The Shinobi World once again entered a period of prolonged peace.
Despite Ryuji's major actions in both Konoha and Kirigakure, the other Shinobi Villages continued to restrain their impulses, trying to avoid conflict with Sunagakure as much as possible.
Before the Sky Castle was built, they were helpless against Sunagakure, which possessed the Floating Continent. The only proper course was to bide their time, secretly accumulate strength, wait for the Sky Castle to be completed, and then take their revenge.
Mechanical City.
Sunagakure Round Table Conference Room.
Ebizo, holding a report, frowned and handed it to Ryuji. "This is intelligence from the Anbu responsible for monitoring Kumo. It's related to the Chinoike Clan."
"Chinoike?" Ryuji took the file, his mind somewhat puzzled.
'Wasn't this from the plot after the original work's conclusion?'
He hadn't watched Boruto, but he'd heard plenty of memes like 'Uchiha Body Slam', 'Manual Earth Release', 'XX is more exciting than Boruto,' and seen some content on short videos, so he was relatively familiar with this popular Chinoike Clan.
In the plot after the original work's conclusion, this clan occupied a significant portion of the storyline.
The Chinoike Clan is a powerful Genjutsu clan. One of their particularly troublesome abilities is injecting Genjutsu Chakra into human bodies, turning them into mobile human bombs.
"Our village also has records of this. A daughter of the Chinoike Clan married into the Land of Lightning's Daimyo's household as a concubine. That girl, jealous of the main wife, passed away from illness not long after the Daimyo married her. Framed by the main wife as being involved in the Daimyo's death, the entire Chinoike Clan was subsequently exiled to Hell Valley."
Ryuji nodded. He remembered this part of the plot.
Ebizo continued, "We discovered traces of weakened actors turned into human bombs near the border of the Land of Rivers. Their target is the original location of our Sunagakure."
Ryuji let out a cold laugh.
'It seemed the people of Kumo were still unwilling to give up. After the painful lesson I gave them last time, their hatred for Sunagakure had reached its peak.'
'These muscle-heads always believed in an eye for an eye; just do it.'
'Even now, during this tacitly agreed period of accumulating strength, they were still restless.'
"Hell Valley has a harsh environment, and the Chinoike Clan's issue with the Land of Lightning's Daimyo is ancient history. It seems Kumo gave them some promises this time, and the price was attacking our village?"
Ryuji's deduction was roughly accurate.
Coincidentally, he was also very interested in the Chinoike Clan's Genjutsu and other special skills. This just reminded him.
"Their actions have caused us some losses. Our Shinobi at the border outposts weren't too vigilant, thinking they were just ordinary people with some illness. They never expected they were human bombs. The initial contact resulted in some casualties."
"It seems the lesson I gave them last time wasn't enough; they didn't take it to heart." Ryuji slowly stood up, a smile appearing on his face. "I'm going to Hell Valley next to investigate the mastermind behind this. As usual, matters here at the Mechanical City are entrusted to you for now."
"Hasn't the Mechanical City always been under my management?" Ebizo widened his eyes.
Seeing the usually serious Ebizo unable to resist complaining, Ryuji also couldn't help but laugh.
Indeed, since the construction of the Mechanical City began, Ebizo had been responsible for the construction matters. In contrast, Ryuji... aside from some technical problems only he could solve, he had been mostly a hands-off boss.
"That's right, the builder of the Mechanical City is Ebizo-senpai!"
"No, no, no, I was joking."
"No, no, no, I'm serious. At most, our two names can be recorded together."
Ryuji was referring to their names in history.
The Floating Continent wasn't like the Sky Castle of Land of Sky, which was only the size of a fortress. This was truly a large city in size, absolutely an unprecedented existence. It would definitely be written into the textbooks and records of the Great Shinobi Villages.
Such fame was a temptation difficult for ordinary people to refuse.
But Ryuji didn't value these things, so it didn't matter to him.
Ebizo modestly declined for a while but didn't persist further.
Because the fact was just that. The Mechanical City was basically supervised and built by him. Putting his name on it was normal.
"I have another matter to attend to during this trip."
Ryuji casually flipped through the materials in his hand... Since Sunagakure began large-scale expansion and issued the recruitment decree for various Shinobi Clans, quite a few clans had indeed come seeking refuge.
But none of the very famous great clans Ryuji remembered had come. After all, pure benefit could only attract a small number of people. Other clans with potential value still needed him to personally visit and show sincerity.
Among them, the one he cared about most was the Fuma Clan.
This clan possessed a very special secret technique, somewhat similar to Onoki's Dust Release. The difference was that Dust Release decomposes matter into microscopic particles, while the Fuma Clan's Ninjutsu grinds things down through compression.
This clan was renowned in the Shinobi World, possessing considerable strength and potential. Most crucially, they hadn't joined any Shinobi Village yet.
If they could join Sunagakure, it would be of extraordinary significance for the future development of the Mechanical City.
"It seems this trip will take a while before I return."
Ryuji picked up the materials in his hand and returned to his residence.
Aka had already prepared various exquisite dishes for him, looking mouth-watering.
He didn't know how long this trip would take, so Ryuji wasn't in a hurry, slowly savoring Aka's cooking.
Yes, he wasn't planning to take Aka with him this time.
If asked why, it was because his strength was already sufficiently strong. Leaving Aka in Sunagakure could effectively prevent enemy surprise attacks... although judging by the current situation, such an event was unlikely to happen.
