Chapter 494: Success
Guren and Tayuya were, after all, Sound Genin currently blacklisted on Konoha's active bounty and wanted sheets. If Ryo desired to smoothly integrate them into the Land of Whirlpools' technical forces, he still had to file a quick "case registration" with Obito first.
Otherwise, down the chain of future mission executions, they might easily be intercepted and captured by standard Konoha squads midway through a route...
Enjoining Obito to systematically revoke the wanted status pinned on them, Ryo escorted the two out of the Hokage Residence, verbally laying out their exact structural arrangements along the highway.
"Guren, do you still retain active memories of Kimimaro and the other two?"
Guren gave a firm nod: "Those three brats? There's that specific one who executes ice manipulation, a boy who is naturally endowed with an appearance identical to a young girl, correct?"
Ryo burst into a gentle laugh. To think Haku consistently leaves this specific brand of deep visual impression across other people's minds.
"That's exactly them. You've caught wind of the Land of Whirlpools' Six Ninja Swordsmen, correct? I intend to formulate a highly similar technical organization down the chain, designated strictly as the Land of Whirlpools' Five Bloodline Limit Masters. Your slot parameters will be securely aligned right inside that cluster."
"Tch, forcing me to boss a squad of brats around?"
Ryo wore a half-smile on his face: "Boss? As for those three brats, you possess zero capacity to beat any single one of them in a straight fight right now. You are strictly a standard, ordinary squad member."
"That is fundamentally impossible! They are a mere cluster of three brats!"
Ryo smiled but maintained absolute silence. The absolute millisecond Guren locked eyes with Kimimaro's squad, she would naturally fall into absolute, heart-felt submission. Kimimaro alone was currently fully capable of flattening ten variants of her simultaneously...
"Senior, what about my arrangement? Am I slated to enlist into that Five Masters cluster alongside Sister Guren?" Tayuya inquired.
Ryo smoothly shook his head: "Your individual capability is currently a small tier lacking. Prioritize enlisting into the Land of Whirlpools' Patrol Team... which is essentially the Land of Whirlpools' active Anbu matrix, to undergo a few years of clinical training and field refinement first."
"The Land of Whirlpools' Patrol Team..."
Ryo gave a firm nod, shifting his physical orientation as his right hand descended directly onto Tayuya's head, gently ruffling through her hair strands.
"Hey! What on earth is an ancient elder like you executing against Tayuya?!"
Ryo shot a sidelong glance toward Guren, continuing to gently ruffle Tayuya's hair loops: "Why, feeling a trace of internal envy? The Great Ancestor holds a distinct preference for sweet, well-behaved girls. Tayuya, once you relocate to the Land of Whirlpools, make sure you practice your parameters with absolute diligence!"
"Mmm, Senior!"
"In a brief moment, I will draft a premier 'letter of introduction' for you two to present directly to the Uzukage, so he can comfortably arrange your baseline settlement parameters. Kimimaro's trio is currently executing an active field mission rotation; once they successfully return, Guren can comfortably exchange some old stories with them, and subsequent to that... wait until the Great Ancestor journeys back." Ryo gave Tayuya's hair loops one final, gentle rub.
Guren was practically grinding her teeth together in absolute frustration, but since Tayuya manifested zero physical resistance, she lacked the capacity to voice an alternative objection: "This Five Masters cluster, who populates the absolute final slot?"
Ryo fell into focused calculation for two seconds: "Pending."
Withdrawing his hand after that final rub, Ryo smoothly stepped away: "The Great Ancestor shall draft the 'letter of introduction' for you right this exact second. Pick up your pacing to commence your departure early; you can comfortably arrive inside the Land of Whirlpools before dusk sets in."
With the 'letter of introduction' successfully drafted, Ryo watched the two girls depart past the perimeter gates of Konoha, thoughtfully lifting his right hand to inspect his palms for several moments.
Gently ruffling Tayuya's head was naturally not because she was exceptionally stunning or beautifully well-behaved; Sakura was leagues more stunning and adorable compared to her, yet over the two continuous years he spent guiding Sakura's medical track, he had fundamentally never laid a single finger on her head... Ahem, as for Hinata and Hanabi, those specific cases certainly occurred.
When all was said and done, Tayuya was a native subordinate of Orochimaru, and her vessel still actively sustained the Curse Mark parameters; certain underhanded developments had to be meticulously guarded against. Ryo rubbing her head four distinct times was explicitly to weave four separate, high-powered safety locks straight into her matrix.
Ordinarily, a single layer of safety lock was more than sufficient to monitor parameters, but Tayuya's current 'character archetype' appeared to be highly anomalous.
Even though Ryo's structural ripple effects had long since shattered the baseline 'character archetypes' of countless individuals—such as that specific 'yo-yo-yo' variant of Nagato... Ryo was firmly aware that he had fundamentally never touched or interacted with Tayuya's timeline in the past. Yet, her personality had diverged to this massive extent; there was highly likely a ghostly anomaly playing in the shadows!
"Four continuous layers of safety locks. If you genuinely possess the reckless audacity to mount an underhanded scheme, Orochimaru... heh, the Great Ancestor will play games with you until you are thoroughly dead inside your own traps!"
Pondering the details for several brief moments, Ryo picked up his pacing to chart his course straight toward the Senju Clan Compound. As for the final vacancy lining the Whirlpools' Five Masters cluster, Ryo's heart parameters were highly inclined toward Toneri, but...
"There still exists Juugo, though his current raw capability is a small fraction too weak."
The Senju Clan Compound.
