Hundred and Summon
I do not own Naruto or The Gamer
Last time on Cloud Gamer
I threw the punch forward, chakra enhancing my muscles, system enhancing my strength, desperation forcing it to hit. It landed. His hand broke on contact and my fist rocketed towards his head, a sickening crunch ran out through the forest as my knuckles cracked through his jaw, then cheekbones, then he was launched. My battle was won.
~~~~~~~~~Chapter Start （っ＾▿＾）~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Manzo sailed across the air, slamming into the ground roughly and skidding a couple more meters before stopping. I fell back on my ass and looked up at the skills I could pick from, among other things.
"New raid unlocked! 'Gecko Manzo'"
"You have defeated an opponent much stronger than you! 1x 10 skill voucher obtained"
"You have killed an opponent, passive skill 'copycat' allows you to choose from these jutsu used.
Water style: Flowing guardian pillars
Water style: Flowing hydra
Genjutsu: Mirage
Water style: Water trumpet
Water style: Snake's mouth
Water style: Water whip
Summoning jutsu"
I was going to learn summoning later on, so I crossed that off of my mental list, the trumpet move seemed very basic and did little damage to me so that was also crossed off. Mirage was close to my false surroundings, so I didn't need it, that left snake's mouth, guardian pillars and hydra. As cool as it was, hydra used too much chakra and control to maintain, snake's mouth followed a similar principle but seemed to not do much damage to Sho. I clicked on 'Water style: Flowing guardian pillars' and gained the skill, sadly it didn't come with any extra predecessor skills like I would've liked but this jutsu was still strong.
"Water style: Flowing guardian pillars
Summon x number of pillars and use chakra to manipulate and regrow them from surrounding water
100 chakra per pillar summoned
200 chakra per minute to maintain
Hand seals: 27
Hare, Ox, Bird, Boar, Dog, Dragon, Rat, Hare, Ox, Serpent, Monkey, Horse, Boar, Dog, Dragon, Tiger, Bird, Ram, Ox, Boar, Bird, Serpent, Horse, Monkey, Dragon, Tiger, Horse"
Sho walked over to my position, clutching a bloodied left arm. The girl also left her hiding place and met us unscathed.
"Damn kid, remind me to never get on your bad side." Sho remarked while ruffling my hair.
"Yeah! That was super crazy, you punched him over 10 meters!"
"Mhm, my whole-body hurts like hell though. What's your name anyway girl?"
"I am Asuka, 3rd daughter of the daimyo in the land of hot water, and the one who will succeed his position." She half yelled while standing in a very wide posture and crossing her arms.
She had black beady eyes and dark hair that went down to her neck, she wore a long, pink drop waist dress with flowers blossoming for design.
"Alright Asuka, you said earlier we could protect you for a reward, yes? We'll take the job, so where are we going?"
Sho used a medical technique to try and heal my arm while I talked with Asuka, the deal was we would deliver her to the capital and in exchange receive hunter licenses and we would stay there on the daimyo's tab for a few days.
It was around 3pm so we decided to move quickly and cover some ground before nightfall. The trip would only be about a day at our pace, but because of Asuka refuses to be carried in any way we had to slow down to civilian pace so the trip would be almost 4 days of walking.
We stopped at 5pm because the moon was coming out and her feet were hurting. Setting up camp was easy; I just made a pit, and we got a fire started, cooking the canned goods I grabbed from Sho's house. That food tasted a lot worse than the stuff we got from hunting, but we couldn't leave Asuka unattended, and she refused to only have 1 person guarding her.
She was proving to be such a chore I contemplated murder before going to sleep on the ground, because Sho went to bed early to save himself from giving up his bag.
'Ugh fuck this, I need something to do' I groaned while getting off the muddy floor. I grabbed out all of my vouchers and started to deposit them in, I used 4 level 1 skill vouchers to push my dojutsu to level 95, gaining a main level in the process. I put all the points into vitality and used 5 more level 1 vouchers on ketsuryugan, pushing it to 100 and my main level to 100.
"CONGRADULATIONS ON REACHING LEVEL 100"
"Your inventory has been expanded to hold 36 more unique items!"
"Please choose an option to expand your skill tree
Split genetics: Spend a large number of skill points to gain new blood limits.
Jack of all: Spend a large number of skill points to unlock special abilities, traits and skills."
"New function added 'Dungeons'
Use keys gained from monthly lotteries and raids to unlock dungeons to access at any time. Holographic enemies will spawn in waves, and you will have to clear them all to earn great rewards!"
