Konan finished writing the last word slowly, gently running her fingers across the page.
She closed the diary, tucked it back under her pillow, and walked to the window, gazing silently toward the west...
At that same moment, Uchiha Hikaru was moving quickly across the shifting terrain, heading westward.
He had spent a long time in the Land of Fire, carefully studying the lives of the villagers there—how they lived, what they ate, how trade moved between towns.
As for the Land of Rain and the approaching Land of Wind... that could wait.
There was no need to observe them yet. Civilians in those lands undoubtedly lived harder lives than those under the protection of Konoha.
A few days later, Uchiha Hikaru followed the mapped route into a forgotten ruin.
All around him were collapsed structures, shattered bricks, and scattered footprints pressed into the sand.
He guessed these were the last lingering traces left by the survivors of Roran.
Uchiha Hikaru expanded his chakra sensory range to the maximum, and just as expected—ten miles ahead, nestled within an oasis, were faint chakra signatures. Dozens of them.
Satisfied that no one was nearby, he moved straight toward the center of the ruins—a massive, crumbling tower.
Inside the ancient structure, he descended deeper until he found a hidden altar. A narrow, one-meter-wide path extended out over a dark chasm, connecting the outer platform to a central pedestal.
He crossed the narrow path slowly, his Mangekyō Sharingan scanning the surroundings for traps or residual chakra.
In the center of the altar was a kunai stabbed into a sealing array—one of the Flying Thunder God Kunai. On its handle were four engraved words: Sword of Ninja Love.
Uchiha Hikaru knelt down and pressed his palms to the ground, infusing chakra into the seal.
In response, glowing rings of intricate sealing formulae spiraled out from the center.
"Tch... I didn't expect Minato's sealing technique to be this damn advanced," Hikaru muttered with annoyance.
He studied the layers of the seal and couldn't stop himself from complaining.
"What the hell was going through your head, Minato? Did you really need to make it this complicated?"
"Are you overly cautious or just bored out of your mind?"
Uchiha Hikaru cursed under his breath.
The seal on the Dragon Vein was no joke. In fact, it was even more complex than the Eight Trigrams Seal used to seal the Nine-Tails inside Naruto—which was already a dual Four Symbols Seal.
Unlike sealing a living creature, the Dragon Vein was a volatile, inanimate source of chakra capable of destabilizing time and space itself.
To fully suppress it, Minato had stacked four separate seals atop one another:
The outermost layer: a Five Elements Seal used as the locking mechanism.
The second layer: a Three-Party Seal for internal chakra balance.
The third layer: a Four Symbols Seal to stabilize the Dragon Vein's chaotic chakra.
The final core: a Contract Seal directly binding the Dragon Vein's chakra, severing any inherited ties—like those once shared with Loulan royalty.
It was brilliantly done, textbook even. As Hokage, Minato had not only completed the mission but ensured that no one—not even Konoha—could exploit the Dragon Vein again.
But for Uchiha Hikaru, who was here to break that seal… it was a nightmare.
He couldn't brute force his way through. Not with this.
The Dragon Vein wasn't just dangerous—it was a chakra bomb tied to time-space. A misstep could mean warping his limbs into separate dimensions, or worse...
"Trying to force it open would be like lighting a match next to a bundle of paper-wrapped explosive tags," he muttered.
He had no choice but to activate his Mangekyō Sharingan and work through it seal by seal.
He began with the outermost layer—the Five Elements Seal. Through his eyes, the complex chakra inscriptions were visible as faint glowing kanji.
"Wind, Thunder, Water, Fire, Earth... All five are present."
He raised his right hand, and orbs of elemental chakra appeared in sequence: flames, wind, sparks, swirling water, and a dense clump of stone-like chakra.
"The Five Elements support and restrain one another."
"Fire, Wind, Fire, Water, Thunder."
"Five Elements Seal—release!"
He slammed his palm into the ground.
The outermost sealing circle flared once, then shrank and faded.
One layer down.
The second seal was more complex, the Triangular Stabilizing Seal.
Uchiha Hikaru stepped back, raised his hand, and summoned his sword, the Mangekyō Sharingan-empowered weapon. The ethereal blade shimmered with ghostly blue-white flames.
He guided the edge of sword to the outermost corner of the triangular formation, letting the chakra-infused blade hum against the seal.
He soon heard it: a sharp crack—then several more.
The lines fractured like spiderwebs.
He sheathed and dropped to one knee, infusing chakra through his palms into the altar.
The second layer fell apart like dried leaves in the wind.
"The triangle grants stability. Break the foundation and the whole thing collapses. Easy enough…"
But the real headache came next—the Four Symbols Seal.
Quadrilaterals are, by nature, unstable. That instability allowed jinchūriki like Naruto to access tailed beast chakra—but in this case, it made the seal extremely dangerous to tamper with.
And there was another problem...
He didn't have the damn key.
Minato had sealed everyone's memory about the sealing key. There wasn't even a mention of it in the original mission record. Classic Minato.
Uchiha Hikaru groaned and sat cross-legged on the altar.
"Minato... Minato..."
"Your damn Four Symbols Seal is a menace."
"I swear, the day I drag you out of the Pure Land, I'm putting you on sealing duty forever."
"And when Naruto calls me 'Big Brother Hikaru' in front of you, I'm going to make him punch you twice just for fun."
With that declaration, he sighed and opened his eyes again.
Using the Mangekyō Sharingan, he began slowly tracing the chakra threads, unraveling the patterns.
It was like working through a massive, layered labyrinth—one mistake, and it could trigger backlash.
Time slipped away.
Four days and three nights later...
Uchiha Hikaru's face was pale. His eyes were bloodshot. He was lying face-down on the altar, completely exhausted.
"Damn you, Minato Namikaze... I'll have Naruto deck you three times now…"
"…and I'm telling Kushina everything... you bastard…"
He barely raised his hand, summoning one last time.
"Guard me..."
With that, he closed his eyes and finally succumbed to sleep.
But just then—
blade began to vibrate softly.
A gentle glow lit up along the length of the weapon.
Strangely… its frequency matched the pulsing chakra flow of the Dragon Vein beneath the altar.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ
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