GSiN: Ch. 200

It wasn't until early the next morning that the duel between Obito and A finally came to an end. Not far away, several playing cards lay scattered messily across the ground.

The drowsy Kura, Darui, and C, leaning against each other and half asleep, were suddenly roused by a hearty, unrestrained laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Among the three, the most reliable, C, was the first to react from his half-dreaming state. He shot to his feet, a flash of excitement in his eyes, and shouted urgently, "Get up! They have finished their fight!"

Darui and Kura, who had been rubbing their sleepy eyes just moments ago, instantly grew emotional, their eyes turning red. To ensure nothing went wrong with the duel, the three of them had endured the cold wind and kept watch the entire night.

Kura rubbed his stuffy nose and stood up, swaying a little. Sometimes even he found the immortal body Ryouma had granted him downright puzzling. He could be decapitated, bleed out completely, and still be fine, yet he still couldn't resist catching a cold from a chilly breeze. When it was time for his nose to run, it ran. When it was time to sneeze, he sneezed nonstop.

Unable to make sense of it, he shook his head, trying to wake up his brain, muddled by cold and fatigue. Then, he carefully took from Ryouma's scroll the suitcase filled with Revita-Inject.

These weren't the watered-down commercial versions, but full-power doses personally preserved by Orochimaru. A single injection, so long as the person hadn't breathed their last, could yank them back up and ready to go again. Even Madara would've sighed and said, "If only Izuna had one of these back then."

The three hurried toward the center of the dueling ground. Although the fight had been long and frankly exhausting to watch, after observing for so long, they were eager to know who had won.

And the result was not surprising.

Obito had managed to outlast A.

C rushed to help A up, while Darui checked him over for injuries from head to toe. Meanwhile, Kura quickly approached with a syringe and jabbed it straight into A's thigh.

The full-power serum worked extremely fast. Within seconds, A's overly exhausted cells regained vitality. He suddenly jolted awake from unconsciousness, battle fervor still burning in his eyes, and shouted, "Let's continue!"

"Have you still not come back to your senses? You already lost. If I weren't such a kind guy, I would've smashed you into that cliff wall over there, and they'd need a crowbar to scrape you off."

Obito stomped over as he spoke, silently cursing how stubborn A was.

A froze, then slowly recalled how the kid had forced him to keep going until he could no longer maintain his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, then took him out with a perfectly timed straight punch from Susanoo.

He pulled out the empty syringe from his thigh. He had to admit, the stuff Ryouma brought was amazing.

Although his plan to secure the Uchiha bloodline had completely collapsed, he'd gained a new appreciation for the Revita-Inject. It seemed the initial order quantity he negotiated with Ryouma the day before yesterday had been far too conservative. Something this useful, he should multiply the order by at least ten.

Even if it didn't sell, it would be valuable to stockpile. Obito's drug-buff battle tactics today had genuinely given him a case of "insufficient firepower anxiety."

But he was still making assumptions. Obito could get away with this only because of his unique constitution. An ordinary ninja could maybe handle four or five doses in a short span. Any more and, while it wouldn't be dangerous, the body simply couldn't absorb the extra medicine, and it would end up being wasted and expelled.

Obito couldn't hide the grin tugging at his lips. Arms crossed proudly, he said, "Alright, a bet's a bet. Make sure you prepare that Chakra Cannon for me. I've seen its power with my own eyes, don't think you can fob me off with a knockoff."

A brushed off C's supporting arm and got to his feet, replying, "Kumo ninjas are known for keeping their word. The entire shinobi world knows that. As the Raikage, you think I'd stoop to tricking you?"

Obito eyed A skeptically for a moment. The man was a Kage. He probably wouldn't resort to such petty trickery.

Just then, the adrenaline from winning the duel faded, and he felt his energy dipping. So, after leaving a curt, "You'd better," he took Kura and disappeared into Kamui space.

After Obito left, Darui frowned. "Are we really going to hand over a Chakra Cannon to Konoha?"

A turned to him in disbelief, shocked that one of his subordinates could be this reckless. It was obvious to them that Kumo had been trying to set Obito up. The fact that Ryouma didn't object probably meant he trusted Obito's strength, and besides, Obito had willingly taken the bait.

But to go back on their word afterward? What, did they think their village was developing too well and needed a Tailed Beast Ball to help flatten and rebuild it?

C sighed helplessly, stepped forward, and patted Darui's shoulder, speaking earnestly, "Think about what happened to Kiri before. Then think very carefully about what you just said."

"Uh..."

Only now did Darui realize how foolish his comment had been. It wasn't entirely his fault. Ryouma in peaceful times and the Leaf's Gale in wartime were practically two different people. It had given him the illusion that the man was easy to negotiate with.

A closed his eyes, sinking into brief thought. He vaguely recalled Mabui preparing some sort of post-duel contingency plan. But at the time he'd been far too confident, certain he'd beat Obito, and promptly forgot about it.

Well, since he couldn't remember, there was no point wasting brainpower. He might as well go ask Mabui directly.

---

Meanwhile, elsewhere, in a luxury-but-wild-themed inn in Kumo, Ryouma sat leisurely at one side of the round table, peeling a tangerine. He was meticulous. Every single strand of white pith on the fruit had to be cleaned off.

Shukaku sat nearby, enthusiastically recounting all sorts of amusing incidents it and Kurama had run into during the festival last night. Shiori sat quietly on Ryouma's right, examining and playing with a glass bottle filled with a shimmering liquid.

As the four enjoyed their peaceful downtime, the air in the suite's living room suddenly rippled with a swirling distortion. With a flash, the figures of Obito and Kura slowly emerged from the vortex.

"Ryouma, Ryouma! I beat the Rai... huh?"

