Haruki's clone was having a hard time, not because he wasn't strong enough to completely bind the Eight-Tails, but because he didn't want to lock it down too easily.
Honestly, the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques were ridiculously overpowered when it came to handling tailed beasts.
No wonder Kushina managed to hold down the Nine-Tails even when she was knocking on death's door.
Funnily, Haruki was slightly annoyed that the seal worked too well. With how gently he was holding back, Killer Bee and Gyuki kept thinking they were just about to break free if they gave it a bit more push.
Gyuki's massive body thrashed wildly, flipping the river upside down. His tails had nowhere to go, so they whipped around, throwing waves in every direction and flooding the whole riverside.
The Sand Village forces were completely wiped out.
Up in the sky, A and Minato were clashing when they both paused, seemingly with the same thought. A's face twisted into a frown the moment he saw Killer Bee going full tailed beast mode.
'That little Uzumaki brat shouldn't be able to pull off that kind of sealing at that scale... unless she's a freak of nature too,' A thought grimly.
Without hesitation, he bolted straight toward Gyuki.
Meanwhile, Minato reappeared on a high ridge using Flying Thunder God, along with Mikoto and Kushina, who were dripping wet as they floated up from the river's depths.
"Sensei! Mission complete!" Minato broke out of his usual battle-calm and grinned, scratching the back of his head like a sheepish kid.
He was still just a kid at heart.
And pulling off an S-rank mission as a genin was a gold star on his resume. Just looking at the shocked expressions of the nearby Leaf ninjas said enough.
Everyone could tell this was the stuff of legends.
They were barely out of the academy, and now this.
"Nice job," Haruki said with a light chuckle.
"Nice? That was phenomenal!" Sakumo added, staring at Minato in surprise. Thinking back to how he was at Minato's age... He couldn't help but feel a little humbled.
"After this battle, the whole shinobi world will know your names, especially you, Minato," Sakumo said with a grin, shaking his head in disbelief.
Haruki nodded in agreement.
And it made sense. Gyuki's appearance had wrecked half the Sand Village's army. Nearly a thousand of their forces were either wiped out or captured. That kind of damage would be felt for years.
Minato and his team were the main characters of the whole operation. They were about to skyrocket in fame, just like Haruki and Sakumo back in their day.
In the background, the Eight-Tails was still struggling.
But now, with A helping, it looked like the chains might actually snap soon.
"We don't need to worry about the Sand anymore," Sakumo said, drawing a short sword so fast it was a blur. "But those two... A and Bee, they're a different story."
As he spoke, he flicked his blade. A flash of chakra-infused light ripped through the air, and more than ten meters away, a fleeing Sand ninja was suddenly sliced apart like paper.
He wasn't the only one. All around them, the Leaf ninjas were giving chase with renewed energy, wiping out the disoriented and retreating Sand forces like wolves chasing strays.
The Sand troops had completely broken down.
Haruki's eyes locked onto A and Killer Bee. With a thought, the wooden clone hidden beneath the river dissolved into nothing.
Killer Bee let out a frustrated roar. Eight massive tails slammed into the river, sending explosions of whitewater everywhere.
The riverside looked like a warzone now. The Sand Village's camps and defenses were completely flattened, reduced to mud and debris.
"Damn it, he slipped away!" Bee growled, pissed that none of his wild strikes hit anything.
"Forget it. Let's move." A glanced around at the Leaf ninjas surrounding them. His eyes lingered on Minato for a moment, then he made up his mind and turned away without another word.
Just Sakumo on his own was enough to put pressure on both A and Bee. Add a guy lurking in the shadows with a sealing jutsu strong enough to subdue a tailed beast, and things could go sideways fast.
Haruki and the others simply watched the two retreat.
There was no need to chase them.
Capturing Killer Bee would mean all-out war with the Hidden Cloud Village, and Konoha couldn't afford another full-scale conflict right now.
With the water-style users no longer maintaining the jutsu, the floodwaters slowly receded, leaving behind a battlefield in ruins and bodies scattered along the muddy riverbank, half-buried in sand and debris.
"My Lords, the battlefield has been cleared."
Haruki turned around as an anbu member reported, revealing around a hundred Sand ninja prisoners rounded up and restrained.
They'd be used for a prisoner exchange later.
Everything else would be handled by Sakumo.
After all, Haruki was just a regular ol' medical ninja.
With that, everyone returned to their own business. Haruki grabbed Minato and the two girls, and in a flash of Flying Thunder God, they vanished straight back to the village.
"Sensei, this jutsu's way too convenient! It sucks that I can't learn it," Kushina whined, but her eyes sparkled with life again the moment she saw the familiar Hokage Rock. Days of tension washed away just like that.
"I'll take you wherever you want once I've mastered it," Minato said quickly, almost blurting it out.
He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing at her nervously.
"Hmph, yeah, sure. If you ever manage to master it," Kushina huffed, crossing her arms. Deep down though, she was flustered. 'Is this idiot making fun of me for not being able to learn it?'
"I'll figure it out soon!" Minato thumped his chest like a promise.
Haruki smiled and shook his head at their exchange.
"You three go home and get some proper rest," he said.
"Okay! Bye, sensei!" all three chorused cheerfully before parting ways.
After they left, Haruki hopped down from Hokage Rock and strolled through the village.
His eyes landed on a large poster outside a hotel, not a mission notice, but an ad for Jiraiya's newest book.
Curious how this one turned out, Haruki mused, and walked into the nearest inn just for fun.
Even though it had been out for a few days, the chatter was still lively.
"What's so great about the main girl? The snake woman was way hotter!"
"Look, you do you, but you might wanna see a medic about that."
"Cat-eared maids are peak cuteness. I heard there are actual cat-ninja clans. Think they can turn into full humans?"
"Yeah, and I think you better not try hitting on them. They'd fold you in half and buy your house out of spite."
Haruki just sat and listened for a bit, quietly entertained.
As expected, people were way more energetic when the topic turned to this kind of thing.
He headed toward the New Konoha Bookstore next.
There, a crowd was already swarming the clerk, asking when Jiraiya's new release would hit the shelves.
Both civilians and shinobi were caught in the hype.
Even without knowing the content, the name Jiraiya the Gallant, one of the Sannin, was enough to sell books.
"Lord Haruki!" A familiar voice called out, Satoshi, waved him over.
"Well done," Haruki nodded as the two of them slipped into the shop's backyard.
"How many stores have we taken over so far?"
"Nine. Almost half of the ones in the village," Satoshi replied quickly.
"Not bad," Haruki said, not surprised.
Konoha, being a ninja-centric village, didn't have a huge number of bookstores to begin with.
"We'll be ready to expand to the Land of Fire in a week."
That was exactly what Haruki wanted to hear.
His plan wasn't limited to just the village. Once the war ended and he figured it'd be about a week.
Things would settle down enough to kickstart business across the Land of Fire.
That's when the real profits would start rolling in.
Because once Tsunade eventually took power, they'd need serious funding. Rebuilding and transforming the village into something better wasn't going to come cheap.
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