Since he had already decided to pay, Hyuga Kagami couldn't just stand by and ignore the follow-up responsibilities.
If the Sand Shinobi intercepted the caravan of the Loulan survivors and used their lives to threaten the Queen of Loulan, she might not be able to keep his secrets.
Though she didn't know Hyuga Kagami's true identity, she had witnessed the entire process of the artificial Tailed Beast's birth. Even if she only revealed information about the artificial beast to the Sand Shinobi, it would still pose a potential threat to Kagami.
Having realized this, Hyuga Kagami immediately made up his mind and said to the Queen, "Time is of the essence. You should leave now—I'll take care of the Sand's pursuit."
Based on the anomaly in the Dragon Vein, the Sand Village would logically dispatch an elite team to investigate the ruins of Loulan. This would take time—anywhere from half a day to two days—depending on their urgency and the importance they placed on the Dragon Vein.
Once they confirmed the Dragon Vein had been stolen, they'd have to send word back to the village, await new orders, and then organize a search party to pursue the Loulan caravan. That chain of command and action would take at least a day or two.
In other words, the Loulan survivors had a time window of about two to three days.
If they moved quickly and carefully, it was very likely they could escape the Land of Wind and make it into the Land of Rain, under Akatsuki's control.
After all, the Land of Rain bordered the Land of Wind—crossing the border would mean safety.
The Queen of Loulan also realized how crucial time was. As she nodded quickly, she asked, "You'll be escorting us all the way out of the Land of Wind, right?"
Hyuga Kagami replied calmly, "I can't make you any promises."
If nothing went wrong, he planned to protect the caravan from the shadows. But if the Fourth Kazekage himself came in pursuit, then Kagami would be forced to choose self-preservation.
The Queen nodded silently. Though disappointed, she understood. His honesty only made her trust him more.
Sometimes, the truth—however unpleasant—is better than lies.
With no further hesitation, she nodded one last time to Hyuga Kagami and ran toward the distant oasis.
After about ten meters, she stopped, turned, and shouted, "I'm no longer the Queen of Loulan! My name is Sara!"
Then she turned and ran back to the Loulan caravan.
Clad in a black cloak, Hyuga Kagami stood quietly atop the sand dune, watching her disappear into the distance.
Before long, the caravan at the Manto Oasis had packed up and begun its journey.
Hyuga Kagami didn't follow them immediately. Instead, he turned to another direction.
He already knew the Sand had assigned two shinobi to monitor the Loulan caravan. He discovered this earlier, while searching for the survivors alongside the Grass ninja team.
To ensure the Sand didn't track the caravan's movements right away, those two monitors had to be dealt with first.
"Byakugan, activate!"
With his Byakugan activated, Hyuga Kagami scanned the area. Soon, he located two faint chakra signatures in one direction.
Judging from the chakra, the two Sand ninja were only genin-level. Kagami didn't bother dealing with them personally. Instead, he summoned the Third Kazekage Puppet and gave it a kill order.
Not long after, the puppet silently dispatched the two Sand ninja in the distance.
With that minor threat eliminated, Kagami retracted the puppet and adjusted his cloak before following the caravan from afar.
With some time to spare, Hyuga Kagami's thoughts drifted back to the Dragon Vein.
He was starting to piece together its origin. The Dragon Vein was not a natural product of the ninja world—or at least, not entirely.
Its core, its true origin, was likely something extraterrestrial, similar to Otsutsuki Kaguya, having descended from beyond the world.
But unlike the energy-devouring Otsutsuki, the Dragon Vein's origin didn't seem to arrive with intent. It was more like a fluke, a crash landing of sorts. It must have already suffered serious damage upon arrival, so much so that it had to form a contract with the local nobility to receive offerings.
This explained the ancestral contract between the Dragon Vein and the Loulan royal bloodline.
Later, the core buried itself deep underground, trying to recover by absorbing the Earth's natural energy flows.
Something must have gone wrong during that process—either an accident or an attack—that caused the original core to completely collapse.
However, its lingering will, after centuries of gestation, gave birth to a new, innocent Dragon Vein core.
This new core had no memory of the past and stopped drawing power from the Earth's veins. It simply remained dormant beneath the ancient city, occasionally responding to the royal bloodline's summons.
That was why the Loulan royal family could maintain such an unbalanced contract through generations.
Otherwise, with chakra rivaling a Tailed Beast, the Dragon Vein should've been far beyond the ability of ordinary humans to control, let alone contract with.
"By order of law..."
Recalling the strange incantation Sara had used to soothe the Dragon Vein, Hyuga Kagami's thoughts spiraled.
The phrase sounded completely out of place in the shinobi world. When Sara said it, Kagami had been thoroughly surprised.
It was likely a remnant of the original contract made between the first Dragon Vein core and the early ancestors of Loulan's royalty. Based on that alone, Kagami could roughly guess the origin of that mysterious power.
Pulling himself out of those thoughts, Hyuga Kagami looked up at the sky and murmured, "What kind of world is this, really?"
Meanwhile, in the Sand Village, the Fourth Kazekage had just received news that the Dragon Vein had been stolen.
Furious, he turned to his two advisors and demanded, "Could this be Konoha's doing?"
Chiyo snorted coldly. "The Fourth Hokage's seal wasn't something easily undone. If someone could break it so quickly, who else but Konoha could pull it off?"
The Kazekage slammed the intelligence report on the table. "Outrageous!"