By now, the matter with the Fire Daimyō was essentially settled.
Neither Hiruzen Sarutobi nor Hikaru was the kind of man who would loosen his grip once he had seized an opening.
That meant the daimyō had absolutely no room left to turn things around.
Especially after he saw his twelve guardian ninja sprawled on the floor like dead dogs, he understood one thing with perfect clarity:
he had no cards left to play.
From that point on, everything became much simpler.
Hiruzen completely dropped the gentle, courteous mask he normally wore and revealed the predator hidden beneath it.
The result was inevitable. The daimyō lost utterly and completely.
No matter what terms were put before him, he had no choice but to accept them.
In the end, both Hiruzen and Hikaru got exactly what they wanted.
With that enormous sum of money in hand, they could each move forward with the plans they had already set in motion.
Of course, both of them knew that the moment they returned to Konoha, the tacit understanding they currently shared would come to an end. They might even become open enemies again.
Still, as long as their infighting remained confined within certain boundaries, that could still be called a decent enough outcome.
"When we get back, we'll have to begin the formal negotiations with the daimyō's side and complete the handover."
Hiruzen sat in a teahouse in the capital of the Land of Fire, lifted his cup, and took a slow sip before speaking in a low voice to Hikaru.
"This time, I truly owe thanks to Minister Hikaru for your assistance. Without your help, none of this would have gone so smoothly."
"For the sake of the Land of Fire—and for Konoha—we naturally had no choice but to do our part."
Hikaru let out a light chuckle. Empty, high-sounding words like these came to him as easily as breathing by now.
Still, a moment later, his expression turned more serious.
"However, Hokage-sama, when we return, I'm afraid you'll have to handle things on your own for a while."
"Hm?"
Hiruzen paused and frowned.
"Minister Hikaru, do you have other plans? Or have you discovered something?"
"Yes."
Hikaru nodded directly.
"I found several descendants of the Uzumaki clan. According to the intelligence, their situation does not seem very good."
"Oh?"
Hiruzen's brows rose at once.
"Are you certain the intelligence is reliable? Forgive me—not that I doubt you, but this matter is far too important."
Descendants of the Uzumaki clan were indeed far too important.
For Konoha especially, their significance could hardly be overstated.
After all, Konoha possessed a complete system for raising Uzumaki descendants. If properly nurtured, they could become future jinchūriki for the village.
Ever since Uzushiogakure had been destroyed by Kirigakure, the Uzumaki clan had been scattered. Some died, some fled, and at this point, even finding surviving bloodlines had become extraordinarily difficult.
Although Hiruzen had to bear a certain amount of responsibility for that outcome, from the standpoint and position he had occupied at the time, his choices had made sense.
Still, he had paid a price for them.
With the collapse of the Uzumaki clan, Konoha's long-term jinchūriki plans had been left with a massive hidden danger.
It was not that others could not become jinchūriki.
But compared to an Uzumaki, everyone else was born at a natural disadvantage.
So when Hikaru said he had found Uzumaki descendants, how could that not stir both Hiruzen's attention and his anticipation?
"This comes from ANBU intelligence," Hikaru said as he set down his cup, letting out a faint sigh.
"I believe it has a reasonable degree of credibility. Still, to confirm it properly, I plan to go see for myself."
"So that's your thinking."
Hiruzen nodded slowly.
"I understand. Then go without worry."
"I know. I only meant to report it to Hokage-sama in advance."
After saying that, Hikaru rose to his feet.
"Then I'll head out. Hopefully this matter goes smoothly—and hopefully there won't be any major problems waiting for me when I return to Konoha."
"Don't worry. I'm not so incapable of distinguishing priorities."
Hiruzen let out a cold snort.
"Minister Hikaru, you underestimate me."
Hikaru merely spread his hands in a careless shrug.
He could not be bothered to respond, because he did not really trust Hiruzen anyway.
Still, trust or no trust, there was nothing more to say.
He had more important matters to deal with now.
He tapped the table lightly in farewell, then turned and left the teahouse without any unnecessary words or gestures.
Leaving Hiruzen alone there might have seemed inappropriate, but Hiruzen's own strength was not weak.
Besides, Hikaru had already sent word to the ANBU to move in quickly. Security was not something he needed to worry over himself.
