GSiN: Ch. 193

"About to die?"

Sōwa couldn't quite understand what Ryouma meant.

Jinchūriki had tailed beasts sealed inside them. Unless the injuries were extremely severe, they were honestly quite hard to kill.

Then, as if realizing something, his eyes widened slightly.

---

Very soon, under the swift action of the remaining Taki ninjas, the Ame survivors on the battlefield, along with Sōto's subordinates, were all tied up with hemp rope. Hands and feet bound, they knelt on the ground in rows.

As for the main culprit behind this whole mess, Sōto was no exception.

The Taki ninjas were somewhat hesitant because of his identity, but they still bound his hands tightly to prevent him from using ninjutsu. Afterward, they surrounded him in a tight formation, ready for anything in case he tried some trick that might cause another incident.

---

At the shore of the island in the lake, Sōwa's expression was complicated as his gaze fell on Aoi's body lying on the ground, covered in burn marks.

As the jinchūriki of the Seven-Tails, her fate wasn't much different from that of other jinchūriki.

The first jinchūriki at least had a somewhat decent childhood. Back then, when the first village leader announced that Taki had acquired the mighty power of the Seven-Tails, the villagers were overjoyed. They believed that days of stability and prosperity were ahead.

But that optimism didn't last long.

Because the sealing technique provided by Konoha was of poor quality, the Tailed Beast's chakra leaked frequently once the jinchūriki was created. The Seven-Tails went berserk time and again.

Taki was a small village, incapable of suppressing the rampaging power of a tailed beast. Every time disaster struck, the leader had to rely on the Hero Water and risk his life to subdue it.

Since those battles always broke out within the village, the civilians suffered horribly from the Seven-Tails' rampages. Their hatred for the beast grew stronger with each incident. That hatred eventually extended to the jinchūriki themselves, and Aoi was no exception. She was forced to endure the villagers' resentment for something beyond her control.

It was mentioned before that Sōwa's father drank the Hero Water a second time while resisting a kidnapping attempt by the Kumo ninjas. The first time he drank it was during one of those Seven-Tails rampages, when the vessel was being replaced.

In a sense, his father's death was also partly caused by the Seven-Tails. And yet, interestingly enough, the Kazama brothers, Sōwa and Sōto, never directed that hatred toward Aoi herself.

In the shinobi world, that was quite rare and commendable.

---

Inside a hospital room in Taki, the atmosphere was heavy.

At Sōwa's earnest request, Ryouma performed a thorough medical examination on the Seven-Tails' jinchūriki.

"Can Aoi still be saved?" Sōwa asked anxiously.

"So her name's Aoi, huh? That's a nice name." Ryouma paused. "But unfortunately, no. She really can't be saved."

He spread his hands, indicating there was nothing he could do.

"I see... as I feared."

Sōwa let out a long sigh, his expression filled with sorrow.

In truth, ever since hearing Ryouma mention that the jinchūriki had drunk the Hero Water, he had already sensed the worst possible outcome. After all, under normal circumstances, the human body could only withstand the Hero Water at most twice. And the second time, the mortality rate was as high as ninety percent. And of course, where there were normal circumstances, there would always be exceptions.

The Hero Water was, at its core, a drug that stimulated chakra.

If a jinchūriki, someone who already possessed another source of chakra inside their body, drank it, the Tailed Beast's chakra and their own chakra would react simultaneously with the Hero Water.

The result? One bottle acted like two.

In other words, they'd be gambling directly with that ninety percent death rate. And clearly, Aoi wasn't one of the lucky ones.

Sōwa suddenly remembered the medicine Ryouma had used on him earlier. Since Ryouma had mentioned it was something that could even be purchased from Konoha, maybe he could ask.

"That medicine you used to treat me before, do you still have any left? I know it must be very precious, but no matter the price, I'll pay it."

He couldn't help but feel some guilt toward Aoi. After all, she had become a jinchūriki and borne that miserable fate all for the sake of the village. Of course, there was also another reason. If she died, the Seven-Tails sealed within her would die with her.

Meeting Sōwa's hopeful gaze, Ryouma slowly shook his head.

"I heard from Yahiko that you've taken the Hero Water yourself. Then you should have noticed it. Your body's loss of life force didn't change even after using the medicine."

