No matter how much force Tsunade used, those puppets would only explode into scattered parts. No matter how violently she smashed them, they merely burst apart into fragments of metal and wood, yet continued to swarm endlessly as if they could never truly be destroyed.
Kiyohara carried Queen Sara in his arms as he dashed through the corridor at high speed.
However, at this moment, the citizens whom Queen Sara had previously ordered to evacuate had also gathered nearby.
"Can you let me open that door so my people can go inside?"
Seeing this, Queen Sara pleaded with Kiyohara.
If these citizens were left here, they would likely be slaughtered by Anrokuzan's puppets without mercy.
Kiyohara looked at Sara and nodded.
There was still enough time; opening a door would only take a few seconds at most. The kingdom of Rōran still had its future uses, so Kiyohara intended to save its people. Preserving them meant preserving the legacy and potential value of this land.
"Everyone, listen to me! Behind this wall is an inner courtyard. The power of the Dragon Vein cannot reach there!"
Sara called out loudly.
"It's Her Majesty the Queen!"
"Quickly, follow Her Majesty's command!"
The loyalty of Rōran's citizens toward Sara was clearly extremely high.
The queen of the ancient kingdom of Rōran was much like the daimyō of the great nations.
Royal bloodlines were valued above all else.
It was as if it were an unquestionable truth that only their lineage was destined to rule as queen; no one else possessed the qualification. The idea of another line taking the throne simply did not exist in the minds of the people.
The same was true in the Land of Fire. No matter how powerful a shinobi might become, only a very small number would ever consider rebelling against the daimyō.
Even during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, in order to prevent the daimyō from falling into enemy hands as hostages, the Allied Shinobi Forces had specially dispatched an armed protection unit led by the Mizukage to ensure their safety.
And yet, no one had ever seriously proposed that shinobi themselves should take over governance.
It was as though shinobi were born only to carry out missions, complete commissions, and earn payment for their services.
This was what could be called… a "brand upon the mind," an invisible ideological seal imprinted so deeply that no one even questioned it.
At Sara's call, the crowd moved up the staircase in an orderly flow.
Meanwhile, Kiyohara carried Sara and arrived ahead of them at an enormous stone wall.
Sara stepped down from his arms and attempted several times to activate the mechanism, but discovered that something inside was jammed.
It seemed that the violent tremors from the battle behind them had caused collapses within the structure.
"Use my shinobi blade. It's made of chakra-conducting metal."
As he spoke, Kiyohara drew his sword and inserted it into a recessed groove within the wall.
In the original storyline, Sara had used Naruto's chakra short blade, but Kiyohara's weapon would have the same effect.
Sara nodded.
A faint lavender chakra identical in hue to the Dragon Vein emerged and began to glow along Kiyohara's blade.
Kiyohara observed her unique chakra carefully.
In the shinobi world, chakra had color. Most ordinary people possessed blue chakra.
But a small portion differed. For example, once the Mangekyō Sharingan was awakened, each Uchiha's chakra would change color according to their ocular power.
Shisui's was green.
Itachi's was red.
Sasuke's was purple.
Madara's was blue.
At the Five Kage Summit, Ao of Kirigakure had discovered that Danzo was casting a genjutsu on Mifune of the Land of Iron by using his Byakugan to see the color of chakra. He recognized the green chakra flowing within Danzō's eye socket as Shisui's, because he had once fought against Shisui.
What color will my chakra become in the future?
Kiyohara pondered silently.
After completing his second lingering wish and defeating Itachi, he should inherit Uchiha Kiyohara's Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
At that time, his Yin Release chakra would continue to increase.
If his spiritual energy kept rising, would the probability of awakening the Mangekyō also increase, even without an overwhelming traumatic stimulus?
After all, the Sharingan was the very embodiment of Yin Release power.
Click.
While Kiyohara was deep in thought, the stone wall reacted.
Lavender chakra flowed from Sara's hands, traveled along the blade, and seeped into the interior of the wall.
The sound of gears turning echoed from within, and a doorway slowly opened.
Behind it lay a spacious inner courtyard capable of holding several hundred people.
More importantly, the walls and floor were inscribed with sealing techniques, isolating the influence of the Dragon Vein's chakra.
"Quickly, go inside!"
Sara urged.
The citizens of Rōran filed in one after another.
At this moment, Sara turned to Kiyohara.
"Now, we go to the Dragon Vein's core."
