"What's this?"
Sara curiously took the lollipop Aoba handed her, turning it left and right to look it over.
"This lollipop, hmm… is a kind of candy."
Aoba remembered, this was more than twenty years ago in the shinobi world, and Roran was still an isolated country.
"Candy?", Sara didn't doubt anything. In her eyes, someone like Aoba, who was willing to play with her, definitely wasn't a bad person. She opened her mouth and was about to shove the lollipop straight in.
"Wait!", Seeing this, Aoba hurriedly pulled her hand back.
"You have to tear off the wrapper first," He took the lollipop back, tore off the wrapper, then handed it to her again.
Sara popped the lollipop into her mouth. The burst of sweetness instantly made her squint her eyes without thinking.
"So tasty…", Although Roran also had candy, something as novel as a lollipop was even more irresistible to little kids like Sara.
Seeing Sara finally settle down, Aoba asked, "Why were you crying just now?"
Sara's happy expression suddenly froze. Her gaze wavered, "I… I wasn't crying."
"But I saw it with my own eyes."
"Then you saw wrong!", Sara puffed out her cheeks again.
"Really?"
"That's right, if you say it again, I won't talk to you anymore!", Sara scooted her little bottom, turning her back toward Aoba.
"In that case, I guess I'll have to leave," Aoba said helplessly.
Sara turned back around, her expression full of expectation, "Why?"
"Because… hmm?", Just as Aoba was about to make up a random excuse, a whistling sound suddenly rose behind him.
A huge net came crashing down, covering him completely.
He instinctively wanted to dodge while pulling Sara along, but Sara, who wasn't far from him, was already yanked away by a rope pulling her in the opposite direction.
"Hm?"
Aoba instantly understood. It seemed he had been mistaken for an enemy.
He pulled out a kunai, and with just a little chakra infused into it, he easily sliced the huge net apart.
When he looked toward the attacker, he saw a beautiful black-haired woman, standing beside several soldiers clad in armor.
It looked like it was Seramu.
Compared to twenty years later, she wasn't much different.
At that moment, she was checking whether Sara was hurt.
After confirming that Sara hadn't been harmed, she lifted her head and cautiously looked toward Aoba.
"Which village's shinobi are you?"
Aoba didn't answer, "I don't mean any harm, I just accidentally wandered here."
Seramu clearly didn't believe it at all, "Do you think I'd believe that a shinobi who broke into Roran's forbidden grounds and even tried to get close to my daughter, is harmless?"
"Mom, Aoba isn't a bad guy. He not only played with me, he even gave me a lollipop."
Sara tugged at Seramu's clothes and even took the lollipop out of her mouth to show her.
Seramu's face instantly changed. She snatched the lollipop away and shouted angrily, "How can you just eat something from a stranger!"
Sara shrank her neck back, feeling wronged, "Sorry, mom, I was wrong."
Seramu also realized her tone had been too harsh, but watching her child casually eat snacks from a stranger really did make her furious.
"Don't worry, it's just an ordinary candy," Ignored, Aoba offered an explanation for Sara.
"You bastard, I haven't even determined whether you're an enemy or not!", Seramu glared at Aoba.
She really had no way to be sure how he had even gotten in here. This was the core area of the Dragon Vein, and there were soldiers guarding outside. Outsiders shouldn't be able to enter at all.
But she absolutely couldn't just leave Sara here either.
If not for sensing his presence through the Dragon Vein's disturbance, she wouldn't have even noticed him.
"So what do you want to do?", Aoba asked helplessly.
"Hmph! Naturally, I'll take you down first, and then confirm your identity!"
"Seize him!"
Seramu commanded firmly with a wave of her hand, "Don't worry. Since you didn't harm Sara, I won't harm you."
She had no choice but to order his capture first. This was about the Dragon Vein. Even if it involved shinobi from the great villages.
They couldn't lower their heads so easily.
"Won't harm me?", Aoba glanced at the soldiers already itching to move. Given how things stood, he could only fight first.
But since this situation was indeed his fault, he still chose the gentlest way possible.
His eyes lit up. The soldiers who were about to rush him immediately dropped their weapons, freezing in place.
They were just ordinary soldiers. Three-tomoe genjutsu alone was enough to trap them.
"Move! Why aren't you moving?"
"What evil ninjutsu did you use to control them?", Seramu's startled voice reached Aoba's ears.
Aoba was a little surprise, 'The Queen of Roran's genjutsu resistance is pretty high.'
"And then?"
Hearing him, Seramu's expression changed slightly. Looking at the controlled soldiers all around, she clenched her teeth.
"Don't look down on people!", As soon as she spoke, purple chakra rose from her body.
Her aura surged forth. That was the power of the Dragon Vein's chakra, a strength only the queens of Roran's line could wield.
Even just a small fraction of it was unimaginably powerful.
The purple chakra formed into a giant purple dragon, lunging straight at Aoba.
The latter only raised an eyebrow slightly, a bit surprised inside.
A massive surge of chakra burst from his body too, circulating in the same way Seramu had just wielded the Dragon Vein chakra.
A giant blue chakra dragon appeared before him as well.
The two dragons collided midair. Seramu's expression shifted, and she quickly shielded Sara behind her.
Aoba also noticed Seramu's aura suddenly weaken a lot.
Seeing her still trying to draw more Dragon Vein chakra, Aoba instantly appeared behind her and knocked her out with a hand chop.
"Mom!"
In her daze, Seramu only heard her daughter's loud cry.
———
"Sara!"
Seramu woke from a nightmare.
She looked around in panic, only to find in shock that she was actually in her own room.
"What's going on?"
"You're finally awake. As for Sara, I just coaxed her to sleep."
Aoba walked in then, holding medicine.
Seramu's expression once again turned terrified. Instinctively, she grabbed the quilt to cover her chest.
"You… why are you in my house?"
Aoba didn't answer, just placed the medicine in front of her, "I told you I'm not a bad person. Drink this first."
Seramu stared at the dark, murky medicine in front of her, swallowing nervously, "You… what exactly are you trying to do?"
A bad thought crossed her mind.
"The Dragon Vein chakra will keep draining your body. This medicine can help restore it."
Seramu's expression shifted slightly at those words.
"Why would you help me?"
"Because… under Roran there's oil… and the Dragon Vein. I want to study it, and I'll need your cooperation."
At the very least, he had to find a way to get back first.
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