Chapter 87: The Dragon Vein Seal

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: The Dragon Vein Seal

The moment Hyuga Kagami stepped into the ruins of Rōran, he felt an oppressive sensation wash over him.

This oppression wasn’t related to chakra. Rather, it weighed directly on his mind, like the instinctive unease an ordinary person might feel after accidentally wandering into the hunting grounds of a ferocious beast.

"Byakugan!"

With a low shout, Kagami activated his Byakugan. As he made his way toward the central tower of the Rōran ruins, he carefully observed his surroundings.

Within the field of vision of his Byakugan, everything around him was deathly still.

There wasn’t the slightest sign of life anywhere in the ancient ruins of Rōran, much less any trace of chakra.

"Huh? That’s a little strange."

Seeing this, a trace of doubt immediately surfaced in Kagami’s mind.

Even if living creatures were scarce in the desert, there should still be plenty of snakes, insects, rats, ants, and other small creatures.

Logically speaking, with so many structures still standing throughout the ruins of ancient Rōran, this place should have been an excellent shelter from the wind and sand. There was no reason for there to be absolutely no sign of life whatsoever.

Although he had his doubts, Kagami wasn’t the least bit afraid.

No matter what was strange about this place, it was unlikely to pose much of a threat to him in his current state.

After all, even if the worst-case scenario occurred and the Dragon Vein’s chakra went berserk, he was confident he could still retreat safely.

Before long, Kagami arrived at the place where the Fourth Hokage had sealed the Dragon Vein.

"Just as I thought, it’s a composite sealing technique!"

With just a single glance, Kagami recognized that the seal the Fourth Hokage had placed on the Dragon Vein was a composite sealing technique formed by combining several different sealing techniques.

Walking closer, he crouched down and carefully examined each individual sealing formula.

As he analyzed them, he muttered to himself, "The foundation should still be the Four Symbols Seal. There are also sealing formulas from the Contract Seal mixed in, as well as another sealing technique..."

After a rough analysis, Kagami could confirm that the Fourth Hokage’s Dragon Vein Seal incorporated at least three powerful sealing techniques.

At present, however, he could only identify two of them: the Four Symbols Seal and the Contract Seal.

As for the third sealing technique, Kagami didn’t have the slightest clue. It didn’t seem to belong to the Uzumaki lineage of sealing techniques.

"Back then, the Fourth probably hadn’t inherited the position of Hokage yet. That means there were only two places he could’ve learned sealing techniques from. One was his wife, Kushina, who could teach him the Uzumaki clan’s sealing techniques. The other was his teacher, Jiraiya, from whom he could’ve learned Mount Myōboku’s sealing techniques."

At this thought, Kagami formed a hypothesis.

The third sealing technique incorporated into the Dragon Vein Seal was, in all likelihood, a sealing technique from Mount Myōboku’s lineage.

Standing up and taking a few steps back, Kagami rested his chin on one hand and pondered for a while. Given his current mastery of sealing techniques, he felt he had a decent chance of breaking through the Fourth Hokage’s Dragon Vein Seal.

After all, the entire Dragon Vein Seal was built upon the Four Symbols Seal as its foundation, and the Four Symbols Seal just happened to be the sealing technique Kagami understood most thoroughly.

So if he tried to forcibly undo it, success wasn’t out of the question.

However, the fact that the Fourth Hokage’s Dragon Vein Seal incorporated formulas from the Contract Seal indirectly proved that there was some sort of contractual connection between the bloodline of Rōran’s queens and the Dragon Vein.

Therefore, if he wanted to play it safe, it would be best to have a descendant of Rōran’s royal bloodline with him when he broke the Fourth Hokage’s seal. Otherwise, if the Dragon Vein’s chakra went berserk afterward, it might prove difficult to subdue.

"But where am I supposed to find a descendant of Rōran’s royal family?"

Konoha Village, Root Headquarters.

Whoosh...

A figure landed and immediately dropped to one knee before Danzo.

"Lord Danzo, we’ve finished examining Dingyou’s corpse."

Leaning on his cane, Danzo struck the ground heavily with it.

"Give me the results!"

The kneeling Root member immediately replied, "There are a total of thirty-seven wounds on Dingyou’s body. The fatal injury was to the head. Because his brain tissue was completely destroyed, we were unable to extract any information from it."

The more Danzo listened, the darker his expression became.

When he first received news that Dingyou had been killed, his immediate reaction was that Hyuga Kagami must have done it.

But after thinking it over for a while, he wasn’t so certain anymore.

That was because, in his estimation, Dingyou should have been stronger than Kagami.

Moreover, Dingyou had carried out numerous assassination missions in the past, including several against targets at the jonin level. Whether in terms of strength or experience, Dingyou ranked among the better members of Root.

So even if Dingyou truly wasn’t a match for Kagami, there was no reason he should have died without managing to send back even the slightest bit of information.

At this moment, the Root member continued, "During the autopsy, we also discovered a small amount of Iron Sand inside Dingyou’s body."

Danzo’s gaze sharpened.

"Iron Sand!?"

"Yes. The grains were extremely fine and uniform in size, and their chakra conductivity was exceptionally high. They seem to have been continuously nourished by chakra over a long period of time. It was almost as if..."

The Root ninja wanted to voice his suspicion, but the idea seemed so absurd that he didn’t know how to report it.

Danzo had long been in charge of Konoha’s intelligence network and foreign espionage operations. In terms of experience and breadth of knowledge, there were few in the entire village who could compare to him.

So there was no need for the Root ninja to finish his sentence. Danzo had already guessed what he was thinking.

"Sunagakure..."

As Danzo sank into thought, he suddenly asked, "What about the chunin who brought Dingyou’s corpse back to the village? Have you investigated him?"

The Root ninja replied, "Yes. There’s nothing suspicious in his record, and he has no connection to the Hyuga clan either."

Danzo barked, "Search his brain. I want to know everything!"

The Root ninja froze for a moment before quietly saying, "Lord Danzo, if we do that, the Third Hokage might..."

Forcibly searching someone’s brain carried considerable risks. The slightest mistake could cause irreversible damage to a ninja’s brain, which was why such a brutal interrogation method was generally reserved for prisoners from enemy villages and rogue ninja.

Danzo impatiently waved his hand.

"Just do as I say!"

"Yes!"

The Root ninja had no choice but to obey before silently withdrawing.

Not long afterward, the same Root ninja returned and reported, "Lord Danzo, we’ve interrogated him. That chunin truly has no connection to Hyuga Kagami."

Danzo asked, "When Kagami handed Dingyou’s corpse over to him, was Kagami injured?"

The Root ninja shook his head.

"No. In the chunin’s memories, there were no visible injuries on Kagami whatsoever."

Danzo continued, "Then where did Hyuga Kagami go afterward?"

"He doesn’t know either."

Danzo thought to himself, "So who exactly killed Dingyou? Was it Hyuga Kagami, or was it one of the bounty ninjas who had set their sights on him?"

At that moment, the Root ninja hesitantly said, "Lord Danzo ... during the interrogation, we made a mistake and damaged part of that chunin’s brain tissue. He may no longer be able to continue serving as a ninja."

Danzo replied coldly, "Dispose of him."

"But..."

The Root ninja naturally understood exactly what Danzo meant by dispose of him.

He had done this sort of thing plenty of times before, but those targets had always been enemies or traitors.

This was the first time he had been ordered to dispose of an innocent person.

Looking at the ninja before him, who had only recently joined Root, Danzo said coldly,

"Don’t make this old man repeat himself!"

The Root ninja wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and nodded.

"Yes!"