An afternoon passed. Lin Xiaoran did not start slacking off because her score was high. Instead, she hurried along with Madara as always, searching for fierce beasts. By six that evening, her score had reached 50,950 points.
[Student Lin's spirit and dedication deserve our admiration!]
[Seriously, all afternoon, Student Lin and Lord Madara were either killing fierce beasts or on their way to kill fierce beasts!]
[Greatness needs no further words!]
[Student Lin really isn't letting up at all for Country L!]
[Maybe Student Lin is also worried about whether she can keep winning in the future National Fortune Games, so she's sparing no effort to improve the national fortune rewards, building up our strength and giving us more opportunities!]
[I'm crying my eyes out! Student Lin! I love you!]
[I'd trade being single for the rest of my life for a wish that Student Lin keeps winning!]
[Me too!]
[For Student Lin, I could give up everything!]
At six, the sky grew dark.
Lin Xiaoran took out a serving of grilled fish and said, "Want some?"
Across from her, Madara looked at her in silence.
Eat?
Never mind whether I'm hungry. I can't even taste anything, so what's the point of eating?
"Don't be so cold."
Lin Xiaoran joked and began eating dinner on her own.
"Go on, what else do you want to know? I'll tell you now." As she ate, Lin Xiaoran did not forget to fulfill their afternoon deal.
"What was the story you didn't finish this morning?" Madara asked.
"Oh, that. After quietly building up its strength for several years, the Akatsuki finally began its plan to capture the tailed beasts. It went pretty smoothly at first," Lin Xiaoran said as she ate her fish.
"At first?"
"Yes. Until Nagato used the Rinnegan to control six puppets and enter Konoha to capture the Nine-Tails. That's when things went wrong."
"He failed?" Madara guessed.
But that shouldn't have happened. Without shinobi on his or Hashirama Senju's level in the Shinobi World, Nagato's Rinnegan was practically invincible. How could he have failed?
Was it because things had dragged on too long, letting the Rinnegan drain Nagato's life force and weaken him?
So why had Obito dragged things out for so long?!
"Yes. Not only did he fail, Nagato also died at the hands of Konoha's third Jinchūriki."
"Nagato died!?" Madara was immediately displeased and asked, "Who was the third Nine-Tails Jinchuriki?"
"The son of the second Jinchūriki, Kushina Uzumaki, and the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, of course."
"You're saying... Nagato died at the hands of a brat?"
If he remembered correctly, Lin Xiaoran had mentioned the Nine-Tails' attack before. Then by the time Nagato entered Konoha, the new Jinchūriki should only have been in his teens, right?
How had he lost?!
"Here's what happened. Nagato used Planetary Devastation to imprison the rampaging Jinchūriki and almost captured him. But because of some unforeseen circumstances, the Jinchūriki, Naruto Uzumaki, returned to normal, and the Nine-Tails was sealed again."
Those so-called unforeseen circumstances were what people commonly called [cheating]: the contingency Minato Namikaze had left behind, along with Naruto Uzumaki being moved by love and regaining his reason.
"Then the two fought another great battle. In the end, Nagato faced Naruto Uzumaki directly and talked about peace in the Shinobi World. After their debate, Nagato acknowledged Naruto Uzumaki's ninja way and entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of saving the Shinobi World and eliminating the suffering between shinobi. Then he used Rinne Rebirth to revive the shinobi and villagers of Konoha who had died because of him, ending his own life."
Lin Xiaoran finished recounting what had happened in a single breath.
After hearing it, Madara looked utterly bewildered.
"???"
What the hell?
So Nagato hadn't been killed, but had died from the price of using the technique?
Yes, casting Rinne Rebirth required the caster's life as its price.
And it was supposed to have been used to revive Madara.
What Madara found even harder to accept was that someone who had persisted for more than a decade had suddenly seen the light because of a few words from an enemy, letting go of the fruits of victory already in his grasp. Was this some kind of joke?
What on earth had that brat Nagato been thinking?
Where were Obito and Black Zetsu?
Where was his resolve!?
"Oh, right. Naruto Uzumaki and Nagato had the same teacher. You should have heard of him."
When Jiraiya became famous, Madara had still been alive.
"Who?"
"Jiraiya, one of the Konoha Sannin."
"Him." Madara nodded, indicating that he knew him.
"By the way, do you know there's a prophecy in the Shinobi World?" Lin Xiaoran suddenly asked.
"What prophecy?"
"A prophecy from the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku: Jiraiya's disciple would transform the Shinobi World and bring it peace," Lin Xiaoran said.
"Heh, nothing but a false prophecy."
Madara gave a cold laugh, not taking it seriously at all.
"Then why were you willing to believe what was written on the stone tablet? Was it because only Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan could read it?"
Madara froze at those words and looked at Lin Xiaoran in confusion.
In theory, Lin Xiaoran was not wrong.
Because it was indeed after reading what was recorded on the stone tablet that Madara had left Konoha and come up with all the plans that followed.
"Finished! Teach me ninjutsu today!"
Lin Xiaoran put away her plate, wiped her mouth, and spoke eagerly.
"All right."
Madara was itching to have Lin Xiaoran tell him everything in one go, but he knew that was impossible.
Because this was the agreement they had made from the start.
That evening, Lin Xiaoran began learning ninjutsu from Madara, starting with theoretical knowledge such as how to extract and use chakra, then moving on to learning hand seals and casting ninjutsu. She delighted in the entire process without tiring.
Besides Fire Release, Madara also taught her other release techniques.
Lin Xiaoran really wanted to learn Wood Release, but unfortunately, its requirements were too high. Without Hashirama Senju's cells, practically no one could use it.
Just as Lin Xiaoran was about to finish her studies for the evening and get ready for bed, she suddenly turned to look in one direction.
"What is it?" Madara thought another fierce beast had approached.
"Tsk, tsk. There's actually another heroic spirit this powerful?"
Lin Xiaoran smiled, quite surprised.
Several thousand meters away, a tornado of sand and dust abruptly appeared in the darkness.
"Roar!"
A pained roar came from the air. A fierce beast had been swept into it, and countless tiny grains of sand now became sharp blades, slicing back and forth across its body and scattering a spray of crimson blood.
Before long, the fierce beast had been sliced to pieces by the sand.
As the fierce beast died, the sandstorm tornado gradually dissipated, revealing two figures standing in the desert.
"One B-rank fierce beast is only worth 100 points, and there are fewer than 100 B-rank fierce beasts in the entire game instance. In other words, killing them all would barely give me ten thousand points. That's still nowhere near fifty thousand."
Yimopu from Country A glanced at the kill notification and the points he had received, his brow deeply furrowed.
He was also very concerned about Lin Xiaoran's score, and even more curious about how she had earned so many points.
He had clearly been working hard too, yet he only had 910 points and was currently in second place.
Sophia was in third place, with a current score of 880 points.
So no matter how hard Yimopu thought about it, he could not make sense of it.