---Third POV---
Emotions were just another form of combat. Shiori looked at Kakuzu with a disdainful gaze, this guy really knew how to glorify himself.
He had been exposed, but he didn't feel ashamed at all. Even being captured alive depended on who caught him. If it was someone like the First Hokage, wasn't it natural to lose?
Ryouma glanced at him. "There must've been quite a few Konoha ninjas who died at your hands. Looking at it now, the First Hokage was wrong to spare you."
Kakuzu snorted. "Do you think it's appropriate to criticize your own Hokage?"
"The First Hokage thought you were skilled and didn't want the village to lose a capable fighter. But after returning to the village, you chose to assassinate the upper ranks, steal forbidden jutsu, and then defect."
Kakuzu's expression stiffened. This kid sure knew a lot. But having lived so long, these old, rotting stories no longer affected his mindset.
"They betrayed me first. Dying at my hands was what they deserved."
In this world, only money would never betray him.
"Mmm, you're not wrong," Ryouma nodded calmly.
"?" Kakuzu had expected him to self-righteously lecture him. He didn't expect the other to agree. But that actually wasn't surprising.
To be fair, if the village had assigned Ryouma an impossible mission, and he barely made it back alive only to face accusations and punishment, he wouldn't surrender quietly either.
He began walking slowly toward Kakuzu, continuing to speak, "Though I sympathize with what happened to you, since you've already attacked me, I assume you're prepared to be killed."
Seeing Ryouma move, Kakuzu quickly reassessed the positions of the Flying Thunder God kunai around him, while numerous black tendrils of Earth Grudge Fear erupted from his body.
Facing this, Ryouma's steps didn't falter in the slightest. He slowly drew Lostvayne.
"Shiori."
"Huh?"
Shiori was suddenly called on and responded in a panic.
"It's getting late. If we want to return to the village soon, I need to finish this. That okay with you?"
"Do as you like," Shiori replied. Ryouma had just saved her. Though she could revive by reversing time after being hit, the pain was still real.
Thinking about Ryouma shielding her from that attack, her face turned a little red.
"Arrogant!" Kakuzu sneered, controlling several Earth Grudge Fear tendrils to extend rapidly like giant pythons striking toward him.
Boom!
The ground under Ryouma shattered from the impact, collapsing as debris flew, but there was no sign of him.
Kakuzu's eyes quickly scanned the locations of the Flying Thunder God kunai he had memorized.
Suddenly, the sound of birds chirping rang out behind him.
"Aaah—!"
Ryouma's hand went directly through one of Kakuzu's hearts.
Kakuzu's whole body trembled, then he quickly leapt back to create distance, forming hand signs rapidly and slapping the ground.
Instantly, the ground beneath Ryouma's feet turned soft like a swamp, spinning like a vortex with him at the center.
Seeing that he had trapped his enemy, he didn't hesitate, he kept forming hand signs. Large amounts of chakra poured into the ground, generating massive, solid stone spikes that surged toward Ryouma.
Just as Ryouma was about to be impaled by the spikes, in the next instant, his body vanished from its original position again.
Kakuzu had long anticipated this move, and more massive stone spikes erupted around him. He suspected that Ryouma had used some unknown method to place a space-time coordinate mark on him.
Some had bluntly said that once marked by the Flying Thunder God, it was essentially a death sentence.
That phrase fit Kakuzu perfectly in this moment.
Ryouma instantly reappeared at the location of a Flying Thunder God kunai that Kakuzu had previously knocked away.
At the same time, he formed a Rasenshuriken with one hand and, using the Flying Thunder God Technique, instantly transported it right to Kakuzu's foot.
Forming a hand seal, he detonated the Rasenshuriken on impact.
A massive blue storm expanded instantly to its full size, and the roaring winds formed countless fine blades, tearing into Kakuzu's body. Even though he desperately activated the Earth Spear and Hardening Technique, but he couldn't fully withstand the finely-honed wind blades created through extreme nature transformation.
Blood poured from his body.
When the storm finally settled, Kakuzu's body, tossed into the air by the violent winds, crashed heavily back to the ground.
Shiori thought to herself, He should be dead this time, right? Still, she didn't get too close until Ryouma waved her over.
"What the heck is this guy made of? He got hit by your Rasenshuriken and still left behind a full corpse?"
As Ryouma used his Rikugan to observe the condition of the Earth Grudge Fear within Kakuzu's corpse, he explained to Shiori, "This is a forbidden technique from Taki called Earth Grudge Fear. It's similar to Samehada, essentially a living weapon. But this one is even more deeply connected to the user's body, more like a parasitic organism."
His explanation was clear and easy to understand. Even someone like Obito could probably follow along. Shiori asked, "So what do we do with this? Hand it over to the Third Hokage?"
But if they handed it over to him, they'd have to explain how they ran into Kakuzu, which would expose the fact that they had secretly left the village.
Hearing her question, Ryouma lightly shook his head.
"No need for that. Creatures like this were actually quite common in the shinobi world long ago. Most of them were sealed away by the Sage of Six Paths and monks from different regions."
As he spoke, he pulled out a scroll covered in black sealing and began writing and drawing on the blank spaces.
Shiori glanced over... yeah, she couldn't understand any of it.
Fuinjutsu was notoriously difficult to interpret without proper guidance. The seal was completely incomprehensible.
Before long, Ryouma had filled in all the blank areas with intricate formulas using special ink.
This was a general-purpose sealing scroll he had prepared in his spare time. Depending on what kind of thing he wanted to seal, he would simply fill in the appropriate parts, allowing him to quickly prepare the sealing process.
He laid the scroll out flat in front of Kakuzu's corpse and rapidly formed hand signs with both hands.
