Naming one's child after a famous figure from the past was something of a tradition in Konoha.
Most of the time, it came from respect.
But not always.
If the Uchiha clan's situation had not deteriorated to its current degree, Hiruzen Sarutobi might have thought that Uchiha Fugaku named his second son after his own father out of respect for him and reverence for his father.
But now, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not very certain.
The moment he imagined Uchiha Fugaku calling his son "Sasuke, Sasuke" every day, Hiruzen Sarutobi inexplicably felt somewhat uncomfortable.
"I hope Uchiha Fugaku is not doing this to disgust this old man."
"Otherwise, hmph!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt that his temper had become increasingly irritable.
However, Hiruzen Sarutobi believed this could not be blamed on him. No matter who it was, after being attacked by so many rumors one after another, it would be impossible not to become irritable. Their mood could not possibly remain good.
Elsewhere, Jiraiya looked at the card in his hand, his feelings complicated.
Regarding his loss to Rasa, Jiraiya was not entirely convinced.
On one hand, Jiraiya still had a trump card he had not used. He believed that if he had used senjutsu, the result of that battle might have been completely different.
The second reason was that even though Jiraiya very much wanted to believe Hiruzen Sarutobi, with so many rumors and so much evidence, even Jiraiya could not help feeling that perhaps the reason he had lost to Rasa was truly because his intelligence had been sold out.
Jiraiya recalled the scene of his battle with Rasa.
Rasa had indeed understood his abilities a little too well.
There was also Hyuga Hizashi's suicide note.
And Rasa's attitude when mentioning that matter…
…
"Did Rasa make a card like this out of respect for me?"
"Or is he mocking me? Or trying to drive a wedge between me and Teacher Sarutobi?"
Jiraiya's eyes flickered uncertainly.
Suddenly, the toad beside him screamed.
A small snake appeared, cast a faint glance at the toad, then came before Jiraiya. It opened its mouth and spat out a note.
…
…
"It's reached it!"
Seeing the number of points on the system panel return above three thousand, Rasa did not hesitate and directly began the lottery.
"Thirty-pull. Begin!"
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an F-rank item: One tael of gold.]
…
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained a C-rank item: Ninjutsu Scroll (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique).]
…
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an A-rank item: Desert Summoned Beast Summoning Card.]
Rasa had little interest in the Fire Release ninjutsu scroll. He looked directly at the A-rank reward.
"Desert Summoned Beast Summoning Card?"
"The previous summoned beast summoning cards were either powerful attackers, support types, or endurance types… This is the first time a desert type has appeared. I wonder what difference there is."
"But I'll know once I test it."
Rasa took the summoning card and went outside the village.
"Antlion!"
A gigantic quicksand vortex appeared.
"Use it!"
The next moment, a streak of light leapt out from the card.
Immediately afterward, a figure suddenly drilled out of the card.
"Roar!"
A rough, violent roar rang out.
That figure landed inside the Antlion.
But what surprised Rasa was that this summoned beast did not seem greatly affected by the quicksand. Instead, it swam through the quicksand with extreme agility.
Its body was earth-yellow, with gray-brown armor on its back and head. The undersides of its limbs were also armored.
Its figure was round and stout.
Its eyes were fiercely red.
Its mouth was extremely large.
"A hippopotamus?"
Rasa lifted a brow.
Seeing that Antlion could not threaten it, Rasa's thoughts shifted.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Thundercloud!"
A mass of gold dust arrived directly above the hippopotamus, forming something like a cloud. In the next instant, countless bolts of lightning poured downward.
The lightning struck the hippopotamus and caused a certain amount of damage. That immediately made the hippopotamus even more ferocious. It stared fixedly in Rasa's direction and suddenly charged forward.
It burst out of the Antlion's range at once and swam through the desert like a fish in water.
Fast.
Agile.
In basically the blink of an eye, it reached Rasa.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust!"
A mass of gold dust came beneath Rasa's feet, carrying him into the air as he looked down at the hippopotamus below.
At this point, Rasa had already vaguely guessed what this hippopotamus was.
This appearance, combined with its agility in the desert, and the fact that the lightning produced by Gold Dust Thundercloud had not caused as much damage as Rasa expected—
"Hippowdon."
"Also known as the Heavyweight Pokémon."
"A Ground-type Pokémon that lives in desert regions. It stands two meters tall and weighs three hundred kilograms. It can swim rapidly through the desert and even dive deep beneath the sand."
"Let's test its strength."
Rasa's thoughts stirred.
"Sand Soldier Manifestation!"
Immediately, large numbers of sand soldiers appeared, each holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, advancing together toward the hippopotamus.
Facing encirclement, the hippopotamus showed no fear at all.
"Earthquake!"
With one stomp, the ground began to tremble. Large amounts of sand flew up, covering the nearby area.
What the hippopotamus did not know was that the sand soldiers acted completely according to Rasa's orders. And Rasa possessed the Byakugan. Even with large amounts of sand acting as obstruction, it could not block his vision.
The sand soldiers still moved accurately toward the hippopotamus.
Their attacks fell. The hippopotamus was pained, and it abruptly dove underground.
When it appeared again, it had already changed position.
"Stone Edge!"
Large numbers of sharp stones appeared and shot toward Rasa's position.
The hippopotamus had likely judged that Rasa was its true opponent. Unfortunately, the accuracy of those stones was not high, and Rasa's position was too elevated. They could not reach him at all.
Rasa looked downward.
"Its defense is good. It has an enormous terrain advantage in the desert. Its attack power is average, but its endurance is high. It's suited for containment and attrition. And its Sand Stream ability can cooperate with Sunagakure's shinobi."
"Overall, it is only stronger than the giant bull, not weaker."
"The test is about done. It's time to end this."
Just as the hippopotamus prepared to attack Rasa again—
A mass of gold dust had already condensed into chains and wrapped around its four limbs.
Then—
Gold Dust Thundercloud.
Lightning far fiercer than before appeared and poured toward the hippopotamus.
Even if Ground-type restrained Electric-type, this was not the Rubber-Rubber Fruit. There was no absolute immunity here.
When Rasa's strength far surpassed the hippopotamus's, Rasa's lightning attacks could still cause sufficient damage to it.
And this time was different from before. This time, the hippopotamus's body had been restrained, and the gold dust chains had extremely strong conductivity. As a result, all the lightning energy poured directly into the hippopotamus's body.
A wisp of black smoke rose.
Bang!
The hippopotamus collapsed to the ground.
The summoning card turned into two streams of light.
One entered Rasa's chest, while the other drilled into the hippopotamus's body.
Immediately afterward, Rasa obtained all of the hippopotamus's information.
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