This puppeteer is a bit... well...

Chapter 126 Refusal to Redeem

That night.

Loulan, no, it should be called the City of Machines.

Although the city of the mechanical city had not yet been built, Loulan had already become a thing of the past when it took to fly over land.

The ninjas of Sunagakure and the people of Loulan were celebrating in the square.

Various colorful ribbons were sprayed out, and balloons were released into the sky.

Accompanied by celebratory music, everyone ate and drank to their hearts' content.

They've been exhausted for the past two weeks.

Not only do they have to work overtime every day, but they also have to be constantly on guard against enemy infiltration and sabotage.

Now that the external threat has been resolved, it's time to celebrate properly.

Beside a campfire, Yekura and Ryuji sat shoulder to shoulder on the steps in front of the tower.

Whether it was the campfire or the alcohol, Ye Cang's face was flushed.

She looked down at the wine glass in her hand and said, "Don't get poisoned after I leave."

"poison?"

Long Er feigned ignorance and asked doubtfully, "With Senior Ebizo here, how could I possibly be poisoned to death?"

Ye Cang raised her head and stared at him intently, her murderous aura faintly visible.

It's not strong; even ordinary people wouldn't feel anything unusual.

But Ryuji felt a chill run down his spine.

Thinking of the fate of the famous great man "Brother Cheng" in his previous life, he quickly laughed awkwardly, "I know, I know, I was just joking with you."

"Don't joke about this kind of thing with me."

Ye Cang looked at Long Er seriously, hesitated for a moment, and said earnestly, "I don't know if you're really stupid or pretending, and I don't know if we can be together in the future, but even if it doesn't work out in the end, I won't allow you to find a woman from the Yangyan clan. You will die."

On October 18th, after completing the formula conversion experiment of the anti-gravity system, Ryuji began his research on Hawkeye.

Yekura, who came here to help, also learned that Chie Marie was a member of the Kagerou clan.

She was extremely worried about and opposed to this.

She worried that Long Er would succumb to the Yang Yan clan's innate seductive arts, have sex with them, and then die from the poison.

"You're overthinking it." Ryuji pulled her into his arms and comforted her, "Even if she has natural charm, she couldn't possibly bewitch me. Besides, her physical structure has already been recorded by the observation equipment, so there's no need to study her further."

Hearing this, Ye Cang felt relieved.

She leaned against the man's comforting chest, closing her eyes to savor this brief moment of sweetness.

As ninjas, even couples find it difficult to be together often.

Once the crisis at the mechanical city is resolved, she and the ninjas Rasa brought to help will return to the village to report back and then continue with new missions.

Although Ryuji could keep her by his side, Yokura was an independent woman who didn't want anyone interfering in her life.

He respected her choice.

……

The next morning.

Yekura and Rasa led ten elite ninja squads away from the mechanical castle.

The remaining ninjas also resumed their duties.

Ryuji returned to the laboratory to conduct research on Eagle Eye.

With observation instruments and research samples, research becomes a very easy task.

On the second day of Ryuji's research on Hawkeye, he was able to successfully replicate Hawkeye.

but.

The human eye functions by connecting to the brain through the optic nerve; simply creating an eyeball is completely useless.

Wanlijiang possesses eagle eyes because she has an extraordinary, naturally alluring body.

It's the kind that's extremely poisonous.

If Ryuji wants to replicate Hawkeye, he has to replicate Wanlijiang's naturally alluring body.

But doing so is like planting a time bomb next to you.

After all, everyone has physiological reactions, and even if you can control your desires, you can't prevent your body from reacting.

If the enemy learns of this characteristic and takes countermeasures, it could easily lead to a self-destruction.

Therefore, it is impossible for him to create an artificial human from the Yangyan clan.

Furthermore, since he already has one Black Ninja, he doesn't plan to make another one.

His idea was to create a prosthetic eye with eagle-eye capabilities and install it on Black, giving him both chakra perception and visual perception.

but.

As mentioned earlier, the human eye functions based on the connection between the optic nerve and the brain.

It is very difficult to create a prosthetic eye based on the structure and operating principle of the eagle eye.

However, in order to eliminate safety hazards, it must be done no matter how difficult it is.

Ryuji buried himself in his new research.

……

Time passes little by little.

The factory equipment produces the parts needed for the flight system every day.

Ryuji also spends every day in the laboratory doing research, only coming out near the end of the day to assemble the core technologies that only he understands.

Meanwhile, the working puppets and the Sand Village engineering team ninjas were also building every day.

Without the enemy's harassment, everyone worked much more relaxed, making rapid progress, and the material proportion system was gradually improved.

October 3rd.

Hei sent a message that a suitable candidate had been found to become a Wood Release ninja.

However, Ryuji did not go to Konoha immediately because of what he was doing.

He then created many more working puppets and began simultaneously building planetary engines.

October 4th, 5th, 6th...

The captured sensory ninjas were successively redeemed by their respective ninja villages at high prices, and with the funds replenished, Ryuji accelerated the construction progress once again.

October 10th.

The material density system was completed after fourteen days.

