---Ryouma's POV---
Ghatanothoa's lethal beam, a surefire killing move powered by its countless eyes, shot through the black sea straight at me as I hovered in mid-air next to the creature's pulsating head.
But in that split second, I had already begun my counterattack. Lostvayne gleamed as I spun in the air, and I slashed horizontally just as the beam reached him.
A counter-type skill was meaningless if not used for a clutch reversal.
"Full Counter!"
The sickly yellow penetrating beam was sent hurtling back at an even faster speed, this time piercing straight through Ghatanothoa's pulsating dome of a head.
Crack crack crack~
Before my eyes, Ghatanothoa began to turn to stone rapidly from the point of impact. The yellow chakra wave spread across its entire writhing mass of flesh, and within seconds, it had become a massive stone statue.
This move was Ghatanothoa's petrifying gaze, it could turn enemies to stone and strip away their will to resist. However, since I likely had enough mental fortitude to resist the latter effect, only the petrification remained when reflected back.
But my Rikugan revealed that the creature wasn't truly dead, its consciousness still lingered within the body, and it was extremely slowly reversing the petrification. I hope it might only recover in tens of millions of years or even longer.
Due to the loss of the sustaining power, the ruins of the sunken city began to slowly sink deeper, and the dark mist that had clouded the world started to dissipate. The black sky gradually returned to its original azure blue.
But something felt wrong. As the petrified form began to crumble, I noticed that the chakra wasn't dissipating, instead, it was flowing back into the stone statue, concentrating and swirling within it like a vortex.
Watching the now-sinking stone statue, I attempted a follow-up ninjutsu strike, curious if I could destroy it.
Naturally, it didn't even scratch it. To ensure I had enough chakra left to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to return to the shinobi world, I decided not to waste energy on pointless attempts. Better to leave it to someone with considerably more firepower to deal with that particular problem in the future.
But my attack seemed to trigger something. The concentrated chakra within the statue suddenly flared, and the entire stone form began to glow with that familiar sickly yellow light.
Then the statue cracked open like an egg.
What emerged wasn't the creature reforming, it looked like a gateway. A dimensional rift that the gathered chakra had somehow powered, and through it, all that concentrated energy began flowing elsewhere, following pathways that stretched into dimensions.
Curious and increasingly concerned, I followed the chakra flow with my Rikugan. My vision pierced through the dimensional barriers for just a moment, tracking the energy to its destination.
What I saw made my blood run cold and reminded me why they say curiosity killed the cat.
The thing I'd been fighting was merely a single tentacle. A tiny appendage of something so vast that my mind struggled to process its scale. In that brief glimpse through the dimensional rift, countless eyes the size of buildings turned their attention toward me.
The true Ghatanothoa, slumbering in dimensions beyond count, had noticed the disturbance.
The air seemed to thicken, and I realized that I hadn't taken a single breath since its had fallen upon me. Then the dimensional rift snapped shut, and the oppressive presence vanished.
I gasped, my lungs burning as I finally remembered to breathe. "Fucking terrifying..." I muttered, wiping cold sweat from my brow.
Still, a part of me was almost relieved. If I'd actually had to face the real thing... well, let's just say I was glad this was only a minor inconvenience to a cosmic entity, not a serious threat worth its full attention.
Now, finally able to calm myself, I stood quietly on the sea surface, focusing on sensing the coordinates I'd left in the shinobi world.
Since the ritual could teleport me here, then using my own technique to fly back shouldn't be a problem.
Even in the worst case, I could just wait for the next guaranteed wish. Considering my current predicament, the system would likely grant a skill capable of resolving everything in one go, truly a universal Wish Heart.
But before I could fully concentrate, something unexpected happened. The space in front of me began to distort. A small white spatial vortex appeared at the center. The space struggled to expand, eventually forming a small rift only about a dozen centimeters wide. On the other side were Obito and others.
Without a moment's hesitation, I instantly connected with the Flying Thunder God kunai in Obito's hand.
