Tsunade is the Hokage, and Konoha is a ninja village.
They couldn't possibly say, "Give Ryosuke a call, and after that, just go home and wait for news."
The head of the Hyuga clan and his family were captured inside the village, this was an enormous incident.
Tsunade immediately assembled a tracking team, with Kakashi, Asuma, and Aburame Shibi leading, plus several chunin and a ten-man annihilation unit, all heading out together to pursue.
"Tsunade-sama, please allow me to join the tracking team as well."
Hyuga Neji walked over and said, "I am a member of the Hyuga clan, and it is my responsibility to bring back the clan head."
Seeing Neji wanting to go, Naruto, who'd been holding in a whole belly of anger, also jumped up and shouted, "Me too! Me too!"
That white-haired bastard kidnapped Hinata right in front of him. Naruto swore he had to teach Sheren a lesson.
Naruto shouted, "Granny Tsunade, let me and Neji go together, we bathroom brothers will definitely knock that alien bastard flying!"
"Gra…nny…"
Tsunade clenched her fist, veins popping on her forehead. With a bonk, she punched Naruto hard on the head and said, "What's the point of you going? According to historical records, the Otsutsuki clan has extremely strong control over tailed beasts."
"Without the Nine-Tails' power, you can't hurt him at all."
"As for you, Neji, I understand how you feel."
Tsunade took a deep breath, "But the other side came precisely for the 'Byakugan.' If you join the tracking team, it's no different from… Ryosuke once told me a saying, 'Throwing a meat bun at a dog, once it's gone, it's not coming back.'"
"You're smart. I think you should understand what I mean."
Neji was unconvinced. "Tsunade-sama, are you saying I'm a meat bun?"
"You…"
Tsunade's gaze fell on the Caged Bird curse mark on Neji's forehead.
"At most, you're a steamed bun."
"Huh?"
———
[Land of Water, Research Institute]
It had already been a week since returning from Konoha, and Ryosuke had barely rested for even a moment.
First was training of the Path of the Past.
Constantly reinforcing the Past Projection so it could contain more energy.
The training was divided into two parts.
One part required meditation, diving deep into the river of time, standing before the Past Projection, constantly refining and tempering it.
Because this part happened within the river of time, the concept of "time" didn't exist there.
Ryosuke's own perception was that he'd been busy for a long while, whereas to the outside world, it was just an instant, the blink of an eye.
The second part was the daily circulation of energy.
Extracting from the Past Projection, putting it back, extracting again, then… in short, cycling back and forth.
For this part, Ryosuke didn't need to do much, he could just idle it like a background process.
This lazy training method was very much in line with the Slug Sage's style. Its exact words were, ("Once you walk the Path of the Past, your present and future will have plenty of time for you to do whatever you want.")
("For example, learning cooking, painting, music, things like that.")
After twenty or thirty years, once the world stabilizes, Ryosuke might pick a hobby to dive deeply into.
But for now, he invested all his freed-up time into developing the Moon-Landing Rocket: Kaitian No.2.
Ryosuke sat in front of a computer. This computer was connected via circuits to the institute's central "Heaven-Great-Jade Fate Main Control Center." Its computing power per second (whether baseline, intelligent, or super-computing) was terrifying.
Even without using its active intelligence-gathering functions, its computational power, far beyond the limit of this world's industrialization, was enough to push through many difficult research problems.
On the left side of Ryosuke's screen was a complicated, massive 3D blueprint. On the right was a simulation of the rocket launch based on the blueprint, along with predicted possible issues.
Ryosuke was repeatedly watching and fine-tuning. He wore a simple shirt and jeans, his hair a bit messy, and a cup of cooled coffee sat on the table.
Blended in with the aerospace project team's researchers, anyone who didn't know him could never tell he was the strongest person in the world, standing at the peak of power in this realm, they'd just assume he was a handsome researcher.
"Brother Ryosuke."
Sasuke walked over and handed him a document.
Ryosuke took it. Seeing it was a fax from Oda Ieyasu, he glanced at Sasuke's expression, smiled slightly, and didn't rush to read it.
Instead, he asked, "Something bothering you?"
Sasuke was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.
Ever since Ryosuke brought back Uchiha Itachi's eyes, Sasuke had been hesitating about whether to transplant Itachi's Mangekyo.
The benefits of transplanting were obvious. Advancing to the Eternal Mangekyo, the Sharingan's power would greatly increase.
But the downside was just as obvious, disgusting.
"I really don't want to have any more connections with Itachi." Sasuke said.
Ryosuke froze for half a second, then burst into laughter.
Seeing Ryosuke laugh at him, Sasuke's tense shoulders sagged. He said helplessly, "My struggle… is that funny?"
"No, it's just that when I came back, I saw how gloomy you'd been these days, and I thought it was some 'angsty teenage' worry. I mulled over it for days, thinking of how to ask you. I didn't expect…"
Ryosuke collected his smile and said seriously, "If it feels disgusting, then don't transplant."
"We work hard every day, working, living, it's all so we can live comfortably. Sasuke, you don't need to do something that makes you unhappy."
"The so-called Sharingan, the so-called Mangekyo…"
Ryosuke chuckled lightly, speaking calmly, "At the end of the day, it's just an eye."
Amaterasu and Susanoo, these two abilities were enough to make anyone in the ninja world go crazy.
Anyone except Ryosuke.
Ripple, Golden Spin, the institute's technological weapons… They had too many substitutes.
Ryosuke had even reached this point without awakening even a single tomoe.
Did that stop him from killing Uchiha Itachi?
"I understand now." Sasuke nodded firmly.
Ryosuke patted his shoulder again, then was just about to pick up Oda Ieyasu's document. He had only flipped one page when the door of the aerospace lab was suddenly flung open.
Because too much force was used, the door slammed heavily against the wall with a thud.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned toward the entrance.
"Hah… hah…"
Samui was slightly out of breath.
In all the years she had been part of the institute, she had always appeared intellectual and cool in front of others. This was the first time anyone had seen Samui look this flustered.
She swallowed, her gaze searching among the crowd. The next second, her eyes met Ryosuke's calm, steady look.
For some reason, the moment Samui saw Ryosuke, the panic in her heart instantly vanished.
She took a deep breath, tucked the stray strands of hair at her forehead behind her ear, and said, "Our 'neighbor' on the moon, thirty minutes ago, invaded Konoha, killed forty-six people, abducted three members of the Hyuga clan, and then disappeared."
Ryosuke's smile faded.
'So it had finally come.'
He had speculated for a long time whether the Otsutsuki on the moon were enemies or friends. Now it seemed…
Ryosuke shook his head, not rushing to a conclusion, and asked, "How many came?"
"One."