Obito's excited voice abruptly stopped. His eyes went wide.

"What are YOU doing here?!"

Shiori only cast Obito a brief glance before turning her attention back to the Hero Water in her hand, completely unwilling to bother with him. When had she ever needed to explain herself to anyone?

Seeing the atmosphere turn awkward, Ryouma smoothed things over. "I ran into Shiori outside by chance, so I brought her along to the festival. Anyway, how did your duel with A go? With your strength, you didn't lose, right?"

"Of course I won. That guy was no match for me."

Obito immediately regained his pride. His greatest strength was that he never wasted time brooding. Since Shiori was someone Ryouma brought back, he decided to just pretend he didn't see anything.

With a few quick steps he sat on Ryouma's other side, grabbed a handful of peeled tangerines from the table, and stuffed them into his mouth.

The Nine-Tails, seeing this, spoke up in irritation. "Hey, those were for me. You humans have two hands, can't you peel your own?"

Fresh off defeating the Raikage, Obito was in high spirits and completely unafraid of the Nine-Tails.

"The tangerines were sitting on the table. You say they're yours, but if they're yours, why are they in my line of sight?"

From Obito's arrogant posture, the Nine-Tails caught a faint shadow of Madara, and its temper flared. It leapt onto the table in rage.

"Ryouma, give me back some of my chakra!"

Obito curled his lip, ready to throw out some provocative remark, when he heard Ryouma tap a few times on the table with his fingers.

"You two should cease fire for now. Someone from Kumo is coming."

Just as he finished speaking, a crisp knock sounded at the door.

Kura quickly walked to the door and opened it after receiving Ryouma's nod.

"Pardon the intrusion."

Mabui's gentle voice floated in. After giving a slight bow, she entered with two ninjas.

Obito's eyes immediately lit up when he saw the several scrolls the two ninjas were carrying, and he said excitedly, "Those are the Chakra Cannon parts, right? You guys work pretty fast."

He had been wondering whether A would try to weasel out of the deal. Apparently he'd worried too much.

Mabui smiled politely, neither confirming nor denying his words, and said softly, "The Raikage is currently occupied with handling the many matters left over from yesterday and truly cannot leave, so he specifically instructed me to deliver the agreed-upon wager to you."

With that, she gestured lightly. The two ninjas immediately understood and neatly arranged the scrolls on the table.

She continued patiently. "Because the Chakra Cannon is very large, it had to be disassembled for easier storage and transport. But please rest assured, the assembly process is not complicated. This is the detailed instruction manual."

She handed over a small booklet.

Obito accepted it and flipped through a few pages, finding the illustrations extremely simple and foolproof. He couldn't help but think the Kumo ninjas were surprisingly considerate.

Seeing Obito's satisfied expression, Mabui secretly let out a breath of relief. She was about to take her leave when Ryouma slowly rose from his seat and said warmly, "Since Obito's business here is done, we should head back to Konoha. I'll trouble you to pass on my regards to Killer B and the others."

Mabui, of course, had no objections. The deal was complete, and the conveniently timed festival was also over. As foreign ninjas, they naturally wouldn't linger in another village.

She bowed again, performing the Land of Lightning's farewell greeting. "Understood. I will faithfully convey your words to the Raikage and B-sama."

Watching how flawlessly she handled everything, Ryouma couldn't help feeling a bit tempted to poach her. After all, his pharmaceutical company didn't even have a CEO yet, and was in desperate need of management talent.

Besides, he remembered that Mabui was an orphan too, so he let out a light chuckle and extended an invitation. "I think it's a bit of a waste for someone like you to stay by A's side as just an ordinary secretary. Would you be interested in switching jobs? For example, running a pharmaceutical company that spans three great nations?"

Mabui hadn't expected that after helping the Raikage plan so many talent-recruitment projects, it would be their own ninjas who ended up being poached.

"I apologize, but I'm very satisfied with my current job."

"Alright. But if you ever change your mind, feel free to contact me anytime."

---

Inside Orochimaru's laboratory, as soon as the group stepped out of the Kamui space, Obito immediately hurried to say goodbye to Ryouma.

He had actually defeated the Raikage head-on!

Sure, the means were... not exactly honorable, but a win was still a win. Just by this alone, he now had the closest battle record to Ryouma among their peers in Konoha.

This time, he had to show off to Kakashi and Asuma, finally shake off that "dead-last" label once and for all.

Ryouma glanced at Obito's still-bruised eye sockets, hesitating as he tried to persuade him. "Are you sure you don't want to go home and rest first?"

"Don't worry, I feel great..."

Before he could even finish the sentence, Obito had vanished on the spot.

Shiori curiously reached out and brushed her fingers through the slowly fading ripples of space, analyzing the ability in her mind. It seemed Obito wasn't entirely useless. At least from the two space-time Mangekyō techniques she had seen so far, both were quite effective.

Though only "quite."

If it came down to a fight to the death, she had already thought of two ways to deal with him. First, controlling him with genjutsu. Second, rewinding his time to before he activated his ocular technique.

As for other methods... She instinctively began simulating battle scenarios in her head.

"Hey, hey! Shiori?" Ryouma tilted his head and waved a hand gently in front of her.

Shiori was pulled out of her thoughts, blinked, and asked with a hint of confusion. "What is it?"

"We're already back in the village, it's time to head home. And you were totally spacing out just now. What were you even thinking about?"

Shiori's expression remained calm, but a sharp glint flashed in her eyes as she stated plainly, "I was thinking, if he were an enemy, how I would break his space-time jutsu. I've already thought of countermeasures for your Flying Thunder God as well."

There was a confidence and pride in Shiori's tone.

Ryouma looked surprised for a moment, then smiled. "That really is impressive."