A colossal purple crystal stood at the center of the chamber, quietly holding within it the dormant Dragon Vein brimming with infinite chakra.
The seal techniques used to imprison the Dragon Vein reflected the wisdom of the Loulan clan. However, before Heiyan—a grandmaster of sealing techniques—it appeared rather simple, even primitive.
As a result, Heiyan barely exerted himself and effortlessly broke through the seal.
Crack!
With the destruction of the formation, the chains wrapped around the crystal snapped one by one. At this moment, the Dragon Vein finally awakened completely.
"Roar!"
Inside the crystal, the colossal dragon opened its eyes and released a roar far more violent than any before. It continuously rammed into the purple crystal, quickly leaving numerous cracks across its surface. From these fractures surged wild waves of energy like an unstoppable flood bursting through a broken dam.
However, Heiyan remained calm. Instantly, he shot out the Celestial Binding Chain from his palm, wrapping it tightly around the crystal.
Hiss!
The red chakra chain slipped through the cracks in the crystal and bound the Dragon Vein inside firmly, immobilizing it.
What immense chakra.
Through the Celestial Binding Chain, Heiyan sensed the incredible power of the Dragon Vein. Among all beings he had encountered—including the Sage Slug and Nine-Tails, both possessing seemingly limitless chakra—the Dragon Vein exceeded them all. It was truly eternal, perpetual, and boundless.
Where could something like this possibly come from? Was it born from nature, created by human hands, or did it come from another realm entirely?
Just as Heiyan began pondering the origin of the Loulan Dragon Vein—
Suddenly, the situation took a strange turn.
The Dragon Vein had just narrowly escaped imprisonment, only to be sealed again seamlessly by Heiyan. Filled with resentment, it struggled fiercely with all its might.
Boom!
Opening its massive jaws wide, it released a beam of light from its mouth that pierced through the crystal and shot straight toward Heiyan, threatening to swallow him whole.
Huh?
An unprecedented sense of danger abruptly surged in Heiyan's mind, for through that beam of light, he sensed a peculiar force.
His Sage Transformation screamed a warning—this force was deadly. He couldn't afford to face it head-on.
It was space-time energy.
A flash of realization struck Heiyan—he knew exactly what it was. If he were engulfed by this beam, he could be teleported by the Dragon Vein into another era or parallel world.
At the very last second—
Flash!
Heiyan instantly activated the Flying Thunder God technique, narrowly avoiding the beam and teleporting to stand beside Tsunade and the others.
Next second.
Whoosh.
The beam rapidly expanded outward, blinding light flooding the entire underground chamber. Along with the beam came a powerful shockwave of chakra spreading in all directions.
Heiyan's eyes narrowed. With sheer willpower, he manipulated the Yin-Yang Xirang to form a giant protective sphere around the four of them, shielding them from the incoming blast.
Boom!
A violent explosion erupted within that underground chamber. Stone pillars collapsed, floors cracked and sank, pipes burst open, and dust exploded skyward in thick, rolling plumes, swallowing everything.
The tremors deep beneath the earth, hundreds of meters below ground, reached the surface, triggering an earthquake.
The citizens of Loulan rushed out of their houses in panic, gathering in the open lot, staring at each other in confusion.
"It's bad! Queen-sama is in danger!"
In the palace, guards were thrown into chaos and quickly rushed into the underground passage to rescue the Queen of Loulan.
Underground.
The shockwave from the explosion gradually faded, the beam of light vanished, and the dust and smoke slowly cleared.
"Cough cough..."
A faint cough echoed through the wreckage of the ruined chamber. Four figures rose one after another from among the rubble. However, they were not Heiyan and his group—they were...
A team of Ninja wearing Konoha forehead protectors.
The first to stand up was a teenage boy with short golden blond hair. He had brilliant blue eyes and six whisker-like markings on his cheeks, dressed in an orange-and-black battle suit.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch... Uh, where am I?"
Naruto Uzumaki rubbed his head as he shouted loudly, but soon his eyes widened as he looked around the unfamiliar surroundings, shocked as if seeing a ghost.
Not long ago, he and three companions had been sent by Lady Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, to capture the rogue ninja Bazu. While fighting the enemy at the ruins of Loulan, Naruto fearlessly charged forward to stop Bazu from using [the Dragon Vein] to create an army of puppets. Suddenly, [the Dragon Vein released a towering beam of light] that swallowed everyone away.