"Ketsuryugan has reached level 100! Please choose an evolution for this skill
Ketsuryugan Mastery: Each level will further lower the chakra cost to keep your dojutsu active
Ketsuryugan Purification: Explanation given after the completion of promotion quest"
I knew the new blood limits would be useful, incredibly so, but everyone with me has already seen my dojutsu before so it would bring up a lot of questions if I started to throw out blood limit jutsu like ice release and crystal release. The other option gave me almost no information through so it could be not worth it.
My dojutsu path was another story, it was obvious which one I would pick, the purification almost had a 100% chance of being better than mastery, I already had enough chakra regeneration from my passives to offset most of the cost and purification sounded way more interesting.
I picked my evolution and the skill 'ketsuryugan' was blacked out with its level saying 'MAX'. I could still activate them, so it probably meant I couldn't improve the drain anymore with the level I was at, and the path I chose.
"New Special quest alert 'Clear Blood'
Objective 1: Complete the special dungeon 'Blood River'
Objective 2: Gain another pair of ketsuryugan
Objective 3: Complete the purification ritual inside of the key location 'Blood Spark Shrine'
Rewards: Ketsuryugan evolution 'Ketsuhogan'"
'This is definitely going into the long-term goals section, right next to 'tailed beast boy'' I mused and closed the window. After a bit more thinking, I picked the 'jack of all' expansion, I wanted to see more from the system.
"New expansion unlocked! See skill tree for more information"
Opening my skill tree, the original cardinal shaped tree, with chakra going north then west, physical going west, world going south and spiritual going east. It was a hexagon shape now, with 2 new trees unlocked. The 'karma' tree and the 'system' tree.
The karma tree had titles and skills that could be unlocked with 'karma tokens' a form of currency gained from doing any sort of job whether it be considered good or evil in the eyes of society.
The system tree had extra stuff I could unlock using skill points like more inventory space, a summarised skill list, and other QOL changes I could want. There was even a fucking notepad upgrade where I could set reminders.
There was one last thing I needed to do but I would complete it once we leave the capital. I stowed away the vouchers I didn't use and let out a small yawn while heading back to the site, seemed like combat took a bit more out of me than I thought. I laid down on the ground next to my stolen sleeping bag and drifted off into sleep, dreaming of my journey still to come.
I woke up slowly, hearing a giggling noise behind me. My soul was being squeezed out of me, quite uncomfortable if you would guess. I struggled to wipe the sleep from my eyes, trying to pry my arm from the vice grip on my body.
On my other side was Sho giggling into his palm like a schoolgirl that just heard some juicy gossip, I looked at what was holding onto me. There lay Asuka, drooling all over my shirt and holding onto my torso like her life depended on it.
Sho's giggling turned into full on laughter when he realized I woke up, I used a substitution jutsu to replace myself with a stick from nearby and brushed the mud off of my clothes, much of it still sticking on much to my chagrin.
"Laugh it up old man, she's like 15 and I'm 7"
"Heh, pulling the girls at such a young age, I'm so proud."
Asuka started to stir while we busted open a couple of food cans for breakfast, totally ignoring the branch in her hand in favour of complaining about how uncomfortable the ground was.
"If you have such a problem Asuka, we could just leave you here and get someone from the capital to try and find you." I said while shovelling the last of my food into my mouth.
"No! It's fine, Sho, do you mind carrying me today?"
"You sure you don't want your little teddy bear to?"
"Can it old man."
"Teddy bear?"
"Yeah, you should have seen how clo- "
His teasing was interrupted when I threw my empty can against his head, bouncing off of it with a metallic clang. While they were both distracted, I threw my now empty sleeping bag inside of my inventory and put out the fire.
"Old man, Asuka, we should get moving quickly, I don't want to be sleeping in mud again."
"Mud? A princesses' embra- "
I threw another, this time unopened, can at his head. He quickly stopped talking and replaced it with giggles. We packed the rest of our stuff and with Asuka in a princess carry from Sho, we left the campsite and headed towards the capital.
The trip was rather uneventful, we would reach the capital just after night with our pace, the only things that had happened so far was a couple of bandits that only took one good kick to deal with and Sho almost tripping off of his tree when Asuka didn't like her position and pinched his chest.
"GAH! CAN'T SOMETHING FUN HAPPEN" I yelled out while we hopped through the trees, the capital still wasn't in sight, and I wanted to complete my task as soon as possible.
"Calm down, and at least you're not in my position, carrying a bitchy princess that has a problem every 10 minutes" Sho retorted, earning him a slap from Asuka.
"I am not bitchy!"
"Are so."
"Am not!"
"I also agree, you are bitchy"
"Fuck you, Shin!"
"Onto a different topic, Shin, during the fight yesterday you pulled some sort of coloured paper out of nowhere. What were those?"
"Its magic, like street magicians do. The coloured paper was to distract him while I thought of a plan, it has no special properties."
