Chapter 502: Pure Romance
The rhythmic clink-clank of Rain shinobi diligently clearing the rubble echoed softly from the distance.
Accompanied by the steady cadence of the cleanup, Yahiko slowly commenced his chronicle: "One of those specific instances of pain struck precisely when I crossed my sixteenth year.
Back then, I successfully tracked down and recruited dozens of Rain shinobi who actively yearned for absolute peace. The vast majority of them were orphans produced by the continuous waves of warfare, yet we bonded seamlessly, operating precisely like biological brothers. Together, we established the foundational entity that eventually evolved into the Akatsuki organization.
Regrettably, the beautiful scenery was fundamentally short-lived. The Demi-God Hanzo of the Salamander harbored absolute zero tolerance for an alternative political voice rising within the Land of Rain, and he unilaterally launched a devastating ambush against our forces. Following the conclusion of that cataclysmic clash, strictly I was successfully salvaged by Ringo's intervention; every single one of my alternative brothers perished at the hands of Hanzo and his designated subordinates!"
Ameyuri Ringo gently traced her left cheek. Hanzo had historically carved a deep, exceptionally jagged blade scar across her flesh back in the day. Even though Ryo had personally administered a medical healing block to seal the wound, down to this exact timeline, whenever her fingers brushed past her cheek, a lingering trace of visceral terror still rippled through her heart.
Yahiko given a slight pause: "Consequentially, I harbor a profound, absolute hatred toward Hanzo! Even though his physical vessel has long since kicked the bucket, I harbored zero desire to grant his spirit absolute peace. I officially traded his corpse straight to Sasori of the Red Sand, ensuring Hanzo contributed one absolute final piece of logistical utility toward the cause of peace!"
Ryo maintained a perfectly neutral stance regarding this execution. Obito and Nagato, however, visibly manifested a fraction of dissenting opinions across their faces, yet since the historical logistics had passed ages ago, determining the absolute right and wrong was fundamentally redundant.
"As for the alternative instance of pain, when it struck... I was a mere five years old!" Yahiko spoke with exceptionally profound sorrow.
Ryo pursed his lips. Five years old, is it...
"Senior, I presume you still retain the active memory parameters regarding exactly what transpired within the Land of Rain during Konoha Year 33, correct?"
Ryo let out a heavy sigh and gave a firm nod: "I retain the data perfectly. I shall personally narrate the remaining segments."
"Master?" Obito instantly parsed out that the atmospheric parameters had shifted into a highly anomalous block.
Ameyuri Ringo knit her brows to a subtle degree. It appears this is the absolute root cause behind Yahiko's deep-seated prejudice against this ancient immortal.
"Senior, trouble you to proceed. I similarly desire to completely unravel the unvarnished truth regarding the historical logistics of that day," Yahiko spoke slowly.
"Konoha Year 33. I successfully locked onto the active coordinates of a supreme genius native to the Land of Whirlpools who had unfortunately been stranded within the slum blocks of the Land of Rain. Furthermore, this youth had been targeted by a highly specific adversary of mine.
At that exact junction of the timeline, my independent strength tier was a fraction insufficient. In order to successfully eradicate the adversary, I was structurally forced to unleash my absolute peak combat output, triggering a cataclysmic shockwave that completely obliterated over half of the Land of Rain's slum districts, resulting in countless civilian casualties!" Ryo closed his dual eyes to a narrow slit.
"Countless... casualties." Yahiko shook his head gently: "My biological parents were positioned squarely within that 'countless' demographic, Senior. They quite literally burned through their remaining life force strictly to toss my five-year-old vessel clear of a colossal boulder that blotted out the very heavens!"
"I successfully speculated as much," Ryo nodded firmly.
"Well...?" Nagato's face washed over with profound confusion.
"Master... Brother Yahiko..." Obito's countenance was entirely packed with absolute astonishment.
Ryo plunged into a prolonged silence: "Regardless of what the underlying technical logistics were, my execution regarding that specific incident was definitively incorrect. How about... you verbally thrash me with a few choice curses?"
Yahiko's face manifested a trace of visible hesitation...
"You lack the capacity to open your jaw!"
Yahiko: "..."
"How about you administer a couple of physical strikes against me?"
"You lack the heart to launch the assault!"
Yahiko: ???
Ryo let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head: "Truly a remarkably kind and pure child. In unvarnished truth, my cognitive parameters had successfully speculated this conclusion ages ago, yet I honestly hadn't anticipated you would command the audacity to explicitly articulate this matter directly to my face. Do you genuinely lack the fear that the Great Ancestor might simply execute you to silence the loose end?"
Yahiko shook his head: "Senior, having interacted with your presence across multiple continuous sequences, I firmly opine that you still command a baseline of absolute moral boundaries; you wouldn't systematically stoop to execute a maneuver of that nature."
Ryo was briefly startled, actually feeling a minuscule trace of internal touched emotion. The one who understands me best is Yahiko!
"This specific incident has remained stifled deep within my heart parameters for far too long. I have continuously desired to unravel exactly why you executed such a cataclysmic wave of destruction across the Land of Rain back in the day... to think it was strictly for the sake of a so-called genius..." Yahiko felt a profound sense of hollow loss.
Ryo gently patted Nagato's shoulder: "This fundamentally wasn't an 'ordinary' genius, and that specific adversary was equally far from being an 'ordinary' adversary. If the timeline were reset, I would systematically execute the exact same logistical choice!"
"Well! Teacher..."
Yahiko's dual eyes went slightly wide: "That specific genius actually turned out to be the First Uzukage?!"
