Chapter 74: The Price and the Prize
Agony.
It was an agony like having his tendons pulled out and stretched infinitely.
Like having his skin flayed and his muscles eroded by a sandstorm.
Like having his organs scooped out and his abdominal cavity filled with boiling mercury.
Like having his bones shattered, the fragments moving chaotically inside his body.
Like having his skull pried open and electrodes churning his brain.
"Guh... tsk..."
Hiiro Rinko curled up in the tree canopy, his body twitching uncontrollably.
His long, wavy red hair, which was usually envied by many women despite his neglect, was now mottled with patches of pale gray.
Unlike natural white hair, it was a withered, lifeless, tragic gray-white.
The hair tie used to haphazardly bind his hair had long since snapped. His red and white hair, soaked with sweat, was tangled in a mess. With every tremor of his body, the incredibly brittle tips broke off like dry grass in a wasteland, turning to dust.
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
His right arm, still encased in the composite weapon system, was probably broken in several places, the flesh melted and fused to the inner lining. The charred cross-section of the wound cracked with his subconscious movements, and blood welled up from the fissures, dripping through the gaps in the armament.
The intense pain radiating from every part of his body was enough to make anyone who boasted of a strong will pass out, yet Rinko's mind was exceptionally clear.
Attacking the Konoha stronghold using the personas he'd built over the past year, pretending his goal was to destroy infrastructure and supplies and cause maximum casualties.
Then, returning to the vicinity of the large puppet before his Chakra ran out, feigning preparation for a retreat to gather the Konoha shinobi in a specific area.
Finally, detonating the puppet to buy enough time to release a massive Water Release, while his main body fired a Scorch Release beam from a distance, evaporating the massive volume of water into super-heated steam. The impact of the steam explosion, the temperature, the beam itself, and the curses mixed within would inflict widespread devastation on the gathered Konoha ninja.
This was the plan Rinko executed.
To be honest, at first glance, there were plenty of holes, and many steps required the enemy's cooperation.
But plans should be simple. The more complex and intricate the design, the easier it is for accidents to happen due to minor details.
A general framework is necessary, but execution must be flexible and adaptable. You don't need Plans A through Z, but having Plan A-1 through A-7 is necessary.
Rinko had prepared numerous branch plans, including one where he just stood there and demonstrated the Hiiro Style: Magnet Release Secret Technique: Shuriken Manipulation.
Fortunately, the deviation wasn't large; it only shifted from A-1 to A-5.
Considering Rinko's personas were already infamous, the biggest suspicious point was why guys of this level had no prior records. But in this plan, that suspicion was a significant advantage.
Rinko always held the philosophy that when picking an alias, you have to be casual.
If a name is too meaningful, sounding like something an author gave a character with all sorts of allusions and metaphors, it's too easy to see through. This was valuable experience accumulated from forging various identities to scour black markets or traffic dangerous goods around the world.
And to successfully fake multiple identities, having them appear simultaneously was a necessary step.
Konoha's delay in receiving news of the attack on the Land of Whirlpools gave Rinko ample confidence in their currently shoddy external intelligence capabilities.
Clearly, Konoha was fooled.
So when three enemy Jōnin with zero past activity records attacked their camp 'alone,' it was inevitable that the Konoha ninja would try to capture them.
And his current state was also within expectations.
Undoubtedly, this was the 'revenge' of a body pushed beyond its limits.
Because he had forcibly opened Chakra points all over his body, he could clearly feel his meridian system—extending to every single cell—tottering like unmaintained machinery left to wind and rain in an abandoned factory for decades, ready to rust into useless scrap at any moment.
In this situation, neither Medical Ninjutsu nor Yang Release could be counted on.
For a ninja, this was undoubtedly a state of utter exhaustion.
But...
"At times like this, even I have to be grateful for my past life as a Jujutsu Sorcerer..."
Enduring the bizarre sensation as if a live, wriggling octopus had been stuffed into his stomach, Rinko skillfully activated the Reversed Cursed Technique.
Multiplying 'negative' Cursed Energy to create positive energy, he could heal almost any physical damage, including to the brain. It was arguably the strongest healing technique outside of rule-breaking abilities like 'immortality' or 'resurrection.'
However, no amount of healing could help with 'exhaustion of vitality,' which wasn't a symptom but a state of 'aging.'
"Aged a few years, huh... acceptable..."
Retracting the sparking composite armament on his arm into the scroll, Rinko, having recovered slightly, tasted the blood in his mouth and looked at the rising steam in the distance, assessing the effect of his operation.
The essence of conventional Nature Release is converting Chakra into the corresponding element. That is, the 'fire' or 'water' created by Chakra cannot exist for long; once the Chakra is exhausted, the jutsu ends.
But the effects caused by the jutsu are not affected.
Smoke and bonfires lit by Fire Release won't go out. Terrain altered by Earth Release won't revert. Similarly, water gathered by Water Release won't disappear—thanks to the Land of Rain's climate, Rinko could easily release such a large-scale Water Release.
Even though they can unleash powerful ninjutsu and walk on walls, a ninja's body, even reinforced with Chakra, isn't tough.
Therefore, high-temperature steam could certainly cause sufficient damage.
