Chapter 261: Dragon Vein Chakra
"Not fully puppetized yet!"
Li Yao soon arrived in an underground chamber, hiding within the wall to closely observe Hyssop—now going by the name An Lushan.
His body hadn't been fully converted into a puppet. Half of it was still flesh.
Along the way, Li Yao hadn't sensed the chakra signatures of Naruto and the others either.
This led him to conclude that he had likely arrived in this world one or two years ahead of Naruto's group.
"One or two years… should be about right,"
Li Yao thought. He turned and left without killing Hyssop yet.
First, he would study the Dragon Vein. Once Hyssop completed his research into full-body human puppetization, Li Yao would return to absorb his soul and inherit everything.
With Li Yao here, the Dragon Vein wouldn't be destroyed.
Passing through the underground layers, Li Yao reached the base of one of Rōran's towers.
The familiar giant circular pool appeared before him, with a suspended walkway leading to a central pillar. At its center sat the sealing altar known as the "Eye Box" that controlled the Dragon Vein.
At the moment, the black sealing runes on the altar were visible. The Dragon Vein was active, and its chakra was being drawn out and funneled to the top of the tower for storage.
Li Yao emerged from the wall. There were no people or puppets around.
Hyssop's puppet factory was elsewhere—it was the central hub for the chakra threads linking all the city's puppets, and where Hyssop hid.
Li Yao walked to the edge of the pool. Beneath him, the Dragon Vein's chakra glowed a pale violet, surging like magma and radiating intense heat.
"It really is chakra!"
"That's fantastic!"
Li Yao had never expected the Dragon Vein's power to exist in the form of chakra.
Back in his own world, the energy fluctuations he sensed from the Dragon Vein had been nothing like ordinary chakra.
At the time, he assumed it was a special energy, like natural energy.
But now, having come to this world and sensed it more clearly, especially up close, he could confirm: the Dragon Vein's power was a form of chakra—one with an incredibly complex structure and nature.
He could feel similarities between the Dragon Vein chakra and his own Black Hole Space chakra.
In addition, there were traces of Fire-nature chakra embedded within it.
He hadn't yet identified other elements.
For now, it appeared that Dragon Vein chakra held properties from Time, Space, and Fire elements.
It felt like a form of composite chakra—not a Kekkei Tōta (Bloodline Elimination), which fuses three elements into a new one, but more like a mixture of three properties combined into a singular chakra form.
However, this mixed chakra seemed to have undergone a mutation, making it behave like a unified chakra type.
This was what gave rise to the unique "Dragon Vein Chakra."
Poof!
Li Yao created a shadow clone and had it descend into the pool to test the chakra directly.
Scalding!
It burned like real magma—but was still bearable. Aside from the heat, there didn't seem to be any dangerous effects.
Apparently, the "Eye Box" altar stabilized the Dragon Vein's power.
With that confirmed, Li Yao could safely make contact with the Dragon Vein himself.
He had feared that touching it might trigger the time-space power and instantly send him back to his world—hence the test run with the clone.
Now reassured, he dismissed the clone, descended into the pool himself, and hovered in midair, gently reaching out to touch the Dragon Vein chakra.
In that moment, the intricate structure of its properties entered his chakra perception.
Complex.
Profound.
Vast.
Those were Li Yao's first impressions of the Dragon Vein chakra's properties.
The complexity was so high that he estimated it would take at least a year or two to fully analyze and understand it.
Even more so, many of the chakra's properties weren't part of the standard elemental system—they were from Time and Space.
If the Dragon Vein weren't made of chakra, even with all its mysteries, Li Yao would never be able to convert it into usable time-space ninjutsu.
He admitted he didn't have the same genius for ninjutsu development as Tobirama. His real strength lay in absolute control over chakra.
When it came to mastering existing jutsu, Li Yao was unmatched—he could learn them almost instantly.
But when it came to inventing techniques, even after all these years in the Naruto world, he had only created three: Black Iron Chains, Will Purification, and Black Hole Space.
Techniques like Ink Release were merely expansions of existing ones, not original creations.
This showed he had some talent for developing jutsu—but only to a limited extent.
"Thank goodness the Dragon Vein is chakra-based."
Li Yao sighed in relief again.
Because it was chakra, he didn't need to unravel the mysteries of time-space itself. All he needed to do was replicate and condense the chakra—then he could use the Dragon Vein's unique temporal power.
"The only issue is… its properties are too numerous or… too diverse!"
Diversity and complexity weren't the same.
Complexity referred to structural intricacy. Diversity referred to the number of different properties.
The Dragon Vein's chakra was both overwhelmingly complex and immensely varied.
One or two years was only his optimistic estimate for understanding and replicating it. In reality, he had no idea how long it would take.
But no matter how many years it required, Li Yao was determined to master it.
From that point on, he stayed at the Dragon Vein site. When he needed food, his clone would fetch it. His real body remained in contact with the Dragon Vein at all times, analyzing its properties.
Before he knew it—
A year had passed.
Li Yao was still immersed in studying the Dragon Vein chakra.
Back in the original world, Yuzu had stayed put above the former site of the illusion for an entire year.
Even though Li Yao's shadow clone had told her the real him could return instantly via Flying Thunder God, she still refused to leave.
She didn't want any more accidents.
Last time, they had planned to enter the parallel world together, but something had gone wrong. This time, she would ensure that nothing went awry by guarding the spot herself.
Because Li Yao's chakra consciousness remained connected across worlds, the flow of time was synchronized between the two.
So one year in Rōran was one year in the original Naruto world.
And during that year, the Third Great Ninja War broke out.
Ironically, it was Li Yao who had lit the spark.
To help his Wind Clone ascend to power, he had personally attacked Sunagakure after many years—causing a massive commotion and, more critically, killing off large numbers of elite ninja from the Ten Great Clans.
That alone had severely crippled the village.
Sunagakure's Ten Great Clans were essentially the backbone of its military power—much like the Twelve Clans of Konoha, including Hyūga, the Ino–Shika–Chō trio, Sarutobi, Uchiha, Senju, etc.
Imagine if half the elite shinobi in those clans died overnight—how much strength would Konoha have left?
The same applied to Sunagakure. With most of its elite killed by Li Yao, the village's overall power was effectively halved.
With such a sharp decline, other major nations—especially long-time enemies like Iwagakure and Kirigakure—would never pass up such an opportunity.
Thus, three months after Li Yao's Wind Clone officially became the Fourth Kazekage, the Third Great Ninja War began, with Sunagakure simultaneously engaging Iwagakure and Kirigakure.
A month later, under Danzō's scheming, Konoha launched a surprise attack on Iwa and joined the war.
Finally, Kumogakure attacked the Land of Earth to avenge the Third Raikage's arm injury, joining the chaos.
And so, the Third Great Ninja War entered a full-blown state.
(END CHAPTER)
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