[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]
Rōran, 43.
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...
In Rōran, the queen was kicking off her high heels and running through the corridors as fast as she could.
"Guards! Guards!" she shouted as she spotted the group of men who had sworn to protect her, but noticed that none of them moved despite her pleas.
"What are you doing? I need your help!" Queen Sēramu exclaimed, approaching them, who held their spears and shields in position as if they were nothing but statues.
She began to shake their shoulders, and that caused their helmets to start falling, taking her by surprise. When she realized it, they were not guards, but puppets; their heads were wooden faces that began to crack as they stared at her with crooked eyes, unable to focus on a fixed point.
That made her immediately run back, but one of the puppets grabbed her dress. She pulled hard so she wouldn't be caught, and the fabric tore at the arm as she started running again.
"What is happening?" she said, her eyes filled with fear as she kept running through the palace.
She followed a corridor before stopping and seeing a few more guards. But as soon as they looked at her, they began to move in a crooked way, full of cracking sounds—the same ones the puppets made when moving. She didn't need to see what was inside the helmets to know what they were, and she ran in another direction.
As she ran more and more, puppets began to appear in every corridor of the palace.
"I have to get to my room..." she said, already breathing with difficulty, knowing she only had one chance at that moment. That kunai was still hidden—the one the mysterious man had given her.
She didn't even know where her daughter, Sara, was, but she hoped she was safe. She knew she could be killed there, betrayed, so even though she still distrusted that man, she would use it as her last resort...
She had already realized that the entire palace was made up only of puppets—where were the advisors, the guards? All she knew how to do was run. She had escaped from the throne room after Anrokuzan said he would kill her, laughing and claiming there was no way she could escape; he left her at the mercy of the puppets, as if he didn't care if she ran for a while—soon she would tire and be killed.
She followed several paths, avoiding some puppets, until she finally found the passage to her room. But there were already two guards there in the middle of the corridor, moving crookedly, their bodies cracking.
She only had one chance. So she ran. As the guards tried to catch her, she managed to zigzag, dodging the first and heading toward the next who opened his arms.
She threw herself to the ground, ducking as her own knee scraped, her dress tearing as it slid. Even so, she endured the pain and passed under a puppet before it could grab her.
She ran and finally opened her room, grabbing the key and locking the door, taking a few steps back as pounding began to come from the other side.
She didn't think twice. As she heard the second hit, while the door seemed about to break, she went to a hidden compartment at her headboard.
There was the kunai, covered in symbols she didn't recognize. Even having worked with fūinjutsu her entire life to keep Rōran's vein under control, she couldn't recognize that symbology or what it meant.
But she knew it had to do with a powerful jutsu from that man.
"Please... Starfall." she said the name he had introduced himself with while wearing a mask, now gripping the kunai and trying to release some chakra.
The door broke at that moment. She screamed as she saw at least four puppets advancing toward her, their armor cracking from within as if something macabre was inside.
She jumped with a scream and fell onto the bed, frightened, but suddenly felt the mattress sink further, as if there was extra weight.
"You seem to be in trouble." A young voice—one she still remembered—rang out, while childish voices came from behind. She didn't even have time to turn before seeing a blur pass by her at high speed.
What she saw was the same blond man punching the group of puppets, causing them to crumple instantly. All the armor exploded, shattering into pieces in every direction with just one punch, covered in a black mass.
Her eyes settled on the figure, her mouth slightly open in shock. She remembered the hair from the mask, but his face—this was the first time she had seen it.
"S-Sensei!" The childish shout came before she looked back. Obito, Rin, and Kakashi couldn't help but widen their eyes at the scene, while a blush appeared on each of their cheeks.
There she was, a woman sitting on the bed with somewhat revealing clothes; her thighs, injured knees, arms, and even part of her chest were exposed.
"Sensei, you invaded a woman's room! Pervert!" Rin accused, shouting as if Minato were truly a pervert.
Minato, who had returned to them, widened his eyes upon hearing that. "What? No, of course not!" he replied, before turning his attention back to the queen. "I mean... you called me here. You need help, right?"
He had to ask awkwardly as he noticed her torn dress. She was still frozen, not even paying attention to the children behind him, only staring at Minato, stunned.
"Put this on." Minato saw a coat belonging to the queen on a hanger beside the door, grabbed it, and approached her, kneeling in front of her and gently wrapping it around her while looking at her, checking if she was hurt.
"Aside from your knee, are you okay?" he asked.
Her body showed nothing besides some scrapes and cuts, but he could feel her emotions: fear, despair, the feeling of betrayal... but there was also hope and gratitude as she looked at him.
"You saved me..." she said, a blush forming on her face.
"That's what we agreed on, isn't it?" Minato said, in a calm tone with a slight smile.
"Thank you, my hero..." she said in a low voice, with a shy smile.
The children watched the exchange between the two and couldn't help but swallow hard.
"Damn... have you noticed how our teacher is kind of a womanizer...? I swear I saw the same scene today..." Obito muttered.
"Yeah... did you see how that daimyō was looking at him? She even asked her attendant to deliver a love letter to him at the end..." Rin replied.
Indeed. When the mission ended, she looked at Minato like a girl in love... she even invited him to return whenever he wanted. She said she would love his presence. That was an invitation to be courted!
The three of them were behind Minato at the end of the mission in the Land of Stars, that daimyō was full of emotion, while Minato spoke to her about the end of the mission and how they had captured the criminal. The daimyō began saying that she had to choose a good match to marry, he didn't need to be very rich, but she would like to have a strong and confident husband.
