"Land, give me a piece of land where I can build a village."
"People, after Yagura steps down, I hope you can become the Mizukage."
Terumi Mei asked, "And the promise?"
Ryosuke put down his hand. "That's not urgent. Let's talk after we win."
"Land is no problem. I can promise you that right now. But 'Mizukage'…"
Terumi Mei awkwardly scratched her face and pointed to herself. "I'm only twenty-one years old."
In the original plan, after Yagura stepped down, the position of Mizukage would temporarily be managed by Elder Genshii. At a suitable time, the Fifth Mizukage would be elected.
Ryosuke shook his head.
Before coming, Ryosuke had asked Kamihara Hayato for a list of Kirigakure's top-ranking ninjas and their corresponding personality traits.
There was no one more suitable than Terumi Mei.
If Ryosuke's plan were to proceed, Terumi Mei had to become Mizukage.
However, Ryosuke didn't dwell on the topic.
All rewards could only be fulfilled after victory.
Only three days remained. After Terumi Mei settled everyone in, she left once more in a hurry.
Konan watched Terumi Mei walk away, then turned her head and asked Ryosuke, "Is she your woman?"
At that moment, Ryosuke, Sasuke, and Rei all sprayed tea from their mouths simultaneously, splashing Konan in the face. She was about to blow up when Mayuri gently handed over a towel.
"Of course not," Ryosuke said.
"Then why are you treating her so well? Risking danger to help her, and even wanting her to become Mizukage?"
"Because she has potential."
"What kind of potential?"
Ryosuke didn't continue answering and instead turned to ask, "Do you think the masked man will show up?"
Konan hesitated for a moment and said, "He's a very mysterious man. No one can see through his true intentions…"
Halfway through her sentence, Konan suddenly realized something.
"Why am I telling you this?"
Ryosuke chuckled. "Then I'll ask in a different way."
"After witnessing with your own eyes what's happening in the Land of Water and Kirigakure right now, Konan, do you want the masked man to stop this transformation from happening?"
This time, Konan didn't respond.
———
Perhaps out of concern for information leaks, Terumi Mei had booked the entire hot spring inn. Other than them, there were no other guests in the building.
It was a rare chance to enjoy a hot spring. After changing clothes and heading to the bath, Ryosuke heard Mayuri's voice behind him, "My lord, if you'd like, I can scrub your back for you."
Ryosuke pretended not to hear and entered the men's bath. As soon as he stepped in, steam filled the air, visibility was low. Ryosuke groped around the edge of the pool and slowly immersed himself.
Just as he closed his eyes to enjoy the warmth of the water, a cold voice rang out behind him.
"So-called 'invincible Ryosuke' is only at this level? I really don't understand why that woman Terumi Mei trusts you so much."
From the thick steam emerged a kunai pressed against Ryosuke's throat. Ryosuke opened his eyes slightly, behind him stood a fierce-looking man wrapped in a bath towel.
Ryosuke had seen him in the intel from Kamihara Hayato.
Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi. Dissatisfied with Yagura's Bloody Mist policy for many years, he once tried to assassinate Yagura alone but was stopped in time by Terumi Mei. Eventually, he became one of the core members of the reformist faction.
Ryosuke shifted to a more comfortable position, leaning against the hot spring's edge, and said,
"Why not look behind you?"
Through the mist, Sasuke had silently appeared, holding a kunai to Zabuza's waist.
Zabuza let out a cold snort.
"Why don't you look behind you?"
Behind Sasuke, the mist cleared slightly, and another Zabuza appeared, pressing a kunai to the back of Sasuke's neck. The original one had been a water clone decoy.
"Why don't we keep look, ah, forget it."
Ryosuke didn't want to keep playing the endless loop. Behind him, Star Platinum reached out with one hand for each, and threw both Sasuke and Zabuza into the hot spring pool.
Water splashed high, crossing the bamboo partition and landing in the women's bath next door, triggering screams from the women.
"So noisy!"
Zabuza let out a low shout, waved his hand, and dispelled the thick mist from the Hidden Mist Jutsu. Visibility became much clearer. He coldly stared at Ryosuke and said,
"I advise you to leave immediately. Whether Yagura is overthrown, or we get killed by Yagura, that's an internal affair of Kirigakure. It's not something for an outsider like you to meddle in."
Before Ryosuke could respond, Sasuke, annoyed by Zabuza's arrogance, said, "If it weren't for Brother Ryosuke, you all would lose."
"Bullshit!"
Zabuza raised his fist. "With me here, losing is impossible. I am the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi!"
"You're the one talking bullshit! Eat it!"
Sasuke clenched hard and, right in the hot spring, let out several loud farts that bubbled up as water bubbles. Then he used Ripple energy to stabilize the bubbles, grabbed one, and threw it at Zabuza.
"Oni Bath Fart Ripple Dash!"
Zabuza swung his hand to shatter the ripple bubble. Immediately, a strong fart stench hit his nose.
"Stinky brat!"
Though Zabuza was pissed, he didn't stoop to argue with a kid, or rather, he had the pride of a true strong warrior. Otherwise, he wouldn't have refused to collude with the die-hard faction and planned to take on Yagura alone.
Ryosuke chuckled softly.
Zabuza had come to talk tough mainly to test Ryosuke's abilities. If Ryosuke was all name and no substance, Zabuza would tell him to scram.
Now that the reformists had heard Terumi Mei invited Ryosuke, many held high hopes. If Ryosuke chickened out three days from now…
It would deal a huge blow to reformist morale.
'But… can I handle a perfect Jinchuriki?'
Tailed Beasts, Ryosuke had never seen one.
From all the intel gathered, Ryosuke's impression of Tailed Beasts was basically giant monsters from Ultraman.
Extremely massive. With power, vitality, and defense to match their size. And they could go shooting lasers.
The simplest method to handle such inhumanly large monsters would be large-scale firepower bombardment, like the Super Fire Dragon Storm technique created jointly by Root's elite ninja.
Unfortunately, Kirigakure's situation was complicated. Terumi Mei's side had only forty to fifty available people. They weren't like Root, carefully selected, trained, and drilled. They couldn't pull off those kinds of joint jutsu on short notice.
Ryosuke calculated his current resources.
Hermit Purple, useless.
Aerosmith, capable of aerial interference, but lacked direct combat power.
White Snake, useful for breaking genjutsu, possibly summonable during that moment. But once battle began, its use would drop off.
Rainbow Catcher…
'If only it were raining.'
If it rained, even if more Tailed Beasts came along with Yagura, Ryosuke believed he could take them down easily. Rainbow Catcher combined with Ripple and Nature's Power could realize domain-level control, offering power that transcended its tier.
Unfortunately, there was no forecasted rain in Kirigakure anytime soon.
'I'll have to rely on Star Platinum.'
Using its unmatched frontal attack power to bomb the enemy's body while ignoring size, that was the method Ryosuke came up with.
To do that, Ryosuke decided to level Star Platinum to max.
Currently, Star Platinum was level 4 at 0%. Level 5 required 4000 soul fragments.
Killing Danzo gave him 1100 fragments. Combined with defeating a large number of Root ninjas and what Ryosuke had saved before, his current total soul fragments, 3810.
'Still short by 190.'
In Kirigakure territory, Ryosuke was about to begin action against Yagura. To avoid drawing attention, he couldn't just go around bounty hunting as usual.
'So where do I get 190 fragments?'
'If only there were a decently known ninja I could beat up for them…'
As he thought about it, his eyes locked with Zabuza's across the steam.
Ryosuke gave a big, dumb grin, "Heh heh."
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