"So this is… the power of the Dragon Vein…"
Above the ruins of Rōran, where yellow sand still filled the sky, Shisui Uchiha stood together with Queen Sara of Rōran. Both of them raised their heads with different thoughts in their hearts, staring in amazement at the giant humanoid puppet slowly straightening under Sasori of the Red Sand's control, towering over the earth.
"Not bad at all. No wonder Rei Kaguya valued the Dragon Vein's power so highly."
Sasori of the Red Sand's cold voice came from within the giant humanoid puppet.
Having already obtained Queen Sara's authorization, he now possessed the basic qualifications to control the Dragon Vein's power. And when he truly came into contact with the chakra surging out from the broken seal as if it were endless, even a seasoned expert like him could not help feeling astonished by the Dragon Vein's might.
"A miscalculation. Truly a miscalculation… If I had paid more attention to that rumor when I first heard it, I should have been able to completely grasp the Dragon Vein's power by turning the Queen of Rōran into a human puppet. Instead, I now have to be watched so tightly by an annoying little dog like you."
"You have only just come into contact with the Dragon Vein's power, and you already plan to break the agreement, Sasori!?"
Shisui Uchiha's expression chilled. While shielding Queen Sara behind him, he gripped the hilt of the blade Zanka on his back and asked in a low voice.
"You can rest assured on that point. I am different from a common fool like Anrokuzan, who possessed stupid ambitions but lacked the ability to match them. By dividing out only a tiny portion of my attention, I can already allow Rōran to regain its past as the Nation of a Thousand Towers and complete the assembly-line construction work that Rei Kaguya and I require…"
The giant humanoid puppet tilted its head and looked down at Shisui Uchiha, who was ready for battle, then sneered.
"Even the one you serve would not criticize me for using the Dragon Vein's power to further study the future of puppet techniques outside the work I have to complete."
"Do you think you have a trustworthy image in our eyes, Sasori?" Shisui Uchiha remained suspicious and continued pressing him.
"That is something for you people to consider, not me…"
Sasori of the Red Sand shook his head.
Then he instantly disassembled the giant puppet he controlled into a large number of puppets roughly the height of an adult. As he directed them to begin clearing the ruins of Rōran, his still-youthful voice continued speaking.
"However, I can give you one piece of advice. Whether one is a missing-nin or not, before making a choice, one should first integrate all the intelligence in one's possession and compare the possible gains and risks of every option. You may allow yourself to fail because of risks outside your known intelligence, but you absolutely should not stubbornly believe you can swallow the benefits and retreat unscathed when you already know the risks far outweigh the rewards."
"…I thought that after leaving Kirigakure, you would become that lawless madman again—the one who could treat something as insane as assassinating the Kazekage as if it were nothing."
Shisui Uchiha withdrew the right hand gripping his blade hilt and let out a slight breath of relief.
"If I could take the Dragon Vein away with me, the two of you would already be corpses buried in the yellow sand."
Sasori of the Red Sand, who had recreated a puppet body for himself to make movement easier, snorted coldly.
"It is only because the Dragon Vein is rooted here and cannot be moved, and because I do not want that monster from Kirigakure showing up at my door while I am studying puppet techniques, that you two managed to keep your lives. Do not misunderstand, little dog of the Uchiha."
"…Forget it. I am not going to argue with you."
Shisui Uchiha rolled his eyes speechlessly.
Then he took out the structural map of Rōran's city that Queen Sara had restored from memory, along with Rei Kaguya's design suggestions regarding the assembly line for producing [Biscuits], and handed them together to Sasori of the Red Sand, who had walked over.
"These are some reference materials and design suggestions that may be useful. The Fourth's opinion is that he hopes Rōran can be rebuilt to the point where mass production of [Biscuits] can begin within half a year… Can you do it, Sasori?"
"Half a year? I truly have been underestimated…"
Sasori of the Red Sand stored away the scroll he had finished browsing into his robe, then coldly turned and walked toward the Rōran ruins that had already been cleared by the puppets.
"One month from now, have Rei Kaguya send over the raw materials for producing the secret medicine, along with the first batch of buyers… I do not like waiting for others, nor do I like making others wait."
Seeing that Sasori of the Red Sand had no intention of continuing to communicate with them, Shisui Uchiha, who had been sent over to act as a temporary supervisor, could only sigh helplessly.
Seeing this, Queen Sara, who had been listening from the side the entire time, tugged lightly on his sleeve and asked in a quiet voice, "Is it really all right to trust him like this? I mean… no matter how you look at him, he is a very dangerous person, right?"
"But he is undoubtedly the finest puppeteer of this era. If we want to maximize the Dragon Vein's amplification of puppet techniques, then a madman like Sasori of the Red Sand, who could even transform his own body into a puppet, is the only choice."
Shisui Uchiha's patient explanation did not fully convince Queen Sara.
She puffed up her cheeks and asked in complete confusion, "I do not understand. Even if you have to use the strength of such a person, why must you use the Dragon Vein's power no matter what? What exactly is the Mizukage of your village thinking? Is he not afraid that these dangerous people will do things beyond his control?"
"First, with the Fourth's strength, there is currently no one in the shinobi world capable of doing anything beyond his control."
Shisui Uchiha raised two fingers and patiently answered.
"Second, the Dragon Vein is an important attempt at applying chakra on a large scale to production and daily life. If the experiment in Rōran succeeds, then the Land of Demons will also begin the next phase of experiments. After that, the experience and gains from these experiments will gradually be promoted to every country under our influence, thoroughly changing the existing social structure and production methods of the shinobi world."
"…Were the words you just said in a language I can understand?"
Sara looked at Shisui Uchiha with a bewildered expression.
She felt as if she could vaguely understand every syllable he had just said, but when those words were combined together, they became something she could not understand at all.
In response, Shisui Uchiha merely shrugged and comforted her in a reassuring tone.
"It is fine if you do not understand. You only need to know that this is the preparatory work the Fourth is carrying out ahead of time for the long peace that is about to arrive."
"Peace… is about to arrive?"
Queen Sara looked utterly unconvinced.
"But not long ago, you brought news saying that the shinobi villages of the Land of Earth and Land of Lightning raided Konoha of the Land of Fire and nearly destroyed the entire village… After something so terrifying happened, where exactly can you see peace about to descend?"
"It will come soon."
Shisui Uchiha smiled, raised his head, and looked toward the cloudless, clear blue sky.
Then he said slowly, "Not only will peace come, but this peace will also last long enough for the people who have experienced so many years of shinobi war to accept that users of chakra do not only have the single path of becoming ninja skilled in destruction and warfare."
…
"After nearly twenty years of peace, a peace jointly recognized by the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, a peace so stable that even friction along the borders rarely occurred, Konoha still remained only a ninja village. After Konoha's children grew up, they still knew only that becoming ninja was the most promising profession in Konoha. Even the sole heir of a large and powerful noble clan like the Hyuga was still a ninja who had to go out on missions and kill."
"And what maintained that order were two Kekkei Genkai shinobi who possessed the only bloodlines capable of directly confronting the Ōtsutsuki clan, two people stronger than both my current self and you at your peak."
"In a world like that, do you truly believe the mutual understanding between people that you hoped for can be realized, Hashirama Senju?"
Rei Kaguya looked into Hashirama Senju's eyes and asked seriously.
Join my Patreon to read public release chapters and get 1 chapter ahead for free.
Unlock 60 chapters ahead + daily advanced chapter updates with just $10 Premium Access membership.
Continue reading here
patreon.com/Inkveil_