To be honest, Natsuhiko was a little worried.
What worried him most was a simple question:
Could he really control a power as terrifying as the Ryūmyaku?
Over the past few days since arriving in the area, he hadn't even entered Rōran. Yet even from that far away, he could clearly feel the strange chakra radiating from the city.
Just sensing it from a distance was enough to understand how overwhelming its power truly was.
Sometimes dreams were beautiful.
Reality, however, could be brutally unforgiving.
The Ryūmyaku was essentially an ownerless power. As for the residents of Rōran, Natsuhiko honestly didn't consider them much of a threat.
Yes, the Ryūmyaku lay beneath the city.
And yes, the Queen of Rōran could suppress it.
But Natsuhiko knew something they didn't.
In the future, Rōran would be nothing more than ruins.
Even the people who once lived there would eventually abandon the place. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Naruto Uzumaki and that strange man—whether called Mukade or Anrokuzan—to travel through time and return to the past together.
"Still… the Ryūmyaku itself seems rather unstable."
Standing within the sealed chamber of the Ryūmyaku, Natsuhiko looked down.
Below him lay the sealing array left behind by Minato Namikaze.
From within that seal, chakra surged and roared like a raging beast.
Natsuhiko frowned.
If he had to describe the Ryūmyaku's current state in one word—
It would be violent.
Extremely violent.
The sealing technique Minato had left behind was the Four Symbols Seal.
Natsuhiko had found this technique within the Senju clan archives and had already learned it himself.
Although his sealing skills were still at a beginner level, the Four Symbols Seal wasn't particularly difficult to learn.
Mastering it completely, however—and unleashing its full potential—was another matter entirely.
Minato's execution of the technique hadn't been especially complicated.
But the brilliance of his work lay elsewhere.
He had layered multiple Four Symbols Seals together.
Each seal reinforced the others.
If one was damaged, the surrounding seals would compensate and stabilize it.
Even more impressively, the formation drew upon the Ryūmyaku's own chakra to repair itself.
That was why such an immense power still hadn't broken free.
Of course, there was another important reason.
The Ryūmyaku had no consciousness of its own.
If it possessed an actual will, sealing it would have been far more difficult.
Minato had also added an extra safeguard.
Within the seal were the formula markings of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
If the Ryūmyaku ever erupted with excessive force, Minato would immediately sense it through that mark.
And if necessary, he could teleport here instantly to deal with the problem.
"The problem," Natsuhiko muttered softly, "is that his seal is too reliable."
He stared at the specially crafted kunai embedded within the sealing array. Even more than ten years after Minato's death, the seal remained perfectly intact.
After sneaking into Rōran, Natsuhiko had actually located this chamber by tracking that Flying Thunder God marker.
Without it, he probably wouldn't have found the place so quickly.
And if that had happened…
He might have had no choice but to visit the Queen of Rōran in person.
Still—
Now that he was here, he couldn't simply leave empty-handed.
After studying the sealing formation for quite some time, Natsuhiko finally made up his mind.
No matter what happened, he would take something from this place.
Faced with such violent chakra, he knew perfectly well that absorbing all of it was impossible.
But siphoning a small portion?
That might still be within reach.
The difficulty lay in the details.
First, he needed to find a way to let some of the chakra escape without damaging Minato's seal.
"And on top of that…"
Natsuhiko glanced again at the Flying Thunder God formula.
"…I need to deal with this marker as well."
Otherwise—
It might expose far more than he intended.
Natsuhiko had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique almost perfectly.
But there was still one problem.
He had no way to suppress or block the teleportation markers themselves.
If the Ryūmyaku's chakra surged too violently, some of that chakra might flow directly into the Flying Thunder God formula embedded within the seal.
And if that happened, the person who placed the mark would inevitably notice something.
Even though Rōran lay extremely far from Konohagakure, the very fact that Minato Namikaze had left a seal here said a lot.
Even if Minato couldn't arrive immediately, he would almost certainly sense that something unusual had happened.
And Natsuhiko had no intention of letting anyone discover too much.
By now, he had already revealed quite a lot to the outside world.