"Then why did they burn up?"
"To confuse him."
It was really easy to just use the 'magic' excuse since people were familiar with magicians and the magic they do. Even if mine was a bit different no one would bat an eye.
"Next topic, Shin, we need to go to the hospital when we get there, you haven't healed fully yet and I don't want to risk another fight when you aren't recovered."
"Yeah, I know. I have something to do in the capital anyway and when we get our hunter license, we can go collect some bounties or something."
"Already decided on bounty hunter? I thought you would be more for treasure or artifact hunting."
"I'll do that on the side, no one said I need to specialise"
"True"
"There is a certain 'artifact' I want though, it's at the land of waterfalls though so we will need to make a trip within the year."
"Within the year… Its only April right now so that means we have around 7 months."
"Yeah, I also need a seal master or to become one, the 'artifact' is a little bit restless I assume."
"Wait don't tell me… I heard it was around there but that can't be what you want. Whatever, it doesn't matter what it is, I'll help you do it."
"Heh, thanks da- "
I stopped myself from finishing that sentence, I didn't realise how close I had become with this man next to me. We had only known each other for 3 days and yet I was as attached as I was to Yugito back in kumo, it may have described that bubbly feeling I felt when we first met.
"What were you about to say?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, I know it was something, spit it out"
His tone turned to a more teasing one while Asuka was staring between us. I looked away to cover my blush, how the hell could I consider someone like this a father. It was kind of fun though.
"It was nothing old man, maybe you have dementia cause you're a fossil."
"Hey! I'm not old you little shit! I haven't even reached my thirties and you brats are already calling me an old relic. Che, no respect these days."
"That's something an old man would say." Asuka chirped, earning a mock glare from Sho, we continued hopping through the trees. A reflection of light alerted me and after a quick duck I dodged the ninja wire that would have bisected me.
Sho, who was a little behind me neatly hopped over the wire and landed next to me, tightening his grip on Asuka and eyes darting around.
"Excellent work mister Chinoike" A man wearing a red fedora and suit said while clapping slowly, I tensed at the nickname and looked towards his position, just over 20m away from us on another branch.
"Who are you?" I asked, names probably didn't matter but if this guy had any affiliation with Manzo I was probably fucked, even though my health was full, my arm hadn't healed fully and was still setting.
"I'm here to evaluate you, Shin. My name doesn't really matter I assure you, just survive for 3 minutes alone and I shall leave."
"New quest formed! 'Wild goose chase'
Objective 1: Survive for 3 minutes against your chaser alone
Rewards: 1000 ryo, invitation to ****
Failure rewards: Death"
The quest was auto accepted, and I dodged to my right quickly, evading a slip of paper that came my way. Soon the suited man followed and threw a kunai that had another piece of paper attached to it, I deflected the kunai but was blown backwards by the explosion.
The piece of paper lay next to me, it lit up and I rolled off of the branch, freefalling to the ground in order to evade the explosion that grazed my back. I looked over at Sho, who was stuck inside of some purple barrier being held up by 4 clones.
I landed on the grass and dodged another seal that flew past me, looking around, all of the trees that surrounded me held seals. In the corner of my vision, I saw the suited man flip a hand sign and all of the tags started to glow, I activated my dojutsu and channelled a great amount of chakra into my legs, bursting up into the air and avoiding the cluster bomb below me.
"2 minutes left!"
The man was flashing around my vision, placing tags on trees, branches, the ground, anywhere. A solid fist hit my gut, causing me to keel over in pain and giving him enough time to activate the seals.
"Sealing art: 36-point lightshow!"
All 36 of the seals started to glow in different colours, crisscrossing and intersecting each other to create an array of combinations. A clone attacked me with taijutsu and I was kicked into a beam of light, singing my skin and flinging me onto another branch where I regained balance.
I blocked a follow up kick and grabbed the clone by its ankle, throwing it away to buy time. It hit hard but was clearly holding back enough to not break anything.
The real enemy pulled out a scroll and opened it towards me, smiling devilishly. "Seal: Release!"
A huge amount of water flew out of the scroll, covering the entire forest floor under me, he then started a sequence of hand seals that I couldn't interrupt with the lasers blocking my path.
"Water style: Great water prison!"
The water on the forest floor raised up and created a solid dome of water surrounding me and the seal locations, the lightshow began to reflect everywhere around me, boiling the water in the dome at the same time.
My skin started to turn a bright red as the water heated up around me, I had around a minute left to survive before I won. I was losing breath quickly, but I could still use jutsu. It seemed the only part that had the user's chakra was the outside shell to hold it.
With my current level of oxygen, I could probably last another 20 seconds, not enough to win. I needed a plan and fast, that's when it hit me, he had just given me the perfect opportunity to use my new jutsu.
