---Third POV---
Bunpuku clearly felt Rasa's determination. Before this mission, Rasa had always referred to him as the Jinchūriki of the One-Tail.
Indeed, in Suna, people had almost entirely forgotten Bunpuku's name; some even referred to him directly as "One-Tail."
But at this moment, this man chose to respect Bunpuku in his final moments of life, addressing him by his true name and pleading with him to complete the mission.
They shared the same wish: to protect the Land of Wind.
Not for glory, not for power—but for the people who called the harsh desert home.
Understanding this, Bunpuku controlled the sand to envelop Rasa, forming a massive golden dragon of sand.
Sand swirled around Rasa in a spiraling vortex, lifting him into the air. It was as though he was clad in armor made of sand. At the same time, sealing techniques were activated, with runes like tadpoles rapidly spreading over the golden dragon's body.
With this, he won't be able to use that terrifying flame defense. Bunpuku thought to himself, satisfaction in his silent words.
The Golden Sand Dragon was not a simple technique. Its core was a highly dense chakra, allowing it to re-form like an indestructible entity even when scattered, until it crushed its enemies to death.
It roared and charged fiercely toward Ryouma.
Although, by comparison, Ryouma's size was far smaller than the golden dragon, for some reason, the latter exuded a tragic and heroic aura, like a brave warrior challenging a demon king.
"Who would've thought Magnetic Release could produce a jutsu like this? The spectacle is even more impressive than those flaming explosions. Though I'm not sure about its power."
He gazed at the massive golden dragon charging toward him in the sky, not showing a trace of panic. Instead, he had the presence of mind to admire and evaluate it.
And why was that?
As mentioned before, defense was never a concern for Ryouma.
Holding Lostvayne he flicked off the blood it had collected from Rasa earlier.
At this point, the dragon was less than five meters away from him, opening its maw to swallow him whole.
But just as Ryouma prepared to counter, a band of gold sand detached from the dragon's body, slithering like a snake toward his sword hand.
"A diversion?" Ryouma muttered, spotting the thin tendril too late.
The sand lashed around Lostvayne's hilt and yanked with surprising force. His grip faltered for just a second—a second too long. The sword was ripped from his hand, sailing through the air before embedding itself in a sand dune far behind the dragon's formation.
Shit! He quickly jumped back, avoiding the dragon's main assault by mere centimeters. The wind from its passing ruffled his hair.
That was... unexpected. They went for my weapon instead of a direct attack. Do I have to use it... It's not even a weapon! he realized, landing twenty meters away.
Rasa, not understanding why his opponent wasn't making any move, had no energy to dwell on it. What drove him now was a single obsession: to complete the technique and defeat Ryouma.
On the other side, Bunpuku frowned, sensing that things might not be so simple. His years of experience had taught him to be wary of opponents who remained calm after losing a key advantage.
Taijutsu won't be enough against this combined attack. I need something to channel my chakra through.
His hand darted to his ninja pouch, fingers scrambling for anything useful. They closed around a scroll—not his first choice, but it would have to do.
He unfurled the scroll and slammed his palm onto the central seal. A puff of smoke erupted, and as it cleared.
In his hand was not a backup weapon, but a long, sleek, unmistakably cylindrical object with an unusual handle.
"Damn... Do I really have to use it..."
It was, without question, the vibrator he got from his first pull.
The dragon was approaching fast. There was no time to summon another weapon.
Sometimes the most unorthodox tools make the best weapons, Ryouma thought grimly, channeling chakra into the vibrator. It's conductive, battery-powered, and designed to generate vibrations. Theoretically, it could disrupt the magnetic bonds in that sand construct.
"Behold!" he called out with sudden dramatic flair, shifting into an impromptu stance that mimicked classical swordsmanship. "The ancient sword Amaterasu's Pleasure! A legendary weapon passed down through fifteen generations of shadow warriors!"
Bunpuku's concentration faltered for just a moment as confusion crossed his features.
Ryouma spun the device in his hand like a conductor's baton, channeling lightning chakra through it. The vibrator hummed to life, buzzing with increasing intensity as electricity coursed through its circuitry. Its vibrations grew violent enough to distort the air around it.
"Ancient sword...?" Rasa began, before deciding that questioning his opponent's sanity was less important than killing him.
As the dragon closed in again, Ryouma dashed forward rather than retreating. He drove the electrified vibrator straight into the creature's golden flank.
"Lightning Release: Vibration Disruption Technique!"
The improvised weapon, now humming at an almost painful frequency, sent shockwaves of destabilizing chakra through the sand construct. The dragon's particles began to separate and fall away where the vibrations touched them, disrupting the magnetic bonds holding them together.
"What?!" Rasa shouted from within the construct, feeling his control slipping. "How is he neutralizing the magnetic field?"
