Roran's underground world was even more staggering than the city above.
They descended hundreds of meters below ground.
The moment they entered the subterranean tunnels, a wave of heat and deafening mechanical roar slammed into them.
A colossal underground chamber opened before their eyes.
Thousands of people were penned into iron-cage-like work sheds. They were skeletal and ragged, shackles locked around their wrists and ankles.
In front of each prisoner sat an assembly bench for puppet components. They repeated the same motions over and over like machines, eyes empty and numb.
Patrol puppets—supervisors—paced between the sheds.
Farther away, massive conveyor lines ran nonstop.
Chakra extracted from the Dragon Vein river was fed into the production lines, fused with metal materials to produce puppet parts.
Those parts were shipped to the assembly zone, where the half-dead civilians pieced them together into complete puppets.
Finished puppets were activated and sent along rails up into the city above.
"…This is… my country…" Sara dropped to her knees, tears spilling out uncontrollably.
Among the prisoners were elderly people, women… even children.
They should have been Roran's citizens. Instead, they were worked like livestock.
"Six years ago, Mukade came to Roran," Future-Kurenai's voice came from beneath her mask as she stared at the scene.
She also realized—vaguely—that she and Kiyohara must have come here once before… only for the memory to be erased later.
Because of the Dragon Vein chakra.
"He showed off puppet technology and promised to build Roran into a city that would never decline. Your mother—the previous queen—accepted his proposal."
"But the price was the Dragon Vein," Future-Rin continued.
"Mukade needed the Dragon Vein's power to fulfill his ambition. Your mother realized his true purpose, and then…"
"He killed her," Sara whispered—then her voice suddenly rose.
"Then why did he leave me alive?! Why didn't he kill me too?!"
"Because he still needs you," Kiyohara said.
"The royal bloodline of Roran seems to have some kind of affinity with the Dragon Vein. Mukade needs you as a key—and as a puppet queen to keep things looking normal, so outsiders don't notice too early."
If Mukade had killed the queen outright, Konoha—or even Sunagakure—would've discovered the problem much sooner.
And Roran didn't seem to be on good terms with the Land of Wind or Sunagakure anyway. In canon, they sought Konoha rather than appealing to Suna or Wind.
Minato studied the underground factory's layout.
"Security is tight, but the core control room should be near the Dragon Vein river's source. We need to destroy the control hub and free these people."
"Before that, we deal with Mukade," Tsunade said, clenching her fist until her knuckles popped.
Treating civilians like this… it was an insult to the very idea of being a shinobi.
Just a tyrant drunk on power.
The instant they entered, a sharp alarm shrieked through the chamber.
The prisoners looked up in terror. The patrol puppets' purple glow brightened.
They began marching toward Sara.
"I'm the queen! I order you to stop!" Sara shouted.
The puppets kept coming.
"My Queen Sara," a voice purred from behind.
Mukade—known in this era as Anrokuzan—stepped out slowly.
"Why are you mixing with outsiders? Return to the palace. I'm terribly worried about your safety."
He beckoned her with a hand.
"Liar!" Sara staggered to her feet.
What she'd just seen—the enslaved citizens—was proof enough.
The only one deceiving her was Anrokuzan.
"You murdered my mother and turned my people into slaves!"
Anrokuzan's expression turned icy.
"How heartbreaking, Your Majesty. I've worked day and night for Roran's prosperity, and you misunderstand me like this."
His voice hardened.
"But it doesn't matter. Once I obtain the full power of the Dragon Vein, you'll understand the greatness of my ideal."
"Ideal?" Kiyohara stepped forward.
"With puppets like these, you think you can conquer the Five Great Nations?"
Kiyohara looked him over.
Every movie villain had the same dream: conquer the world. Everyone thought they were one missing puzzle piece away.
Anrokuzan's eyes locked onto Kiyohara.
First came panic—he stumbled back several steps, as if the future Kiyohara were some nightmare made flesh.