'Water style: Flowing guardian pillars!'
The water around my body began to collect, becoming a strong current. I pointed forward and the current slammed into the thin barrier of chakra surrounding my cage.
The dome exploded, drenching all of the trees, me and my opponent in water. 'Time for offense' I thought while smirking, water style: flowing guardian pillars was able to be recreated from the water in your surroundings.
I went through the hand seals gain and created 2 pillars next to me, one was launched at my opponent to grab onto him, being dodged easily. I called back the pillar to put up a guard from both sides against several explosive tags that were thrown at me.
Another clone landed a flying kick on my torso in between my pillars, launching me backwards and through 6 more lasers, singing my legs, arms and my neck. I was about to be kicked again by the same clone before a buzzer rang out through the forest.
"Awww, times up kid you survive. Here's your reward" he said while pouting next to me, I didn't even realise he had teleported before he was gone again. A letter was in my hands, the envelope was a bit stained but overall, in fine condition, there was a black seal with a picture of the moon over the horizon. Sho and Asuka quickly jumped through the trees, meeting up with me quickly.
"You alright Shin?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, he just handed me the letter and left."
"Good, couldn't have you getting hurt again. Your old injuries haven't even healed yet."
"Its not like he was trying to kill me, just a couple of burns was all, and this letter."
"What's in it?"
"I don't know, I haven't opened it as you can see."
Sho hummed in annoyance and jumped away, back to our path.
"We should get going quickly, look at that when we get there."
"Yeah sure"
We hopped through the trees, eventually dropping onto the main road and sprinting past several merchant carts that were heading towards the city. Several guards were posted outside the gate, but they let us in without batting an eye.
"Aren't they supposed to stop us?" I asked, wondering if they had not seen us or just ignored our group.
"No, we have sensors stationed at the gate that record the family's chakra signatures." Asuka replied, leading us through the city.
The city's architecture reminded me closely of Kyoto from my previous life, the grey stone pavement, the black tiled roofs and the wooden stalls that surrounded the road.
Our walk ended at a large manor, several guards stationed around the area surrounded us, weapons pointed at our chests. Asuka put up her hand and they pulled back their weapons.
"They are my guests. Please treat them with respect." She commanded, exuding an air that demanded respect.
"Yes princess!" They all chanted, performing low bows as they said.
We walked forward, with Asuka leading the group. The large wooden gates in front of us parted, revealing the lush garden held within. The sands had designs with different colours and the flowers glowed in the afternoon sun, lights plotted around only enhanced that feeling.
I was brought away from my staring by Asuka, who was clicking her fingers in front of my face. Sho was laughing behind me while she continued through the manor.
We stopped in front of two large paper doors, a silhouette could be seen inside and scribbling of some kind was heard. A soft call of "father" stopped these noises, the ruffling of paper and feet stomping replacing them.
"Ah Asuka, I didn't expect you back for another 3 days. Who are these 2 gentlemen you have brought?" He asked, a blank look covered his face but, in his eyes, you could see his calculating brain at work.
"I wouldn't have been here at all if it wasn't for these two, if we can come inside, I shall explain."
"Of course, Oribi! Fetch us some tea!" He yelled out, a soft reply of yes was heard from another hall.
"By the way Asuka, you can speak informally around me. I'm your father first and leader second."
"Sure, anyways, after my trip to Agazaki, my trip was interrupted by an ambush of bandits and shinobi. Sadly, none of my guard survived so I will be spending my night writing letters. That's where these two come in, the younger one is Shin and the older one is Sho. In exchange for a hunter's license, they agreed to protect me until we reach the city, I can guarantee their skills considering they defeated the C – rank ninja 'Gecko' Manzo."
"Firstly, thank you two for protecting my daughter, you can stay here during your visit to the capital as thanks. It will take a couple of days to get those new licenses anyways. Second, please don't cause any trouble here in the city, I have enough on my hands trying to sort out terms of peace with other villages already."
Sho bowed deeply, "it was no problem daimyo-sama. Thank you for your hospitality."
"None of that please, you are guests here, not dignitaries, please treat me as an equal during your stay."
I nodded my head as a sign of gratitude, the tea came in at this time while we were silent. Asuka talked about her trip to one of the smaller villages and the conditions of living, very business style talk that made me tense a bit.
The daimyo's maid brought us to two different guest rooms after tea. They were simple rooms with tatami floors and a futon laid out, not quite what I'd expect from a daimyo but still cozy.
I left my room and entered Sho's, he was sitting on the floor in a meditative position.
"Yo Sho, I'm going to be away for a little while. Doing some stuff with animals."
"Alright, come back if you need help. I might go restock some supplies and weapons, anything you need?"
