After Hyuga Yamatsubaki returned home, he went straight into his study. He did not brew tea. Instead, he took out a bottle of wine.
Cup after cup, he drank.
At that moment, a thought rose in Hyuga Yamatsubaki's heart.
Was it truly correct for the Hyuga clan to keep yielding again and again?
If this continued, would the Hyuga clan's situation truly be better than the Uchiha clan's?
The Uchiha clan seemed to be doing fairly well now.
They had created a sailing fleet, cooperated with the Land of Water, and roamed freely across the sea.
What about the Hyuga clan?
Faced with the village's demands, they could only compromise again and again. Compromise without limit. Compromise without dignity.
"The Byakugan… This means that this time, someone from the main family must die."
Hyuga Yamatsubaki gave a bitter laugh.
"But… who can I choose?"
…
…
Sunagakure.
After defeating Jiraiya and returning to Sunagakure, Rasa saw emotional value increasing at a visible rate.
Combined with what he already had, it soon reached two thousand.
Rasa did not hesitate and immediately exchanged it.
The two thousand emotional value from Hiruzen Sarutobi became two thousand points.
And that caused the points displayed on the system panel to reach 3,266 directly.
"Just a few hundred more, and the sixth rumor will be complete as well."
"Before designing the content of the seventh rumor, let's carry out this round of draws first."
"Thirty-pull. Begin!"
An invisible roulette wheel immediately began spinning.
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an F-rank item: One tael of gold.]
…
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained a B-rank item: A-Rank Ninjutsu Theft Card.]
…
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an A-rank item: S-Rank Ninjutsu, Electromagnetic Cannon.]
"Electromagnetic Cannon?"
For a moment, several guesses flashed through Rasa's mind.
But no matter which one it was, it would not be bad.
[Electromagnetic Cannon]
[—Use electromagnetic force to accelerate a metallic projectile to the extreme, allowing it to reach an extremely high level of kinetic energy.]
"It's still the ability of Kid's Magnet-Magnet Fruit."
"A super-long-range ability with tremendous speed and destructive power."
"It happens to be exactly what I'm lacking right now."
Most of the abilities Rasa currently controlled were short- to mid-range.
"With this Electromagnetic Cannon, I can strike enemies from an extremely long distance."
After that, Rasa looked toward the second prize.
[A-Rank Ninjutsu Theft Card]
[—Allows you to designate one ninja and steal one A-rank or lower ninjutsu they have mastered. After stealing it, the Host can directly use that ninjutsu, while the target permanently loses it.]
Rasa raised a brow.
"It can only steal A-rank and lower ninjutsu. On the surface, it doesn't sound especially powerful."
"But after stealing it, the other party can no longer use it. That is very strong."
The shinobi world was vast. Not every ninja had an S-rank ninjutsu as a trump card.
Under normal circumstances, an A-rank ninjutsu was already quite impressive.
For many ninja, their ultimate ace was actually only A-rank.
In addition, many ninja had techniques that formed a complete system. Take Naruto, for example.
Naruto possessed a whole series of Rasengan techniques, and all those techniques were based on the Rasengan.
If Naruto lost the Rasengan itself, could he still use Wind Release: Rasenshuriken?
Then there was Kakashi.
A Kakashi who lost Chidori would also suffer a major decline in strength.
"Also, the Summoning Technique is also a ninjutsu below A-rank."
"Orochimaru and Jiraiya are both ninja who rely heavily on summoning techniques. Once I steal their Summoning Technique, their strength will be greatly reduced."
"If this item is used against the right target, its effect could be even better than an S-rank ninjutsu."
Rasa's eyes lit up.
"It would be nice if I could get a few more of these and heavily punish those summoning-type ninja."
Near dusk, Rasa arrived outside the village.
His figure hovered in midair.
Far in front of him stood a mountain.
A mountain piled from sand.
"Electromagnetic Cannon!"
The next moment, a large amount of gold dust gathered in front of Rasa.
Some condensed into the shape of a cannon barrel.
Some condensed into the shape of shells. There was no gunpowder—only pure metallic projectiles.
Then, electromagnetic force began to act.
"Bang!"
Accompanied by an enormous whistling roar, the shell inside the barrel shot out at terrifying speed. Shockwaves burst through the air one after another.
In an instant, the shell flew to an extremely distant location.
"Boom!"
At last, the shell fell.
There was no gunpowder.
No explosion.
But the sheer impact alone caused the entire sand mountain to tremble.
It was like a stone dropping into a calm lake.
Ripple after ripple spread outward.
Then, with a thunderous crash, the mountain collapsed.
A deep, bottomless pit appeared in the ground.
Rasa's figure arrived directly above it, looking down.
"With this level of power, it can be considered outstanding even among S-rank ninjutsu. And it has two special features. First, this is a super-long-range attack."
"Second, this is pure kinetic energy. Chakra absorption techniques are useless against it."
The whole of Sunagakure was filled with excitement.
The friction between Konoha and Sunagakure—
The first clash had ended in Sunagakure's victory.
One of Konoha's Sannin, Jiraiya, had been defeated by Rasa.
"Kazekage-sama is far too strong!"
"First Minato Namikaze, now Jiraiya. Both master and disciple lost to Kazekage-sama."
"The student wasn't enough, and the teacher wasn't either."
One Sunagakure ninja excitedly described the details of what had happened.
"That Jiraiya was aggressive at first, but once Kazekage-sama used his true ability, he couldn't keep up anymore. He was forced into an extremely difficult fight and nearly got killed outright by Kazekage-sama."
"If not for his summoned beast using the Reverse Summoning Technique, he definitely would have died on the spot."
"And even then, Kazekage-sama still hadn't used all his methods."
"Now who dares say our Kazekage-sama isn't number one in the shinobi world?"
"Our Kazekage-sama is the genuine number one in the shinobi world!"
The people of Sunagakure were incomparably proud.
As for the other shinobi villages, they became even more wary of Rasa.
Even Onoki, who possessed Dust Release, no longer had the confidence he once had after hearing that Jiraiya had suffered a crushing defeat at Rasa's hands.
Dust Release was powerful, certainly.
But it was not invincible.
The stronger Rasa became, the worse Kirigakure's people felt.
Because it meant their chances of making a comeback were even smaller.
But in truth, even if Rasa's strength had stopped improving after the Third Great Ninja War, their chances of turning the tables would still be almost nonexistent.
Kumogakure was the one caught between joy and worry.
On the one hand, they were wary of Rasa's strength.
On the other hand, because of Rasa's powerful performance, Kumogakure could benefit from it.
They now had a chance to obtain the Byakugan from Konoha.
In that regard, Kumogakure even had to thank Rasa.