The party went on until early morning.
Sasuke, Little Momo, and Naruto, the three almost-grown kids, were too sleepy. They lay on their backs, spread out, and fell asleep.
The pub was warm, and with their strong bodies, they shouldn't have been cold. But Linto still grabbed blankets and covered them up, as he always did.
At least covering their bellies.
Everyone else said goodbye and left. Linto sat on the floor, enjoying the quiet of the late night.
This trip to Kumogakure had brought Linto a lot.
One thing was the soul pieces.
By beating Raikage Ay, Killer Bee, and many Kumogakure Ninja, Linto got 3400 soul pieces. Adding the ones left over from card draws and recent small amounts.
Total soul pieces right now: 3889.
Linto thought for a bit, then took out 2000 soul pieces to upgrade White Snake from level three to level four.
White Snake put its hands on its hips and grinned:
"Well, look at you, making me feel bad for costing you so much."
After White Snake reached level four, it got a new ability:
"Force Command"
It can force animals or humans with weak wills to do things against their will, even die.
This ability was shown in "Stone Ocean". The priest grabbed a poison dart frog, wrote the command "Explode," and threw it like a bomb, which exploded out of nowhere.
"The strong taking from and ruling the weak... a truly evil ability."
White Snake shrugged.
Seeing that White Snake was almost level five, and that he would get a Dimension Star Core soon, Linto asked:
"Once you evolve into C-Moon, will 'White Snake' still exist?"
White Snake clicked its tongue, not answering right away. It just looked down at its feet, thinking for a long time, then said:
"I don't know."
Then, White Snake grinned slyly: "What's up, gonna miss your buddy?"
"C-Moon is strong, with huge range and gravity changes, but you are more useful in terms of functions," Linto said calmly.
"Useful."
White Snake went silent for a second, then chuckled: "That's right, no one's more useful than me."
"And."
Linto went on: "I still like watching you slap people."
Linto copied White Snake, waving his hand to slap a few times, but couldn't get the same feel.
"You think that's easy? I've practiced,"
White Snake snickered a few times, then looked down at its hands again: "As for whether I'll still be around after evolving into C-Moon... I don't know. At least that's how it is now."
Linto nodded.
White Snake disappeared, not continuing the topic.
After it left, Linto took out a notebook, with notes from the talks with Kumogakure.
This was the second thing he gained from going to Kumogakure.
Unlike Orochimaru's bio-tech, this was military tech in a different area. Just taking some tech that can be used for both military and civilian purposes would definitely raise production a lot.
"Orochimaru's tech is mostly used in farming and medicine."
"Kumogakure's military tech can be used in industry and building."
"And lately, I've learned about local customs..."
The night went on, the candle slowly burning.
Linto sat at the desk, still adding to the notebook.
...
Almost half a month passed.
The Konoha people finished their learning in Kirigakure for now. Tsunade and Kakashi would lead the team, taking Naruto, Sakura, and the others back to Konoha village.
"Next time we meet, I'll have to call you the 'Fifth Hokage'," Linto said.
Tsunade shook her finger. "Don't be so sure. I haven't agreed yet."
But Linto knew she would.
If she hadn't gone back to Konoha, it would be fine. But once she went back and saw the mess, Tsunade's personality wouldn't let her just walk away.
Linto held out his hand: "Goodbye."
His smiling eyes made Tsunade a bit annoyed, like this kid could see right through her.
"What's with the goodbyes, making it so formal?"
Tsunade grabbed Linto's hand, gave him a too-full hug, and patted his back hard, saying:
"We're teammates who fought together, remember to come visit."
Then, Tsunade laughed and turned to leave.
Linto watched them fade into the mist. Terumi Mei came over and asked, "Missing them so much?"
She opened her arms, ready for a hug.
"Want a repeat with me?"
Linto touched her forehead, pushing Terumi Mei away, and said softly: "I'm just thinking, Konoha, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, are all going to change. I feel like..."
"Time is speeding up."
Terumi Mei tilted her head, not quite understanding Linto's thoughts.
But he always said things that were hard to understand.
Time speeding up, villages changing, she just needed to trust Linto's choices and keep going forward.
After seeing off the Konoha group, Linto was about to go back and keep practicing the Golden Spin when he heard a call from far away.
"Lord Linto!"
A Kirigakure ninja jumped over the rooftops, holding a red toad with swimming goggles around its neck and a scroll on its back.
Linto knew it.
Gamagosu, the messenger between Mount Myōboku and the outside world.
A few days ago, Linto had written to Jiraiya through it, asking if he could visit Mount Myōboku. After all, he had just gone to Ryuuchi Cave and killed the White Snake Sage so he didn't want to cause any unneeded trouble.
"Did the Great Toad Sage wake up?" Linto asked.
It seemed that the cost of seeing the future was that the Great Toad Sage was asleep most of the time. After Linto said he wanted to go to Mount Myōboku to ask about the "Dragon Pill," he had been waiting for the Great Toad Sage to wake up.
Gamagosu jumped down from the Kirigakure ninja's hands: "He just woke up an hour ago. He heard you were coming and is holding his eyes open with sticks, afraid he'll fall asleep again... Come with me quickly..."
It was panting and its legs were shaking, clearly tired from the long run.
Linto patted Gamagosu's shoulder, sending a bit of Ripple energy to it. The toad felt a little better and took off the scroll on its back, opening it to reveal a complicated summoning circle.
"Put a drop of your blood on it, and you'll get temporary summoning access. Mount Myōboku will use Reverse Summoning Technique to summon you there."
Linto nodded. It seemed this was Mount Myōboku's temporary pass. With a flick, a drop of blood flew out and landed on the scroll.
The next moment, he heard a special "breath," connecting him to a very distant place. The sound of the breath sounded like...
"Ribbit!"
"Ready?" Gamagosu asked.
Hermit Purple pulled White Snake Sage's snake head out of the warehouse, flying over half of Kirigakure and slamming it on the ground, making Gamagosu's eyes twitch.
Linto said: "Let's go."
Gamagosu put its hands together and slammed them on the scroll.
"Ninja Art: Reverse Summoning Technique!"
The world flipped. Linto felt like he was being stuffed into a vent, constantly stretched and spun in a narrow pipe, until he was suddenly thrown out.
Thud.
Linto landed firmly on the ground.
At the moment of landing, a curious look came over.
Linto met the eyes of a blue, very old toad.
It was completely orange with yellow eyes, wearing a string of beads with a pale purple cat's-eye stone in the middle saying "Oil," and wearing a doctor's hat.
Right now, the old toad was holding its eyelids open with two sticks, a large cup of tea in its hands. The bitter smell of tea filled the room, showing how much tea it had brewed to stay awake.
Gamagosu bowed and left.
There were no other people or toads in the room.
Linto quietly sensed the Great Toad Sage's energy.
It had the same huge natural power as White Snake Sage, but they felt different.
Even in the form of an old woman, White Snake Sage was still sharp, every word and look like its scary fangs.
The Great Toad Sage seemed... dead.
"You feel right."
The Great Toad Sage spoke slowly, like talking in its sleep: "I mostly 'live' in the future."
"Is that why you're always sleeping?" Linto asked.
"Yes... the future in dreams and the reality of waking up, I used to be able to manage both..."
As the Great Toad Sage spoke, its eyelids drooped, but the sticks holding them open pressed hard and made clicking sounds, waking it up again: "I could still balance both, but since you appeared, the 'future' I spent hundreds of years peeking at..."
It sighed.
"Has been rewritten by you."
---
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