Bounty and Tea
I don't own Naruto or The Gamer, but I do own a laptop. I'm using that to write this now!
Last time on Cloud Gamer
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.
~~~~~~~~~Chapter Start? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kahn was running through the forest below me, making no attempt to mask his movements. After another 5 minutes of running, he finally slowed down and looked around at his surroundings and then he started to sleep?
I stayed cautious, rogue shinobi were dangerous and it wouldn't do myself any good to underestimate them. He was laying against a tree to protect his back at least, but he didn't seem to watch his surroundings carefully.
I waited another 10 minutes before silently walking down the trunk of the tree he laid against. I disrupted my chakra to see if it was a genjutsu, it wasn't. Was this kid just stupid enough to fall asleep in enemy territory?
I pulled out my katana and stabbed him through the stomach. I needed him alive for a little while so he could use a jutsu to steal. After inserting the blade, he woke up and tried to kick me away, I swatted it away easily and he started to weave hand seals.
"Fire style: Great fireball jutsu!" He yelled, breathing out a stream of flames over my body. I already had that jutsu, so I backed off with my blade, avoiding any extra burns.
He was watching my weapon closely as I moved back in, I threw it in the air, and he watched it go up. 'Big mistake' I smirked, clicking my fingers to use 'Lightning style: Flash' temporarily blinding him.
I grab my sword from out of the air and sunk it deep into his shoulder, ripping it back out roughly and backing off. He took a while to recover but slowly started to weave more signs, I waited patiently for him to finish, this was seeming to be easier than I thought.
"Genjutsu: Hell viewing technique…" He said softly, grasping his shoulder in pain after casting his illusion. From my point of view, the sky turned red, and leaves started to float around me.
Yugito appeared before me, coated in Matatabi's chakra with maroon eyes staring forward. She looked towards me, and my body shook, I knew this was an illusion, but I also wanted to see what my greatest fear was.
Her features didn't hold the gentle look they usually did. Her eyes were the same as all of the other people after my life, her chakra was like a raging inferno of hatred. This was my greatest fear right now, for Yugito to come and kill me, for her to be my executioner.
I dispelled the genjutsu and looked down at Kahn. He had tried to run away but fell over a root in the ground and had his leg snared. I felt nothing while walking towards him, blade in hand.
"P-Please, I beg of you! Spare me please!" He yelled, grabbing his ankle and sputtering all over his chest. I silently stalked forward and knocked him out with the back of my blade.
I tied him up with ninja wire and dragged him back to our meeting spot to wait. Sho appeared a bit early himself and after asking me about the fight we inspected the map for our nearest bounty station.
"I'm surprised you didn't kill him" Sho commented. We were hopping through trees towards the border, it was still an hour out and he was carrying our target.
"I don't know why I didn't." I replied, ducking under a branch and hopping forward.
"Hmm, alright. Well, the bounty station is only a couple hours away, do you want to set up a camp?"
"Yeah sure."
We landed on the ground below and brought out supplies, Sho went to bed quickly and advised me to follow but I had stuff to do. I opened my inventory and claimed my 7 '10 skill point voucher' to get myself 70 skill points.
I put in my stat points from the levels I gained over the past few days, bringing my vitality stat to 90. There were still a ton of skill vouchers I needed to claim so I redeemed every single one, totalling up to 75 skill levels to put in. I used 54 on my favourite jutsu, the thunder spear, bringing it to level 100. I used the last 21 to level up my taijutsu, since I didn't have a good sword yet.
Now I had to put in my 75 stat points. I immediately used 10 for vitality, bringing it to 100, 20 into chakra, bringing that to 100 as well. My stats were looking great, I still had skill points and stat points to put in, so I was extremely happy with the outcome of my farming over the past few years, even if that wasn't what It could have been.
I used 34 in chakra control, bringing it to 100 and the last 11 in luck. I was now level 118, and I had to pick 3 new paths for my level 100 stats. I would use my skill points another day, for now, I looked at my selection of perks.
"You have attained level 100 in vitality, please choose path for your body to follow
Sage's body: A blessing from the sage of six paths has increased your body's life force greatly, increasing your chakra reserves and maximum health points.
Life diversion: All attacks made will restore a small amount of health points for you. This does not heal injuries, only increases your hp."
"You have attained level 100 in chakra, please choose a path for your chakra to follow
Efficient conversion: Every part of the chakra you use is moulded into the jutsu, permanently sets 'Efficiency' to 100%, all jutsu use less chakra to cast and do more damage.
Element evolution: Your affinity for all elements is increased by an extremely large amount. Your elements can be used in tandem for a bastardized version of blood limit jutsu. Opens a new branch on the chakra tree."
