GSiN: Ch. 192

Far away, thousands of kilometers from Taki, deep within the Great Desert of the Land of Wind, a Flying Thunder God kunai, long buried beneath the sands and forgotten by time, once again played a crucial role today.

Without warning, a Tailed Beast Ball appeared out of thin air. Before the desolate desert could even react, it erupted in a blinding explosion.

In an instant, dazzling light flashed. A mushroom cloud soared into the sky!

The massive shockwave stirred up a wall of sand that blotted out the sun. Within a hundred-kilometer radius, dunes and ravines alike were flattened, and the deafening roar echoed endlessly across the wasteland.

Inside Taki, Ryouma gazed toward the direction of the Land of Wind. He wasn't sure if that Tailed Beast Ball had accidentally harmed anyone. If it had, he could only offer his deepest apologies. After all, in such an urgent situation, the desert was the most suitable place he could think of.

A nuke and a desert, what a perfect match. The people of Suna would understand.

Having sent away the greatest threat on the battlefield, he naturally would not allow the Seven-Tails another chance to unleash a Tailed Beast Ball. His eyes sharpened, and he immediately controlled two sand snakes, which swiftly coiled around the beast.

Along the snakes' bodies, sealing formulas crawled and spread. Wherever they touched, the rampaging chakra within the Seven-Tails was sealed away. Under the power of the sealing jutsu, the once wild and thrashing giant insect finally fell silent.

Retracting the fox claws that were part of his chakra cloak, Ryouma leaped gracefully toward the creature's massive eye. He tapped lightly on the Seven-Tails' hard carapace, speaking as if greeting an old friend.

"Hello, can you hear me?"

However, after several seconds, there was still no response.

He pondered for a moment, deciding to reinforce the seal on the jinchūriki first. He placed one hand firmly on the creature's shell, and just as the other hand was about to form a seal, the Seven-Tails suddenly reacted.

"Ssshhhhh!"

With a piercing hiss, rows of vent-like holes along its sides spewed streams of white-hot vapor, tangled with sticky, thread-like filaments like spider silk.

Though this attack posed little threat to Ryouma, it was undeniably disgusting. He frowned deeply, instantly activating the Flying Thunder God, and in the blink of an eye, teleported a hundred meters away.

The sealing array was essentially a modified version of the sealing formula. It excelled at suppressing chakra, but against pure physical force, it was somewhat lacking.

This weakness was common among chakra-based sealing arts. Even someone like Kushina, using the Adamantine Sealing Chains, could not fully avoid it. However, Ryouma had his own countermeasure. Just like the First Hokage, he would suppress brute strength with greater brute strength.

Pressing his hands together, he slammed them down. A torrent of chakra surged from his body into the sea of sand below.

The desert erupted. Countless grains of sand rose, and in an instant, two colossal sand giants emerged, towering even larger than the Seven-Tails itself.

One of the giants swung its massive fist, howling through the wind, and smashed it straight into the trapped Seven-Tails' head.

BOOM!

With a loudimpact, the beast was slammed heavily into the ground.

The other sand giant was not to be outdone. Its body churned and twisted, sprouting two additional pairs of arms from its sides. Six enormous hands, like iron clamps, shot forward and locked onto the roots of the Seven-Tails' wings, holding it completely still.

"Ssshhhhh!"

The beast let out a final defiant screech, but before it could finish, the first sand giant followed up with a left-right combo, landing two crushing blows.

Perhaps the effects of the Hero Water were finally wearing off, or perhaps those iron fists were simply too brutal. Whatever the case, the look in the Seven-Tails' eyes suddenly became much clearer. This time, it had truly been subdued.

It didn't even require Ryouma to step forward and reinforce the seal. The beast's enormous body slowly shrank down on its own, obediently returning to its jinchūriki's body.

Shukaku shook his head helplessly, sighing repeatedly. "See? Wouldn't it have been better to behave from the start? Always has to be like that fox, take a beating before learning to behave."

Ryouma used a Body Flicker to appear beside the now "steaming hot" jinchūriki of the Seven-Tails. Yes, literally steaming hot.

Most of Aoi's skin had been severely burned by the tailed beast chakra. Her flesh was torn and blistered, white smoke rising from her body, filling the air with the smell of charred meat.

"I didn't expect drinking that stuff would have side effects this bad."

With just a quick scan using his Rikugan, he could already tell. This jinchūriki named Aoi was beyond saving.

