Malphegor
patreon
GSiN: Ch. 115
🕑 Added 2025-06-04 18:23:48 +0000 UTC---Ryouma's POV---
I let out a soft sigh, sweeping my hand across the little girl's face to make her expression more peaceful. That way, when we brought her back to Yu, at least her family would suffer a little less.
Kakashi had the same thought. As he approached a small grey-haired boy who looked to be around the same age, he was about to move the boy's body to a nearby clearing. But suddenly, the boy opened his eyes and shot up into a sitting position.
"Ahhh—!"
He was caught completely off guard and stumbled backward in fright, his wide, dead-fish eyes opening even wider.
"What's wrong?"
Hearing Kakashi's shout, Obito and I quickly turned our heads to look.
A boy, about seven or eight years old, stood up from the rubble, clicking his tongue as he said, "Hey hey hey, what are you yelling for?"
"Sorry, I thought you were…" Kakashi stopped mid-sentence. After all, telling a lively kid that he "thought he was dead" seemed a bit impolite.
"He is dead, Kakashi."
My Rikugan could see clearly that the boy in front of me was indeed a genuine corpse. His soul, however, was somehow forcibly bound to his body, similar to a forbidden technique the Second Hokage had once researched.
"But?" Obito scratched his head. "He can still talk, can't he?"
Kakashi looked toward the Bishop. Could this be some kind of corpse-controlling technique?
I walked up to the boy and examined him. Though I already had a good guess in my heart, I still asked knowingly, "What's your name? Hidan, right?"
"Huh? If you already know my name, why even ask?"
Hidan turned toward me with an annoyed expression, but the moment he looked at me, his eyes suddenly lit up as if he'd discovered something incredible.
"You... you're… Jashin-sama!"
"No, I'm not."
"You are!"
I was speechless. There was just no reasoning with this idiot. Better to pack him up and bring him back to Yu too.
"All the bodies have been moved out of the ruins," Kakashi shouted from a clearing nearby.
Unrolling a large sealing scroll and spreading it on the ground, I quickly formed hand seals with both hands.
Sometimes, I truly felt that learning sealing techniques was one of the wisest decisions I had ever made. Whether it was the Uzumaki clan's fūinjutsu taught by Kushina, or the ones invented by the Second Hokage, they had all benefited me greatly.
I strapped the one-meter-long scroll to my waist and didn't forget to use sand to restrain the Bishop.
"Come closer. I'll get us out of here directly."
Whoosh.
Outside the stronghold, the world was still an expanse of snow and ice. No one would imagine that beneath this pure white landscape lay such terrifying evil. Thinking of this, I slowly formed a new set of hand seals and slammed my palm onto the ground.
The ground ahead began to quake violently. The rumbling didn't stop.
With the help of Shukaku's chakra, I used Earth Release to quite literally seal the stronghold into the earth.
"Let's go back."
---Third POV---
Inside the Yu Administration Building, a young Yu-nin asked curiously, scratching his head, "Are we really just going to wait in the village like this? Doesn't that make us seem kind of useless?"
The Yu leader grabbed a scroll from the desk and smacked it onto the young ninja's head. As the latter cried out in pain, the leader scolded him with deep frustration. "You think you're capable? Where was that capability last night?"
If they had won the fight the night before, he wouldn't have had to ask the Konoha ninjas for help.
"Just wait. Since the Leaf's Gale himself took action, all we need to do is have the payment ready."
The young ninja, still a bit resentful after being hit, stubbornly muttered under his breath, "But what if he lost too?"
He had been there that night when they fought the Jashin cultists. The cult leader practically swept through the battlefield. Just one swing of the massive tentacles summoned through his summoning technique could flatten an entire building.
The Yu leader was about to reply when another ninja burst in from outside, panting.
"They have returned! They even captured the Bishop alive!"
At this news, the leader's gloomy expression instantly brightened, and he couldn't be bothered with the young ninja anymore.
"That's great! Quickly, take me to them, I must thank them personally."
---
In the central plaza, the square was now filled with the bodies of the missing children. The anguished cries of the families who came to claim them cast a shadow over the clear weather, as though the very air had become heavy with sorrow.
