Devouring the Ryūmyaku

The Ancient City of Rōran, Konoha Year 63.

Naruto appeared out of thin air near the Ryūmyaku seal. Heavenly Thunder Sword in hand, he looked around. Karin, Yakumo, and the other three were all there. Relieved, he finally turned to the puppet Sara tucked under his left arm.

"Sara, stop playing dead," Naruto said coldly.

Sara raised her head at his words and looked around with empty eyes. "Is this the future?"

"Yes. About sixteen years later," Naruto said.

"Enough talk. I'm going to absorb the Chakra in the Ryūmyaku. Help me control how much it releases."

"Are you going to kill me?" Sara raised her head and stared at Naruto with hollow eyes.

Naruto arched an eyebrow. He looked at her in surprise and asked with a hint of amusement, "You don't want to die?"

"Do you think I deserve to die?" Sara asked in return. "Or do you think that because I've become like this, I must have lost the will to live?"

Naruto said nothing, but that was exactly what he had thought.

Unless someone was twisted enough to alter their own body, like Sasori or Mukade, how could any beautiful young woman accept being turned into a puppet?

"Anrokuzan came to Rōran ten years ago. Three years ago, he pushed me off a tall building. I thought I would fall to my death, but I landed on a platform below first. I survived, though I was badly injured and paralyzed."

Sara's puppet mouth opened and closed as she recounted the story in a cool voice. There was no trace of emotion in it, as though she were speaking about someone else.

Anrokuzan was Mukade's alias.

"When Anrokuzan saw that I'd survived, he suddenly decided to turn me into a puppet."

"I spent three years in pain