41 - The Perfect Entrance

---Third POV---

With a wave of his hand, Rasa sent a golden sand spear whistling through the air, aimed at the powerless and immobilized Tsunade.

At this critical moment, a chakra sphere the size of a coin shot from another direction, smashing the golden sand spear into pieces.

Rasa turned to the source of the attack, and to his surprise, it was a 12-year-old girl standing defiantly.

"You're the one who destroyed our camp, aren't you?" she accused.

Seeing the once-mighty Tsunade lying weakly on the ground, Rin felt a surge of anger burning in her chest.

"Lady Tsunade, are you alright?"

Shizune quickly rushed to Tsunade's side, her voice trembling with tears. However, her hands worked steadily and without hesitation as she began carefully examining Tsunade's condition.

"Shizune? Rin? Why are you back? I thought I… cough cough…"

Though Tsunade's chakra was nearly depleted and her condition was dire, the aid of her Yin Seal had prevented any severe physical injuries. When she saw Shizune and Rin, she became anxious. They had no chance of defeating the enemy.

"You… cough… you shouldn't have come back," she said, struggling to stand but failing despite her efforts.

"Lady Tsunade, your body can no longer fight," Shizune said, hurrying to support Tsunade to prevent her from collapsing.

"We are Konoha ninjas. We would never abandon a comrade to save our own lives! If I fled now, Ryouma would be so disappointed in me." Rin didn't look back at Tsunade.

Her focus was entirely on Rasa, watching for any move he might make. Before the explosion, Tsunade had used the Summoning Jutsu to have Katsuyu envelop Rin, Shizune, Kakashi, and Obito. She infused Katsuyu with extra chakra so that, hidden by the smoke, the four could be transported safely to a concealed hollow outside the camp.

She had promised Ryouma to protect his friends, and as their elder, she wouldn't break her word. Her intention was for Rin and the others to escape with their lives. But she hadn't anticipated that they wouldn't flee, instead, they returned to save her.

This is troublesome, she thought, sighing inwardly.

Rasa, undeterred by his initial attack being blocked, dismissed the group of children as insignificant. Under his control, large amounts of gold sand began to gather once more.

Just as he prepared to launch another attack—

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Obito, standing behind Rasa, performed hand seals and exhaled a massive fireball from his mouth.

Rasa swiftly responded, manipulating his gold sand to form a wall behind him. The fireball struck the wall but couldn't make a dent.

Raaah!

A crackling sound resembling the chirping of a thousand birds echoed.

"Chidori!"

From another direction, Kakashi charged at Rasa, his hand radiating with lightning. Enhanced by the speed of Chidori, he thrust forward.

However, Rasa's gold sand moved faster. Recognizing that Kakashi's jutsu followed a straight trajectory, Rasa raised another gold sand wall in Kakashi's path.

Just as Kakashi was about to crash into the wall, he executed an agile spin, skillfully evading the barrier.

He had circled around Rasa's defense.

Kakashi smirked. The jutsu developed by Ryouma wasn't so easily countered.

The modified Chidori, designed with the assistance of Ryouma, incorporated four seals, including one to enhance visual reflexes.

While the seals guided chakra, the real innovation was Ryouma's training, which helped Kakashi master the intricate chakra flow needed for the technique. With enhanced visual reflexes, he could dodge flexibly even while maintaining Chidori's charge.

This maneuver had left many of his enemies stunned during missions. But Rasa was not an ordinary opponent. In the fraction of a second when Kakashi spun to evade the sand wall, he reacted.

He controlled the wall of golden sand, and several sharp spikes suddenly sprouted from it, piercing what should have been Kakashi's body as he narrowly avoided the wall.

Poof—

The Kakashi, who was skewered like a porcupine, disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Rasa instinctively looked for the real Kakashi, but before he could react, another round of attacks came his way.

Under the cover of Obito and Kakashi's shadow clone, Rin had already completed her technique.

"Fire Release: Scarlet Wind Petals!"

