The sky was trembling.
The earth was trembling.
People's hearts were trembling.
Uchiha Yorin withdrew his Perfect Sage Susanoo and sheathed his blades, but he didn't drop back down. He remained hanging in midair like a god—or a demon.
The phrase "on a whim, stand above all" fit him perfectly in that moment.
Opposite him, the Six Paths of Pain that had been fighting him were gone. Yorin guessed that aside from the one body he'd intentionally spared—the Deva Path, Yahiko's corpse—the other Paths were probably dust, literally.
In their place lay a sword mark, tens of kilometers long and bottomlessly deep. With that one technique, Uchiha Yorin had permanently changed the geography of the Land of Water—and maybe the entire planet.
…
"What did we just see?! We actually saw it—my god, that was beyond imagination! Our great Master Yorin used a super-invincible technique and blasted that villain Rinyo into dust!"
"It's unreal—is that really power a human can wield? Really?"
If this had happened decades ago, when Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama were around, maybe people wouldn't be so shocked. Their battles had also shaken the heavens and earth and made everyone go, "holy crap."
The difference was: back then, the media wasn't this advanced. There was no global live broadcast.
This time, ninja power had been transmitted to the entire world in real time on TV. And this footage would also be spread by ten million copies of videotape to every corner of the map.
Uchiha Yorin let out a long breath.
"That was… yeah…"
For a moment he'd channeled nearly the whole planet's power, and that intoxicating feeling of being able to do anything was hard to resist. But once it was over, the backlash was brutal.
He felt like if he closed his eyes for even a second he'd pass out on the spot. But he couldn't; he had to hold it together.
"The villain Rinyo has already been—what?!"
If he actually showed the world the "leader of Akatsuki" being destroyed, some idiot daimyo or noble was absolutely going to try the old "once the birds are gone, put away the bow" routine.
He honestly couldn't understand how they dared. Were they not afraid of death? Did they really think they could point a gun at someone like him and not get erased?
But if they did try it, it'd be annoying to clean up.
So for the sake of convenience, Rinyo had to survive.
Right on cue, under the eyes of the world, the supposedly obliterated Rinyo reappeared. He looked wrecked, but not dead.
"What, that's impossible?!" Yorin shouted, giving an acting performance worthy of an Oscar. "Why are you still alive?!"
"Hahaha. I admit your power is great. For now, you may be stronger than I am. But that doesn't mean you can kill me.
Because I am an idea— and ideas cannot be killed."
With that line delivered, he used a Body Flicker and vanished.
Yorin put on a face like he wanted to chase, but the next second he burst into a spray of blood worthy of Zhuge Liang, clutching his chest with a "damn it, one day I will kill you, just you wait…"
…
And just like that, round one of Yorin vs. Rinyo ended.
On paper, they'd fought to a draw. Uchiha Yorin seemed stronger, but unless he could figure out the secret behind Rinyo's "resurrection," he had no way to finish the job.
As for Yorin, he'd taken heavy damage and was utterly exhausted. At the Land of Water daimyo's insistent invitation, he stayed in the capital to rest and recover.
The daimyo and nobles went all out to flatter him. Some of them were very literally ready to send their daughters—or their wives—to Yorin's bed. Unfortunately for them, he turned every offer down.
The excuse he gave sounded impeccable: in the fight with Rinyo he'd drained too much chakra and needed to recuperate.
While he "rested," the big shots in the Land of Water scrambled to every major ninja village, searching for some other big name who could kill Rinyo for them.
They struck out across the board.
Not only did those elite ninja fail miserably, they got a bunch of people killed and bled piles of money—and, worst of all, they pissed Rinyo off. In addition to the Ichijō clan, several other ancient noble families were wiped out by him.
It wasn't until the other four great shinobi villages publicly refused any further "Kill Rinyo" commissions that the Land of Water finally sank into despair.
At that point, all their hope rested on Yorin. He was their one and only life raft. They begged him to hurry and finish recovering so he could go "destroy Rinyo" once and for all.
And they were willing to pay whatever it took.
He still said no.
A month later, Uchiha Yorin appeared at a banquet in the Land of Water for the first time since the battle. Everyone watched him with burning expectation—as if he might announce he was heading out to kill Rinyo as soon as his glass was empty.
Instead, he said:
"That guy is seriously injured. There's no medical ninja as good as Tsunade helping him heal, so he'll definitely have to go into hiding and recuperate. He won't show up again for at least three to five years… Unless you all did something to provoke him?"
Of course the nobles weren't going to admit they'd hired mercenaries to try to snipe Rinyo behind his back. They all shook their heads furiously, playing dumb.
