Chapter 251 Sealing Technique? No way!
Upon witnessing the power of the Nine-Tails, even Minato Namikaze, with his composure, paled.
Judging from Naruto's unfamiliarity and curiosity towards him, he had somewhat guessed what was to come: either he had accepted a special mission and couldn't be by his son's side, or he had died in the near future.
But now, the Nine-Tails had appeared in his son, which spoke volumes.
As a Konoha ninja trained in the standard Will of Fire, Minato Namikaze had been prepared to sacrifice himself for the village since the day he donned his headband. However, this didn't mean he could accept Kushina dying along with him. Jiraiya,
facing Minato's gaze, felt somewhat guilty. If he revealed all the information he currently possessed about the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage to Minato, given the latter's strength, he would have no problem surviving that night. However, to avoid affecting history and the future, he could only remain silent at this moment.
In just a short while, Naruto was already engaged in a fierce battle with ten combat puppets.
Naruto, his body shimmering with golden light, dodged and weaved amidst the puppets' attacks. Although he needed to hold the Queen of Loulan, whom he had just caught, with one hand, the puppets couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes. However, Naruto's ordinary punches and kicks could only leave slight marks on the puppets' surfaces.
"What a hard turtle shell! Let's try this!" Naruto shouted, raising his free right hand high. A massive amount of chakra gathered in his hand, swirling and growing larger and larger.
Unlike Sasuke's diverse Lightning Release ninjutsu and Neji's dazzling high-tech ninja tools, Naruto's most reliable offensive method against enemies so far was the Rasengan. As for other Wind Release ninjutsu, although Uchiha Touko had taught him quite a bit, preventing him from relying solely on Shadow Clones and the Rasengan to fight his way to the end like in the original timeline, Naruto still found the simple and brutal Rasengan most effective against powerful foes.
The main reason is that for Naruto, the power of the Rasengan increases dramatically with the amount of chakra input. For Naruto, there's nothing a single Rasengan can't solve; if there is, it's because the amount of chakra input isn't large enough.
So, facing these puppets with their hard shells, Naruto didn't hesitate and created a Rasengan larger than the puppet's body, then slammed it heavily into one of the puppets.
"Minato… this is…" Akimichi Choza and Aburame Shiki, seeing this, couldn't help but turn to look at Namikaze Minato. Although it was slightly different from the one Minato used, this technique was clearly the Rasengan.
"What's your relationship with this kid?" Akimichi Choza couldn't help but ask. Both of them had blond hair, and now this little blond kid was using a ninjutsu created by the blond kid himself; they didn't seem like complete strangers.
"This is truly astonishing." Namikaze Minato was also deeply shocked by Naruto's fighting style. The Rasengan could be used like this?
The puppet hit by Naruto's Giant Rasengan was instantly blasted into pieces by its terrifying power. However, just as Naruto dealt with one puppet, several more puppet figures began to gather in this direction from a short distance away.
"I'll go bring him back first." Seeing this, Minato knew he couldn't delay any longer, so he threw a sword of ninja love towards Naruto's direction and then activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
When Minato appeared in front of Naruto, Naruto, who always relied on instinct during battle, almost smashed a Super Giant Rasengan into his father's forehead. However, after realizing what was happening, Naruto managed to stop himself, letting Minato's hand rest on his shoulder.
A flash of light, and Naruto and Minato were back in the alley where everyone was hiding. Minato didn't linger and immediately led everyone out of the inner city.
After arriving at the outer city's base, Naruto finally put down the Queen of Loulan he had just rescued. Although the Queen of Loulan wasn't seriously injured, she had fainted from the high-speed movement Naruto had taken her through the battle.
"What do we do now?" Aburame Shiki looked curiously at Naruto, who had returned to her side, and then turned to look at Minato.
"Let's wait for the Queen to wake up," Minato said.
While waiting for Queen Sara of Loulan to awaken, the atmosphere became somewhat strange.
Shiki Aburame and Choji Akimichi's eyes darted back and forth between Naruto and Minato, trying to discern something. Minato, meanwhile, looked at Jiraiya, hesitant to speak, wanting to ask him what had happened in the future, why the Nine-Tails was in Naruto's body, but also worried about the potential irreversible consequences.
Soon after, Queen Sara of Loulan slowly awoke. Upon seeing so many people surrounding her, Sara was startled and screamed.
"Your Majesty, please calm down. We are here to protect your Konoha ninja," Minato Namikaze said, approaching Sara and reassuring her.
It must be said that Minato's aura possessed a calming power. Seeing Minato, Sara quickly calmed down. She remembered that when she had fallen from the tower, it was one of these people who had saved her.
"Where...where am I?" Sara asked.
"This is the outer city of Loulan," Minato Namikaze said.
"Anyway, thank you for your help, but I must return to the palace," Sara said. "I am the Queen of Loulan. If I am missing for too long, Loulan will descend into chaos."
"I don't really recommend that you return to the palace now. Don't you think it's very strange that you fell from the tower?" Minato reminded her at this moment.
"This ninja is overthinking it. It was probably just an accident," Sara said.
"It wasn't an accident," Naruto suddenly said at this moment. "When you were on the tower, I sensed a strong sense of malice emanating from the person behind you."
"The person behind me?" Sara was stunned. Was there anyone else standing behind her besides An Lushan, the Prime Minister of Loulan?
"Young man, don't joke around. Prime Minister An Lushan has always been a loyal subject of Loulan. How could he possibly harm me?" Sara said.
"Your Majesty, do you know what kind of situation your country is in right now?" Minato asked calmly in response to Sara's question.
