---Third POV---
"Should I blast open this pipeline wall?" Obito eagerly asked.
"I'll do it. Using Fire Release would make too much noise."
As he spoke, Ryouma extended his right hand and activated the Lava Release Chakra Mode on his arm, this selective use was only possible with the help of the Rikugan.
He pressed his glowing palm against the pipeline wall, and in just a few seconds, the intense heat melted a large hole in it.
At this point, Naruto and the others finally saw what was on the other side. It seemed to be a dormitory of sorts, with many straw mats messily laid on the ground. Around several dozen ragged men were huddled in the corners, their faces filled with fear as they looked at the intruders who had broken through the wall.
Clearly, these people were the citizens who had been captured by Mukade and forced into labor.
Naruto quickly stepped forward to reassure them. "Don't worry. We're here to rescue you."
Sensing his kindness, the shivering Rōran residents exchanged looks, and finally pushed forward a tall, burly man. Rubbing his hands together and trying to sound as polite as possible, he asked Naruto, who seemed the most approachable, "Excuse me, did the Queen send you to take us away?"
"Uh... well, we are here to rescue you, but... who is this Queen?" Naruto asked, scratching his head awkwardly.
Upon hearing that Naruto didn't know the Queen, the civilians all visibly relaxed and started whispering among themselves.
"Good thing they're not from the Queen."
"Their forehead protectors… they seem to be Konoha ninjas."
"Konoha? Then maybe we really are saved!"
It had to be said, thanks to the Third Hokage's efforts, Konoha enjoyed quite a good international reputation. Except in the smaller countries that had recently become battlefields, most civilians had only heard rumors about how Konoha promoted peace.
The burly man shared the same thoughts. Since they were from the strongest ninja village, there was no need to lie to a group of civilians like them. He immediately bowed repeatedly to express his gratitude.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
The other Rōran residents followed suit, bowing as well.
Seeing Naruto getting a bit flustered by their actions, Ryouma sighed and stepped forward to ask the burly man, "What's your name?"
The man hurriedly replied, "I am called Shiho."
"Alright. As you can see, we are ninjas from Konoha. I understand your situation. Time is short, I need you to gather all the residents in this base. Can you do that?"
"But... there are many puppet weapons overseeing the work areas. We…"
Shiho had assumed these Konoha ninjas would sneak the captives out group by group. He didn't expect them to be so bold, planning to rescue everyone in one go.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of the puppets. You just focus on gathering the residents."
Seeing Shiho still hesitant, Ryouma put on a cold expression and said, "This is your only chance to get out of here. I won't repeat myself. Otherwise, you'll just stay here and die."
Hearing the slightly threatening tone, Shiho suddenly came to his senses and immediately agreed.
If you had said it like this earlier, things would've gone much smoother. This is exactly the kind of ninjas I'm familiar with, Shiho thought.
"Hehe," Rin immediately saw through Ryouma's act of scaring Shiho on purpose. "You sounded like a major villain just now."
"Oh? You know I'm a villain and you still tease me? Aren't you afraid I might do something to you when we get back?"
"Really?" Instead of playing along with the usual script, Rin looked at him with a face full of expectation.
"Uh… let's finish the mission first."
With the captured civilians in tow, Shiho first gathered all the workers from the dormitory area who were on shift.
"Grab onto each other! Quickly!"
Under his loud commands, the Rōran residents followed his instructions one after another.
"We've done as you instructed."
Though to be honest, he had no idea why grabbing onto each other was necessary.
Ryouma placed his hand on the shoulder of the boy closest to him, and then activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, instantly teleporting all the Rōran civilians to a plaza outside.
There, two of his shadow clones were stationed to ensure the civilians' safety.
"Next, we'll head to the puppet production workshop," he continued giving orders.
"Yes."
Shiho was actually quite curious where all those people had been sent, but he didn't ask. He simply responded and continued leading the way.
Before long, they arrived at the puppet production workshop.
Hissss~
The hissing of steam echoed throughout the underground space. Countless gears turned, driving conveyor belts that transported puppet parts to various assembly points.
Doing physical labor in such a high-temperature environment was already tough enough, and judging by the workers' gaunt and malnourished appearance, the food wasn't any good either. Even capitalists would shed tears at these working conditions.
Just as he was about to start gathering his fellow countrymen here, a voice rang out from a high platform above them.
"Why have you infiltrated Rōran and disrupted the order here?"
"Anrokuzan-sama!"
The moment Shiho recognized the figure, he immediately clutched his head in fear and squatted down, trying to make himself as small as possible.
Seeing this large man trying so hard to shrink himself, Obito couldn't help but comment, "Hey, hey, you sure are wasting that big body of yours."
Naruto, who had long been outraged by the plight of the citizens, grew even angrier now that the main culprit had appeared.
"You've got some nerve saying we are disturbing the order! You're completely rotten!"
Mukade's memory was pretty sharp; he recognized Naruto at a glance.
"Heh, to think you actually followed me into this timeline too… like some damned leech."
"Hah? Who even are you?"
Naruto honestly had no recollection of ever meeting him.
At that moment, Ryouma suddenly remembered that he hadn't yet told Naruto that Mukade and Anrokuzan were the same person.
"That guy is the Mukade you've been looking for."
"Eh?" Naruto took a closer look at the figure on the high platform. "You're Mukade? Man, you've gotten a lot fatter."
"Hahaha! Mukade? That name has long been forgotten. I am now Rōran's minister, Anrokuzan!"
