The great desert, a lone plume of smoke, the setting sun...
An empty, lofty, boundless desert stretched as far as the eye could see. At its farthest edge stood towering buildings, as though preserving the prosperity of that city forever.
"So this is Rōran? I'd heard a little about it before, but I never expected it to be this prosperous. Is something wrong, Minato-sensei?"
Gazing into the distance and taking in the foreign scenery, Huayue turned his head and asked brightly.
"Something's off. Rōran is merely a small country near the Land of Wind. How could it have built such a magnificent complex of buildings? Leaving aside the financial resources required, there aren't even enough citizens to warrant something on this scale."
"Unless someone within Rōran is using these enormous buildings to conceal some unspeakable secret. So it really is the Dragon Vein?"
Huayue nodded slightly in agreement. Looking down at the distant city-state, he fell into thought.
Dragon Veins generally referred to chakra flowing through the earth. The Dragon Vein within Rōran was more like a crystallization of an immense amount of chakra flowing beneath the ground.
The God Tree needed a thousand years of absorption to form a single Chakra Fruit, yet this Blue Planet could produce a Dragon Vein on such a scale. It truly was extraordinary.
"We'll begin the infiltration mission now. Contact each other by radio every ten minutes. Our mission is to protect the current Queen of Roran, Sara, and investigate the Dragon Vein."
"Uchiha Huayue, the covert support and protection work is up to you. Dismissed."
As his figure vanished, the Anbu squad led by Namikaze Minato swiftly disappeared as well. Beneath the Three-Eyed Demon Fox Mask, a brilliant smile appeared on Huayue's elegant, handsome face.
"Summoning Jutsu: Nine-Faced Soha: Shinigami!"
Unlike before,