Rouran.
Unlike the desolation of night, the dilapidated tall tower under the light of day possessed a strange sense of grandeur. Standing at the very bottom of the tower, looking upwards, it felt like beholding a treasured sword piercing the clouds.
After resolving the matter with Sasuke, he had returned to Rouran. The ancient, time-worn architecture he had glimpsed from afar had left a deep impression on him, so he wanted to learn more about this lost town. Naruto roughly estimated that the tall tower before him was at least 25 meters high, and this height was after the ravages of time and the erosion of wind and sand. According to the introduction of the Rouran remnants accompanying him, in its most glorious period, Rouran covered tens of thousands of acres, and most of the buildings were these tall towers. The remaining ones before him were not even the tallest towers of that era.
"Why not try to find a new homeland outside instead of choosing to hold onto this place?" Naruto asked.
The middle-aged guide shook his head slightly and sighed. "We're old. Perhaps the younger generation will have the idea to leave."
Naruto nodded. The average lifespan in the ninja world was relatively short. Generally, by the age of around 30, one could already refer to oneself as an old man. The middle-aged guide before him looked to be no more than 30 years old, but he was already a grandfather of two. And perhaps the reason Naruto had chosen this 'old man' was also due to a flicker of pity. In this barren land, every additional child to raise placed an exponentially heavier burden on the family. The current Rouran remnants, according to the guide, referred more to stubborn old-timers like them who remained in this desolate land. In fact, after the disaster that befell Rouran in the past, the vast majority of Rouran people, seeking a chance at survival, had chosen to leave their homes and seek a living in other areas of the Land of Wind or other countries. Perhaps even some small village in the Land of Fire was once inhabited by Rouran people, the guide had said with a chuckle.
"Lord Wolf, would you like to rest for a bit, or continue looking around?" The guide asked, looking at the scorching sun in the sky.
"Let's continue looking around," Naruto said. Being out and about, especially as a rogue ninja, frequently changing his alias seemed necessary.
"Do you need to rest for a bit?" the guide asked hesitantly.
"I'm fine." Despite his bewilderment at how this young lad, barely older than his grandson, possessed endurance far surpassing his own, he only kept these questions to himself. Having lived a long life, he naturally understood what he should and shouldn't ask. A child of thirteen or fourteen who could travel alone in this vast desert and still have spare money to hire an old man like him was clearly someone he shouldn't provoke.
"What's that place?" Naruto asked, pointing to a distant dome-shaped building. Compared to the other buildings, this dome-shaped structure was more dilapidated, but its entrance was very clean, as if someone regularly swept it.
"That's a legend," the guide said mysteriously. "Legend has it that Rouran in the past possessed a power sufficient to destroy the world. And the reason our ancestors were able to build so many magnificent structures in this yellow sand was by using that world-destroying power."
"Is that so?" Naruto rubbed his chin, curiously sizing up the distant dome-shaped building.
"Would you like to go inside and take a look?" The guide looked around, then asked in a low voice.
"Is it allowed?" Naruto asked in surprise. He had thought a place like this would restrict outsiders from entering.
"It's just a legend. Especially in the past two years, many people have come seeking this legend, hoping to obtain that nonexistent power capable of destroying the world," the guide said nonchalantly. If there really was a world-destroying power, would they still be staying in Rouran? He didn't think their scrawny arms and legs could fight against ninjas. "If you want to go in and take a look, just pay a little maintenance fee," the guide said.
Naruto was taken aback. It had really turned into a scenic spot. No wonder it was so easy to find a guide earlier; it had become a whole industry chain.
"Let's go in and take a look." Since he had come all this way, he didn't mind spending a bit of money. Besides, he had to give the Land of Wind credit for one thing: there were a lot of wandering samurai and ninjas. Although these guys didn't have a lot of money individually, it added up to a considerable income.
The guide nodded with a smile. The legend was fake, but the revenue it brought was real.
"What's wrong?" After walking quite a distance, the guide turned his head and saw that his guest hadn't followed. Instead, he was looking sideways at the distant yellow sand.
"Oh, it's nothing." Naruto turned back with an apologetic smile. How could that strange chakra from Sunagakure appear here? The reason he had been momentarily stunned was because he had sensed this chakra. Although he had never met that ninja, the illusory, inhuman chakra had left an extremely deep impression on him.
"Do you often have Sunagakure ninjas passing through here?" Naruto asked.
"No, not really?" The guide was taken aback, then laughed self-deprecatingly. "In a barren land like ours, how could we possibly have ninja lords passing through?"
Gazing at the faintly visible tall tower in the distance, Hyakuzu silently took off his forehead protector and tucked it into his waist pouch. This was a private mission, and if the village found out, he would be punished. Although he didn't think anyone in this dilapidated place would discover his actions, it was always better to be cautious. For the great cause of unifying the ninja world, he had lost count of how many times he had come to this forsaken place. So, moving around was now second nature. He wondered if there would be any ignorant followers of the Dragon Vein legend at the ruins today. The Dragon Vein craze that had inexplicably sprung up in the past two years had disgusted him to no end. During that period, many self-proclaimed 'children of destiny' morons were always wandering around the Dragon Vein ruins in various guises. Even more fanatical ones treated the Dragon Vein as a summoning beast, cutting their palms and trying to sign a summoning contract… Every time Hyakuzu recalled those brain-dead operations, he couldn't help but feel a sense of superiority. Unlike those imbeciles, he had done thorough research on the Dragon Vein and Rouran.
The Dragon Vein was the power by which the lineage of Rouran survived in that yellow sand. How long it had existed, no one knew anymore. Perhaps the last queen of Rouran might have known, but who cared? An ordinary man is innocent, but he becomes guilty because of his treasure. Rouran, which had existed for almost as long as history itself, had provoked the then-overlord of the ninja world—Konoha—during the Third Great Ninja War. The Dragon Vein chakra, that power sufficient to destroy the world, was personally sealed by the young Fourth Hokage. Rouran had declined ever since, transforming from the well-known ancient city of Rouran into the Rouran ruins.
But for Hyakuzu, whether Rouran declined or not was unimportant. The sealing jutsu left behind by the Fourth Hokage, which sealed the Dragon Vein underground, was what gave him the biggest headache. Countless fruitless returns had made him despise sealing jutsu from the bottom of his heart, especially the Fourth Hokage who had sealed the Dragon Vein; he had even put him on his blacklist. Once he fully grasped the power of the Dragon Vein, the first ninja village he would deal with would be Konoha, those bastards who occupied the latrine without taking a dump. You don't use the power of the Dragon Vein, then let me use it, you damn fools!!