"You have attained level 100 in chakra control, please choose a path for your control to be strengthened
Flash enhancement: Passively grants a 1% chance for any attack with taijutsu, kenjutsu or ninjutsu to have multiplied effects at the exact moment of impact. This skill can be improved through training.
Chakra control external: You have a far easier time controlling your chakra outside of your body as well as inside. Most easily observed through chakra strings, expulsions, etc.
It seemed like the system would make me go through hard choices every time I reached a milestone like this. Some of these were too good to not pick, actually, most of them were. I didn't like the 'life diversion' perk too much so I picked 'Sage's body' and my body started to feel, tight?
I quickly opened my status and the maximum chakra I was capable of holding was rapidly increasing, I was 3 quarters of the way to 3 thousand before… Now I was sitting at nearly 8 thousand chakra points.
I felt better than ever! My maximum hp was an even 10,000, my stamina was a nice 6,700 and my chakra was exactly 7,750. This meant my reserves in all attributes had increased by 3 times!
Now I had to pick my last 2 perks. The chakra perk was by far the hardest to choose from, since I could either use all elements to an average degree and my main ones to a high degree but with a far lower cost or use all elements to a high degree and unlock more of the skill tree at a greater cost. When I put it like that the choice was obvious.
I picked up element evolution and used a piece of chakra paper from my inventory, not bother to rip off a square. The entire thing split in half, before each corner crumbled, crumpled, was drenched and incinerated in my hand. A perfect harmony of all 5 elements.
It was time for the last perk. This choice was easier than the chakra one, after a little deliberation I took a chance and selected the rip off black flash from Jujutsu Kaisen.
With my perks selected, I tightened the restrains on our target and went to sleep. Sho woke me up 4 hours later, we grabbed the target and continued the trip towards the bounty centre.
We landed in front of the door while a clerk was unlocking the doors. Must have spooked the poor fella because he slammed his head into the glass before opening it.
After heading behind his desk, he ushered us inside and we threw Kahn on the floor.
"What page and how much is the reward?" He asked, turning on the computer while we responded.
"Kahn Gul, page 27, 50 thousand ryo." Sho responded, idly tapping his fingers on the desk while the clerk clacketed away on his keyboard. The sky was still dark outside by the time we were done, and Kahn was in a cell.
We received a small band of reward money and left the building, since we were in the land of tea, Sho suggested we go and get some well, tea.
It took us another 30 minutes of travelling along the main road to reach a village where people were just setting up stall for the day, sun creeping over the buildings to provide light.
Merchants were still yawning while lifting boxes of merchandise to sell, citizens were out for an early run or just opening up shop, and kids were already out playing.
I stayed behind Sho while we trotted down the main dirt path, stopping at a large shop with a sign saying 'Tea and Sweets' plastered along the side of the building. A young man was already behind the counter with his feet up on the table, idly flicking through a magazine before we made ourselves known.
We walked into the building and looked around at the empty tables, it seemed we were the first in. There were several raised booths with pillows along the edges of the building, and normal tables and chairs in the middle.
"Sup guys, sit wherever you want since we just opened. Call me over when you want to order." The young man yelled over, putting away his magazine and tying an apron around his waist.
Sho gestured forward and I sat across from him in a booth, I grabbed a menu and picked out a plate of dango with some green tea. I enjoyed both in my previous life, so here's to hoping it was the same here.
"Since we are going to be together for a while, how about we get to know each other a bit more. I'll start first as an example." Sho said, waving over the waiter so we could order.
He pointed out our items and the waiter quickly wrote them down before hurrying off. "My name is Shoma Yuiki, I grew up with my family outside Shimogakure and entered the shinobi academy when I was 7. I like tea, an occasional smoke and travelling. I don't like traitors, coffee and fire. My dream is to travel the world with my family and my biggest fear is losing the friends I love."
It was a short, but very detailed description of himself. I replied with my own description while we waited for our food to come out. "My name is Shin Chinoike, though I don't use that name so just call me Shin. I entered the shinobi academy when I was 5 and I'm currently 7. I like books, techniques and training. I dislike snakes, wasting my time and cheating. My dream is to live a long life and have a couple of kids, and my greatest fear is also losing my loved ones."
When I finished our food arrived and we started to dig in. A pleasant surprise was I still retained my preferences in tea and sweets from my previous life, something I probably should have figured out a while ago but who cares.
"Now we know a little more about each other, good. Let's choose the next target while we are here, and we need to find a seal master that we can drag around for our long-term goal." Sho said, finishing his tea with a large gulp and smiling.