---

On a rooftop somewhere in Taki, the air rippled faintly as space distorted. Ryouma appeared beside Jiraiya and the others in an instant.

Although the Seven-Tails had already been beaten and returned to its sealing space, the air was still thick with floating scale dust, making visibility poor and the surroundings hazy.

Jiraiya, sensing the wind shift beside him, sharply looked up. When he saw Ryouma, the tension in his body immediately eased.

"You scared the life out of me! Did you take care of it?"

"I did."

Yahiko's face lit up with excitement. "Amazing! You defeated it so quickly!"

"Ryouma smiled, then pointed toward Sōwa, whose wounds were still bleeding heavily. "So this guy is the leader of Taki you mentioned? Looks to me like he's about to kick the bucket."

At almost the same moment, Konan's anxious voice rang out. "Jiraiya-sensei! Sōwa's not going to make it!"

"What?"

Jiraiya's face changed dramatically as he quickly turned to his injured fan. Sōwa had somehow regained consciousness, his lips trembling slightly as if he wanted to say something.

Jiraiya hurried closer, grasping his hand tightly, grief written all over his face.

"Sōwa! Damn it, you're such a good man, and yet you're going to die here, unnoticed and uncelebrated!"

"It's... it's all right. I came here... ready to die... that's why I brought the Hero Water with me..."

Sōwa's breath was weak, his words broken.

Jiraiya pressed his lips together and asked softly, "Do you have any last wishes?"

"Last... wishes? I just hope... you'll spare Sōto's life. He only wanted... to protect Taki. But... please, just don't let him become the next leader..."

"Don't worry. I promise you."

Jiraiya's tone was sincere, filled with respect as he continued. "And for your dedication to peace, I will never forget it. I've decided. The next volume of Icha Icha Paradise, The Land of Waterfalls Arc, will feature a new main character named Kazama Sōwa!"

Hearing that, Sōwa's eyes flew open wide, filled with terror and despair.

He only liked reading Icha Icha Paradise. He had never wanted to become a character in it. Whether as the tragic fool or the cuckolded husband, none of those roles were acceptable!

"N-no... no..."

He desperately shook his head, trying to protest, but before he could finish, a sharp, stinging pain shot through his thigh.

"Aaaaghhhh!"

He screamed in agony and looked over, only to see a white-haired figure holding a large syringe, injecting some kind of white liquid into his leg.

"What is this?"

Konan asked with a face full of confusion, voicing the question that was on everyone's mind.

Ryouma, while slowly pressing down the syringe plunger, explained, "This is Konoha's newly developed Revita-Inject. For injuries like yours, give it a few minutes, and you'll be jumping around again like nothing happened."

After saying that, as if suddenly remembering something, he added, "Of course, if you'd rather not come back to life and prefer to become a character in one of Jiraiya's books, I could always..."

"Please don't do that!!"

Sōwa shouted in panic, eyes wide with fear, using every ounce of strength left in his body, terrified that Ryouma might actually give up on treating him.

"Alright then."

After finishing the injection, he put the syringe away and sent it to the Konoha Hospital's recycling system.

Under the watchful eyes of Jiraiya, Yahiko, and Konan, color quickly returned to Sōwa's face, as though he had just taken some powerful restorative medicine.

From beneath the layers of medical bandages covering his body came an unbearable itching sensation.

He waved off Konan's attempt to help him stand, then slowly got to his feet and began unwrapping the bandages himself.

When the others looked closely, they saw that the deep, bone-revealing wounds had vanished completely, replaced by fresh, tender skin that was still a little pale pink.

"This is incredible..."

Yahiko and Konan stared in utter shock at the miraculous effects of the drug.

So this is the difference between a great nation and a small one. While their village still relied on simple medical bandages, the emergency medicine Konoha's ninjas carried around casually was already outperforming their best medical-nin.

Sōwa's gaze drifted toward the white-haired youth wearing the Konoha forehead protector. Lowering his head slightly, he said softly, "Thank you for your help, my friend. I am the leader of this village, Kazama Sōwa. May I ask your name?"

"Oh, haha, almost forgot to introduce him," Jiraiya said with his usual hearty laugh. "This guy is Aotsuki Ryouma. You've probably heard of him, right?"

"What!"

Sōwa's pupils contracted sharply. As a village leader, that name was all too familiar to him.

After all, for the leader of a small nation's village, the most important thing was to know which figures in the shinobi world must never be provoked. And at the very top of that "Do Not Provoke" list was none other than Leaf's Gale, the man who, during the Third Great Shinobi War, single-handedly achieved the twin feats of destroying Kiri and killing the Third Mizukage.

