Forbidden Words in Battle

"Naruto, listen to your father; continue protecting Sara."

Choza Akimichi also spoke up, a rarity for him: "Besides, splitting up will allow us to operate more efficiently."

"But..."

Naruto Uzumaki still wanted to refuse.

As a junior who had traveled back from twenty years in the future, he had been raised under the guidance and protection of Uchiha Aoba and Namikaze Minato since birth.

Because of this, Naruto Uzumaki had been eager to show off his skills in front of his two elders during this time.

Yet, a suitable opportunity had never presented itself.

Now that the chance had finally arrived, he had hoped to demonstrate his strength before Mukade realized that Sara had already led her people away, only to be flatly refused.

This made Naruto Uzumaki feel as though he were about to suffer internal injuries from frustration.

Seeming to read his son's thoughts, Namikaze Minato smiled helplessly: "Naruto, follow orders. Your mission now is to protect Her Majesty the Queen; leave the fighting to us."

"Rest assured, there will be plenty of time for you to shine later."

"Fine."

Naruto Uzumaki hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing: "I'll go back to protecting Sara then."

"Be careful yourselves."

With that, he followed the path Sara had taken and quickly gave chase.

"Sigh, children really have boundless energy," Choza Akimichi remarked with a sigh. Realizing how that sounded, he looked at Uchiha Aoba and added, "Don't misunderstand, I didn't mean you."

"..."

Uchiha Aoba looked at him, speechless: "Choza-senpai, there was no need to specifically clarify that."

"Haha..."

Choza Akimichi laughed awkwardly and gave a dry cough: "Well then, I shall take the lead."

"It's about time I stretched my limbs."

He took a food pill from his pouch, watched the giant puppet drawing closer, tossed the pill into the air, leaped up, and caught it in his mouth.

In the next second, his body expanded rapidly, growing to a size comparable to the giant puppet.

"Super Multi-Size Technique!"

"Damn Konoha ninjas, you're all such eyesores!"

Mukade cursed in a rage, then suddenly accelerated, charging forward in an attempt to knock Choza Akimichi aside with the impact.

"It seems I've been underestimated."

Choza Akimichi let out a cold snort, crouched slightly, and planted his feet firmly.

A loud BANG echoed through the air.

The collision between his body and the puppet reverberated throughout the entire town.

At the center of the plaza, a massive shockwave erupted from the two, spreading outward in all directions.

Uchiha Aoba and Namikaze Minato immediately retreated without hesitation, leaving the battle to Choza Akimichi for the moment while carefully searching for an opening to strike.

Choza Akimichi, having successfully withstood Mukade's charge, couldn't help but let out a muffled grunt. Before the giant puppet could react, he quickly raised his knee and delivered a brutal blow to it.

Caught off guard, the puppet was lifted off the ground, its entire abdomen caving inward.

As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot.

Choza Akimichi would never let such a good opportunity slip by, and a smooth, rapid-fire combo followed.

He pummeled the giant puppet, leaving it with no room to counterattack.

The outer shell used for defense began to crack and shatter over a large area.

When Choza Akimichi landed his final heavy punch, the giant puppet was completely knocked to the ground, motionless.

"Is it over!?"

Choza Akimichi panted heavily as he asked in a deep voice.

Namikaze Minato remained silent, but Uchiha Aoba slapped his forehead.

Was that something you could just say?

As everyone knows, in battle, if either of the following two situations occurs, the enemy is definitely still alive.

Not only alive, but kicking.

One is the "no damage in the smoke" law.

The larger the smoke cloud created by the battle, the less damage the enemy has taken—they might even be completely unscathed.

The other is Choza Akimichi's situation.

It looks like he's unleashed his full attack power, but the moment he asks "Is it over?", he essentially declares that all his effort was in vain.

Uchiha Aoba sighed, already preparing himself to intervene.

As expected.

Following a bolt of purple lightning that struck the puppet, it returned to its original form in the blink of an eye.

What left Uchiha Aoba even more speechless was that, through his Sharingan, he could see the chakra on the giant puppet continuously increasing, at least doubling compared to before.

"Damn it, that didn't kill it?"

Choza Akimichi cursed in anger, preparing to strike again.

"Wait, Choza."

Namikaze Minato shifted his gaze from the top of the tower to the battlefield, frowning as he said, "Don't waste your energy. The situation is clear: as long as the Dragon Vein remains active, no matter how many times we shatter the puppet..."

"It will always be able to restore itself."

Choza Akimichi naturally saw this as well, saying with difficulty, "But we can't just do nothing and let it pursue Queen Sara. We have to at least slow it down."

"Then we will take turns attacking. As long as Her Majesty can successfully seal the Dragon Vein, we will win."

Namikaze Minato thought quickly; facing a giant puppet that could constantly regenerate under the influence of the Dragon Vein, he truly had no other options.

To buy time for Sara to seal the Dragon Vein, they had no choice but to use these methods that drained their stamina and chakra.

However, Namikaze Minato was not without other plans.

He split off a shadow clone and, using the Flying Thunder God, appeared directly behind Naruto Uzumaki.

A few minutes earlier, deep underground.

Naruto Uzumaki followed at the back of the group, listening to the sounds of battle from above, feeling incredibly anxious.

He desperately wanted to go back and help, but he dared not disobey the orders of Uchiha Aoba and Namikaze Minato.

Amidst this internal conflict, they reached their destination.

After Sara arranged for her people to stay in the Inner Court, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sara, is this the place where the Dragon Vein is sealed?" Naruto Uzumaki asked anxiously while looking around.

"No, it's in the other direction."

Sara shook her head and said no more. After closing the Inner Court gates, she led Naruto Uzumaki deeper inside.

Passing through a doorway.

The scene before him made surprise flash in Naruto Uzumaki's eyes.

He saw a massive interior space with a narrow path extending to the center, where a seal identical to the one in the puppet factory was etched into the floor, though the reaction from the Dragon Vein was far more intense.

"Is this the place that controls the entire Dragon Vein of Rōran?"

A gentle voice rang out.

The moment Namikaze Minato landed using the Flying Thunder God, he witnessed this scene.

"Dad!?"

Naruto Uzumaki was startled, exclaiming aloud.

Sara paid no mind to the suddenly appearing Namikaze Minato; her attention was entirely focused on the Dragon Vein.

As a purple halo appeared in her hands once more and merged into the seal.

The space, previously shrouded in purple energy, began to dim from the bottom up, until not a trace of Dragon Vein energy could be felt in all of Rōran.

"Success!"

Sara completely relaxed and collapsed to the ground.