The wedding of Nagato and Konan was quite grand, after all, as the esteemed Second Heaven Shadow, the world's highest publicly recognized military leader, the pomp and circumstance naturally could not be small.
Moreover, Orochimaru, the First Heaven Shadow, was certain to attend the wedding of the Second Heaven Shadow. Even the usually elusive 'Shadow' made an appearance. This wedding was destined to capture the world's attention.
With Akatsuki's Zero and Akatsuki's White Tiger getting married, all other members of the Akatsuki organization were certainly required to be present.
In a separate, luxurious hall, almost all of the world's most powerful combatants were gathered. Those who entered this hall to attend the wedding banquet were exclusively from Ryun's faction. These individuals firmly controlled the entire world, and to this day, no unfamiliar face had the qualifications to join their group.
Currently seated in the hall were the newlyweds Nagato and Konan, Ryun's entire family, all remaining members of the Akatsuki organization, the First Heaven Shadow Orochimaru, the officiant Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, Guy, and Sasuke.
All of these people had close ties to the Nagato couple. Minato Namikaze, who seemed unrelated, was actually Nagato and Konan's junior brother because their shared teacher was Jiraiya.
The reason Sasuke, a member of the younger generation, was qualified to enter the hall and join the banquet was mainly because of his brother, Itachi Uchiha.
Itachi Uchiha, the former Akatsuki's Vermilion Bird, ultimately died fighting for the Akatsuki organization. Both Nagato and Konan remembered that old comrade's sentiment, so they usually took good care of Sasuke.
In fact, within the entire Village of Heaven, aside from the Celestial Maiden Nanaise, Sasuke was undoubtedly the most highly regarded and promising member of the younger generation.
Sasuke's mother shared a deep friendship with the Shadow's wife. Both the First Heaven Shadow and the current Heaven Shadow held him in high regard. He himself possessed formidable strength and had awakened the Rinnegan. Popular rumors suggested he was highly likely to become the Third or Fourth Heaven Shadow.
Some bolder speculations even suggested he might become the Shadow Lord's son-in-law... After all, in terms of strength, appearance, and the friendship between their families, he was the man most likely to win the Celestial Maiden's favor.
Recently, a rumor circulated in the Village of Heaven: a pink-haired beauty from Konoha had pursued Sasuke all the way to the Village of Heaven. However, Sasuke clearly did not like that beauty. To escape the endless pestering, he actually stated in front of her that he already had a girl he liked and told her to stop bothering him.
The heartbroken pink-haired beauty, rejected so mercilessly, was then confessed to in the next moment by Konoha-nin Konohamaru, who was also a Chunin in the Village of Heaven. It was said that this move of seizing the opportunity successfully won over the pink-haired beauty...
This incident spread like wildfire in the idle Village of Heaven. Tsunade, who loved gossip and playing cards, spread the news to the Shadow Mansion, so even Kushina found out...
Fortunately, no one dared to court death or stir up trouble by gossiping about the underage girl Nanaise. Otherwise, the next moment, the Second Heaven Shadow might have stepped in to suppress this news and arrest people.
Matters of the Celestial family are never trivial. The Village of Heaven was called the Village of Heaven precisely because of Ryun. If Ryun's family did not reside here, the Land of Heaven would merely be the Land of Rice.
"Nanaise, what have you been busy with lately?"
At the banquet, Sasuke, who was pulled by Kushina to sit beside her, took the initiative to ask his clan sister about her recent activities.
Sasuke knew that many of Ryun's direct subordinates spent time in the Archive Pavilion reading and studying jutsu, and even Uncle Ryun himself had browsed there for half a month. Yet he had never heard or seen Nanaise go there.
"Me? I've been at Mount Myoboku learning skills until yesterday, when I came home," Nanaise answered his question with a smile.
"And you, Brother Sasuke? What have you been doing lately?"
"Lately, like others here, I've been staying in the Archive Pavilion studying. It's just a pity that I haven't found a suitable jutsu for myself yet," Sasuke said with a regretful expression.
"The Archive Pavilion? Daddy also suggested that I should spend more time inside learning. I'll go tomorrow to see if there are any suitable jutsu for me to learn," Nanaise first stated her plan, then curiously asked Sasuke what type of jutsu he wanted to learn.
Hearing this, Sasuke suddenly felt a bit embarrassed, and his eyes secretly glanced toward the man who was holding a child while drinking and chatting.
Seeing that the man's attention was not on him, Sasuke unconsciously lowered his voice, blushing as he cautiously spoke. "Nanaise, after dinner, shall we take a walk outside? I have something to ask of you…"
Hearing this, Kushina, who was secretly watching the two, could not help but be taken aback for a moment, but then immediately pretended that nothing had happened.
Upon hearing this, Nanaise merely pondered slightly before smiling and nodding. "Okay."
The reason Sasuke sought out Nanaise was actually to ask for guidance on sage arts. Originally, he had a chance to learn this skill, but in the end, he missed it.
When the Sage of the Six Paths taught Naruto and Sasuke, he was ultimately biased. The old man only taught sage arts to Naruto and did not teach him.
Afterward, Sasuke actually had Naruto try to teach him sage arts, but Naruto simply was not cut out to be a teacher.
Just like in the original story, even though he fully understood the principle of the Rasengan, when teaching his junior Konohamaru, he taught haphazardly. It was only because Konohamaru himself was a genius that he barely managed to learn the Rasengan through trial and error. So relying on Naruto to teach Sasuke sage arts was unrealistic.
Sasuke, without Indra's chakra, was severely lacking in chakra reserves. Even with the Rinnegan, he could not use it many times. Therefore, even though Ryun granted him unrestricted access to study jutsu, he truly could not find a jutsu that suited him very well.
High powered ninjutsu basically meant high chakra consumption. For Sasuke, with his insufficient chakra amount, even if he learned such ninjutsu, the improvement to his strength might not be significant.
His current chakra level was roughly at the humanoid tailed beast level, equivalent to one to eight tails. But if he did not reach the Nine Tails level of chakra amount before Ryun's campaign against the Otsutsuki, Ryun would very likely abandon him.
So after thinking for a long time, Sasuke finally gathered the courage to ask Nanaise out.
The young Nanaise of the past gave Sasuke the feeling of a cute girl next door. Back then, she was innocent, enthusiastic, and seemed easy to fool.
Now, Nanaise's height was almost catching up to his, and she possessed a beauty that made Sasuke marvel as if beholding a celestial being. Because she had been revered by others for many years, Nanaise unconsciously carried a cool, otherworldly, and noble aura.
Whether it was her status as the Celestial Maiden or her naturally beautiful, peerless immortal appearance, all of this made Sasuke feel immense pressure. Facing such a girl, even simple communication required great courage.
When Sasuke encountered Nanaise, he unconsciously felt inferior. He felt that the cute girl next door from those years might have changed. He asked the girl out for a walk mainly to test the waters first.
In fact, not just him, but almost any young man in the Village of Heaven, when encountering this world's number one beauty, would feel inferior.
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