---Third POV---
"Swoosh~"
Stepping through the portal felt like emerging from a nightmare into reality. The solid earth beneath his feet, the familiar chakra signatures around him... everything confirmed Ryouma was truly back in the shinobi world.
"Yo." he raised two fingers and gave a casual wink in greeting.
"Ryouma! Waaaah~" Shukaku lunged forward, jumping into Ryouma's arms and burying its head into his chest, letting out incomprehensible squeals. Raising an eyebrow in surprise, he gave a helpless smile and gently stroked the fur on Shukaku's back.
"There, there~ It's all over now."
While comforting Shukaku, he turned his gaze to Obito and Kakashi nearby.
Hmm… a rare sight: teary-eyed Kakashi, and Obito with his Mangekyō Sharingan activated. Looks like a lot happened here after he was suddenly teleported away.
He felt a rush of emotion, but he wasn't one for serious moods, so he deliberately joked to lighten the atmosphere.
"Geez, I really owe you guys this time. But remember, you were the ones who said we could forget about the 150 million mission payment."
Obito and Kakashi exchanged glances, then silently lowered their heads and stepped in closer to Ryouma.
"Whoa, whoa…" Ryouma felt like a dark mist, not unlike that of the Dark God, was starting to rise around them. He quickly tried to bargain, "Ahem, fine! I'll take 80%, you two get 20%. That's my bottom line!"
"Okay, how about I take 60%, you two take 40%?"
Feeling the pressure from the two beside him, he instinctively took a step back, his "bottom line" lowering again with surprising agility.
"Ryouma."
"You bastard!"
Kakashi and Obito shouted at the same time, lunging forward and wrapping him in a big hug, shouting joyfully: "Welcome back!"
Shukaku had just been enjoying a good petting session when suddenly it was squished between the three men, arms flailing all over it.
"Hey! Stop pulling me!"
After the classic post-victory celebration scuffle, Ryouma was finally released. Shukaku looked down at its now-messy "fur," its mouth twitching in silent frustration.
The two culprits didn't show a hint of remorse, especially Obito, who was even whistling nonchalantly, completely ignoring its murderous glare.
Still, considering this brat just brought its friend back from another dimension, Shukaku decided to let it slide this time.
"By the way, what happened to that guy?" Ryouma pointed curiously at the Bishop, who was now crouched in the corner hugging his knees.
He hadn't even been gone that long, and yet this man, who didn't even flinch when burned, now looked like a depressed, disheartened middle-aged man.
"Well, the thing is…"
After listening to Kakashi's explanation, Ryouma finally realized that during his brief absence, the one who took the hardest mental hit was this high priest. He had worked his entire life just to meet his idol face-to-face, he had finally secured the one and only offline ticket in the entire shinobi world… and then Ryouma used it instead.
No wonder the guy looked like he lost everything.
"What should we do with him?" Obito asked.
"Take him back and hand him over to the client," Ryouma replied without hesitation. "And we need to collect the bodies of these children too. We'll bring them back together, they deserve proper burial."
"Understood."
"Their families need closure," Obito agreed solemnly.
---
While they were cleaning up the mission site, Obito wiped the blood-tears from his face. Still confused, he decided to ask, "Do you know what's going on with my eyes? They don't look like the usual three-tomoe Sharingan… and I feel like I can do a lot more now."
Ryouma remembered that Obito had grown up without parents, raised by his grandmother. It wasn't surprising he didn't know much about the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Yeah, I know a few things… Those are called Mangekyō Sharingan. It's an evolution that occurs under extreme emotional trauma..."
---
After Ryouma finished his explanation, Obito unconsciously widened his eyes, muttering:
"So this Mangekyō Sharingan is basically a wishing well?"
Honestly, that wasn't far off. Very few Uchiha were ever able to use the Mangekyō's powers to actually change what might have otherwise been a tragic fate, like Obito seemed to be doing now.
The mood soon grew quiet as they began collecting the children's bodies for transport.
After all, faced with the terrified expressions on those children's faces just before they died, most people would find it hard to stay unaffected.