Outside the rift at the Rōran Ruins, a tall, thin man with a slightly receding hairline crossed the vast desert and arrived at its edge.
"Heh heh heh, that wasn't easy. I finally made it."
The man's name was Mukade, and he was a puppeteer.
Back in the day, he had been something of a genius puppeteer in the Land of Wind. Though he wasn't from Sunagakure, he had made a name for himself in the Puppet Technique through his own hard work.
But as a puppeteer, that was about as far as he could go.
After witnessing the extraordinary might of powerful ninja who could soar through the skies, burrow underground, and casually flatten mountain ranges, the power the Puppet Technique offered him was simply too weak.
However, during his research, he had discovered something that could increase his power.
It was the ley line sleeping within the Rōran Ruins.
He should have come to claim it long ago.
But a few years earlier, the shinobi world had been far too unstable. All sorts of schemers and ambitious men had been active, and he lacked their formidable power.
If he exposed himself, the ley line might end up belonging to someone else.
So he had chosen to bide his time. Only after the shinobi world was unified and stabilized under the Shinobi World Federation's system of rules did his ambitions stir again.
Even then, he was somewhat afraid of the Shinobi World Federation's power. After all, the legendary Asura of the Ninja World and God of Shinobi had both been resurrected. One wrong move, and he could easily end up dead.
Not to mention that Minato Namikaze, the man known as the Yellow Flash, had also been resurrected.
Apparently, when something went wrong with the ley line back then,