Ryouma grinned despite the absurdity of the situation. "The holy bible never lie about Amaterasu's Pleasure! It brings ecstasy to its wielder and agony to its enemies!"
Using this unexpected opening, he jumped back, already preparing his next move. The vibrator continued buzzing wildly in his hand, its "motor" clearly not designed for channeling lightning chakra.
Not ideal, but it'll do for one final attack.
He raised the vibrator horizontally in front of his chest and lightly swung it toward the massive creature before him.
"Full Counter!!!"
In an instant, it was as if an invisible domain expanded rapidly from his position. The once-mighty golden dragon of sand suddenly seemed to suffer a crushing blow. Starting from its head, it began collapsing inward.
Crack… crack… crack…
Like a toy being broken, the golden dragon disintegrated. Not only that, the scattered sand was no longer influenced by the Magnetic Release, preventing it from reforming.
Instead, the sand became like countless projectiles, shooting back in the direction it had come.
Thud, thud, thud...
The sound of bullets piercing flesh echoed.
Rasa was engulfed in the rain of sand bullets. His body jerked with each impact.
In his final moments, his thoughts turned to his wife and his unborn child.
Will it be a boy or a girl?
As for Suna, he would leave that to the living. Separated by life and death, he silently wished them success. He suddenly realized he wasn't as free-spirited as he had imagined.
Ryouma... If only you were born in Suna…
Thus, the future Fourth Kazekage fell during the Third Great Ninja War. For Rasa, this seemed like a decent end, much better than dying in an ambush by Orochimaru in the future.
The sand bullets were still raining down, and Bunpuku was constantly controlling the sand to defend.
The vibrator in Ryouma's hand finally gave out, its motor burning from chakra overload. He tossed the smoking device aside with a quiet "Thank you for your service" and turned his full attention to Bunpuku.
After recovering a bit of his chakra, he controlled the last two Rasengan Spheres, sending them flying.
A fool would not seize such an opportunity.
With the Rikugan, the sand bullets hitting the ground kicked up a cloud of smoke, but it didn't block his line of sight in the slightest.
The two spheres, as if guided by GPS, flew straight toward Bunpuku. During their flight, they changed attributes, with one splitting into countless small spheres, while the other emitted the sound of chirping birds.
War is no child's play, and the same goes for jinchūriki.
His move was a killing technique. If the jinchūriki were dead, Suna would lose its ability to wage war. The only difference was that capturing a jinchūriki alive would allow a more severe strike against Suna.
On the other side, under the heavy sand defenses, Bunpuku wasn't hurt much.
But suddenly, a swift lightning bolt broke through the sand shield in the blink of an eye. It pierced through his abdomen, pinning him to the spot.
The tailed beast chakra cloak was no defense against the sharpness of the Thunder Gun.
Bunpuku hastily tried to use his sealing technique to seal the lightning chakra, hoping to escape.
But it was already too late.
The Bullet Rain reached him only a moment after the Thunder Gun, and he didn't have time to use his sealing technique to escape the Thunder Gun's paralysis effect.
He could only watch as a much more powerful area-of-effect attack than the sand bullet rain hit his body.
But it wasn't over yet!
While Ryouma used the last two spheres, his body wasn't idle. He formed the Grand Flame Rasengan with his hands and threw it as well.
This time, without any interference from sealing techniques, it finally showed its power as an S-rank single-target jutsu.
When the Grand Flame Rasengan hit Bunpuku, the tailed beast chakra cloak was burned away.
Seeing it hit, Ryouma formed a hand sign with one hand and shouted.
"Explosion!"
Dark purple flames erupted with the explosion, completely engulfing Bunpuku's body.
The terrifying heat seemed capable of igniting even a person's thoughts. Bunpuku, now unable to muster the energy to perform a sealing technique, felt as if his body no longer existed.
He couldn't even sense his fingers, let alone use a sealing technique.
He was about to die…
---
Drip… drip…
It was as if in a dark cave, a single drop of water fell silently into a still pool, and Bunpuku sat cross-legged beside it, just as he had once done when guarding the tailed beast's prison in Suna.
Clearly, this was the sealing space deep within his heart.
"Do you know you're about to die?" A massive, tailed creature appeared from the darkness, looming behind Bunpuku.
"Yeah, I know I'm about to die."
"Hmph, I told you before, those humans want you to die. Konoha is the village built by that man."
"Thank you for your concern," Bunpuku said, though he didn't know who the man mentioned by the One-Tail was, he could feel the sincerity in Shukaku's words.
---
In the physical world, as the flames began to subside, Ryouma looked back toward the sand dune where Lostvayne had landed.
The blade stood upright in the sand.
As he walked toward it, he couldn't help but glance at the charred remains of "Amaterasu's Pleasure" lying in the sand. What had once been a sleek device was now a melted, unrecognizable lump of plastic and circuitry.
I hope the others didn't see me using it...
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