Chapter 500: Deliberate Retaliation
Securing Killer Bee safely back inside his pocket space, Ryo offered a beaming smile and waved a highly enthusiastic farewell to the Fourth Raikage.
The man is monumentally infuriated with my presence, yet he fundamentally lacks a single technical methodology to strike back. This sensation is truly... spectacularly refreshing!
"Senior, safe travels!" Mabui escorted Ryo across a handful of paces.
Ryo waved his hand: "Your Raikage appears to be sustaining a terribly turbulent mood block. Once you return, execute some logistical maneuvers to assist him in venting that internal fire; letting the fire burn too intensely easily triggers an outbreak of acne."
Mabui responded with a perfectly distant yet impeccably polite smile.
Ryo chuckled, his mood exceptionally jubilant. Half of his primary objective for this excursion had already been successfully mapped out; tomorrow, he would seamlessly harvest the subsequent load of Witness Points...
"The Five Kage Summit has smoothly transitioned into a Six Kage Summit, resulting in a monumental alteration regarding the personnel metrics of the participating roster. The designated logistical venue has been shifted from the Land of Iron straight to the Land of Rain, and compounding the fact that there won't be a specific 'Masked Man' abruptly crashing the block to formally declare war, this inherently constitutes a massive structural deviation, doesn't it?"
Running those calculations, Ryo's mood climbed to an even more ecstatic tier. Humming a brisk, lighthearted tune, he traveled straight to the Hidden Stone Village Villa to playfully tease Ohnoki alongside Kurotsuchi for a brief duration. Subsequently, he detoured to the Hidden Mist Village Villa to chat up the beautiful Mizukage, simultaneously making the acquaintance of the highly timid and shy Chojuro—the sole remaining active entity of the Ninja Swordsmen 'cluster'... It wasn't until the absolute dead of night that Ryo finally navigated back to Konoha's temporarily assigned residential villa.
The absolute millisecond he stepped inside the villa, Ryo instantly parsed out that the atmospheric parameters were highly anomalous. As expected, upon turning the corner into the primary hall, he caught sight of Naruto and Sasuke executing a visceral 'death glare' standoff, their physical heads drifting so close they were on the verge of colliding...
Witnessing a pristine visual block of this specific aesthetic, Ryo fundamentally lost the capacity to suppress his 'Qilin Arm'. Executing a rapid Body Flicker, he materialized directly behind Naruto's flank, firmly clamped his palm across the back of the boy's skull, and violently shoved forward...
Sasuke was thoroughly startled. His right hand blurred into an afterimage, cleanly intercepting Naruto's descending mouth right before impact...
Smack-squish...
Sasuke retreated several rapid paces backward with a countenance entirely packed with absolute, visceral disgust, frantically utilizing his sleeve to aggressively wipe down his palm: "Great Ancestor, exactly what on earth are you executing?!"
Naruto was still swimming in a state of absolute bewilderment, instinctively darting his tongue out to lick his lips as if savoring a trace of residual aftertaste. It tastes a fraction salty. It was only then that he parsed out exactly what had occurred a fraction of a second prior.
"Blegh—!"
Ryo shook his head with a gentle laugh: "The Great Ancestor was strictly administering a practical test of your reflex parameters. Otherwise, I would have shoved both of your skulls together simultaneously!"
Sasuke let out a thoroughly speechless sigh: "Please refrain from cracking underhanded jokes of this specific tier; I am going to wash my hand immediately!"
Ryo gave a firm nod, shifting his focus straight toward Naruto: "That's about enough of your reaction! You two have literally pressed mouths together in the past; what on earth is there to fear about kissing a hand?!"
Sasuke's physical frame given a sudden pause. His left foot violently tangled against his right foot, nearly sending him crashing flat against the dirt... He frantically executed a lateral physical roll to stabilize his form: "Great Ancestor, regarding that specific incident back in the day, that couldn't possibly have been orchestrated by your hands, could it?!"
Naruto halted his dry heaving: "What's wrong?"
Ryo smoothly shook his head: "Sasuke, Naruto, this ungrateful, heartless individual, has completely wiped the technical data of how he stole your absolute first kiss straight from his memory banks. The Great Ancestor genuinely feels deeply indignant on your behalf!"
Sasuke sucked in a massive breath of freezing air, abruptly deciding that aside from scrubbing his hand, he desperately needed to thoroughly wash his face to forcefully cool down his cognitive parameters. He involuntarily accelerated his pacing toward the restroom block.