"Yeah, can you grab me some kunai, shuriken and a katana? I got some cash."
"Good, it'll be about 30k what you asked for so just drop it there and I'll pick it up."
I grabbed 50k out of my inventory and put it on the ground, just in case anything extra is needed. I head back into my room and brough out the blank summoning scroll and guide, I slowly went through the hand seals and poured half of my chakra into the jutsu.
Black seals exploded from my hand and reached the page edges, filling up the entire scroll with kanji and symbols. The world flashed white, and with a poof of smoke I was gone from the daimyo's building.
"-y, hey! hey!"
I blinked a couple of times to get used to the new light. I was laying on some sort of purple stone, the sky was dark and there were a group of animals surrounding me.
"Ah! He's awake, or is it she? Maybe it?"
"You idiot Komozu! Obviously, it's a she, look at that long hair!"
"You're both idiots! It's a he!"
"Shut it Komobi!"
The 3 figures standing straight over me looked down, their ears were tall and their faces small, with fangs protruding from the mouth. Long wings were attached to the forearms and connected to the back, they had black and brown fur around their necks. They each easily stood over 3m in height, towering over me while I got my bearings, it was very dark around here, how could they even see?
"He's getting up!" One of them shouted while pointing at me.
"Um hello, where am I and what clan is this?" I asked, looking around at the humanoid figures around me.
"Sup human! This is Noriki cave, home of the Koumori clan! We haven't had one of you around for a few hundred years, so, welcome!" One of them chirped in an excited voice.
"Koumori? So, bats?"
"Yes!"
"Great, any chance I can become a summoner of this clan?"
One of them slammed their hand into the one I was communicating withs mouth. "We will have to speak to our leader, please follow us. Can you manoeuvre in the dark?"
"No, can one of you please guide me?" I responded, hopefully I would learn a technique to see in the dark if I trained under these guys.
"Sure!" They reached out and took my hand, it was leathery and sharp, clearly just a single finger or something like that.
I tripped a couple of times on the rocks below me, we were travelling over some sort of gravel and descending into a tunnel. I heard a few gasps as we went down, and a few pairs of golden eyes watching my movements.
We stopped at some point, and I was moved in front of my guides. A torch was lit so I could finally see my helpers, they were bat humanoids, looked like humans and had hair like humans but their facial structure, ears and fangs definitely betrayed that vision.
They kneeled beside me, and I sat in seiza position in front of a large bat. It was handing upside down in rest, jet black wings guarding its body. The wings slowly opened, and I could see the dark grey fur of their leader, huge ears almost reaching the ground in front of us, onyx eyes staring straight through me.
"You…a child? It has been a long time since we had an aspiring summoner. How did you find this place?"
"I used the summoning jutsu and was teleported here."
"I see…Please complete a small trial before I allow you to become a summoner for my clan. Nothing tough at all, just a basic aptitude test."
"Sure, uh?"
"Komoru"
"Sure, Komoru. When do I do the test?"
"We shall begin now."
A claw picked up the back of my shirt, flying straight through a large hole in the roof and far above the ground. At around 2,000 meters I was dropped, I could barely see anything, the only thing telling me which way was up was the moon's glow.
I tumbled through the air, flipping around uncontrollably. "Oh shit, Oh shit Oh SHIT!" I screamed out, my voice echoing through the forest. I heard a snickering and looked around, a bat was flying down right beside me, big grin splitting its face as we approached the ground.
100m, 50, 30, then I was caught. The bat behind me laughing its ass off as we flew back through the hole, the others having the same look on their faces.
"Ah welcome back, did you have fun?"
"Hell, no I didn't have fun!"
"Bahaha! Here you go." The leader threw a scroll to me from its wing. "I needed to go grab that so you could sign, there wasn't really a test."
"I'm getting the feeling I was just duped."
"Bahaha! Sign that with your blood and we shall support you to the best of our ability summoner."
"Please, call me Shin." I pricked my thumb with a kunai and started to write out my name on the scroll, it glowed a bright white and a black gas flowed from within my chest and onto the page, visibly startling the bat boss.
"What the?" I said, confused by his reaction and the mark that was left by my thumb. Next to my name was a black seal of the moon, peering over the horizon.
"It is a pleasure to have you as our summoner, master Shin." The bat boss bowed his head deeply after dropping from the ceiling.
"Just Shin is fine, do you know what this seal is?"
"Yes, a little, you mean you don't know?"
"I have no idea frankly."
"It is the mark of one blessed by the god Luminos. Lord of the moon. He is not known much outside of the old clans like us, and his chosen apostles. He is also a very important figure for our clan specifically, so it is our honour to aid someone who has received his blessing."