Then he took in Kiyohara's youthful face and steadied himself.
"Kiyohara," he pronounced, slow and deliberate.
"Hahahaha… you from over ten years ago really were naïve."
Anrokuzan relaxed.
He would kill Kiyohara here—snuff out the future threat while it was still in the cradle!
Everyone froze.
Minato was the first to react.
"Time travel… you came back from the future?"
"That's right!" Anrokuzan laughed.
"You have no idea what the Dragon Vein's power really means. There's only one way to describe someone like me—immortal!"
As long as the Dragon Vein existed, Anrokuzan was the legendary undying body.
With the Dragon Vein in his hand, these Konoha shinobi could "one-shot" him?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
That was how confident he was.
He flicked his hand.
Heavy metal blast doors slammed shut over every exit.
The walls opened with countless hatches, and dense waves of puppets poured out like a flood.
These weren't like the surface puppets. They were fully armed: blades, bows, and some even mounted chakra cannons.
"Kill them!" Anrokuzan commanded.
The puppet tide surged.
Hundreds… thousands…
Every combat puppet stockpiled in the underground factory activated at once—and more were still being produced.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!" Future-Kurenai formed seals and spat out dozens of blade-shaped wind currents—spinning cutters that sliced several puppets cleanly in half.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet!" Future-Rin unleashed a roaring stream of flame, incinerating the puppets rushing in.
"Monster strength…!" Tsunade slammed her fist into the ground.
Cracks spread outward like a spiderweb for dozens of meters.
The first several dozen puppets were jolted off their feet and shattered midair by the follow-up shockwave.
But more kept coming.
Tsunade didn't retreat—she charged straight into the swarm.
Her fighting style was brutally simple: no ninjutsu duels, no genjutsu games—just fists and feet.
Every punch turned multiple puppets into scrap. Every kick cleared a lane.
Black seal-like markings spread across her face and down her body, tracing their way over her chest.
A three-meter heavy puppet raised an axe and brought it down.
Tsunade punched its chest once—armor crumpled like paper, and the chakra core inside exploded.
Minato fought with a completely different "aesthetic."
The Yellow Flash blinked through the chamber, appearing everywhere at once.
Each flash sent kunai flying—clean hits aimed at joints, chakra-thread hubs, and cores.
He moved too fast for puppet targeting systems to keep up.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
Dozens of shuriken split into hundreds, raining down.
Each struck a joint or core. Not always enough to destroy—but enough to stall movement.
Then Minato appeared in the center of the puppet mass, a blue sphere forming in his hand.
"Rasengan!"
He drove it into the ground. The shockwave pulverized every puppet within twenty meters.
Kiyohara chose the simplest route.
He didn't even bother moving at first.
The puppet tide crashed into him—blades, spears, chakra beams—everything hit with metallic clangs.
Earth Spear hardened his entire body. Steel Release reinforced it further. Magnetic Field Rotation boosted his physical durability again.
Right now, Kiyohara was a living fortress.
"Is that all?" he asked, staring at the puppets.
Their greatest strength was mass production.
Given enough time, Anrokuzan could build a puppet stockpile bigger than all of Sunagakure's puppet masters combined.
But these puppets didn't use ninjutsu—just primitive output: swinging and stabbing.
They weren't close to breaking Kiyohara's defense.
As long as his chakra held, he wouldn't be hurt.
He raised his right hand and clenched his fist.
The first puppet reached him and swung for his neck.
Kiyohara's punch arrived first—straight through its chest.
He tore through it, fist bursting out the back with gears and snapped chakra threads.
He shook the debris off and threw a left punch, blasting two more puppets away at once.
Now he started moving.
Each step made the ground tremble faintly.
Attacks bounced off him like rain on stone.
Every counterattack guaranteed a puppet was wrecked beyond repair.
One puppet lunged from behind, arms modified into spinning drills aimed at his back.
