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Shuofang Si stood amid shattered ice and corpses, surveying his surroundings.

Apart from him, the only people still standing in the entire hall were the Konoha ninjas inside the cage.

Naruto was slumped against the side of the cage, his wounded shoulder hastily wrapped in a few strips of torn cloth.

Shuofang Si took another look and noticed that the wound had almost stopped bleeding. Even Naruto's swollen, piglike face had gone down a little.

The Uzumaki Clan's constitution combined with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's regenerative powers was downright absurd.

"Hey! Shuofang Si! Let us out!" Kakashi gripped the bars, his voice hoarse and urgent.

Shuofang Si strolled over to the cage, looking past Kakashi at Sakura, who was cowering in the back, afraid to show her face.

His lips curled. "Well, who was it that just called me a beast with no bottom line? Come on out. Let's have a chat."

Sakura stiffened like a sparrow caught by the throat.

"You really don't understand how much thought I've put into this. Haven't I done all of it to make Konoha better?"

"I exposed the Third's true colors to everyone in the village and even made Orochimaru retreat outright. If I hadn't spoken up and Orochimaru had killed the Third, wouldn't the other villages have thought Konoha was weakening and seized the chance to invade?"

"And why else would Orochimaru have withdrawn so easily? I also exposed the Shinobi Clans' hidden oppression of ordinary people and helped those people secure more benefits."

He paused, then turned to Sakura. "Tell me, what did I do wrong?"

Sakura didn't dare answer, only muttering under her breath, "But you made the whole atmosphere in the village a mess."

"Hmm?" Shuofang Si's ear twitched, and he let out a low sound through his nose.

Sakura clapped a hand over her mouth, her face turning white as she desperately shrank behind Kakashi.

Speechless, Kakashi pressed a hand to his forehead protector. Tenten quietly turned sideways and edged behind Neji, secretly relieved that she hadn't joined in badmouthing Shuofang Si earlier.

Satisfied that Sakura was behaving herself, Shuofang Si nodded. "And now I've rid the Land of Snow of a usurping rebel and an ambitious schemer who wanted to turn the princess into a puppet. What exactly have I done wrong?"

No one responded. Sakura could only nod. Kakashi covered his face, despair practically seeping through his fingers.

He had wanted to say something, but after one look at Shuofang Si, he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.

Seeing that they had fallen silent, Shuofang Si gave a bored yawn, stepped forward, grabbed the bars with one hand, and pulled with brute force.

The metal let out a teeth-grating screech as he tore a huge opening in the cage.

The Konoha group climbed out one after another, Kakashi's face still pale.

Shuofang Si then began wandering around the hall, stripping the Chakra Armor off the Snow Ninja and piling it in front of Tenten.

"Pack these into your storage scroll for me."

"Huh?" Tenten looked at the pile of cracked, bloodstained armor, then up at Shuofang Si's face, which looked rather frightening in the firelight, and swallowed.

Shuofang Si casually pulled a piece of gold from inside his clothes and tossed it over. It traced a bright arc through the torchlight before landing heavily in Tenten's palm.

"Did you think I wouldn't pay you?"

Tenten quickly took out her storage scroll, deftly sealed the suits of Chakra Armor inside, then offered the scroll to Shuofang Si with both hands.

She completed the entire sequence in one smooth motion.

Just then, a faint sound came from the direction of the hall's side entrance.

Everyone looked over. Kazahana Koyuki stood in the doorway.

Her gaze shifted from Kazahana Dōtō's corpse to Asama Sandayu's, then swept across the shattered ice on the floor and the bodies of Nadare Rōga and the others. She froze on the spot.

Kazahana Koyuki erupted. "Why? Why did it turn out like this? What the hell is Konoha playing at?"

The Konoha group shuddered. Sakura and Tenten stepped back almost simultaneously, while Neji and Naruto reflexively ducked behind Shuofang Si.

Kakashi hesitated for a second before joining them behind Shuofang Si. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, as though rehearsed, leaving Shuofang Si out in front as their shield.

Bewildered, Shuofang Si glanced back at the Konoha ninjas huddled neatly behind him.

Holy shit. These bastards had no loyalty at all.

When there wasn't an idiot around, they treated me like one. Now that an idiot's shown up, they're shoving me out to take the fall?

What a bunch of shameless assholes. Did I save you all for nothing?

He turned back to Kazahana Koyuki as she stormed toward him, snatched up a wine bottle that had rolled aside when Sandayu brought Kazahana Dōtō his meal, and casually hefted it.

"Where did this stupid woman come from?"

He rushed forward and brought it down straight on Kazahana Koyuki's forehead.

After a dull thud, Kazahana Koyuki toppled backward, stiff as a board, and the world fell quiet.

"Honestly, you little glutton."

Shuofang Si dusted off his hands, tossed the bottle onto the floor, and turned to the dumbstruck Konoha group.

"What are you standing around for? We're done here. If you don't want this business in the Land of Snow to cause an international dispute, clean up the mess yourselves."

He paused, then looked at Kakashi with a smile that sent a chill down his spine.

"But you, Kakashi, have to finish that handwritten copy today. I'm heading back to Konoha tomorrow."

It's your mess we're cleaning up, isn't it? Kakashi's expression grew even more despairing.

Still, the fact that this walking calamity was leaving gave Kakashi some comfort. That night, brimming with motivation, he lit a lamp and spent the entire night copying.

The next day, with the sun already high, Shuofang Si tucked away the handwritten copy filled with the Five Basic Nature Transformations and set off toward Konoha without looking back.

Behind him, the Konoha group watched his departing figure with tears of gratitude.

With a flash of light, Shuofang Si stood once more on the floor of the Main God's platform.

The enormous sphere overhead still radiated its cold, gentle light, surrounded by the same boundless depths of darkness.

He rolled his shoulders and let out a relieved breath. The fights on this trip had really taken it out of him.

He had reached the dense woods beside Konoha half a day early. While waiting at the teleportation point to return, he hadn't been idle either, finding time for some slow, steady cultivation and carefully guiding the Eight-Nine Mysterious Art's true qi through his chakra pathways once more.

Now it was time to collect his rewards.

"Main God, check my rewards."

Clear lines of information instantly appeared in his mind: two B-rank side plots, two D-rank side plots, and 19,807 reward points.

Looking at those numbers, Shuofang Si couldn't help smiling. Now this was farming points. A single trip to the Naruto World had made him rich in one go.

"Main God, heal me." Suppressing his excitement, he first entrusted his body, repeatedly battered by unlocking the gene lock, to the Main God's care.

Although the Eight-Nine Mysterious Art and the Nine Yin Manual's Healing Chapter had helped him recover considerably over the past few days, the damage caused by the gene lock was beyond what those abilities could repair.

A white pillar of light descended and enveloped his entire body, then turned green.