Chapter 211: The Lost Tower
"Where even is this place..."
In the Uzumaki Annex, the green-haired girl lay spread-eagle on the floor, staring at the ceiling with vacant eyes.
"Hey!"
"Can you stop acting all standoff... uh..."
"You know what I mean!"
Fū glared at the cool, elegant woman standing by the window, tending to her plants.
Fū had been stuck in this place for nearly half a month now, with absolutely no idea why.
Ever since that unknown Uchiha with the Sharingan had defeated her, she had no memories of what followed. When she'd woken up, she was here.
And "here" offered nothing but daily meal deliveries, that woman over there, and not a single other human being.
It wasn't that Fū hadn't tried to escape — she couldn't.
Chakra-sealing marks had been inscribed on her body. She couldn't even sense the Seven-Tails inside her anymore. And it wasn't just her own seals — some kind of powerful sealing technique had the Seven-Tails itself locked down tight.
"The phrase is 'standoffish.' As in 'keeping people at arm's length.'"
Yugito Nii regarded the peony she'd been nurturing — now blooming beautifully under her care — and gently brushed a fingertip against its stamen.
"Yeah, that's what I said!"
Fū shot upright from the floor and sat cross-legged, staring at the woman.
She had to admit — Yugito really was beautiful.
Even as a fellow girl, Fū couldn't help but be struck by her.
After being captured and brought to Konoha three years ago, Yugito had found a packet of flower seeds in some forgotten corner and taken to tending plants to pass the time.
Three years of quiet cultivation had smoothed away her edges. The impulsive, hot-tempered Yugito of the past was gone.
Meeting her for the first time now, you'd think she was some nobleman's refined, well-bred daughter — never the jinchūriki who'd once torn across battlefields.
"And so what if I'm willing to chat? What good does it do?"
Setting down her watering can, Yugito finally turned to appraise the girl who'd been dumped here recently.
By now, Yugito had learned the full outcome of the war three years ago.
The Hidden Cloud had suffered a devastating defeat. Lord Raikage himself had died at Haruno Sakura's hands.
But all she could do was watch from her cage.
She was no different from a gilded canary.
"Emm... how about we make a break for it?"
Fū's eyes lit up the moment Yugito deigned to respond, and she scooted over immediately.
"Take a wild guess — how quickly do you think that sentence reaches the Hokage's desk?"
Yugito found this naive creature mildly tiresome.
"Aww... that's so unfair..."
Fū slumped in defeat, chin propped on her hand.
Yugito spared her a glance but nothing more.
A naive girl living in her own little world, oblivious to the conflict swirling around her.
Yugito knew this girl had been thrown here by Konoha's people, and was almost certainly a jinchūriki like herself.
But she had no interest in getting to know her.
What would be the point? Just two pitiful creatures commiserating and wallowing in self-pity.
In the Hokage's office, Sakura reviewed the daily report on the Two-Tails and Seven-Tails jinchūriki and nodded with satisfaction.
Ever since Sakura had abducted Fū, the girl had been stashed in the Uzumaki Annex.
Cohabiting with Yugito.
As for the idea of transferring the Tailed Beasts to new hosts...
Sakura hadn't considered it. She still didn't know exactly when the Three-Tails would revive, but one thing was certain — the moment it did, the Akatsuki would make their move.
Swapping jinchūriki right now would be nothing but asking for trouble.
Keeping these two locked up and well-fed was simple enough.
Changing hosts would mean still feeding and housing them, plus the added risk of a Tailed Beast going berserk.
Besides, Konoha didn't have any suitable jinchūriki candidates at the moment.
Hmm...
Maybe once Naruto got married down the line, she'd have him produce two kids and assign one beast to each?
Sakura rubbed her chin. That actually had potential.
"What are you reading?"
A thick stack of documents was dumped unceremoniously onto the desk in front of her.
"Thanks, sweetheart~~~"
"When you're done, check whether any departments have been slacking off."
"Pay special attention to the Barrier Team."
Her chair rotated slowly, carrying Sakura in a lazy spin as she thanked the Hokage she'd dug up from the grave and put to work.
"..."
"And what are you doing?"
Tobirama was speechless, looking at the girl who appeared to be deep in thought but was obviously just goofing off.
The chair beneath her continued its unhurried rotation.
"Me?"
The chair stopped. Sakura looked at Tobirama as though the answer were self-evident.
"If I handled everything myself, what would be the point of having all those people on staff?"
"I'm giving them a chance to grow."
"Exactly."
She punctuated this with a firm nod.
Tobirama's expression darkened slightly. He looked at the files in his own hands, then at Sakura's completely empty desk.