Kiyohara didn't even turn.
He grabbed a chunk of puppet scrap, injected magnetic force, and magnetized it—then hurled it backward.
The drill puppet collided with the magnetized wreckage, its motion stuttering as its mechanisms seized.
Click. Click.
Unlike Sasori's wooden puppets, these were mostly metal. Kiyohara's magnetism could interfere directly with their operation.
He punched once and split it in half.
Archer puppets fired. Dozens of arrows cut through the air.
Kiyohara charged into the volley.
Arrows sparked off his body, unable to slow him.
He punched through the line and tore into the ranged formation.
Then the slaughter began.
Fists, knife-hands, elbows, knees—everything became a tool.
Even Uchiha-style taijutsu sharpened under this "training," because these puppets were basically moving posts.
He was like a reaper cutting through wheat, leaving only metal carcasses.
Any stragglers that got close were disrupted by his magnetic field, slowed, and casually destroyed.
Kiyohara felt like he could personally smash every puppet Roran had.
Anrokuzan didn't actually know how to use the Dragon Vein properly.
If Sasori had the Dragon Vein, who knew what horrors he'd build.
That was the gap between power and vision.
Given the chance, Anrokuzan still couldn't capitalize.
Minato glanced over and couldn't help a grimace.
"Tsunade-sama… your student…"
"What?" Tsunade asked, punching three puppets into scrap and turning her head.
"He really does fight like you," Minato said carefully.
Both of them were so violently straightforward that the "genre" of the battle changed around them.
Tsunade grinned, more pleased than offended.
"That's my student."
On Kakashi's side, the shriek of Chidori rang out again and again.
He plunged into the puppets too, lightning tearing through armor.
But what bothered him most were those two unknown Anbu women.
Future-Kurenai's Wind Release technique was terrifyingly polished.
Future-Rin—physically weaker, but her ninjutsu was refined to a ridiculous degree: Great Fireball, Phoenix Sage Fire, Dragon Flame…
And she spent chakra like it was free.
Who were they?
Kakashi still didn't know they were future Kurenai and future Rin.
The present Kurenai and present Rin were kept toward the center.
Kurenai tried genjutsu—completely useless on puppets—so she used low-level Wind Release support instead.
Rin, not suited for offense, fought with kunai and shuriken.
Watching Kiyohara tear through the swarm, present Kurenai bit her lip.
He's going to leave me so far behind…
The battle dragged for ten minutes.
The puppets were down by a third—but the production line kept feeding more.
"Good. Good…" Anrokuzan stared at Kiyohara, still directing the swarm.
"Even young, you already have that terrifying potential."
"But do you think this is everything I have?"
He yanked puppet shards with chakra threads, pulling them toward himself.
Kiyohara started to move to stop him.
Anrokuzan threw a wave of puppet debris down on him to block the approach.
"Is that so?" Kiyohara stopped and looked around.
Around him, puppet wreckage had piled into small hills.
In minutes, he'd destroyed at least five hundred puppets on his own.
Kiyohara clapped his hands together.
His body was suddenly covered in dense explosive tags.
Magnet Release: Explosive Tag Mode!
Sand-iron clamped the tags and made them hover in a rotating ring around him.
Any debris that came close was blasted to dust.
"What?!" Anrokuzan's eyes bulged.
Explosive tags could be used like that?
He formed a giant "hand" from debris and slapped it down at Kiyohara.
Rumbling—
The hand exploded apart instantly.
As Anrokuzan tried to gather again, a kunai stabbed into his body.
"…The Yellow Flash…" he hissed.
He hadn't expected Minato to create an opening for Kiyohara at exactly the worst moment.
He tried to stop Kiyohara anyway—but he was too late.
Kiyohara's fist was already in front of him.
At that speed, Anrokuzan felt the air itself being shoved backward.
His cheeks trembled in the shockwave.
BOOM!
