Samui's bow was indeed overly dazzling.
Ryosuke awkwardly shifted his gaze away, and then heard Samui speak in a very serious tone, "Please reconsider carefully. No matter what the Hidden Mist Village, the Land of Water, can provide for you, our Hidden Cloud Village, the Land of Lightning, will only offer more."
After speaking, Samui swayed her waist and left gracefully.
Ryosuke did not look at her swaying back. He once again opened his notebook, writing and sketching on it, while softly saying toward the shadow behind him, "How long are you still going to hide?"
Terumi Mei walked out from the shadows, shaking the wine bottle in her hand.
"Have a drink?"
"Sure."
She walked over, imitating Ryosuke to sit at the edge of the rooftop, poured two cups of wine, handed one over, and asked, "Good-looking?"
Ryosuke took the wine, paused for half a second, then smiled and said, "I thought your first sentence would be to ask me what Samui and I talked about."
Terumi Mei let out a "hmph" from her nose.
"People from the Hidden Cloud Village coming here, it's nothing more than those few lousy things, money, people, power, tricking strong people over to sell their lives, especially someone like you, so strong and with such a good-looking little face."
Ryosuke nodded, sipped the wine, and said, "Not bad."
"What 'not bad'?"
Terumi Mei didn't continue asking; Ryosuke was answering her "good-looking?" question.
Ryosuke was a normal man. The first glance was an uncontrollable instinct. Being able to move his gaze away at the second glance was already the limit.
"So, you're tempted?" Terumi Mei asked.
"No, too big, not suitable for me."
"Huh?"
Ryosuke said seriously, "The Hidden Cloud Village's territory is too vast, its military armament strong, finances abundant."
"If I go there, for them it's nothing more than adding flowers to brocade. It's impossible, like in the Hidden Mist Village, to put my ideas into practice."
"Ah… ah, that's the 'big' you meant."
Ryosuke looked toward Terumi Mei, "Besides, the Hidden Mist Village still has you."
Terumi Mei's heart skipped a beat, her lips feeling dry. Just as she was about to say something, she heard Ryosuke continue, "There's also Zabuza, Ao, Chojuro… as well as many people who have experienced the Blood Mist and walked out from hell."
"These people will treasure hard-won happiness more. Working together with you all far surpasses going to the Hidden Cloud Village. Look, "
Ryosuke pointed toward the village shrouded in thin mist.
Ten thousand lights, peaceful and harmonious.
Ryosuke slightly raised his cup toward Terumi Mei, "I want to, together with you, continue this happiness's 'lights' until the world is peaceful… is that okay?"
Terumi Mei stared blankly into Ryosuke's eyes, black and clear, under the moonlight like a piece of brilliant glass. In her heart she sincerely sighed, 'He really is a succubus.'
"Okay."
The two clinked cups, drinking in one go.
While drinking, Terumi Mei kept her eyes open.
She looked at the starry sky, looked at the moonlight, and again looked at Ryosuke.
Having drunk all night without getting drunk before, at this moment, for some reason, she felt a little drunk.
Many emotions, following the drunkenness, fermented in her chest, pushing and shoving to drill into her mouth, "When the world is peaceful, I've stepped down from the position of Mizukage, and you have your own village, I'll come find you, okay?"
Ryosuke looked at her in surprise. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes like a clear spring, one look showed she had drunk too much and was speaking drunken words.
He casually agreed, "Okay."
"Okay my ass!"
Terumi Mei patted her butt and stood up, raised her chin, "I am Terumi Mei, a woman destined to shine brilliantly. Who would go to your shabby little village to farm? I'm leaving."
She waved her hand toward Ryosuke, swaying as she went down the stairs.
The banquet had long since ended. Terumi Mei was walking on the road home. Halfway, it began to rain from the sky, the drizzle falling on her face, soaking her clothes, yet feeling especially comfortable.
She walked quickly in the rain, and after a while turned into a small run, humming an unknown little tune, hopping in the rain, occasionally even laughing quietly, just like…
"A child."
Ryosuke said with a smile.
The aviation Smith hovered in the air, and after confirming that the drunken woman had returned home safely, the small aircraft once again disappeared.
In the following few days, Ryosuke's life obtained a rare tranquility.
It was as if he had forgotten that he had once chopped off the daimyo's head, swaggering in the Hidden Mist Village, occasionally even going out of the village, to the fields or riversides, chatting leisurely with old farmers and fishermen.
"What exactly are you doing?" Konan asked.
Ryosuke closed his notebook, "I'm recording. Don't you think it's strange?"
"Clearly the technology is still considered fairly developed, there's electricity, machinery, computers, and ninjas even have miraculous ninjutsu…"
"But life doesn't seem to be very prosperous."
Konan tilted her head slightly.
"Is there a problem?"
"A big problem."
Taking the simplest example, and also the one most concerning to people from Ryosuke's hometown, since there's electricity and machinery, why not build roads?
The world of Naruto has vast jungles, why not reclaim land?
"The so-called Great Ninja Wars are nothing more than fighting over resources. But if the harvest from self-development far exceeds the harvest from plunder, large-scale wars wouldn't be fought."
Ryosuke lifted the notebook in his hand.
"I just want to see where exactly the tech tree was misallocated, and from where I could try to correct it back."
'Technology… road building… land reclamation…'
Konan listened until she felt a little dizzy, but she roughly understood Ryosuke's meaning, that is, using technology to obtain more food and resources.
"Even if you succeed, at most you'll become a second Hidden Cloud Village. Once the Hidden Mist Village and the Land of Water are full and warm, they will inevitably want to expand territory. What method will you use to avoid war?"
"With this."
Ryosuke handed the notebook in his hand over to Konan.
"This contains my ideas, combined with Orochimaru's biotechnology, making some adjustments in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry. Of course, each village's situation is different, but it should be enough to give you a reference."
"The day after tomorrow is the tenth day, you're going to leave, right? Consider it my parting gift."
'Parting… gift?'
Konan was a little dazed, wasn't she a prisoner?
A prisoner leaving, and there's even a gift?
She took the thick notebook, and only then discovered, several hundred pages, densely covered with neat writing, and some places even with accompanying diagrams.
She flipped page by page. As the manager of the Hidden Rain Village, the more Konan read, the more shocked she felt.
Many of the ideas inside she had never heard of, yet they could truly bypass slaughter and combat, solving the Hidden Rain Village's difficulties.
"This is really for me?"
"Of course."
Ryosuke said, "I'll keep updating it. If you're interested, I can send you a copy regularly."
"Then…"
Konan took a deep breath, and said solemnly, "Much obliged."
Ryosuke smiled, extending his hand.
"Goodbye, Konan."
"Goodbye, Ryosuke."
She didn't shake hands, but opened her arms, giving Ryosuke a light hug.
"Also, thank you for the hospitality during this time."
She patted Ryosuke's back, then turned and left.
Konan walked farther and farther away, and from her backpack took out the Akatsuki uniform, putting it on anew.
All brilliance in life must ultimately be repaid with loneliness. During these "prisoner" days, she had witnessed too many dazzling souls. Next, Konan saw Pain standing at the end of the street.
And Uchiha Itachi, Kisame, quietly standing behind Pain.
"Time to face some darker fellows."
But for some reason, touching the notebook in her backpack, Konan's mood was instead full of anticipation.
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