"So you're giving this old man a chance to grow as well?"
Sakura looked at Tobirama with genuine surprise, as if the notion were bizarre.
"How could you think that?"
"You're my Second Hokage!"
"Do you really need a growth opportunity?"
"Look — you've been underground for decades. You obviously aren't up to speed on Konoha's current state. I'm giving you a chance to familiarize yourself."
???
Three question marks materialized above Tobirama's head.
Me. The Second Hokage. Needing HER permission to familiarize myself with Konoha?
When I was governing this village, your FATHER was still being breastfed!
Just as Tobirama was about to erupt, a knock came at the office door.
"Enter."
Flashing a victory sign behind Tobirama's back where no one could see, Sakura called out.
Tobirama's frustration had nowhere to go.
"Lady Hokage — an urgent dispatch from the border."
A staff member hurried in and handed Sakura the report.
And of course, Tobirama had vanished without a trace.
Sakura read the report, one delicate eyebrow rising with interest.
This had come from the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers.
A rogue ninja from the Hidden Sand had fled into Fire Country territory. The Sand's pursuit squad had been stopped at the border by Konoha's guards.
The Sand was requesting joint pursuit authorization.
Three years had passed since the Great War. All Five Great Villages were quietly licking their wounds.
Konoha and the Sand had also signed a non-aggression treaty. For the Sand to pursue a rogue ninja inside Fire Country, they needed Konoha's explicit approval.
It was just a piece of paper, but the still-recovering Sand had no choice but to ask politely.
Sakura looked at the name of the Sand's rogue ninja on the dispatch.
Mukade.
"Tell the Sand that Konoha won't tolerate rogue ninja running loose. They're cleared to enter Fire Country."
"However, Konoha will also be dispatching its own squad to pursue this individual."
"Should any... incidents occur, Konoha accepts no responsibility."
She tossed the report down and stood.
"Yes, Lady Hokage!"
The staff member snapped to attention and hurried off to relay the orders.
"Oh? You're interested?"
The moment the staff member left, Tobirama materialized again.
"Someone — have Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Kushina assemble at the Main Gate!"
After issuing the order, Sakura turned to Tobirama with a smile.
"I'll need you to cover for me for a little while, my dear Second Hokage."
???
"You're going personally?"
Tobirama frowned.
A Hokage abandoning her post — that was going too far.
"Who said anything about abandoning my post? I'm just... taking a stroll outside."
"Not even leaving the country."
"Relax."
"Ganbatte~~~"
With a wave of farewell, Sakura launched herself out the window before Tobirama could react, vanishing instantly.
"This is really..."
Tobirama's outstretched hand hung frozen in midair.
Is this what teenage rebellion looks like?
Still, he knew that despite Sakura's occasional lack of gravitas, she wasn't actually careless.
But what about this Mukade could possibly interest someone at Sakura's level?
A mere rogue ninja from the Sand.
What could possibly warrant the Fifth Hokage's personal attention?
Especially now — when Inoichi was learning Dragon Life Reincarnation and Kakashi was learning Izanagi.
As for the Hidden Sand?
Tobirama didn't give them a second thought. Just the bottom-rung member of the Five Great Villages. What was there to worry about?
Konoha Main Gate
Naruto, Sasuke, and Kushina had gathered at the gate, waiting for the final member.
"Man, Sakura's so slow."
Naruto leaned against the massive gate frame and grumbled.
"Quiet, Naruto."
"Sakura must have had things to take care of."
Sasuke, polishing his sword nearby, spoke without looking up.
"Yah, yah, yah."
"I was actually planning to head back to Turtle Island and keep training after the inauguration ceremony."
Naruto lay his hands behind his head and gazed up at the clouds.
He'd trained on Turtle Island for so long with zero progress on the Tailed Beast front — and both Sakura and Jiraiya had stayed by his side the entire time.
The pressure weighed on him.
Facing others' expectations and disappointing them over and over again.
It was miserable.
"Then next time, we'll all go with you."
A familiar voice came from beside him. Naruto turned.
Sakura — no longer in the Hokage's robes but wearing her usual red-and-white tracksuit — walked toward them.
"Sakura?"
"You mean...?"
Naruto looked at her with surprise.
"Sasuke's Sharingan, Kushina's Blood Haze Mind's Eye — both can help you to some degree."
"Honestly, aside from suppressing the Nine-Tails when it rampages, I'm not sure what use I am anymore."
Sakura's words made Naruto anxious.
"That's not—"
But Sakura cut him off, expression even.
"I'm not fishing for sympathy. I'm stating a fact."
"Sasuke and Kushina genuinely can assist your training."
