A thousand meters up in the sky, a giant ink eagle sliced through the air, swiftly carrying everyone toward the border of the Land of Fire.
"Hey, I'm saying—"
Hiruko sat cross-legged on the eagle's back, unable to resist complaining.
"Are you really relying on this piece-of-junk thing to guide us?"
"Where on earth are we going?"
"Didn't we agree to go back to the Land of Snow to give me the best laboratory?"
As a technician who had just been "forced to volunteer," he was extremely dissatisfied with this aimless wandering.
Before he could finish, an elbow unceremoniously slammed into his ribs.
Hiss—!
Hiruko gasped in pain.
"Please watch your language."
Haku withdrew his elbow, a hint of warning in his eyes.
"It's best to say less if it's disrespectful to Lord Naruto."
Standing at the very front, Naruto paid no mind to the minor incident behind him.
He looked down at the worn-out compass in his palm.
"To retrieve a treasure."
Naruto spoke calmly, his gaze piercing through the clouds to look down below.
"As for what it is, we'll know once we go down and check."
Although he spoke with certainty, he couldn't help but feel a bit doubtful in his heart.
Below was a barren, desolate, rocky desert.
Aside from yellow sand and rocks, there weren't even many birds around.
In such a godforsaken place, what kind of trump card "capable of overturning the world" could possibly be hidden?
Could it be that the treasure of the Sage of Six Paths was buried here?
"Sai, land."
"Yes."
The giant ink eagle glided toward the ground.
Spreading its wings just before touching down, it kicked up a cloud of dust and sand, landing steadily on a rocky shore.
Holding the compass, Naruto walked up to a seemingly ordinary, weathered boulder.
The compass in his hand trembled violently, spinning in circles and clearly indicating they had reached their destination.
"This place... looks like an ancient battlefield."
Haku looked around and remarked.
"Where is the entrance?"
Hiruko looked around, trying to find any mechanisms or traces of a sealing formula.
"If a place like this doesn't have a specific way to enter, it would probably be very difficult to—"
"Too troublesome."
Naruto interrupted his analysis, lifting his right leg and stomping down heavily.
Boom!
The earth seemed to shake thrice from his monstrous strength.
With his landing point as the center, the ground within a radius of dozens of meters collapsed instantly.
As the dust cleared, a pitch-black, gaping hole appeared before everyone.
A section of ancient stone stairs lay there quietly, leading down into the bottomless darkness.
"...Violent maniac."
Hiruko's lips twitched as he muttered in a low voice, only to be glared at fiercely by Haku.
But immediately after, Hiruko's gaze was drawn to the exposed stone bricks.
He squatted down, caressing the patterns eroded by time, a flash of surprise in his eyes.
"This architectural style... is this a ruin from the Warring States Era?"
As a scholar who had studied various ancient texts, Hiruko saw the clues at a glance.
"This place is at least hundreds of years old."
"It might have even existed before Konoha was founded."
"Let's go."
Naruto took the lead down the stairs, with Haku and Sai lighting torches and following closely behind.
After walking for a while...
"A fierce battle seems to have taken place here."
Sai held his torch high, illuminating the marks on the walls.
"Furthermore, I've noticed a problem."
He pointed behind them, his voice turning somewhat cold.
"The path here is one-way, with no forks and no other exits."
"Rather than a treasury or a stronghold..."
"...it feels more like a... cage, where something was imprisoned and sealed."
Naruto stopped in his tracks.
Before him, a massive stone door appeared.
The door was covered with dense talismans.
Although ancient, the chakra fluctuations on them were still clear.
"Is this... the Senju Clan's crest?"
Hiruko leaned in to observe for a moment, then looked to the other side, drawing in a sharp breath.
"And the Sarutobi Clan... a seal they set up together?"
"What kind of monster is locked inside?"
"A Tailed Beast?"
Naruto didn't answer.
He glanced at the compass needle, which was practically about to pop out, and directly reached out to grab the sealing talismans on the door.
Rip.
He tore them to shreds in one go.
Accompanied by a grinding sound, the door, which had been sealed for hundreds of years, was slowly pushed open.
Creak.
An empty room came into view.
There were no gold, silver, jewels, divine weapons, or vast amounts of secret techniques as one might have imagined.
In the center of the massive secret chamber, there was only one thing.
It was a giant, amber-like, crystal-clear chakra crystal, emitting a faint blue glow.
Everyone subconsciously held their breath and slowly approached.
Through the translucent crystal, they finally saw clearly what was sealed inside.
It was not some fanged, blue-faced monster, nor was it a legendary divine tool.
Rather, it was a person.
To be precise, it was a young girl who looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old.
She wore a tattered, dark blue robe, her long black hair floating inside the crystal.
"A person?"
Hiruko was stunned.
He circled the crystal, his face full of disbelief.
"In these Warring States Era ruins... there's actually a person sealed here?"
"And... I can still feel faint life signs."
Haku also reached out, sensing through the crystal, and spoke in surprise.
"Though it's very weak, her heart is indeed still beating."
"Was she forced into a state of suspended animation by a secret technique?"
Naruto looked down at the compass in his hand.
At this moment, the needle was pointing dead straight at the girl, completely motionless.
Naruto was somewhat taken aback.
He had imagined the compass might lead him to some divine tool, like a treasure of the Sage of Six Paths, some lost secret technique, or a powerful ninja beast.
But he never expected the compass would actually find him a... person?
"An old grandma who has survived since the Warring States Era?"
Looking at the girl's pale yet exquisite face inside the crystal, Naruto felt a sense of absurdity rise in his heart.
This was the trump card that could help him overturn the ninja world?
Still... judging by the massive effort of the Senju Clan and the Sarutobi Clan teaming up to seal her, there must be a reason.
"Whatever."
Naruto threw away the completely ruined compass, reached out, and pressed his palm against the surface of the rune-carved crystal.
"No matter who you are, and no matter why you were locked up here..."
"...since the compass chose you, then you are mine."
As Naruto's massive chakra poured into the crystal, a crisp cracking sound echoed through the secret chamber.
Then...
Boom!
With a loud bang, the massive chakra crystal shattered, turning into a flurry of debris.
Losing her support, the girl, who had been asleep for who knows how long, instantly fell downward.
Naruto instinctively reached out, wanting to catch her.
However, the exact moment Naruto touched her...
...she opened her eyes.
A massive, icy-cold chakra erupted from her body like a volcanic explosion.
The powerful shockwave blasted the unprepared Naruto back several steps, sending the surrounding rubble flying in all directions.
The girl floated in midair, her black hair dancing wildly.
She slowly raised her head, revealing a pair of heart-stopping eyes.
They were no ordinary eyes.
Upon a crimson background, there was a complex and eerie geometric pattern.
The Mangekyo Sharingan!
In the next second...
...the red light in her eyes flared brilliantly.