I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Under the night sky in the desert, two figures walked slowly—two women.

"Why are some people so greedy? Even though one person likes them, they are still not satisfied and go after another person."

Yekura stood with his hands behind his back, stepping on the soft sand, yet his movements were as steady as if he were standing on solid ground.

"Do you know what's behind that mountain?"

Nono didn't respond, but pointed into the distance and Yekura said with a smile, "That's a sand dune, and behind that sand dune is another sand dune."

"Everyone goes through this phase: you see a sand dune and wonder what's behind it. You might climb over it and find nothing special, or even look back and think the original scenery was more beautiful."

What matters isn't what's behind the mountain, but the unknown, the anticipation. Just like how I like him, but he's willing to climb over me to see the next view.

"The way you're implying something is just like him."

Ye Cang looked up at the stars in the sky that seemed to be constantly fleeing, and said, "But...why give in to him? You can compromise for a while, but not forever. Or would you rather be unhappy for the rest of your life just for him?"

"I never wanted to have him, because I understand that what you can't have is always the best. That's true for me, it's true for you, and it's true for him as well."

Nono also looked up, but since she wasn't familiar with the sandy ground, she turned her gaze back after taking a few steps with her head tilted back.

The two walked on in silence. After a while, Ye Cang said, "I don't remember exactly what he said to me, but the gist of it was that people don't fall in love with another person, but rather fall in love with someone they imagine."

It was just that I projected my own imagined self onto another person, and fell in love with a fake. At that time, I didn't understand him and was deceived into believing his words.

"So you understand him now?"

"No, I still don't understand him, but I finally understand myself. Now that I understand myself, I won't fabricate someone and then like him."

There's no such thing as too much truth and falsehood. What you see in front of you is real; what leaves is fake. What about you?

After thinking for a while, Nonou said, "I would probably choose to stop at the last step before I understand him, just like when I'm having a beautiful dream, I don't expect to wake up."

The only thing you desperately want to escape is a nightmare. I think even if I'm dreaming right now, it's a beautiful dream that I wouldn't want to wake up from.

"Haha~ I just realized you're such an interesting person."

Yekura looked at Nonou with sparkling eyes and said, "Speaking of which, I should apologize to you. For a long time, I actually treated you as a rival, even though you could have been my good friend."

"Me too. We barely interact at all, so why would we dislike each other?"

The two looked at each other, and then Yekura said with a smile, "It's all that natural-looking curly hair's fault."

"Yeah, naturally curly hair is no good."

"Then why did you walk towards his camp?"

"Aren't you the same?"

"Achoo!"

In the distance, outside the camp, Chenma, sitting on a beach chair, sneezed, tightened his collar, and muttered, "Everyone says the temperature difference between day and night in the desert is huge, but I didn't expect even I couldn't stand it."

Zhi Shui, change your short-sleeved shirts and shorts into long-sleeved shirts and trousers. At your age, don't just think about style and forget about warmth, or rheumatism and bone diseases will come knocking on your door later.

Shisui, who was sprinkling insect repellent powder nearby, looked at Tatsuma with a puzzled expression. The weather was clearly only cool, and had nothing to do with cold.

Looking at his teacher, Shisui hesitated for a moment before saying, "Teacher, do you think it's possible that it's not because the temperature is too low, but..."

"Are you saying I'm weak?"

"No, I mean, could it be that someone is talking about you behind your back?"

Hearing that his student wasn't saying he was weak, Tatsuma's expression softened. After all, what man wouldn't deny that word?

As for Shisui's speculation, he waved his hand and said, "Shisui, we need to be scientific. The idea that sneezing because someone is talking about you behind your back is pure... ouch!"

Tatsuma rubbed his nose and, seeing Shisui's increasingly strange expression, cleared his throat and said, "There might be a connection that we haven't discovered yet."

Of course, I personally don't think so. Maybe you used too much insect repellent powder, and the smell was too strong for me.

"Teacher, this is the latest formula developed by the Oil Women's Clan, a flavorless and hypoallergenic one."

"Dust. Then it should be dust."

As Tatsuma spoke, he saw Yoko and Nono walking towards him arm in arm in the distance, and his expression became strange, and his tone became extremely uncertain.

Shisui shrugged. As Tatsuma's student and secretary, he was the person who knew Tatsuma best. What common topics could Nono and Yekura have when they walked together?

