what to do next. So they immediately set to work as Arthur turned and walked toward the freezing containment chamber.
Inside, he knew, lay his most precious resource: cells from Naruto and Sasuke. Their DNA was unique, for they were the two main characters of this world. Their DNA also held the potential to manipulate spacetime itself.
The containment held a small jar of tiny samples. Arthur carefully took them out to examine them. They were still well preserved.
Why had he waited so long to use these? Because failure wasn't an option. If he couldn't merge Naruto's and Sasuke's cells into a single, stable chakra core, he would lose everything.
The risk of using them now without proper care was simply too high.
More of Sasuke's cells could be replaced easily, but Naruto's were rarer. There was only so much he could acquire without raising suspicion. Besides, Arthur was already powerful enough. He'd almost forgotten he had these cells.
At the end of the day, they were his secret weapon to one day acquire more power than anyone in this world could hope to dream of.
He knew why he needed them now: the cells contained Ōtsutsuki chakra; the ancestral chakras of Asura and Indra, passed down through Naruto and Sasuke. It was this chakra that could unlock the secret to traveling through time.
Back in the main room, the clones and Arthur prepared for the next step.
They laid out the cells on a flat surface, ready to split them in half. Using a specialized machine, they carefully divided each sample, making sure not to damage the delicate chakra within.
John took the unused halves and stored them back in the cold containment.
Now came the difficult part: merging the two halves into a single chakra network. Physically, it was simple—just bring the cells together. Spiritually, it was another story.
They had to stabilize the chakra, making sure it blended correctly without causing a backlash. If Arthur failed, he'd be at a greater loss than he desired.
Him and Ryugetsu worked in tandem while John waited for the preparations.
"Focus on controlling the chakra's flow," Arthur commanded.
"Understood…"
To try and coax the two halves into harmony was not going to be an easy feat. Madara Uchiha had the easy task of simply sewing a piece of Hashirama into his chest. It was easy because Madara was the direct descendant of Indra.
Arthur, however, was working from scratch.
Him and Ryugetsu began the process by first closing their eyes. They then focused their chakra inward and outward through the cells' neural pathways.
Chakras were seen as chains of molecules vibrating at specific frequencies. As they concentrated, these molecular chains extended from each cell and aligned with each other. By tuning their molecular vibrations to match, the molecules from their own chakra connected, forming a bridge of energy.
This connection allowed their chakra to flow between those cells at a molecular level, enabling a direct transfer of energy and information through Naruto's and Sasuke's shared structures.
Thirty minutes into their work, something went wrong. The chakra network destabilized, and the cells had disintegrated into nothingness!
Silence filled the room. No one made a face, and no one expressed frustration. They simply observed, as if the failure was expected.
How had they been unsuccessful? Was the chakra too complex? Had they connected the networks incorrectly?
No, Arthur knew. The problem was in the process. They had used too many cells, creating an excess amount of chakra that couldn't be contained in one place. Because of that, the network had become unstable and damaged the cells altogether.
"Go and get the other half," he commanded.
His tone left no room for argument. He knew this was risky. If he failed again, they'd be worse off.
This time, he decided, he'd use only a quarter of the half-cell sample. Less was better. And so long as he still had enough cells to rebuild, he wouldn't be at a total loss.
'Flying raijin…'
Straightaway, Hoshikaze was summoned into the laboratory.
"I'm sure you understand," the clone said, "that I was overseeing the Uchiha's training." Then its voice trailed off. "Oh…"
"As you can see," John relayed. "This is more important."
When Hoshikaze sensed that Arthur, Ryugetsu, and John had failed to combine the chakras of Asura and Indra, he knew immediately that this was indeed more paramount.
With all four working together, they prepared to merge the cells once more. They started the process again. Carefully, with unhurried movements, they combined the smaller chakra samples.
The process lasted for a few moments, each second feeling longer than the last.
Finally, it worked!
The chakra network was stabilized, meaning Arthur had succeeded.
"The cells had been fused into one, a single, coherent chakra source," Ryugetsu announced.
"Only a small victory," John clarified.
Afterward, Arthur didn't store the fused cells. Instead, he connected them to an electrical device resembling a watch.
The device itself was made with male and female connectors designed to intertwine with the chakra. It was complex, and neither he nor his clones fully understood how to operate it.
That was because the notes from Toneri's pages hinted that Hagoromo's chakra was involved in manipulating space-time, but no instructions were given.
As ironic as it was to place the cells into a watch, Arthur only did this on account that the cells could not be injected into a body; he needed to put them in an object that could be activated.
Arthur himself had remembered something from his observations of Jasper. When Jasper used his Time Travel technique, he always placed his hand over the person's forehead.
Arthur believed that memory played a role in the process; that the act of recalling a specific moment or place was essential.
If that was true, Arthur thought, then time travel might be activated simply by thinking of a destination.
