Steam gushes from overhead pipelines, and white mist covers half the street.
A pale puppet hung upside down under the pipe, and two rusty serrated knives struck Sara's head with a screeching sound.
Naruto didn't even look back, smashed the floor tiles with his right foot, used the force to knock him out, and kicked the puppet in the chest.
Bang!
The puppet hit the pipe hard, causing the thick metal pipe to shake.
Naruto shook the numb soles of his feet after landing, his face a little dark:
"What is this Iron Shell bastard? The shell is harder than stone."
I saw a large dent in the puppet's breastplate, but the faint blue light spots in its eye sockets only flickered.
It supported the ground with its twisted limbs, its joints creaking, and rushed towards Sara again.
Now Naruto was not happy, and his hands flew quickly Hand Seals.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
A row of white smoke exploded in the narrow street, and a dozen Naruto instantly filled the gaps between the steam pipes.
"Go on, tear it down!"
His fists, knees and shoe soles were all smashed down.
The puppet's serrated knife was blown away first, followed by its arms, shoulder armor and half of its head.
When the white smoke dissipated, only parts were left on the ground, and the faint blue light spots were completely extinguished.
Naruto just took a breath, and there was another dense clicking sound in the pipe above his head.
Seven or eight identical pale puppets emerged from the mouth of the pipe, crawling quickly with their limbs against the metal wall, and their blue eyes were all locked on Sara.
"Why are you bringing someone else with you?!"
Naruto saw this and grabbed Sara's wrist, turned around and ran away. "Run!"
The two of them plunged into the criss-crossing steam streets.
However, Sara's gorgeous long skirt became a burden at this moment. After running a few steps, the hem of her skirt tripped and she threw herself forward, dragging Naruto along with it.
Naruto quickly turned around to catch her, and forcefully pulled her up. "Why are you dazed, follow closely!"
Before he could regain his composure, he was dragged away. Sara threw his hand away, panting and staring at him.
"Who are you? Why did you show up at Rōran and suddenly drag me away?!"
Naruto grabbed her wrist again, kicked open the iron fence blocking the road, and forced her to continue rushing forward.
"I am Konoha Ninja, and I have accepted the mission to investigate Dragon Vein Seal!"
Being dragged and stumbling around, Sara struggled to kick his legs.
"To check the seal, just go to Mr. Anrokuzan, he will arrange it! Where are you taking me?"
Hearing this, Naruto looked back at her and almost laughed in anger.
"Are you blind? I didn't see those things just now and the knife almost hit your head? If that fat man is really a good person, why would he send so many puppets to chase us?"
Sara's face turned red and he retorted loudly, "Master Anrokuzan will not harm Rōran, let alone me!"
"What Anrokuzan, that's Mukade!"
"And when I came, Rōran outside was already a ruin with only stones and debris left!"
Naruto Kicked up with the soles of his feet, jumped into the air, and stepped over the head of a puppet that had just emerged from the sewer.
With the harsh sound of metal breaking, half of Iron Shell's head deflated on the spot.
"But in the blink of an eye, this city came alive, and there were these crazy puppets everywhere!"
Naruto shouted irritably as he ran, "I'm also confused now, I don't understand what's going on!"
Sara was shaking all over, and his voice suddenly rose in pitch.
"You are simply baffled! A living person like me is standing in front of you, and you actually cursed my country to be in ruins?!"
"That's why I said there's something wrong here!"
Naruto raised his leg and kicked away another puppet that was coming at him, and there was a ball of fire in his chest.
He just accepted a mission, and as soon as he closed and opened his eyes, he fell into this ghost place full of steam and pipes.
If it weren't for the pain caused by hitting Iron Shell with his fist, he would have wanted to find a piece of sand to lie down and dream.
At this moment, a puppet with only half its body left struggled to crawl forward from the ground.
Its mechanical jaws clicked and collided, and several electric noises were extruded intermittently. "The Queen... must... live..."
"Queen... cannot die..."
Naruto paused, looked back at Sara, and then glanced at the puppet that was catching up behind him.
He suddenly realized something.
These puppets struck fast and hard, but every time the blade approached Sara, it would deflect half an inch in front of her neck, chest and abdomen. Anrokuzan was not trying to kill her at all.
"It seems that your Lord Anrokuzan is of great use to you."
Not wanting to listen to her nonsense anymore, and not wanting her to run too slowly, Naruto simply bent down and lifted Sara onto his shoulders.
"Hey! What are you doing? Put me down!"
Sara's legs were hanging in the air, kicking around in anger.
"Don't move."
Naruto held her steady, using the soles of his feet, "Let's get out of here alive first!"
After several ups and downs, he took Sara and got into the heavy white steam.
The group of puppets behind him chased after him, their metal claws scraped against the pipe wall, and the harsh sound spread all the way to the depths of Rōran.
Different from the hustle and bustle on the steam street, the other side of the palace was so quiet that it made people feel heartbroken.
There were no guards, no patrols, not even the maids and attendants.
Minato took Obito and Lin and landed on the stone steps outside Former Ministers' Council Chamber.
The tall palace door was ajar, and there was no light inside.
Obito looked inside and wanted to shout, "Teacher, why is there no one here?" But out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Lin beside him.
When the words came to his lips, he forcefully suppressed them.
He thought about it before going out today.
Lin must be shown what it means to be a mature man who is calm, reliable and doesn't panic when things happen.
So Obito took a breath, straightened his face, imitated Kakashi's usual indifferent look, and lowered his throat.
"Teacher, there is no defense here. If something goes wrong, there will be a monster."
After saying that, he felt quite satisfied.
This sentence is stable enough, Lin should think that he is reliable.
As a result, Lin turned to look at him, but her eyes were full of worry. "Obito, what's wrong with your throat? Did you catch a cold due to the wind, or did your face cramp?"
Obito couldn't hold back the coldness on his face.
Fuck mature men.
Minato stood in front, his shoulders shook twice, but he still couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Ahem... it's really abnormal. Everyone, be careful and prepare to go in."
The three of them pushed open the heavy palace door, and a strong smell of blood rushed towards them.
There were no lights in the hall, and the cold light leaking in from outside the door just fell on the old man's body in the center.
The old man was wearing an old-style official robe, with a large patch of dark red on his chest, and he was still holding half of a wooden mailbox firmly in his right hand.
Lin quickly stepped forward, half-knelt beside the corpse, put on gloves and skillfully checked the wound and body temperature.
"Teacher, the heart was penetrated by a sharp instrument, and the wound was very neat."
She raised her head and her expression darkened, "The temperature of the corpse has not dissipated, and the blood has not condensed. The death time was not more than half an hour."
Minato walked to the body and his eyes fell on the half of the mailbox.
He opened the old man's frozen fingers, took out the rescue scroll sent by Konoha Mission Center from Ninja Tools's bag, and matched the seal of the scroll with the broken mailbox.
The fracture is a perfect fit, and the seal Barrier Runes on the mailbox is just in line with the edge of the scroll.
"He is the person who issued the emergency request to Konoha."