Kiyohara lifted her once more and continued running toward the staircase.
The higher they went, the more the structure resembled a spiraling ascent.
Kiyohara gathered chakra beneath his feet, running upward as though traversing level ground.
Sara clutched tightly at his clothing, her crimson hair streaming behind her in a straight line.
Suddenly, dozens of hidden compartments opened along both sides of the corridor walls. Small combat puppets poured out like a flood.
They were only half the height of a person, but their numbers were overwhelming, and their movements were swift.
"Hold tight."
Kiyohara tightened his grip on Sara with his left arm while holding his blade in his right.
The flash of steel cut through the air, and three puppets were severed at the waist in an instant.
But more lunged forward without hesitation.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!"
Black iron sand needles shot forth like torrential rain, piercing through more than a dozen puppets ahead.
Yet the puppets seemed endless, pouring continuously from the hidden slots.
Kiyohara frowned. If this continued, they would be delayed indefinitely.
"Lightning Release: Earth Walk!"
He injected chakra into the ground. Blue arcs of electricity spread like serpents, instantly covering the entire corridor.
The puppets convulsed as the current surged through them. Their movements stiffened, their internal circuits short-circuited, and they collapsed one after another.
Seizing the opportunity, Kiyohara accelerated forward.
But new obstacles appeared ahead—three heavy combat puppets blocked the path, their arms modified into rotating serrated blades.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets!"
Kiyohara inhaled deeply and expelled several high-pressure air projectiles.
The compressed blasts struck the chakra cores in the puppets' chests with precision, triggering chain explosions.
The corridor shook violently as debris rained down.
Passing through the smoke, Kiyohara finally saw the end of the passage.
Before him lay a circular chamber over one hundred meters in diameter, its dome rising so high that the ceiling vanished into darkness.
At its center was a massive circular pool filled with flowing Dragon Vein chakra.
In the middle stood a stone platform, surrounded by four statues of holy maidens gazing toward its center.
There protruded a curved shape resembling a tightly closed eye.
The source of the Dragon Vein chakra.
Yet at that very moment, the shinobi blade in Kiyohara's hand suddenly began to vibrate.
The residual Dragon Vein chakra lingering on its edge emitted a soft lavender glow, as if responding to something.
A thought flickered through Kiyohara's mind, and he attempted to channel his own chakra into the blade.
In an instant, an immense and violent energy surged up his arm and into his body.
His mind felt as though struck by a heavy hammer, and darkness flashed before his eyes.
This is…
Kiyohara steadied himself.
That chakra rampaged within him, but unlike ordinary chakra, it felt closer to… natural energy.
Anrokuzan modified his entire body. It probably wasn't only for the sake of controlling puppets.
Kiyohara reasoned internally.
Anrokuzan was one of Sunagakure's rare puppet geniuses, a rising talent after Sasori's departure.
Unfortunately, like Sasori, he had chosen the path of a missing nin.
By reconstructing his own body beforehand, he had likely rendered himself immune to the side effects of the Dragon Vein's chakra.
As for why Kiyohara could withstand it, it was probably due to his spiritual energy multiplied several times over, combined with the enhanced physical vitality granted by his Yang nature talent.
In both respects, Kiyohara far surpassed ordinary shinobi.
If a normal shinobi without the bloodline of Rōran's queen were to come into contact with such violent chakra, they would likely suffer immediate mental collapse.
It was much like a jinchūriki—only a suitable vessel could prevent the power from running berserk.
A glimmer of understanding flashed in Kiyohara's eyes.
No matter what, he could now indeed borrow the Dragon Vein chakra lingering upon his blade.
Though not much remained, it was already sufficient.
Looking at the puppets approaching from behind, Kiyohara swung his shinobi blade experimentally.
In that instant, the blade erupted with dazzling violet light.
With a single slash, a streak of violet blade light tore through the air, rending the atmosphere itself as it swept backward and severed the pursuing puppets cleanly at the waist, their upper halves sliding off before crashing to the ground in scattered fragments.
"The quality of this… is far superior to ordinary chakra."
Kiyohara looked at the shinobi blade as its glow gradually dimmed once more.
Chakra-conducting metal could not store chakra for long; even if left unused, the energy within it would dissipate within minutes. The brilliance that had just erupted so fiercely was already fading like the last embers of a dying flame.
I wonder… can Dragon Vein chakra be layered together with Susanoo?
He sheathed the blade and continued forward with Sara.