Even the battle-hardened village leader was filled with mixed emotions as he saw the tragedy that had struck his village. He had suspected from the beginning that the children were likely gone. After all, the Jashin cult's operation had clearly been premeditated. There was no way they would have spared the children or kept them alive for long.
Sigh…
He let out a quiet sigh. He still had responsibilities to fulfill.
"Ryouma-sama, I heard from my men that you captured the Bishop alive?"
"That's right." Ryouma raised his hand and gestured. A ball of sand floated over, swirling as it moved, gradually revealing the Bishop's body. His limbs had already been severed and were pinned to a large wooden cross with kunai.
"He's yours now. Be aware, he's modified his body, so regular methods won't kill him. But if you keep burning him with fire, you should be able to slowly finish him off."
The leader nodded repeatedly and called over two ninjas to carry away the cross, which had been fashioned from two large trees.
"This is the agreed payment for the mission. Please accept it."
He took a large suitcase from a ninja behind him and handed it to Ryouma, continuing, "The rest, the portion agreed upon with Minato-sama, will be delivered to your village by year's end."
Ryouma took the heavy case with a satisfied nod. This Yu leader was pretty sensible, far more courteous than the Third Mizukage of Kiri back then.
"By the way, this child is the only survivor from the incident. His name is Hidan."
He pointed to the brat standing off to the side, who had been staring at Ryouma with burning admiration the entire time.
The Yu leader looked a bit stunned. A survivor from inside the cult's lair? This kid must have had some serious luck.
"Rika, take this child and see if any of his family is still here."
"Yes."
Rika looked at the boy in front of her, the only one who had survived that terrifying organization, and her heart ached. This child must be so scared. She walked over to him and crouched down, speaking in the gentlest voice she could manage.
"It's safe now, okay? I will take you to find your mommy and daddy, alright?"
"Piss off. My parents have been dead for ages."
Hidan's flowery but foul-mouthed response instantly shattered all the compassion Rika had been feeling. Her outstretched hands froze awkwardly in mid-air. She looked helplessly toward her leader, this was going to be a difficult one to deal with…
Seeing that all the necessary matters had been settled, Ryouma politely bid farewell to the Yu leader and prepared to call Kakashi and Obito to leave.
As soon as Hidan saw that Ryouma and the others were about to go, he hurried to chase after them, but was swiftly grabbed by Rika beside him.
"Old hag, let go of me! I want to follow the lord!"
"Hag? Me?"
Rika's mouth twitched, suppressing the urge to punch this rude brat, and patiently explained, "They came here on a mission. Now that it's complete, they have to return to their own country."
The village leader listened to the cries of the families who had lost their children, and glanced at Hidan, the only survivor, yet now an orphan.
He made a decision.
"Please wait a moment, Ryouma-sama."
"Hm?"
Under Ryouma's confused gaze, the village leader made a request even he felt was out of character for himself.
"I would like to ask you to take this child to Konoha."
Ryouma tilted his head and asked, "Are you sure?"
The village leader's eyes dimmed slightly. "I'm very grateful for the opportunity you've given, but for this child, being able to stay in a village like Konoha is the best arrangement."
Ryouma raised his eyebrows and softly repeated, "The best arrangement for him, huh? Fine, I'll agree."
"Thank you very much." The village leader bowed respectfully.
Ryouma waved his hand, not feeling like he deserved any gratitude.
"Rika, let the child go."
Though puzzled, Rika obediently released her grip. Hidan stretched the arm that had been grabbed, she had definitely been taking revenge on him, she had grabbed him way too hard.
Now freed, he quickly jogged over to Ryouma and made a funny face at Rika.
"Thanks, old man! You're surprisingly not a bad guy!"
"Haha, really?" The village leader smiled. "Since you've acknowledged this person next to you as your lord, you'd better fulfill your duty as his subordinate from now on."
Hidan snorted in disdain. "Of course! After all, I'm the evil, uh, cough cough, I mean, his number one underling."
That was close. He almost revealed the true identity of Jashin.