When Naruto woke up, he found himself in this strange and unfamiliar place.
As he was still looking around, confused and curious—
"Na-RU-Toooooo!"
Along with an angry roar came a pink-haired kunoichi, who punched Naruto straight on the head. Immediately, he fell to his knees clutching his head, tears nearly bursting from his eyes.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?! Before rushing at the enemy next time, use your brain! If you dare act recklessly again…"
Sakura Haruno, the girl's name, waved her fists and gave Naruto a scolding.
"Hehe… Sakura, I get it already. I won't be so reckless next time."
Covering the bump on his head with both hands, Naruto gave Sakura a sheepish grin.
"Hmph." Sakura snorted coldly, then finally lowered her fists, sparing this poor guy.
Beside the two stood a pale-skinned boy with black hair wearing a cropped top. His eyebrows slightly furrowed as he studied their surroundings. His name was Sai, a Root Division ninja. After joining Team 7, he had become a companion to Naruto and Sakura.
"Is everyone alright?"
At that moment, a calm male voice came from behind the trio.
He was a man with brown buzz-cut hair and wore a forehead protector styled like a face mask. Wearing Konoha's signature green vest, he was the acting leader of Team 7—Yamato.
Reuniting the four confirmed no serious injuries, and they began to explore their surroundings.
"Hey, what's that over there?"
Naruto quickly noticed, amid the rubble facing them, a massive ball of earth roughly three to four meters tall. Its surface was flowing like liquid soil, slowly dissolving.
"It's hollow inside — there's chakra energy moving around in there!"
"One, two, three, four... Among the four, three of them have particularly strong chakra."
Sai sensed the situation inside the mud sphere and quickly reported to his companions.
"It might be Bazu's accomplices. Prepare for battle!"
Yamato said sternly. Hearing this, Naruto and the other two immediately focused their gazes and took up their weapons in fighting stances.
"This time, I'll definitely capture that guy Bazu. I won't let him escape again."
Naruto was especially determined—if it weren't for Sakura holding him back and urging him to calm down, he'd have charged headfirst into battle already.
The Yin-Yang Release Xirang slowly parted, revealing several figures within.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
All four members of Naruto's group turned their gazes in unison toward the emerging figures and discovered there were also four people on the opposing side. However, their group consisted of one female and three males, while the enemy side was the opposite—three females and one male.
Among these four individuals, the leader was a young man with long black hair. Behind him stood three women, each with green, red, and golden hair respectively. Although their hair colors varied wildly, they shared one common trait—they were all stunningly beautiful, with figures that got more and more attractive, each more stunning than the last.
"That's..."
Naruto's team quickly skimmed past the unfamiliar three and focused on the blonde woman. There was something oddly familiar about her face.
"Tsunade-sama?!"
Sakura exclaimed in shock, breaking the silence between both sides. She noticed that this blonde woman looked absolutely identical to the Fifth Hokage Tsunade—except she seemed significantly younger, appearing to be in her early twenties.
Still, Tsunade had always maintained her youthful beauty; before becoming Hokage, she frequently used Transformation Jutsu (a shape-shifting technique) to revert to her younger form to avoid gambling debts—it wasn't anything unusual.
Why is Tsunade-sama here, and accompanied by three strangers?
Not only Sakura, but the other three were equally shocked and puzzled as well.
"You are Konoha ninja? Tell me your names."
Faced with Sakura's call, Tsunade spoke in a clear yet cold tone, deepening her frown.
Although she saw those people wearing Konoha forehead protectors and ninja uniforms, she had never seen them in the village before, thus being highly cautious and suspecting they were imposters pretending to be Konoha ninjas.
"Tsunade-sama, I am your student Sakura."
Sakura wore a look of bewilderment, then pointed at her three companions in turn, introducing them to Tsunade, "They're Naruto, Sai, and Yamato—you sent us to the Loulan ruins to apprehend Bazu."
Upon hearing this, Tsunade deepened her frown even further.
In the past three months, since establishing the Medical Department, she had indeed accepted over a hundred students, but she was very certain that she did not have a student named Sakura. Moreover, she had never heard of the other three names either.
Besides that, she hadn't dispatched anyone to Loulan to arrest anyone, which made her feel utterly confused by their explanation.
