For a nation, what defines its existence, and what signifies its destruction?
Is it the retention of its territory? The occupation of its cities? The preservation of its culture?
This is a rather complex question, making it difficult to render a definitive judgment.
But before anything else, to be considered a nation, it must have citizens. Without citizens, there is no nation.
Therefore, especially for a small country like Roran, when certain events transpire, preserving the lives of the citizens becomes the absolute highest priority.
In the end, the Queen did not force Hagoromo to show her exactly "why the flowers are so red"—which was a highly rational judgment on her part, considering she definitely couldn't beat him in a fight.
Using his carefully constructed arguments, Hagoromo first persuaded Minato, and then managed to persuade Sara.
Practically speaking, once you stripped away subjective emotions, Hagoromo's logic was incredibly sound. The scenarios he described weren't just alarmist fear-mongering; they were concrete realities destined to occur... Especially since she had just personally experienced an incident triggered by a ninja coveting the power of the Dragon Vein.
If it hadn't been for the sudden arrival of the Konoha ninjas, Roran would have already been destroyed, wouldn't it?
Sara couldn't find a single reason to refute him.
Hagoromo's predictions were incredibly accurate. Sara had no way of knowing it at the time, but the future Roran was indeed destined to be destroyed by the chaos of war. And to prevent the slaughter of her people, she herself would be the one to issue the order to abandon the city.
What Hagoromo was doing now was simply moving that inevitable choice forward in time. It wasn't incomprehensible.
When it came right down to it, Sara possessed none of the typical royal attachments—she cared nothing for the title of "Queen," the throne, or personal ambition. By leaving, those were the only things she would lose. In exchange, she would secure the safety and peace of all her people.
Because Minato promised that they could migrate to the Land of Fire... It was just a population the size of a small town anyway, and they were all ordinary civilians without a single ninja among them. It wasn't exactly a difficult proposition to accept.
However, the administrative process for this was still quite complicated. First, Minato had to report the situation back to Konoha, detailing the threat level of the Dragon Vein and the strategic rationale behind blowing it to kingdom come... Setting aside the Hokage's opinion, this proposal received immediate and unanimous approval from the rest of Konoha's upper echelon.
Honestly, the Dragon Vein could be viewed as a "Tailed Beast" that couldn't be brought back home, yet could be weaponized by enemies at any given moment. Therefore, acting in accordance with the inherently "despicable" operational philosophy of the Great Nations, the absolute best way to handle an unattainable weapon that poses a threat to oneself is, naturally, to destroy it completely.
And once Konoha signed off on it, would the Daimyo of the Land of Fire really raise any objections?
Back in Roran, under Sara's urging, the citizens gradually agreed to relocate.
First, following the recent incident, Sara had established herself as a highly respected Queen; the people were willing to trust her.
Second, they were migrating to the Land of Fire. As the premier Great Nation, it offered a far greater sense of security than their isolated city of Roran.
Third, and most importantly, they now knew their country was sitting on a ticking time bomb that could be detonated at any moment. Who could handle living in constant terror, never knowing if they might be obliterated in their sleep?
Due to the small population, the migration process was relatively straightforward: just cross the Land of Rivers and head to the designated settlement zone in the Land of Fire.
The resettlement process itself was slightly more complex, but that wasn't Konoha's problem to worry about. After all, Konoha wasn't responsible for the administrative governance of the Land of Fire.
And so, the "Roran Demolition Project" officially commenced.
The weather that night was exceedingly gloomy.
After the daytime rain, Roran's humidity was stifling. Water droplets still clung to the buildings, and the scent of rain-soaked earth was thick in the air...
At the epicenter of the Dragon Vein, Minato was currently drawing sealing formulas on the outer wall of the central shaft. The patterns were incredibly intricate and densely packed.
Hagoromo's job, on the other hand, was much simpler: he was responsible for completely plastering the central pillar with a specific type of paper.
...Okay, maybe not that simple, because one wrong move and he could easily blow himself up. Those slips of paper were called explosive tags.
"Hagoromo, are you ready?"
Minato asked a moment later, having finished drawing the jutsu formula.
"Just the last little bit... Done," Hagoromo replied.
"Then let's begin."