In truth, even if ANBU never came, Hiruzen would not be in any danger. The Root forces who had ambushed him had already all been wiped out.
Even if Root still had men left, their elite core was gone, and the rest were unlikely to be under Danzō's full control anyway.
There was no real need to worry about safety.
The reason Hikaru had called the ANBU over was primarily to escort the surviving members of the so-called Twelve Guardian Ninja back to Konoha.
Of course, they could hardly be called twelve anymore.
After Hikaru's attack, only six or seven of them were still alive.
He had cut their numbers in half by force.
And that was only because he had shown restraint.
If he had been a little harsher, none of them surviving would have been strange at all.
"The Fire Daimyō's matter is settled, and I've already obtained the Nine-Tails' chakra. That means it's time to handle the next thing."
As Hikaru walked slowly through the street, his thoughts shifted elsewhere.
It was easy to see that he was in an exceptionally good mood.
And honestly, he had every reason to be.
This trip had been a complete success.
His original objectives had all been fulfilled.
Not only that, he had extorted a massive amount from the daimyō and, in all likelihood, ensured the man would never stir up trouble again.
A lot of it had been accomplished by borrowing Hiruzen's hand, yes—but considering the road Hikaru intended to walk in the future, that was simply another way of helping himself.
"Besides, even if the daimyō wants to hate someone, he'll hate Hiruzen, not me. I'm only an ANBU Minister."
A scapegoat was truly a wonderful thing.
At times like this, Hikaru almost understood why Hiruzen liked Danzō so much.
There was probably another crucial reason for it too:
Danzō really was a perfect scapegoat.
With a man like that around, any dirty work could be pushed onto him.
Then no matter how many rotten things you yourself did, no one's hatred would land on you.
"But this next trip is going to be a long one. I have to go to the Land of Wind first, then make a detour to the Land of Grass. Let's hope everything goes smoothly…"
The excuse Hikaru had given Hiruzen for heading out alone was that he had discovered descendants of the Uzumaki in the Land of Grass.
Strictly speaking, it was not even an excuse.
After all, Karin and her mother really were drifting through the Land of Grass now, and their lives were likely miserable.
But Hikaru's true goal had never been that mother and daughter.
Honestly, he did not even know whether Karin had been born yet, and he did not think he stood to gain much from them anyway.
Future jinchūriki for Konoha?
What a joke.
Konoha's current jinchūriki were still alive and well, and in the future there would still be Naruto.
And if one was talking about later generations, Boruto had inherited both Uzumaki vitality and Hyūga blood. Wasn't that better suited to becoming a jinchūriki than a pure Uzumaki in some ways?
So in truth, Hikaru's level of interest in that mother and daughter was not high at all.
His real focus remained in the Land of Wind.
The moment he realized that the so-called "special chakra" most likely referred to something like the Dragon Vein, he could not stop thinking about it.
Besides, the Dragon Vein was already his by right.
Sara had transferred it to him at an absurdly cheap price.
So by all logic, Hikaru was simply going to reclaim what was already his.
Especially now that Minato had gone off to Mount Myōboku, Hikaru could act far more boldly in recovering that power.
Still, because his position in Konoha had become too prominent, he could not simply leave the village whenever he pleased.
That was why he had needed an excuse.
It had been necessary to notify Hiruzen.
In truth, "notifying" him really meant telling him one thing clearly:
While I'm away, don't do anything foolish.
Hiruzen was clever enough to understand that message immediately, and his response had been firm and decisive.
Still, Hikaru did not truly trust him.
It was not that Hiruzen dared not act because he had suddenly become honest.
It was because Hikaru's deterrent power was there.
And because Hikaru now held too many of their secrets in his hands.
If he did not have those things, Hikaru had no doubt they would never behave so well.
"Again, the moment they think the pressure is gone, they'll move. That much is obvious."
With that in mind, Hikaru traveled quickly into the Land of Wind.
After several days, he crossed the border.
"Back again."
He could not help letting out a soft sigh of emotion.
Strictly speaking, the Land of Wind really was the place where he had made his rise.
The fragment of Asura's power had first been cultivated here.
And the first time Hikaru had truly displayed his strength before the world had also been here.
In that sense, this land had left quite a few good memories for him.
Whether the people of the Land of Wind—or the shinobi of Sunagakure—felt the same way was another matter entirely.
