Chapter 8

Border between Fire Country and Tea Country

Ryoma, Recently Promoted Ninja

Their unconscious allies were graciously allowed to rest on one of the noble carts- the luggage packed away in one of his basic storage seals to make room and everyone setting out bright and early the following day. Ryoma had deployed five Bolters instead, having the extra two latch onto various spots and hang inactive while he wasn’t using them. This would allow him to deploy replacements faster if he needed them, which he almost certainly would.

While camp was being broken, and before they had set out again, Ryoma had made the executive decision to make preparations for their potential enemies.

“We’re ready to head out now, Ryoma.” The voice of Kurenai called out to him from the side. Ryoma didn’t look up to greet her, gaze and attention fixed on his brushwork of the fifth seal-tag he had decided to make.

“Give me a moment.” He had been hoping to get six done, but five was good enough for most purposes. “Making preparations.”

“…Seals?” Kurenai asked with a slightly curious lit to her voice.

“Hm-mh.” He hummed affirmatively. “If those bandits show up again, I’m going to be needed to fight off the mouthy woman. That leaves you kids to deal with naked boom man, and none of you have a good answer for him as far as I can tell.”

“…I see, thank you, but what do the seals do?” The girl had a strange tone at that, before focusing her attention on the slips of paper in his hand. A bunch of black squiggles surrounding an empty center.

“I should probably explain this all at once.” He huffed, pushing up from his crouch, cracking his back loudly, and then calling out. “Konoha Ninja! Strategy Meeting!”

He ignored the glances sent over by the gathered servants, brushing the hair of their mistresses and applying cosmetics and whatever other stuff a noble woman needed in the morning. A few seconds later, both Raido and Asuma were in front of him, as was the giant fluffy form of Chairomaru. Ryoma made sure to hold up the seals for all of them to see, not handing them off yet.

“Subject?” Asuma asked quickly, eyes slightly stressed from a lack of good sleep, but still sharp.

“Naked boom man- I don’t think any of you have a good answer for fighting him, am I right?” Ryoma asked, his answer coming in a few disgruntled hums and shifts in posture. He raised a hand to rub the back of his neck. “Right, pop-quiz time. How do you make an explosive seal?”

“…You put a jutsu shiki on a strip of paper, right?” Asuma asked with furrowed brows, glancing at the slips in his hand.

Ryoma raised a finger and shook his back and forth. “You’re thinking of an explosive tag, those are more common and usually pretty standardized these days. I’m talking about explosive seals. Sealing, not Jutsu Shiki.”

“Sealing..? Then you…” Kurenai began with her own uncertain look, glancing over at her teammates before her eyes returned to his. “You’d seal an explosion in a tag, right?”

“How do you seal an explosion?” Raido asked with a slightly baffled expression. “You… have it near the explosion as it goes off?”

“Yes actually.” Ryoma nodded. “You make an empty explosive seal, prime it, then explode something nearby. The seal absorbs the explosion the moment after it begins, containing it until you want to release it later. The benefits are usually that you can put things like expanding poison gas inside and such.” He waved a little hand, kinda enjoying the moment of lecturing.

“So then those are-” Asuma began pointing at the tags in his hands.

Ryoma nodded. “Empty explosive seals, ready for you to use against naked boom man.” He handed them over to Kurenai, who took them and inspected them carefully. “When you’re ready to use them, handsigns are Rat, Bird, Snake Tiger. They’ll be primed and ready to suck in the next explosion that touches them- best used right next to the origin.”

“So slapped on his body.” Asuma replied with a sharper focus than before. “What about releasing the explosion afterwards?”

“Rat, like a normal explosive tag. They’ll also cook off if sufficiently damaged after being filled- like another explosion hitting them.” Ryoma nodded. “Only had time to make five of the things, but that’s probably all you’ll need for him. I’m fairly certain he’s not immune to explosions from other things- so one stuck to his back will probably kill him outright, if you can get it there. I’ll leave that part up to you.”

