At that, Kitsuchi's eyes went wide.
"How... how much?"
He thought he must have misheard.
"Five billion."
Teizawa repeated it in the same easy tone one might use for fifty ryo.
"That's not much, is it? A lot of people died on our border. Rebuilding the outposts costs money too. And we should count emotional damages as well..."
"Five billion is already very fair."
The corners of Kitsuchi's mouth twitched violently.
Five billion?
That was Iwagakure's budget for a full three years.
Enough to pay every ninja in the village for three years. Enough to buy countless ninja tools. Enough to build endless defensive fortifications...
"Are you joking?"
At last, he could not hold back and roared out loud.
"Five billion? Why don't you just rob us?"
Teizawa spread his hands innocently.
"That's exactly what I'm doing."
Kitsuchi choked on the words.
"Too much?"
Teizawa raised a brow.
"Then name your price."
Kitsuchi took a deep breath, forced down the rage in his chest, and said word by word, "Today, Roshi stays."
His voice was utterly firm, leaving no room for negotiation.
Teizawa looked at him and fell silent for a second.
Then...
He smiled.
The smile no longer carried that earlier show of reasonableness.
What remained was only a faint chill.
"So there's nothing left to discuss?"
His voice was calm, yet something in Kitsuchi's heart tightened for no reason.
The air around them seemed to freeze for an instant.
The Iwa elites unconsciously tightened their grip on their kunai.
The Sand ANBU quietly shifted their positions and closed ranks around Teizawa.
Kakashi stood atop the rubble, his visible right eye narrowing slightly.
Guy's thick brows drew together, every muscle in his body already tense.
The Konoha genin did not dare make a sound.
They could only stare fixedly at the two men facing each other in the field.
Kitsuchi's hand slowly clenched into a fist.
He suddenly realized...
This was not going to end cleanly today.
But they had already come this far. There was no backing down now.
"There's nothing to discuss."
He spoke slowly, his voice deep and resolute.
Teizawa looked at him and nodded.
"Good."
That was all he said.
Then, in the very next instant...
His figure vanished in a way that defied belief.
Kitsuchi's expression sharpened, alarm bells screaming in his mind.
Something's wrong!
That speed...
It was so fast it no longer looked human.
His pupils shrank violently.
The figure in his vision disappeared from where it stood almost instantly.
There was not even an afterimage left behind.
Danger!
A shinobi's instincts were pushed to their limit in that instant.
Kitsuchi did not even have time to think. His hands flew through seals.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!"
"Earth Style: Multiple Earth Walls!"
"Earth Style: Rock Armor Technique!"
Walls of earth burst up in front of him one after another.
Each of them was several meters thick, layered on top of each other like an impenetrable fortress.
At the same time, brown stone armor rapidly spread over his body, wrapping him from head to toe in a seemingly indestructible shell.
All of it was completed in the blink of an eye.
As long as I block this one hit...
The thought had only just crossed his mind when-
Boom!
A figure smashed into the wall like a meteor.
That was the outermost wall.
Three meters thick, sturdy enough to withstand the direct impact of an A-rank jutsu.
But before that figure...
It was no sturdier than paper.
Crack!
Fractures spread across it instantly.
In the next second, the entire wall exploded apart.
Stone fragments flew everywhere. Dust billowed into the air.
That figure did not pause for even a moment.
The second wall, the third wall...
He tore through them one after another, too fast for anyone to react.
Kitsuchi's eyes bulged wide.
How was that possible?
He poured every last ounce of strength into himself, forcing more chakra into the final three walls.
And then...
Boom!
A fist struck the wall.
Not through it.
Onto it.
A drop of cold sweat slid down Kitsuchi's forehead.
Did it stop him?
That was the thought that rose instinctively in his mind.
But in the next second...
Hum...
A strange force suddenly spread from that fist.
It was not chakra. It was not physical impact.
It was something more fundamental, more inescapable...
A magnetic field.
The earthen walls in front of Kitsuchi began to tremble violently.
Those sturdy rocks, those defensive structures shaped from his chakra, now looked as though some invisible force were tearing them apart from the inside.
Cracks spread like madness. Boulders split apart.
In an instant, the whole wall became riddled with holes.
And then...
Boom!
