"First life."
After cutting apart the tentacle monster's body and mask, Ryun's voice sounded right on time. Kakuzu instantly felt the immense pressure brought by death.
"Bastard."
The tentacles on Kakuzu's main body grew wildly like hair, in the blink of an eye, they tightly bound Ryun in front of him.
Ryun looked calmly at Kakuzu with his eyes. The next moment, his body suddenly erupted with the lightning of Chidori Current. The dense hair instantly contracted back from the electric shock.
"Fire Release, Intelligent Hard Work."
"Wind Release, Great Breakthrough."
"Lightning Release, False Darkness."
"Earth Release, Rock Iron Projectile."
Seeing that he could not restrain Ryun's movements, Kakuzu simply stopped conserving chakra and unleashed a mindless barrage of attacks aimed at Ryun's figure.
"Ninja Art, Triple Rashomon."
Ryun bit his finger, formed hand seals, and then slammed his palm on the ground. Instantly, three heavy iron Rashomon gates rose from the earth, blocking all the attacks in an instant.
With his current strength, summoning five Rashomon gates would be simple, but to block Kakuzu's attacks, three gates were sufficient.
Boom!!!
Ryun hid calmly behind the gates. Originally, he had hoped the Triple Rashomon would hold out a bit longer, but after just three breaths, he sensed Kakuzu immediately turning tail and running away...
He had no grudge against Ryun; this fight was meaningless to Kakuzu. Seeing the situation turning unfavorable, he decisively chose to escape.
"You... after all, you're at the Kage level, how can you try to run without even saying goodbye?"
As Ryun spoke, he had already appeared at Kakuzu's side, his speed so fast it made Kakuzu's scalp tingle.
"Fire Release, Fire Formation."
"Wind Release, Wind Wall."
The Wind and Fire tentacle monsters launched area-of-effect ninjutsu to intercept Ryun. Meanwhile, Kakuzu's main body and the Lightning attribute tentacle monster merged into one, and without stopping, continued running without any hesitation.
Kakuzu intended to sacrifice two hearts in exchange for a chance to survive.
Unfortunately, he underestimated Ryun's strength. In less than a minute, Ryun destroyed the two tentacle monsters and caught up.
"Wait... I yield!!!"
Seeing the flickering lightning in Ryun's hand, Kakuzu quickly shouted out his submission.
Hearing this, Ryun dispersed the Chidori in his hand. Kakuzu also slowly came to a stop after running a distance further.
"I won't restrict your current freedom. Every year, you must report to Orochimaru in Otogakure once. Just remember who you belong to from now on..." Ryun said, throwing out a black token.
"Is it really that simple..." Kakuzu caught the token engraved with a dragon pattern and instinctively asked.
"It's that simple. Don't lose the token. With it, you can come and go freely in Otogakure, and I can also find you through it. There will be times when I need you in the future." Ryun stated frankly.
"Did you establish Otogakure? That's truly surprising information... Also, aren't you afraid I'll throw this thing away after I leave..." Kakuzu played with the token in his hand and joked.
"Throw it away if you want. After all, this life is yours too..." Ryun responded with a smile.
"..."
Kakuzu instantly lost any desire to continue the conversation.
"Go... I don't need you for now." Seeing that Kakuzu wasn't speaking and didn't dare to leave casually, Ryun waved his hand at him.
"I understand..."
After saying this, Kakuzu left without looking back.
After subduing Kakuzu, Ryun did not return to Otogakure, nor did he plan to return to Konoha. He took out a map from his person, examined it carefully, and then walked slowly in a certain direction.
One month later, Ryun crossed a thousand miles of yellow sand-covered land and arrived alone at a relatively prosperous large town.
"Ancient Land of Loulan... finally found you!"
Ryun chuckled to himself, then strode confidently in one direction as if entering a place with no one around.
As he advanced quickly, the Dragon Pearl inside his body began to tremble faintly, as if some unknown power ahead was attracting it.
"The Dragon Vein... I sense it!"
The black scales on Ryun's body surface gradually revealed themselves, and in the next moment, he directly entered Sage Mode.
As he swaggered into a huge building, a large number of puppet guards began to gather around him.
"Who are you!"
There were many puppet guards here, and a few people as well.
Ryun spat out a exquisitely crafted double-edged sword from his mouth. Then, with a casual swing from him, large numbers of puppet guards fell down like wheat being harvested.
This sword of his is also called the Ame-no-Murakumo Sword, precisely the Kusanagi Sword that Orochimaru kept hidden within his body in the original story.
Last year, Ryun and his teacher, bored and with nothing to do, went to the Land of Iron and acquired two Kusanagi Swords.
One was a single-edged straight sword, the very one Orochimaru gave to Uchiha Sasuke in the original story.
The other was this Ame-no-Murakumo Sword in his hand, which could grow long or short, become large or small, and be controlled at will.
Orochimaru originally had his eye on this sword, but as the teacher, he was too embarrassed to choose first, so Ryun unceremoniously took the initiative...
This divine weapon had a very impressive record in the original story, having killed two Kage, namely the Third Hokage, and the Fourth Kazekage, Gaara's father.
The only thing that annoyed Ryun was that such a divine weapon in the original story actually couldn't pierce the Four-Tails Naruto's chakra cloak...
Of course, at that time, Orochimaru, aiming for surprise, used his mouth to spit out the long sword to stab the Four-Tails Naruto. Without infusing the blade with Lightning or Wind nature chakra, relying solely on the sword's inherent sharpness, it would indeed be difficult to pierce the Four-Tails Naruto's chakra cloak.
In terms of skill in using swords and the technique of chakra enchantment, Ryun was undoubtedly much stronger than his teacher. Therefore, believing that a good sword should not be buried, Ryun chose this Ame-no-Murakumo Sword from Orochimaru.
"Strong enemy invasion, sound the alarm quickly!"
Seeing that the intruder remained silent, only 'cutting melons and chopping vegetables', the ordinary guards dared not step forward to block such a God of Killing.
Whether puppet guards or chakra threads, everything was severed where Ryun's Ame-no-Murakumo Sword passed. He advanced very quickly, and before long, he fought his way into the lower levels of the building, his target directly aimed at the Dragon Vein underground!
"Who are you? What is your purpose here???" A middle-aged man dressed as a noble shouted reprimanding.
The Ancient Land of Loulan was located in a desert area, remote geographically. They had little contact with outside information, so this man could not identify Ryun's identity based on his eyes.
The man's name was Anrokuzan, the current actual controller of the Dragon Vein and the Ancient Land of Loulan.
Ryun remained silent, his steps towards the Dragon Vein never stopping.
In his eyes, this Anrokuzan was merely a dead man walking, so Ryun couldn't be bothered to answer his question.
A tiny little centipede pest, just kill him and be done with it...
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