Chapter 256: Accidentally Triggered?

Several hours later, in the lab…

All of Konoha's high-level figures gathered quietly to watch Orochimaru unfold the technique under Sarutobi Hiruzen's and Namikaze Minato's supervision, while Link supplied chakra to the scroll.

One by one, the inscriptions on the scroll gave off a faint glow. But once everyone had prudently backed away, nothing else happened.

[The technique was activated, but didn't trigger automatically.]

Orochimaru eyed the weakening glow on the scroll, and in the end, all the chakra stored on it burned out, returning it to a calm state.

[Nothing happened?]

He frowned. It made no sense. If merely injecting chakra caused no effect, why did Senju Tobirama vanish?

According to Link's account, the Second Hokage never formed seals or released chakra – he didn't even touch the scroll; he was only standing a few dozen centimeters away, looking at it from a distance. How could he have used the jutsu?

[Maybe there's some kind of trigger-based trap.]

That thought crossed everyone's mind.

Minato, standing nearest, formed seals to create a shadow clone, instructing it to poke and shift the scroll. Every small motion made everyone watching tense up.

What sort of jutsu was it?

What triggered it?

How far could it reach once triggered?

No one underestimated Tobirama's caution or logic, and they assumed the master of forbidden jutsu could have set something extremely sophisticated. That naturally led to all kinds of wild theories.

Yet after the shadow clone repeated its handling for quite a while, still nothing happened. Just as people were convinced there might be some hidden twist, Hashirama lifted his hand:

"Um, is there a chance Tobirama just didn't think much about it and used the jutsu right away?"

"Impossible!" x2

Orochimaru and Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke in unison. As master and disciple—both having read the Second Hokage's notes—they gave the famed "Master of Forbidden Jutsu" plenty of credit.

But after test upon test, including Shimura Danzō volunteering to act as a "suicide squad" tester in person, nothing occurred.

"Must've been an accident, then."

"Yes, triggered by chance."

Orochimaru showed a cryptic smile, looking amused at the four Konoha elders' attempts to excuse the Second Hokage.

Covering his face with one hand, Hashirama sighed repeatedly. "Tobirama, that fool... using an unknown jutsu so recklessly…really…" He hated talking poorly behind his little brother's back, but that had "doomed attempt" written all over it.

Everyone tacitly dropped the matter and restarted the experiment.

Link again channeled chakra into the scroll's formula. Orochimaru tossed over a lab rabbit from Training Ground Seven. The instant it touched the glowing, newly activated jutsu, the inscriptions contorted and compressed, forming a vortex that swallowed the rabbit.

They tried again with several ordinary animals of differing sizes and species. Every outcome matched the first rabbit's fate.

"It's a contact-based jutsu," Orochimaru concluded. "So long as Link's chakra is powering it, anyone can use it, but the 'active' state doesn't last long."

He pondered the earlier sequence of runes he'd seen—how they lit up for space-time ninjutsu, what changed, what stayed the same—silently piecing it together.

"I think I've got it." Of the three main researchers, Minato was the first to speak up, a look of realization on his face. Pointing at the unactivated portion of the scroll, he said, "This section here handles relational searching, that section is for targeting, and that one is for the space transfer—"

He explained it all. The principle wasn't super-complex in itself; the script was simply unfamiliar. With Tobirama's partial notes and on-site comparisons, it became easier to figure out what the fully deployed technique was doing.

Flying Thunder God itself could handle a fuzzy target—like teleporting away a Tailed Beast Bomb out of nowhere. But it was too imprecise and depended heavily on a sensor-type ninja's skill.

This new space-time ninjutsu had an automatic function for searching and pinpointing a dimension.

Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded. "Also, I noticed just now: when the rabbit hit the technique, the very first inscription to respond was here." He gestured to a segment Tobirama himself hadn't deciphered. "I suspect it's for linking minds."

A link to the mind—maybe transferring whoever used it to the location they wanted? Possibly. There were details they hadn't nailed down yet, but they were on the right track.

Orochimaru listened and took notes, offering his own perspective. The three of them chattered away enthusiastically, as if oblivious to the fact that two of them were reanimations and one was a prisoner.

Link understood only bits and pieces—standing to the side as a mere "chakra battery." He got the main idea, more or less, but not the details of the formula. He'd once hoped Minato might replicate the external "brain" contraption Tobirama had used, but after eyeing each other for a bit, they both realized they had no idea how to proceed. Rather awkward.

Anyway, that plan to learn Flying Thunder God through an external brain had failed. Once he found some free time, Link figured he might as well return to practicing Wind Release—there was plenty to learn.

Back to business: the experiments resumed at full steam. Tsunade and the two village advisers soon left to handle official duties.

Hashirama, along with Sasuke and Bubbles, stood by like they were listening to a foreign language. They spent a whole day that way, doing less than Link, who at least contributed chakra.

Their initial findings matched Hiruzen's hunch: the jutsu's logic was "connect to a mind/spirit, search for a location, confirm coordinates, then teleport."

Three minds can still beat one, especially if those minds belong to Orochimaru—capable of improving forbidden jutsu—plus the "Professor" of ninjutsu and a space-time master like Minato. Armed with Tobirama's notes, they made quick progress.

In barely four or five days, they tested normal animals, snakes and serpentine Summons (Orochimaru's donation), plus some death-row convicts. Everything teleported away to an extremely remote location, so Summoning them back was out of the question. That ended any dream of leaving behind chakra as a link, crossing over to find Tobirama, and then Summoning everyone home.

In the original manga, Naruto and friends wound up stuck in Kaguya's Amenominaka dimension and needed the combined power of all the Hokage to Summon them back. Link suspected Tobirama might've ended up in another world entirely. To Summon him back would probably take an impossible amount of chakra. He had no idea if a Ten-Tails Jinchūriki or Kaguya could do it—but Konoha certainly couldn't.

That said, why was so little chakra consumed when teleporting to that faraway dimension?

Orochimaru's explanation was that Link's chakra was highly unusual.

And so it circled back to the original plan: Link would lead a team, using the jutsu to cross over to the "other side," find Tobirama, and figure out a way to use the jutsu to come home.

~~~

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