Chapter 61: The Third Entrance
Sara and Mei Terumi changed their clothes one after the other. The silver-haired youth used Transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as a commoner he had seen on the road. The three rested for a while.
Kakashi sensed the Sand ninja's patrol routes and, with the Queen's knowledge of Rouran city, designated the safest infiltration route.
"The entrance to the Dragon Vein isn't fixed; there are six entrances. If someone forces their way in without my permission to open it, the Dragon Vein will be sealed by a barrier and transferred to another entrance. The Sand ninja have already destroyed two; we're going to the third. We have to get there before them."
"This seal… is it the work of the Sand ninja?"
"It's the Sand ninja's monk, Bunpuku."
After a moment's thought, Kakashi recalled from his distant memories that this seemed to be the First Jinchuriki of the One-Tail.
Queen Sara was still unable to move conveniently. The youth had initially asked her to tell him the opening method and location, as it would be much less dangerous for him to go alone, and he would be faster.
But this Queen of Rouran had her own insistence, firmly stating that the Dragon Vein had to be opened by her, and she also had to monitor Kakashi the entire time he extracted Dragon Vein chakra.
"Alright. As long as you don't find it troublesome."
A youth with a clear conscience naturally wouldn't fear her surveillance; refusing would only make him seem like he was lying.
Walking to the entrance of the underground space, Kakashi opened the door, quickly confirmed there was no one around, and led the two young women out of the alley, blending into the crowd on the main street.
Compared to the youth using Transformation Jutsu, the two young women behind him, who had merely changed their clothes, looked remarkably like the protagonists of some assassin story, deluding themselves into thinking others wouldn't notice them.
Their hair colors were too distinct and rare; they would easily attract attention in Rouran. Moreover, the subjects weren't unfamiliar with their queen. Several people were about to kneel and call out "Your Majesty" but were hastily stopped by her.
Frequently rubbing his forehead, the silver-haired youth reluctantly changed their planned route. Sara lowered her head sheepishly, feeling as if her intelligence was being scorned. After walking only a short distance, she felt the wound on her foot was about to tear open, making movement difficult.
Mei Terumi offered to carry Sara. The Queen of Rouran was close to Kakashi's height, considerably taller than the current Mei Terumi. When Mei Terumi bent down to carry her, both of them were unsteady.
"Stop dawdling, let me do it."
"I can carry her!"
"Don't be difficult."
Pouting, the orange-haired young woman put Sara down, wisely not letting her dissatisfaction show on her face this time.
"The mission, understand? The mission."
Stroking Mei Terumi's long hair, this kind of easy coaxing allowed Kakashi's own guilt to vanish instantly. He hoisted the Queen of Rouran onto his back and leaped from rooftop to rooftop, sticking close to the walls.
The sensation of being at high altitude made Sara, who had never experienced ninja movement, feel nauseous. Having just eaten her fill in the underground space, vomiting now would completely shatter her image as queen.
Forcing down her discomfort, the young woman tapped Kakashi's back.
"Can you go a little slower?"
Turning his head and seeing Sara's pale face, the youth slowed down, trying to make his movements as smooth as possible.
Mei Terumi leaped through the buildings with the agility of a deer, keeping pace with Kakashi. The ordinary people and Sand ninja below indeed didn't notice the three quickly passing overhead.
"It's right here."
They stopped on the rooftop of an abandoned building. A stone pillar lay diagonally inside the house, the ground littered with rubble and debris.
"No matter how you look at it, keeping the entrance to the Dragon Vein in a place like this is too careless."
"It wasn't like this last time I came."
"Then it must have been destroyed in the battle with the Sand ninja."
Some bloodstains found below and the neat Wind Release cutting marks on the walls confirmed this to Kakashi.
"How can I open the entrance if it's damaged like this…"
"Water Release: Water Clearing Wave."
A gush of water washed over the ground, pushing the excess rubble and stones to the sides, revealing a handle-like mechanism at the bottom, adorned with a series of numbers.
"It's a password lock!"
"This is a lock made by Rouran's finest craftsman."
Speaking of this, Sara finally showed some pride. She squatted down, wiped the water droplets off it, and entered a string of numbers.
Click.
The underground door didn't open; it was jammed.
The Queen of Rouran's rising pride froze on her face, her embarrassment plain to see.
"Impossible! That's impossible, no one knows the password here except me!"
"Does that craftsman know?"
"He does…"
"He was bribed. Stand back."
A simple, brute-force method of opening the door was still effective. After a clap of thunder, the ground caved in. Kakashi, quick-witted and nimble-fingered, summoned an Earth Flow Wall to block the attack coming from below, protecting Mei Terumi and Sara behind him.
The entrance to the Dragon Vein was exposed; the stairs leading down had been blasted apart by the Sand ninja.
Actually, Kakashi had discovered last time that near the Dragon Vein, due to its extremely strong energy reaction, the closer a ninja was to it, the harder it was for him to detect them. The ninja on the surface were fine, but once they reached the entrance where the Dragon Vein's chakra reaction was strongest, it was basically like groping in the dark; he couldn't sense anything. Compared to the Dragon Vein, other people's chakra was so small it was ignored by his sensory abilities.
"Then how did you discover us?"
He questioned the half-masked, hair-wrapped Sand ninja below who had drawn a kunai. This fellow was the one whose reaction was close to that of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
"We have people ambushing all six locations. Unfortunately for you, you chose my side."
"Listening to your voice, you're only in your teens, right? Step aside now, and Sunagakure can avoid losing a genius."
"Save those words for yourself."
「You take Sara and open the seal.」
「What about you?」
「I'll be there in a moment.」
After a quick exchange with Mei Terumi, Kakashi didn't want to expend too much chakra here. After training in Thunder Valley, the youth felt he was nearing his limit in terms of efficiency and mastery of Lightning Release chakra in this ninja world. If the power of his Raikiri in the Land of Water with the same chakra consumption was a 3, then its current power was at least a 7. Adding the Lightning Illusion, dealing with opponents of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen's caliber would be much less difficult.
Of course, certain outliers were not included in this.
But this Sand ninja fellow was clearly not of that caliber.
Not sensing much killing intent from this Sand ninja, Kakashi, before his Raikiri enhanced by second-stage cell activation pierced his body, shifted its position. This strike stabbed his right side, not his left, where the heart was.
"If you survive, we might meet again in the future."
Before the fellow fainted, Kakashi left him with these words.
"Kakashi!!"
Less than two minutes had passed when Mei Terumi's cry for help made the youth immediately react and rush to her side.
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