Ryu was indeed angry. He had placed a lot of hopes on Fujin. Though he hadn't taught him anything yet, he was preparing to guide Fujin in the future. Fujin was about to answer when he said, "Leave it. Heal yourself first. Then find me. Goro, look after him in the meantime."
Ryu calmed down as he noticed that though there were a lot of injuries on Fujin's body, none were life-threatening.
Goro replied, "Don't worry Dad. You can leave Fujin in this Lord's care!"
Ryu ignored his son's antics and left. Following him, the remaining Winged Sabertooths left as well.
Goro looked at Fujin and said, "But, this Lord doesn't know how to heal humans."
Fujin took out a bottle and said, "Yeah, I know."
He ate a soldier pill. The battle with Roshi drained his chakra a lot. Just when Fujin was about to retreat, Roshi unleashed his full strength. Summoning Goro had taken up most of his remaining chakra while the rest was poured into Assassin's Rush and Iron Skin jutsus. Had Goro not reversed summoned him in time, he was prepared to dispel his clone underground to get some more chakra.
Fujin withdrew a paper seal from his ninja bag and crushed the seal on it. He looked at Goro and said, "I'll need around half an hour to regenerate some chakra. Carry me to a glacial lake. It will help to soothe the wounds temporarily and aid in the healing process."
Goro replied, "Sure. Hop on."
Fujin jumped on his back. He flew out and carried Fujin to a glacial lake that was located lower on the mountain.
Land of Grass -
The Kusa ninjas and Fujin's subordinates were rushing away from Mizukoshi. Ryoichi looked at the Konoha Anbu and said, "We won't be able to accompany you to the Kagawa family's town. We will be heading straight to Kusagakure."
One of the Jounins with him said, "But shouldn't we inform his family about the losses first? Our families are there as well. We need to mee…"
Ryoichi cut him off and said, "No. This matter is huge. If you spread the news, chaos will spread throughout our country. We need to report to Kusagakure and form a proper plan first. This matter needs to be handled by the diplomats."
He looked towards Konoha Anbu and said, "I am grateful for your aid, but I hope that you won't spread the news of what happened in Mizukoshi either."
Yugao replied, "I'll pass the message to our captain. It will be his decision."
Ryoichi nodded. The Kusa ninjas split off from the group and moved in a different direction. The Anbu continued on their path before changing their directions as well. Though Fujin had asked them to meet in the Kagawa Family's town, it was just a code word for another small village they had come across while travelling.
However, they suddenly heard a loud sound behind them. They stopped and looked back and noticed a smoke cloud in the air. Bunjiro asked in surprise, "What was that?"
As they were already over 10 miles away from Mizukoshi, they didn't sense the fearsome chakra fluctuations of the Tailed Beast Bomb. Neither Yugao nor Fumito could provide any explanation.
Bunjiro asked, "Should we return to check if Captain is alright?"
Fumito shook his head and replied, "No, you are in Anbu. Following the instructions of the Captain takes priority."
Bunjiro nodded reluctantly. He was a bit worried for Fujin.
They continued their journey. A few minutes later, they felt a vibration in their pouches. They quickly stopped and took out a paper tag. It had a seal similar to the one which Fujin crushed. In a moment, all 3 of the paper tags began burning.
Bunjiro's eyes widened. He muttered, "This..?"
Fumito and Yugao also became serious. Bunjiro said, "When Captain handed us this tag, he said that if this seal burns, we have to retreat back to Konoha. What happened?"
Yugao replied, "The fight might have been very difficult. Or for some reason, he might not be able to meet us up at the rendezvous point. Let's leave quickly."
Bunjiro and Fumito nodded. They changed their direction once again and moved towards Konoha.
Roshi and Gin looked for Fujin for around half an hour but didn't find him for obvious reasons. They gave up and retreated from the Land of Grass after meeting up with the remaining Iwa ninjas who were hiding underground.
Since the outside was calm for half an hour, the ninjas in Mizukoshi finally dared to climb on the walls and observe the surroundings. The sight shocked them!