Whether it was his giant summon—Lizardmaru—or the Flying Thunder God Technique, those were some of his most powerful abilities.
They had earned him enormous prestige.
But at the same time, they exposed parts of his hand, giving others opportunities to analyze his weaknesses.
That was why he had always kept Sage Mode as his ultimate trump card.
Aside from honestly telling Minato about it, no one else knew.
And the Ryūmyaku?
That was something he had even less intention of revealing.
In fact, he didn't want anyone discovering it at all—even if the amount of chakra he managed to obtain would be extremely small.
"If I want to avoid triggering the Flying Thunder God marker… while also keeping the seal intact and letting the chakra leak out on its own…"
Natsuhiko's gaze remained fixed on the sealing formation.
After thinking for a long time—
He finally acted.
A faint thread of chakra appeared at his fingertips.
Slowly, carefully, he pressed it against one of the innermost nodes of the Four Symbols Seal.
The moment his chakra slipped inside, the seal trembled slightly.
The point he had chosen was the weakest structural point within the entire formation.
If this point destabilized, the Ryūmyaku's chakra would immediately surge outward, desperately seeking an escape.
But no matter how violently it struggled—
It still couldn't break free.
Because several additional layers of seals waited outside.
What Natsuhiko wanted was exactly that situation.
A continuous struggle.
A slow war of attrition between the Ryūmyaku and the layered seals.
By opening a tiny gap, he would let the imprisoned chakra attempt to force its way out on its own.
And during that constant grinding against the outer seals, the Ryūmyaku's chakra would gradually weaken.
At the moment some of it finally squeezed through—
All he needed to do was catch it.
Prevent it from activating the Flying Thunder God mark.
Seal it into his own body.
And leave the rest to be suppressed by the seals once more.
If he couldn't take everything this time…
He could always come back again later.
There was no need to rush.
Besides, once he obtained even a portion of that chakra, he would still need time to study it carefully.
Only after fully understanding its nature could he make further plans.
"Looks like it's time to wait again."
Natsuhiko watched the seal patterns slowly circulating like tiny tadpoles across the formation.
Beneath them, the Ryūmyaku's chakra roared as if it had sensed a possible escape.
He nodded slightly.
But just as he turned to leave—
The stone door behind him suddenly opened.
"What should I do now…"
Sitting alone in her chamber, Queen Sara looked at the report in her hands and let out a long sigh.
As the queen of Rōran, she bore responsibility for every resident of the city.
It was both her duty—
And her destiny.
But the truth was cruel.
Rōran had been declining for years.
Ever since the Third Great Ninja War began—and even after it ended—the city's situation had only grown worse.
The war had inflicted massive losses upon the Land of Wind.
And although Rōran was located within its borders, it had never truly fallen under the country's direct control.
That unique status had brought it devastating consequences.
Now the city was impoverished beyond imagination.
Just a few short years earlier, Rōran had been thriving at the peak of its prosperity.
But now—
It was teetering on the edge of collapse.
Worst of all, Sunagakure had begun turning its attention toward the city.
It seemed as though they intended to bring Rōran under their influence.
At the same time, they had quietly stopped dealing with the bandits plaguing several important trade routes.
The result was obvious.
For a city whose economy was already fragile…
This was nothing less than the final blow.
Sara ran the numbers in her head. At this rate, if nothing changed, Rōran would be history within a few short years.
Yet, even knowing just how dire things had become, there was nothing she could do. Rōran didn't have its own military structure.
That meant clearing out the bandits or reopening trade routes was completely impossible.
And trapped inside the Land of Wind, her voice barely reached beyond the borders.
In the past, they could have sent messages to other villages—like they had with Konoha before—but ever since that incident, the Sunagakure's Kazekage distrusted them even more.
Trying to make themselves heard had grown even harder.
Faced with this deadlock, Sara was utterly helpless.
Even when she personally oversaw some trade operations, it couldn't stop Rōran's decline.
Watching her city crumble bit by bit, Sara's heart filled with powerlessness, yet there was nothing she could do about it.
"Hmm?"
Then, as she pondered how to raise enough funds to at least weather the current storm, a sudden pulse of chakra shook her awareness.