"I'm thinking we take a step up to cover our expenses more, there are quite a few targets in the land of tea. Stragglers from the front on kanabi bridge I would assume according to affiliation." He continued, idly flicking through pages of the bingo book, I picked up my own and skimmed the pages of c- rank.
Sho stopped on a certain page and his eyes widened, a small smile appearing on his lips before he started to talk. "I have someone I would like to target, page 46, I remember him from my battles a few years ago."
I opened my book to page 46 and a very, colourful, profile was displayed.
C – RANK
Val Terumi
Age: 52
Affiliation: Kiri
Notable abilities: High affinity for many water release techniques, minimal taijutsu, minimal genjutsu
Bounty: 175k (Kumo)
Wanted dead or alive
Crimes: N/A
Recent Location
Land of Tea, Eastern border toward Land of Snowflakes
"Do you want to head out now? Or should we get some rest in this town before we leave." I asked, flicking around my dango stick before putting it in my mouth.
"We should leave now; he might move, and this updated book came out a week ago already." Sho replied, placing some money on the table and getting up from his seat. The waiter collected it quickly and bowed while we left the restaurant.
In a burst of speed, we both left the street and ran through the fields, not caring about who saw us. Sho guided us with his compass, and we continued our trip for another 4 hours before I sensed something from my passive KI sensing. Something huge.
I stopped Sho from moving any further and dropped to the ground, him following quickly. A barrage of kunai and other weaponry rained over head and planted themselves in the grass around us.
There were 4 shinobi from what I could tell, 2 in front of us, 1 behind and 1 disguised as a kunai to try and get the drop on us. Without a word the combat began, I grabbed a kunai and flicked it backwards narrowly missing the shinobi behind me.
I spat out a glob of water and formed a water clone, it engaged with the enemy behind us and Sho took on the 2 in front. I formed 2 lightning spears and threw one at the transformed ninja and the other towards the shinobi behind me.
My spear cleanly stuck through the transformed shinobi and he fell unconscious instantly from the discharge. The shinobi behind me narrowly dodged the other spear but had dispelled my clone by dragging it in the way. I turned around to face him, trusting Sho to watch my back.
I flashed through hand signs and shot out a quick "Wind style: Vacuum Sphere!", he dodged it quickly and moved into close range with a kunai. I brought out my katana and activated the 'Haze sword technique', seamlessly flowing through forms with my blade.
I flipped around his right side, slashing his hip cleanly and landing a kick to the back of his knee. The ninja fell backwards, and I slammed my blade through his throat, him sliding down the blade until hitting the ground.
I turned around to Sho, he was evenly matched with one of the shinobi and the other one was waiting behind with an apprehensive expression. Sho's enemy was clearly skilled, so this must have been a genin squad from some village nearby.
The headband on the 2 I killed had a symbol with an 8-edged snowflake, probably meaning the village hidden in snowflakes, if I had to take a wild guess. Sho was still engaged with the enemy, so I stood up to fight my 3rd enemy, who was still standing behind her jonin instructor.
I sped through hand seals and blasted out 4 globs of water that formed into clones of me, all holding a katana. It may be overkill, but I wasn't going to take chances on foreign shinobi.
My clones surrounded the genin and began to swing. She held out for a couple of seconds before being stabbed once, then twice, then a final time through her leg before being decapitated by my final clone.
Their jonin obviously didn't care and simply focused on his fight, but now I had my clones closing in on his back. Sho continued to clash with the ninja, trading punches and kicks while my clones slowly moved in.
To make sure my plan succeeded, I used my 'Killing Intent' skill to radiate the area, drawing their focus away from my clones. When he looked up, my clones stabbed 4 swords through his torso, ripping them back out with clean efficiency before dispelling.
Sho hadn't sustained any injuries during our fight, and it seemed like I had surpassed low genin level by far. Being able to dispatch 3 quite easily and with only a couple of attacks.
"Wow, that was quite the scare, wasn't it?" Sho chuckled, idly kicking the jonin's head who was panting at his feet. I cleaned off my blade using the grass before responding.
"Yeah, his lackey's weren't much though. It seems like this was a rookie genin squad doing patrol."
"I agree, what do you think mister jonin?" Sho said, pushing his foot down onto our adversaries' head.
"S-Shut up! You all impeded on our territory first!"
"Ah, well that's no fun. Guess we'll have to do this the hard way." Sho brought his foot up from the man's head, before slamming it back down to knock him unconscious.
"Now that that's over with, lets move into the land of snowflakes why don't we?" Sho continued, wrapping up our captive in rope and slinging him over his shoulder.
"Sure, hopefully your old man legs can carry someone while moving though." I replied, a small smirk making its way to my face.