"I see. Alright, thank you so much for your help today. I'll be sure to call on you all whenever I need to, I hope we can build a good relationship."
"The feeling is mutual Shin, please allow us to help you with anything."
"Well first, can you reverse summon me back to where I was? Kind of need to get back to my journey."
"Of course, Shin, one last thing before I send you off. Do you know how to summon yourself here?"
"No, I don't, but can we save learning for next time?"
"Alright, good luck Shin."
"Bye bye Shin!" The bat behind me yelled.
A poof of smoke and I was sent back to my room. It was far less time than I was expecting, only about an hour so I left my room to let Sho know I was back.
"Sho? I'm back."
"Alright, they said dinner was in about half an hour from now. Go wash up before then."
"Ok, did you grab the weapons I asked for?"
"Yeah, I did, they're in here for after dinner."
"Alright thanks."
I found the bathroom and went inside, cleaning off all of the dirt from the past few days. I washed my hair, thinking of how long it had gotten, no haircut in 6 years does that. My crimson hair was reaching down to my shoulders while wet, but I didn't want to cut it, long hair was nice to have.
Sho came in after a little while and we sat in the pool sized bath together, steam blocking our view.
"So, Shin, where did you end up going?"
"I think you will see soon."
"Ooh how mysterious, come on tell me, pretty please?" His tone turned to a whinier one while laughing.
"I'll think about it, maybe. Anyway, did the daimyo say anything about our licenses?"
"Yeah, since it was a favour for the daimyo, they should be good to go tomorrow. We can go pick them up in the morning along with a complementary bingo book and guide to treasures."
"Wow how nice of them. Do you think we should stay in the land of hot water or move to another country before we start work?"
"We should probably do a few over here, and Shin, are you serious about trying to seal the seven tails?"
"Completely, and I plan on using myself."
"The power of human sacrifice, jinchurikii right?"
"Yeah, but this isn't a sacrifice. I want a new friend, and what better than to have one inside of me all of the time?"
"That does not sound good in any other context. We will need to get a proper seal setup then, are you able to use fuinjutsu?"
"No, but I will learn, and fast."
"Heh, that'll be nice. Having some overpowered kid running around with me."
"I'm sure it will. Haven't we been in here a while?"
"Yes, but who cares?"
"The people waiting for us."
"Oh shit."
We both scrambled out of the water and got changed into some newer clothes, Sho led me through the elaborate estate until we entered the dining room, where Asuka and the daimyo were already eating.
"A little late, aren't we?" he called out while setting his chopsticks aside.
"Sorry sir, the old man here hasn't gotten to punctuality in our lessons yet." I replied smoothly, throwing Sho under the bus without a second thought.
"Since when was I your teacher?!" He yelled down at me while stretching my ear.
The daimyo chuckled at our antics and gestured towards two open seats, with plates placed at both spots. We quickly sat down, me being opposite Asuka and on the right of the daimyo and Sho on my right.
The meal was amazing, so much variety between each dish. I guess that was to be expected from royal meals though. After filling our stomachs, we headed back to the rooms, Sho chucked me my weapons and I stored them in my inventory.
20 kunai, 20 shuriken, a katana, a bottle of 4 soldier pills, blood pills and a first aid kit. Those were the main supplies not adding in the food he bought and held inside of his bag.
The next day
We left early in the morning as not to impose, heading towards the hunter office at the edge of the city. It was a building made of cream coloured stone and grey supporting pillars, there was a set of stairs leading up to the double glass door and a sign reading the building's name.
We pushed open the door and were greeted by a very groggy looking man that had 4 empty cups of coffee sitting next to his computer. He had large bags under his eyes and messy brown hair, his beard was unkept and the collar of his shirt was messed up.
"Mornin' are you the two the daimyo put in word for?" He asked, barely looking up from the screen in front of him.
"Yes, that would be us, Sho and Shin." Sho answered, tapping his fingers on the countertop.
"Alright, I'll print out the licenses after you fill in these forms. Add your names, at least 3 abilities of your choice to disclose and affiliations. Before you ask, you must present at least 3 abilities there are no exceptions. This is to assign a general rank and also for any hunters to have at least a semblance of information on their target."
We jotted down the required information, Sho added his medical ninjutsu, his fighting style and a single ninjutsu while I added my fighting style and a couple of ow ranking ninjutsu.
"Ok, you're all good to go, welcome to the great profession of being a hunter, please report to any hunter or bounty office or your customer for rewards. You are currently at the rank of bronze 1, you can increase this through completing jobs and stuff. You can collect requests at hunter offices like this in all main cities and villages, also placed around the map with the mark of an orange star and a 'H' in the middle." His monotone voice almost put me to sleep, but we received our bingo books and guides to treasure.
