Rouran's central tower had been destroyed the instant Habara used the Eight Branches Technique. Now, standing there, he could see the pit in the ground... Regardless of what the "Ryumyaku" actually was, there was no longer a "Ryumyaku" there.
Habara waved his hand again, and a Hiraishin kunai landed in his palm. He hooked the ring on the kunai's end with his right ring finger, twirled it a few times, and then gripped it in a reverse hold.
After looking at the kunai for a few more moments, Habara handed it to Sara. "That long sword of yours won't protect you. On the contrary, this kind of short blade can... I'm very sorry for accidentally destroying your hometown. But right now, the most important thing is to conduct search and rescue."
Sara hesitated slightly, but ultimately reached out and carefully took the Hiraishin kunai from Habara's hand... Clearly, she had seen the Fourth Hokage years ago.
Habara didn't offer any further excuses. Although he possessed overwhelming power, it didn't mean he had to bully a village girl and a civilian village... No, it was precisely because he had the power to kill everyone here that he couldn't do that.
A person's sense of right and wrong shouldn't change with their strength. Habara couldn't feel at peace stealing someone else's belongings, destroying their home, and then casually killing a few people... It just didn't make sense.
These people weren't even ninjas, so Habara didn't need to be so extreme.
Hearing Habara's words, Sara calmed down. Although this person had caused immense damage to Rouran, if anyone was trapped beneath the rubble, the only person she could rely on right now was this ninja.
Sara gripped the kunai tightly. She asked, "What exactly did you do to the 'Ryumyaku'?"
"The Ryumyaku... Well, you won't need to guard any Ryumyaku anymore. I've completely eliminated the hidden dangers of the Ryumyaku in a very safe way," Habara explained. Guarding the Ryumyaku for generations was Rouran's fate, but also their shackle. Now that there was no more Ryumyaku, it wasn't entirely a bad thing... They wouldn't have to cling to this barren land anymore.
As he spoke, Habara entered sensory mode and discovered that only three people were buried.
"Why do you all live on the outskirts of the town? Your population is small; shouldn't you be living clustered together in the town center?"
This was an unexpected situation. Then, Habara remembered that when he first scouted this place, he'd noticed that the people seemed to live on the outskirts. If that hadn't been the case, they wouldn't have been able to escape in time during that sudden event.
Sara followed behind Habara silently. After a short while, she spoke, "The Ryumyaku's power can't reach the areas where we live together."
Habara nodded. "So you guys knew that Ryumyaku was dangerous."
He knew they were living away from the Ryumyaku; he was deliberately asking.
"..."
They arrived in front of two collapsed towers. Habara focused his chakra, and a large amount of iron sand was drawn from the ground. The iron sand formed into pillars, seemingly effortlessly lifting the building debris.
As the building debris was lifted piece by piece, a family of three huddled in a corner of a room was revealed.
Habara went up and checked. The mother and daughter had fainted, possibly due to lack of oxygen, while the father was barely conscious, his leg broken.
Habara breathed a sigh of relief. The buildings were destroyed, but that was fine; what mattered was that no one had died.
"Compound fracture. Your people are here; you handle it yourselves."
Habara didn't know medical ninjutsu, so he let these people deal with the injured themselves. This person wouldn't die, but he'd probably be crippled from now on... unless there was a medical ninja here.
"Queen, are you there?"
Just as Habara finished speaking, a group of people carrying torches arrived, searching for Sara. He ignored them and turned to walk into the jumbled mess of building debris.
He hadn't yet properly studied the changes in himself.
Habara could feel that his current chakra levels were completely different from before, signifying that the last of his shortcomings as a ninja had been addressed... No, not just addressed, he'd overshot it.
The Ryumyaku possessed a Tailed Beast-level chakra scale. Even if some energy had dissipated or been lost during Habara's absorption, the loss wasn't significant. Therefore, he could now be considered a true human-shaped Tailed Beast.
However, because he'd just gained this massive amount of energy, Habara felt that it wasn't very well-controlled, a bit volatile. So, he decided to expend some chakra first.
Thus, the broken sections of the tower were lifted into the air, looking like some kind of postmodern visual art.
He was expending energy here, his actions rather simple. However, in the eyes of the people of Rouran, this person was nothing short of a maniac... Destroying their city wasn't enough; now he was even "exhibiting" it like this, clearly "dismembering and displaying the corpses."
"Queen, who... is that person? What is he doing?"
Sara's people watched the scene in the town ruins, completely unable to understand what that person was doing. They were so frightened that they stopped tending to the injured person's wounds.
"What about that monster from before? Did that ninja defeat the monster?" someone asked.
Sara wasn't a true queen, but she was a competent village leader. She immediately responded after a brief pause, "Yes, he's a Konoha ninja. He defeated that snake monster."
Habara seemed easy to talk to, but for these ordinary people, excessive anger and hatred would only bring them destruction.
After a while, Habara had lifted almost all the building debris into the air. Then he started scratching his head because this operation didn't consume much chakra at all.
Habara now faced a very ridiculous situation: even if he wanted to quickly expend his chakra, it was actually very difficult. Because until today, almost all of his ninjutsu designs included the requirement of conserving chakra.
He couldn't possibly rely on throwing Rasenshuriken to deplete his chakra, right? That would be too absurd.
Surprisingly, Habara didn't know a single Fire Release, Water Release, or Earth Release ninjutsu that could consume large amounts of chakra. It was truly a blessing and a curse.
Thanks to his exquisite fine-control skills, absorbing the Ryumyaku had increased Habara's chakra reserves and his chakra threshold. But now, Habara lacked the ability to project chakra on a large scale all at once. So, he could try changing his fighting style.
He no longer needed to be so stingy. Look at Naruto. His Shadow Clone Technique was pretty weak in high-level combat, yet he could solve most battles using the "Shadow Clone + Rasengan" method.
Twenty clones and ten Rasengans aren't enough? How about two thousand clones and a thousand Rasengans?
Overwhelming power conquers all.
While building his blocks, Habara considered his own changes. However, he seemed to have forgotten something... Such a drastic chakra reaction here couldn't possibly go unnoticed by nearby ninjas.
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