With the completion of the Dragon Vein waterway connection, the Mechanical City now has a weight adjustment function that can fluctuate up and down by thirty times.

October 12th.

The Third Kazekage told him that Frost Ninja Village had refused the request to pay money to redeem Wanlijiang.

……

"It's not a matter of how much money they have; it's that they never even considered redeeming Wanli River," the Third Kazekage said in his mental world. "The people I sent to negotiate came back and said that Frost Ninja Village doesn't care about Wanli River at all; they didn't even try to bargain and just refused outright."

"I see."

After hanging up the call with the Third Kazekage, Ryuji fell silent.

Qianhui Wanlijiang is a member of the Yangyan clan, who lives in seclusion deep in the mountains. He joined the clan midway through his training.

The fact that she was startled by her own casual jokes shows that she is very naive and probably hasn't been away from the mountains for long, and hasn't fully integrated into the outside world yet.

In addition, given the dangerous nature of her Kagero clan's unique constitution, it's likely that Frost Village hasn't yet recognized her as a comrade.

"This is truly sad news."

Ryuji took a deep breath, then opened the door and left.

In any case, it's her own business. I just need to tell her the truth and let her make her own decision.

……

Because the city floats two thousand meters in the air, there's no need to worry about people who can't fly leaving on their own.

Therefore, some cooperating prisoners who posed little threat were not detained.

This is exactly what the thousands of miles of rivers and lakes depict.

When Ryuji found her, she was sitting alone on the edge of the land, her back looking somewhat lonely.

Long Er walked to her side, looked at the clouds drifting below, and said, "Aren't you afraid of being blown away by the wind here?"

"Huh?" Wanlijiang turned his head, looking at him like he was an idiot. "As long as you attach chakra to your butt, you can stick to it forever. Haven't you learned how to walk vertically on a rock wall?"

Ryuji didn't pay any attention, and after a moment of silence, he got straight to the point.

"The Frost Ninja Village has replied."

"Is that so?"

Wanlijiang paused for a moment, then looked down at the clouds again.

"Frost Ninja Village..."

"They refuse to pay to ransom me, right?"

Wanlijiang's words, spoken ahead of time, surprised Long Er.

The girl spoke calmly, as if she had known this would be the outcome all along and didn't care at all.

but.

Do you really not care?

He remembered that this guy would rather die than betray Frost Ninja Village.

"So you're here to kill me?"

Wanlijiang continued to look at the scenery at his feet and asked, seemingly indifferent to life and death.

"...No." Ryuji was surprised by the girl's reaction, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Since Frost Ninja Village doesn't want you anymore, you can't go back, right? That way we won't be enemies anymore, and it's okay to let you go."

"Aren't you afraid we'll become enemies again in the future?"

"Then I'll kill you later."

Wanlijiang turned around, looking at him as if he were seeing him for the first time, his bright eyes flashing with an unusual expression.

"I investigated you before carrying out this mission. Many people said you were a genius, very decisive, and ruthless. Whether it was an enemy or an ally, as long as they became your adversaries, you would kill them without hesitation."

"Yes, as long as someone stands against me, I will not hesitate to take action if given the chance."

"But why do I find you so gentle?"

"Tch!" Long Er couldn't help but scoff. "Girls are just so sentimental, especially little brats. I only spared your life, and you think I'm being kind? Have you forgotten how I killed those guys who invaded the Mechanized City these past few days?"

Wan Lijiang gently shook his head, then said, "That's not what I meant."

"Not in that aspect?" Long Er paused, then asked instinctively, "Then what is it?"

"Yes, forget it. You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you."

Long Er frowned.

He hated nothing more than people leaving things unsaid, but looking at the girl who was looking down at the scenery again, he couldn't bring himself to blame her.

"Are you planning to return to the Kagero clan, or go to Konoha to find Jiraiya?" Ryuji said. "Although Jiraiya is usually a bit of a rascal, he can be relied on when it counts. Most importantly, he's a good person. You have a history with him, so if you go to him, Konoha will take you in."

Upon hearing this, Wanlihong laughed self-deprecatingly.

"If I were looking for Jiraiya, I would go straight to him after leaving the mountain stream where my clansmen live in seclusion. Why would I just go to some small ninja village?"

"...Is it because you almost poisoned him?"

"Yes."

"He's not that kind of small..."

"I know he's not that kind of person."

Wanli Jiang interrupted Ryuji's words and said self-deprecatingly, "You always thought that Jiraiya was almost poisoned to death because of a misunderstanding, but there was no misunderstanding at all. He was almost deliberately killed by my clansmen. Although he acted like he didn't care at all afterward, I couldn't possibly have the nerve to go looking for him."

I'm recommending a friend's new book, also a Naruto fanfiction, titled "I'm Too Strong in Naruto".

Uchiha Itachi: Every attack I made seemed to be exactly as the Hokage had anticipated. The shuriken I threw didn't even touch the hem of his clothes.

Raikage: The Hokage isn't as fast as me, but he always manages to perfectly dodge my attacks.

Nagato Uzumaki: He's too strong! My attacks are completely ineffective against him.

(End of this chapter)