There was a board on the wall with all sorts of jobs and requests like assassinations, collections and advertisements for information brokers. I ignored them and left the building, Sho following close behind me as I walked down the stairs.
"Didn't you want to pick up a job?" He asked.
"No, I think we should stick to the bingo book right now. Since the war is still going on there should be quite a few defectors labelled in here."
"Smart, but what if there aren't any?"
"Then I'll pick a job."
"Your straightforwardness scares me."
"Shut it old man, look at this anyway."
I showed him the page I was currently flicked to, containing the currently d ranked shinobi, only worth around 50k ryo a piece. I flicked through a couple more pages and stopped on one profile.
D – RANK
Dal Shinzu
Age: 19
Affiliation: None (Previously Iwa)
Notable abilities: Earth release: hiding like a mole, earth release: rock fist, earth release stone bullet.
Bounty: 30k (Iwagakure)
Wanted dead or alive
Crimes
Desertion
Recent location
Land of Hot Water: Agazaki village
"So, this is our first target? Agazaki is where Asuka just came back from so we should be able to get there in about a day with our speed." Sho said, looking over my shoulder at our target. He was quite young, as his profile stated and had dark red eyes with black hair.
"Yeah, he is, we should head out fast and get there by today evening."
"Sounds good to me, I'm kind of excited you know?"
"Yeah, I get it, its like trying a new sport or game out."
"That's the exact feeling I was thinking about!"
We sped from the building and left the city, the guards at the gate were dozing off. It was only about 5:00 am so still quite early while we started the trek. I brought out the map and saw we were needed northwest of the current location, close to the border of the land of tea, and west of there was the land of waterfalls.
14 hours later
It was nearing 7pm when we arrived at the village. We had only taken 2 breaks in the last 12 hours and were starting to get tired, so we planned on getting an inn before looking for our target, even if he was just a high level genin.
The town was very quiet, even when it was only 7pm. The ground below us was just dirt and the streetlights around us gave off an orange-yellow glow while we walked through the streets, looking for an inn.
Slowly, the light of the street started to become more crimson. Blood was splattered over the lights, wooden houses were littered with bodies, paper doors soaked with the crimson liquid.
I tripped over and Sho grabbed the back of my shirt, below my eyes was a family of 4, all with blank eyes. The parents were cradled over their children but that didn't save them, this wasn't the work of some genin.
Sho put his hands over my eyes and moved forward, his hands were a bit sweaty, surely from the carnage he was guarding me from. Even if I was a shinobi in everyone else's eyes to him I was still a kid.
We stopped in our tracks in front of a house, and he uncovered my eyes, it was distinctly pristine compared to the other houses in the area. Until we got to one room. Just from the outside a putrid smell filled the air, a man's breathing could be heard inside just barely while we stood at the door.
Sho put his finger up to his mouth to make me stay silent, I obliged and stayed behind. On the wall next to the door and he slammed it open. The breathing stopped and I moved in after Sho.
The room was incredibly dark, and the door slammed closed behind me. Flames lit up around the room and sitting in the middle was the body of one Dal Shinzu, shirtless with a pattern cut into his skin.
The tatami mats on the floor started to be set on fire but the door wouldn't budge behind me. I brought out 2 kunai and attempted to slash the door to bits, only for my blades to ping off of a barrier.
I looked behind me and Sho was standing over the body, inspecting it from the side. I walked behind his back and saw the pattern on our target's chest, a moon slowly appearing over the horizon.
The symbol started to glow brightly, and a blue liquid flowed from within Shinzu's body. His body started to wither, becoming grey and husky. Dal's body flashed into an upward position, eyes glowing a dark maroon colour while he stood in front of us.
"You…Am I dead? You feel familiar. Mum? Dad? I'm scared. Please help"
He spoke in a language that Sho didn't understand, but I did, all too well. English. His voice was deep and sounded echoey, like he was in a cave. Sho was kicked backwards, rolling across the ground and nearing the fire that surrounded us.
The blue fluid that coated the ground collected together, forming a small bright blue stone in front of Dal's torso. Ignoring the stone, he kicked me in the chest, and I rolled back towards Sho, he kneeled behind me, slowing down my roll while we watched forward.
Dal grabbed the stone, but it fazed through his hands, he cocked his head to the side but ignored it after that. His strength was far greater than a high level genin, he almost hit as hard as Manzo's summon, my health could attest.
"New quest! Luminos Ritual part 1
Objective 1: Defeat the shade
Rewards: 10 skill voucher, 10,000 ryo"
'What the fuck?' I thought. Sho stood up and picked me up to place at his side. I brandished my new katana and started our combat with an overhead slash.
Dal took the slash head on and didn't even register the damage before trying to grab my throat. I bent backwards to dodge the hand and cleaved it off at the wrist, this battle was looking to be much easier than expected.
