"No... the Ryumyaku, its power must never belong to anyone, absolutely never!"
Faced with Uchiha Yue's highly seductive words, Sara suddenly took two steps back like a startled fawn.
In her eyes, besides hatred for Mukade, there was an extra hint of deep wariness toward the young man with the Sharingan before her.
Though naive, she was not stupid.
She understood the subtext in Yue's words.
This man was helping her not just to deal with Mukade, but to take the world-destroying power of the Ryumyaku for himself!
One wolf had just left; was she about to personally invite an even more terrifying tiger?
[As you read here, I hope readers will remember our domain name: for Taiwan novels, go to Chaozan]
Seeing Sara's eyes filled with defensiveness and refusal, the expression under Uchiha Yue's mask showed no surprise at all.
He knew people like this too well—raised in a greenhouse since childhood, their heads full of "innocence" and "absolute righteousness."
To completely control a tool, force is the lowest method; only by making her beg to hand over the knife in despair would the contract be most stable.
Yue stood his ground, in no hurry to argue.
He slowly raised his hand, appearing as if he wanted to grab Sara's shoulder, but after letting his hand hover in mid-air for a moment, he lowered it again with a look of helplessness.
His crimson Sharingan gradually dimmed, and he let out a heavy sigh that even carried a hint of relief.
"Fine, I respect your wishes."
Yue's voice became incredibly calm, devoid of his previous pressure. He even turned around, no longer looking at her.
"Since you feel this power shouldn't belong to anyone, I will send you out of Roran, allowing you to live out the rest of your life safely in a desert oasis..."
As Yue spoke, he slowly returned the short sword on his back to its scabbard, his tone carrying a businesslike indifference.
"As for this matter, I will no longer interfere. Let Anrokuzan continue to hold this power. You're right; the people of Roran... and your mother's revenge should indeed be completed by you, the Queen, personally. I shouldn't overstep my bounds."
"You... you're leaving?"
Sara was stunned. She had thought he would use force or continue using those terrifying genjutsu to coerce her.
"What else? An unpardonable Rogue Ninja like me can't exactly shamelessly beg to play the savior."
Uchiha Yue grabbed Sara's wrist and, without allowing any argument, led her as he leaped onto a highly concealed high platform at the edge of the central hall.
"Before sending you away, Your Majesty, please take a good look at what kind of miracle your noble 'belongs to no one' philosophy can bring to this country."
Yue let go, leaning against the cold wall with his chin slightly raised, gesturing for Sara to look down.
By now, the central hall below had completely transformed into a living hell.
Their conversation hadn't stopped the plot from progressing; Minato and Naruto had inevitably engaged in battle with Mukade.
Mukade, under the alias Anrokuzan, had completely finished his Fusion with the Ryumyaku control hub.
He had discarded his human shell, turning into a terrifying multi-legged centipede monster nearly a hundred meters long, composed entirely of purple-black metal and high-pressure Chakra!
"Hahaha! The power of the Ryumyaku is infinite! You Konoha insects, all of you shall turn to ash!"
Mukade's arrogant roar made the entire underground space tremble.
With just a single tail swipe from his massive body, he easily leveled several load-bearing metal pillars over ten meters in diameter as if snapping toothpicks.
"Big Ball Rasengan!"
In mid-air, Uzumaki Naruto, covered by Minato, roared as he slammed a massive blue ball of Chakra hard against Mukade's metal shell.
BOOM—!!
The violent explosion kicked up a sky full of dust. A large section of armor on Mukade's back was blown to pieces, revealing the intricate mechanical circuits inside.
"It worked!" Naruto had just landed back on the ground and hadn't even had time to celebrate.
However, in the next second, a scene appeared that filled him with despair.
Accompanied by a flash of blinding purple light, the Ryumyaku's vast Chakra surged frantically into Mukade's wound like a waterfall flowing backward.
In less than a second, the shattered armor actually healed completely at a speed visible to the naked eye, leaving not even a scratch!
"What... what's going on?! He just won't die!" Naruto's eyes widened.
"Don't stop, Naruto! His power source is the Ryumyaku beneath the entire city. As long as the Chakra doesn't run dry, he is truly immortal!"
Minato Namikaze's forehead was covered in cold sweat as his figure turned into golden lightning, weaving frantically through the dense rain of lasers.
He threw out a dozen Flying Thunder God Kunai, attempting to cut the Chakra pipes connecting Mukade to the ground, but as soon as those pipes were severed, new tentacles immediately grew out and plunged back into the earth.
"Die! Die! Die!"
Mukade opened his abyss-like maw, and a purple-black high-energy Chakra main cannon over five meters in diameter began to condense frantically, its violent energy distorting the surrounding air.
"Not good!"
Minato instantly activated the Flying Thunder God, grabbing Naruto and flashing dozens of meters away just in the nick of time.
BOOM!!!
The purple-black beam of light pierced through the entire underground space. Everywhere it passed—be it metal, rock, or the Puppets that didn't have time to dodge—everything was instantly vaporized by the high temperature!
The violent airwaves, mixed with scorching heat, washed all the way up to the high platform where Sara was.
Sara clung tightly to the railing, the gale blowing her long red hair into a mess.
Her pale face was devoid of color, her pupils trembling violently as they reflected the apocalyptic scene below.
A monster.
That was a god-like monster that simply could not be defeated by human strength!
"Do you see it?"
Uchiha Yue's cold voice still reached Sara's ears clearly amidst the howling wind.
"That is your so-called 'power that belongs to no one.' Now, it belongs to Anrokuzan."
Yue walked to Sara's side, looking down at the bitter struggle below with a tone full of cruel logic:
"This is the reality of the Ninja World. Ideals without power are more laughable than scrap paper. Those two Konoha Ninjas may be strong, but under the consumption of infinite Chakra, their stamina will eventually run out. Once they are dead, Mukade will take this power to the surface, turn your people into never-ending machines, and reduce the entire Five Great Nations to scorched earth."
"And you, this noble Queen, can only stand in the desert and watch it all happen, moved by your own 'must never belong to anyone' purity of thought."
Yue's words were like the sharpest poisoned daggers, each one striking her heart, slicing Sara's unrealistic fantasies into pieces.
"No... don't..."
Sara's legs finally lost their strength, and she collapsed weakly onto the cold metal floor.
Images of the emaciated citizens in the underground weapons factory flashed through her mind, along with her mother's gentle smiling face from years ago, as she watched Minato and Naruto below being forced into a life-and-death situation by Mukade's lasers...
If she did nothing, everyone would die!
Her persistence, in the face of this absolute destructive power, was simply a joke!
As for revenge, what did she have to take revenge with?
"Let's go. While they can still hold Mukade off for a while, I'll take you away from here."
Uchiha Yue turned around, making a motion as if to form hand seals for a Body Flicker Technique, appearing as if he were truly going to wash his hands of the matter entirely.
"Wait!"
The moment Yue turned, a pair of trembling yet forceful hands tightly grabbed his black high-collared cloak.
Sara kept her head down, tears dripping onto the metal floor like broken strings of pearls.
When she looked up again, her emerald-green eyes had replaced cowardice and naivety with a desperate madness.
"If... if I give the power of the Ryumyaku to you..."
Sara bit her lip hard until she tasted blood.
"Can you really kill him? Can you really let my people survive?"
With his back to her, the corner of the mouth under Uchiha Yue's mask finally curled into a satisfied arc.
He slowly turned around, his crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan emitting a soul-capturing, eerie light in the dim purple glow, like a demon responding to a believer's prayer.
"The contract is established, my Queen."