Chapter 43: The Fierce Second Pillar
The appearance of the favorability rating surprised Su Xiao. It was likely due to him saving Karin’s life. Just then, another notification appeared.
[Notification: The Hunter’s follower, Bubuteni, has activated the personal favorability of the plot character, Karin.]
[Notification: Due to Bubuteni’s high Charm attribute, which is 1.44 times that of the plot character Karin, the maximum favorability cap has increased by 30 points, with a new maximum cap of 130.]
[Current Favorability: 72 points (Bubuteni).]
...
Seeing the second notification, Su Xiao subconsciously looked at Bubu Wang. Bubu Wang was holding his head high, even using his dog paw to tidy the fur on his head. The visual impact was strong.
Su Xiao chose to ignore the second notification. He began to examine his personal favorability with Karin. From these favorability prompts, he gleaned several crucial pieces of information.
First, his favorability with Karin wasn’t about winning her heart or anything like that. The most important function of the favorability was to understand whether Karin would betray him.
From the data, Su Xiao’s personal favorability with Karin had a maximum of 80, meaning Karin wouldn’t be completely loyal to Su Xiao, especially since she was very afraid of him.
The good news was that because Karin was so afraid of Su Xiao, as long as her personal favorability was at or above 2 points, she wouldn’t betray him. That was good news.
Su Xiao had always had a thought: if his Charm attribute wasn’t enough, he’d just put a blade to the plot character’s throat. Now, it seemed he had succeeded.
A favorability cap of 80, with a lower limit of 2, said it all. Su Xiao had successfully held a ‘blade’ to Karin’s throat.
Su Xiao glanced at Karin, involuntarily recalling the last person whose favorability he had opened. That was a goblin named Nicholas Caesar.
Thinking of Caesar, Su Xiao’s mind immediately conjured an image of a face with yellowed teeth and a lecherous grin. It was a bit hard on the eyes.
Karin was clearly much easier on the eyes than Caesar, and she wouldn’t have the kind of favorability jumps that could give someone a heart attack like Caesar did.
When dealing with Caesar, 95 favorability points could drop to 0 with just a simple sentence. But Caesar’s favorability seemed to have no lower limit, much like his integrity.
Karin had a lower limit, which was 1 point. If her favorability reached 1 point, she would betray him.
“Let me be clear first. If you reveal any information about me to anyone, it won’t be as simple as just killing you.”
Karin immediately nodded.
[Notification: Karin’s favorability -2. Current favorability: 10 points.]
Receiving this notification, Su Xiao squinted his eyes and stared silently at Karin.
One minute, two minutes, five minutes.
[Notification: Karin’s favorability +12. Current favorability: 22.]
Karin was flustered by Su Xiao’s stare, becoming restless. The dissatisfaction she had felt earlier was now thrown to the winds.
Su Xiao didn’t care what Karin was thinking. He only needed to confirm one thing: that Karin wouldn’t betray him during his time in the Naruto world.
From the current situation, Karin might try to run away, but the possibility of betrayal was low. After all, she didn’t want to die.
Having dealt with the Karin issue, Su Xiao began to wait for news from Obito.
Obito had already sent White Zetsu to monitor Sasuke’s movements. If Sasuke had the upper hand against Konoha’s pursuers, then Su Xiao and Obito would enter the fray and eliminate Konoha’s pursuit team. If Sasuke wasn’t winning, they would act according to the situation.
If Sasuke was fighting ninjas, he was very likely to have the upper hand. Fighting contractors was different; contractors had a wide variety of abilities, and some might even have abilities that countered Sasuke.
...
Near the Stone Bridge.
Boom!
Dust flew everywhere. A massive purple phantom stood on the river water. On the nearby river surface, patches of blood diluted by the water could be seen.
A large mass of purple energy enveloped Sasuke. His Susanoo had already evolved to its third form. At this moment, the Susanoo held a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. Its head position looked like it was being devoured by a large mouth, pitch black inside, with only two eyes emitting a yellow light visible.
“This is the feeling of power.”
Sasuke controlled the Susanoo to swing its sword, causing a large surge of river water.
Opposite Sasuke was Naruto Uzumaki, who had already activated his Sage Mode. He stood on a giant summoned toad named Gamabunta, the same toad Jiraiya had once summoned that wielded a giant short sword.
On either side of Naruto were two smaller toads, the Toad Sages, Fukasaku and Shima.
“Papa, genjutsu is useless against him. The chakra inside him is too violent; he won’t be affected by illusions at all.”
Shima’s breathing was slightly rapid.
“Mm, I noticed.”
Fukasaku looked at the Sasuke ahead. He had been fighting him for an hour. Even Uchiha Madara in his prime couldn’t continuously use Susanoo for this long. And judging by the Susanoo’s appearance, it had clearly evolved to a very high level.
“Is it the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?”
A look of confusion appeared on Toad Fukasaku’s old face.
“The fluctuation doesn’t seem right. It’s more like an ordinary Mangekyo.”
“An ordinary Mangekyo wouldn’t be this strong.”
“Who knows.”
Hearing the discussion of the two Toad Sages, Naruto sighed inwardly. He hadn’t seen Sasuke in a long time. In Naruto’s heart, Sasuke was his best friend. But now, Sasuke seemed to have changed.
“Naruto, is this all you’ve got?”
Sasuke, inside the Susanoo, smiled at Naruto. It was a very villainous smile, one he had learned from Su Xiao, Deidara, Kisame, and others.
Just as Sasuke spoke, the Susanoo beside him suddenly swung the long sword in its hand.
Pfft!
Blood appeared out of nowhere. A figure staggered into view, one of its arms severed. It was an assassin-type contractor.
“Failed.”
The contractor with the severed arm was expressionless. He immediately leaped backward, moving closer to Naruto’s direction.
“Amaterasu!”
Sasuke’s Mangekyo Sharingan eyes widened. Black flames erupted on the armless contractor’s body.
The armless contractor almost instantly tore off his upper garment. Even though it was a Light Gold quality piece of equipment, his life was more important than the gear.
A wisp of black flame landed on the armless contractor’s pant leg. Just as he was about to tear off the pant leg, Sasuke activated his ocular power again.
“Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi.”
Sasuke’s Mangekyo had two abilities: one was Amaterasu, and the other was Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi.
Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi was the ability to control the shape of Amaterasu. Across the ninja world, Sasuke was definitely the most skilled ninja at controlling Amaterasu, even surpassing Itachi in this regard.
Blazing black flames enveloped the contractor. This time, he couldn’t maintain his previous calm. He began to scream in agony, struggling as he sank into the water. The reason he could walk on water was due to his shoes.
A few seconds later, the armless contractor was burned alive in the water. It sounded absurd, but that was the reality.
“These annoying guys.”
Sasuke took a few deep breaths, clutching his lower abdomen with one hand. A gunshot wound could be seen there. He had been a bit careless at the beginning and hadn’t activated his Susanoo, which was how the contractor had managed to wound him.
In the nearby forest, over thirty contractors were hiding behind trees or in the grass.
“This Second Pillar is way too fierce. I almost got killed by him just now.”
“Something’s off. According to the original story, before Sasuke transplanted Itachi’s eyes, he couldn’t maintain the third-stage Susanoo for long. Now he’s been using it for over an hour.”
“Maybe that’s just the protagonist for you. He had a power burst.”
“Burst my ass. This is definitely not normal. Someone must be pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
“Let’s wait and see if Naruto can pop out some tails. If he does, there might still be a chance.”