It's normal for women to start arguing when discussing topics that are common among men.

"Zhishui, is this insect repellent powder? I didn't bring any with me. Could you come over and repel some insects for me too?"

Looking at what Shisui was holding, Nono casually remarked, and Yekura added, "Make some arrangements for my side as well. If it works, we'll just buy directly from Konoha from now on."

"good!"

Upon hearing that it might bring orders to Konoha, Shisui instantly became incredibly enthusiastic, though he certainly didn't want to stay there.

If he could, he wouldn't want to know about anyone's love life or marriage, because when he works in the Hokage Building, Lord Shikaku would often come to him to confide his marital troubles.

To be honest, Zhi Shui didn't want to hear it at all. He was still just a child, and he hadn't even tasted the sweetness of love and marriage yet. He didn't want to hear the bitter part, but he had no choice but to listen.

"As expected of Shisui the Instantaneous Movement, that speed, brat!"

Watching Shisui quickly return to his tent, retrieve two more bottles of insect repellent, and then disappear without a trace on the sand, Chenma sighed. He then looked at the two men and asked, "What brings you here?"

"If you had to make a decision between us right now, what would your answer be?"

Yekura asked directly, and Tatsuma was stunned for a while before he understood what she meant. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but Nonou interrupted him first:

"Let me make this clear first, there are some things you can't answer."

For example, "Because I know myself very well, I can't promise you anything." or "People change; today I like strawberries, tomorrow I might like something else."

"Let me mention a few: 'Because I don't want it to end in a mess, I choose not to start.' And 'Some things can have answers, but life doesn't really need answers.'"

"I also have statements like, 'Maybe you're just lonely and need someone to keep you company, not that you like me,' and 'It's hard enough to just be yourself; two people together can't just focus on being themselves, so I can't do that.'"

"All we have are memories, not stories!"

"."

The two talked for a while, one sentence after another. Tatsuma's expression gradually stiffened and turned petrified. After a while, they stopped. Ye Cangchō Tatsuma raised his chin and said:

"Alright, it's your turn to speak now."

I have nothing to say.

Chenma's lips twitched, and he retorted, "And besides, in your minds, all I do is spout these scumbag lines? Where did you guys get all these melodramatic lines from?"

"From you."

"Um."

The two nodded, and Chenma slumped helplessly on the beach chair, like a melted plastic doll.

"You're usually full of grand pronouncements, so why are you speechless now? Did we really steal your lines?"

Yekura asked with a smile, and Tatsuma raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, saying, "Love and marriage have always been elective courses in life, not compulsory ones."

Compared to things that are truly important, such as survival and the realization of self-worth, love is like a condiment. One cannot live without staple foods, but one can add or subtract condiments.

"His very first words sound like those of a scumbag."

"Even against the wind, it can be smelled clearly."

The two seemed to be fully prepared and would not be fooled by Tatsuma. Their determination left Tatsuma somewhat helpless.

He finally sighed and said, "Actually, the answer you're looking for does exist, and it's not just in my mind."

Seeing that Tatsuma was finally showing some inclination to give a direct answer, Yekura and Nonou also focused their attention. However, Tatsuma's tone suddenly changed, and he asked, "Do you know why they are parallel worlds?"

Yekura frowned and shook his head. Nono also frowned, but did not shake her head, because she had once overheard Tatsuma and Orochimaru whispering about it.

However, Nono didn't understand what it meant exactly, and

"Don't change the subject."

She spoke with unusual firmness, and Chenma nodded, saying, "I'm not changing the subject, but..."

Let me explain briefly: the ninja world, the world, the planet, and even the starry sky you perceive are not unique.

If each world is abstracted and then visualized as a grain of sand, then the number of parallel worlds is like this desert; even if you reach out and grab a handful, you can't count them all.

These parallel worlds have some similarities and differences to the world you live in. And among the countless worlds, there must be a parallel world where you and I are, or where I am with you.

Perhaps it's just a thought I have right now, the idea of ​​being with one of you, that creates such a parallel world.

So, whether I choose one of you or whether I like one of you, the answer is already there. In fact, the answer has been explained by the whole world and its future.

Whether I answer or not, the answer already exists.