He wasn't just making excuses to refuse.

The White Zetsu-based medicine truly did contain a certain amount of life energy, but not everyone could withstand it.

Orochimaru had managed to develop that drug through rather cunning means. He used chemical reagents to force the life energy within White Zetsu cells to automatically transform into Yang Release chakra after entering the human body, producing a regenerative effect. In simpler terms, it could heal wounds and illness, and even restore some chakra. But if you wanted it to restore life force itself?

That was impossible.

Otherwise, Orochimaru wouldn't have needed to obsess over immortality research. He could've just kept drinking the stuff daily.

"Cough... cough..."

On the cold wooden bed, Aoi's skin had lost all warmth. Her body no longer radiated any heat.

Propped up only by the last traces of adrenaline, she struggled to open her eyes. Her glasses had vanished during the battle, and the world before her was now just a blur of color and light. She could only vaguely make out the shape of the person standing before her.

Slowly, she reached out a trembling hand. Her dry, cracked lips parted as she whispered weakly, "Sōto-sama?"

Sōwa hesitated for a moment. Looking at the dying girl before him, he couldn't bring himself to let her leave this world with regrets.

So, imitating his younger brother's tone and voice, he said softly, "Yes, it's me. I did it. You've done well, Aoi."

"Sōwa-sama..."

Aoi squinted hard, trying to see the face before her, but her vision was too clouded. Still, the only person who would praise her like this could only be the village leader. It couldn't be anyone else.

"Ah..."

Hearing her guess, Sōwa felt a pang of awkwardness.

"Looks like... Sōto has failed again, hasn't he..."

Having seen the person she wanted to see, the light in Aoi's eyes dimmed. She quietly closed them, her breathing slowing.

"I'm sorry," she murmured faintly. "As Taki's jinchūriki, I betrayed you..."

"I won't say it doesn't matter... but I understand. After all, back then, you were the one who saved me from the Kumo ninjas."

"Thank you, Sōwa-sama. You're... a good person."

Even at death's door, Aoi was grateful that Sōwa had offered her such kind words. If she hadn't owed Sōto so much, if she hadn't been bound by that debt, she would never have taken the path of betrayal.

Realizing just how bad her physical condition had become, her face was full of melancholy.

"Before I die, please remove the Seven-Tails from my body."

"Sigh..."

Sōwa looked equally disheartened. Of course he wanted to extract the Seven-Tails, but the beast also carried the Hero Water's debuff within it. Just like Aoi, it was doomed to die.

So whether they extracted it or not made no difference.

The only difference was that the Seven-Tails could be reborn a few years later, while Aoi's death would be final.

She lay quietly on the wooden bed, her breathing growing weaker and weaker, until at last it faded away completely.

In fact, the Seven-Tails could have lasted a little longer, maybe another ten minutes, but because of the sealing link with its jinchūriki, it was forced to depart together with Aoi. Looking at her on the bed, Jiraiya's eyes revealed a hint of emotion as he sighed softly.

"What a pity. Such a beautiful woman with such a great figure, and she chose to betray her village."

Hearing this, Sōwa's heart tightened in worry. He quickly said, "Please don't write Aoi into one of your books. Her life has already been tragic enough."

"How could you even think that?" Jiraiya suddenly raised his voice in protest. "Do I look like that kind of person?"

Sōwa said nothing. He only watched him silently.

Jiraiya felt the words choke in his throat. What's with that look? It wasn't like he'd wronged him before, and he didn't even make him look bad in the last book.

Ryouma stepped forward and gently patted Jiraiya on the shoulder, speaking softly. "Alright. We all believe in you."

A look of relief appeared on Jiraiya's face. "See, Ryouma, you're the one who really understands me."

"Of course. Oh, and don't forget about the condition you agreed to earlier."

"Condition?"

A flicker of confusion crossed Jiraiya's face, then his eyes spun, and suddenly he remembered.

A mischievous grin tugged at his lips as he slung an arm around Ryouma's shoulder.

"You mean that full set of my personally signed Icha Icha Paradise, right? I didn't expect a guy like you to be a fan of my work too."

"Huh?!" Yahiko's expression was one of utter disbelief.

