When they heard Yuki Seisui's words, both Pakura and Karura exchanged glances.
Something about what he said felt... off.
Karura didn't say anything. She simply smiled at Pakura and walked over to treat Rasa's injuries.
Pakura looked at Yuki Seisui. "What do you want in exchange for letting us through?"
She got straight to the point.
"Through?" Yuki Seisui wiped his blade clean, then slowly sheathed it before turning to her.
"It's simple. Two million ryo as an apology to my friend."
"Otherwise…"
He glanced over at the remaining Sand shinobi still in the crowd. Though he didn't finish the sentence, Pakura understood perfectly well what he meant.
"Don't push it!" Pakura snapped, her face twisted in anger.
She knew all too well the situation in the Hidden Sand Village.
Although the Land of Wind had the largest territory among the Five Great Nations, most of it was desert, and it was by far the poorest.
Two million ryo? He might as well be asking for their lives!
Yuki Seisui simply shrugged. "Then I guess we're at an impasse."
"And Pakura-chan, you're seriously scary when you're like this."
Before Pakura could react, Uchiha Haru suddenly tensed, watching her warily.
Nearby, Minato scratched his head and pulled out a small notebook. After flipping through it, he finally found what he was looking for and muttered to himself in realization.
"You bastard…" Pakura gritted her teeth at Yuki Seisui's mocking tone, but when she glanced over at Karura, still tending to Rasa's wounds, she relented and gave a reluctant nod.
Seeing her give in, Yuki Seisui smiled. "That's more like it."
"Just put it on the Sand Village's honor as a guarantee."
Pakura shot him a glare but eventually signed the IOU with clear reluctance.
Just then, Panda Wu suddenly brought his staff crashing down. At the same time, the previously hesitant genin surged forward in unison.
Yuki Seisui turned his head. Under Wu's bamboo staff lay the crushed body of a ninja who had tried to sneak toward the central tower.
The man had been completely smashed into pulp.
The crowd, previously held at bay by Wu's overwhelming presence, saw this as an opportunity and bolted for the tower.
Yuki Seisui watched them with a wide grin.
"Guess these poor bastards really don't have the money."
If they had, they wouldn't risk their lives like this just to charge through.
But it made sense. If he hadn't been making money in the arena, he'd probably be just like them.
Mission rewards, no matter how diligent you were, could only get you so far.
And the tools, kunai, shuriken, senbon, they were all consumables. Every fight meant replacing them.
It was a constant drain on resources.
Putting your life on the line for missions didn't even pay as well as some basic business deals.
Just look at some no-name merchant. They could afford to hire someone like Zabuza Momochi, a rogue Jonin, and even Haku, a rare Kekkei Genkai user.
And Zabuza never even thought about robbing them.
This shinobi world was absurd.
As these thoughts drifted through his mind, Yuki Seisui was about to step forward, long blade drawn, ready to teach these cheapskates a lesson. But before he got far, he saw Panda Wu pull out a bamboo tube from his waist.
Calling it a "small tube" was relative, it was a slender piece of bamboo, about two meters long and half a meter in diameter.
Yuki Seisui stared, puzzled, as Wu grinned innocently.
"Watch my Panda Firecracker!" he announced proudly.
With a firm shake, he hurled the bamboo tube straight into the densest part of the crowd.
The genin saw it coming and tried to dodge, but it was too late.
Wu had thrown it with full force. The tube hit the ground and exploded instantly.
A burst of crackling sound erupted, the telltale sound of bamboo being scorched.
Fragments of bamboo shot into the air, then shattered mid-flight into sharp slivers and spikes, raining down on the crowd.
Yuki Seisui stood there, stunned.
He remembered the explosive tags Wu had taken earlier, thinking he was just fooling around, but the guy had actually turned them into a weapon!
As the sharp bamboo shrapnel flew everywhere, the surrounding genin were thrown into chaos.
The bamboo from the Panda Clan's territory was as hard as steel. When it shattered, it wasn't just debris, it was a barrage of deadly projectiles.
Functionally, they were no different from shuriken or senbon.
Any piece that hit a person could pierce straight through. The only downside was that the fragments weren't coated with poison.
Yuki Seisui leapt into the air, using Wu as a springboard, and landed cross-legged on his head.
"Big bro Wu, maybe next time you should dip those bamboo pieces in poison?"
Minato and Uchiha Haru arrived just then, and upon hearing that suggestion, looked at him like he was the devil himself.
Wu rubbed his chin thoughtfully while watching the panicked crowd.
Some of the genin who were hit hadn't taken critical wounds. Even though they were pierced, the injuries weren't fatal, and they still managed to scramble into the central tower.
"I'll give that a try next time," Wu said, patting the bamboo tube at his waist.
He was clearly enjoying this.
"One day, I'm going to invent a firecracker that can level kilometers in a single blast!"
Yuki Seisui blinked. Wait… is this guy trying to build a nuke?
He wanted to say that making a nuclear bomb wasn't exactly something you just figure out, but sensing Wu's enthusiasm, he wisely kept his mouth shut.
While the two of them chatted, the "poor bastards" who couldn't pay the toll had already flooded into the central tower.
Still, Wu's firecracker hadn't been useless, three or four unlucky souls had taken critical hits and now lay motionless on the ground.
Dead long before they could even scream.
"Alright, let's go too," Yuki Seisui said, standing up and addressing the two beside him.
Wu followed closely.
Inside, the central tower buzzed with noise as the genin gathered. But the moment Yuki Seisui and the others stepped in, a strange silence fell over the room.
The entire tower went quiet, like someone had hit a mute button.
It was as if everyone had suddenly sensed the arrival of something terrifying. No one even dared breathe too loudly.
"Damn, now that's an entrance," Yuhi Kurenai muttered, visibly impressed.
Uchiha Fugaku gave him a side glance. "If you'd blocked the door and beaten everyone down, you'd get the same reaction."
"No thanks," Kurenai quickly waved it off. He knew his own limits.
If he tried something like that, he'd be the one getting beaten to death.
Yuki Seisui smiled warmly, like a spring breeze. "Hey now, why so quiet all of a sudden?"
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100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter
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