Ryosuke didn't see the explosion, nor did he know how the battle between Scorpion and Obito ended, or who won and who lost.
After all, observing Obito was just one of Ryosuke's little leisure-time entertainment projects to relax his mind.
After just reclaiming the Land of Snow, there were still plenty of things waiting for him to deal with, the biggest of which was the handling of war spoils.
Rail-guided tanks, chakra armor, Ice Release ninjutsu, and so on.
Although the Snow Ninjas' performance from top to bottom wasn't exactly impressive, there were still things worth salvaging, at least enough to take apart and send to the researchers for reference.
And besides that, there was the royal treasury of Kazehana Dotō.
Considering that Kazehana Dotō was a tyrant who had been hoarding wealth for thirteen years, the group stood before the treasury door full of anticipation, expecting to see mountains of gold and silver spill out.
But when the massive wheel was turned and the door slowly opened, everyone fell silent.
The treasury was empty. Only in the corners were there some piles of cash and gold and silver.
For an ordinary person, that much money was indeed enough to live a life of luxury.
But this was a national treasury.
"Why is there only this much?" Kazehana Koyuki was stunned.
It was true that the Land of Snow snowed all year round, but people lived by the mountains and the water. To survive in such a frozen country, of course, they had their own means, cold-resistant plants, herbs, lumber, minerals, and so on.
In the days of her father's rule, the treasury had never been overflowing, but it was never this bad either. The current situation was practically a national financial crisis.
Where did the money go?
Ryosuke walked in.
Because of the earlier attack by Sasuke and the others, the royal castle had been shaken violently, scattering everything across the treasury floor.
Ryosuke bent down and picked up several sheets of blueprints, some for the rail-guided tanks, some for armor designs, and others for oddly shaped weapons.
Various weapons and equipment were piled up messily in the corners.
Ryosuke shook the blueprints in his hand.
"Looks like all the money went into this place."
Kazehana Dotō was an ambitious man. He wasn't satisfied with just being king of a small country like the Land of Snow.
He wanted to conquer the world.
The blueprints, armor, and weapons in the treasury were his so-called capital for world domination…
Or rather, what he believed to be capital.
Sasuke walked over, picked up a golden "sword," gathered chakra into his hand, and snapped it lightly. With a crisp crack, the sword shattered instantly. Then he picked up one of the blueprints.
Having spent time at the research institute lately, Sasuke had been learning from the researchers. He might not be great at drawing blueprints himself, but he could at least read them.
After a quick glance, he shook his head.
"The craftsmanship is awful. Or rather, careless. The blueprints look decent, but they're impractical. Instead of mass-production weapons, these are more like…"
Sasuke thought for a moment.
"A prototype experiment."
Like a car company's concept vehicle, not meant for mass production, just for showing off or testing new technology.
But such things shouldn't be part of a national strategy, much less for someone like Kazehana Dotō who wanted to conquer the world. What he needed was practicality.
Kazehana Koyuki sighed.
"He went mad."
"No."
Kaminarizaka Hayato crouched down, picked up a blueprint, and studied it carefully.
"He wasn't mad. He was tricked."
Everyone looked over.
Hayato pulled a pen from his chest pocket and tried to write on the paper, but nothing came out.
The weather was too cold; the ink had frozen.
He licked the pen tip, shook it hard, and finally drew a faint ring on the blueprint.
"Look here."
He didn't leave them hanging. "This is a trick used by craftsmen-nin from the Land of Smithing. They leave a unique pattern, like a signature, to mark that the item was made by them."
Ryosuke instantly understood.
"So, to realize his ambitions, Kazehana Dotō collaborated with the Land of Smithing to build weapons of war. He dreamed of dominating the world, but they treated him like a fool, taking his money to make piles of scrap metal until they emptied his treasury."
And not just that.
Ryosuke recalled how Kazehana Dotō had proudly summoned the rail-guided tank, how he'd charged at him in chakra armor, full of confidence…
The smith-nin definitely conned him into believing he was invincible.
That was the fatal flaw of being a tyrant.
Subordinates were too afraid to tell him the truth.
Outsiders could easily deceive him, weaving traps around him.
If he wasn't particularly bright, he'd end up trapped in a cocoon of false information.
Ryosuke figured that if they hadn't come, in another three or four years, the Land of Snow would have collapsed from its own financial crisis.
The group searched the treasury a bit longer. Ryosuke thought for a moment, picked up another blueprint, then took out his Polaroid camera and activated The Hermit's Purple.
Zzzzt~ Click!
A photo slid out. Ryosuke grabbed it and lightly shook it to make the image appear faster.
Sasuke leaned over. "Brother Ryosuke, what are you doing?"
When the picture finished developing, Ryosuke smiled, handed it to Sasuke, and let him see for himself.
In the photo were a man and a woman sitting on a dog sled, faces relaxed, waving a whip as they urged the dogs to sprint into the distance.
"The smith-nin are still in the Land of Snow?!"
Sasuke turned to Ryosuke. "Brother Ryosuke, how did you know?"
"I didn't." Ryosuke shrugged. "Just a guess. When you meet a sucker like Kazehana Dotō, it's hard to believe they'd leave without squeezing him dry. So I took a chance."
He tossed the blueprint aside.
"All right, you guys keep cleaning up. I'm going to have a little chat with those two."
"Chat about what?" Koyuki asked.
"Refund only."
———
The two smith-nin kept cracking their whips, driving the eight sled dogs to run faster.
"Almost there," the female ninja said, glancing back.
They'd fled the castle the moment they heard about the "Anhilation Army's" declaration of war. By now, they'd gotten roughly thirty kilometers away.
Thirty kilometers wasn't far for ninjas, of course, but they deliberately chose the dog sled to disguise themselves as civilians and avoid detection.
The male ninja leaned back in his seat and chuckled.
"The Anhilation Army should be checking the spoils right about now. Ha, I'd love to see their faces when they open the treasury and find it empty."
"You really want to see that?"
"Of course..."
His voice suddenly stopped dead in his throat.
Even in the freezing cold, sweat drenched his back in an instant.
They didn't dare turn around, only glancing from the corners of their eyes.
At some point, Ryosuke had appeared sitting right between them, arms outstretched, one around each of their shoulders, smiling pleasantly.
The two ninjas looked at each other, and what they saw in each other's eyes was pure despair.
They knew who Ryosuke was.
As craftsmen who often traveled abroad, they weren't as arrogantly ignorant as Kazehana Dotō.
Forget just the two of them, even if every ninja in the Land of Smithing came together, they probably still wouldn't be enough for this man's warm-up.
After a moment's hesitation, the male ninja pulled the reins, turning the sled around.
The eight panting sled dogs looked back at the "bastard" who'd been whipping them, unsure what he wanted, but under the reins' pull, they obediently turned around and headed back toward the castle.
The female ninja pulled a thermos from her pack, poured a cup of hot tea, and with a trembling voice asked, "W-would you like some tea?"
Ryosuke accepted the cup.
"Thank you."
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