The black sealing lit up with a glow, quickly spreading outward from the scroll, and in a flash, it covered Kakuzu's entire body.
Sensing something, the Earth Grudge Fear, hidden within the corpse suddenly stirred. A mass of blood vessel-like tendrils wriggled out, trying to escape.
"What a disgusting monster," Shiori said.
The instinct to survive drove the Earth Grudge Fear to try and flee this unsettling place, but without a host, the parasite was left weak and powerless.
Ryouma had already fully deployed his jutsu. With a crisp, decisive clap of his hands, the Earth Grudge Fear had no vocal organs, so it couldn't even scream as it was dragged by the sealing technique into the scroll.
In the blank circular space at the center of the scroll, a pattern of a tentacled monster formed.
Picking up the scroll from the ground, he imprinted it with a Flying Thunder God mark and casually teleported it to his secret little storage.
With the attack from Kakuzu over, the two briefly cleaned up the battlefield.
Then, Ryouma took Shiori and directly "flew" back to Konoha.
---
The two appeared in a small alley. Walking out of the alley, their paths would now part, Uchiha territory and Senju territory were in opposite directions within the village.
Ryouma actually wanted to see Homura again, but considering the purpose of Shiori's trip, he figured the father and daughter still had their hands full, so he didn't want to get in the way.
Besides, it was getting late.
After saying goodbye, he returned to Tsunade's house.
"I'm back."
"Welcome back. But dinner will take a bit longer." Rin walked out of the house toward him with her hand extended. Ryouma moved to take off his coat and hand it to her, playing along.
Unexpectedly, she reached for Shukaku on his shoulder, picked it up, and turned to walk away.
"I bought some dried fish on the way back, Shukaku."
"Excellent. I was just getting hungry."
Ryouma gave a helpless smile, hung up his coat, changed into slippers, and went inside.
There, Tsunade was lying on the sofa in an undignified sprawl, grumbling loudly. "He is really getting on in years, giving those two annoying geezers so much power."
Shizune was flipping through a booklet and jotting down notes now and then. When she saw Ryouma come back, she looked at him like he was her savior.
"Please come and talk some sense into Lady Tsunade."
"What happened? Who made her mad?"
Tsunade snorted at his unserious attitude, she was just venting and didn't really intend to act on it.
"So what actually happened?" Ryouma asked curiously.
Rin gave him a quick rundown, "The war with Kiri is about to end, right? Tsunade-sensei wanted to reassign some withdrawn ninjas to the medical corps, but the two advisors rejected her proposal, saying it would weaken our combat strength."
Ryouma understood. So it was that matter again. He remembered a similar situation from long ago, her suggestion to expand the medical corps had been rejected before.
In essence, the final decision in such matters lay with the Hokage. The two advisors mostly serve a ceremonial function.
The root of the issue was that Hiruzen didn't want to take risks. Even though Konoha was fighting on multiple fronts, on paper it was still strong. As long as no major blunders were made, it would likely emerge as the ultimate victor of the Third Great Ninja War.
Expanding the medical corps might reduce casualties and boost the odds of victory, but it could also stretch the front lines thin and result in direct defeats.
Hiruzen cared more about stability, so Tsunade's proposal was doomed from the start. The only question was who would be the first to reject it and take the blame.
Ryouma took a sip of the tea Rin had made for him and asked casually, "How about becoming the Fourth Hokage?"
That would be the most straightforward solution. Given Tsunade's status, if she wanted to become Hokage, no one in the entire Land of Fire would dare oppose her.
Well, except one person.
"Don't joke around. There's no way I'm becoming Hokage," Tsunade said, curling her lip.
The only reason she was even staying in Konoha was because of Ryouma. Originally, she had planned to leave the village with Shizune after the war with Suna ended.
He understood how she felt, so he continued, "Then let's just wait until Captain Minato becomes the Fourth Hokage and have him push this plan forward."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "You think Orochimaru can't compete with Minato?"
"I think the Third Hokage favors Captain Minato more."
Tsunade actually preferred Orochimaru for the Hokage position, but it seemed everyone around her was more optimistic about Minato. She let out a quiet sigh. If Minato really did become the Fourth Hokage… then Orochimaru…
Ryouma noticed what she was thinking. But there was only one Hokage seat, and frankly, neither of them should be the ones stressing over it.
---
And so, Ryouma spent a few relaxing days in the village. During that time, Shiori came to challenge him to a duel, but he turned her down, citing the village's ban on internal combat. He had no interest in fighting with restrictions. Just imagining having to hold back while using Full Counter on a Susanoo gave him a headache.
Shiori, on the other hand, thought he was underestimating her. To set things straight, he told her about his battle with Madara back in the Land of Water.
Only then did she quiet down.
Now, he lay in his usual spot, his favorite chair, basking lazily in the sun.
He'd been back from the Kiri front lines for quite some time, and the promised assignment to the Land of Hot Water still hadn't been assigned yet. He was starting to think he should just go there himself.
Still, the sunlight in the Land of Fire was pleasantly warm. He murmured, "Then again, lying here like this isn't bad either. Kakashi and Obito can just keep building their bond out on the battlefield."
After all, Minato was a reliable young captain.
---
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen was calmly smoking his pipe when he suddenly sneezed.
"Achoo!"
"Someone must be talking about me… Could it be Kushina?"
A few days ago, she had barged into the his office, demanding to go help Minato on the battlefield in the Land of Hot Water, after hearing that Kumo had sent the Eight-Tails jinchūriki there.
On the surface, her request seemed reasonable.
But the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki was said to be a perfect host, able to release the tailed beast without losing control.
If she went to the battlefield and lost control, then yes, Kumo might suffer, but Konoha wouldn't escape unscathed either.
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