Additionally, the Scorch Release beam contained a massive amount of Cursed Energy, which could inflict continuous, hard-to-detect mental trauma on the injured while draining their vitality like a curse.
The 'variant genjutsu' tested on Kūren was now used on the Konoha ninja invading his homeland. That good brother from Ame could probably rest in peace now.
Probably.
Even though the Shadow Clone that released the water exploded in the boiling steam, it confirmed the miserable state of the nearby Konoha ninja before vanishing.
Of course, these weren't instantly fatal injuries. The few who died on the spot were the ones caught directly in the Scorch Release beam.
But compared to those in the steam, being burned to ash instantly might have been happier.
Deep scalding by high-temperature steam isn't a pain that can be easily dismissed. Ninja whose legs and hands were injured, losing the ability to form seals or run, could only collapse in the steam, wailing until their throats were scalded too, slowly dying in agony that wrapped their entire bodies inside and out.
And the survivors had nothing to celebrate.
Although Medical Ninjutsu can be used for detoxification or offense, its essence relies on Chakra stimulating cells to heal wounds.
This method is effective for cuts and punctures, but not so much for deep burns that cause massive tissue necrosis.
Improper handling in the damn environment of the Land of Rain could easily lead to massive infection. Even if healed, their vision might be severely impaired.
As for the Senju princess's summon? She didn't have the ability to summon something capable of healing this many people yet.
Whether using Medical Ninjutsu or herbs, treating extensive burns on a thousand people was a heavy burden on Konoha's logistics. Moreover, under Rinko's attack, the supplies at this stronghold were basically destroyed.
It was a brilliant victory.
What Rinko hadn't calculated was his current mental state.
Relief or pleasure from revenge? None.
The so-called emptiness after revenge? None.
If he had to describe it, it was at most, "Ah, this is done, time to handle the next thing," as mundane as finishing frying eggs and bacon for breakfast.
The reason might be that his Chakra was temporarily drained to near exhaustion, so Yin Release couldn't interfere with his quad-core, 256-thread brain.
People remember unfinished tasks better than finished ones.
In social psychology, this is called the Zeigarnik Effect. Or, to put it more artistically, "Regret is an emotion more enduring than love or hate."
Rinko naturally wondered if things would have been different had he been with Yūsa, but everyone knew such 'what ifs' were meaningless.
So that regret didn't stay in his mind for more than seven seconds. In fact, his disgustingly clear mind told him that so-called 'revenge' was meaningless too.
Whether Yūsa died or not wouldn't stop the hostility between Suna and Konoha. Similarly, it wouldn't affect their future reconciliation for mutual benefit.
Sasori's education after losing his parents, Chiyo's psychological issues, how to protect those he cared about from further harm, where to find research data on resurrection jutsu for his brother and sister-in-law, whether he could seize this opportunity to hammer the Konoha army...
Compared to these thoughts surging one after another, 'revenge' seemed so trivial.
Rinko had to admit, yes, these thoughts in his head were correct. Even narrowly speaking, if he wanted revenge, he should have gone directly for White Fang. Attacking this Konoha stronghold was, at best, a slightly excessive action influenced by emotion.
But so what?
As a former Cursed User, a Yin Release practitioner, shouldn't he be emotional?
If his calculation power was this high and his emotions this thin, who would replenish his lacking Cursed Energy and Yin Release Chakra? Let me see how the alchemists of the Atlas Institute solved emotional issues...
Oh, they didn't say.
Fuck!
Still weak in the knees, Rinko let his thoughts wander while cleaning up the remaining traces, meticulously burning away every drop of spilled blood, then prepared to withdraw.
Judging by his visual estimate, fewer than one in ten Konoha ninja escaped his attack unscathed.
But considering the overall quality and elemental mastery of Konoha ninja, some probably managed to react even in the steam.
After all, the beam's trajectory was so obvious. If a Konoha ninja ignored their wailing comrades to check his location, he probably couldn't win in his current state.
But arriving before the Konoha ninja were Suna reinforcements.
"You really are reckless, you brat."
Accompanying a scolding filled with complex emotions, Chiyo lifted Rinko out of the half-destroyed tree canopy, her face pained.
Although she couldn't stop her son in that atmosphere, it didn't mean she would just let her only remaining 'son' do something dangerous alone.
"Just exhaustion, nothing serious."
Rinko patted his adoptive mother's shoulder, offering a casual comfort. "Instead of me, go see if there are any prisoners or supplies we can take."
"Already sent people."
Normally, Chiyo would have retorted, 'If I needed you to remind me of that, I might as well give you the Commander position.'
Suna specialized in using poison to disable enemy combat power and burden their logistics. But although she had pulled herself together, she clearly couldn't return to her usual state immediately.
Glancing at the still-lingering steam, Chiyo muttered, "Hope we find some lightly injured or unharmed secret technique or Kekkei Genkai users. Byakugan, Sharingan... the more the better..."
"Don't push your luck, Old Hag. You got such a huge result with one test unit, and you're still picky."
Rinko squinted. "I don't have the skill to precisely control who gets hurt and who doesn't."
"Eh, you brat, can't I even dream?"
"Dream away. Ideally, see if you can dig out a master who knows Impure World Reincarnation. I happen to want to research resurrection jutsu."
"...Resurrection, huh..."