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GSiN: Ch. 107
🕑 Added 2025-05-27 17:55:27 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
What was an atom?
The fundamental building block of matter.
A nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons, held together by electromagnetic forces.
In the shinobi world, chakra operated on similar principles, but at a far more complex level.
Where atoms had protons and neutrons, chakra had yin and yang components.
Where atoms were bound by nuclear forces, chakra was bound by spiritual and physical energy.
A Tailed Beast Ball represented the pinnacle of chakra manipulation, millions of chakra "atoms" compressed and spun into a perfect sphere. The Eight-Tails' version contained enough condensed chakra to equal a small nuclear explosion, with yang chakra forming the dense outer shell and yin chakra creating the unstable, volatile core. The entire construct spun at incredible velocity, the rotation itself adding kinetic energy to the already devastating chakra payload.
The redirection principle exploited a fundamental law of chakra physics: resonance amplification.
Just as a singer's voice could shatter glass by matching its natural frequency, counter-chakra could double an attack's power by creating perfect harmonic resonance with its internal structure.
What did that mean?
In short, the technique didn't oppose the incoming attack, it synchronized with it, like two waves combining to form a larger wave. The amplification worked through controlled feedback loops.
As the Tailed Beast Ball's yin-yang chakra rotated, the counter-technique introduced a secondary rotation at precisely half the original frequency. This created a standing wave pattern within the sphere, where the attack's own kinetic energy became trapped and multiplied through constructive interference.
The result: twice the destructive potential using the target's own power as fuel.
But why did this require a blade?
Because chakra redirection at this level demanded a focal point, a conductor to channel and shape the resonance field. The metal core allowed for the microscopic adjustments needed to slip counter-chakra into the exact frequency gap between yin and yang layers.
And this precise phenomenon was unfolding right now, as Ryouma's Rikugan calculated the exact frequency match needed.
"Full Counter!"
Wielding Lostvayne in a sweeping slash, an invisible domain unfolded with the motion. At the exact moment it touched the about-to-explode Tailed Beast Ball, he launched a perfect counter at a precise angle.
The violent explosion was somehow redirected, recoiling straight into the sky without any energy wasted. The surging shockwave pierced through a thick layer of clouds above.
The final counterattack attempt had failed. The Eight-Tails' chakra was rapidly compressed by the Four Symbols Seal, and its size began shrinking fast.
"So it was you!" Returning to his true form, Killer B pointed at Ryouma and shouted.
He had finally figured out who had deflected all those Tailed Beast Balls at the start.
♪Can't use chakra, situation's dire,
But I still got blades and I'm spittin' fire!
Bakayarō! Konoyarō!♪
Killer B didn't forget his rap even now. Yelling while clutching swords all over his body like a porcupine, he charged at Ryouma, who formed a one-handed seal.
Clang~
He instantly froze in place. All seven swords dropped to the ground, and a pattern of banded seals began appearing on his skin.
Pop~
Ryouma reached out and high-fived Minato. "Looks like I came just in time, Captain Minato."
Minato responded with a bright smile, "You really did. I didn't expect you to take down both A and the Two-Tails jinchūriki all by yourself."
"I was hoping to surprise you, actually." Ryouma snapped his fingers, bringing over two clumps of sand cloud.
Killer B strained his eyes to look over, well, it really was A and Yugito.
After some treatment from Ryouma, Yugito had barely regained consciousness. Seeing Killer B bound in place by a sealing, she sighed helplessly.
Just great. All three of Kumo's top fighters were now in Konoha's hands. What were they supposed to fight with now?
Ryouma, concerned Killer B wouldn't behave, wrapped him up in sand as well.
♪Went to war, got caught, not my best day,
But bro's close, don't get in his way!
Can't use chakra, situation's dire,
But I spit bars locked up, still alive!
Bakayarō! Konoyarō!♪
Hearing Killer B's rap, Ryouma showed the exact expression of an old man on the subway reading something ridiculous on his phone. He was sure he sealed Killer B's mouth along with the rest of him when he used the seal.
So how was he still rapping? Did he have some innate talent that made his raps uninterruptible, no matter what?
While Ryouma puzzled over the effectiveness of his seal, A, who didn't share Killer B's special talent, looked like he was about to explode from rage behind the tightly sealed mouth.
Damn that B. It was bad enough he didn't follow orders and stay safely at the rear, but now he'd actually shown up on the battlefield and gotten captured. Now both of them were Konoha's prisoners.
