Impossible!
Seeing this scene, Taki Tachibana's heart tightened. At the start, their clash could still be considered evenly matched, but in the following exchanges, the opponent had truly used only one hand to repel his elder brother.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he never would have believed it.
Ranzuki herself, however, was unconcerned. Even setting aside her true strength, which far surpassed the current shinobi world, this body alone—having stepped into the Sage Body realm—was enough for her to overpower anyone in pure taijutsu except for Satsuki.
"This so-called Tachibana clan leader should be the strongest ninja here, but the gap with Lady Satsuki is still too vast. When she moves, I can't even react."
Ranzuki glanced toward Taki standing at the mountain's edge and said smugly, "Big guy, you'd better join in too, or this fight will be too boring."
For the first time, Taki's expression grew serious. Signaling his female subordinate to leave, he leapt into the center and helped Ai Tachibana out of the crater.
After the fierce battle, Ai's clothes were tattered, while Ranzuki's haori remained spotless—an obvious difference. But to her secondary Tenseigan, he didn't seem injured. Although she hadn't gone all out, his physique was undeniably formidable.
In just moments, Ai had purged the Tenseigan chakra she'd injected to disrupt him—impressive speed indeed.
Now, the famous Tachibana brothers regarded Ranzuki not with casual ease, but with the respect due a powerful opponent.
Finally, having acknowledged her strength, they introduced themselves: "I am Ai Tachibana, head of the Tachibana clan. This is my younger brother, Taki. You're no ordinary kid—what's your name?"
"So noisy. I'm Ranzuki. Are we fighting or not?" she replied impatiently.
"Stand down. As clan head, I, Ai Tachibana, acknowledge that you—Ranzuki—are qualified to hunt a super S-class missing-nin."
They'd already exchanged enough blows that, if they continued, the damage wouldn't be small. Though still fired up, Ai knew when to be prudent.
"Then I can take the mission now?" Ranzuki frowned in disappointment when she heard the fight was over. "Hurry and tell me where that guy's hiding so I can go fight him instead."
"Uh…" Ai scratched his goatee, looking embarrassed. "Even if we gave you the intel, you couldn't go right now."
"Huh? Why not?" Ranzuki asked.
The female subordinate finally spoke: "The Kaguya clan fled to the southern island chain, which is shrouded in heavy mist year-round. It's easy to lose your way. All our ships were destroyed earlier, so we currently have no means to go to sea."
"Hey, don't think just because I've read fewer ninjutsu scrolls you can fool me," Ranzuki said with a puzzled look. "When the mist clears, why not just send a few strong people to cross the sea directly?"
"Uh…" The brothers were momentarily speechless.
Truth be told, the two brutes of the Tachibana clan also thought having no ships wasn't a big deal—they could just muscle their way across.
It seemed brutes really did think alike.
But the clan's elders and advisers had vetoed the idea, warning that with the thick fog, no one knew the exact situation. If they rashly crossed the sea and the Kaguya clan had set traps there, they'd be walking right into them.
This reasoning had kept them from pursuing the enemy further after driving the Kaguya clan away. And after the war, there were plenty of internal matters to handle—enough to make even a battle maniac like Ai Tachibana feel suffocated in an office.
The reason Ai had been so eager to fight Ranzuki this time was because it gave him an excuse to indulge his battle lust under the guise of official business.
Now, facing Ranzuki's question, both brothers felt awkward.
At moments like this, it was best to have someone who could think clearly. The female ninja spoke calmly: "To forcibly use chakra to cross the sea, even we couldn't find many shinobi with such vast reserves. There's also the possibility the enemy has detection measures in place. If we're discovered after expending that much chakra, our chances of victory drop significantly."
"So in the end, it's just that your strength isn't enough. If it were Mother Sa—"
Ranzuki suddenly froze mid-sentence. A strange sense of danger welled up inside her, cutting her words short.
"I do have an idea," Taki Tachibana said, stepping forward. "We form a small squad, and once we've built a small ship, we lead a unit across and carry out an assassination mission against the target."
Ai, as clan head, thought for a moment before nodding. "If it's just us, there's a strong chance we could kill Suzuki Kaguya in a short time."
Turning to Ranzuki Ōtsutsuki, he asked, "Would you be willing to join us on this mission?"
"Team up with you?" Ranzuki's expression grew wary. "How's the bounty split?"
Ai raised an eyebrow at the question.
His tone turned sharp. "The Tachibana clan isn't about to cheat a little girl. The bounty's all yours."
"Calling me a little girl… I wonder who it was that got knocked to the ground with one hand just now…"
Taki's muttered jab didn't escape Ai's ears.
Blue lightning chakra erupted around Ai once again as he punched Taki, sending him flying into the side of a distant mountain.
"Let's go."
Without even glancing at his airborne brother, Ai vanished from the peak with the others.
"What a temper…" Taki grumbled, standing up from the dust before Body Flickering after them.
As they departed, the mountain split apart from its center and collapsed completely.
With Ai's endorsement, Ranzuki soon settled in here. But because she was an exceptionally rare outsider to pass an S-class certification, she had to do more than just pass the test. She needed to show her face around the village, receive identification papers, and undergo a degree of background investigation—after all, hunting S-class missing-nin sometimes involved highly classified information.
And such secrets were not something everyone was willing to share with outsiders.