"This is… the heart of Rōran."
Sara gazed at the scene ahead, violet light reflected in her eyes like liquid starlight.
In the future, do I have any sealing technique capable of collecting a portion of the Dragon Vein's chakra?
Kiyohara asked inwardly.
Within his mind, the spiritual form of Uchiha Kiyohara manifested.
He carefully examined the vast chamber, his gaze finally settling on the ruby necklace resting against Sara's neck.
"Do you see that necklace? It's a kind of 'Sealing Stone.'"
Uchiha Kiyohara's voice echoed in his thoughts.
"The shrine maiden of the Land of Demons possesses something similar, used to seal the power of Mōryō. The Dragon Vein and Mōryō… both are chakra aggregates similar in nature to the tailed beasts."
Kiyohara's heart stirred.
He recalled Shion, the priestess from the Land of Demons who appeared in Naruto: Shippūden the Movie. Shion indeed had a bell containing a red stone. It was said that the stone sealed away most of her power and even housed a portion of her mother's chakra.
At the story's conclusion, Shion relied on that very stone to break Mōryō's illusion and successfully suppress him with her priestess chakra.
It seemed that the indigenous powers of the shinobi world all possessed their own unique methods of harnessing these special chakra aggregates.
Kiyohara turned toward Sara.
"Your Majesty, may I borrow your necklace?"
Sara froze for a moment and instinctively covered the ruby at her chest.
"Why?"
"This city operates primarily on the Dragon Vein's chakra," Kiyohara explained patiently.
"Right now, we must completely seal the Dragon Vein in order to defeat Anrokuzan. But if we do that, Rōran will inevitably decline over time."
He gestured toward the massive chakra pool.
"If we seal away a portion of the Dragon Vein's chakra in advance, we can later use that fragment as a connection point to pry open a small gap in the seal. Without fully unsealing it, Rōran could continue functioning normally while also preventing outsiders from coveting its power."
Sara hesitated.
The necklace had been her mother's keepsake and was also the symbol of Rōran's queen.
But as she looked around at what had once been the glorious Dragon Vein core, now on the verge of becoming the origin of Rōran's downfall, her expression wavered.
She thought of the enslaved citizens underground. She thought of Anrokuzan's ambition.
Anrokuzan might have been the first, but he would never be the last.
On this land, there had never been a shortage of those driven by greed and ambition.
This time, fortune had brought Kiyohara and the shinobi of Konoha to help. But what about next time?
Sara imagined that bleak possibility.
"You… are also interested in the Dragon Vein's chakra, aren't you?"
She suddenly asked.
Kiyohara did not avoid the truth.
"Yes. This power is very special. I want to study it."
Unexpectedly, Sara seemed relieved.
She removed the necklace and handed it to him.
"Honesty is better than lies. If you had claimed it was entirely for Rōran's sake, I would have been suspicious instead."
She paused before continuing softly.
"My mother once said that the Dragon Vein's power is too vast for mortals to control. But if someone could wield it without being devoured… perhaps that would be its true destination. After all, power itself is neither good nor evil."
Kiyohara accepted the necklace.
Under the glow of the Dragon Vein's chakra, the ruby seemed almost fluid inside, as though crimson currents were flowing within its depths.
"Your mother must have been a truly great person," he said quietly.
He then asked Uchiha Kiyohara inwardly what to do next.
"Let me handle it."
The spiritual form floated forward.
"Relax and relinquish control of your body."
Kiyohara closed his eyes. In the next instant, he felt another consciousness take over.
The sensation was peculiar—almost like being possessed.
Uchiha Kiyohara formed a series of hand seals through Kiyohara's body, employing several relatively simple sealing techniques.
The Sealing Stone itself already possessed sealing properties; it merely required guidance through basic methods.
Lavender chakra flowed out from the Dragon Vein pool in a gentle stream, like a trickling brook, and moved toward the ruby necklace.
"Seal!"
Uchiha Kiyohara gave a low shout.
The ruby burst forth with dazzling brilliance, absorbing the Dragon Vein chakra into itself.
When the light faded, the ruby's color had changed from bright red to deep violet.
"The most fundamental sealing is complete," Uchiha Kiyohara said as he returned control of the body.
"The primary function came from the Sealing Stone's own properties. I merely guided it."
Kiyohara regained full control.
At that moment, a golden flash appeared within the chamber.
Minato had arrived.
"Kiyohara, Queen Sara."
