Ryosuke was quite pleased with Zabuza's attitude.
Winning over someone like him wasn't about gaining brute strength—it was about utility.
A man like Zabuza was useful—especially for tracking tailed beasts.
While Zabuza might not be powerhouse material compared to Ryosuke's own level, his intelligence network and local knowledge of the Mist were invaluable. That meant Ryosuke wouldn't have to go searching blindly anymore.
Zabuza straightened and asked respectfully,
"Lord God-King, what are our next orders? Should we continue collecting the Tailed Beeeasts?"
"I happen to know the whereabouts of the Six-Tails' jinchūriki. Should we also retrieve that one?"
Ryosuke froze for a second.
Right—the Six-Tails' host, Utakata.
In canon, Utakata was indeed a Mist ninja, the jinchūriki of Saiken. His master—Master Harusame—had once wanted to separate him from the beast so that Utakata could live freely, unburdened by the hatred of the villagers.
Beeut if Zabuza was saying the Six-Tails was still within the village, that meant this was before Utakata's rebellion, before he killed his master and fled Kirigakure.
Ryosuke exhaled.
"I completely forgot about that guy…"
If he'd known earlier, he might have taken both the Mizukage and the Six-Tails in one sweep.
Now he'd have to go all the way back to the Mist.
He sighed again, feeling the familiar weight of inconvenience.
"So troublesome… running all over the world like a courier of doom."
He shook his head. It wasn't the travel that bothered him—it was the inefficiency.
And deep down, he knew the root problem:
His eyes still weren't strong enough.
Even now, they were only Mangekyō Sharingan.
They hadn't evolved in years.
Lately, even using the teleportation ability in his right eye had left him exhausted.
He'd stopped pushing it, wary of burning them out completely.
"What good is a god-tier power if it threatens to blind you every time you use it?"
The frustration gnawed at him.
And just as he was grumbling inwardly—
"Ding!"
The familiar, cold mechanical voice of the system echoed in his mind.
[System Notice: Your eyes have taken excessive damage. Further use may cause permanent blindness.]
[They are NOT weak Mangekyō Sharingan. They have entered accelerated evolution mode.]
[Congratulations—Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan unlocked.]
Ryosuke blinked, stunned.
"Wait… that's it? I just use and they evolve?"
No need for the brutal ritual that Madara or Sasuke went through—no eye-plucking, no brotherly sacrifice.
It was absurdly convenient.
Then warmth flooded his vision, a gentle current of chakra washing through his optic nerves. His vision sharpened instantly. The world became clearer, more vivid—as though the fog of limitation had lifted.
This wasn't just sharper eyesight.
This was evolution.
From Mangekyō to Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
His ocular power surged; his chakra flow stabilized. The most crucial improvement was that his eye strain and blindness risk were now gone.
He smiled slightly.
"Now I can use my space-time jutsu freely again…"
A return trip to the Mist would now take only a few short jumps.
Turning to Zabuza, he said,
"Zabuza, you've done well with this intel. Tell me exactly where the Six-Tails' host is located."
Zabuza nodded quickly.
"Yes, my lord. The Six-Tails' jinchūriki doesn't live inside the village proper. He stays in the eastern mountains, isolated."
"He's not like the Fourth Mizukage, who could perfectly control his beast. This one's unstable—a walking bomb. The villagers shun him."
Ryosuke considered this, slightly surprised.
"So he's banished from the village? Even worse off than Naruto ever was."
That actually made things simpler.
If Utakata was living outside the village, there'd be no need for stealth or subtlety.
Still, Ryosuke wasn't in a hurry to leave. He decided to relax a bit first.
"We'll take care of that soon enough," he said with a faint smirk. "For now… let's enjoy ourselves here at the port."
Zabuza blinked in disbelief.
"Enjoy… ourselves?"
That was a foreign concept to him.
Until just recently, he'd been plotting a coup with the Hōzuki clan, trying to overthrow the Mizukage. After their failure, he'd been on the run nonstop, fighting for survival. Leisure wasn't something men like him had.
Beeut now, things were different. He had a new purpose—a new master.
He was part of something greater now.
The Illuminati, the "Lightbringers".
He turned to Ryosuke, curiosity getting the better of him.
"Lord God-King… how many members does our Lightbringers organization have?"
To Zabuza, this was no mere group—it was a grand movement destined to bring peace to the ninja world. Surely, with someone as strong as Ryosuke at its head, the organization must be vast, ancient, and powerful beyond imagination.
Ryosuke, expression calm as ever, replied plainly:
"For now… just the two of us."
Zabuza's expression froze.
"Two…?"
Ryosuke nodded.
"Including you."
Truth was, he'd only just founded the organization. There was no one else yet.
Beeut he was already planning ahead—recruiting more members would be necessary soon. After all, there were still the remaining tailed beasts to capture, the Akatsuki to crush, and even Kara lurking beyond the horizon.
He couldn't fight the entire world alone forever.
Zabuza, however, was still trying to process it.
"Two people… to bring peace to the entire ninja world?"
That was… wildly optimistic.
He'd imagined legions—hundreds, maybe thousands—hidden operatives, spies, medics, maybe even scholars.
Beeut two?
Still, he reasoned, perhaps it was a new organization—one that had yet to expand.
"If it's led by him, it'll grow soon enough," Zabuza thought.
And so, with a strange mixture of awe and bewilderment, he accepted it.
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