"That was unnecessary asshole." We began to run through the land of snowflakes, the ground below us slowly transforming into a snowy desert. We didn't come across any more patrols but still stayed on guard.
It wasn't until we entered a border town that we finally stopped for the day, making our way into a random inn around town. We rented a room with 2 beds and gagged our prisoner before giving him another walloping to keep him down.
Sho headed out to collect information while I stayed in the room. I decided to finally make use of my new contract and used a small amount of chakra to summon a bat.
"Summoning jutsu unlocked!"
A small bat appeared in front of me, they seemed to have more feminine features when they appeared, but I withheld judgement until they actually spoke.
"Hello summoner, I'm Korizu one of the younger members of the clan. What did you need me for?"
"Please call me Shin, and I need you to look for a certain man are you able to?"
"Of course, master Shin, it will be done as soon as possible. Shall I return here with his location once I find him?"
"Are you able to summon yourself to me?"
"Yes, all of the clan is able to."
"Please do that then, thank you for the help."
"My pleasure."
I showed Korizu the picture we had of Val, she studied his features for a moment before flying out the window and bidding me farewell. Val was a tall man, he had grey hair that was slicked back and a short beard that was well trimmed. His eyes were brown, and he sported wrinkles around his face.
I laid back on my bed and stared up at the ceiling for a good ten minutes before flicking open my status screen, sometimes it was just fun to look at.
Name: Shin Chinoike
Title: Natural, Prodigy
Title buffs: 35% to exp, higher chance of gaining skills faster.
Birth date: February 26th
Level 118
Hp 10000/10000
Cp 6000/7750
Stam 6700/6700
Efficiency ?%
Stats
Strength: 100
Vitality: 100
Chakra: 100
CC: 100 (+40 with ketsuryugan activated)
Luck: 56 (+20 due to Fortuna's blessing)
Intelligence: 52
Willpower: 50
Charisma: 50
Stat points remaining: 0
Monthly Lotteries collected: 47(Can be claimed on the first of each month!)
Skills
[Ketsuryugan] level 100 (MAX) {click here for details}
[Leaf sticking exercise] Level 76 (12%) {click here for more details}
[Basic Chakra Exercises] level 25 (54%) {click here for more details}
[Lightning style: Flash] level 29 (72%) {click here for more details}
[Lightning style: Lightbulb] level 18 (34%) {click here for more details}
[Cooking] level 21 (44%) {click here for more details}
[Mindscape] level 32 (2%)
[Fire style: Spark] level 1 (38%) {click here for more details}
[Water style: Filter] level 1 (87%) {click here for more details}
[Earth style: Pit] level 1 (12%) {click here for more details}
[Shared Mindscape] level 1 (40%) {click here for more details}
[Misty Fist technique] level 22 (65%) {click here for more details}
[Haze Sword Technique] level 49 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Lightning style: Thunder spear] level 100 (MAX) {click here for more details}
[Surface clinging] level 44 (52%) {click here for more details}
[Lightning chakra creation] level 28 (11%) {click here for more details}
[Earth style: Mud wall] level 2 (4%) {click here for more details}
[Blood attunement] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Fire style: Phoenix Breath] level 17 (44%) {click here for more details}
[Substitution jutsu] level 2 (11%) {click here for more details}
[Genjutsu: False surroundings] level 1 (94%) {click here for more details}
[Fortuna's blessing] level MAX (100%) {click here for more details}
[Infused blood manipulation] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Tree hopping] level 22 (30%) {click here for more details}
[Lightning style: Current] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Water style: Water clone] level 2 (30%) {click here for more details}
[Earth style: Mud wall] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Killing intent] level 1 (56%) {click here for more details}
[Sense killing intent] level 1 (92%) {click here for more details}
[True red world genjutsu] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Wind style: Vacuum sphere] level 1 (17%) {click here for more details}
[Water style: Water bullet] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Fire style: Great fireball] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}
[Water style: Flowing guardian pillars] (86%) {click here for more details}
[Perfect flash] (0%) {click here for more details}
[Summoning jutsu] (12%) {click here for more details}
This thing was getting far too long, and I hadn't even levelled up a lot of them. When I finally settled down to train, I was planning to level up most of these skills to max and mastering every single one of my elements.
I still had quite a bit of time until Sho would come back so I pulled open another screen, one I hadn't used yet, dungeons. I selected the only one unlocked so far and my body moved into a meditative position automatically.
The world around me faded to black and I found myself in Agazaki village, faced down with tens of shades roaming the streets like civilians. Once they noticed my presence, they all moved in and started to surround me.
