Beeeside him, Haku had been quietly listening to the conversation between Ryosuke and Zabuza.
Her heart stirred.
"God-King… may I join your organization too?"
Her voice was timid but resolute. She wanted to serve him — to help realize his dream, and in doing so, find her own purpose.
Ryosuke gave a faint smile.
"Of course you can."
After all, Haku was a user of a Kekkei Genkai — Ice Release. Her potential was extraordinary. With the right training, she could easily reach elite jōnin level.
"Thank you, God-King!"
Her face brightened. To her, being able to follow him wasn't just loyalty — it was happiness.
Ryosuke nodded approvingly.
"Good. With you, our Illuminati now has three members. From here, we'll make history."
Zabuza fell silent.
A kid, and yet already being treated as an asset by Ryosuke… He didn't disagree, but it was hard to imagine this tiny "organization" challenging the great villages.
He knew his own limits. A jōnin wasn't considered weak — but each Hidden Village had hundreds of them. Against the Five Great Nations, two or three people couldn't possibly "bring peace to the world."
Still, seeing Ryosuke's power, he wasn't going to doubt his leader out loud.
Ryosuke turned toward him again.
"From now on, Haku's training will be your responsibility. She's an Ice Release user — nurture her strength."
He knew Haku's heart was gentle, too gentle for a ninja, but she still needed to learn how to protect herself. Ryosuke wasn't a teacher; he preferred action over lectures.
Zabuza raised an eyebrow.
"Ice Release, huh? Interesting…"
He turned to Haku.
"Let me see what you've got."
At first, she hesitated.
Memories flashed — of the day her father and the villagers turned on her and her mother, calling their bloodline a curse. Her hands trembled.
Then she looked at Ryosuke.
"No one will hurt you again," he said softly. "If they try — strike back."
Something shifted in her heart. She took a breath, focused her chakra — and extended her hands.
Glittering frost formed between her palms, solidifying into smooth, translucent ice.
Zabuza was taken aback.
This wasn't just fusion chakra manipulation — she'd manifested Ice Release purely through instinct. A natural-born prodigy.
"Good," he muttered, half-smiling. "I'll make sure she becomes a proper ninja."
Ryosuke grinned.
"Then I'll leave her to you."
He could see why Zabuza was surprised — in another timeline, this very girl had nearly ended Naruto and Sasuke's story long before it began.
For the next two days, Ryosuke took Haku around the harbor, letting her experience something she'd never had — peace. She smiled again, her eyes shining with life.
Once he was sure she'd recovered, he sent Haku and Zabuza ahead to the Land of Lightning by ship. He'd join them later.
He asked the captain for the exact route and the name of the port so he could catch up when his work in Kirigakure was done.
"If the Mist sends assassins after me for what I did to the Fourth Mizukage, they'll go after anyone close to me too," he thought.
Even with Zabuza around, Haku would be vulnerable. The Mist had plenty of jōnin, and they never fought fair.
After seeing them off, Ryosuke activated his newly awakened Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. His vision felt clearer, his chakra flow smoother — the strain of using his teleportation jutsu had nearly vanished.
A grin tugged at his lips.
"I wonder if these eyes could even take on Nagato's Rinnegan now…"
He chuckled. The thought was absurd — power comparisons were meaningless when skill and mastery were worlds apart.
Channeling his right eye's power, a dark rift opened before him — a dimensional gate, shimmering like liquid glass.
Through it, he could see misty terrain beyond.
He stepped through. Then again. And again — until he arrived just outside Kirigakure.
The jumps had drained a good chunk of his chakra, but unlike before, his energy was already regenerating.
"Perfect. No blindness, no fatigue — this is how the eyes of a god should feel."
With his renewed strength, he turned toward the east. That's where Zabuza had said Utakata — the Six-Tails Jinchūriki — lived.
He found a small stone cabin tucked in the forest. Extending his senses, he detected two chakra signatures — one young, one older.
"Got them."
Inside, Utakata sat across from his mentor, Hotaru.
When the masked man appeared at their door, both froze.
Hotaru's expression shifted from fear to desperate hope.
"You… you're the one who extracted the Three-Tails without killing Yagura…"
He trembled. If this man could separate a tailed beast without harming its host, maybe his student could finally live free.
Utakata, however, bristled with anger.
"You… what are you doing here?"
He already suspected the truth — that Ryosuke had come for the Six-Tails within him.
If that was the case, neither he nor his master would survive this encounter.
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