"First kiss?!" Naruto murmured a single syllable under his breath, his face twisting into a thoroughly miserable knot: "During the graduation sequence... I had successfully speculated that it was explicitly an underhanded trap orchestrated by your hands ages ago, Great Ancestor!"
Ryo raised his eyebrows: "That operates as the absolute earliest premier ultimate technique the Great Ancestor personally transmitted to your vessel. It's merely a pity you have fundamentally failed to deploy it across these recent years. Analyzing Sasuke's visceral reaction just now, down the chain of your future sparring blocks, if you abruptly close the distance to plant a 'smack' straight against his cheek, he will definitively spiral into complete, chaotic panic, his entire stance riddled with absolute, exploitable openings..."
"Great Ancestor!"
"Tsk, failing to recognize the pure goodwill of an excellent individual!" Ryo shook his head. "Speaking of which, were you two genuinely engaging in a round of 'whoever blinks first loses' just a moment ago?"
"Exactly what game parameters does that designate?" Naruto manifested a trace of genuine curiosity. "Brother Obito explicitly stated that he can strictly escort a single one of us into the summit tomorrow, instructing us to independently formulate the logistical decision of who attends, while the alternative individual is structurally mandated to guard the exterior perimeter of the high tower..."
Ryo's face washed over with deep confusion. Every single village delegation is actively escorting two guards; exactly why on earth is Obito strictly escorting one?
"The alternative guard slot has officially been assigned to Shisui Uchiha." Sasuke strode back out from the restroom, his hands still dripping wet.
"Oh, is that how things map out..." Ryo gave a firm nod.
It was highly probable that Obito felt a deep, visceral 'disdain' toward Naruto's parameters, desperately refusing to escort his presence into the actual summit chamber, yet he lacked the capacity to declare it unvarnishedly... Delegating the decision strictly to their independent resolution meant Naruto was highly unlikely to outcompete Sasuke's logic.
In unvarnished truth, Obito felt monumentally helpless regarding the parameters. Sustaining a catastrophic loss of face before Yahiko and Ameyuri Ringo was somewhat tolerable, but if Naruto initiated a localized comedy block during the actual Six Kage Summit tomorrow... exactly how was he supposed to retain a single shred of sovereign dignity operating as the Fifth Hokage?
"Appraising the visual parameters of you two, it is explicitly clear you lack the capacity to rapidly lock down a logistical resolution. Allow the Great Ancestor to actively assist your decision process!" Ryo cast a smiling gaze straight toward Naruto.
An absolute torrent of burning hope instantly blanketed Naruto's face. Right at the absolute most critical junction, the Great Ancestor definitively steps in to support my...
"Sasuke goes!"
"Ohh!" Naruto hollered in absolute triumph, before freezing a fraction of a second later, violently blinking his eyes as he parsed out the anomaly: "Sasuke?!"
Sasuke gently rubbed his eyes: "My deepest gratitude to the Great Ancestor for your premier, razor-sharp judgment. I shall return to my assigned room to commence my sleep block!"
"Hold on!" Naruto violently threw his arm into the air: "Why! Exactly why on earth is the slot assigned to Sasuke?"
Ryo fell into brief calculation: "Naruto, back in the historical timeline, you were the individual who actively forced a kiss onto Sasuke. He suffered a catastrophic technical loss. We are strictly utilizing this specific sequence to compensate his parameters; operate with a fraction more magnanimity, workable?"
Sasuke's physical frame staggered dynamically, and he frantically accelerated his pacing to retreat straight into his bedroom block.
Naruto: My heart is packed with absolute fury, yet I am structurally forced to maintain a polite smile... Keep a polite smile my foot!
"Great Ancestor, I refuse to submit to this baseline resolution!"
Ryo knit his brows.
Smack! "Do you submit?"
"...I submit."
Smack! Smack!
"Great Ancestor, I explicitly declared that I submit!"
Smack! Smack! Smack! "Deep inside your heart parameters, you definitively refuse to submit!"
"My heart parameters submit as well!"
Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!...
The subsequent morning.
Naruto maintained a thoroughly miserable, bitter face as he was structurally left behind to guard the exterior perimeter of the central high tower, watching Obito, Shisui, and Sasuke stride straight into the interior blocks.
