Dragon Vein

In the Rōran Ancient Kingdom, Queen Sara looked at the scroll before her, her brows furrowed.

The Dragon Vein had been sealed, and Rōran had suffered enormous destruction. Therefore, Queen Sara had long been prepared to relocate the citizens of Rōran.

But such a thing could not be accomplished overnight. After all, even if Rōran was small, it still had tens of thousands of people. Relocating tens of thousands through the desert was clearly no simple task.

During this time, Queen Sara had moved her people out of the desert in batches, searching for new places to settle. Yet even now, half the population remained in Rōran.

After all, oases were not easy to find in the desert. Every oasis had native inhabitants—how could they possibly welcome outsiders?

Only now did Queen Sara begin to miss the days when the Dragon Vein still existed.

Still, she did not regret the Dragon Vein being sealed—compared to the harsh conditions now, the terrifying ninjas who would come once news of the Dragon Vein leaked out were the real problem.

No matter how harsh the conditions were, the people of Rōran could still tighten their belts and get by.

The Naruto World was not truly an ancient society. Its technology had already advanced to the modern era, and without war, people rarely starved to death. When they did, it was almost always due to excessive exploitation.

Although Rōran’s environment had changed drastically, it had once been quite prosperous, with substantial reserves in its treasury. And while Queen Sara could not be called a wise and mighty ruler, she was still a competent leader. Thus, though the situation was difficult, they had not yet reached the end of their rope.

"Queen! Two more ninjas have arrived outside." Two Rōran residents came over. Because of the earlier chaos, Queen Sara no longer had any guards. Whenever something happened, the residents generally passed messages among themselves.

In any case, all of Rōran only had a few tens of thousands of people, about the size of a somewhat larger tribe. It did not require such complicated administration.

"Ninjas again? What are they here for?" Queen Sara’s expression fell. Although Konoha’s ninjas had helped her country escape An Lushan’s plot, Rōran truly could not afford to provoke people with such extraordinary power!

It had nothing to do with whether a ninja was righteous or evil. It was simply the innate unease the weak felt when facing the strong.

"Uh… they seem to have gone toward the Dragon Vein."

"What!" Sara’s expression changed completely. Just what she feared had come to pass. If anything went wrong with the Dragon Vein again, all of Rōran could be blasted into the sky!

"This is Rōran’s Dragon Vein." Yota looked at the seal below them. At its very center was a Flying Thunder God kunai.

"Can you make anything of these seals?" Yota turned to Nagato Uzumaki.

Nagato, who had been quiet all along, gave an absent-minded "Huh?" His face was full of confusion. After all, he had always been self-taught and had only studied under Jiraiya for three years.

But he possessed every Chakra nature, and back then, the three children had all needed to protect themselves. Jiraiya was no fool, so he had naturally focused on teaching him nature-based ninjutsu rather than Sealing Jutsu that required long-term study.

What was more, although Jiraiya was Minato Namikaze’s teacher and was no slouch at Sealing Jutsu himself, he was likely far inferior to Minato Namikaze, a top-tier expert in Sealing Jutsu. Especially when it came to space-time seals, Minato Namikaze could practically be called the greatest in the world.

After that, Nagato’s ninjutsu research had basically all stemmed from the Rinnegan. He was not entirely ignorant of Sealing Jutsu, but his knowledge was only ordinary. How could he possibly understand such profound space-time sealing techniques?

"Forget it. I thought you might be able to tell something because of the Uzumaki Clan’s Sealing Jutsu." Yota sighed helplessly.

Nagato’s eye twitched, but he said nothing. I don’t have the Uzumaki Clan’s inheritance. Even the Uzumaki Clan’s Bloodline Limit is just Adamantine Sealing Chains. What the hell does that have to do with these truly complex sealing formulas?

Looking at the seal before him, Yota could not help feeling troubled as well. Without knowing anything, if they carelessly damaged the sealing formula, who knew what the result would be?

The Dragon Vein going berserk and blasting Rōran into the sky would be the mild outcome. If it threw you into some unknown parallel world, that would be the real tragedy.

For example, if it sent your head to a parallel world but left your body behind, then the consequences…

Therefore, even with Yota’s strength, he still did not dare let his guard down before the Dragon Vein, much less directly use the Dark-Dark Fruit to casually swallow the entire Dragon Vein.

Any power involving time and space could basically be considered extremely advanced. Take Obito’s Kamui, for example—it was the only ninjutsu capable of affecting Truth-Seeking Balls at the Mangekyo stage.

This thing simply defied all reason. Unless your body was strong enough that even time and space could not affect it, it was best to be cautious.

"Who are you people? What are you doing here at the Dragon Vein?"

At that moment, a voice sounded behind them. A young woman dressed in rather splendid clothes, with a head of red hair, walked in.

Yota and Nagato turned around. They had both heard the footsteps behind them long ago; they simply did not care much about ordinary people.

"The Queen of Rōran?" Nagato murmured as he looked at Sara. "I heard that every Queen of Rōran possesses strange powers that can influence the Dragon Vein. Perhaps we can let her try."

"If that were useful, the people of Rōran wouldn’t be relocating." Yota shook his head. "Unless the space-time seal is undone, no method should work…"

Seeing the two treat her as if she were invisible, casually discussing her and the Dragon Vein, Sara suddenly felt chilled to the bone.

Unfortunately, judging from the aura the two gave off, they were clearly no ordinary genin or chunin. Given Rōran’s current situation, if they truly provoked these two unfathomable ninjas, it might bring disaster upon the entire nation. Thus, she did not dare act rashly.

Seeing them discuss the Dragon Vein, Sara was genuinely afraid they would undo the seal. She hurriedly said, "This space-time seal was personally set by Konoha’s Fourth Hokage. He once said that even for him, opening this seal normally would be extremely difficult."

"If the seal is forcibly opened, the Dragon Vein will immediately go berserk. At that time, not only will the Rōran Ancient Kingdom be completely destroyed, but whoever opens the seal will certainly die as well."

Hearing this, Nagato Uzumaki merely snorted. Yota, however, believed the Queen’s words completely.

After all, the Dragon Vein’s effects were simply too overpowered. Infinite energy was one thing, but its unique space-time properties gave it the ability to interfere with time and space.

It was precisely because the Fourth Hokage was an expert in space-time ninjutsu that he truly understood the danger of this power. For all anyone knew, one day it might erase the entire world. Thus, he had naturally put every effort into creating the seal.