As such, the clones watched in silence as he placed the device near his forehead. Arthur closed his eyes, focused his chakra, and mentally visualized a point in the past: yesterday.
Then, he pushed his chakra into the device, activating it.
A sudden, blinding light filled the room. For a moment, everything disappeared. When it faded, Arthur was gone.
"I can't sense him," Hoshikaze said, looking around.
Neither could the other clones. So they stood there quietly, waiting. Yet nothing happened.
"If he time traveled," John slowly said, "then he should be back soon, right?"
"Wait a little longer then," Ryugetsu suggested.
The minutes stretched on, but still, nothing happened. Where had Arthur disappeared to?
Elsewhere, Arthur found himself drifting through a black void, a space that felt neither cold nor warm, just an endless nothingness filled with fleeting images.
It was like floating in space, but he wasn't in his body. Instead, he was a white avatar, a blank slate with no weight or form, moving through the darkness.
There were also images around him that flickered quickly and flashed past like scenes from a distant, disjointed film.
He saw snippets of the Naruto story, such as the battles fought and lost. Each scene was like rewinding and fast-forwarding an episode that rushed past him so fast he couldn't grasp the details.
The entire story played out like a montage of memories. Even some of the filler episodes he had not recalled were recorded in this stream of reels.
As interesting as this all was, his mind needed to anchor itself amid this stream of information. So he focused on one thing: time. He needed to travel backward to tomorrow like he intended.
But as he concentrated, a sudden pain shot behind his eyes. It was sharp and persistent, like a spike stabbing into his skull. The pain grew worse, pounding harder with each second, and his focus wavered as his mind became like a battlefield resisting the onslaught of discomfort.
He didn't scream or cry out. Instead, he pushed his chakra outward, attempting to sever the connection and halt the technique that was pulling him through this space.
The effort was futile. The pain intensified, and then everything blacked out.
Then, Arthur's eyes opened. Not opened in the way one looks around, but as if he'd just awakened from a deep sleep.
His body felt strange, and he could feel warm liquid coursing around. He was conscious, yet he felt like he was underwater and submerged in something thick and viscous. His breathing was also facilitated by a mask pressed against his face, delivering oxygen directly.
Where exactly was he?
He remained still, muscles tense but not moving. He needed to assess his surroundings carefully.
When he looked clearly, he saw a small window right in front of him. This place, he thought. No, it couldn't be.
As he focused more, he felt the familiar sensation of a medical pod—something designed for containment and preservation.
Now he was certain.
Through that window, he saw the laboratory of Elysium.
The room outside his pod was filled with equipment and monitors. It looked the same as when he first entered the Enclave Mk. II. The only difference was that there was thick liquid in the pod.
How long had he been inside? Hours? Days? Years?
The uncertainty gnawed at him, but he refused to panic. He was back on earth, and that was enough for now.
His gaze settled on the scene outside the pod: three scientists working at a control panel. They were talking, and he caught parts of their conversation.
"The Reza company called us again," one said in an annoyed tone. "They should really learn to mind their own business."
Arthur's mind snapped to that name. Reza. Jasper Reza.
The scientist continued, "Good thing Dr. Kapoor had Subject E sign that waiver. Otherwise, we'd be in trouble."
"Doesn't matter," another chimed in. "He bought his way into this experiment anyway. No one can stop it now."
"How'd he do that?"
"I think he bribed the CEO with some of his company's shares or something."
"Where are my shares then?" the third laughed.
Their voices grated on Arthur's nerves. They were joking about his life—his suffering—as if it was some experiment. The thought made his blood boil, and it caused a sudden surge of anger to ignite within him.
Without warning, a red alarm blared throughout the room. The scientists' heads snapped up, their faces registering alarm. They looked at the control panel to wonder what caused it.
Frantically, they began pressing buttons, trying to understand what was happening. The red light flashed brightly, illuminating the room in a bloody hue.
Arthur's gaze remained fixed on them, and for a moment, he felt like busting through the pod.
When the scientists finally saw that it was his pod causing the alarm, they looked and froze in fear upon seeing him awake. His very stare seemed to pierce through the glass of the pod, directly into their souls.
"Why weren't you monitoring him?!" one roared out to the others.
The scientists scrambled to respond as their fingers flew over the controls, trying to figure out what had triggered his awakening. The room sparked with error messages and blinking lights, causing the scientists to panic because they were unsure of what to do.
Then, suddenly, the alarm slowed down before finally stopping. The red light faded to a softer hue, and the room grew quieter.
The scientists looked at the pod. Inside, Arthur's figure was still. His eyes, behind the glass, stared directly at them. But then, almost as if he'd made a decision, he relaxed and closed his eyes for his body to settle back into a calm state.
It was as if he had surrendered willingly.
The scientists were uncertain of what to do next. They watched the pod for a few moments longer as the tension still lingered in the air.
Arthur's body remained still as his mind fell into a deep slumber.