Back to the Past (1)

Mukade stared at the Crow shattered across the ground, his heart aching. To buy this puppet, he had no idea how many tears and drops of sweat he had shed.

Splitting one bun between two meals and breaking one coin in half to spend—it was a vivid portrayal of that period of his life.

But now...

It was just gone!

For some reason, his heart hurt terribly!

Naruto gripped Kusabimaru and charged forward in a low stance, preparing to deliver a One-Character Slash to Ibuse.

Seeing this, Mukade triggered every mechanism inside Ibuse. Though it pained him deeply, he understood that if he did not use these tools now, he would never get another chance.

A weapon was maintained for a thousand days for this very moment!

Pitch-black poisonous mist, poison-coated senbon, deadly blades...

Anything capable of killing the enemy flew at Naruto.

Naruto's expression did not change. His heavy One-Character Slash showed no intention of deviating from its path as scarlet Nine-Tails Chakra instantly enveloped his entire body.

Puff, puff, puff...

The defensive power of Nine-Tails Chakra was beyond doubt. Even a Tailed Beast Bomb had failed to blast him to death; blocking a few concealed weapons was nothing.

Wrapped in Wind Release Chakra, Kusabimaru cleanly and decisively cut the Ibuse puppet into eight pieces.

"Let's talk about your enterprise, shall we?" Naruto looked toward the Sunagakure Ninja behind the stone statue.

Mukade trembled as he looked at him, like a pitiful young woman about to be bullied.

He knew he had provoked a freak, but wasn't this freak a little too freakish?

Upon hearing Naruto's question, he nodded like a pecking chicken.

"Come here." Naruto beckoned to him.

Little did he know how terrifying that gesture appeared to Mukade.

In the dim underground space, a demon clad in crimson flames spoke the most terrifying words in the most ordinary tone.

"Hmm?"

"I'm coming!" Shuddering, Mukade hurried forward.

Ninjas were people who could endure all suffering.

In Mukade's view, as long as he could survive, let alone lose a little face, even kneeling would be fine.

Besides, there was no one else here but the two of them.

By that logic, Lord Mukade had not lost any face at all!

"Release the seal again!" Naruto pointed at the protrusion pierced by the Flying Thunder God Kunai. Though he wondered why this Sunagakure Ninja feared him so much, seeing him obediently follow orders, he gave up on asking.

"Well, I can't undo it." Mukade squatted on the ground, bracing both hands against the Sealing Formula. He looked up at Naruto, his voice trembling slightly.

He seriously suspected that he had encountered a ghost. Such violent chakra was simply not something a human could possess.

At close range, that terrifying chakra oppressed his nerves even more intensely.

Mukade seriously suspected that a genin under such horrifying pressure would lose the ability to move altogether.

"Just do it." Naruto drew the Nine-Tails Chakra back into his body, sheathed his sword, and pressed his right hand against Mukade's back.

"Yes!"

With the knife in another's hand and himself the fish on the chopping block, Mukade could only obey.

The assimilation ritual resumed. Pale purple Ryūmyaku Chakra surfaced once more, and Mukade looked at it helplessly.

If he had been able to control this chakra earlier, how could he have suffered such humiliation?

"Hmm?" Feeling chakra continuously flood into his body, Mukade's pupils contracted. In just that brief moment, the chakra within him had fully recovered, with some even overflowing.

Hey, hey, hey! With this amount of chakra, was he really not human after all?

Looking at Naruto's calm face, Mukade felt that his future was utterly bleak. He did not think he could escape from beneath the control of such a monster.

Naruto knew nothing of the Sunagakure Ninja's rich inner turmoil.

He curiously studied the Sealing Formula below. Though it had been set by his "father," the Fourth Hokage, sorry, but he could not undo it either.

What could possibly make that powerful ninja, who had sealed Kurama inside him, go to such lengths to establish a seal?

Supported by Naruto's chakra, Mukade found the process of releasing the seal exceptionally smooth this time, completely unlike the sluggish, stalled feeling of the first attempt.

Feeling Ryūmyaku Chakra continuously merge into his body, Mukade's eyes filled with delight.

He had not expected such an unexpected surprise.

He had already begun considering how to deal with the monster behind him.

"Kurama, do you know where this chakra came from?" Naruto asked in the Mental Space.

The quality of this pale purple chakra, in his perception, was not much inferior to Kurama's chakra.

"I'm not sure either. Maybe it's something that existed before we were born," Kurama said uncertainly.

To be honest, he too was astonished by the quality and quantity of this chakra.

Naruto nodded slightly. Kurama had once said that he was born in the Sage of Six Paths' later years. As for the era before that, he knew nothing about what had happened.

In other words, this chakra might have originated from the Sage of Six Paths' youth, or even an earlier era.

He was becoming more and more curious about what had happened during those lost years.

The moon created by the Sage of Six Paths, the Ryūmyaku Chakra before him, the Ten-Tails that had split into nine tailed beasts...

All of them testified to just how brilliant and magnificent that lost era had been.

"It's undone!" Mukade cried wildly in his heart. A smile he had nearly forgotten appeared once more on his gaunt face.

But before he could make the slightest move—

In an instant!

A massive surge of chakra erupted from the underground abyss. Before either of them could react, they were swallowed by it.

"Light rises high above Rōran, hearts filled with countless feelings, O Dragon Vein that must be protected..."

A song he had never heard before echoed by his ear. He did not understand the meaning of the lyrics, but it sounded beautiful.

"Kurama, what happened?" Naruto asked in the Mental Space.

"I'm not sure either." Kurama spread his hands helplessly. He had not figured out what had happened. "After being struck by that chakra, I lost consciousness too. When I regained awareness of the outside world, you had inexplicably appeared in an open space. I didn't sense any hostility from that woman, so I left her alone."

"That woman?" Naruto's brows stirred slightly as he opened his eyes and looked over.

He saw a mother and daughter, both exceptional in appearance and figure, curiously studying him as well.

"Mother, he's awake!" The little girl tugged at her mother's hand and said in surprise.

"Sara, Mommy sees him." The woman patted her daughter's head.

"May I ask who you are?" Naruto rubbed his faintly aching head and asked.

"I am Sāya, Queen of Rōran." Sāya introduced herself. "Traveler from afar, why did you appear in Rōran's forbidden grounds?"

The Queen of Rōran?

Naruto froze and examined her carefully.

Purple and pale purple garments filled with ethnic flair, the bearing of someone long accustomed to a high position, fair fingers that clearly had never touched housework...

But hadn't Rōran declined?

Looking at the surrounding buildings, Rōran showed no signs of decline at all.

"May I ask, has the Third Great Ninja War ended yet?" Naruto seemed to think of something and asked.

He remembered that, according to Temari, Rōran had declined during the Third Great Ninja War...

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