Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Farewells To New Friends

"Kazekage-sama..." Kakashi approached Gaara with a calm look and extended his hand. Gaara was still catching his breath after the intense experience of using the Sands of Time and mythical tools that supposedly descended from the gods themselves.

"Here..." Gaara extended his hand while holding the Bag of Fujin by its string. "I would like to know what you intend to use it for. Artifacts that can collectively reduce the Colossus of the Covenant itself to a pile of clay need to be accounted for."

"Don't worry, you'll never have to worry about them again," Kakashi assured the Kazekage after taking the bag from his hands. Gaara's feet lifted off the ground while the young man floated up to Mana and extended his hand that had a string of golden chain hanging from it. After Mana extended her hands to receive the Kazekage's gift, she felt a warm, metallic object touching her hands.

Gaara gave the Golden Locket of Sotatsu back to the same person he received it from.

"You didn't answer my question," Gaara turned back to Kakashi.

"We will use the bag and the locket to travel to the past from where we can use the secret tunnel between the Earth and the Moon. Then I shall part ways with the Allied Ninja and leave these artifacts stranded in-between universes, timelines and dimensions. They'll be in safe hands, don't worry," Kakashi remedied that mistake. With a light nod, Gaara showed he was fine with that answer.

"You have no business traveling with them any further, Temari," Kankuro turned to his sister. "Your weapon is broken and you could use a medical check-up. Then, I'll personally accompany you back to Konoha to your family."

"We really should've worried about our scrapes and bruises when Gaara still had the Sands of Time under his control..." Temari grumbled, scratching the back of her head before crossing her arms over her chest and slouching with a pout.

"There's a lot of things we could have worried about while we still controlled the Sands..." Endo said, looking grumpy as ever. "If the Sands let us access all those different timelines and dimensions and we can use them to go to when Zahhak didn't even exist yet, if he ever existed in the first place, we should have just used one of those entryways to find a portal to our universe's moon, on our time."

"While that may have been possible, we'd have taken forever to do so. Remember, the only reason we found the Sands inside that tower was that we had the Bag of Fujin to call forth to them and find us from the right pathway instead. Even if time doesn't exist in that realm as a concept, you're a handful to handle even now. You'd have gone mad spending millions of years looking for the right chambers to enter on that tower," Mana replied, calming Endo down like only she seemed to be able to.

"You should probably listen to your brother, Temari. You've already completed your job on this team. We couldn't have gotten this far without you," Kakashi said in a calm tone that made everything coming out of his mouth sound like sage advice.

"Whatever... Someone needs to let Naruto know what happened here and that everything's going according to plan," Temari rubbed her worn-out eyes and caved in to peer pressure, joining Gaara's group while the two parties waved each other farewell.

"Oh, is that what's happening here?" Skaven rolled his eyes.

"Well, now we just need to use the Bag of Fujin again to call forth to the Sands. They're still stranded in this universe and this dimension now," Kakashi muttered while handing the bag over to Mana, who widened her gaze and twisted her expression in shock.

"Wait... Me!?" she pointed to herself, dumbfounded.

"Your skill in ninjutsu is at the very least equal to mine. Your focus and prowess in genjutsu leaves me in the dust. I have a feeling that focus is the key when using these artifacts. All you need to do is to wash us up at least thirty or so years into the past. Even this same location will do," Kakashi pointed out.