Minato spoke swiftly.
"I've already set up sealing formulas on the outer tower to stop the spire from continuing to transmit chakra remotely to Anrokuzan. Now we only need to seal the Dragon Vein source here. Without it, Anrokuzan can rely only on whatever remains locally."
As he spoke, Minato noticed the necklace in Kiyohara's hand and the Dragon Vein chakra sealed within it. He did not question it, merely nodded.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
Kiyohara put away the necklace.
Minato stepped to the edge of the chakra pool and formed hand seals.
He then inserted a specially crafted Flying Thunder God kunai into the narrow slit at the center of the stone platform.
Black sealing formulas spread across the ground in intricate patterns.
The purple chakra pool began to rotate, forming a massive vortex. Gradually, it calmed. The deep violet faded to transparency, and finally vanished altogether, leaving behind only a dry basin.
The Dragon Vein had been sealed.
Almost simultaneously, a deafening roar echoed from outside.
"No!!"
It was Anrokuzan's voice, filled with madness.
Having lost the Dragon Vein's support, his puppet body began to collapse.
Kiyohara and Minato exchanged a glance and rushed outward together.
Minato placed a hand on Kiyohara's shoulder; Kiyohara grabbed Sara, and in the next instant, the three of them teleported to the underground factory.
Click.
Minato retrieved a Flying Thunder God kunai embedded in the ground—clearly having used the Flying Thunder God Technique to bring them there.
Before them was utter chaos.
The twenty-meter-tall giant puppet was disintegrating. Plates of armor peeled away one by one, revealing the intricate mechanical framework inside.
Anrokuzan's consciousness roared from within the puppet's head, yet he could not halt the inevitable collapse.
"Now's the time!"
"Tsunade!" someone shouted—yet it was Tsunade herself who roared first.
She charged forward and delivered a crushing kick, shattering one of Anrokuzan's legs in a single blow.
This time, however, the giant puppet body of Anrokuzan could no longer regenerate. The collapse that had begun from within could not be reversed.
Future Rin once again gathered Water Release chakra.
A water dragon spiraled upward from behind her, coiling majestically before surging toward the crumbling puppet.
As the Three-Tails' jinchūriki, her Water Release techniques were naturally enhanced.
Moreover, she possessed three chakra natures—Water, Fire, and Yang—and was highly proficient in all three related techniques.
At the same time, Kiyohara pulled a long nail-shaped projectile, a "flying shuttle" from his shinobi tool pouch.
This was the new form of the Executioner's Blade.
Even if he took it out in plain sight, no one would recognize it.
All the iron sand stored within his gourd converged onto the flying shuttle, extending its length and reinforcing its structure.
In the next instant, the power of Magnet Release erupted violently.
The iron sand and the surface of the flying shuttle glowed with a dark crimson sheen, arcs of electricity crackling across them.
Anrokuzan sensed the imminent danger. Desperately, he controlled the disintegrating puppet body in a final attempt at resistance.
Six mechanical tentacles shot toward Kiyohara—but Tsunade and Minato intercepted them simultaneously.
"Go!"
Kiyohara thrust both hands forward.
The flying shuttle broke the sound barrier in an instant, blasting forward with overwhelming force.
The air itself seemed to tear apart at that moment.
BOOM!
A circular shockwave rippled outward in all directions.
The flying shuttle pierced through every layer of the puppet's defenses as if slicing through butter with a heated blade. It entered through the chest and burst out through the back, the inertia ripping out shattered components and severed chakra lines in its wake.
From the point of impact, cracks spread across the puppet's body like a spiderweb.
Armor plating peeled away, mechanical arms snapped, and the enormous body collapsed with a thunderous crash, finally reduced to nothing more than a heap of scrap metal.
"Still fairly sturdy,"
Kiyohara nodded in satisfaction as the flying shuttle returned to his palm.
In theory, like Samehada, it could restore stamina or rather, chakra to its wielder.
However, this required contact with blood. Even its self-repair function relied on absorbing the iron content within blood.
But blood did not necessarily have to be human. If there were any losses, Kiyohara could simply purchase some pig's blood for maintenance.
After all, pig's blood contained even more iron than human blood.
In the future, any wear and tear could be handled cheaply—either by buying blood or directly using the blood of enemies—greatly reducing maintenance costs.
And in critical moments, it could even replenish some chakra.