Minato took a deep breath. He couldn't quite articulate exactly what he was feeling right now. But he knew that if it hadn't been for Hagoromo's suggestion, he probably would have never done something as insane as blowing up someone else's homeland in his entire life.
"Before we start, Minato-senpai, have you double-checked the Flying Thunder God markers? If we don't teleport out in time, we're definitely going to be blown to pieces," Hagoromo said, looking up at the sprawling formulas.
Minato was speechless. A rookie mistake like that would never happen to him.
Ignoring Hagoromo, his hands rapidly wove through a sequence of hand signs. Sections of the sealing formula began to sequentially light up. This acted essentially as a delayed fuse; the true detonation would only trigger once the entire formula was illuminated.
But it was obviously time for the two of them to leave. Minato grabbed Hagoromo's shoulder and initiated a rapid series of consecutive teleports.
On a hillside roughly eighty kilometers away from the country, Kakashi, Shibi Aburame, Choza Akimichi, and Sara—who insisted on witnessing the country's final moments with her own eyes—were waiting.
Almost exactly as Minato and Hagoromo vanished from Rouran, they materialized on the hillside.
They were technically already inside the borders of the Land of Rivers.
"Minato-sensei, is the setup complete?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes. The jutsu sequence has been initiated," Minato confirmed.
Everyone turned to face the direction of Rouran, Sara looking particularly tense.
However, several minutes passed, and absolutely nothing happened.
"Don't tell me it's a..." Hagoromo had just opened his mouth to ask if it was a dud when a blindingly intense light suddenly erupted!
"Close your eyes!"
That was all Minato had time to shout.
The ninjas naturally reacted instantly; they didn't need Minato's warning to employ various methods to shield their vision.
While protecting himself, Hagoromo also did the Queen a massive favor—he swept her legs out from under her, dropping her face-first into the dirt.
The sheer intensity of that light could probably cause instantaneous flash blindness.
In certain anime or movies, to maximize explosive yield, characters often bundle several stick grenades together before throwing them.
But the explosion currently unfolding in the distance looked like someone had bundled seven or eight Deidaras together and forced them to self-destruct simultaneously.
The sustained brilliance lit up the night sky like broad daylight. Even from this distance, the towering pillar of light was vividly clear, reaching so high its peak couldn't be seen.
Then came the deafening, rumbling roar, accompanied by the violent trembling of the earth. The deep, thunderous sound felt bizarrely "majestic," as if a colossal hammer had ruthlessly smashed into the very surface of the planet!
And then came the real danger: the searing, concussive shockwave generated by the blast, sweeping toward them like a massive, high-pressure blade of air.
The six of them finally realized a severe problem: they were standing way too close.
They had vastly underestimated the lethal range of the explosion!
"Hagoromo!!" Minato shouted again. The group was spread out too far; Minato couldn't teleport everyone away at once.
Hagoromo couldn't hear Minato over the roar, but reading his lips was enough.
Ultimate defense, hurry!
Bite thumb, weave signs, summon...
Ninja Art: Summoning - Rashomon!
The gale-force wind blade slammed into the demonic visage of the giant gate just as it erupted from the ground, emitting a continuous, ear-piercing screech. But ultimately, it successfully carved out a safe zone.
Hiding behind the Rashomon, no matter how fierce the wind was, it couldn't tear the gate apart.
The hurricane-force winds lasted for several minutes before subsiding, and the blinding light on the horizon began to fade. But it wasn't over yet.
The explosion and the resulting outward shockwave had created a massive vacuum in the center of Roran. The immense pressure differential instantly caused a massive atmospheric backflow. A secondary gale, slightly weaker than the first, slammed into them from behind.
Caught completely off guard, the entire group was simultaneously slammed face-first into the back of the Rashomon with a series of heavy thuds.
Amidst the chaos, Hagoromo still managed to catch Sara; otherwise, an ordinary civilian like her would have easily cracked her skull open.
Even though she had already eaten dirt once.
As for the exact posture he used to catch her... let's not dwell on the details. After all, in an emergency, as the saying goes, "a princess needs a princess carry." The description was highly fitting.
Once everything finally settled down, no one knew quite what to say for a moment.
Very quickly, Minato leaped to the top of the Rashomon, gazing far into the distance, his face etched with sheer disbelief.
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