“…And you’re just giving these to us?” Raido asked with a slightly suspicious look.

Ryoma looked blankly at him, then at the seals, before raising a hand and rubbing the back of his neck. “…Yes? It’s just some explosive seals. It’s not exactly a hidden jutsu here.”

“I- it still feels kinda weird.” Raido averted his gaze, raising a hand to scratch his cheek. “We were at war a few weeks ago, so…”

Ryoma rolled his eyes and one hand dismissively. “Konoha has the Yellow Flash, Toad Sage, Red Hot Habanero- anything I make is going to be trash compared to the sealing-monsters you guys consistently produce. I’m handing you something that’s about as valuable as a kunai here, to my temporary allies defend the clients against a potential threat while I’m forced to deal with something else.”

He shrugged. “Hell- bomberman might not even be alive right now. I hit him with a paralytic and he jumped into a river. Entirely possible he drowned and these preparations are pointless. If you still feel iffy about it, you can just hand me the spare back after the mission is done, alright?”

“It’s more that it feels strange that you’re being helpful here-” Asuma began, raising his hands to cut Ryoma off before continuing. “I know it’s benefiting you too, but normally people still carry a few grudges after a war.”

“Ah.” Ryoma nodded. “I see your confusion.” He gave a little rueful huff and shrug. “Grudges don’t pay the bills, it’s really as simple as that.” He had around a decade of economic recession to look forward to, he really couldn’t afford to sweat the small stuff like getting revenge.

“As simple as that, huh?” Asuma muttered, reaching up to scratch his own head. “…Mind me asking how old you actually are?”

“Hm…” Ryoma considered. “Only if you don’t tell Mari- it’s a running gag at this point.”

“Hah! Promise.” Asuma crossed over his heart, as did the amused other genin and the dog.

“I’ll be sixteen next june.” Ryoma huffed amusedly, seeing the looks on their faces before gesturing over his shoulder. He was probably about their same age, and two promotion-stages higher. Unfairly too, because he really wasn’t Jonin material just quite yet- maybe in another year or something he’d be worth the new vest. “Anyways- Head out, it’s another week till we reach the capital.”

“”“Right.”””

And a bark.

—

Raido had called a missing arm a ‘career ending injury’ and while that clearly wasn’t actually true, it did indicate an overall attitude that meant Ryoma would be wise to refrain from carving out a new puppetarm for his maimed comrade while on the road. If they thought something as basic as a missing limb was career-ending, then they didn’t know puppetlimbs were a thing, and that was the kind of tactical advantage that the Kazekage would be very sour with him for revealing to Konoha.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

A missing limb being career ending was a really stupid thing to claim. Firstly you didn’t need all four limbs to fight effectively, you didn’t even need both hands to make handseals so long as you were sufficiently skilled. And if you lose a leg you just need to put a peg on if nothing less. That was ignoring all the potential jutsu that could be developed to just summon a replacement limb made out of… he didn’t know, sand or something. Clone techniques were fairly universal across the shinobi world, summoning just a cloned arm only one step further.

Sure, it would take chakra to maintain, but then you had a limb that could be used as a weapon without long term consequences. If it broke, who cared? It was already a summoned limb. There was probably a limitless number of potential tricks you could pull with a summoned limb like that.

That was also ignoring all the options to replace the arm in other ways, grafting someone else’s arm on was possible, as was injecting someone with regenerative cells and growing the arm back. There were probably another few methods to get an arm back that he wasn’t even considering at the moment.

And that was ignoring the fact that the kids had seen him puppet things around, the Bolters. Bolters have limbs. Did they think he was… He didn’t even know. It seemed like common sense that a limb could be replaced in this manner, there was basically nothing stopping it other than learning how to make chakra strings and operate puppet limbs.

But, the statement and tone indicated that the kid thought it was a much more serious injury than it actually was, so Ryoma was obligated to not dispel that belief so that Suna could maintain a potential tactical and strategic advantage moving forwards.