It must be said that An Lushan was quite idle, as creating these Human Puppets and setting and adjusting different movements and cheers was a thankless task.
Although it was indeed well-made and gave a festive New Year's feeling, complete with fireworks, making it as joyful as could be, the fact that they were all Puppets gave it a sense of Chinese horror.
Second Body estimated that there were still a few hundred Puppets left in the central area, but the Chakra threads scattered in the central area were too dense, making it easy for An Lushan to discover her.
Now, only Second Body was left to quietly and slowly clear out these central area Puppets, so Minato and the others decided to investigate where Lou Lan's Puppet production base was located.
After all, if they ignored it, An Lushan could produce hundreds more Puppets in a single day, and then being besieged while also having to fight a boss would make the difficulty quite high.
Just as Second Body and the others were busy clearing Puppets and searching for the factory, Naruto, at this time, did not obediently leave Lou Lan but returned to the center of Lou Lan.
The thick-skinned Naruto did not realize that the cheering people in these celebrations were merely Puppets; mainly, from a distance, it was indeed not easy to tell.
The main reason was that An Lushan's costume and props were too well done; each person's clothes and movements were different, and if one didn't know from the start that these people were Puppets, Second Body probably wouldn't have been able to spot them from afar without her Sharingan.
Amidst the cheers of the Puppets, Sara, dressed in grand attire, emerged from the palace in the central tower and came to the tower's balcony, followed by two Puppets controlled by An Lushan.
As for the one following Sara and the Puppets, it was naturally the main villain An Lushan, though at present he was still the Regent; however, he was about to complete his transformation into the main villain.
Just as Sara was elegantly smiling and greeting the cheering commoners below, Naruto also watched Lou Lan Queen Sara from a nearby high tower.
He hadn't expected that the red-haired girl who had been singing nursery rhymes alone in the secret room was actually Lou Lan's Queen.
However, there was something even more surprising to him: a hand suddenly reached out from behind Sara, who had been smiling and waving, and gently pushed her from behind.
Sara stumbled forward a few steps, but the balcony in front of her had been tampered with and had no load-bearing capacity, so Sara stepped into empty space.
The balcony beneath Sara's feet formed a gap of a different color from the other areas, and Sara inevitably fell from the high tower.
Naruto, who witnessed all of this, was directly stunned; he hadn't expected that someone would harm Sara, the Queen of Lou Lan, by directly pushing her from the high tower.
Sara closed her eyes, screaming, and the sensation of rapidly falling made her realize that her life had entered a countdown, while An Lushan, who had secretly done all of this, smirked.
His uncontrollable desire for performance made him love the feeling of being watched, but whether in Hidden Sand Village or Lou Lan, no matter if he became a Jonin of the Puppet Corps or the Regent of Lou Lan.
He could not gain the cheers and attention of the populace, but it didn't matter; even the cheers of Puppets he liked very much, and Lou Lan only needed him, a living person, to exist.
Naruto watched as Sara was about to hit the ground, quickly chased after her, and caught Sara as she fell from the sky; then, after several jumps to absorb the impact, he landed behind a pillar.
Sara waited for a long time, but felt no pain, and instead felt a warm embrace; she immediately opened her eyes and then locked gazes with a Yellow-Haired Brat.
"It's alright now." Naruto sat on the ground holding Sara, and facing Sara, who was looking at him with a bewildered expression, he showed a bright and sunny smile.
However, Sara did not buy it; seeing herself held in the arms of a Yellow-Haired Brat, her eyes immediately cleared, and she screamed without hesitation.
She also kept slapping Naruto's face with her right hand; poor Naruto, not only did he not get a lifelong commitment for saving her, but he was also forced to endure more than a dozen of his favorite slaps.
"Ah! It… hurts, hurts, hurts!" Naruto's face was swollen from the slapping, leaving bright red handprints, and tears welled up in his eyes.
"Ah~! Let go of me!" Sara yelled loudly at Naruto after she finished slapping him.
"Calm down…" Naruto hadn't even finished speaking when he took an elbow from Sara, which dealt true damage and sent him directly sprawling onto the ground.
Sara also quickly crawled back a few steps, moving away from Naruto.
"You rude fellow!" Sara crossed her arms, as if guarding against a pervert; as the Lou Lan Queen, she had never been approached by a man in such a way.
After clearing all the Puppets that could be cleared, leaving only over two hundred Puppets that An Lushan couldn't clear, Second Body believed An Lushan would surely thank her.
Second Body was present from Sara's scream and then witnessed the famous scene; actually, Sara's feeling was not wrong, could Naruto, who could create the Harem Technique, be a decent person?
"What are you doing! I saved you." Naruto got up, touching his swollen face, but without any complaint.
"You're right… Then I'll thank you first, thank you!" Sara also came to her senses and indeed realized that her behavior was somewhat inappropriate.
"Are you the Queen of Lou Lan?"
"I am Sara, the Queen of Lou Lan."
Second Body silently watched Naruto and Sara's conversation; she noticed that Minato Namikaze and the others' Chakra were approaching, indicating that they had already detected her signal.
Just as Sara and Naruto were arguing that she wasn't pushed down, that she was a beloved queen, Minato Namikaze, Aburame Shibi, and Akimichi Choza arrived in front of Naruto using the Body Flicker Technique.
Second Body naturally appeared as well, and she watched with great interest the rather symmetrical slap marks on Naruto's face, even letting out a couple of 'tsk-tsk' sounds.
"You didn't keep your promise."
"I couldn't help it! She was falling from the tower right in front of me." Naruto held a Kunai in front of him, afraid that the four masked figures in front of him would harm Sara.
"Chotto matte! Who are you?" Sara pushed Second Body aside and came in front of Naruto, asking, quite oblivious to the power dynamics.
"Could it be! You want to kill her?" Naruto instantly connected the masked figures to the one who pushed Sara from the high tower; he immediately shielded Sara behind him, then waved his Kunai at his father and charged forward.
One could only say that Naruto had some brains, but not much, still attacking several Jonin with a Kunai; if he didn't have a Konoha headband on his forehead, he would have taken two big slaps.
Second Body didn't go easy on Naruto; she directly grabbed Naruto's wrist, then performed a grappling move, stepping on his knee bend, and Naruto then knelt on one knee, facing Sara, with his own Kunai held horizontally at his throat.
"I hope you don't misunderstand; our purpose for this trip is to protect the Lou Lan Queen and to seal the Dragon Veins; the mission should have been released by the previous Lou Lan Queen."
Second Body looked at Naruto, who was as tall as her even on one knee, and immediately felt a little displeased, wanting to make him kneel on both knees, but thinking that Minato was right next to them, she still gave up on that idea.
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