By the time that day arrived, even Tsunade herself would be around the Third Hokage's current age.
Still, watching Konoha pass from one generation to the next filled her with immense satisfaction.
Even Sarutobi Konohamaru, who was still little more than a tiny brat right now, would grow into a mature Jonin Leader in the future. How could that not stir everyone's emotions?
No wonder he resembled someone they had once known. He was that person's son, after all.
The only person no one recognized was the young kunoichi wearing glasses.
Only Seventh Hokage Naruto knew she was Sasuke's daughter, Sarada.
"So that's how it turned out. It was only an idea before."
Seventh Hokage Naruto looked at the team and finally understood.
His son Uzumaki Boruto, Sasuke's daughter Uchiha Sarada, and Mitsuki, whom Orochimaru had pushed into Konoha, were all placed under Sarutobi Konohamaru's command.
Naruto couldn't help feeling emotional.
The first time they met, Konohamaru had been a tiny brat who wasn't even a ninja.
Now he had become a Jonin Leader.
Times changed, and the years truly passed in the blink of an eye.
What surprised everyone next was that Sarutobi Konohamaru used a miniature scroll resembling a capsule and somehow performed the Shadow Binding Technique.
That was a secret technique unique to the Nara Clan. Only members of the Nara Clan should have been capable of using it.
"What is that device on his wrist?"
Namikaze Minato frowned.
Had technology really advanced this far in the coming decades?
It could actually allow someone with no relevant training to use the secret techniques of a ninja clan?
The world had evolved into something he could no longer understand.
After Uchiha Sarada questioned him, Sarutobi Konohamaru explained that the device was called a Scientific Ninja Tool.
By using it, a person could perform Ninjutsu they would normally never be capable of using.
After all, many Ninjutsu required the user to possess a compatible Chakra nature.
Most people were naturally aligned with only one Chakra nature, while a select few possessed two or more.
Normally, only after reaching the Jonin level would someone begin training in a second nature transformation.
Yet this Scientific Ninja Tool completely bypassed that limitation.
A person didn't need to train in a second nature transformation at all. They could simply use the technique directly.
It even worked with the Nara Clan's Shadow Binding Technique.
"Has the future Nara Clan really become this open-minded?"
Namikaze Minato found it difficult to understand.
He could accept that scientific progress might eventually produce something like Scientific Ninja Tools.
But the Nara Clan willingly allowing outsiders to use their secret techniques was enough to leave an old-fashioned shinobi like him speechless.
He knew exactly how fiercely ninja clans guarded their techniques.
The moment a secret technique leaked outside the clan, it would almost certainly trigger a relentless pursuit. They would never allow their knowledge to spread unchecked.
It was no different from how clans with Kekkei Genkai prevented their bloodlines from being stolen.
And yet only forty years later, the Nara Clan had become this generous?
They were even willing to provide their secret techniques for experimentation?
Minato couldn't imagine the major ninja clans agreeing to surrender their hidden techniques for research.
It wasn't just him.
Even Shimura Danzo, who had always acted arrogantly and treated the various clans with contempt, would never dare propose such a thing.
At most, Danzo forced the major clans to hand over talented young members so he could train them as Root shinobi.
Even then, their clan techniques remained restricted to their original users. They were never taught to the other members of Root.
The only exceptions were techniques belonging to clans that had already been destroyed, such as the Uzumaki Clan's Fuinjutsu after the fall of the Land of Whirlpools, or the techniques of the now-extinct Uchiha Clan.
Aside from cases like those, trying to seize a clan's secret techniques was practically a declaration of war.
It meant going to war against every clan in the village that possessed a Kekkei Genkai or inherited secret technique.
Even civilian Jonin wouldn't support such a move.
After all, civilian Jonin had children too.
They also wanted to pass down their own unique skills, giving their children an advantage and eventually establishing a ninja clan comparable to those with secret techniques.
The Hatake Clan was one of the best examples.
They had originally been a Samurai family.
Aside from Hatake Kenjutsu, they possessed no special secret techniques.
Even so, they had relied on that sword style to build their current status and strength step by step.
That was why Namikaze Minato could only stare at the future in complete confusion.
Next, he watched the future Sarutobi Konohamaru take out a scroll and seal the Rasengan inside it.
Aside from Uchiha Sasuke, who was still struggling to understand what he was seeing, everyone immediately grasped the enormous implications.
This was a strategic-level invention!
Even an A-rank Ninjutsu like the Rasengan could be sealed inside the scroll and released later whenever needed.
The concept was both revolutionary and astonishingly innovative.
Take Hatake Kakashi, for example.
Whenever he used Raikiri in the past, he could only perform it a handful of times before exhausting his Chakra and losing most of his combat ability.
That problem appeared constantly throughout Kakashi's battles and had followed him for his entire life.
