Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 273

In any era, knowledge is power.

Anrokuzan forced himself to suppress his inner shock, then picked up the book placed in front of him and pulled out the sheet tucked inside the title page.

On the sheet was a precise sum of money, accurate even down to the decimal point.

The amount was by no means small, enough not just for one person to travel around the world, but for a dozen, even dozens of people.

"Lady Sāra, this amount is really a bit..."

"And besides, you are the Queen of Rōran. If you leave, what will happen to this country?"

As he voiced these insincere objections, Sāra suddenly raised her head and fixed her sharp gaze on him, sending a faint shiver through his heart.

"Haven't you enjoyed ruling Rōran all these years?"

"As long as you gather the funds for my journey around the world, this country will be yours to control."

"Even though this country will be destroyed tonight..."

Her last words were spoken very softly, but Anrokuzan still caught some of them.

"Lady Sāra, what did you just say?"

"Nothing. In any case, make sure you gather the funds listed there before dinner. Once I'm gone, the country will be handed over to you."

Although still bothered by what Sāra had muttered, Anrokuzan was thrilled by her promise to entrust the nation to him.

Originally, he had intended to bide his time and kill Sāra as he had the former queen, thus seizing Rōran for himself completely.

But now that Sāra intended to leave on her own, this was all the better, he could take over the entire country openly and legitimately.

"Lady Sāra, I will immediately raise the funds and deliver every bit of what you need to your chambers before dinner."

"If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."

"Mm."

Sāra nodded, continuing to flip through the books at an inhuman speed, while Anrokuzan departed the library with his puppet soldiers.

Once again, the library sank into long silence, broken only by the faint rustling of Sāra turning pages in the central hall.

Suddenly, strange noises sounded along the library's window ledge.

Led by Masako, Naruto had navigated the labyrinth-like underground waterways and, without being discovered by the puppet soldiers, finally arrived at the tallest tower of Rōran.

After scaling the outer wall in a way no ordinary human could achieve, he reached the 20th floor, the National Library.

At this moment, Naruto was clinging precariously to the library's window ledge, feet dangling dozens of meters above the ground. He glanced downward, shivering slightly at the height.

Even a ninja wouldn't escape unscathed from such a fall.

Quickly pulling his gaze back up, he peered inside the window.

Rows of massive bookshelves filled the space, but they were all empty.

Looking further, he saw that every book had been moved to the central hall. Within his visible range, there seemed to be no one inside.

No one?

Just as Naruto thought Sāra wasn't in the library, the window before him suddenly opened. Startled, he jerked his head back instinctively.

The motion upset his balance, and his hands slipped from the ledge, but with quick reflexes, he managed to grab onto the very edge at the last second.

Dangling with one arm, he saw a red-haired girl lean out, staring at him as though he were some strange object. Yet, her eyes showed not the slightest surprise.

It was as if she had expected him.

Naruto had no time to wonder who she was. With a powerful heave of his right arm, he vaulted himself inside the window.

Landing firmly on the ground, he immediately turned back to scold the girl angrily.

"Hey! Opening the window like that could've scared me to death! I almost fell!"

"But you didn't fall," Sāra replied expressionlessly, then added something incomprehensible.

"Besides, you should still have some lifespan left, you'll live until then. So, right now, you don't need to worry about dying."

"What? What are you talking about?"

Naruto could hardly believe his ears and pressed her for an answer. But the girl forced a stiff smile and said, "Forget what I just said. I was only joking."

Naruto didn't dwell on it. Looking around the library, he saw no one else besides the girl.

"So, you're the queen who ignores her country and her people, huh?"

"You're called... Sāra, right?"

When he mentioned her name, the girl hesitated for two seconds before nodding stiffly.

This puzzled Naruto. Who reacts so slowly to their own name?

Looks like she's lost in her role. I'll have to snap her out of it.

Naruto was convinced that the girl before him was merely pretending to have lost her memory, using it as an excuse to escape her royal duties. He resolved to use his "talk no jutsu" to persuade her to accept her identity.

But before he could start, Sāra suddenly spoke.

"You're a ninja, aren't you?"

"So, you must have chakra, right? Could you show me your chakra?"

"I'm very interested in chakra. If you're a ninja, then you must possess it."

"When you leapt in from the window just now, you were using chakra, weren't you?"

"That has to be the effect of chakra, my body could never pull off such a precise and difficult maneuver. That's not just the difference between male and female human strength."

"What does using chakra feel like? Does it hurt? Is it pleasant? Or does it feel like nothing at all?"

"I'm curious about all of it."

"Forgive me for asking so bluntly, but a thousand years ago, this world had no chakra. So I've never been able to obtain any information about it."

Her barrage of questions left Naruto dumbfounded.

There was just too much information, his brain couldn't process it all at once.

"W-what are you even talking about?!"

To Naruto, Sāra spoke with shocking words and a way of communicating unlike any normal human being. She seemed more like a scholar, or a researcher, curious about the chakra inside him.

"However, a thousand years ago, there were no ninjas, only the Shinobi Sect."

"Did I say something unnecessary again? Please just forget what I said."

Sāra's eyes widened, her face stiff with a forced smile. Her tone desperately tried to imitate how humans joke, but her poor control over facial expression made it look like an unnatural mimicry of humanity.

