"Roran Year Fifteen" told Jie almost nothing, so he tried another way to narrow down the period.
"Has Konoha been founded yet?"
"Konoha?" the queen repeated.
The confusion on her face answered the question before she could say anything else.
"What about the Land of Fire? Who is its current daimyo?"
"The Land of Fire lies west of Roran. Its daimyo is Koizumi Kakigou."
Jie did not recognize the name, but the answer still helped.
The Land of Fire already existed, while Konoha had not yet been founded. He had most likely arrived during the era when the major ninja clans were still fighting for land and influence.
Exactly how close he was to Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha's time remained unclear.
Jie had already surpassed both of them, but he was still curious about the two strongest men of that age. If they were alive in this period, seeing them for himself would make the journey more worthwhile.
The queen waited until he finished thinking before speaking again.
"May I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
Her eyes moved toward the empty pit behind him.
"Did you take the Dragon Vein?"
"I did."
The answer made her tense, but she forced herself to continue.
"Can you return it?"
"No."
The queen fell silent.
Jie had not thought about the people living in this era when he drained the Dragon Vein. In his own time, Roran had already been abandoned, and the ruins had been buried beneath the desert for years.
Here, it was still a living country.
Trees grew around the city, crops filled the nearby fields, and thousands of people depended on the oasis. The Dragon Vein's chakra had been drawing moisture from deep underground and keeping the land alive.
Without it, the wells and fields would eventually dry up.
The queen had every reason to be worried. Jie had taken away the source supporting her country, and there was nothing she or her soldiers could do to stop him.
The chakra could not be returned. It had already entered the Six Paths seed and become part of his transformation.
Still, Jie could not simply leave after causing the problem.
There was also something the queen did not know.
In the future Jie remembered, the Dragon Vein would eventually erupt and destroy Roran. The same power keeping the city alive was also a danger buried beneath it.
Draining the Dragon Vein had removed that threat.
Now he needed to replace what the city had lost.
Jie turned toward the empty pit.
Roran did not truly need the Dragon Vein. It needed a stable source of water.
He could fill the pit using Water Release, but water created entirely from chakra would not last forever under the desert sun. Without a natural source feeding it, the city would face the same problem again later.
The Dragon Vein must have been drawing moisture from somewhere beneath the ground.
Jie activated his Tenseigan.
His vision passed through the layers of stone below the city. Following the traces of moisture deeper underground, he soon found a large river flowing far beneath the old Dragon Vein.
It was too deep for the people of Roran to reach with ordinary tools, but Jie only needed to create a path to it.
Several pale green chakra spheres gathered around his raised hand.
"Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion."
A beam struck the bottom of the empty pit.
The ground shook as the attack tore through layer after layer of rock. Dust and broken stone surged upward while a deep shaft opened beneath Roran.
The queen and her soldiers retreated several steps.
They had no idea what Jie was doing. From where they stood, it looked as though the stranger who had taken the Dragon Vein had decided to destroy what remained.
Several soldiers raised their weapons, but none dared approach him.
Jie ignored them and watched the shaft.
After a short wait, damp air began rising from below.
His guess had been correct.
The attack had reached the underground river. Water was already beginning to enter the opening, but the source was so deep that filling the entire pit naturally would take a long time.
Jie brought his hands together.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique."
A huge stream of water formed above the pit and crashed downward.
The roar spread across Roran as water poured into the shaft. Jie kept the flow under control, directing it toward the centre and allowing the old Dragon Vein site to become a reservoir.
The jutsu would provide the first supply, while the river beneath it would continue feeding the lake afterward.
Jie no longer needed to do anything else.
The queen slowly lowered the arm she had raised to shield herself from the spray. The confusion on her face faded as she understood what was happening.
Jie had not attacked Roran.
He was replacing the Dragon Vein.
Water continued rising in the pit. The dry channels surrounding it began filling again, carrying the overflow toward the fields and city.
The people of Roran would need to manage the new source carefully, but they would no longer depend on unstable chakra to keep their country alive.
Several minutes passed.
The bottom of the pit disappeared beneath the growing lake, though the water had not yet reached the top.
One of the soldiers slowly lowered his weapon.
He stared at Jie floating above the water, then dropped to his knees.
"A god…"
A few others followed him, overwhelmed by what they had seen. To people who had never witnessed high-level ninjutsu, cutting through the earth and bringing water into the desert looked like a miracle.
Most of the soldiers simply stood in silence.
Jie looked down at them.
He had only repaired the damage he had caused. Becoming an object of worship had never been part of the plan.
The queen hesitated before lowering herself to one knee as well.
"Sara, Queen of Roran, thanks you for saving our country."
So her name was Sara.
Jie looked at the lake still rising beneath him.
Whether they called him a ninja or a god did not matter. Once the reservoir was full, his responsibility to Roran would be finished.
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