As for Ryo, he had smoothly escorted Nagato straight into the tower significantly earlier in the timeline. He was officially participating in the summit operating under the sovereign mantle of the Grand Elder of the Land of Whirlpools, entirely decoupled from the Konoha delegation's 'background prop' roster...
"The exceptionally diligent Grand Elder of the Land of Whirlpools is actively initiating another round of premier contributions and logistical welfare calculations strictly for the benefit of his sovereign nation!" Ryo's ideological stance was exceptionally upright and properly aligned.
The Six Kage arrived in sequential order. Factoring in Yahiko's presence, an aggregate total of seven supreme leaders took their respective seats around a massive circular table. The Land of Iron was fundamentally excluded from this specific convention. In the historical past, they operated as the sole neutral nation commanding sufficient independent strength to host, which was exactly why the previous Five Kage Summit had been convened inside such a remote samurai state. With the Land of Rain currently operating as a premier neutral anchor, ninja affairs were naturally mandated to be resolved exclusively by ninja.
Ryo refrained from utilizing a standard chair. After a prolonged absence, he smoothly extracted his Truth-Seeking Orb (Gudōdama), stretching it out to form a floating carpet. He hovered leisurely directly behind Nagato's seat, gently swaying and floating back and forth. The two official guards Nagato had originally escorted had been entirely tossed outside the perimeter by Ryo's hands.
The alternative guards systematically assumed their designated stations flanking their respective Kage... Ohnoki's face was completely twisted into a knot of bitter, deep-seated resentment.
Verifying that the roster was entirely complete, Yahiko cast an inquiring gaze straight toward Ryo. Upon receiving Ryo's firm nod of clearance, Yahiko rose from his seat, lifting his voice to address the chamber: "My deepest gratitude to every single one of you for placing your sovereign trust in our Land of Rain by electing to convene the Six Kage Summit at these coordinates. Since the personnel matrix is fully assembled, I shall refrain from squandering any further duration. The summit officially commences! Let us first invite the formal initiator of this convention, the Lord Fourth Raikage, to explicitly articulate his primary objective!"
A fell into brief, focused calculation. Having successfully harvested the intelligence that Killer Bee retained his active life force, his internal mood parameters had experienced a monumental, vertical shift; exactly how he should phrase his opening prose demanded a fraction of meticulous deliberation...
"Mmm?! Hokage! Exactly what is transpiring with your guard?!"
Obito was violently startled. He frantically snapped his head around, strictly to parse Sasuke aggressively clamping his dual hands over his eyes as his physical frame continuously staggered and swayed.
"Sasuke, are your parameters secure?"
Ryo smiled gently. Sasuke's ocular structures were undergoing an active spasm yet again; talk about spectacular timing... Eh?
Abruptly, a translucent, light-blue skeletal ribcage erupted violently from Sasuke's physical matrix. The collective gathering of guards from every single village was completely shocked, concurrently seizing their respective Kage to execute a rapid tactical retreat.
The absolute summit roof of the Land of Rain's central high tower was violently pulverized into absolute dust by the expanding Susanoo. Sasuke's Susanoo continuously surged vertically, reaching an astronomical height nearing a hundred meters as the Tengu-shaped armor plating systematically wrapped around its exterior frame... The Perfect Susanoo (Kanzentai Susanoo)!
"Hokage! Exactly what is the meaning of this unvarnished hostility?!"
Obito: I desperately desire the exact same data! I explicitly refrained from escorting Naruto into the chamber; how on earth did a catastrophic disruption still manifest?!
Ryo inherently commanded the raw capability to suppress the sequence, yet he deliberately held his physical movement. Sasuke's ocular structures were situated right at the absolute most critical vertex of their metamorphosis; interrupting the sequence was structurally unoptimized.
It wasn't until the Susanoo completely stabilized its parameters that Ryo finally rose to his feet with a gentle smile, perfectly prepped to pacify the localized chaos...
*Witnessed and moderately altered the Naruto world main plot: The Five Kage Summit, obtained 20 (5) = 100 Witness Points.
"This concludes the harvest? Exactly why is it strictly graded as a 'moderate alteration'?!" Ryo's countenance experienced a violent, sharp shift. He lifted his head to gaze up at the towering Perfect Susanoo: "Sasuke launching a localized ambush... I AM COMPLETELY!"
This absolute, unfortunate brat is actively orchestrating a deliberate retaliation against the Great Ancestor! Compensate me for my lost Witness Points!
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