That was an invitation to their sensei!! She didn't even try to hide the way she looked at him!
And at the end, the servant had even run up to them, delivering a letter. There was a heart on it!
What else could that be?
The three children couldn't help gossiping during the trip, calling their teacher a womanizer.
And suddenly? They are in a strange place and their teacher, the same one already married to four wives? Was now, once again, playing the knight in shining armor, saving the damsel without even knowing exactly what was happening until now, or where they were.
"We have to tell Aunt Tsunade and Kushina... the teacher is such a womanizer!" Rin said, with some disgust, crossing her arms behind the bed.
"That's what it means to be one of the most powerful men in the world..." Kakashi commented, before Rin shot him a disapproving look at his comment.
Rin then pointed at Obito. There was no longer that gentle little girl. "I hope you don't learn these bad habits from sensei, Obito."
"Hey! What are you talking about? I'm not that kind of person!" he said, trying to defend himself.
Minato raised his head toward his students behind the bed. "Hey, what are you talking about right now, and how long are you going to stay there? Stop chatting and come here. This is the queen of Rōran. We are on the far western side of the continent," he said, as they all approached.
The queen also looked at the three children.
"You are...?" she murmured, before remembering something. "My daughter! Sara... she is in danger!" she said, distressed.
Minato looked at her before closing his eyes and expanding his Observation Haki, his mind spreading throughout the entire city.
He found Sara. She was being watched by Anrokuzan's people, but she wasn't in danger. She was being escorted through the city, subtly prevented from returning to the palace while indulging her curiosity.
"The princess is fine. She's in the city right now. What concerns me is..." Minato said, as his perception expanded even further, penetrating even a barrier at the core of the vein beneath the queen's building.
There was a man, absorbing all the chakra into a giant puppet.
"To think he would already be doing this..." Minato murmured.
He turned his attention back to the queen, who was staring at him, trying to figure out whether he was lying about her daughter or not.
"Your daughter is fine, Your Majesty. I can sense everything that is happening. Including... there are several puppets coming toward this room right now."
"Queen?!" Obito asked, stunned.
"I'll explain later." Minato then turned to his students. "First, I want you to protect this place. I need to talk to the queen to understand what's going on. You deal with the puppets. They're coming from both sides of the corridor."
With those words, his students nodded, while he stepped outside.
They were just puppets. At their current strength, that could serve as good training, in addition to draining some chakra.
By the time he finished talking to the queen, they would have already eliminated part of the puppets.
"Tell me everything..."
She looked at him for a moment and began to cry.
"I was about to receive petitions from the kingdom this morning, as I always do. Things have been tense in Rōran these past few days... since rumors have been spreading about a Third Ninja War about to happen, bigger than all the previous ones..."
Minato could understand. Obviously, there was no way to hide that for long. The nations were preparing, and merchants who visited the countries saw the movement. Information spread from ear to ear. Even those who were forbidden from entering certain areas already suspected that something was wrong. It always happened when they were about to enter a war.
Rōran would be no different upon receiving these rumors.
"In the past few days, everything has been tense. Anrokuzan seemed calm about it, but I could see a certain strange behavior after you told me that. I didn't believe it at first, but he was acting differently..." she said, still shaken.
"Today, specifically... what I found sitting on my throne was a puppet. A puppet made to be me, wearing my clothes, but with a doll's face!!" she continued, crying.
"Then he appeared. Anrokuzan started telling everything. He said that, to protect the future, he would dominate Rōran's chakra vein."
"He said that the ninjas will cause great devastation in this war, and that they need to protect themselves. He said he came from the future... and that someone useless like me should not continue being the queen of this kingdom."
"Then he tried to kill me... and said he would take my place. He only needed my blood—or, in this case, my daughter's—to maintain control."
"He could have killed me right there in that room... but instead, he started sending the puppets after me. All the advisors and soldiers, even the royal guard, turned into wood, with eyes and mouths, cracking as they advanced to kill me. I ran as fast as I could... I could only hear his laughter behind me... that's how I managed to get here, fleeing from other puppets all over the castle."
"How could Rōran fall into this state...? How could I trust him...? He always helped me... he was always a fair advisor to the people and to all of us..."
"People tend to hide their worst demons, especially those who want to achieve their goals..." Minato said, as he could hear explosions outside the room. "It's obvious he was just pretending. He was waiting for this day. I don't know what he saw in the future... but we'll deal with him," Minato said confidently.
He could feel her gaze changing. Her emotions—despair and fear—began to fade, giving way to hope... along with something more... Something Minato was starting to find complicated, he needed to ignore it!
At the same time, Kakashi was cutting through the puppets. His kenjutsu skills, using a lightning-nature chakra blade, were not perfect yet, but they were already a great improvement. He easily cut through all the puppets, which were just soldiers.
On the other side, Obito and Rin fought together in the corridor. They spat flames, burning several enemies, while Rin was already preparing another jutsu, unleashing a rain of water bullets that pierced all the armor and puppets.
Even so, a crowd kept coming.
"Damn... there are too many..." Rin muttered.
Obito activated his Sharingan and began to see the strange chakra lines connecting the puppets. He followed those connections and realized that, at the center of the castle, there was a force originating directly from the ground.
They were connected to all the puppets invisibly.
"Damn... what is this?" Obito muttered, still not understanding anything.
Meanwhile, Minato left the room, leaving the queen wrapped in his cloak, as he prepared to help his students.
Elsewhere in Rōran, a strange event was happening.
Suddenly, a light appeared, and two people fell out of a portal.
Raccoon Here:
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