"Loulan is thriving under my and Minister An Lushan's rule!" Sara said with some pride.
"Is that really so? Then, does Your Majesty know that a large portion of your people have already been replaced by puppets?" Shui Men said.
"That's impossible!" Sara immediately denied.
"If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, I can take you to see for yourself," Minato said with a smile.
"No need!" Sara said, then turned and left their hiding place, heading towards the city.
"Wait here for a while, I'll be back soon," Minato instructed the others with a smile.
…
About 20 minutes later, Minato returned to the camp with a Sara whose face was full of disbelief.
"Your Majesty, do you believe what I said now?" Minato said.
"This…this is impossible!" Sara said, distraught. After going out, she hadn't walked far when she saw several citizens of Loulan. Just as Minato had said, they had become puppets. Moreover, after she met these puppets, less than two minutes later, a combat puppet appeared and tried to kill her. If Minato hadn't intervened, she would be dead by now.
"Can you tell me what your Prime Minister An Lushan has been doing all these years?" Minato asked.
Having seen through An Lushan's true nature, Sara didn't hide anything and quickly revealed everything An Lushan had done in Loulan over the years.
"So, you've been helping him use the power of the Dragon Vein all these years, right?" Minato asked after listening to Sara's account.
"Yes," Sara nodded. "But the Prime Minister clearly said that the puppets he created using the Dragon Vein were for the benefit of the people of Loulan." Sara said somewhat absentmindedly, clearly still reeling from the betrayal of the person she trusted most.
"But you just saw those combat puppets. Your Prime Minister An Lushan's ambitions are considerable. Once these puppets reach the outside world, they could cause turmoil in the ninja world," Minato patiently explained. "Therefore, for the peace of the ninja world, I implore Your Majesty to intervene."
"Alright, I understand." Sara took a deep breath and nodded.
"Then, let's discuss how to resolve this matter." Minato nodded, then looked at everyone, finally fixing his gaze on Naruto.
"Naruto, what are your thoughts?" Minato asked with a smile.
"Me?" Naruto, suddenly reminded of when he was being called on by Uchiha Touko during a class with Neji and Sasuke.
Generally, battle plans weren't his concern. Although he considered himself incredibly intelligent, in situations like this, his intelligence usually led him to listen to Sasuke or Neji. But now that Sasuke and Neji weren't around, Naruto had to face it alone.
"Find out where this An Lushan is hiding, then we can just storm in, kill him, and shut down the Dragon Vein?" Naruto's superhuman intelligence pondered deeply, finally concluding that it was time to use his superpower.
As soon as Naruto finished speaking, Minato's lips twitched almost imperceptibly.
[Does this kid take after Kushina in terms of personality? If she were here, she'd probably say the same thing. At least he knows to find out where someone is before taking action…] Minato thought to himself, looking at his future son with a complex expression.
"Although we don't yet know how many combat puppets are hidden throughout the ancient city of Loulan, a direct assault would be difficult with our current strength, unless we send a message back to the village to call for reinforcements. However, if we do that, a large number of Konoha ninjas will cross the Land of Wind's territory, which Sunagakure might misunderstand as Konoha wanting to start a war with them," Aburame Shiki reminded them.
"Minato, if you have a plan, just give the orders. Naruto and I will follow your instructions," Jiraiya said at this moment. Compared to Minato, who had only met Naruto for the first time today, Jiraiya knew Naruto's character much better. Asking him to devise such a meticulous infiltration plan was really asking too much of him.
"Alright," Namikaze Minato nodded. "Then, Jiraiya-sensei, Choza, Shiki, the three of you will come with me to infiltrate the palace and hold off that guy's combat puppets. Naruto, you and this..."
"Gaara," Gaara weakly announced his name at this moment.
"You and Gaara, protect Her Majesty the Queen, and seal the Dragon Vein. How about it? Can you do it?" Minato asked. "The puppets in this city are basically powered by the energy of the Dragon Vein. If we can seal the Dragon Vein, these powerless combat puppets will be no threat."
"Seal the Dragon Vein?" Naruto's head throbbed at the mention of sealing, and he asked hesitantly.
"That's right," Minato nodded. "Princess Sara should have a way to shut down the Dragon Vein's energy. You just need to add a simple Three Talents Seal on top of the Dragon Vein as a safety measure after it's shut down."
"Three Talents Seal?" Naruto asked awkwardly, tapping two fingers together like Hinata. "I don't know how."
Minato: ??? ??? ???
Hearing Naruto's words, Minato's face immediately showed disbelief.
"You don't even know the Three Talents Seal?" Minato Namikaze found it hard to believe that the son of him and Kushina, two masters of sealing techniques, couldn't even master the relatively basic Three Talents Seal. "What about the Two Elements Seal? Although its sealing effect isn't as good as the Three Talents Seal, and it's easily broken, as long as it has some safety feature, that's fine. Even if something goes wrong, I can use the Flying Thunder God Technique to get there and provide support immediately."
"Uh, I do know a little bit of that, but I'm not very proficient. Perhaps you should send someone else, like Grandpa Jiraiya? Otherwise, I'm afraid the seal might fail and blow up the Dragon Vein." Naruto's face was full of embarrassment.
"You don't even know the Two Elements Seal? Has no one taught you these things?" Minato Namikaze frowned.
"There are people who can teach me, but I just can't learn them." Naruto scratched his head and laughed awkwardly.
"Alright, Jiraiya-sensei, it seems we can only rely on you for the Dragon Vein." Minato Namikaze took a deep breath and said somewhat helplessly.
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(End of Chapter)