On the other side of the river, the land was levelled several times for over a kilometer! Not a single strand of grass could be seen! Instead, it was covered with solidified lava.
The river had changed as well. A wall of lava had solidified in its path, forming a temporary dam. It stopped the water flow, forcing excess water to move around the wall and through the banks to continue forward.
They gulped in fear at that sight. Ide Tomoki had a very ugly face. He could see the political implications of the day's events. He regretted asking Iwagakure to assassinate Kagawa Noriyuki.
Mount Muteki -
While all forces withdrew away from Mizukoshi, Fujin was resting in the glacial lake. He wondered, 'So, where did I mess up?'
He analyzed for a bit before concluding, 'My information wasn't right. I don't recall Roshi having such control over Son Goku in the series. And none of the intel about him in this world mentioned this.
But, Roshi has been the Jinchuriki since before the Second Great Ninja War. It's impossible that the village doesn't have this information. So the only possible answer is that for some reason, they have kept this information as top secret.'
A frown formed on Fujin's face. If he had known this information, then he wouldn't have fallen into such a risky situation. However, his expression became normal as he thought, 'Though the village has to be blamed, I am at fault as well. I was overly dependent on the intel I had and didn't even consider Roshi using Tailed Beast Bomb while maintaining his sanity as a possibility.
Even if the village had provided all details, what if my opponent gained new skills and abilities in secret? Though depending on intel gives a good advantage, I need to avoid over-dependence on it. Especially when it comes to Jinchuriki and S rank ninjas.'
As someone who gave the highest importance to his survival, Fujin immediately figured out his flaw and decided on what changes he should make to avoid falling into such desperate situations again. His mind immediately began thinking about the oddity.
He thought, 'But why isn't Roshi considered a perfect Jinchuriki? Wait, now that I think about it, though he controlled a lot of chakra, he didn't transform into Son Goku like how Bee could with Gyuki. Could it be that even without a Tailed Beast's approval, Roshi could harness his chakra to such an extent and use Tailed Beast Bomb?'
Fujin thought for a bit and concluded, 'Yes, that should be it. So though he isn't a perfect Jinchuriki, he isn't far from it. It's kinda like Naruto's first Kurama Chakra Mode, but instead of having just a little bit of Son Goku's chakra, he has access to at least half of it.
Now that I think about it, I recall Yugito transforming into Matatabi against Akatsuki. While Gaara was able to construct Shukaku's body during the Konoha Crush. I guess it is easier to harness the chakra from Tailed Beast with lesser tails. I should be careful if I run into Yugito or Han in the future. They might be able to use Tailed Beast Bombs as well.'
On concluding, his mind immediately began analyzing the fight, 'Ignoring the battle after he released that massive chakra, this fight was a bit weird. Roshi was much stronger than me. Be it in chakra, experience, defense or physical strength. But I had the advantage in speed and lethality, giving me the initiative for the majority of the fight.
But, no matter my advantage or initiative, I just couldn't injure him. Even the few injuries I caused began healing almost immediately due to the massive chakra. This sort of exposes a big flaw in my combat system. Or rather, the imbalance in it.
Right now I am heavily dependent on my combat speed and the speed and piercing power of Vacuum jutsus. These two factors make it impossible for anyone under Elite Jounin to last long against me.
But, Elite Jounins are able to dodge my Vacuum Attacks and stop or dodge my sword safely. It makes it impossible to win those fights if they don't get distracted. Another flaw is that this method of fighting is very exhaustive on chakra.
The main reason for this is that my other skills haven't managed to keep up with these two. Only sword skills and Taijutsu comes close. The other elements and Genjutsu are much weaker and can only be used in certain situations. Even Fuinjutsu can't be used effectively in battle yet.
However, I don't see any way of improving those skills in a short time. In fact, even improving Vacuum jutsus is becoming very difficult. I can only create more forms that won't increase my combat strength drastically. It's almost as if I have reached some sort of bottleneck... How do I break through?'
Involuntarily, Fujin's gaze moved towards the peak of Mount Muteki.