Rin threw a shuriken, then formed hand seals, exhaling flames that coated the weapon, and quickly followed up with another jutsu.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone!"

The single flaming shuriken instantly multiplied into hundreds, filling the sky with a rain of fiery red projectiles heading straight for Rasa.

However, it was futile. The Magnet Release was incredibly powerful, capable of both offense and defense. Rasa simply manipulated the golden sand to orbit around him, effortlessly blocking all the shuriken.

Moments later, the shuriken rain stopped, and he prepared to disperse his sand defense. To his surprise, the shuriken, which should have vanished in a puff of smoke, began to emit a crimson glow.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A series of small explosions erupted on Rasa's sand defense.

"Kakashi! Is it ready yet?" Obito shouted toward Kakashi.

"Done!" Kakashi and his shadow clone had been working together to prepare a technique, and they had finally completed it.

Between his right hand and his shadow clone's left hand, a fierce blue-and-white electric current connected them.

"Lightning Transmission!"

This technique was an extension of the Chidori, developed by Kakashi himself. It required both the real Kakashi and his shadow clone to simultaneously use Chidori. And by linking the two Chidori with an electric current, they created an incredibly sharp blade of lightning.

Although its power was immense, it required a significant amount of preparation time, which was why Obito had been asking earlier if it was ready.

Their plan was to buy time, leading to this exact moment.

Kakashi and his shadow clone, wielding the razor-sharp lightning blade, darted past Rasa from both sides. The lightning blade did not disappoint, slicing through the golden sand defense surrounding Rasa and cutting him cleanly in half.

Seeing this, Obito pumped his fist in excitement.

"We did it!"

Shizune, watching from the side, was so stunned that she couldn't find any words. Their plan had actually worked.

Poof—

Kakashi's shadow clone vanished in a puff of smoke, and the Chidori dissipated from his hand. He was too young and had already expended too much chakra using Chidori multiple times.

Tsunade, however, sensed something was wrong. She quickly warned, "Be careful!"

Thinking they had successfully defeated the enemy, Kakashi was about to take a deep breath of relief. Hearing Tsunade's warning, he immediately became alert.

But it was already too late. The Rasa that had been cut in half crumbled into scattered golden sand.

The real Rasa had appeared behind Kakashi without anyone noticing, holding a kunai aimed at Kakashi's back.

"Kakashi!" Obito shouted in shock, his voice filled with panic. His eyes turned blood-red, and faintly, two black tomoe began to appear.

---Ryouma's POV---

Just as the kunai in Rasa's hand was about to pierce Kakashi's chest, I appeared between them in an instant.

I wrapped my right arm around his waist, spinning to pull him out of Rasa's attack range. Simultaneously, I used my other hand as a blade, precisely blocking Rasa's wrist joint. Knocking the kunai from his hand, I turned my palm into a grip, executing a shoulder throw that slammed him forcefully to the ground.

The flung Rasa rolled a few times across the ground before crashing into a protruding piece of rubble, sending up a cloud of dust.

With the nearly depleted Kakashi in my grasp, I used the Body Flicker Technique to appear next to Tsunade.

"Ryouma!" Rin, seeing me rescue Kakashi from imminent danger in an instant, sighed in relief.

"You're a lifesaver! That was perfect timing!" Obito, almost on the verge of activating his Sharingan in anger earlier, felt the crisis subside. The blood-red hue in his eyes quickly faded.

"Thanks for coming, Ryouma," Kakashi said as he swiftly pulled out two soldier pills from his ninja pouch and swallowed them.

"Ryouma?" With Shizune's help, Tsunade struggled to stand.

Looking at the weakened Sannin, I understood the situation.

My dream had always been simple: to live peacefully with Rin as my family and enjoy a happy life with Kakashi and Obito as close friends. But this seemingly ordinary dream was almost impossible to realize in this cruel world.

If not for Tsunade exhausting her chakra in rescue, and if not for Minato's timely Flying Thunder God, I might have lost the future I longed for most.

"Thank you, Tsunade-nee." Unlike my usual joking tone, this time, I said with genuine sincerity.