That force pierced through the wall and struck him directly.
Kitsuchi only felt an irresistible, terrifying impact slam into his chest.
His whole body was sent flying as though a mountain had crashed into him head-on.
Bang!
Crash!
He smashed through one tree, then another, then another, until finally, after breaking through the seventh tree, his body came to a halt.
He hit the ground hard and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Pwah!"
Blood poured from Kitsuchi's mouth in great heaving bursts.
It stained the dirt beneath him red. It stained the front of his clothes red.
His chest rose and fell violently.
At least three ribs... broken...
He struggled to lift his head and look toward that distant figure.
Teizawa stood where he was, slowly drawing back his fist.
There was not the slightest sign of strain on his face.
As though that punch had only been a casual motion.
"Well?"
He tilted his head slightly, a trace of a smile lifting at the corner of his mouth.
"Still planning to take him by force?"
Silence swallowed the battlefield.
The Iwa elites stood there frozen, their faces full of disbelief.
Who was Kitsuchi?
The Third Tsuchikage's son. An elite jonin of Iwagakure.
A powerful shinobi whose defense ranked among the very best in the entire ninja world.
And yet with one punch.
Just one punch.
He had been blasted through the air, coughing blood, heavily injured and brought down.
What kind of monster was this?
Kakashi stood atop the rubble, his visible right eye opened wide.
He had seen countless powerful people and lived through countless battles.
But a scene like this, a scene of such pure domination through strength...
It was terrifying.
Guy's thick brows lifted high, his face filled with shock.
He was a taijutsu specialist. No one understood the value of that punch better than he did.
That was not a simple physical blow.
It was some higher level of control.
Control over magnetic fields?
Concentrating all that power into a single point.
Penetrating layers upon layers of defense and acting directly on the target.
How precise did one's control have to be to do that?
The Konoha genin were completely dumbfounded.
Shikamaru's mouth hung open.
Choji did not even notice the chips slipping from his hand and falling to the ground.
Ino's eyes were sparkling. That man was way too cool.
Sakura lowered her head, too embarrassed to look directly.
But her heartbeat was pounding so hard it felt ready to burst out of her chest.
Teizawa ignored all of those looks.
He simply watched the distant Kitsuchi, who was still struggling to rise.
The smile on his lips deepened.
"Kitsuchi-san."
His voice was calm, but it carried an indescribable meaning.
"If Kurotsuchi suddenly lost her father..."
He paused.
"Do you think she'd cry?"
Kitsuchi's body went rigid.
He lifted his head and stared fixedly at Teizawa.
That usually honest-looking face was now full of complicated emotions.
There was anger. There was resentment.
But more than anything else, there was a deep, crushing sense of helplessness.
I can't beat him.
That realization came down over him like a basin of ice water.
He had brought dozens of elites. He had prepared this ambush for so long.
He had believed it was foolproof...
And the result?
He could not even withstand one punch from the other side.
What was left to fight with?
Kitsuchi bit down hard.
Hard enough that it felt as though he might shatter his own teeth.
Then...
"Retreat."
His voice was hoarse as he forced those two words out of his throat.
The Iwa elites felt as though they had been granted amnesty.
They rushed forward, helped Kitsuchi up, and retreated straight into the depths of the forest without looking back.
No one dared linger.
Teizawa stood where he was, watching the direction in which they vanished, then suddenly spoke.
"Kitsuchi-san..."
His voice was not loud, but it carried clearly into every ear present.
"In a few days, the Kazekage-sama will be returning to court."
Far away, Kitsuchi's back visibly stiffened for a moment.
But he did not look back.
He only quickened his pace.
Teizawa withdrew his gaze, the smile at his lips never fading.
Then he turned and looked at the still-stunned Konoha group.
"What are you standing around for?"
"Keep moving."
Guy took a deep breath and gave him a big thumbs-up.
"Kazekage-sama, incredible!"
Teizawa waved a hand and climbed back into the carriage.
Inside, he gently stroked the red bead around his wrist, a deep gleam passing through his eyes.
Iwagakure...
This was only the appetizer.
Once they reached Konoha, that would be the real main event.
The wheels began to turn again, and the convoy resumed its journey forward.
Ahead of them, Konoha was no longer far away.
(End of Chapter)
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