"Naruto — once you complete your Tailed Beast training, you'll be the last member of my Hokage Guard."
!
Naruto's face lit up with delight.
The Hokage Guard was technically responsible for the Hokage's personal security — but there was another way to describe the position.
Heir to the Hokage title.
If Sakura ever stepped down, the first candidates considered would be Sasuke, Naruto, and Kushina.
"YEAH!"
Naruto pumped his fist.
"Honestly, this guy is so easily pleased..."
Kushina watched Naruto and clicked her tongue.
Hokage didn't interest her in the slightest.
Being at Sakura's side was more than enough.
Sakura watched Naruto celebrate, her eyes curving into crescents.
Truthfully, Naruto's current strength was already considerable. The problem was sustainability.
Two Shadow Clones' worth of stored Sage chakra gave Naruto ten minutes as a real powerhouse.
After ten minutes? Born as a human, I'm so sorry...
Regular Naruto with Mass Shadow Clones plus Rasengan was still plenty strong.
But that only worked against ordinary shinobi. Against the Akatsuki roster, it wouldn't even register.
As the Nine-Tails jinchūriki, Naruto had to master the Nine-Tails' power.
"Alright — let me brief you on this mission."
Sakura produced a dossier on Mukade and motioned the three over.
"Huh?"
"From the Sand?"
Naruto looked at the scroll with some surprise.
"That's right. Our mission this time is to—"
"I'll definitely catch him!"
Naruto cut in before Sakura could finish.
"Let me finish."
Without a moment's hesitation, Sakura flicked him on the forehead, then continued:
"Our mission this time is not to capture him."
Pinky smiled a mysterious smile, piquing Sasuke's and Kushina's curiosity.
She produced a small map from her equipment pouch and pointed to a location in the Land of Wind labeled Rōran.
"We're going to herd Mukade here."
Sasuke frowned at where she was pointing.
"That's in the Land of Wind... won't that cause..."
He trailed off hesitantly.
Technically, he and Kushina could enter Wind Country without issue.
But Sakura and Naruto were different.
Sakura was the Hokage. Naruto was a jinchūriki.
Those two entering the Land of Wind together meant—
The Hokage personally escorting a jinchūriki into Wind Country?
Are you TRYING to start a panic?
"Don't worry about it. It's just one little Sand Village. Even if they find out — so what?"
Compared to the Dragon Veins, the Hidden Sand barely registered.
And even if they captured Mukade, Sakura had zero intention of handing him over to the Sand.
Never mind anything else — the simple fact that Mukade had managed to build a thriving metropolis from a patch of worthless desert in just six years proved the man's genius for construction.
An absolute prodigy of civil engineering.
Doto Kazahana was already back at headquarters working diligently for Konoha. Sakura certainly wasn't going to let this one slip away either.
With the Daimyo now residing in Konoha, the nation's wealth was flowing toward the village. Konoha's expansion was inevitable.
When that time came, Mukade's value would speak for itself.
Seeing Sakura's confidence, Sasuke dropped the subject.
Three years ago, Sakura had already forced every major village to bow. Her strength had only grown since.
Sasuke's worries were unfounded from the start.
Sakura had already notified the border to allow the Sand's pursuit squad through.
If Sand shinobi were allowed into Fire Country, what complaint could anyone have about Konoha shinobi entering Wind Country?
"Dammit..."
In a corner of the Land of Rivers, a balding middle-aged man slumped against a tree, gasping for breath.
The Sand and Konoha were hunting him jointly. He was boxed in — no way up, no way down.
Konoha's precision intelligence network tracked his every movement.
But...
Exhausted as he was, Mukade felt a nagging confusion.
The Konoha squad pursuing him was absurdly powerful.
And yet they hadn't simply grabbed him. Instead, they seemed to be driving him toward the Land of Wind.
By his third day inside Fire Country, the Konoha team had pushed him right back out again.
They weren't capturing him. They weren't letting him go. Their intent was clear: herd him toward Wind Country.
"Heh... the dirty tricks of a great nation."
"I'm just a temporary pawn Konoha's using to accomplish some goal."
Mukade's smile was bitter — and at that moment, a shuriken whistled through the air and embedded itself in the boulder beside him.
The seemingly solid rock was punched clean through.
The force behind that throw was staggering.
Mukade stared at the shuriken, face tightening.
Damn it — they want the horse to run but won't feed it!
But he had no choice. He dragged himself upright and staggered onward toward the Land of Wind.
"At least he can take a hint."
From a short distance away, Sakura watched the man resume his journey and smiled with satisfaction.
"Sakura, his chakra's almost bottomed out."
