Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Complications

"Huh? What do you mean by that, you know?" the Seventh Naruto turned to his advisor, who still struggled with the idea of explaining what he had in mind. "You think there's still a way to reach the moon from our universe?"

"Well, it's a long shot of an idea to be sure, but... My wife told Shikadai an interesting story a few times. I wouldn't be bringing it up if she didn't insist that it was real. Apparently, it's something that everyone in Sunagakure knows and believes." Shikamaru scratched the back of his neck, wrestling with himself.

"A story?" Sasuke turned to Shikamaru with an apathetic look. The Uchiha thought little of this story that Shikamaru brought up.

"Yeah, the story of the Sands of Time. The Sunagakure believe that this special, golden sand can cause an immense sandstorm that washes anyone caught within them to the past or the future. Normally, the Sands of Time are a chaotic force of nature. However, according to Temari, there are multiple artifacts found within the Wind Country that can control and direct the flow of the Sands." Shikamaru said.

"The Sands of Time? I've got to say, Shikamaru, that sounds like a bedtime tale, you know..." the Seventh Naruto pouted and shifted his lips about, trying to find it within himself to believe this story.

"Actually..." Mana interjected. "I don't find this legend that hard to believe at all. In our universe, there was a woman able to distort the fabric of time-space using a gold-colored Sand Release. I've met her. These Sands of Time sound much more powerful than what Regalia-san was capable of, but even their power does not sound impossible, given the context, and it would explain where Regalia-san got her inspiration from."

"Hmm..." Naruto rubbed his chin as he pondered on something. Lord Seventh then shook the mouse by his computer screen and began tapping at the buttons on his keyboard. After he was done with the task, the Seventh Naruto turned around to face a bunch of television screens behind him. While initially, they appeared to have been used for video conference calls, a lone face appeared in all of them at once. The face of a red-haired young man with dark bags around his eyes and pale skin.

"Naruto, is that you?" the man asked with a husky voice.

"Sorry to bother you, Gaara, but I wanted to run something by you, you know. We've got visitors from another universe. They say that they're looking for a way to get to the moon, you know." Naruto explained to the Kazekage.

"The moon? But the moon has been destroyed in our universe." Gaara replied without missing a beat.

"That's right, but... Shikamaru told me something about some Sands of Time. The Allied Ninja from the other universe think that by using those Sands they can transport backward through time on our universe, to when the moon was still intact, then use the portal that we used to get to the moon to face Toneri." Naruto pointed out.

"Indeed... Most locals know the legend of the Sands of Time." Gaara nodded. "Though the Sands are an anomaly that cannot be simply located. They ravage the face of time by causing sandstorms all over the time-space. Without an artifact that controls their power, you cannot find them, let alone use them. Even then, if your guests use the Sands of Time, they'd be stuck in a time in the past–where nobody knows who they are and, even if they get to the moon, they'd still have to deal with Toneri."

"There's another problem..." Skaven pulled his hand out of his pocket and raised it to attract some attention to what he was saying. "Even if we find and use these Sands, even if we take this spring portal that Lord Seventh spoke of and go to the moon, even if we deal with this Toneri person, without portable universe-bridge technology, we won't be able to come back to our own universe while on the moon. There's no point for us to travel to your version of the moon, after all."