But things in probability aren't absolute. Being careful never hurt.
…
Hell Valley... this place was a true-to-its-name forbidden land.
Although there were water sources underground, the water was scalding hot, making any vegetation impossible.
The barren environment, combined with the Land of Lightning's Daimyo's orders, meant few people dared to travel here.
This resulted in the Chinoike Clan's members only being able to sustain themselves through occasional desert creatures that wandered in and birds from the sky, living what could be called a hellish life.
After flying a few circles in the air, the mechanical bird's belly made clanging sounds, which made Ryuji chuckle involuntarily.
The mechanical bird's shape made the Chinoike Clan members think a giant bird was passing overhead, and they wanted to shoot it down for a meal.
"It seems the Raikage's promises to them didn't include relocating them from Hell Valley. But thinking about it, that makes sense. Right now is a time when funds are urgently needed. Doing something against the Daimyo's will under such circumstances is obviously unwise."
Not every country's Daimyo was like the Land of Fire's Daimyo, who spared no effort in supporting their local Shinobi Village's development.
Mostly, it was a relationship of mutual exploitation.
Although the Land of Lightning's Daimyo trusted Kumogakure greatly and was never stingy with military funds, this was also because the Yotsuki Clan back then used their clan lands in exchange for the Daimyo's support and subsequent acts of loyalty.
It wasn't that the Daimyo didn't care about anything Kumogakure did.
Regarding the ban on the Chinoike Clan leaving Hell Valley... although it was a matter of the past from decades ago, before Konoha was even established, these Daimyo always liked to stick to old ways. The older the decree, the more unwilling they were to change it.
But this also gave Ryuji an opportunity.
If the Raikage dared to offend the Land of Lightning's Daimyo and forcibly relocate them from Hell Valley, then Ryuji would be doomed to return empty-handed.
After spinning a few more circles in the air, the mechanical bird slowly descended. Several people with worn-out clothes and crimson eyes as if suffering from pink eye quickly surrounded them.
They clearly saw the Sunagakure's forehead protector on Ryuji's head and immediately formed hand seals.
The air concealedly rippled, like exploding lake water surging towards Ryuji.
"Genjutsu, huh..." Ryuji glanced at the caster and smiled lightly, not reacting at all, allowing the Chakra to drill into his brain.
But the final result was that Ryuji was completely unaffected, while the Chinoike Clan's member who cast the technique instantly writhed in pain.
He tightly closed his eyes, covering his eyes, rolling on the ground. Trickles of blood seeped from between his fingers.
The existence of the Sea of Consciousness was the absolute bane of Genjutsu. Even the illustrious Chinoike Genjutsu from the Warring States Period was useless.
"I know where your hostility comes from. If nothing unexpected happened, it's because Kumo promised you some conditions to deal with our Sunagakure, right?"
The leader had already lost the ability to resist, howling on the ground. The others looked at each other, not one daring to answer Ryuji's question.
Or rather, after being confined within Hell Valley for so long, many among them had lost the ability to communicate with the outside world.
"Take me to your leader, or I'll kill you!"
They looked at each other, seeing hesitation in each other's eyes.
But after Ryuji released his powerful aura, they could only nod reluctantly.
As a Genjutsu clan once comparable to the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, they had extraordinary confidence in their Genjutsu. This person before them easily dispelled their Genjutsu without any movement; his strength was evident!
There was no need to fight to the death with him over some promises from Kumogakure.
Several Chinoike Clan's members led Ryuji to a cave entrance, gestured for him to enter, and stopped outside.
Ryuji nodded and walked in alone.
The cave interior was still unbearably hot, but compared to outside, there was less direct ultraviolet scorching.
"Who comes?"
A weak old man's voice came from inside the cave.
Ryuji looked towards the sound and unexpectedly discovered a little girl with yellow short hair.
This was the future Chino. Although she still looked like a little girl even after the Fourth Shinobi World War ended, her actual age was a few years older than Sasuke's. Her exact age now was hard to say.
"I am a Shinobi from Sunagakure, here to invite you to Suna. As long as you join Suna, Suna will provide you protection. As for the Land of Lightning's Daimyo's ban, there's no need to care about it at all."
Hearing his words, the old man's eyes flashed with a strange light. He suspiciously scrutinized the other party.
At that moment, more and more Chinoike Clan's members came from outside the cave. Ryuji counted; there were about thirty-plus people.
The old man glanced at these members, his eyes flashing with a trace of unwillingness.
When he was young, the Chinoike Clan had just been driven to Hell Valley not long before. He personally experienced the clan sharply declining from hundreds back then to its current state.
For him, anyone daring to set foot in Hell Valley was hope for the Chinoike Clan's rise.
But he had been deceived countless times before. If this young man before him couldn't offer some substantial promise, there was absolutely no possibility of agreeing.
"Forgive my frankness, but Kumo made the same promise. Why should I believe you?"
Ryuji smiled and said, "Very simple. As long as you are willing, I can take you away right now."
At that moment, a skinny Chinoike Clan's member whispered something into the old man's ear. The old man stared at Ryuji and said, "You came with only one mechanical bird. It can't fit all the members of our Chinoike Clan."
Ryuji didn't offer extra explanations. Instead, he put his hands together in a seal, and his Personal Space slowly opened before this group.