Yorin just continued:
"In any case, don't provoke him for now. Even badly wounded, he's not someone an average ninja can 'snipe.' Not even a Kage can handle him casually.
I do want to defeat him completely. But as you saw, I killed him, and he came back.
If we don't first unravel the secret behind his immortality, it's all a waste of effort.
In the meantime, I need rest, research, and time to read and explore various secret sites to discover how Rinyo of Akatsuki keeps coming back."
He looked very serious as he added:
"Until I crack that secret, no one should act rashly."
"Yes, but…"
He was absolutely right, but expecting nobles to be reasonable was like expecting bandits to file their taxes.
"So… how long will that take?"
"I don't have a clear deadline." Yorin paused, then added, "How about this—just treat this mission as a failure and hire someone else."
That shut them up instantly.
"No, no, no, how could we possibly call this a failure?" they said, scrambling to backtrack. "You did succeed—you killed that monster in front of us all.
This mission is beyond S-rank. We think you deserve credit for ten S-rank missions at least. Don't you agree?"
"Isn't that a bit much?" Yorin tried to sound modest.
"Not at all! Not at all! You've earned every bit of it. If you refuse, it's like you're slapping our faces. We would be very upset."
"Well, if you put it that way… I suppose I have no choice but to accept."
"Yes, yes, exactly."
Their hearts bled even as they spoke, but deep down they were relieved.
At the very least, as the only one capable of fighting Rinyo to a standstill, Yorin was now in the same position as a "Hero" while the Demon King still lived. The entire "fantasy kingdom" had no choice but to follow his lead.
As long as Rinyo remained undefeated, Yorin's authority was absolute.
"Then… will you be staying in the Land of Water?" someone probed.
"No," Yorin replied. "Since this mission is concluded, I need to return to Konoha. There are many other things I need to deal with."
"But…"
"If you're unsatisfied," Yorin said lightly, "then hire someone else—"
"No, no, that's not what we meant… We just… If he shows up again, what are we supposed to do?"
"I already told you. He's gravely injured. If you don't do anything stupid to provoke him, he will find a hole to crawl into and heal. He won't be attacking you.
Of course, if you do something to tick him off, then that's another story."
The nobles' smiles turned stiff, and quite a few of them looked extremely uncomfortable.
Yorin didn't care. He wasn't there to make them comfortable; he was there to achieve his own goals.
He was confident that under the shadow of Akatsuki's terror, the Land of Water's aristocrats would behave themselves—for no other reason than a powerful instinct for self-preservation.
Of course, there were four other great nations, plus a bunch of minor countries. Akatsuki had plenty of "work" ahead.
"Next is the Land of Lightning," Yorin thought cheerfully. "Then the Land of Earth, the Land of Wind, and finally the Land of Fire.
We'll make sure every noble on the continent learns to live under Akatsuki's shadow. That should fulfill Nagato's 'terror as deterrence' theory nicely."
With that in mind, he kept drinking and exchanging pleasantries, barely needing to hint before the nobles rushed to promise him all sorts of benefits.
Konoha and Uchiha-run companies would face zero obstacles in their domains. Whether it was selling supplements and "health products," or expanding logistics, or buying up newspapers and media, they vowed to greenlight everything—tax breaks included.
"Tax breaks might be a bit much," Yorin said, putting on a token show of reluctance.
One of the nobles was just about to retract the offer when another leaped in:
"Exactly—just waiving taxes would be stingy. If we're doing this, let's do something real.
If the Uchiha Group sets up branches in my lands, I'll subsidize them directly from the treasury!"
"I—I'll subsidize them even more!"
"I'll pay the most! You can all get out of my way!"
"Who says you can outpay me?!"
And so on and so forth.
One by one, the nobles stopped trying to charge him and instead started offering to pay him for the privilege of his presence. Yorin had to admit—these people weren't as dumb as they looked.
They reminded him of Cold War American capitalists. Faced with the choice between "pay 90% in taxes" or "die," they sensibly chose the former.
So much for that old saying about capitalists selling the rope used to hang them; these people obviously had more self-preservation than that.
Of course, when the red giant eventually collapsed in the other timeline, capital had wasted no time reversing course, rolling back every concession and doubling down on exploitation to claw back its losses.
Yorin was sure that the nobles grinning at him now would do exactly the same if they ever got the chance. The moment he killed Rinyo, they would immediately start plotting how to kill him—and then swallow everything the Uchiha had built.
Naturally—
He didn't intend to give them that chance.
~~~
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