But Hikaru could not care less.
He was from the Land of Fire, not the Land of Wind.
Once he entered the desert, he hurried toward the direction of Rōran as fast as possible.
The blowing sand did affect his speed, but the last time he had come here, he had left behind a Flying Thunder God mark as a retreat option.
Now that mark had unexpectedly become a travel tool instead.
It truly was a pleasant little accident.
Even so, the Land of Wind was vast beyond reason.
Even using Flying Thunder God to shorten the trip, it still took Hikaru several more days before he finally arrived at the ancient city of Rōran.
But when he got there, he could not help staring in surprise.
He had only been gone half a year.
And yet Rōran looked even more broken and desolate than before.
"What happened here?"
Hikaru frowned.
He had not forgotten that before leaving, he had carefully stabilized Sara's body.
With her health restored, she should have been more than capable of keeping Rōran from decaying like this.
Yet reality now stood plainly before him.
Could it be that after Hikaru left, the people of Sunagakure had found out something and started targeting Rōran?
The instant that thought crossed his mind, Hikaru's face darkened.
It was not that he cared much about Rōran's people.
The problem was that Rōran was bound to the Dragon Vein.
If something had happened to the city, who was to say the Dragon Vein had not been affected too?
"Let's go inside and see. If the people of the Land of Wind really did move against Rōran—and if they've done something with the Dragon Vein—then I may have to respond."
With that thought, chakra stirred inside him.
In the next instant, he vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already inside the tower that sealed the Dragon Vein.
Looking at the intact seal, and at the kunai still embedded there bearing Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God mark, Hikaru finally let out a breath.
So the Dragon Vein was fine.
In fact, the tower itself had even been repaired.
Hikaru had not forgotten that the last time he broke the seal here, the surge of Dragon Vein chakra had nearly destroyed the tower completely.
Even though it had not fully collapsed, nearly half the structure had been torn apart.
And now the tower had been restored in full.
Clearly, Sara had not sat idle.
"There's a barrier here too. Probably to keep outsiders from entering—or to notify Sara directly if I came back."
He swept his senses across the room.
"Of course, I still have to be careful. If Sunagakure placed it instead, that would be a different matter. Better to see who shows up."
Hikaru had sensed the barrier the moment he entered.
But he did not care about it in the slightest.
In fact, he deliberately touched it.
His goal was simple: to find out who was still watching this place.
If it was Sara, then Hikaru intended to honor the promise he had made before. Not only would he give her a large sum of money, he would even take her people away from here.
If it was Sunagakure's people, then he would kill every shinobi they had left behind in Rōran and call it revenge for the city.
"Let's hope for the better outcome."
He sighed softly, then began walking toward the Dragon Vein seal.
Sensing the violent chakra raging within, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
"Little one, is this chakra suitable for you?"
He asked silently within his mind.
"This chakra… I'm not sure. But it does feel very strong."
The little Nine-Tails' voice sounded in his head.
"So maybe?"
"Let's hope so. Special chakra sources aren't exactly easy to come by."
Hikaru exhaled, his expression turning serious.
He stepped forward and pulled out the kunai embedded in the floor.
The instant he did, the Dragon Vein's chakra seemed to awaken.
That immense, violent force surged wildly through the entire tower…
"Almost there. Everyone, just a bit more!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Out in the desert beyond Rōran, Sara was leading the city's remaining people slowly back toward the city.
She looked lively now.
Her complexion was healthy, and the constant coughing she had suffered before was completely gone.
It was obvious that Hikaru's treatment had restored her well.
And that improvement was not limited to her body alone.
Her spirit had changed as well.
That change came from one thing:
she had learned who Hikaru really was.
She had always known he was strong, but she had never truly grasped how strong.
After all, Rōran was a sealed-off place, and that isolation had only worsened under Sunagakure's pressure.
The village had never wanted an independent force inside its own territory, especially one that refused to obey.
Because of that, even many common things—things that should have been basic knowledge—were poorly understood in Rōran.
But this time, Sunagakure had been unable to keep their blockade in place.
They had suffered too heavily.
And because of that, Sara had finally learned what kind of monster the man was who had fixed his eyes on the Dragon Vein—and who also possessed that terrifying healing ability.