Tsunade, full of confusion, could only seek help by casting a questioning glance at Heiyan.
"It seems my prophecy has already been confirmed."
Heiyan smiled slightly and spoke to the three women, "Just now, the Dragon Vein erupted, opening a space-time passage that summoned these people here."
"If I'm not mistaken," Yamato continued, "they should be Konoha ninjas from the future or other parallel worlds. They came here to resolve the Dragon Vein issue."
Tsunade and the two others were greatly shocked upon hearing this. Especially the Queen of Loulan, who had protected the site for many years—only now did she realize how little she truly understood it.
"What are they whispering about over there?" Naruto asked, scratching his head.
"The situation seems suspicious. Those people across from us cannot possibly be Tsunade-sama. Be cautious."
Yamato frowned and made a firm judgment. As the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade-sama was extremely busy managing village affairs daily; there was no way she could find time to come all the way to the Loulan ruins thousands of miles away, let alone deliberately pretend not to recognize Team 7.
It just didn't make sense.
Just then,
With a series of *deng deng deng* footfalls, a group of guards burst out from the underground tunnel into the chamber.
"Your Majesty, are you alright?"
The guards rushed forward shouting as they arrived. At the same time, they also noticed the unfamiliar faces of Team 7, armed and facing off against Heiyan and the others.
"Intruders! Quickly, seize them!"
The guard captain immediately issued orders, identifying the four of Team 7 present there as culprits responsible for the explosion beneath the ground. Under his command, the guards surged forward and charged toward Team 7.
"Darn it, these guys must definitely be Bazu's accomplices!"
Naruto shouted and immediately created dozens of Shadow Clones in an instant. They all rushed forward to clash with the guards.
Meanwhile, seeing this, Heiyan also acted.
However, he didn't join the fight directly but instead shot out the Celestial Binding Chain from his palm, pulling the purple crystal buried within the rubble straight toward himself.
Inside the crystal, after the previous eruption, the Dragon Vein once again fell into dormancy under Heiyan's Sealing Technique, stabilizing once more.
"It's the Dragon Vein—it's been stolen by the enemy!" Sakura exclaimed anxiously when she saw Heiyan retrieving it.
"Let me handle this!"
Seeing this, Naruto's original body directly created a Rasengan and charged recklessly straight at Heiyan.
Without changing his expression, Heiyan used one hand to control the Dragon Vein crystal while casually waving the other, sending the Yin-Yang Release Xirang beneath his feet rolling forward like waves, forming a giant hand made of earth that struck Naruto head-on.
Wait—is that Gaara's move? Is this guy from Suna too?
As the massive earth hand flew toward him, thoughts raced through Naruto's mind. Though he seemed reckless at times, Naruto was smart in battle, often pretending to be weaker than he was to outwit stronger foes.
Based on his past battles and sparring sessions with Gaara, Naruto quickly determined that the enemy's sand techniques would be insufficient to counter his Rasengan—an A-ranked jutsu after all.
So, without hesitation, Naruto pushed forward at full speed.
Then he went down in one hit.
Boom!
Naruto's Rasengan accurately hit the center of the earthen hand, yet the scene he had anticipated—a momentary collapse of the earth hand followed by his Rasengan smashing everything powerfully—did not happen.
His Rasengan was like slamming into an iron wall, violently impacting against the giant sandy hand without leaving the slightest mark.
"How is that possible?"
Naruto's eyes widened again, but before he could react, he was tightly gripped by the enormous sand hand like a little chick.
"Damn it, let go of me!" He thrashed around, but it was no use — the giant sand hand dragged him right over to Heiyan.
Heiyan studied Naruto Uzumaki closely — this blond-haired teenager was the Child of the Prophecy and savior of the world of shinobi in the original timeline.
Opposite him stood someone who shared the same Sage Transformation.
And now, amid a rupture in the timeline, the two had met face to face like this.
Heiyan intended to ask Naruto a few questions to verify some suspicions in his mind.
"Not good! Hurry and save Naruto!"
Seeing Naruto fall into Heiyan's grasp, Yamato was horrified. Immediately, he, along with Sakura and Sai, launched an attack to save Naruto back.
"You two handle them. Remember, just de-escalate the situation. Try not to hurt anyone — they might not even be enemies."
Heiyan instructed Tsunade and Pakura.
"No problem," both women said in unison, nodding as they got his drift.
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