His head burst like a watermelon, and his body flew back and slammed into the wall.
Shizune stared, slack-jawed.
Taijutsu could be that strong?
If Kiyohara learned Tsunade's monster strength, what would he become?
Kurenai and Rin finally exhaled, relieved.
Kakashi glanced at Kiyohara's punch, then down at his own Chidori.
The "scale" of power felt… unfair.
No—mine is a piercing wound, Kakashi told himself, keeping his Sharingan on the battlefield.
"Kiyohara-kun is so fierce," Rin breathed.
"He really is," Kurenai agreed.
"When he trains with me, he's… fierce too," Kurenai added.
"…Fierce?" Rin gave her a strange look.
Kurenai realized the double meaning and went crimson, flustered into a hurried explanation.
Shizune slipped behind Tsunade.
"Looks like nobody's hurt, Tsunade-sama."
"More or less," Tsunade said, nodding.
But just as everyone started to think the crisis was over—
Anrokuzan's headless body stood back up.
"In Roran, my body is unlimited," he said.
Puppet debris crawled up his neck and rebuilt his head.
Purple chakra threads flickered from his fingers, drawing puppets toward him.
In an instant, his body swelled and reshaped—revealing a dark, puppet-like chassis.
He had already turned himself into a puppet.
A massive spider form, over five meters tall, stood before them.
Its grotesque head still bore hints of Anrokuzan's facial structure.
"Behold—my ultimate body!"
"Sasori's modifications might be less complete than this," Kiyohara muttered, watching the chakra flow inside the thing. "Is this the Dragon Vein's power?"
He didn't wait—he spat out a Great Fireball, enormous under his chakra output, engulfing the spider-puppet.
Anrokuzan thrashed, burning.
"Queen Sara—get your people out!" Kiyohara shouted.
Sara snapped into motion, scrambling to rally her citizens.
"This won't work," Minato said, frowning.
During their reconnaissance, he and Kakashi had noticed something:
The towers weren't decoration—they could particleize chakra and funnel it to Anrokuzan.
Just as predicted, Dragon Vein chakra poured in, and Anrokuzan's scorched chassis began repairing.
Then all puppet debris rushed into him, building him larger and larger—tail-beast scale.
When the light faded, an eighteen-meter giant puppet stood there.
It resembled a grotesque enlarged Mukade.
Four pairs of mechanical arms held different weapons—greatsword, drill, chakra cannon, chains.
Six scorpion-tail tentacles rose from its back, blade-tipped.
Worst of all: a massive cannon port in its chest, fed by an endless stream of Dragon Vein chakra.
"Now…" Anrokuzan's voice boomed from the puppet's head. "Witness the true power of the Dragon Vein!"
It lifted one foot and stomped—
BOOM!
A ten-meter crater formed; the shockwave blasted stones into the air.
Its arms swung at once: sword at Tsunade, drill at Minato, cannon aimed at Kiyohara, chains flung at Future-Kurenai and Future-Rin.
Simultaneous attacks, full coverage.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Minato bit his thumb and slapped the ground.
Smoke burst—and a gigantic toad appeared.
Gamabunta, over fifteen meters tall, pipe in mouth, blade at his waist.
"Another big one, huh," Bunta grumbled, drawing his sword anyway.
The giant blade came down—Bunta blocked.
The metal crash rattled eardrums and shoved Bunta backward, carving deep trenches.
"Strong one, Minato. What is this thing?"
"A Dragon Vein–boosted puppet," Minato said from atop Bunta's head. "Be careful. It can repair endlessly."
"Endlessly?" Bunta arched a brow. "What a pain."
The drill thrust into where Minato had been—but Minato had already vanished via Flying Thunder God.
The chakra cannon fired at Kiyohara.
Kiyohara formed seals.
"Magnet Release: Sand-Iron Wall!"
A thick black wall rose; the beam punched a crater but didn't pierce through.