Knowing my strength, Tsunade reassured me with confidence. "Ryouma, just hold him off for now. Let me recover some chakra."

"No need. Take a good rest."

Seeing that Rin and everyone else were safe, the heavy stone weighing on my heart finally eased. But that didn't mean my anger had subsided. Quite the opposite—I was now in a state of controlled rage.

Rasa, who had been sent flying, had already gathered the scattered gold sand and resumed his stance.

He had not suffered any serious injuries thanks to the thin layer of gold sand coating his body as defense.

"Rin, protect Tsunade-nee," I instructed without turning back.

Then, instead of using the Body Flicker Technique, I began walking step by step toward Rasa.

With a clap of my hands, I activated a technique I had refrained from using until now.

"Rasengan Spheres!"

I felt strands of blue chakra emerge, condensing around me into nine fist-sized, glowing blue orbs. These orbs hovered around me, rotating once before suspending themselves behind my back.

I could see Rasa's expression change—he should know of my reputation. Though his intel on me might now be outdated, he was aware of my abilities.

Until now, I had only revealed my Rasenshuriken during our Suna confrontation.

Rasa cautiously launched an attack by controlling his gold sand.

"Gold Sand Rain!"

Ninjutsu was truly a wondrous art—it could even make gold fall from the sky. Countless gold sand particles condensed into senbon needles, raining down upon me like a storm.

With a single thought, I caused one of the Rasengan Spheres hovering behind me to instantly turn from within into a deep purple hue.

It then rapidly expanded into a massive shield that protected me beneath it.

The shield, formed of blaze chakra, radiated extreme heat, distorting the air around it. Before the countless gold sand senbon could pierce my dark purple shield, the intense heat had already melted them into golden liquid.

I sensed Rasa attempting to control the gold sand to circle behind me for an attack. Reacting instantly, I shot out two Rasengan Spheres from beneath the dark purple shield.

Buzz—

One of my Rasengan Spheres quickly expanded, spinning violently as four blades extended from its surface. It was the Suna ninja's most familiar sight—my Rasenshuriken.

The Rasenshuriken tore through the air with unstoppable momentum, rushing toward Rasa.

Aa—

The second Rasengan Sphere transformed into an irregular mass of electricity, slamming into the ground and then streaking along the surface, surpassing the Rasenshuriken in speed.

"So fast!"

I heard Rasa's exclamation as, before he could react, the electrical chakra sphere reached his feet, climbing up his body. The lightning chakra paralyzed him completely.

Simultaneously, the Rasenshuriken arrived in the blink of an eye, growing larger and larger in Rasa's pupils.

Boom—

A deafening explosion erupted as a massive blue sphere of light formed. Inside, turbulent winds howled, generating countless razor-sharp wind blades that sliced through everything in their path.

The golden rain of sand ceased instantly. I controlled the dark purple shield, allowing it to gradually shrink and dissipate.

On the other side, as the storm unleashed by the Rasenshuriken subsided, I could see Rasa lying on the ground, his body covered in blood. His hands struggled to press against the surface as he attempted to stand, but he failed each time.

Earlier, he had used his gold sand to form a sphere around himself, attempting to defend against my devastating Wind Release technique. However, the sand shield was no match for the highly refined wind blades, which tore through the gold sand with ease.

Fortunately for him, my Rasenshuriken's wind blades were designed for cutting rather than disintegration like Dust Release.

He repeatedly reassembled the disintegrated gold sand into a protective barrier. Though this cost him immense chakra, it was enough to preserve his life.

However, his body was now riddled with fine cuts, leaving no intact skin. Severe blood loss caused his limbs to tremble and verge on shock.

His attempts to stand were futile. The outcome of the battle was clear—victory was mine.

"So... so strong." Behind me, Shizune covered her mouth and muttered in disbelief as she processed what had happened.

Beside her, Rin overheard Shizune's murmurs. Proudly lifting her chin, she replied confidently, "Of course. You can always trust Ryouma."