"I didn't even have a chance to get ready." I sighed, pulling out my sword and spitting out 4 water clones. We all stood ready and began to attack, mostly focusing on the symbols in the middle of the shade's chests.
I stabbed one and pulled my sword out to the right, cleaving another in two, one of my clones watching my back while I fought. There were over 30 of these mindless things but it was easy to clear through every single one, especially since they had such a glaring weakness.
My clones finished off the last one and we began to walk down the main road. It was night-time overhead, and the quiet humming of streetlights permeated the air. Unlike last time I was here, there was no blood painting the streets, just a quiet town surrounded us.
A quick kunai threatened to dig itself handle deep into my skull, I parried it efficiently and looked ahead. There were several shades equipped with basic gear now, they had kunai and headbands with luminos' symbol on them. Whoever was making this was really having fun.
A sneak attack destroyed my clones from behind and I activated my eyes. They didn't have any chakra so I couldn't sense them, but their lack of skill definitely gave me some confidence.
I put my sword back in my inventory to free my hands, weaving hand signs easily and spitting out a stream of flames. "Fire style: Great fireball justu!" I continued spitting flames around the area, burning several buildings to the ground and warding off every shade.
I spat another 3 clones after stopping the stream, 2 facing backwards and 1 facing forwards with me. We all weaved handsigns, the clone behind me and the real me making use of the great fireball justu, and the other 2 clones using vacuum sphere.
Our techniques combined, creating a searing orb of flames that exploded on both hordes. Those attacks had used about 1 thousand chakra, far less than before I got my perks and level 100 chakra control.
My clones dispelled into pools of water, and I continued through the village, stopping in front of the building where me and Sho encountered the original shade.
The building rumbled, shaking the ground beneath me when a figure burst through the wall, flinging wood everywhere so I had to shield my eyes. This one had chakra, and it was a lot.
In front of me was a withered corpse, still standing with glowing red eyes and bulging veins. The symbol on its chest glowed brightly before dimming slowly. The shade roared loudly and launched towards me at terrifying speeds, this one definitely had some semblance of skill.
I dodged around a right hook and landed a blow to its liver, digging my blade in deeply. The hand came back around, and I attempted to pull out my blade, eating a fist to the face and being launched without my blade.
I enhanced my muscles with some chakra and moved in for taijutsu, rapidly swinging at the beast. It blocked the punch with its forearm and grabbed my torso, kneeing me in the stomach and flinging me down the road. I rolled a few times before sliding back on my knees.
'Time for something new!' I yelled mentally, forming wind chakra in one lung and fire chakra in the other. The two combined in my throat but the ratio was off, I spewed out orange flames onto the ground, hacking up spit.
The shade took its opening and landed a brutal kick to my face, flinging me backwards again while taunting me with grunts. It hurt my pride that such a dumb fuck was making fun of me during a fight.
I used one of my new favourite jutsu, the water clone, and spat out 5 clones of water, everyone knew the plan we just needed to do it. I distracted the shade by engaging in taijutsu. It was far stronger than me, but I couldn't be held down, when my clones were in position, they all started to do hand signs while I used chakra to jump up 4 meters.
The 4 clones surrounding the shade all created mud walls, boxing it in, while the final clone and I landed on opposite walls and spat flames and balls of wind, creating a fiery tornado that almost melted the walls and extended far into the sky.
"Combination jutsu: 4 wall fire whirl!"
After 5 seconds we both stopped, and the walls had melted about halfway. My clones dispelled and I jumped backwards, wiping off a bit of spit that was caught on my chin. This dungeon was really taking a toll on my reserves.
A loud roar blasted away my mud walls and there stood the big boss himself, eyes still glowing but skin positively charred. It was far slower now so I dodged its initial hit while it tried to run towards me, I slid under its arm and pulled out my blade. My dumbass didn't think it would burn my hand, low and behold it did.
I dropped my sword instantly and the white-hot metal made the ground bubble, or maybe that was just the blood stuck on it. I blew on my hand a couple of times and shook it off, time to try something my clan was known for.
I wiped the blood from my nose and put some chakra into it. The liquid glowed briefly on my fingers, I used my skill to make it denser with the iron inside and swiped my hand at the air, launching a sickle of blood that cut straight through its arm. This shit was deadly.
It would probably be better to use the blood of my enemies though, not my own. I tried to catch my breath a bit, but the shade was already onto me, it had run forward while I watched my blood.
I dodged a swipe and weaved hand signs, planting my hands on the ground while a wall of mud erupted from the ground and punted the shade into the air.
While it flew upwards, I flew through hand signs and blasted the shade with 8 vacuum spheres, straight through the chest, one after the other until they all broke through. After the corpse landed, my vision went black and I was back in my room, only 2 seconds had passed since I left, and I had spent 2 hours in there.