When Hikaru left the Land of Wind, Sunagakure had chased and hunted him with everything they had.
And the final result was that he killed more than a hundred Suna shinobi by himself, then walked away as if nothing had happened.
That fact had gone beyond anything Sara could have imagined.
Even if she did not know exactly what caliber of shinobi made up those hundred men, it did not matter.
Anyone who could do something like that alone was enough to inspire fear.
"A promise from someone that powerful… perhaps Rōran truly still has hope."
At first, after everything that had happened, Sara had believed that Rōran's future meant clinging to this lonely city in the middle of the desert.
But after the last lesson she had learned from Hikaru, she now understood better.
Rōran was not merely a city.
It was her people.
The citizens who lived with her.
The ones who had followed her all this time.
Since Sunagakure clearly had no intention of treating them fairly—and had already forced their living conditions into something so miserable—then choosing a different future for her people was no difficult decision at all.
That was why, over the last half-year, even after regaining her health, Sara had not poured her energy into rebuilding Rōran as it was.
Aside from restoring the sealing tower, she and the others had mostly saved every bit of money they could, simply waiting for Hikaru's return so he could lead them away.
Of course, she had also heard one piece of bad news during that time:
Konoha had been attacked by the Nine-Tails.
Naturally, the village itself now needed rebuilding.
Under normal circumstances, a place as isolated as Rōran would never even receive such news, no matter how widely it spread across the ninja world.
But because Hikaru had humiliated Sunagakure so thoroughly last time, the restrictions around Rōran had loosened considerably.
Those shinobi had all been redirected elsewhere, trying to restore Sunagakure's influence.
Now Sara could only hope Konoha was stabilizing well enough that Hikaru would still return to deal with the Dragon Vein.
As for whether Hikaru might have died in the Nine-Tails incident?
Sara refused to believe that.
How could someone that powerful die so easily?
"We're finally back…"
After quite some time, they at last reached the outskirts of Rōran.
Looking at the lonely city rising from the desert in the distance, Sara smiled.
She was reluctant to leave this place.
But if their ancestors had managed to build such a home under far harsher conditions, then surely, with better circumstances, they could create something even better elsewhere.
But at that moment, Sara's face suddenly changed.
She felt the barrier she had left in Rōran react.
"Someone's there…?"
Her expression shifted sharply.
She immediately dropped what she was carrying and sprinted toward the city.
"Your Majesty—!"
The rest of Rōran's people had no idea what had happened.
But soon they all understood.
Because deep within the city, a colossal force suddenly erupted upward.
A shockwave spread in every direction.
A white ring of force, visible even to the naked eye, tore through everything around it.
Even from this far away, they struggled to keep their footing.
"What… what is happening?"
"Heavens, what's going on?"
"Your Majesty is in danger! Come back!"
The people of Rōran were terrified.
None of them had ever witnessed anything so frightening.
And within that terrifying scene came the roar of something beast-like, a sound that chilled them to the bone.
Some of them instinctively thought back to what had happened half a year earlier.
But that time had not been nearly this terrible.
The people froze in panic.
Sara did not.
She knew exactly what this meant.
Someone had touched the Dragon Vein.
She did not know who—but in her heart she already had a guess.
It could only be Hikaru.
Because among the people she knew, only Hikaru—or perhaps the long-vanished Anrokuzan from her fading memories—would dare to release Dragon Vein chakra so recklessly.
Even Sunagakure, for all its greed toward the Dragon Vein, had always approached it with extreme caution.
"Is it you? Did you finally come?"
Sara forced herself forward against the shockwave that threatened to throw her backward.
And then, all at once, the shockwave stopped.
The violent chakra vanished as if it had never existed.
Everything fell still again.
Except now, inside Rōran, there stood a gigantic fox with nine tails swaying behind it.
"ROAR!"
Then came another howl.
This time the violent pressure rolling off it was even more terrifying than the Dragon Vein's chakra itself.
Inside the sealing tower, the moment Hikaru pulled out Minato's kunai, a torrent of wild chakra burst outward.
Having experienced this kind of chakra once before, Hikaru naturally did not panic.
And this time, unlike before, he had more than enough chakra of his own to respond if things went wrong.
If necessary, he could even try to seal it back down.
Watching the Dragon Vein's chakra grow increasingly violent, Hikaru quickly formed hand seals.