Obito leaned over to Ryouma and whispered: "Are we really taking this brat with us?"
Honestly, if Ryouma was in need of a little brother-type, he could totally take that role instead.
"Idiot."
Before Ryouma could respond, Kakashi immediately commented on Obito's question. That conversation just now had a much deeper meaning. Only an idiot like Obito wouldn't pick up on it.
"Hey! I'm super strong now, you better not piss me off, or you'll regret it!"
"Idiot."
Ryouma was used to the bickering between the two. He let Hidan grab his cloak and placed both hands on the shoulders of the nearly-at-each-other's-throats duo.
Whoosh~
Once she confirmed that Ryouma and the others had left, Rika finally showed a puzzled expression and turned to ask the village leader:
"That child must be something special to be the only survivor, right? Is it really okay to just hand him over to Konoha like that? Besides, the Leaf's Gale didn't seem interested in interfering."
The village leader pointed to the people in the plaza behind them, who were venting their emotions.
"That child is an orphan. As the sole survivor of this tragedy, there isn't even a single person here who can sincerely feel happy for him."
"But… we could arrange for people to slowly build bonds with him, couldn't we?"
Rika understood that Hidan was pitiful, but still felt the leader had acted a bit rashly this time.
The village leader looked up at the birds occasionally flying across the sky and said softly, "Let's just say this is one act of selfishness on my part. This place… is not suitable for that child."
---
Ryouma and the other appeared in a small alley near the Hokage Building. This was the location Ryouma and Minato agreed upon as the best teleportation spot to reach the Hokage Building.
However, the only flaw of this alley was that it was too narrow. As soon as the four of them teleported in, they were instantly squished together in a pile.
"Oww, I'm gonna get crushed to death!" Hidan tried to use his small size to wriggle out through a gap.
"Don't touch my butt with your hands!" Obito clenched up, feeling thoroughly violated.
"That's my face! I haven't even complained about you yet!"
"Huff... huff…" Hidan leaned over, resting his hands on his knees as he gulped down fresh air.
Ryouma frowned deeply beside him, because in his vision, Hidan wasn't even using his lungs to absorb oxygen. He was just mechanically doing the motions of inhaling and exhaling.
This type of lifeform… hmm, very unscientific. If the Second Hokage were still around, he'd probably be very interested.
"I'm going to report the mission to the Hokage and register this kid as a Konoha resident. What about you two?"
The moment Obito heard "mission report," he immediately gave up on tagging along.
"I'll head home first and check on my grandma. Haven't been back in a while."
Kakashi also wasn't a fan of report duty. Hands in his pockets, he added, "I'm heading home too. I'll leave the report to you."
After exchanging farewells, Ryouma led his new little shadow, Hidan, into the Hokage Building.
Fortunately, they didn't run into Danzō this time. After casually returning a few greetings from ninjas along the way, he knocked on the Hokage's office door.
Knock knock...
"Come in."
As usual, Hiruzen was smoking when he looked up and saw Ryouma. He wasn't surprised.
Minato had already contacted him, informing him of what had happened on the battlefield in the Land of Hot Water, including how Ryouma had been asked to help eliminate the Jashin cult.
His gaze swept to the small boy standing behind Ryouma, and Hiruzen slowly said, "Minato already briefed me about what happened in Yu. The others are probably still halfway there."
"Well, quite a lot happened, to be honest," Ryouma said with a hint of reflection in his tone.
He then began detailing the mission to Hiruzen. However, when it came to that strange world, he didn't elaborate too much. There were still many uncertainties, even for him. Luckily, he didn't need to explain everything thoroughly, because that wasn't what Hiruzen was really focused on.
"What? Another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan from the Uchiha?!"
Ryouma had indeed told him about Obito awakening the Mangekyō. He even asked Obito if he had any plans to hide it.
But Obito's answer was: "Hide it? Why would I? I finally awakened it! When I get back, I'm totally going to show off to Asuma and the others just how powerful I really am!"
Honestly, even though Ryouma had warned him multiple times that overusing the Mangekyō Sharingan leads to blindness, he had a feeling Obito hadn't really taken that to heart.