Mukade waved its arms and emitted a chakra signal. In the next second, amidst the rumbling of the ground, a massive number of puppets surged in like a tide from all directions.
Although surrounded by the puppet army, Kakashi and the others showed no trace of worry on their faces.
Ryouma even had the leisure to comment on the puppets. "So this is how they're controlled. A bit wasteful, but an interesting idea."
These puppets weren't driven by chakra threads, but rather activated by the chakra signal, operating according to pre-programmed instructions. Correspondingly, each puppet contained a chakra storage module, similar to a battery. The downside was that the efficiency was quite low.
Under the Rikugan observation, consuming ten units of chakra would only yield about three units of combat output. However, considering the presence of the Ryūmyaku here, this drawback wasn't very significant.
Thinking of this, he formed a seal with his hands. Nine Rasengan Spheres glowing with a soft blue light appeared behind him. With a single thought, five of the spheres shot towards Kakashi and the others, forming red chakra cloaks around them.
The remaining four spheres transformed into four dark-purple arrows, shooting out from the front, back, left, and right. They burned through dozens of surrounding puppets.
"You four take Shiho and gather the remaining civilians. Remember, the puppets' weakness is the chakra core located on the left side of their chest."
"Understood!"
Receiving Ryouma's order, the group immediately sprang into action.
After just a few steps, Obito noticed someone missing. Turning back, he saw Shiho still crouching on the ground, trembling and mumbling to himself.
"You idiot! Don't you have family waiting for you? Get up and run!"
"Family?"
Shiho actually didn't. His only father had died five years ago from exhaustion on the puppet assembly line here. Although he was quite tall and imposing in appearance, in reality, he was a timid man. Because he was easy to intimidate, he had been pushed forward to negotiate when Ryouma's group broke through the wall.
Seeing that Shiho still wasn't moving, Obito became furious and gave him a kick.
"Hurry up and follow me, or just stay here and die."
This threat worked much better than the previous scolding. Shiho immediately scrambled to his feet, shouting, "I don't want to die! Please don't leave me behind!"
Seeing Obito already running ahead, he quickly followed, sprinting after him.
Fortunately, Ryouma had also given him a chakra cloak; otherwise, with his current physical condition, he wouldn't have been able to run far before collapsing.
In just a few breaths, only he and Mukade remained in the space.
"You're quite polite, you didn't try to stop them from leaving."
"Heh, even if I tried, you'd have stopped me anyway, wouldn't you? Besides, I wanted to have a little chat with you alone." As he spoke, Mukade slowly descended the stairs on the left side of the platform.
Thinking that Kakashi and the others would need some time to gather the civilians, Ryouma didn't mind exchanging a few more words with this seemingly sensible person.
"What do you want to talk about? Don't tell me you're trying to barter your puppet technology for your life."
"Of course not. I know you're strong. But even someone as powerful as you is still nothing more than a tool under the daimyō's control, isn't that right? But with the future intel I possess, combined with the Ryūmyaku's limitless energy here, if we join forces, we can overthrow the rule of all the daimyō and easily seize control of the entire shinobi world! We would create a one-of-a-kind unified nation, and at that time, you would become the sole Kage among all ninjas."
The more Mukade spoke, the more excited he became. His small eyes widened round, as if he was already envisioning this glorious future in his mind. He even started drooling unconsciously.
"Ugh..." Ryouma glanced at him. "Why do people like you always daydream about such beautiful fantasies?"
Mukade didn't mind Ryouma's insult and continued to tempt him.
"If you don't want to be a ninja anymore, you could also become a ruler like me."
"Enough. Quit bragging. Before you came to this timeline, you were nothing but a small-time thug, a bottom-feeder of the shinobi world. What useful intel could you possibly have?"
Ryouma figured this guy had probably been brainwashed by Sasori before coming here, spouting nothing but nonsense.
"Shut the fuck up!"
Mukade couldn't stand being reminded of his past. In short: he was triggered.
"And honestly, if I wanted to rule the shinobi world, would I need your help?"
As Ryouma spoke, he slowly drew out Lostvayne from behind his waist. Dark chakra flowed along the broken blade, materializing and extending it to a full katana length.
By now, Mukade finally understood, Ryouma had never taken him seriously from the start.
"I'll make you stop smiling!"
As his words fell, a massive wave of puppets surged in once more.
Thud thud thud!
These newly arrived puppets looked different from the previous ones. They were larger and more heavily armed. According to the preset programs, these puppets would obey his commands without question.
"Hahaha! I know you can deflect all chakra-based attacks, so these puppets have been specially modified for you! Go!"
Following his order, the puppets raised their arms. With the turning of gears, their arms transformed into large black gun barrels, but instead of firing bullets, they launched volleys of kunai and throwing weapons. The sight was somewhat surreal, turning what looked like heavily armed mecha into oversized dart-throwers.
Funny as it was, Mukade, or rather, Sasori, had clearly put a lot of thought into countering Ryouma.
"Well then, let's see how well you villains can handle a real fight."
Ryouma focused on using Armament Haki for the first time in battle, feeling the energy flow through his body. He raised his arms defensively as the invisible armor coated his skin.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The rain of kunai and throwing weapons clattered loudly as they struck his body.
It was hard to imagine that his bare arms could so effortlessly block the simultaneous attacks of dozens of heavily armed puppets, like an impenetrable iron fortress.
He then swung Lostvayne, sending out several arcing waves of dark flames, slicing through the surrounding puppet army like cutting through vegetables.
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Naruto: The Yamanaka Puppeteer
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