Then he shouted:
"Release!"
At the surge of his chakra, the core of the Dragon Vein seal shattered at once.
He had already dealt with this seal once before. Although he had patched it afterward, restoring it completely had never been possible.
And with this move, the seal now stood at the very edge of total collapse.
Whooooo—
The wind inside the tower suddenly began to scream.
The closer the seal came to failing, the more violent the gale became.
Debris and stone fragments were torn into the air, spinning like a cyclone around the center of the tower.
Anything they struck exploded with deafening force.
At the same time, the earth began to tremble.
Cracks spread across the brick floor in every direction.
Within moments, the entire ground resembled shattered turtle shell patterns, split into jagged sections.
Hikaru watched silently, then began circulating his own chakra.
A moment later, red markings appeared around his eyes.
He had entered Sage Mode.
There was no way he would allow any accident to unfold right in front of him.
"It's almost out."
He called out to the little Nine-Tails.
"Be ready. If you can't handle it, tell me immediately. I'll seal it again."
"I know."
The little Nine-Tails answered seriously.
"Don't worry. I won't force it."
Hikaru nodded.
And in the very next moment, the Dragon Vein chakra finally burst free.
Boom!
An enormous flood of chakra exploded out through the opening in the seal, like a torrent erupting from the abyss itself.
It smashed straight through the roof of the tower and became a pillar of chakra that shot into the heavens.
Hikaru stared at that scene with total concentration.
Even though he had once drawn on Dragon Vein chakra before, the amount back then and the amount now were worlds apart.
More than that, because the chakra was so vast and so dense, Hikaru could sense something else mixed within it through Sage Mode:
a power he could neither fully describe nor ignore.
It was difficult to define exactly what it was.
But considering that this was the force capable of twisting time and space, it was impossible not to hold it in awe.
"I need to move quickly. With a disturbance this large, there's no guarantee Sunagakure won't notice."
Even as Hikaru thought that, the little Nine-Tails had already prepared himself.
The fox's body, now no longer tiny, emerged from Hikaru's chakra and stood before the Dragon Vein.
His attitude was serious for once.
He clearly understood what was at stake.
Then he opened his mouth.
In the next instant, a tremendous force of suction erupted from within him.
Hikaru had never seen anything like it before.
At least in his memory, the Nine-Tails had never displayed such an ability.
But then again, his little Nine-Tails had been born through the system itself.
For something unusual to appear here was hardly beyond belief.
He chose not to dwell on it.
A massive quantity of Dragon Vein chakra began rushing toward the little Nine-Tails' mouth.
Within moments, the fox's body expanded by more than ten times.
His enormous frame smashed apart the surrounding walls of the tower, and his head nearly burst through the structure itself.
Still, he seemed able to endure it.
He continued gulping down the Dragon Vein chakra in great torrents.
And Hikaru noticed something else—
the fox's body was not simply continuing to bloat larger and larger.
Or rather, it would enlarge, then shrink slightly, then expand again.
In that repeated cycle of swelling and compressing, the little Nine-Tails' body was becoming denser.
Stronger.
Instead of looking like a balloon pumped full of air, he was becoming something truly solid and terrifying.
His chakra was also growing purer and more powerful.
In fact, it was beginning to resemble the presence of the great beast that had attacked Konoha.
The devouring continued.
Hikaru's nerves remained stretched taut.
He had no idea how long this would last, but he knew that the moment the little Nine-Tails showed signs of failing, he would immediately reseal the Dragon Vein.
Time passed, second by second.
And yet, although only minutes had passed in reality, Hikaru felt as though he had waited through a much longer stretch of time.
Fortunately, the Dragon Vein pillar was beginning to weaken.
The roaring wind around them had also died down.
It seemed the source deep underground was nearing exhaustion.
"Is it over?"
Hikaru thought so—
but suddenly, the little Nine-Tails threw his head back and let out a roar.
At once, the Dragon Vein chakra he had been devouring was released.
That chakra, which had been pouring into him moments before, suddenly pulled free, gathered together in an instant—
and then crashed straight into Hikaru.
"...Hm?"
Hikaru stared blankly.
He truly had not reacted in time.
By the time he understood what was happening, the Dragon Vein chakra had already rushed into his body completely…
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