And she recognized it immediately—the signature of the Ryūmyaku.
Almost instinctively, she sprang to her feet. She knew that chakra; she had lived through the sealing of the Dragon Dream. The finer details may have faded, but the feeling of the Ryūmyaku's power was unforgettable.
"Damn it… could something have gone wrong at the Ryūmyaku?"
The thought made her unable to stay seated. Without hesitation, she sprinted toward the sealing site.
There it stood—a tower known as the Thousand Tower. Ever since the Ryūmyaku had been sealed by the Fourth Hokage of Konoha, Sara hadn't set foot there again.
She didn't even know why she'd avoided it for so long; it was like stepping into that place stirred a sense of loss, a lingering regret.
It felt as though she had left behind too many things that mattered there.
She ran as fast as she could, her anxiety growing with every step. And the Ryūmyaku's chakra—already violent—was becoming more erratic by the moment.
It wasn't just chaotic; it seemed to be pressing against the city itself, subtly affecting Rōran already.
Sara's heart tightened. The seal must truly be failing.
The Ryūmyaku seemed to struggle, trying to break free—but the strength of the seal still held, restraining it just enough.
"What exactly is happening?" she muttered, her brow furrowing. Though an ordinary human, Sara had trained herself well. Her physique and endurance were above average.
And the Thousand Tower wasn't far from her residence—she arrived in a matter of minutes.
The raw, furious chakra radiating from the tower sent shivers down her spine. Gritting her teeth, she forced the stone doors open.
As queen, she had both the authority and the power to do so.
But the moment she stepped inside, a pair of hands clamped around her neck from behind, and a muffling hand pressed over her mouth.
Sara's heart skipped a beat—something had finally found her inside the Ryūmyaku's domain.
Her instincts screamed danger.
"Keep quiet… just a little wrong move, and tragedy might be born," a voice whispered softly in her ear.
Sara froze. Her heart plummeted into terror as realization struck—this wasn't some random disturbance. Someone had actually broken into the Ryūmyaku's domain.
Someone here… for the Ryūmyaku itself. Were they trying to release it? Could this be another Anrokuzan, scheming to exploit the Ryūmyaku for something horrifying?
"Close the stone doors. I'll let go of your hands. Cooperate, and nothing will happen. Fail to obey… and you won't be the only one dying."
The voice, warm and gentle in tone, sliced through her thoughts like ice. Sara shivered. Beneath the calm words was a cold, unrelenting edge.
If he could threaten her like this, what chance did the residents of Rōran have?
This wasn't just any marauder. This was someone more ruthless than Anrokuzan—someone who didn't even bother with subtlety.
Yet Sara had no choice but to comply. Her people—her city—mattered more than her pride.
"Good."
Watching the heavy door slide shut under Sara's control, Natsuhiko released his grip and stepped back.
While he had been waiting for the Ryūmyaku to react, someone had suddenly entered the chamber.
The moment he sensed the presence, he had already guessed who it was.
The one responsible for guarding the Ryūmyaku could hardly ignore such an abnormal fluctuation.
And sure enough—
The one who appeared was the queen herself.
That realization made Natsuhiko sigh inwardly.
This was exactly the situation he had hoped to avoid.
He didn't want anyone else knowing what he was doing here.
Still, he wasn't particularly worried about this queen.
From the moment he sensed her chakra and physical condition, he had already noticed something unusual.
Her body was in poor shape.
Whether it was from prolonged exhaustion or some underlying illness, her blood flow was irregular and her vitality weak.
Without proper treatment…
She probably didn't have much time left.
A faint smile appeared on Natsuhiko's lips.
It seemed he had already thought of a way to handle this situation.
"You must be the Queen of Rōran," he said, his voice calm. His mask concealed every feature—there was no fear of recognition here.
"You don't look well. If you don't get proper treatment soon… I doubt you'll last much longer."
"Thank you for your concern," Sara replied, stepping back to the edge of the stone doors the moment he released her. Her eyes were sharp, cautious, scanning every inch of him.
"And… who exactly are you? Why have you come here?"