The Puppet Queen

*Author Note*

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*End of Author Note*

Seeing the suspicion in Sara's eyes, Minato quickly started explaining why he was here, however...

"Impossible! Anrokuzan would never do that! He is a peace-loving man who has been supporting my mother for a long time and helped me with a lot of things after her death."

Yuna shook her head when she heard Sara's words.

"Peace-loving, huh? Isn't it rather weird for a so-called peace-loving man to secretly create a puppet army powered by the Ley Line's chakra?"

Sara's eyes widened when she heard Yuna's words, and moments later, she started glaring at her.

"You are lying!"

Yuna moved her right hand, resulting in a chakra string shooting towards a nearby crowd of "people" who were still partying even though their "beloved" queen fell from a balcony a minute ago.

Moments later, one of the "people" flew towards Yuna. Sara's eyes widened when she saw this, and she immediately started yelling at Yuna.

"What are you doing to one of my citiz...ens?"

Her angry yell quickly turned into a question when she saw the "person" Yuna pulled towards her.

"A puppet?"

A smirk appeared on Yuna's face as she moved the puppet with her chakra and started speaking with a changed voice.

"Yay, long live her majesty. We are all really happy, and we definitely can't be used as weapo...oops."

When Yuna was about to say the word weapon, two blades "accidentally" popped out of the puppet's arms.

Sara's eyes looked at the two blades in disbelief and staggered back a few steps.

"I-Impossible. I-It can't be. I will go find Anrokuzan and ask him personally. This is a misunderstanding, I am sure of it."

Moments later, Sara turned around and ran away, causing Yuna to shake her head, while Hinata had a concerned expression on her face.

"Wasn't that too harsh, Yuna?"

"That was totally too harsh! You made her cry, you know."

After Naru2 said his part, he turned around and started chasing after Sara, while Yuna only shook her head.

"As the queen of this country, she has a responsibility she needs to carry. She neglected that responsibility, resulting in a maniac amassing a massive puppet army. She was tricked, and very little of this situation is her fault, but I don't see a point in coddling her either. After hearing the harsh truth, we can only hope that she won't repeat the mistake in the future."

After a moment of pondering Yuna's words, Hinata nodded in understanding. At the same time, Minato looked at the departing Naru2 and then looked at the adult Kakashi.

"Could you help Naru2 in protecting Sara, Kakashi?"

Kakashi lazily looked up from his book before nodding his head.

"Well, if Minato-sensei asks me to do something, I will, naturally, comply."

Moments later, Kakashi vanished, leaving Yuna and Minato's groups behind.

"Well, what do you plan to do, Yuna?"

Yuna pondered Minato's question for a short moment before shrugging her shoulders.

"Honestly, we don't have much of a stake in this whole thing, but it would leave a sour taste in my mouth to let that maniac live. So, I would at least like to kill him before we return to our timeline."

"That made it sound like you could return to your timeline whenever you want?"

"I wouldn't call it "whenever I want", but I do more or less know what I have to do to get back. I have multiple [Flying Thunder God Seal]'s in my timeline, so I only have to modify the jutsu to incorporate not just space travel but time travel as well."

Although Minato wasn't sure why Yuna acted like her solution was something easily done, he decided not to bother with it.

"I see. Then thanks for the support, I guess."

"Haha, no big deal. Well, shall we go? We have a minister to assassinate."

Minato cringed a little when he heard Yuna's words. Although they were really here to get rid of Anrokuzan, the minister of Loran, the way Yuna said it sounded incredibly wrong.

They were just about to begin searching for Anrokuzan when another deafening applause was started on the nearby plaza.

Yuna glanced at the plaza and could only smile wryly at what she saw.

"Wow, now things are getting seriously tasteless. What is that guy even thinking?"

A few moments ago, another "person" appeared on the balcony where Sara fell from a while ago. The "person" looked somewhat similar to Sara, but it became rather evident that it was just a puppet after giving it a proper glance.

"I really wonder what Anrokuzan wants to achieve by having his puppets applauding another puppet."

Minato glanced at the spectacle as well before shaking his head.

"Who knows? Maybe he wants to provoke us with this, so we reveal our position?"

Yuna shrugged her shoulders and quickly lost interest in whatever Anrokuzan was planning.

'Our version of him was just a small-fry, so I doubt that this version could plan anything that something sharp in his head couldn't solve.'

[Well, he had about six years to play with the Ley Line, so I wouldn't dismiss him so quickly.]

When Kurama finished speaking, Yuna felt a strong chakra pulse, and moments later, many of the puppets in the plaza fell down due to losing their support from the Ley Line. At the same time, a more significant part of the group continued unhindered, indicating that the Ley Line got only partially sealed.

[...]

'Did you say anything, Kurama?'

[No.]

Yuna saw the slightly annoyed expression on Minato's face and chuckled a little.

"Well, seems like "protect Sara", somehow became "infiltrate the enemies' base and start the process of sealing the Ley Line".

Minato sighed in annoyance before a severe expression appeared on his face.

"Well, let's hurry. Who knows in what kind of danger they are in."

Minato was just about to jump away when Yuna grabbed his arm and stopped him. Before Minato could ask what Yuna was doing, a slight smirk appeared on Yuna's face.

"Hehe, why would we walk when we can just teleport?"

"Teleport? I didn't notice you giving either Kakashi or Naru2 a se...the books!"

A mischievous smile appeared on Yuna's face, while Minato's eyes widened in shock.

'Just how many layers of schemes did she put in such a seemingly trivial exchange!? Incredible!'

Yet again, Minato was utterly wrong. Although Yuna really slipped a seal on the group, it was on Sara instead of Kakashi's books. Yuna sneaked it onto her while she was distracting everyone with her puppet play. Or, to be more precise, it was when the blades of the puppet "accidentally" popped out.

"Well, let's see if Anrokuzan has anything worthwhile in store for us."

Minato nodded his head, and moments later, the whole group teleported away.