By now, roughly a quarter of Konoha had been reduced to a flattened wasteland — a landscape of enormous craters and cracks so deep and long they made your scalp crawl just looking at them.
The rebuilding was going to be a nightmare. But then again, this was the Ninja World.
Whatever ordinary people couldn't manage, ninjas could handle just fine.
Take those cracks — deep, long, wide as rivers. Hand them off to Earth Release specialists to fill and compact.
Sa with the craters. Earth Release again, and this was the perfect opportunity for all those chūnin, genin, and younger jōnin who hadn't seen much action during the actual crisis. Ti to earn their keep.
Credit where it was due: ninja infrastructure work moved at a respectable clip.
The village wasn't exactly hurting for personnel, either.
The small ponds that had been dried out by the fighting? Water Release users refilled them. When the heat got oppressive, Wind Release users kicked up a cool breeze.
As work efficiency went, it wasn't bad at all.
The Fourth Hokage, at least, was more than satisfied.
Standing atop the massive Hokage Rock, watching the ninjas below moving with industrious purpose — and a fair few sturdy civilians pitching in alongside them — Minato murmured to himself, "The area the Nine-Tails flattened this ti is... substantial. It'll be years before a full recovery."
"If Ryū hadn't suppressed it when he did, half of Konoha might have been destroyed. We might have even been forced to use that forbidden technique — the Reaper Death Seal." He shook his head quietly. "When you add it all up... he saved the entire village. Everyone here owes him."
Minato was sorely tempted to make a public announcent of Ryū's contribution.
But the kid gave off an unmistakable air of soone who had zero interest in fa — who genuinely didn't care about recognition. Broadcasting his accomplishnts without asking would probably just irritate him. It would backfire.
His gaze settled on the most conspicuous feature directly below: the crater.
He'd witnessed Ryū's strike with his own eyes. It had been genuinely terrifying.
The entire earth had seed to convulse with the impact. The shockwave had probably reached nearly half the village.
He'd sent soone to survey the crater yesterday. The deepest point at the center asured roughly thirty-odd ters down. The longest dinsion ran over six hundred and seventy ters. At a glance, it looked like a dried-up lake.
"Wonder how that compares to Lady Tsunade's strength."
Still muttering to himself, Minato crossed his legs and settled on the rock. "By the way — I sent soone over with Ryū's paynt a little while ago. Hope it's enough. Hope he's satisfied."
He was still talking to himself when a masked ANBU operative materialized silently a short distance behind him.
"Lord Hokage," the ANBU said. "Lord Sarutobi says to get back to your desk imdiately and stop goofing off. He's handling the paperwork alone and says his hair is going to fall out."
Minato's expression stiffened slightly. He scratched the back of his head with a sheepish laugh. "Ha ha ha — I was monitoring the progress of reconstruction operations! As for the village paperwork, I'll head back right now, absolutely, on my way—"
The ANBU operative said nothing.
Monitoring reconstruction progress. The flimsiest excuse he'd ever heard.
After seeing Minato off, the ANBU turned to leave — but his eye caught the crater directly below the Hokage Rock. The sheer scale of it stopped him cold.
Behind his mask, his expression shifted. He found himself drifting back to the battle a few days ago.
When that man's strike had landed, the shockwave had flung him — a jōnin — completely off his feet. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around it. That man was supposedly seventeen years old. And not even a ninja. Just taijutsu. Pure physical technique.
Since when is taijutsu capable of this? Maybe it... depends on the person?
"What monstrous strength. Even a Tailed Beast couldn't touch him."
With that private note of awe, the ANBU operative pulled his gaze away and moved on.
None of them noticed the figure standing in a shaded corner well over a kiloter from the Hokage Rock — inconspicuous, utterly still.
How long Orochimaru had been there, no one could say.
His expression was a complicated mixture of shock and unease.
For that expression to appear on his face was a genuinely rare thing.
Minato had never made a formal announcent about Ryū's role in subduing the Nine-Tails — but most of Konoha's leadership already knew. The details of the fight had made the rounds, because far too many people had witnessed it.
Orochimaru was a dedicated hobody who rarely left his own quarters. But even he had heard the story.
Ryū was not a stranger to him at this point.
"The Nine-Tails couldn't fight back at all? No — wait. I heard it landed a hit, sent him flying several hundred ters. But apparently he just... picked himself up. So the Nine-Tails wasn't completely helpless. Their raw strength was probably comparable. It just couldn't land a clean blow."
A strange light flickered in Orochimaru's eyes — a sliver of hunger. Of envy.
He smothered it quickly.
That particular line of thinking was not actionable. Not now.
Because Ryū's strength gave him serious pause. The thought of being on the receiving end of what the Nine-Tails had received... Orochimaru was not confident he would survive it. Not without so specialized escape jutsu to bail him out.
"But perhaps there's another approach. To achieve this level of physical technique at seventeen — surpassing even the Hokage — there must be a dedicated training thodology behind it. Sothing outside mainstream taijutsu entirely."
Orochimaru had zeroed in on the key question. There was still a significant problem, however.
He had a persistent, nagging feeling that Ryū simply did not like him very much.
Which was strange, because he couldn't recall ever actually offending the boy.
Why doesn't he like ? Did I say sothing wrong at so point without realizing it?
"If I had to guess, Danzō has already set his sights on Ryū. What if I passed that information along to the boy — use it to build so goodwill?"
Orochimaru's tongue slid across his lips. As for whether selling out Danzō was a problem... why would it be? If it served his research, he'd sell out Danzō without a second thought. He'd sell out himself if the price was right.
He'd transform himself into a shapely young woman on the spot and climb into so man's bed, if that's what it took.
...Revolting, admittedly. But he could push through it.
Ryū had no idea what deranged sches were percolating in Orochimaru's head.
If he had, he probably wouldn't have said a single word — just quietly packed his things, moved out of Konoha, and put as much distance between himself and that situation as humanly possible.
There's always so creep with designs on the Emperor!!
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