At sixteen years of age, Toneri had completely concluded his adolescent maturation phase, seamlessly transitioning from an adorable young boy into a spectacularly handsome man. Wielding flawless, snow-white skin paired with deep, captivating light-blue eyes, any simple stroll he executed down the street blocks of Konoha would systematically cause a massive cluster of young girls to faint on the spot, commanding a tier of baseline popularity that completely eclipsed Sasuke's attributes.
Regrettably, this youth's heart parameters were single-mindedly locked onto Hinata, breaking the romantic illusions of countless village girls along the way.
Squad 11 operated with parameters that heavily mirrored Squad 7. Following Toneri and Hoshino smoothly securing their official promotions to the rank of Jonin, the squad had systematically dissolved, and it was estimated that Sai would comfortably harvest his Jonin promotion within this exact year as well.
Operating as an external individual residing within the Senju Clan Compound, the absolute millisecond Toneri failed to command an active field mission assignment, he would settle down to train inside the specialized miniature training arena situated right within the compound grounds. Concurrently, he voluntarily offered technical guidance to the younger children of the Senju lineage, maintaining a highly harmonious, unified relationship with the clan members.
Currently, he was precisely on location executing his daily cultivation rotation, ensuring Ryo's trip wasn't a waste of absolute time.
"Toneri, get over here!"
"Elder!" Toneri brought his movements to a sudden halt, rapidly pacing over to stand before Ryo. At sixteen years of age, his vertical parameter was already infinitely close to matching Ryo's current stature.
Ryo smiled gently: "How has your cultivation been progressing over the recent duration?"
It was originally intended as a loose, casual inquiry, yet Ryo hadn't anticipated that Toneri would fall into a prolonged, hesitant silence before firmly responding: "Elder, I feel that I have finally succeeded!"
Ryo was startled: "Succeeded? Accompany me straight to the Forest of Death!"
Deep inside the Forest of Death.
Ryo and Toneri stood perfectly squared up, facing each other across a small clearing.
"Have you genuinely achieved full success? Refrain from forcing your parameters, remain cautious to avoid inflicting physical trauma across your own vessel!"
Toneri calculated his internal attributes for a brief moment, before giving an exceptionally solemn nod. He smoothly dropped his frame into the classic, fluid starting orientation of the Gentle Fist.
As a light breeze rustled through the foliage, Ryo subtly squinted his dual eyes. A tracking lockdown lock! Even though the sensation was exceptionally faint and trace-like, it was completely identical to the visceral tracking lockdown parameter he had experienced back in the day during his high-powered clash against Hitomi under the Eight Gates.
"Formidable." Ryo slowly lifted his dual arms, his countenance turning a fraction more serious and dignified.
"Elder, I am launching my advance!" Toneri hollered at the top of his lungs, his expression turning monumentally solemn: "Gentle Fist Style: Two Hundred and Fifty-Six Palms of the Eight Trigrams (Hakke Nijūwanshi Rokujūshisho)!"
"One palm, two palms..."
Ryo focused his absolute mind to cleanly intercept every single palm strike Toneri unleashed, yet the raw kinetic impact packed within each subsequent strike escalated in a terrifying, progressive curve. The absolute millisecond the strike parameters surpassed the two-hundred-palm milestone, Ryo suddenly parsed out that his physical body was actually beginning to execute a backward slide across the dirt...
A warm smile playing across his face, Ryo smoothly activated a localized layer of repulsive force defense. As the palm strikes continuously stacked their structural velocity, Ryo expanded the volumetric parameters of his repulsive barrier higher and higher. By the time the sequence reached the two hundred and fifty-fifth strike, his repulsive barrier had officially peaked at its absolute maximum output threshold achievable under non-Sage Mode parameters!
By this exact stage, the veins lining Toneri's face had violently erupted into tight cords of absolute strain. Gritting his teeth together to swing his arms, he channeled every single scrap of residual chakra vibrating within his matrix into a terminal output: "Two hundred and fifty-six palms!"
Boom!
The repulsive barrier shield violently shattered into absolute fragments in a single millisecond. Struck heavily by the residual kinetic shockwaves, Ryo executed a backward slide that spanned over a dozen continuous paces, only halting his momentum upon slamming heavily against the trunk of a colossal tree.
Lightly massaging his chest parameters, which still radiated a distinct trace of physical ache, Ryo parsed out that Toneri's terminal strike easily commanded an offensive output tier that sat close to a single stride of the Evening Elephant (Sekizō).
He had originally assumed that with Sasuke harvesting his Eternal Mangekyou and Naruto conquering his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, they would cleanly leave Toneri miles behind in the dust. He hadn't anticipated that Toneri's independent strength tier would be the absolute very first to execute a cataclysmic, vertical leap forward.
Following Ryo's historical assistance in helping the Hyuga clan fully reconstruct the technical mechanics governing the Two Hundred and Fifty-Six Palms of the Eight Trigrams, the absolute very first individual to successfully master the sequence down to the letter turned out to be Toneri—a pure 'external member' of the lineage.
This was concurrently the absolute first instance Toneri had managed to cleanly deliver the comprehensive sequence of the Two Hundred and Fifty-Six Palms, entirely exhausting his internal stamina reserves as he lay flat on his back across the grass, breathing in violent, ragged gasps.
Ryo smiled gently as he advanced to his side: "You've finally successfully mastered the Two Hundred and Fifty-Six Palms of the Eight Trigrams. Currently, if you grant your consent to marry into their family, Hiashi will fundamentally never raise an active objection... No, in truth, he will likely be so monumentally ecstatic that he'll frantically stuff his daughter straight into your arms!"
Toneri's ragged gasps given a brief pause, his dual light-blue eyes zoning out completely as he gazed up at the vast, crystalline blue sky...
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