I looked ahead at the screen in front of me.
"Dungeon cleared!
Rank: C+
First clear rewards: 5x 5 skill voucher, 5000 ryo, random c rank jutsu voucher
Rank rewards: 1x 5 skill voucher, 1000 ryo"
The rewards were pretty good but considering this was the first one I unlocked. It seemed this was a rare occurrence, unlocking new ones at least. I redeemed the jutsu coupon and received "Leaf rising wind" a taijutsu technique that uses a specific posture to deliver a high kick above your head.
I didn't think taijutsu could be gained from these vouchers. But this knowledge meant I could get basically anything from these in terms of techniques. I closed the status window and took off my shoes, laying back on my bed and falling asleep relatively quickly.
The next morning
It was nearing 9 am when I woke up. There was a small bat resting on my chest with its wings spread out, it was kind of cute, with its little fur scarf almost and quiet huffs. I didn't think I was close with my summon clan, but I guess that was not mutual. Sho was not in the room and the jonin also wasn't, considering I was still alive, Sho must have taken him out of the room this morning.
I gently picked up the bat and it opened its beady eyes, staring at me softly before yawning widely. I rubbed its head with my finger, and it slowly stood up and stretched its wings.
"Morning Korizu, have a nice rest?" I said, still rubbing her head.
"Yes, it was great thank you, the cave gets kind of uncomfortable sometimes. I found the shinobi you were looking for; he is hiding out with a couple of other shinobi in a cave to the north." She replied, shivering to my touch.
"Thank you for the help, want to stick around for a little while?"
"Sure, I don't think Komibi will mind me missing one day of training. She's the lead stealth specialist of us bats."
"Nice, well I need to find Sho, then we can head out."
"I already told your friend where to go, he headed out after I told him. That was about 2 hours ago so he should be there by now."
"Alright, lets get there quickly to help him then." I said, quickly hopping to my feet and placing Korizu on my shoulder. She nestled in between my hood and under my hair against my neck, her fur was a bit ticklish, but I had other things to worry about than a little fur.
I jumped out of the window and used some chakra to augment my speed, sprinting through the snow while running atop. Korizu guided me through the wasteland until I heard the sounds of metal clashing and men screaming.
"Water style: Water bullet jutsu!" A mist shinobi yelled out, launching a high-powered glob of water through the air towards Sho. He looked noticeably damaged and tired.
"Earth style: Mud wall jutsu!" Sho screamed back, he also looked quite hurt. There were several other shinobi dotted around the area watching the battle, some unconscious, some scared, others waiting for the moment to strike.
The wall easily fended off the water bullet and Sho punched through the wall while coating his fist in the rocks, before slamming it down on the ground where the mist shinobi was.
They had jumped away after launching their attack and now were weaving through more hand signs to use on Sho while he recovered. I pumped more chakra into my legs and launched there quickly, less than 2 seconds later I was in the shinobi's face while I used leaf rising wind to interrupt his hand signs, landing a strong kick to his chest.
I landed on the ground, back-to-back with Sho. He was panting slightly but seemed fine for a little while longer. The body of the jonin landing a bit away from us.
"Hey Sho, you alright for a little longer?" I asked, not liking my chances against 6 probably chunin level opponents.
"Yeah, I can fight for another 10 minutes I'd say. Let's do this!" He replied, rushing off towards his side of enemies.
"Komizu, know any good combat members of your clan? I'd like to get some practice fighting with them."
The bat on my shoulder shuffled a bit before talking into my ear, I weaved through hand signs and shouted out.
"Summoning jutsu: Komuri!" It ate up just over 5000 chakra points, but I summoned in the combat specialist of the bat clan. He was a large ghost bat that stood over 8 meters tall, with a light grey body and thin white wings that reached over 3 meters away from his body on each side.
"Ah our new summoner, I'm surprised you could summon me so easily. Are there enemies for me to defeat?"
"Yes Komuri, sorry for the sudden summon. We need to take out these shinobi with the mist head bands, you ready?"
"Of course, Master Shin."
"Just Shin is fine."
Komuri quickly flew through the 3 mist shinobi on my left, landing a couple of swipes before sliding and spinning around. He blasted off a large sound wave that made blood spurt from their ears before falling unconscious.
"Well fuck, guess I have to compete with that." I said, startled from the sheer efficiency and speed Komuri had managed to dispatch his opponents. Guess he wasn't the main combat specialist of the clan for nothing.
I weaved some hand signs and blasted out a great fireball, not expecting Komizu to help me with her own jutsu.