Beside her, Kushina pushed up her glasses and spoke.
"Tch. What a weakling."
"Fine — let him rest for a bit."
"Oh, and what's the status on those Sand shinobi who entered Fire Country?"
Sakura frowned slightly — clearly unimpressed with Mukade's stamina — but tempered her annoyance in light of his construction talents.
"The intelligence team has been feeding them false leads. They're heading east inside Fire Country — basically the opposite direction from us."
Kushina relayed the latest message from their ninja hawk.
"Good. Let them run in circles."
Yellow sand filled the sky. The sun beat down mercilessly.
The man gasped for air as he took in the ruins before him. His face lit up with surprise — then darkened immediately.
This was—
Rōran!
His original destination!
And somehow, the Konoha team had herded him right here.
What did this mean?
Something felt deeply wrong, but Mukade had passed the point of no return.
Konoha's people were right behind him. With no other option, he plunged into the ruins of Rōran, aiming to activate the Dragon Veins and leap into the temporal current to shake his pursuers for good.
Team Sakura arrived moments later.
Looking at the ruins, Sakura's expression didn't change. She gave Mukade ample time to open the Dragon Veins.
In truth, Sakura wasn't remotely worried about getting caught in a temporal anomaly.
Because from the very beginning, she'd grown up without incident. Nothing had ever gone wrong.
It was like the temporal paradox — you can't travel back in time and kill your own grandfather to prevent your birth. If you killed your grandfather, you'd never have been born. If you were born, you couldn't have killed him.
And given Mukade's nature — even if he didn't know it was Sakura chasing him — the reputation she'd built on the battlefield guaranteed he'd never risk standing his ground. And Konoha had experienced no disruptions over the past several decades.
Which meant from the start, Mukade was destined to fail.
Since she already knew the outcome would be fine, there was nothing to worry about.
Just as Sakura was turning this over in her mind, a torrent of purple chakra erupted skyward!
"That's—!"
Kushina stared at the terrifying pillar of chakra, her expression shifting dramatically.
She hadn't sensed anything remotely this massive before this moment!
"Let's move."
"Straight in."
The four of them charged toward the chakra torrent.
So THIS is what Sakura was after?
Sasuke followed behind Sakura, piecing it together.
One Mukade could never have warranted the Hokage's personal involvement. And the fact that they'd been herding rather than capturing him proved Sakura had a different objective.
Now the picture was clear.
Team Sakura reached the base of the roaring pillar.
"Hahaha! Konoha DOGS!"
"I'm outta here!"
"Next time we meet — it'll be when I RULE THE WORLD!"
A dark silhouette was faintly visible within the purple torrent. His arrogant taunts didn't produce the slightest emotional response from Sakura.
"Everyone hold hands. Don't get separated."
She seized Kushina's hand and Naruto's. Naruto in turn gripped Sasuke.
The four leaped as one, plunging directly into the Dragon Vein chakra torrent.
The moment they entered, their vision filled with dense, almost tangible purple chakra.
It was like jumping into a waterfall flowing in reverse.
But even so, the four of them pressed downward toward the Dragon Veins' origin point.
"Sakura!"
Feeling the Dragon Vein chakra batter her body, Kushina gritted her teeth and called out.
"Hold on to me."
Gripping Kushina's hand tight, Sakura released the Yin Seal on her forehead.
Massive reserves of chakra surged from the seal, forming a barrier that shielded all four as they hurtled toward the source.
By now, the Yin Seal had become nothing more than a chakra storage device for Sakura. At this point, no one alive could injure her.
And thanks to Yang Release's body modifications, Sakura's own chakra reserves already rivaled a jinchūriki's.
With Sakura leading the way, the four of them plunged into the pool of purple liquid at the Dragon Veins' origin point.
To tame the Dragon Veins, she needed one person.
Minato Namikaze.
Specifically — Minato Namikaze from twenty years ago.
A man capable of sealing the Dragon Veins single-handedly.
And with Kushina — who'd spent three years studying sealing techniques — assisting, the odds of success weren't bad at all.
There was a chance of failure, sure. But you'd never know unless you tried.
Konoha, Year 46
Rōran
With the sound of shattering glass, a figure burst through a window.
"WHO WAS THAT?!"
"Who in their right mind SMASHED MY WINDOW?!"
A middle-aged woman's furious bellow rang out. Sakura — whose expression had been the picture of composure — stiffened slightly. She glanced around, confirmed no witnesses, and bolted.
Unbelievable! Who would do something so inconsiderate — smashing someone's window like that? If I ever catch the culprit, they'll PAY!
What's that? It was ME?
...Never mind then.
☆☆☆
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