Malphegor
patreon
GSiN: Ch. 48
🕑 Added 2025-03-26 15:07:23 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
Shikaku drew a sharp breath, contributing a bit to global warming in the ninja world. He was already calculating the political ramifications of Rasa's death.
Minato, however, remained calm. After all, the scene of Ryouma killing Pakura was still vivid in his memories.
Both possessed bloodline limits. Even if Magnet Release was stronger than Scorch Release, it was only marginally so.
Chiyo took a deep breath, and the wrinkles on her face seemed to deepen. Decades of warfare had taught her to hide her emotions, but even her iron discipline couldn't completely mask the shock.
"Is that so? Regarding the ransom for Rasa's and the One-Tail jinchūriki's bodies, can you make the decision?"
"We'll discuss that during the formal negotiations later," Shikaku deflected. This was a common tactic among the villages after capturing another's bloodline users, study them thoroughly before selling them back.
---
Later, Shikaku and the Suna representatives started negotiations. This aspect was better left to professionals.
Jiraiya, Minato, and Ryouma merely stood there, applying enough pressure with their presence.
Besides, this was only a preliminary negotiation. The formal talks would require both villages' Kage to participate. However, Suna would first need to select its Fourth Kazekage.
After listening for a while, Ryouma felt bored. But Chiyo's next words caught his attention.
"Then, shouldn't you return the One-Tail to us? It has been Suna's responsibility since the era of the First Hokage."
At that moment, Shukaku was lying on its side, napping. Hearing those annoying Suna people mention it, it opened its yellow, coin-like eyes.
If this had been in the past, it would have flown into a rage and smacked them. How dare they treat it like an object! But times had changed. Shukaku now aspired to be a refined tailed beast. Why stoop to the level of its foolish peers?
Besides, it was no longer alone.
"Shukaku is now my partner, and our collaboration has been quite successful. Unless he willingly decides to return to Suna, I don't think we can come to terms," Ryouma said while staring intensely at Chiyo.
"Partner? A tailed beast isn't a summon animal or a pet. It's a force of nature."
"And who decided that? The same people who've been sealing them away for generations? Shukaku has thoughts, preferences, and a will of his own. I respect that. Do you?"
Chiyo was left speechless. In her view, the One-Tail must have been under some kind of jutsu cast by Ryouma, he even named it, for crying out loud.
Now he said they had to respect the One-Tail's wishes. Wasn't that just a roundabout way of saying he had no intention of returning it? This was also the consensus among all the Konoha and Suna ninjas who had witnessed the One-Tail's peculiar behavior on the battlefield.
To them, tailed beasts and humans were natural enemies, fundamentally irreconcilable. And by "collaboration success," did he mean slaughtering nearly half of Suna's forces on the battlefield?
Whether or not it was a threat, given Suna's current state, they had no way to force him to return the One-Tail if he refused. Still, Chiyo wanted to make one last effort. The tailed beast was crucial for Suna, which was now lacking in high-level combat power.
She composed her words carefully.
"Ransom isn't an issue. But if Konoha keeps two tailed beasts, it will not only draw the covetous eyes of other villages but also go against the will of the First Hokage, don't you think?"
"An interesting appeal to our village's founding principles," Minato noted, speaking for the first time, trying to help out Ryouma. "The First Hokage distributed the tailed beasts to create balance, true. But that was before villages started using them as weapons against each other."
Chiyo pressed her advantage. "The balance of power has maintained an uneasy peace for generations. Five villages, nine tailed beasts. If Konoha claims two, what's to stop Iwa or Kumo from seeking to acquire more as well?"
Her argument was well-reasoned.
But Chiyo's words made Shukaku, who had been ignoring her, recall some unpleasant memories.
It lost its composure in an instant.
"Fools! If you keep nagging, I will kill you all!" Its previously nonchalant demeanor disappeared.
Ryouma, unwilling to bicker further with Chiyo, spoke bluntly, "If you have the energy, why not investigate who disappeared along with your Third Kazekage? You might find a surprise."
"What are you implying?" Chiyo narrowed her eyes.
"I'm not implying anything. I'm suggesting a better use of Suna's resources than chasing after a tailed beast that doesn't want to return."
Chiyo couldn't grasp the meaning behind his words. Surely he wasn't retaliating with the Third Kazekage just because she brought up the First Hokage?