"Wind style: Breakthrough!" She said, launching a strong gust of wind that combined with my fireball. I only hit one of the shinobi with my attack, the other 2 dodging out of the way.
I ran towards one of the shinobi, engaging in a short taijutsu scuffle before leaping away to dodge another shinobi who tried to intervene. I rolled to avoid a few more shuriken but Komuri sliced that shinobi in half before they could throw them.
I blocked an overhead kick with my forearms in a cross guard, rolling backwards with the kick to throw my attacker away behind me. The shinobi still in front of me tried to finish me off with a kunai but I rolled out of the way, launching 2 shuriken straight at them which they dodged.
I activated my dojutsu and sprung off the ground with one hand, the other grasped around a kunai that I threw below me, attaching an explosive tag to it and sticking it in the earth.
Komuri covered my back and finished off the other shinobi while I tussled with the one in front of me, using some hand seals for a genjutsu to cover the kunai I left. I dodged a roundhouse kick and grabbed their calf, flipping them over my head and into the ground behind me.
I put up a mud wall to block myself from view and activated the hidden tag, right where they were slammed. The smoke blasted past my wall, and I ran around the side, sensing for any chakra.
That exploding tag finished the job, so I went to help Sho, but he had already defeated 4 of his 6 opponents, plus a jonin earlier. Sho was a fucking monster, now that I thought about it.
Komuri helped Sho with the last 2 chunin before poofing away after I thanked him. I used my phoenix breath to heal Sho a bit before picking up our target's body.
"Where did you take that snowflake jonin?" I asked, curious of the whereabout of our prisoner. Komizu was sleeping peacefully against my neck again.
"We didn't really need him, so I killed him and buried the body. Didn't even have a bounty that guy. Anyway, sorry for leaving without you, got some bad blood with out little target over there." Pointing to the body I had rested on my shoulder. I threw it on the ground and Sho stomped it a bit with a grin on his face.
"Wow, must have been some really bad blood." I quipped.
"Not really, he killed the rest of my genin squad during the second war. Now I have gotten revenge, not really my style but if there's a chance might as well take it right?"
"Sure. You're going to have to tell me your story someday, including how you met your wife."
"Heh, sure. Always makes someone happy when another wants to hear about their achievements."
"Sounds like something an old war veteran would say."
"I'm not old! Fucking brat!" Sho yelled at me, grabbing Val's body and decapitating it.
"By the way, didn't you say you don't like fire? Why did you let me use phoenix breath on you?" I asked, he said earlier he hates fire, and for good reason, so why would he let me set him on fire?
"I don't like fire, I'm not one so irrational to let fear take over trust. You're my partner Shin, I trust you for what its worth." He replied, not even bothering to look at me while spouting his surprisingly wise speech.
"Then for what its worth, I'll trust you too old man." I held out my fist to him, a sign of our new bond. He looked up and bumped it solidly, before using that same fist to punch Val's separated head.
I grimaced a bit and he laughed at my face before we left. We didn't realise there was someone else alive at the site, my chakra sensing didn't even work.
3rd person POV
Glowing red eyes stared face down in the ground. After that bat hit the shinobi, he was knocked out for a little while, he couldn't hear at all either. The shinobi slowly stood up, grasping at the snow tightly and staining it red with his blood.
They let out a scream of rage when they looked around at the area, their friends, comrades, had all just been wiped out by some kid and old man. The memories he had with them flowed through his mind as tears poured from his eyes.
"I SWEAR! ON MY NAME AS RANMARU KORA! I WILL GET REVENGE" He yelled out to the heavens above, his eyes glowing a bright red and purple hair stuck to his neck.
Those bastards, they would pay when he found them. He would tell his family, descendants, friends about these people. They would be dead.
"For some reason I feel really pissed off right now" Sho said, we had just been running over the snow when he said that out of nowhere.
"Why?"
"Someone just called me old; I can feel it."
"Maybe somebody got injected with truth serum while talking about you."
"Brat."
"Old man."
"Asshole."
"Fossil."
"I'M ONLY 30!"
"Stop lying, you need to pick out grey hairs already I bet."
"Like hell I do!"
I dodged under a swipe, not wanting to be slapped by a decapitated head. He refused to seal it and was just swinging it around by the hair idly while we ran. Komizu was still sleeping against my neck, seemed like I was going to need to get a warmer jumper. Especially if I'm going to be staying in the snow.
"Where is the nearest bounty station?"
"The same one we used in the land of tea, you excited for the run back?"
"Actually yes, it's much warmer there."
We kept up conversation with each other until we reached the border, another squad of snowflake shinobi were up ahead waiting for us. They didn't have weapons out but were clearly ready to act.