"But what meaning does such an 'answer' have for us? Are we supposed to use our ideas to perfect such a world or to imagine a certain possibility?"

This is just too absurd!

Yekura shook her head, clearly unable to accept this answer. Nonou nodded in agreement. Tatsuma sighed, patted the armrest of the beach chair, stood up, and reached out to the two of them, saying:

"If you insist on experiencing the bitterness of love, that's fine too. Come on."

Although the two were puzzled, they both reached out and placed their hands on Chenma's hands. The next moment, time and space reversed, and they arrived in an unfamiliar place.

Before the two could ask any questions, Chenma explained, "This is Loulan, but... please don't disturb the people here."

"What are you doing here?"

When Nono asked, Tatsuma pointed to a place that looked like an altar not far away and said, "The seal there was set up by Minato and me. If the seal is opened, then spacetime, and even parallel worlds, will overlap with this coordinate."

If you're willing, you can even enter any parallel world to experience the life you want. Of course, if you were to completely unravel the mystery, the resulting situation would be difficult for me to resolve.

Therefore, we must enter it, not break the seal.

"How do I get in?"

Tatsuma did not answer, but went to the seal and in the blink of an eye, his left eye transformed into the Rinnegan.

"Amabi-no-Tsutoju-ju!"

With the activation of the eye technique, in an instant, the virtual celestial pillar bridged the power of time and space between Chenma and his group, allowing them to enter the dragon vein. Countless time and space veins were connected and intertwined, like a root of unknown origin that stretched endlessly.

"Do you see that? That's the endless ninja world under different possibilities."

Tatsuma raised his hand and pulled at the air, bringing the distant ley lines closer. Through the rift in space-time, they saw a different ninja world. Tatsuma was like a rope puller, constantly pulling the rope.

One after another, the ninja world unfolded before them: prosperous, decadent, normal, and reversed.

"Why are some ninja worlds static?"

After an unknown amount of time, Yecang finally recovered from the shock of her senses and the information she was overwhelmed with. Pointing in confusion at the completely transformed but still stagnant ninja world before her, she asked...

Tatsuma glanced at the ninja world and said, "Some irresponsible people have abandoned this world. This world has no future, so it has stopped at this moment."

It's like a serialized novelist announcing their retirement mid-serialization or starting a new book; the world they created in that novel would freeze at a certain moment, and the space-time it existed in would be frozen.

"So these worlds are just left to decay here?"

"Not entirely."

"Can it be restored?"

"No, that's not it."

Tatsuma shook his head and said, "They can also be used as nutrients, which leads to the origin of chakra, but that's too complicated for today's purpose."

In short, if I need it, I can obtain the power of the entire world, like gathering all the chakra of the ninja world into one person, and I can do that indefinitely.

"It sounds strange, like in your mouth the world is like a fruit that can be picked and eaten."

Nonou shook her head, a hint of sadness in her voice. Tatsuma shrugged and said, "Perhaps you'll understand how wonderful this method is in the future, but that's not important. We haven't found our purpose today."

"What did you find?"

"Find the world you want to experience, a world of bittersweet love."

After saying that, Chenma pulled with both hands again, and two spacetime rifts appeared in front of him. Chenma said, "Do you want to go in and experience it? Maybe after this, there will be no more regrets, or maybe there will be more regrets."

However, I think regret is a good thing. You need to be able to regret your moves once you've made them, but you don't need to regret them in life.

Will you come with us?

"I will wait for you here, because I have already greedily experienced it all."

Upon hearing this, Yekura and Nonou exchanged glances, then looked at Tatsuma and nodded. Yekura smiled and said, "Okay, then you wait here for me. I'm going to meet the other you."

After saying that, she stepped into that world. Nonou hesitated for a moment, but finally made up her mind and said, "I want to go and see it too. I look forward to seeing you again, Tatsuma."

"goodbye."

Just as Chenma breathed a sigh of relief as the two entered the crevice, two figures suddenly rushed out. One grabbed Chenma, while the other, wielding the Tenma Spear, cleaved Chenma in two before throwing him inside.

"Find your own problems. Even if it's the same person, don't expect me to work for you!"

"Sorry, a wise person doesn't fall in love, so you can be the drowning ghost. Anyway, you with your curly hair aren't exactly a good person."

[End of Book] (End of Chapter)