Even Sōwa was taken aback, eyes widening slightly as he cast a subtle glance at Ryouma, thinking privately that you really couldn't judge a book by its cover.

He felt oddly proud, having the same taste as the Leaf's Gale.

"Ahem..."

Ryouma gave a tactical cough, his expression firming as he gently pushed Jiraiya's arm away.

"I'm planning to give them to Kakashi. Some of you might not know him. He's a friend of mine."

Jiraiya's mouth curved into a knowing smile.

"Oh, I get it."

With that, he pulled out a sealed scroll and summoned a neatly packaged set of Icha Icha Paradise volumes.

They included all the currently published parts: The Hot Springs Inn of the Land of Fire, The Hōzuki Castle of the Land of Grass, and The Tavern Nights of the Land of Rain.

The titles sounded like travel journals, but none of them were what you'd call proper books.

He signed each one on the title page: "From the Great Jiraiya, Hero Among Men."

Under Sōwa's envious gaze, Jiraiya carefully lifted the books with both hands and solemnly offered them to Ryouma.

"These works are my children. Please take good care of them."

"I'll be sure to pass your words along to Kakashi, exactly as you said them," Ryouma replied without missing a beat, receiving the books with both hands. Then, using the Flying Thunder God Technique, he instantly transported them back to his home.

Konan watched the scene unfold before her.

It was one thing for the leader of Taki to be a fan, but she hadn't expected even someone like Ryouma to read Jiraiya's books.

She made up her mind then. Once she was back on the road searching for information about Nagato, she had to find a copy of Icha Icha Paradise and read it for herself. She wanted to see what kind of mysterious charm that book actually had.

Just then, a knocking sound came from the door. After receiving permission, a Taki ninja carefully stepped inside.

He bowed respectfully to everyone in the room before reporting in a deferential tone.

"Sōwa-sama, Sōto and his subordinates have all been successfully detained. The Ame ninjas have also been subdued. However... Hanzō is still trapped inside that giant sand hand. No matter what we try, we can't..."

The Taki ninja trailed off, the helplessness in his voice obvious.

Seeing this, Ryouma spoke calmly. "The sand hand carries a sealing technique. I'll handle it."

After Sōwa expressed his gratitude, he left two Taki ninjas behind to take care of Aoi's remains.

---

Before long, the group returned to the lakeside island.

On the surface of the lake, several Taki ninjas were hard at work with iron shovels, furiously scraping and digging at the massive hand of sand as though they were in some kind of contest with it.

But after all that effort, they hadn't managed to loosen even a grain of sand. The scene looked so absurd it was almost comical.

"Pff... hahaha!"

Jiraiya couldn't hold it in any longer. Clutching his stomach, he bent over laughing.

"Sōwa, your village's ninjas sure have some imagination! Hahaha!"

"Uhh..."

Sōwa's face flushed with embarrassment. He hurriedly ordered the Taki ninjas to step back and stop wasting their energy.

Sensing Hanzō's condition, Ryouma raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Immediately, the enormous sand hand began to move as if it had come alive. It flexed fluidly, forming an "OK" gesture, its thumb and forefinger pinching Hanzō's leg as it lifted him up and tossed him down on the shore in front of Ryouma.

Although Hanzō's body had been sealed within the sand, his consciousness remained clear. Now that he was suddenly released, he didn't need to guess to know that Ryouma had completely taken control of the situation.

Staggering to his feet, his eyes glimmered with defiance as he swept his gaze across Jiraiya and the others, finally fixing on the white-haired youth before him.

"Ryouma, you..."

"You what?"

Ryouma cut him off without hesitation. He still had to meet with Shiori later, and he had no patience to chat with this stubborn old man.

He pointed toward Sōwa and said, "If you've got something to say, tell them later. I'm busy."

With that, he tossed Jiraiya a scroll.

"This contains the curse seal technique I placed inside him. If he steps out of line, you can use that to deal with him."

Jiraiya caught the scroll, blinking in mild surprise. "You're leaving already?"

"Of course. I was in Kumo negotiating with the Raikage when you dragged me here with that emergency scroll. I thought you'd found Black Zetsu's trail. Next time, call me after you actually find something."

"Heh, next time for sure, next time for sure." Jiraiya laughed weakly, scratching his cheek with a sheepish grin.