"Who are you two? Drop all weapons and state your names now!" One of them shouted, a large white man with a bandanna style headband over his scalp.
"I am Shoma, this is Shin. We are travelling hunters and are just completing a job."
"Show us your licenses!" The shinobi barked back, clearly having fun ordering us around. We grabbed our licenses and handed them to him palm up. They both displayed us as rank bronze I and had our names written down.
He took a good look at our cards before chucking them back, not really caring if we caught them or not. This guy seemed like he wanted a reason to fight.
"Alright, they are clear to go." He said sensibly, sounding a little irritated. We stowed away our licenses, Sho's in his chest pocket and mine in my pants before we started to run past them. I activated my dojutsu just in case and low and behold, a fluctuation in chakra alerted me to a jutsu being performed.
I looked behind us and we were about 10 meters away when they began hand seals, a large pile of snow was driven towards us, and I jumped out of the way with Sho. He finally put the head in a scroll while we landed.
"Just kidding. You know we can't let you guys leave." The leader chuckled, wiping a finger under his nose for his own ingenuity. What a fucking guy.
I spewed out 4 clones quickly and we all flashed through hand seals, launching 4 fireballs at the ground below our enemies. There were 4 enemies in total, the leader we had been talking to and 3 shinobi in grey flak jackets.
They all easily dodged my inferno and ran to the sides, the leader taking stock on my right near Sho and the other 3 on my left. 'Wow, 2 fights in one day, lucky me.' I thought, getting into a stance with my clones.
My enemies were cautious about attacking because of my clones, the leader had no problems though and dashed towards Sho straight away. They traded a couple of attacks before the others gained some confidence and ran straight in.
My clones met them first while I weaved hand seals, they didn't hold for long but just enough for me to make use of my jutsu. "Water style: Flowing guardian pillars!" the water created from my fireballs hitting the snow collected around me like tentacles waiting to strike. I created 8 and put 2 on each of my enemies in front of me, leaving the other 2 for defence.
They all parried the first tentacle and dodged the second one before they both came back and surrounded them. Now 6 tendrils of water were surrounding them and slowly closing in, one of the shinobi weaved hand seals and a dome of earth rose to guard them.
I stopped my jutsu and used the water to create 5 more clones, using a large chunk of my remaining chakra. I had one more strong jutsu in me before I was out, hopefully my combination jutsu would work.
My clones created the 4 walls, and I jumped up top. Komizu and my clone both fired downwind jutsu to initially pierce the dome while I shot a bright stream of flames straight down.
"Combination jutsu: 4 walls flame whirl!"
Komizu and my water clone continued to spam wind jutsu while fanning the flames. Screams were muffled quickly from my attack, and I stopped after 8 seconds, only having 600 chakra points remaining. Just under 1 tenth of my reserves.
Inside of the walls were 3 charred corpses, blackened until they looked like something left on the barbeque for 30 hours too long. I jumped off my walls and my clones dispelled while Komizu flew back into the crook of my neck.
Sho wasn't faring too well against his second jonin level opponent of the day, I wasn't in much of a fighting condition either though. I jumped into the fight anyways and started to fight alongside Sho, launching punches and dodging a few before I got punted by the jonin's shin.
'Only 600 points left, I'll have to make do' I thought, rubbing my side and staring into the eyes of my jonin adversary. He was distracted by Sho so I needed to help somehow, and I knew just the way.
I did some slow hand seals, forcing chakra towards my eyes as the medium. I ran forward to draw his attention and as soon as the jonin locked eyes with me he froze, it wouldn't hold for long, but Sho knew what he was doing.
Sho used the chakra scalpel technique and severed the nerves in the jonin's legs, arms and neck, slicing it clean open and like a fountain, blood sprayed over the area.
I dropped on my ass and sighed heavily, today was a long day, way too long. We still had more to do though. Sho pulled out the head again with a chuckle and gave me a hand to help me up.
It took the entire day, but we eventually got to the bounty centre. I sat outside and looked at my breath, visible due to the cold conditions. Sho came out and was flicking his thumb through a large band of notes in his hand, we got an inn, and I was out like a light. Forgetting Komizu was still here.
Hmm, that took a while longer to write than expected, didn't it? Hmmm, well whatever its out now and I'm still doing the rewrites on the side and focusing on the main story progression for now. I've been getting more positive reviews lately and it makes me happy to see there are new people coming in and actually enjoying the work.
A lot of stuff happened this chapter, Shin got some big gains, a few fights to make writing easier, some development with Shoma and lots of epic jutsu used. What did you think of the combination technique? Pretty cool huh.
Bye bye now! - tired
