Flying swiftly through the sky, Hoshiyomi moved at a considerable speed. After only about a day of flight, he reached the vicinity of the Land of Wind. Gazing at the familiar desert landscape surrounding him, he pulled out the map Minato had given him and nodded to himself. Lowering his altitude, he continued flying in a specific direction.
Rōran was a kingdom built within the desert, and to reach it, Hoshiyomi had to venture deep into the endless sands.
After flying for another half day through the whirling yellow dunes, he finally arrived at his destination — Rōran, the city hidden in the desert.
In truth, calling Rōran a nation was a stretch. "Small town" would've been far more accurate. The place was so tiny that it wasn't even half the size of Konoha Village. Referring to it as a "nation" was almost comical.
Yet despite being such an insignificant speck on the map, this little nation possessed a mysterious and legendary power — the Ryūmyaku.
It was thanks to this Ryūmyaku that Rōran, a nation with no natural resources to speak of, had managed to survive in the unforgiving desert for centuries.
"Still…" Hoshiyomi muttered as he gazed at the strange cityscape in the distance, "the architecture here really doesn't fit in with the rest of the shinobi world."
Having traveled across all five great nations during the war, Hoshiyomi couldn't help but feel that Rōran's skyline looked completely out of place.
I mean, come on — even the wealthiest Hidden Villages still used mostly wooden architecture. So why did this barren, middle-of-nowhere desert city look like it jumped genres entirely?
The towering stone structures of Rōran were somewhat reminiscent of the high towers occasionally seen in Amegakure, but unlike Ame's jagged, patchwork towers of scrap metal, Rōran's buildings had an elegant design to them.
Tall stone towers rose one after another, forming a fortress-like cluster that shielded the city from the desert winds — a self-contained world carved out of the wasteland.
But Hoshiyomi wasn't in the mood to admire the architecture. His attention was entirely fixed on a single question:
Would the Naruto who appeared here, under the influence of all his butterfly-effect changes, be the same Naruto from the original story — or someone different?
With that thought, Hoshiyomi leapt lightly from his flying sword, Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade. In a few flickers of movement, he landed within the heart of the city.
Perhaps because he was so focused on finding Naruto, Hoshiyomi didn't notice that, within the central tower of Rōran, a pair of unseen eyes were quietly observing him.
"Looks like everything is going according to plan," said a voice from the shadows.
The owner of the gaze let out a low, eerie chuckle before vanishing into the darkness, leaving behind only the silhouette of a plump figure and a faint, echoing whisper:
"Now it's your turn to act. Don't let me down."
...
Wandering through the streets of Rōran for quite some time, Hoshiyomi eventually perched on a rooftop, muttering to himself,
"As I thought… things are definitely different from the original story."
Looking down at the bustling streets below, he could tell — even without using Sage Mode — that the people walking around were living, breathing humans.
But according to the plot he remembered, by this point in time, Rōran's citizens should have already been enslaved by Mukade for six years. The streets were supposed to be filled not with people, but with puppet replicas — fake citizens created to deceive Queen Sara into continuing her rule as a puppet monarch. Only a few women and children had been secretly hidden away.
So… had he arrived too early?
That shouldn't be right. Based on the timeline, this should be around that period.
Unless… his very existence had already triggered some unknown butterfly effect?
After pondering for a long while, Hoshiyomi still couldn't figure it out.
"Well, if I can't deduce it myself," he said finally, "then I might as well just find someone who can talk and ask."
With that, he took a deep breath and entered Sage Mode.
In an instant, his perception sharpened to an unimaginable degree.
His sensory perception spread out in that instant, covering the entirety of Rōran. To him, the whole city now looked almost transparent.
Within moments, Hoshiyomi had a complete understanding of everything happening inside Rōran.
After scanning through the entire city, he let out a slightly disappointed sigh.
"Sigh… as expected, Naruto isn't here. Did I really come too early?"
Within his perception, there wasn't a single chakra signature resembling Naruto's anywhere in Rōran.
He also took the opportunity to probe the central palace.
There, he could clearly sense the presence of wandering puppet soldiers, along with two human figures inside the main tower. At the very top was a fat man — undoubtedly Mukade, now calling himself Anrokuzan.
One level below him resided a girl of about fifteen or sixteen. Even without seeing her, Hoshiyomi could tell that she must be the so-called queen, Sara.
After scanning twice to confirm there were no other people, Hoshiyomi concluded that the previous queen was already dead, and the nation had now completely fallen under Mukade's control.
Having confirmed this, Hoshiyomi exited Sage Mode and prepared to move toward the central palace.
But just as he was about to make a move, he suddenly noticed a shadow beneath his feet. In an instant, he drew the Mikazuki Munechika from his waist and, with a flick of his hand, sent a wave of sword energy slicing through the air.
With a whoosh sound cutting through the air, followed by countless puppet parts falling from the sky.
Seeing this, Hoshiyomi couldn't help but curl his lip.
"Really? That's it?"
No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than he heard a swarm of buzzing noises overhead. Looking up, he saw a flock of puppets, identical to the one he had just destroyed, flying straight toward him.
"So they were drawn here by the noise, huh? Guess I underestimated these piles of scrap metal."
Though he could have easily destroyed them — even dozens of these puppets weren't worth two swings of his sword — Hoshiyomi hesitated, mindful of the civilians walking below. After a brief thought, he simply waved his hand at the sky.
"Bye-bye~"
The words had barely left his lips before his figure vanished completely. Of course, he hadn't truly disappeared — he had activated an ability he hadn't used in ages: Transparent Release.
The moment Transparent Release was activated, Hoshiyomi became like a living ghost, invisible to the naked eye. No matter how sensitive those mechanical puppets' sensors were, there was no way their artificial brains could detect his presence.
"Alright then," he thought with a faint grin, "let's hear what this Sara girl has to say."
...
Inside the Palace
The young queen, Sara, sat in her bedchamber with her eyes closed, softly humming the lullaby her mother had once taught her.
Ever since her mother's death, she had often sung that song — because every time she did, she felt as if her mother were still beside her, watching over her.
When the song ended, Sara slowly opened her eyes and let out a lonely sigh into the empty room.
But before she could finish her sigh, her eyes suddenly went wide — because in the stillness of her bedchamber, she heard something impossible: Applause.