Sho pulled me back out of the way and landed a solid crescent kick to Dal's head, slamming it into the ground with a slam. The fire was building up around us, so we had to move fast, I grabbed Sho and threw a thunder spear through the roof and jumped out.
A barrier stopped my path, and I slammed back down to the ground, Sho falling next to me. A groaning turned our attention to the now up and running Dal, who stomped where my head was before I rolled to avoid it.
"How the fuck can we kill this thing?" Sho yelled. We were now across the room from each other on opposite sides of Dal.
"No idea! Let's just obliterate it and see what happens!" I yelled back, readying my katana for more attacks.
We both dashed together, and I cleaved off Dal's other hand while Sho blasted his back using a gale palm. He flew into my and I spun around, elbowing his face to clothesline him before plunging my sword deep into the middle of the engraving.
The light that emanated off the symbol stopped, and my quest completed. I took a breath and looked over at Sho, he was inspecting the floating blue crystal that appeared.
We picked it up and attempted to jump out of the building as the ceiling fell over the body. We cared more about surviving than a simple bounty, landing outside the building I got a new notification.
"Dungeon unlocked!
Luminos Shade Dungeon (Tier 1)"
I claimed the rewards of my quest and looked over at Sho, he had a troubled expression on his face while we left the area. He looked around at the clearing we were in and called out into the forest.
"You can come out now. I assume you are here for this?" He held out the crystal in plain view. A cloaked person made their way out of the forest, the night giving no chance to note a description of the person.
"Your assumption is correct. Please hand it over peacefully." A feminine voice spoke out. Gesturing with their hand forward for the gemstone.
"Well, it seems we have a trade to make, don't we? I'll give you this if you tell us what you were doing or give us something of value." Sho said, keeping a calm exterior.
"That sounds fair, I wouldn't want to trouble master Shin so I shall make this trade without any problems. I heard you were in need for one of these?" She threw a book over to us, 'Guide to fuinjutsu' it read. 'How long were these guys watching me, and why me?'.
Sho also seemed sceptical but threw the gem over which she caught easily. "Why do you call him master?"
"Because he is one blessed by our lord. A chosen one if you will." She spoke no further as she turned away, revealing the logo on her cape, a moon rising over the horizon. I was really starting to get tired of that symbol.
"Well, whatever, let's be happy we didn't have to fight anymore cause I poofed. I'm going to set up camp so you can read that, have fun." Sho said, waving off the situation while walking away. Underneath his calm exterior though, he was obviously on edge.
"Sure, holler if you need any help I'll be done in a flash." I replied, holding a small smirk, not just anyone could directly absorb information when it was written.
I absorbed the book and gained 2 skills 'Fuinjutsu' and 'Calligraphy'. I ran over to Sho, who was setting up his sleeping bag next to a pit. I set my bag down on the other side and went to sleep instantly, not even making a fire.
The next morning
Sho woke me up early and we ate breakfast. The protein bars weren't great, but still better than starving. We talked about the next target, avoiding the subject of our last one. There was a D – RANK shinobi hiding out near the border between the land of hot water and the land of tea supposedly so we would head there in the afternoon.
D - RANK
Kahn Gul
Age: 15
Affiliation: None (previously Konoha)
Notable abilities: Genjutsu: hell viewing technique, water style: water bullet, fire style: great fireball jutsu
Bounty: 50k
Wanted dead or alive
Crimes:
Desertion
Recent location
Border between land of grass and land of hot water
"We'll do this one, since we are close to the border anyways and we can head into the land of grass." I said, pointing at the profile. Sho hummed in agreement and snapped his own bingo book shut.
"Alright, lets go then. Hopefully we can actually collect this one." He said, while we jumped through the trees.
"Hopefully." I replied. Our target was a younger kid, he had brown hair and green eyes, his profile didn't state anything I should have been worried about, so I was hoping it would be easy money.
4 hours later
"Since we're at the border now, lets search the area. I'll head towards the north end, and you go west, we will meet back up here within an hour." Sho commanded, before hopping off to his side before I could respond.
I jumped through the trees while using my dojutsu to look for chakra being used. Because of the progression to my dojutsu, my perception of chakra became much clearer, and I could even see the main gates in the body, it was more like a feeling of where they were though than actual x ray vision.
I also activated my chakra sensor passive, which I didn't realise was off until I didn't detect that woman's presence yesterday. A small blip appeared on my 'radar' right below me and I saw a teen running along the forest floor, they didn't appear injured and It wasn't a genjutsu so I bided my time and followed along quietly.
I think ill stop this here. Did I gloss over too much this chapter? No idea. Nothing much else to say
Bye bye! – tired