Maybe someone else should inherit the name of the "A-B Combo."
He didn't think he was worthy of being Raikage anymore.
Minato stepped up to A. "Your forces have already lost. Fighting any longer on the front lines is meaningless and will only increase casualties on both sides. I hope you'll cooperate and help convince the remaining Kumo ninjas to surrender."
With that, Minato signaled Ryouma to remove the sand covering A's mouth.
With his ability to speak restored, A took a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice that didn't match his rough, brutish appearance at all.
"I can agree to your terms. But you have to agree to one condition of mine."
"What condition?"
"Let B go."
Hearing A's request, Minato's brows furrowed, and he immediately refused. "No."
A showed no change in expression after being rejected and quickly made a new offer.
"If you won't release him, then I want your guarantee that Konoha won't extract the tailed beasts from him or from Yugito."
This condition was more acceptable. Minato thought for a moment and agreed. "Fine. Since the First Hokage sold the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails to your village, we won't go against his will."
From his perspective, Konoha already had the Nine-Tails and had no need to covet other tailed beasts.
Capturing the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails' jinchūriki this time was more about taking the opportunity to pressure the Land of Lightning heavily, not to kill the goose for the golden egg.
Rather than extracting the tailed beasts and ending up with unstable jinchūriki, essentially walking time bombs, it was better to use them as leverage to exchange for benefits from Kumo. For example, learning how to create so-called perfect jinchūriki.
He admitted he had some personal motives too, he wanted Kushina to become a perfect jinchūriki like Killer B.
Seeing Minato agree to his request, A let out a sigh of relief. Though the situation was dire, as long as Killer B could stay alive, that was a blessing.
Ryouma was a bit stunned, what the heck was up with this muscle-head A? When they were fighting earlier, he was shouting "bastard this" and "damn you that," and now he was suddenly all calm and reasonable?
In truth, A had no choice. If it had been just himself getting captured, he would've rather died than let the enemy gain anything. But with B in enemy hands, well, then everything was negotiable.
The rest of the events unfolded rather simply. After returning to the front lines using the Flying Thunder God Technique, Ryouma boldly floated A and the two jinchūriki high into the center of the battlefield, wrapped in sand clouds, so all the Kumo ninjas could see.
With one hand, he formed and raised a condensed vacuum bomb above his head.
With a huge explosion echoing through the air, every ninja on the battlefield looked up to see A and the others suspended in the sky.
"A-sama?!" one Kumo ninja shouted in excitement upon spotting A, "Thank goodness! He is here!"
"You idiot!" his teammate smacked him on the head and scolded him angrily, "Can't you see they are being controlled by that Konoha ninja floating next to them?!"
"Seriously?"
The first ninja rubbed the massive lump on his head and looked up again, his mouth fell wide open in disbelief.
"What, even A-sama got defeated? What are we supposed to do now?"
At that moment, some of the more intelligence-savvy ninjas among the Kumo forces recognized who Ryouma was.
"That Konoha ninja… I think that's the Leaf's Gale."
"What?! That explosion maniac? We're screwed. That guy's crazy! Crazy!"
"Yo, yo, explosion maniac, your... mmph mmph..." Killer B had just found inspiration and was about to drop a freestyle rap, but before he could finish, Ryouma, who was prepared for this, silenced him with a cursed seal.
"Alright, it's your turn to appear now."
"Are you interested in joining Kumo?" A asked seriously, inviting Ryouma. "I can make you the Fifth Raikage before you turn twenty."
"Huh?" Ryouma couldn't understand A's bizarre proposition. "Did you get sand in your brain or something?"
A's forehead twitched with veins, but he genuinely admired him. If only he had known earlier, he would have abducted him when he was young and raised him in Kumo.
"I've read your intel. Your parents died at the hands of Kiri, and now there's no family left for you in Konoha. So why stay there? Join Kumo. I can help you launch a war of annihilation against the Land of Water to avenge them. Konoha would never do that for you."
Ryouma's eyes flickered for a moment, but he still decisively refused. "Give it up. The Third Raikage was killed by Iwa. Did you launch a war of annihilation against the Land of Earth?"
A was left speechless, he couldn't win that war anyway.
"If you join us, then adding Iwa to our list of targets is totally doable."
"I refuse."
"Hmph."
At this point, the conversation couldn't go any further. But A wasn't giving up. He planned to follow them back to Konoha anyway, so he'd have plenty of time to try poaching him again.
For now, it was time to end this lost war.