Especially when compared to the Third Raikage, who died after being besieged by ten thousand Iwa ninjas, the sheer weight of Leaf's Gale's accomplishments shone even brighter.

Even the First Hokage, who once ended the Warring States period, hadn't delivered such terrifyingly decisive results.

Sōwa couldn't help but recall the intelligence he'd read about Ryouma. This was not a man as easygoing or approachable as Jiraiya.

At that thought, his throat moved nervously as he swallowed hard. With an uneasy heart, he bowed deeply to Ryouma once again, speaking with sincere gratitude, "Thank you very much for your help. Taki will never forget your help. If there's ever anything you need in the future, please don't hesitate to ask."

"No need to thank me. If you think the medicine works well, just send some people to Konoha Hospital to buy a batch directly. Mention my name, and they'll even give you a ten percent discount."

"Oh, oh! So this is the stuff you and Orochimaru made using White Zetsu cells, huh?" Jiraiya suddenly butted in, looking quite pleased with himself.

Ryouma turned toward him, raising an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Oh? You know about that?"

"Don't underestimate my information network." Jiraiya wagged his finger proudly, grinning ear to ear. "Gathering intel just happens to be my specialty."

Then he added, "Actually, Orochimaru only told me about this recently. He even suggested I stop by the village sometime and buy a few doses from him."

"Buy from him?" Ryouma narrowed his eyes slightly in thought. "Sounds like he plans to sell you an even stronger version of the serum. You two really have quite the relationship."

"But of course!" Jiraiya thumped his chest, all enthusiasm. "Don't be fooled by his cold, snake-like face. Deep down, he's actually..."

At this point, he trailed off deliberately, leaning close to Ryouma's ear to whisper something secretive and gossipy.

Because the air was still thick with shimmering powder that interfered with sensory perception, Sōwa had no idea that the enemies had already been dealt with by Ryouma.

Watching the two of them chatting so casually, he wanted desperately to interrupt and steer the conversation back on track.

But he was worried that doing so might irritate this powerful figure, so he just stood there awkwardly, face twisting in discomfort, opening and closing his mouth several times yet never speaking.

Yahiko couldn't bear to see Sōwa struggle like that.

"There's no need to be so nervous," Yahiko said gently. "Ryouma's really easy to get along with. Besides, both Hanzō and Sōto have already been dealt with by him."

Konan chimed in softly, "That's right, there's no more fighting. It's over now."

"It's... already over?"

Sōwa was stunned. He'd been knocked out cold by his brother, only to wake up and find that the entire battle had somehow ended?

Then what was the point of all that determination he'd mustered earlier in the shrine, ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of the Hero Water?

Ryouma noticed their small conversation and cleared his throat lightly, ending his gossip session with Jiraiya. He turned and walked to the edge of the eaves, forming hand seals with both hands.

"Wind Release: Passing Typhoon!"

In an instant, the air roared to life. The glimmering, white-scaled powder that floated in the sky was swept up by the fierce wind and drawn tightly together.

Under his precise control, the scales drifted downward, settling gently over the lake's surface, coating it in a dreamlike shimmer.

Only then could everyone finally see the battlefield clearly.

Most of the island in the middle of the lake had been swallowed by a vast sea of sand.

Aside from the Ame ninjas, even Sōto's subordinates, over a hundred ninjas of varying skill, were all bound tightly in place by massive serpents of sand, completely immobilized.

And more shocking still, two colossal sand giants, each larger than a tailed beast, stood motionless over the battlefield.

Sōwa sighed softly, shaking his head. He couldn't help but wonder if Taki would ever produce such a powerful ninja in his lifetime.

Soon after, they all returned to the center of the original battlefield.

Dozens of Taki ninjas who had been stumbling blindly through the fog earlier now finally found their leader.

Panting, they rushed over to Sōwa's side to report their status.

Upon hearing that the civilians in the shelter were all safe, Sōwa finally exhaled in relief.

"Yūki, Hayate, you two, move quickly! Go tell the medical unit to get here right away. There are still many wounded comrades on the battlefield who need treatment. The rest of you, start cleaning up the area. Move fast!"

"Yes!"

With the orders given, the Taki ninjas immediately dispersed in an orderly fashion.

Watching their retreating backs, Ryouma suddenly remembered something important.

"Speaking of which, Sōwa, your village's jinchūriki is about to die."