Yamanaka Ino propped her chin with both hands, squinting her eyes as she admired the sparring practice between Sasuke and Rei. Beside her was Sakura, who was also in fangirl mode.
Ino's father, Yamanaka Inoichi, was the clan's ninja most skilled at the Mind Body Switch Technique, and naturally, he was the one assigned to cooperate with Ryosuke in his training.
Originally, Ino didn't want to participate in this kind of "grown-ups' activity," but the moment she heard Sasuke was coming, she immediately put on her newest hairpin, carried the "bento prepared for her father," and rushed over.
Sakura of course also came along with her best friend.
On the other side, Naruto was still rubbing his hands to form a ball.
Except it wasn't a Rasengan that came out, what formed in his palm was just a little mud pellet.
Sasuke, who had just finished a round of kenjutsu training, glanced over at Naruto still struggling with Rasengan, and couldn't help asking, "Why don't you borrow the power of the Nine-Tails inside you?"
Naruto collapsed tiredly onto the ground, just about to speak, when a tangerine was silently handed to him from the side.
He instinctively took it, munching as he said, "Pervy Sage said that monster's power is too strong, and I'm still too young. I don't have the ability to control it. If I accidentally let it loose, it could cause the end of the world."
Sasuke's expression turned a little odd.
'It's just a tailed beast, isn't it?'
'At worst, it would just take Brother Ryosuke cutting it once, or maybe twice. Was it really something that could trigger the end of the world?'
But then, Sasuke recalled Ryosuke's speculation from not long ago.
The Evil God and the Tailed Beasts each represented a type of destruction. The former was self-destruction, the latter, world destruction…
Sasuke thought for a moment and then asked, "Can I go take a look at it?"
His tone was like asking to go over to a classmate's house to see their puppy.
Naruto lifted his shirt, patted his stomach, making slapping sounds.
"It's in here. How are you supposed to see it?"
"Like this."
Ripple wrapped around Sasuke's fingertips as he gently touched the seal on Naruto's abdomen, then closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, Sasuke was standing before a massive prison gate. Behind it was a brownish-yellow Nine-Tailed Fox.
Naruto stood there dumbfounded, staring blankly at Sasuke and the Nine-Tails, feeling dazed for a moment.
The Nine-Tails slowly raised its eyes, glanced at Sasuke's illusory figure made of ripples outside, and said darkly, "Evil little Uchiha brat, get out. You're not welcome here."
Sasuke sat down cross-legged, unfazed by the Nine-Tails' attitude.
In the past four months, he had followed the Annihilation Army across the land. Compared to the curses and insults spat by those crushed enemies before their deaths, the Nine-Tails' tone was practically like a sulking toddler in kindergarten.
"Sit down and talk, Nine-Tails.
"I'm interested in your past…"
Sasuke remembered a term Ryosuke often used, then changed his words, "I'm interested in your original family environment."
———
While Sasuke and the Nine-Tails exchanged words, Ryosuke was carefully helping Yamanaka Inoichi to his feet.
This old fellow, in order to help Ryosuke train, had been casting the Mind Body Switch Technique over and over again.
Though Starfish and the other substitutes hadn't made things hard for him, each time he infiltrated Ryosuke's consciousness only to be rebounded, it was an extremely taxing ordeal.
If an ordinary person's mind was like a small puddle that Inoichi could easily step into, then Ryosuke's spirit was like a pitch-black abyss. Every dive, every attempt to suppress the soul, brought him unparalleled pressure.
"Sorry, Ryosuke, I… I might need to rest for a while…"
The burly, strong-framed Yamanaka Inoichi looked utterly haggard.
He sat down against the wall, eyes vacant, looking exactly like a college student during finals week.
Ryosuke quickly poured tea and brought snacks to replenish his energy.
Whether it was from sincerity or simply obeying Tsunade's orders, the fact that Inoichi was willing to give his all to help was something Ryosuke deeply appreciated.
Once he had taken care of the exhausted old man, Ryosuke pulled over a chair and retrieved an iron ball from the ghost room.
It had been ten days since he arrived at Konoha. First, he had trained in Rasengan, opening a new path of cultivation.
Then, with Inoichi's help, he had "forgotten" the sensations of the body. And now, all that effort, Ryosuke raised his hand, holding the iron ball still, and let it slowly rotate in his palm.
The spinning wasn't fast, and sometimes the muscles under his skin even suffered small sprains.
But it was indeed stepping into Lesson-2.
The iron ball's power and rotational amplitude were several times greater than before.
As long as Ryosuke continued training, the iron ball would even gain some degree of tracking capability.
And more than that…
Ryosuke once again infused ripples into it. Golden ripples twined around the iron ball, forming a Golden Spiral·Rasengan with the ball as its core.
Although Ryosuke could only maintain it for half a second before the spin destabilized, although in this state the ball couldn't be thrown, having a direction was already the greatest breakthrough.
As for the problems arising from it, they could be solved one by one.
"Almost there."
The refinement after this, just like Ripple Breathing training, would require long days of polishing. It wasn't something that could be achieved overnight.
Ryosuke didn't plan to wait for that day. He felt his current state was already enough.
'System.'
Pa!
Ryosuke gripped the spinning iron ball tightly, taking a deep breath.
'Activate the Killer Queen trial!'
[Initiating Killer Queen trial mission. Ryosuke, good luck.]
'Thanks.'
Heaven and earth flipped upside down, that familiar sense of losing balance surged again.
Ryosuke closed his eyes, and when his body finally steadied again, he snapped them open.
Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!
The sound of an alarm clock echoed in the bedroom. The time displayed, [Morning, 7,30]
Ryosuke sat on the edge of the bed, lowered his head to look at his short little legs, then at his tiny hands. Finally, he lifted his head and saw in the mirror a blond-haired child.
Kawajiri Hayato.
This was the identity Ryosuke had descended into Morioh with.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
Ryosuke buried his face in his hands, tired eyes peeking out between his fingers.
Before obtaining the Ascension Star Core, Ryosuke had wondered, if he entered Killer Queen, what would the corresponding trial mission be?
Would it be fighting against the protagonist group as Yoshikage Kira?
If he carried his own physique into it, it would be difficult, but not impossible.
Later, after obtaining the Ascension Star Core and learning the trial opponent was Yoshikage Kira, recalling the experience of entering Star Platinum last time, he had speculated three possibilities, Ryosuke replaces a member of the protagonist group.
Ryosuke appears as a stranger.
Or, becomes Hayato.
Yes, Ryosuke had considered whether he might become Hayato.
But he always thought this was the least likely.
After all, a Stand User's trial should involve fists, right?
Turning into an eleven-year-old, scrawny kid like a reed stalk, what kind of trial was that supposed to be?
Yet now that Ryosuke truly stood in Morioh, feeling the faint danger, the eerie, sleazy atmosphere lingering in the air, he finally understood, "Entering as Hayato… really does fit the tone of a Yoshikage Kira trial."
"Goddammit…"
Ryosuke slowly lifted his head, his eyes turning sharp again.
"Enough."
Compared to Kira, Dio was practically an upright, honest man.
Ryosuke opened a drawer, fished out seven or eight marbles, then stepped out the door.
With the nature of this trial, if he wasn't mistaken…
Ryosuke looked up. Yoshikage Kira was right there, a smug look on his face as he combed his hair in the mirror, fiddling with his new black-and-white hairstyle.
Bites the Dust had already been activated.
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