"My deepest apologies, it was indeed my vessel!"
The narrative trajectory of destiny was simply this exceptionally winding and bizarre. A structural link had ultimately been forged between Yahiko and Nagato, yet the parameters were entirely divergent from the original story timeline.
Obito listened with absolute, blank bewilderment, completely spiraling into a fog of confusion. Nagato, on the other hand, slowly forced his cognitive parameters to cool down: "The logistical faults of that historical incident cannot be entirely pinned on the Master; my vessel equally bears a distinct fraction of the operational responsibility. How about... you verbally thrash me with a few choice curses? Oh, this time around, you are fully capable of opening your jaw!"
Ryo: "..."
The student has genuinely surpassed the master!
Yahiko let out a bitter laugh: "Let it rest. Let it rest..."
Ryo hesitated for a brief moment: "If you had actively chosen to withhold this intelligence, we could have comfortably let the parameters rest. However, since you commanded the absolute courage to articulate the matter directly to my face, the Great Ancestor must structurally provide a fraction of technical compensation. Let's map it out like this: down the subsequent timeline, you can comfortably view Nagato as your biological younger brother. If you command any logistical tasks that require execution, directly assign them to him without a shred of polite hesitation. Provided the requests are structurally reasonable, he will undeniably supply his absolute assistance. As for the unreasonable ones... Mmm, I presume you wouldn't toss out unreasonable logistical requests, correct?"
Nagato scratched his hair loops. Exactly whose inventory is supplying the compensation to Yahiko here?
Yahiko refrained from pushing back. With the active backing of the Uzukage, the grand cause of establishing absolute peace across the shinobi world would secure a monumental stride forward. This fundamentally wasn't executing a transactional trade utilizing his parents' lives; it was merely a localized choice born of absolute helplessness... What alternative did he possess? Demand that Ryo forfeit his own life to pay the blood debt?
"In unvarnished truth, the flawed executions the Great Ancestor has committed aren't strictly limited to this single incident. Navigating a single lifetime, exactly who manages to avoid executing a handful of flawed decisions? It's merely because I have lived for an exceptionally prolonged duration that my tally of mistakes is a fraction higher... Mmm, that maps out precisely!" Ryo waved his hand dismissively: "Nagato, comfortably carry on your communication block alongside Yahiko."
"Well! Teacher."
Ryo gave a firm nod, his physical frame flashing out of existence to materialize straight back inside the Konoha Village temporarily assigned villa. Firmly grasping a thoroughly bewildered Naruto, he executed a secondary Body Flicker to materialize straight inside the Hidden Cloud Village's assigned villa.
The Fourth Raikage was currently stewing in an exceptionally stifling, silent rage. Upon catching sight of Ryo's arrival, he maintained absolute zero verbal output. A Perfect Susanoo that his maximum-output punch could only fracture had been cleanly pulverized into absolute dust by a single stomp from Ryo; he had viscerally experienced the unvarnished discrepancy in their strength tiers—the gap was monumentally cataclysmic...
"Where is the secretary? Secretary! We are departing, escort our presence straight to Turtle Island!"
Mabui swiftly strode out of the inner rooms. The Fourth Raikage let out a low, menacing growl: "This reckless, dim-witted brat is genuinely the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki native to Konoha Village? Wielding a temperament of this chaotic nature, he actually intends to completely conquer the Tailed Beast Mode?!"
"Mmph-mmph-mmph..." Naruto snapped back to reality, attempting to voice a fierce counter-argument, only to have Ryo firmly clamp his palm across his jaw.
"That fundamentally requires zero mental labor on your part! We are departing, Secretary!" A dense wave of gravitational force erupted from Ryo's vessel. Mabui instantly lost physical control over her trajectory, flying straight toward him, before the cluster of three shot vertically straight into the absolute heavens.
The Raikage knit his brows. Exactly why is he in such a frantic rush?
"Slow down! Senior!" Mabui cried out in shock.
"Tsk, do you actually suffer from acrophobia?" A Truth-Seeking Orb cleanly phased out from Ryo's chest, flattening into a solid flying carpet that slid directly beneath Mabui's boots, further accelerating their vertical ascent.
Fleeing the Land of Rain as if escaping an active disaster zone, Ryo finally let out a soft sigh of relief. With those historical matters explicitly laid bare on the table, he genuinely felt a fraction uncertain regarding exactly how he was supposed to face Yahiko down the line; he could only resort to deploying comedic, nonsensical deflections to muddy the waters and slip away.
Releasing his right hand—which had nearly suffocated Naruto—the boy gasped frantically for air, shooting a fiercely dissatisfied glare toward Ryo.
"Great Ancestor, exactly where are we charting our coordinates? What on earth occurred regarding Sasuke a moment ago? Furthermore, what is your primary objective in abducting this dark-skinned older sister straight from the bastard who launched the ambush against Sasuke?"
Mabui responded with a perfectly distant, yet impeccably polite smile.
Ryo raised his eyebrows: "I am escorting you two to a completely deserted island for a premier recreational block, officially commencing an unscheduled deserted island lifestyle survival sequence featuring three men and one woman. Doesn't that sound exceptionally thrilling?"
"Exactly what is so thrilling about that?" Naruto murmured softly under his breath, "Three men... does that factor in Uncle Killer Bee?"
"Tsk!" Ryo shook his head.
Having endured two continuous years of Jiraiya's localized 'guidance', for Naruto to still maintain this tier of absolute pure romance... it is truly a spectacular rarity...
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