Hidan held the letter in both hands.
On the letter, line after line of graceful, delicate characters filled the page, describing in detail the plan of the white-haired cult leader.
The leader had only intended to use the Evil God cult's secret arts, combined with Hidan's own talent, to create an immortal being who would spread the teachings of Evil God.
But then, he encountered Tsunade.
A woman granted by heaven.
The bloodline of Senju Hashirama, the healing slugs of the Shikkotsu Forest, the Strength of a Hundred Seal.
Three of the most vigorous and most unique sources of life force in the ninja world, following the scar on Tsunade's chest, under the effects of the Evil God ritual, fell into the hands of the white-haired leader.
The descent of the Divine Nation into the Evil God village.
Endless revival by transferring the body.
Power increases granted through pleasing Evil God… all of it was based on this.
Tsunade's life force, she was practically a perfect match for the Evil God.
This was the guidance of fate.
The white-haired leader saw a new possibility, to go further, to drain Tsunade and Ryosuke dry, and use them as material to forge Hidan into a Holy Son that could hold Evil God's descent.
Ironically, it was because of Ryosuke that Tsunade had come to the Land of Hot Springs to clear her mind, and there encountered the Evil God cult's ambush, which caused the leader to form this new plan.
And that plan, after going in circles, was once again shattered by Ryosuke.
Ryosuke was both the initial cause and the final end.
Hidan never became Evil God's Holy Son. He only…
Hidan lifted his hand. He could vaguely sense that at his fingertips, a special layer of power clung there.
He had gained the ability to touch up close, and pass on death.
"At this close… couldn't I just stab with a knife instead?"
Scratching his head, gnawing on a flatbread, Hidan looked at the end of the letter, "…By the time you read this letter, I will most likely be dead. This is my fate. Hidan, go seek out your own fate."
"Good luck."
Hidan clutched the letter in confusion.
"But… where is my fate?"
Suddenly, a strong wind came and blew the letter out of his hand.
The letter spun once in the air, then flipped over and fell onto the ground.
On the back of the letter was, unexpectedly, an arrow.
Beneath the arrow was a line of words, "Oh right, if you don't know where to go, then just pick a direction at random and start walking. That place will be your forward path."
Below was a simple sketch of the leader's head, smiling at Hidan.
Seeing that smile, Hidan's eyes reddened again.
He knelt down, facing the village, and bowed deeply in a full prostration, his forehead pressed to the earth.
Then Hidan stood up, picked the letter from the ground, carefully tucked it into his chest, and gripped the flatbread in his hand.
He strode forward in the direction fate had pointed.
———
"So the so-called 'Holy Son Hidan' is here?" Kakashi asked.
Ryosuke looked around at the corpses scattered everywhere and said, "Other than the cult leader, I didn't sense any other unusual person. Most likely, he escaped."
Tsunade's relaxed brows knit slightly once more. "Can you track him?"
Leaving such a cultist alive out there, she couldn't help but worry more trouble would come.
"No." Ryosuke shook his head.
Between him and Hidan, there was no direct cause-and-effect tie, and in the Left Protector's memories, during Hidan's transformation experiments with the Evil God cult, his body, his face, maybe even his soul, had all been altered.
No one knew what Hidan had become after the transformation experiments were complete.
Both nodded slightly. In battle, there would always be survivors that slipped through, let alone when the enemy had deliberately hidden someone away.
"But still…"
Tsunade raised her head to the sky. "Does a 'god' like this really exist?"
Blood-curse killing.
Divine Nation rituals.
Endless resurrection.
It all sounded like miracles, and they had seen it with their own eyes.
If not for the Evil God cult's teachings being so blatantly against human nature, if they had been even slightly gentler, Tsunade herself might have believed it.
"God… I think, does not exist." Ryosuke said.
Tsunade turned her head to him. She saw certainty in his expression. "But you saw it just now as well, "
She pointed toward the sky.
Ryosuke lifted his right hand.
When trading blows with the Left Protector, the other's Evil God power had invaded. Ryosuke had cut off his own right hand, then regrown it. So, the skin tone was slightly different.
"I felt it up close, their so-called 'divine power.'"
When Ryosuke fully released his Ripple, he could borrow the power of nature, listening to the breath of the world.
And when fighting the cultists, he could hear the cultists' inner joy, the screams of the innocent who died tragically, and also, carried by Evil God's power, he heard the purest, most extreme desire for self-destruction.
Humans, under high pressure, would more or less give rise to self-destructive thoughts.
Like a senior in high school, thinking of tomorrow's mock exam, muttering they want to die.
Like an exhausted office worker, wishing for the end of the world so they wouldn't have to work tomorrow.
Of course, most people only thought it.
But in the shinobi world, common folk suffered far more torment. Their urge for self-destruction was even stronger.
Ryosuke said, "It's like in a region, when the blazing sun bakes down, the river water evaporates, it might trigger a torrential rain."
"Evil God is more like… after long years of war in this world, people's death wishes 'evaporated,' gathered together, and formed a rainstorm called Evil God."
Kakashi and Tsunade listened in a daze to Ryosuke's speculation.
Tsunade licked her lips and asked, "So… Evil God is a kind of 'natural disaster'?"
"Yes. A weather phenomenon fusing the will of the common people, the state of the world, and natural power. Of course, this is only my personal theory. The truth, who can say."
Ryosuke looked deeply at Tsunade.
If the truth of the matter really was like this…
Then Tsunade, as the granddaughter of Senju Hashirama who shaped the shinobi world, the meaning her bloodline carried, to Evil God,
Would be no different from the Joestar bloodline's importance to Dio.
"You should hurry back to Konoha and become village head."
Ryosuke's unspoken words were, 'Don't keep wandering around flaunting the Senju bloodline.'
With the enemy dead, Tsunade returned to her usual careless self. Hands on hips, she laughed heartily, "We'll talk about being village head later. Today we defeated a powerful foe, which means my luck's real good."
"Come on, let's grab Shizune, find a place to gamble a few rounds!"
"Ryosuke, you helped me so much, whatever I win later, I'll split half with you!"
'Gambling…' Ryosuke's expression stiffened slightly.
All his life, he hated two things, drugs, and gambling.
Considering they'd fought side by side, Ryosuke didn't raise his fists. He only tried to dissuade her, "Nine times out of ten, gambling ends in loss."
With a wave of her small hand, Tsunade tilted up her chin, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! There's no way I'll lose today!"
Ryosuke shook his head helplessly.
The three set out back toward the town. Ryosuke glanced one last time at the village dyed red with blood.
This time, the "rainstorm of death" had been stopped. But as long as this world remained unchanged, the dark clouds would gather again.
"The road is long and hard… but still, not without gain."
Ryosuke checked his system.
[Current total of soul fragments: 6714]
Ryosuke took a deep breath. Finally, he had gathered enough.
'Upgrade Platinum Star: The World.'
[How many soul fragments do you wish to invest?]
'Fill it to the max.'
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