Although An Lushan of Rōran seemed quite cooperative, Akaseki had no intention of leaving Rōran just yet...
After all, his current meekness might only have been an act. Until Sunagakure formally surrendered, Akaseki still needed to keep Rōran under surveillance and guard against any contact between them!
That was only his assignment from Konoha. Akaseki also wanted to investigate what exactly the dragon vein was and how it related to space-time, hoping to find a solution to Hikari's condition.
Seeing that Minato was still concerned about those "petty thieves," Akaseki decided to visit them tomorrow. Surely the cooperative An Lushan would not object.
However...
That very night, after the four of them had settled down to rest...
Bang-
Boom-
Crash-
The sudden commotion instantly jolted all four of them awake in their respective rooms...
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
The four of them appeared outside the tower in an instant. Some attached chakra to their feet and stood on its walls, while others leaped straight onto the roof, looking toward the source of the noise.
Ranwu gave Hikari a puzzled glance. Didn't she only recently start ninja training? How had she improved so quickly?
"It's the Royal Tower... Let's take a look," Akaseki said immediately.
Following the sounds of combat, the four arrived outside the Royal Tower, but...
"Unidentified targets... Approach prohibited..."
"Warning, warning, approach prohibited..."
A group of automated puppets blocked their path.
These puppets differed from the designs commonly seen in Sunagakure. They were roughly humanoid, but looked more like suits of armor, whereas Sunagakure's puppets generally resembled skeletons.
"We're here to help!" Ranwu said hastily.
"Warning... Approach prohibited..." The puppets clearly did not understand. The chakra-infused throwing weapons in their hands glinted.
"All right, were you really planning to reason with these things?" As Akaseki spoke, he rubbed his