With his booming voice, even the Kumo ninjas who were ready to fight to the death understood the situation and surrendered sensibly. They had previously held onto naive hopes of turning things around, but now that their leader and both jinchūriki were captured, what was the point in fighting anymore?
With no one left in charge on the Kumo side, it was ultimately C who led several jonin to negotiate a temporary truce with Minato on the battlefield.
"We are willing to negotiate peace with Konoha. But before that, can you return A-sama to us? Without him, we don't have the authority to make decisions on many matters."
C didn't believe Konoha would agree, but it didn't hurt to try. What if they did?
"No." Ryouma, who had been silent all this time, suddenly rejected him coldly.
Just as Minato was planning to use Killer B as leverage to figure out how to create a perfect jinchūriki, Ryouma also intended to use A to obtain the Lightning Release Chakra Mode. That was the only reason he hadn't killed A.
"The Two-Tails and Eight-Tails jinchūriki, along with A, will be escorted back to Konoha. I heard that Kumo is now being led by a ninja named Dodai. If you don't have the authority to negotiate, then let him bring people to Konoha and do it himself."
Ryouma didn't have a mind like Shikaku, nor did he need to play strategy games with Kumo. He had one simple message, if they wanted their people back, they'd better bring enough bargaining chips to Konoha.
Minato shared the same view. After such a long conflict, now that Konoha had won, there was no way Kumo could get away without paying a price.
The shinobi world wasn't some fairy tale.
"Fine. I'll relay this to Dodai-sama. I hope you don't harm them before peace talks begin."
---
After cleaning up the battlefield, Minato led the victorious Konoha forces back to their camp in the Land of Hot Water. But once the war was preliminarily over, he somehow became even busier than he had been during the fighting.
He had to oversee the exchange of ordinary prisoners, confirm the identities of fallen ninjas on the battlefield, check remaining supplies, and take care of countless other matters.
But true to his title as the fastest man in the shinobi world, he astonishingly completed all of this battlefield work within just two days.
You have to know, when Tsunade was handling the Suna's surrender, if it hadn't been for Shikaku's help, she probably would have dragged things out for several weeks.
---
That evening in the command room, Konoha's top officers were working overtime, holding a meeting regarding Kumo.
Present were Ryouma, Minato, Chōza, and Inoichi.
"In addition to demanding the method to create a perfect jinchūriki and Kumo's secret techniques, we should be able to ask for a few more unreasonable conditions," Chōza said seriously. "After all, we've captured three irreplaceable Kumo ninjas."
"Agreed," Minato affirmed Chōza's suggestion. "But it's hard to think of everything right now. It's better to wait until we return to Konoha and let the Third Hokage decide."
Knock knock knock—
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Minato called out.
Outside, Kakashi had been about to politely say "Sorry to interrupt," but Obito, having heard Minato's permission, immediately shoved the door open.
"Ryouma! Ryouma!"
His excited voice echoed through the room.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm here," Ryouma raised a hand in response.
"Yu is hosting a fireworks festival tonight to celebrate the end of the war!" Obito's face was full of longing, his mouth chattering non-stop.
"Ryouma! Ryouma!"
"Obito, you are already standing in front of me. Can you stop shouting already?"
"Let's go see the fireworks in Yu together! And Minato-sensei too—ow!"
Kakashi withdrew the hand chop he had just landed on Obito's head, his dead-fish eyes staring as he bowed to the people in the room.
"Sorry, excuse us." Then he grabbed Obito by the collar and was about to close the door and leave.
"Let go of me, Kakashi! Don't you want to go too? Didn't you say you wanted to buy the latest ninja novel?"
"I, no, I didn't say that! Minato-sensei and the others are discussing important matters. As a ninja, how can you not learn to endure!"
Kakashi hadn't expected Obito to blurt everything out. He had just made a casual remark, but this idiot actually remembered it.
"Haha." Watching his students' antics, Minato couldn't help but laugh. "There's nothing to apologize for."
"That's right. At your age, it's natural to be excited about things like this," Inoichi added with a smile.
Minato turned to Ryouma and suggested, "Why don't you take a break from the meeting and go to the fireworks festival with Kakashi and Obito? Relax a little."
"I…" Ryouma hesitated. He was indeed curious about this kind of event, but just now Inoichi had said only kids would be excited about it. He wasn't a kid... and besides, Minato and the others were still working.
"Ryouma, just go have fun. We can handle the rest of the work here."
As Inoichi spoke, he was already pushing Ryouma toward the door.
