Chapter 97: The Dragon Vein’s Source

Chapter 97: Chapter 97: The Dragon Vein’s Source

Since he had already decided to pay them, Hyuga Kagami couldn’t simply wash his hands of the aftermath.

Otherwise, if Sunagakure intercepted the caravan of Roran survivors and threatened the Queen of Roran with the lives of her people, it would be difficult for her to keep everything she had witnessed a secret.

Although the Queen of Roran didn’t know Kagami’s true identity, she had personally witnessed the entire process of the artificial tailed beast’s birth. Even if all she leaked to Sunagakure was information about the artificial tailed beast itself, it would still pose a considerable hidden risk to Kagami.

With that thought, Kagami immediately made up his mind and said to the Queen of Roran, "Time is precious. Set out immediately. I’ll deal with Sunagakure’s pursuers."

After detecting the abnormality with the Dragon Vein, under normal circumstances, Sunagakure would undoubtedly first dispatch an elite squad to the ruins of ancient Roran to investigate the situation.

That process could take as little as half a day, or perhaps as long as one or two days. It all depended on how quickly Sunagakure reacted and how much importance they placed on the Dragon Vein.

Once they discovered that the Dragon Vein had been stolen, they would have to send word back to the village. The village would then issue new orders, assemble personnel, and begin hunting down the caravan of Roran survivors.

This entire chain of communication alone would take at least another one or two days.

In other words, the Roran survivors’ caravan had a head start of roughly two to three days.

As long as they made full use of those two or three days, there was a very good chance that the caravan of Roran survivors could successfully escape the Land of Wind and enter the Land of Rain, which was under the Akatsuki’s control.

After all, the Land of Rain bordered the Land of Wind. As long as the caravan crossed the border and made it out of the Land of Wind, they would be safe.

The Queen of Roran naturally understood how precious every moment was. She nodded, then asked, "You’ll keep escorting us until we leave the Land of Wind, right?"

Kagami replied calmly, "I can’t promise you anything."

If nothing unexpected happened, he intended to secretly cover the Roran survivors all the way until they entered the Land of Rain.

But if the Fourth Kazekage personally led the pursuit after them, then Kagami would have no choice but to prioritize his own safety.

The Queen of Roran silently nodded. Although she was somewhat disappointed, she understood that his answer only made it clearer that Kagami had no intention of deceiving her.

The truth might sometimes be difficult to accept, but it was still better than a lie.

The Queen of Roran hesitated no longer. She gave Kagami one final nod, then turned and ran toward the distant oasis.

After running a few dozen feet, she suddenly slowed and stopped.

Turning around, she called out to Kagami, "I’m not the Queen of Roran anymore! My name is Sara!"

With that, Sara turned away and never looked back, running all the way toward the caravan of Roran survivors.

Dressed in his black robe, Kagami stood silently atop the sand dune, watching her disappear into the distance.

Before long, the caravan of Roran survivors that had been camped at Manto Oasis packed up their belongings and set out on their journey.

Kagami didn’t immediately follow the caravan. Instead, he shifted his gaze in another direction.

Sunagakure had always stationed two shinobi to keep watch over the caravan of Roran survivors. Kagami had already discovered this earlier, when he had been searching for the Roran survivors alongside the Kusagakure squad.

Therefore, to ensure that Sunagakure wouldn’t immediately discover which direction the caravan had gone, he first needed to eliminate the two Suna shinobi responsible for monitoring them.

"Byakugan!"

After activating his Byakugan, Kagami carefully swept his gaze across the surroundings. Eventually, he detected two extremely faint chakra signatures in one particular direction.

Judging from their chakra signatures, the two Suna shinobi assigned to monitor the Roran survivors were probably nothing more than ordinary genin.

Kagami couldn’t even be bothered to make the trip himself.

He directly took out the Third Kazekage Human Puppet and ordered it to silence them.

Before long, the Third Kazekage Human Puppet effortlessly disposed of the two Suna genin in the distance.

With that minor loose end taken care of, Kagami put away the Third Kazekage Human Puppet, pulled his black robe tighter around himself, and followed the Roran survivors’ caravan from afar.

Now that he had some time to spare, Kagami began pondering the matter of the Dragon Vein.

As for the Dragon Vein’s origins, he already had a vague answer in mind.

The Dragon Vein was not a natural product of the shinobi world.

Or, to put it more accurately, it was not entirely a natural product of the shinobi world.

The core of the Dragon Vein—its source—was most likely similar to Otsutsuki Kaguya.

It had descended into the shinobi world from somewhere beyond it.

However, unlike the Otsutsuki clan, which descended upon worlds to plunder their energy, the Dragon Vein’s source had not intentionally come to the shinobi world.

Its arrival seemed more like an accident.

Moreover, when it arrived, it had probably already suffered extremely severe damage—so severe that it had no choice but to form a contract with the local nobility in order to receive their offerings.

That was the origin of the contractual relationship between the Dragon Vein and the bloodline of the Queens of Roran.

Afterward, the Dragon Vein’s source burrowed deep underground, attempting to restore itself by absorbing the power of the earth’s ley lines.

However, somewhere during that process, something seemed to have gone wrong with the Dragon Vein’s source.

Or perhaps it had suffered some kind of attack.

Whatever the reason, its original source ultimately collapsed completely.

Yet a lingering trace of its will remained.

After being nurtured for hundreds upon thousands of years, that lingering will eventually gave birth to a new Dragon Vein source—an entirely new, ignorant and innocent consciousness.

This newly born Dragon Vein source had forgotten everything about its past. As a result, it stopped absorbing energy from the earth’s ley lines and simply remained obediently beneath the ruins of ancient Roran, occasionally responding to the summons of the Queens of Roran.

And it was precisely because of this that the Queens of Roran had been able to maintain such an unequal contractual relationship generation after generation.

Otherwise, considering that the Dragon Vein possessed a volume of chakra comparable to that of a tailed beast, the ordinary humans who made up the Roran royal bloodline would have possessed neither the strength nor the qualifications to maintain a contract with such an existence across countless generations.

"Swiftly, swiftly, in accordance with the law..."

Recalling the words the Queen of Roran—Sara—had spoken while soothing the Dragon Vein, Kagami’s thoughts suddenly began to wander.

A phrase like "Swiftly, swiftly, in accordance with the law" felt completely out of place in the shinobi world.

That was why, when Sara had uttered those words, Kagami’s first reaction had been surprise—extreme surprise.

There was little doubt that this particular phrasing had originated from the contract established between the original Dragon Vein source and the ancestors of the Roran royal bloodline.

And from that phrase alone, Kagami could already vaguely guess where the original Dragon Vein source had come from.

Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Kagami raised his head and gazed up at the sky.

He murmured to himself,

"Just what kind of place is this world, really...?"

Just as Kagami was contemplating the mysteries of the world, the Fourth Kazekage received word that the Dragon Vein had been stolen.

Staring at the intelligence report in his hands, the Fourth Kazekage’s expression turned livid. He looked toward the two elder advisors beside him and asked,

"Could Konoha have done this?"

Chiyo snorted coldly.

"The Fourth Hokage’s seal isn’t something that can be broken so easily. Who else besides Konoha could have stolen the Dragon Vein so quickly?"

Bang!

The Fourth Kazekage slammed the intelligence report heavily onto the table.

"Damn them!"