Because of it, he always fought with extreme care, conserving every bit of Chakra he could.
Aside from his strange insistence on carving dog heads into his Earth-Style Wall, almost everything else about his fighting style reflected that habit.
But what if he prepared eight or ten scrolls containing offensive Ninjutsu before leaving on a mission?
Wouldn't that give him a devastating surprise attack?
"Wait. Don't we already have something similar to pre-prepared Ninjutsu?"
Jiraiya suddenly realized that while this invention was convenient, pre-prepared techniques already existed to some extent.
Didn't he carry a pile of scrolls everywhere he went?
They were filled with techniques prepared in advance, though most of them were supportive Ninjutsu, such as Fuinjutsu.
There were almost no offensive techniques that could be released instantly.
More importantly, his scrolls only contained unfinished preparations. He still needed to complete the final steps himself before the technique could be used.
This future device was completely different.
A finished technique could be sealed directly into the scroll, then activated effortlessly through the machine.
That changed everything.
The scrolls could also be compressed until they were small enough to carry anywhere.
That convenience was extraordinary.
The ability to shrink them was the most important part.
If each scroll could be reduced to such a tiny size, every shinobi could carry dozens at once.
Their combat strength would rise dramatically.
Jiraiya, for example, could seal Senjutsu Chakra inside a scroll and release it whenever necessary.
He could enter Sage Mode instantly.
Instant Sage Mode!
That was clearly an excellent method.
Jiraiya felt as though an entirely new world had opened before him.
The hardest part of entering Sage Mode was remaining still and calmly gathering Senjutsu Chakra.
But what if he prepared it ahead of time?
And it didn't have to be limited to Senjutsu Chakra.
Could other types of Chakra also be stored in advance and used to replenish someone at a critical moment?
This was entirely different from Food Pills.
Food Pills allowed a shinobi to recover Chakra and stamina quickly, but the process still took time.
They also forced the body to draw out its hidden reserves, damaging the user's lifespan.
This device was different.
It could restore someone to full strength all at once.
"Isn't this similar to Tsunade's Yin Seal?"
Jiraiya suddenly thought of something.
Wasn't the principle behind Tsunade's Yin Seal essentially the same?
She stored Chakra ahead of time, then released it at a critical moment.
Beyond Chakra, they could also store healing Ninjutsu and countless other techniques.
There were far too many possible uses.
"This really is impressive, but it would require an extremely deep understanding of Fuinjutsu."
Jiraiya sighed.
"Only a few decades pass, and the future has already advanced this far?"
"Is that last girl Sarada?"
Uchiha Itachi's attention had remained fixed on the final young kunoichi.
He remembered Kaede Kitahara mentioning in the diary that Uchiha Sarada and Uzumaki Boruto were teammates.
If that was true, then the girl's identity was obvious.
And looking at Sarada now, Itachi could clearly see traces of Sasuke as a child.
However, something made him frown.
Why was his niece wearing glasses?
The Uchiha Clan was famous for its dojutsu Kekkei Genkai.
What was an Uchiha doing with glasses?
Of course, Itachi himself often wore reading glasses in private now.
But that was because years of using the Mangekyo Sharingan had severely depleted his ocular power, and he had no way to restore it.
Sarada was still so young, yet she already needed glasses.
That wasn't a good sign.
What kind of father would Sasuke become in the future?
He couldn't even keep his own child from becoming nearsighted?
Then Uchiha Itachi remembered what Kaede Kitahara had written in the diary.
Because Uchiha Sasuke spent so many years away from home, Sarada didn't even know what her own father looked like.
It was absurd!
"Have Scientific Ninja Tools already advanced this far?"
Seventh Hokage Naruto remembered approving a proposal related to Scientific Ninja Tools not long ago.
At his current point in time, research into them had only just begun.
Yet several years in the future, they had clearly produced tangible results.
The technology still wasn't ready for mass deployment, but it had already reached the experimental stage.
For shinobi, this was undeniably an excellent way to supplement their combat strength.
The condition was that they couldn't become dependent on it.
That distinction mattered.
Were you controlling the power, or was the power controlling you?
The difference was fundamental.
This technology also had to be used with extreme caution.
It didn't require the user to possess any real strength.
Even an ordinary civilian could use it.
That had always been Seventh Hokage Naruto's greatest concern.
The video then showed everyone scenes from Uzumaki Naruto's future life.
To Namikaze Minato, who lived in an earlier era, it was a glimpse forty or fifty years into the future.
Compared to the present, it barely seemed like the same age.
Televisions, computers, airships, trains, arcades, and countless other inventions that didn't exist in their time filled the world.
Every scene was completely unfamiliar.
Even Uchiha Sasuke and the others, who lived somewhat closer to that era, stared as though they were witnessing an entirely foreign civilization.