"Ahhh… impossible… The history of the Five Great Nations… it was supposed to unfold according to my will…"
Anrokuzan's true body was still that five-meter-tall spider form.
Originally positioned in the right chest area of the giant puppet, it had just been pierced through by Kiyohara's attack.
His chakra was rapidly dwindling.
"I will not die in vain!"
With a final scream of unwilling rage, Anrokuzan attempted to self-destruct.
Seeing this, Kiyohara made a summoning gesture. Magnetism surged, and the flying shuttle pierced through Anrokuzan from behind once again, interrupting his action.
Anrokuzan's eyes widened in disbelief, but in the end, he could only feel his chakra fading away as his body gradually turned into lifeless puppet debris.
The smoke slowly dispersed.
Everyone stared at the pile of wreckage, confirming that no trace of life remained.
"Is it over?"
Rin looked at the ruins. Anrokuzan, like the other puppets, seemed incapable of reviving again.
"It's over."
Minato sheathed his kunai.
But at that moment, a white radiance suddenly emerged from Future Kurenai's body.
"This is…"
Minato frowned.
As someone who frequently used space–time ninjutsu, he was extremely sensitive to spatial fluctuations.
He sensed that Future Kurenai seemed to be departing from this timeline.
The same white light appeared around Future Rin.
The two women exchanged glances, seemingly unsurprised.
"It looks like the mission is complete,"
Future Kurenai said.
She walked toward Kiyohara and gestured that she wanted to speak privately.
Kiyohara nodded, and the two stepped aside.
Only Tsunade remained calm, and Minato who had vaguely guessed some of the truth—showed no change in expression.
The others like Shizune, the present Kurenai, the present Rin, and Kakashi were completely bewildered, staring wide-eyed. They did not understand why the two ANBU members were glowing, nor why Minato had proposed sealing memories.
After moving to a distance, Future Kurenai looked at him.
"Little Kiyohara."
She smiled and reached out to ruffle his hair.
"You knew it was us all along, yet you pretended not to."
From his expression, she could tell he had long since guessed the truth.
Kiyohara did not dodge.
"Weren't you pretending too?"
"That's because we couldn't interfere with the timeline,"
Future Kurenai sighed softly.
She told him that she had actually traveled here together with Future Kiyohara.
However, Future Kiyohara seemed to have jumped not to this specific timeline, but to an even earlier point in history—just as Anrokuzan had arrived six years before them.
"Earlier…"
Kiyohara's expression turned strange.
Oh no. Don't tell me he went all the way back to the era of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya?
But by the time he lived that long and inherited that much of the future…
Kiyohara felt that perhaps even Ōtsutsuki Kaguya might not be unbeatable to him.
Kurenai leaned closer and lowered her voice.
"I'm about to leave, so I have to get in a few more touches."
After she had ruffled his hair to her heart's content, she brought him back.
"…."
Kiyohara stared at Future Kurenai.
She didn't seem like she belonged to Konohagakure and instead belonged to the Village Hidden in Head-Patting!
She had dragged him so far away just to pat his head!
Future Kurenai returned to stand beside Future Rin.
But then Future Rin stepped forward as well, signaling that she too wanted to speak privately.
Kiyohara followed with a puzzled look.
And once again—his head was patted.
Outrageous!
Kiyohara glanced at the present-day young Kurenai and young Rin, silently resolving to return the favor with plenty of head pats in the future.
When Future Rin returned to stand beside Future Kurenai, the white light around them grew increasingly radiant, their figures gradually dissolving into the brilliance.
Kiyohara watched as they disappeared.
Minato then proposed sealing everyone's memories.
This mission had been successfully completed.
They had exposed Anrokuzan's conspiracy to Queen Sara, investigated the nature of the puppet weapons, and ultimately eliminated the mastermind.
Now, only memory sealing remained.
"Minato is right. It's best to seal the memories,"
Tsunade nodded in agreement.
It seemed Kiyohara's earlier reasoning had been correct.
Meanwhile, Shizune, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Rin remained utterly confused, unable to comprehend why the two ANBU had glowed or why Minato insisted on sealing memories.
Before Future Kurenai and Future Rin fully vanished, Minato performed the memory-sealing technique.
In the end, everyone including himself, underwent the seal.
Minato had always been cautious regarding space–time matters.
In the next instant, Kiyohara opened his eyes.
Huh?
Wasn't this… the same place?
Kiyohara still remembered everything that had just happened.
(End of Chapter)