Is he suggesting Konoha was involved? Or does he know something about who was responsible? Either way, why reveal it now?
Unable to make sense of it, she glanced at the Konoha representatives, hoping one of them would be willing to discuss the matter of the One-Tail in more detail.
But Minato remained silent, choosing to trust Ryouma. Jiraiya, on the other hand, didn't care at all. In his view, Konoha was always besieged by other villages during every Great Ninja War, so having an extra tailed beast was just another problem on the pile.
Even Shikaku felt that the One-Tail was a hot potato for Konoha. Another tailed beast meant another target on their backs, another reason for rival villages to unite against them. However, he wouldn't voice his opinion at this moment.
Let the Hokage deal with this particular troublesome situation. My job is to secure the best terms possible without revealing our hand, he thought, maintaining his diplomatic composure.
Chiyo had no choice but to abandon her hopes of retrieving the One-Tail for now. This battle had already left Suna almost completely depleted, and further conflict over the One-Tail would only create unnecessary trouble.
"Very well. The matter of the One-Tail can be revisited in formal negotiations, if necessary," she conceded reluctantly.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but silently curse the Third Kazekage. Not only had he made foolish decisions, but he'd also indirectly caused her family to die at the hands of Sakumo. And then, as if that wasn't enough, he mysteriously disappeared, leaving Suna in shambles.
Sigh…
Not long after, the preliminary negotiations between the high-ranking members of Konoha and Suna were concluded.
"We'll prepare the documentation for both villages to review. Final terms will require approval from the Hokage," Shikaku stated formally.
"Similarly, our council will need to consult on these terms," a Suna representative responded.
The formal negotiations were indefinitely postponed.
Konoha still had other fronts to deal with in the ongoing war, while Suna not only faced the looming threat of Iwa but also hadn't yet selected a new Kazekage.
It seemed every village had its own troubles to deal with.
With the negotiations concluded, the ninja forces from both sides returned to the battlefield, not to fight, but to collect and process the bodies of the fallen.
Death was never the end for ninjas. Their bodies remain valuable long after their spirits depart.
Their bodies often carried a lot of information, which was why Chiyo was so insistent on retrieving the corpses of Rasa and the One-Tail's jinchūriki. However, Ryouma had already told her that the jinchūriki's body had been burned to ashes. Whether she believed it or not was up to her.
Thus, the war between Konoha and Suna came to an end.
---
At the Konoha camp, although Minato and the others had already heard a detailed account of the events from Ryouma on their way back, seeing the aftermath with their own eyes gave them a deeper understanding of just how perilous the situation had been.
"I've seen smaller meteor impacts," Jiraiya whistled in amazement.
"Please don't mention meteors..." Ryouma said, staring blankly into the sky.
But the crater was really massive, so enormous it seemed to warrant a redrawing of the map.
How many explosive tags did it take to cause this? Suna must be filthy rich!
More impressive, however, was the fact that Tsunade managed to protect nearly all the Konoha ninjas' lives despite such devastation. Then there were the countless pits and scars on the battlefield, likely caused by various unknown jutsu. It was hard to imagine how intense the fighting must have been here.
In fact, if Konoha's main forces had returned earlier, they might have even seen patches of gold sand glinting on the ground. After Ryouma left, under Shizune's suggestion, Tsunade had ordered the collection of all the sand infused with gold particles.
By now, the sun had set, leaving only a faint glow lingering on the horizon. The temperature dropped rapidly, as it always did in the desert, turning the day's scorching heat into a bone-deep chill. Stars appeared in the sky.
Ryouma stood alone outside the camp. This had been his first true war, and it had nearly cost him his friends. He gazed upward at the distant lights, remembering an old theory from his past life: Many stars we see are already long dead, their light still traveling across vast distances.
He owed his survival to the Rikugan, that much was clear.
His perfect chakra control had allowed him to execute high-rank techniques with minimal expenditure, conserving energy when others would have depleted themselves. Without it, his friends would likely be where his parents now resided, names on a memorial stone, memories fading like starlight.
I'm relying too much on these eyes, he admitted to himself.
He traced the constellations with his gaze, wondering how many of those distant suns had already perished while their light continued its journey toward the Elemental Nations.
"Shukaku," he called.