The chains cracked toward the two future Anbu—both leapt away, the chain carving a trench where it landed.
"Split its attention!" Tsunade shouted. "Hit the joints!"
She sprinted to the left ankle and punched.
The armor broke—but purple chakra flooded in and repaired it instantly.
"The repair rate is increasing," Tsunade growled.
Kiyohara watched carefully.
The puppet's stats were absurd, and the regeneration made it worse.
But everything had a weakness—even if it was only a fraction of a second.
Anrokuzan was the type whose "HP bar" was tied directly to the Dragon Vein. As long as the Dragon Vein fed him, killing him repeatedly was meaningless.
Without the Dragon Vein, he'd have died a hundred times already.
"Minato-sensei," Kiyohara called, "we need to damage a lot at once to stall him—then cut off the Dragon Vein supply!"
Minato understood and formed seals.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
Hundreds of shuriken split into thousands, blanketing the puppet.
It swept arms to knock many away, but plenty still struck—and many carried Flying Thunder God markings.
Minato vanished.
Golden flashes fired around the puppet.
Each flash left an explosive tag at a marked point before he blinked away again.
In three seconds, more than fifty tags were planted.
"Detonate!"
Boom-boom-boom!
A chain explosion swallowed the puppet in fire and smoke.
But even before the smoke cleared, purple chakra light seeped through as regeneration kicked in.
"Now!" Kiyohara said.
He'd waited for this moment.
Repair required power and time—and the Dragon Vein feed had "interfaces," like chakra threads connecting to a puppet.
Destroy those interfaces and the intake rate dropped, slowing regeneration.
With the Sharingan, Kiyohara could see the spots clearly.
"Magnet Release: Sand-Iron Slugs!"
Six spindle-shaped sand-iron rounds formed and shot out, piercing the feed nodes.
The Dragon Vein supply stuttered—briefly interrupted.
Future-Kurenai followed up.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"
Dozens of pressure blades hammered the same left-leg joint, slicing open armor and wrecking internals.
Future-Rin layered on top:
"Fire Release: Dragon Flame!"
Flame poured into the opened joint, scorching chakra channels and control nodes.
The left leg collapsed.
The eighteen-meter puppet tilted hard.
It tried to brace with other limbs—
"Magnet Release: Sand-Iron Binding!"
Black sand-iron surged up, pinning its right arm and torso to the ground.
"Heavenly Foot of Pain!" Tsunade roared, chakra gathering in her heel—
CRACK!
The puppet's head detonated from within, metal spraying like shrapnel.
Cracks spread down the frame; the regeneration couldn't keep pace.
It crashed down, throwing up a storm of dust.
But Anrokuzan's mad voice still echoed from the wreckage:
"Useless… as long as the Dragon Vein exists… I can resurrect infinitely…"
The wreckage trembled; Dragon Vein chakra surged again.
"We have to seal the Dragon Vein," Minato said from atop Bunta. "Otherwise, we can't truly defeat him."
"Where's the control room?" Kiyohara demanded.
All eyes turned to Sara.
Sara, still shaking, pointed toward the Dragon Vein river's upstream.
"Under the palace… there's a control chamber. My mother took me there once—she said it's Roran's heart."
"Take me," Kiyohara said.
"I'm coming too," Minato added. "Sealing takes time—we need someone to buy it."
"We'll hold this scrap heap," Tsunade said, planting a foot on the writhing wreckage to stop it rebuilding. "Go. It's regenerating faster!"
Kiyohara nodded, scooped Sara into his arms, and said, "Guide me."
They sprinted upward.
Mechanical tentacles lunged to block—Tsunade smashed them apart with one punch.
"Your opponent is me," Tsunade grinned.
Ever since developing hemophobia, she hadn't had many fights this clean.
No blood. No restraint.
Fighting like this was pure release.
And Anrokuzan—having turned fully into a puppet—no longer had blood to spill.