Persuading Sara

"No... the Dragon Vein. Its power must never belong to anyone, never!"

Faced with Yue Uchiha's highly seductive words, Sara suddenly took two steps back like a startled fawn.

Besides her hatred for Mukade, her eyes now held deep wariness toward the Sharingan-wielding young man before her.

She might have been naive, but she was not foolish.

She understood the hidden meaning behind Yue's words.

This man was helping her not only to deal with Mukade, but also to claim the Dragon Vein's world-destroying power for himself!

One wolf had just left. Was she supposed to personally invite in an even more terrifying tiger?

Seeing the guarded refusal in Sara's eyes, Yue Uchiha showed no surprise beneath his mask.

He understood all too well people who had been sheltered in a greenhouse since childhood, their heads filled with "innocence" and "absolute righteousness."

To completely control a tool, force was the lowest method. The most reliable contract was when, in despair, she begged to hand him the knife herself.

Yue stood where he was and did not rush to argue.

He slowly raised a hand as though he wanted to grasp Sara's shoulder, but after pausing in midair for a moment, he lowered it again as if helplessly.

The scarlet glow in his Sharingan gradually dimmed. He let out an extremely heavy sigh, one that even carried a trace of relief.

"Fine. I respect your wishes."

Yue's voice became incomparably calm. There was none of his earlier relentless pressure, and he even turned away from her.

"Since you believe this power should not belong to anyone, I will send you out of Rōran and let you safely spend the rest of your life in a desert oasis..."

As Yue spoke, he slowly sheathed the short blade on his back, his tone carrying the cold indifference of someone merely handling official business.

"As for this matter, I will not interfere anymore. Let Anrokuzan continue controlling this power. You are right. The people of Rōran... and revenge for your mother truly should be accomplished by you, their queen. I should not have overstepped."

"You... you're leaving?"

Sara froze. She had thought he would use force, or keep using those terrifying illusions to pressure her.

"What else would I do? A heinous rogue ninja like me cannot exactly shamelessly beg to become a savior."

Yue Uchiha grabbed Sara's wrist and, without giving her any choice, brought her in a leap to an extremely concealed platform at the edge of the Central Hub.

"Before I send you away, Your Majesty, please take a good look at what miracle your noble ideal of 'belonging to no one' can bring to this nation."

Yue released her hand and leaned against the cold wall, raising his chin slightly to signal Sara to look down.

The Central Hub below had already completely turned into a living hell.

Their conversation had not stopped events from progressing. Minato and Naruto had inevitably begun fighting Mukade.

Mukade, under the alias Anrokuzan, had completely merged with the Dragon Vein's control hub.

He had abandoned his human shell and transformed into a horrifying centipede monster nearly a hundred meters long, made entirely of violet-black metal and high-pressure chakra!

"Hahaha! The Dragon Vein's power is endless! You Konoha insects, turn to ash!"

Mukade's arrogant roar made the entire underground space tremble.

With a single sweep of his massive tail, he easily flattened several load-bearing metal pillars over ten meters in diameter as though snapping toothpicks.

"Big Ball Rasengan!"

In midair, Naruto Uzumaki, under Minato's cover, roared as he slammed a massive blue sphere of chakra onto Mukade's metal carapace.

"Boom—!!"

The violent explosion kicked up dust that filled the sky. A huge section of armor on Mukade's back was blasted to pieces, exposing the intricate mechanical circuits within.

"We did it!" Naruto had only just landed before he could celebrate.

The next second, however, a sight that filled him with despair appeared.

Accompanied by a flash of blinding violet light, the Dragon Vein's immense chakra surged madly into Mukade's wound like a waterfall flowing backward.

In less than a second, the shattered armor completely healed at a visible speed, without leaving even the slightest scratch!

"What... what is this?! We can't kill him at all!" Naruto's eyes widened.

"Don't stop, Naruto! His power source is the Dragon Vein beneath the entire city. As long as his chakra does not run dry, he is truly immortal!"

Minato Namikaze's forehead was covered in cold sweat as his body transformed into a golden flash, darting wildly through the dense rain of lasers.

He threw more than a dozen Flying Thunder God kunai, trying to sever the chakra tubes connecting Mukade to the ground. Yet the moment those tubes were cut, new tendrils immediately grew and burrowed back underground.

"Die! Die! Die!"

Mukade opened his abyss-like maw, and a violet-black high-energy chakra cannon more than five meters in diameter began gathering frantically. The violent energy warped the air around it.

"Oh no!"

Minato instantly activated the Flying Thunder God, grabbed Naruto, and narrowly teleported dozens of meters away.

"Boom!!!"

The violet-black beam pierced through the entire underground space. Everything in its path—metal, rock, and even the Combat Puppets that had failed to escape in time—was instantly vaporized by the heat!

The violent shockwave, carrying scorching heat, swept all the way to the platform where Sara stood.

Sara clung tightly to the railing, her long red hair whipped into total disarray by the gale.

Her pale face was completely bloodless, her pupils trembling violently as they reflected the apocalyptic scene below.

A monster.

It was a godlike monster that human strength simply could not defeat!

"Do you see it?"

Yue Uchiha's cold voice still reached Sara's ears clearly through the raging wind.

"That is the power you called 'belonging to no one.' Now, it belongs to Anrokuzan."

Yue walked to Sara's side and looked down at the desperate battle below, his tone filled with cruel rationality.

"This is the reality of the Ninja World. Ideals without power are more laughable than wastepaper. Those two Konoha ninja are strong, but their stamina will eventually be exhausted under the drain of infinite chakra. Once they die, Mukade will bring this power to the surface, turn your people into machines that never stop, and reduce all Five Great Nations to scorched earth."

"And you, noble queen, will only be able to stand in the desert and watch it all happen, moved by your own pure ideal that it 'must never belong to anyone.'"

Yue's words were like the sharpest poisoned daggers, every word striking at her heart, cutting the unrealistic fantasies in Sara's mind into pieces.

"No... don't..."

Sara's legs finally gave out, and she collapsed to her knees on the cold metal floor.

Images flashed through her mind: the emaciated citizens in the Underground Arsenal, her mother's gentle smile from years ago, and Minato and Naruto below, forced into increasingly perilous straits by Mukade's lasers...

If she did nothing, everyone would die!

In the face of this absolute power of destruction, her stubbornness was nothing more than a joke!

And as for revenge, what could she possibly use to take it?

"Let's go. While they can still hold Mukade off for a while, I will take you out of here."

Yue Uchiha turned around and made as if to form hand seals and use the Body Flicker Technique, as though he truly intended to remove himself from the matter completely.

"Wait!"

The instant Yue turned, a pair of trembling yet forceful hands tightly grabbed his black high-collared cloak.

Sara lowered her head, tears falling onto the metal floor like beads from a broken string.

When she raised her head again, the cowardice and innocence in her emerald-green eyes had been replaced by a reckless madness.

"If... if I give you the Dragon Vein's power..."

Sara bit her lip hard until she tasted blood.

"Can you really kill him? Can you really let my people live?"

With his back to her, the corners of Yue Uchiha's mouth finally curled into a satisfied smile beneath his mask.

He slowly turned around. His scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan gave off a bewitching, soul-stirring glow in the dim violet light, like a demon answering a believer's plea.

"The contract is sealed, Your Majesty."