That feeling...

That feeling was just like Sai!

Only, Sai's imitation was nothing more than clumsy acting, so at least one could still regard him as a peculiar but human oddball.

But Sāra's expression was completely different, it was as though something inhuman was lurking within her. That monstrous presence was something even Naruto, meeting her for the first time, could sense. How much more so for those who had lived alongside her?

Looking at Sāra's stiff, unnatural smile, Naruto found himself unable to speak the words he had wanted to say.

The words stuck in his throat, leaving only his terrified gaze fixed on the strange, uncanny girl before him.

But just as Sāra turned to walk back into the books, Naruto finally forced out his words.

"When you were so absorbed in your studies that you couldn't pull yourself away, do you know what Anrokuzan was doing behind your back?"

"He rounded up all the men of this country, forcing them to labor in developing puppet soldiers. Even the people of this land were driven out of this city just to survive."

"Now, everyone is calling you the 'Puppet Queen'!"

Naruto roared, trying to make Sāra face reality.

Sāra's steps finally halted under Naruto's shout. She stood still for a moment, then turned her head back and said, "I know all of that."

She suddenly turned and smiled at Naruto. Of course, it was still that same inhuman smile.

"Anrokuzan's real name is Mukade, a missing-nin from Suna who came here from twenty years in the future."

"He uses the power of the Ryūmyaku to control puppet soldiers. The men of this land were all captured and forced to labor in his underground factory."

"Of course I know all this."

"Speaking of which, those puppets are exquisite. The intelligence of humans in this era should not be underestimated. By combining mechanisms with chakra, they created an endless supply of fighting power."

"Unfortunately, their weakness is not what you think. This country will still be destroyed tonight."

"Oh dear, I think I've said too much again. Please forget this as well."

Every time Sāra let slip something shocking, she would act like it was a casual joke between people and ask Naruto to forget it.

But what she said was far too astonishing. She mentioned the future, and even revealed Anrokuzan's true identity, things Naruto himself didn't know.

"What? Anrokuzan is Mukade? How do you know that?"

Naruto only knew Mukade was his target, but he had never truly investigated who Anrokuzan was.

He shouted at Sāra, but she didn't even glance back, disappearing again into the sea of books, flipping through them with inhuman speed.

"Hey! Answer me!"

Naruto grew angry at her indifference. Just as he was about to storm into the labyrinth of books to confront her again, a broad hand clamped onto his shoulder.

"Hm?"

Naruto turned around and saw three people behind him.

He instinctively leapt back a step, drawing a kunai and readying himself in a defensive stance.

"Who are you?"

Of the three before him, two had normal builds, one was a little chubby, and another carried a small gourd on his back.

All three wore strange animal masks, but through the mask of the one in front, Naruto could glimpse a head of striking yellow hair.

"Don't be nervous. I'm also a ninja of Konoha, just like you."

As he spoke, the man in front removed his mask, only enough to reveal the Konoha forehead protector, before quickly pulling it back down.

Seeing the Konoha symbol, Naruto slowly lowered his kunai, though still suspicious. "A Konoha ninja? But Tsunade-obachan never said she sent anyone else for this mission."

"Tsunade-obachan?" the slightly chubby masked ninja repeated, confused.

"Maybe he means Lady Tsunade?" the one with the gourd replied to his comrade.

"But didn't Lady Tsunade already leave the village? How could she assign missions?"

"Who knows..."

Their conversation stunned Naruto.

What did they mean Tsunade left the village? She had always been in Konoha.

And as the Sixth Hokage, of course she had the authority to assign missions.

While everyone was still confused, the leader, Minato, fell into thought.

From the moment Sāra mentioned "Shinobi Sect," Minato and his teammates, Chōza and Shibi, had already infiltrated the library.

So when Sāra revealed Anrokuzan was Mukade, Minato heard it too.

Their mission had begun when the Third Hokage received intel that someone was using the Ryūmyaku for dangerous purposes, so the team was dispatched to investigate.

After a period of inquiry, Minato confirmed that Anrokuzan, the minister of Rōran, was indeed using the Ryūmyaku to manufacture and control puppet soldiers.

Although Minato didn't know who Mukade was, from Naruto's reaction and Sāra's words, he deduced that Anrokuzan and Mukade were the same person.

If Anrokuzan really was Mukade, there was no way the Third Hokage wouldn't have told him.

Adding to that, Anrokuzan's sudden appearance in Rōran six years ago...

So...

"If I'm not mistaken, you must have come here from the future."

"What year in Konoha's timeline are you from?"

Something about the man before him made Naruto feel a natural sense of trust, and he unconsciously answered.

"Konoha Year 63."

The words shocked the two behind Minato.

"What? But right now it's Konoha Year 43!"

Minato continued calmly, "As I thought. There's a twenty-year difference between us."

"And the Mukade you're chasing is the same as the Anrokuzan I'm after. He arrived here six years earlier than you, took on a new identity, and became Rōran's minister."

"These are things even a traveler from the future wouldn't easily know. But how does she know?"

Minato's gaze shifted to Sāra, who was still rapidly flipping through books. Though her face was turned toward the pages, her eyes glanced sideways at them with an indescribable look.