Mizuki strode into the room. With a casual lift of his hand, scroll after scroll rose from the wooden racks and glided toward him.
Banshō Ten'in ▻ Universal Pull
Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere. Wind Release: Vacuum Wave. Wind Release: Gale Palm…
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. Fire Release: Great Flame Technique…
Earth Release. Lightning Release. Water Release. Medical Ninjutsu. The Nara Clan's Hiden. The Akimichi Clan's Hiden. The Yamanaka Clan. The Aburame Clan. The Inuzuka Clan…
Yūhi Clan Genjutsu. Uchiha Clan Genjutsu. Kurama Clan Genjutsu. Konoha's Strong Fist. The Hyūga Clan's Gentle Fist. The Hayate Clan's Kenjutsu. Uchiha Clan Kenjutsu. Uzumaki Clan Fūinjutsu…
This was Konoha's entire treasury of Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Hiden (Secret Jutsu), and Fūinjutsu.
A boundless sea of knowledge.
One after another, Mizuki shoved the scrolls into his storage ring, taking everything without leaving so much as a scrap behind.
"This is so satisfying." He murmured, "The Sharingan can copy jutsu, sure, but only after someone uses them first. And copying them one by one… how long would it take to reach Kakashi's level? Besides, the Sharingan only copies ordinary Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Clan Hiden like these can't be copied at all."
The Nara Clan's Shadow Imitation Technique. The Akimichi Clan's Partial Expansion Technique. The Inuzuka Clan's beast training. None of it could be replicated with the Sharingan.
Stripping the place bare in a single sweep felt intoxicating.
"Heh. From today on, Konoha's entire stockpile is mine."
Before long, every rack stood empty. Mizuki did not bother to count, but there had to be at least ten thousand scrolls. With these, he would never have to worry again about what to teach his disciples.
"All right… one left." His gaze fixed on the very center of the room.
A stone pedestal, roughly waist-high, stood there. Resting atop it was an enormous scroll: the Book of Seals. Any single technique within it would be considered top-tier in the ninja world.
He stepped up and reached for it. A barrier flared into existence and stopped his hand.
"A sealing technique?" Mizuki's eyebrow lifted.
He was about to force his way through when crisp footsteps sounded behind him, and the door slammed shut.
A bold, hearty voice cut through the room.
"Enough, missing-nin Mizuki! You're not getting away this time!"
Ranjishigami no Jutsu ▻ Wild Lion's Mane Technique
The instant Jiraiya appeared, the room erupted into battle. His hair burst outward, snapping through the air and surging toward Mizuki like a living net.
At the last second, danger flared behind him. Mizuki's right eye shifted as the Rinnegan activated.
Shinra Tensei ▻ Almighty Push
A violent repulsive force detonated. The incoming hair was blasted away, and Jiraiya's body skidded backward, crashing into the door. He absorbed the impact without injury.
"What kind of technique is that?" Jiraiya demanded, shock cutting through his voice.
Mizuki turned to face him.
"Konoha has already rotted." He said quietly, "There is no warm sunlight here, only the illusion of thriving trees. Jiraiya… I respect you. I don't want to fight you."
In the anime, Jiraiya had always been his favorite. Sadly, he died at the hands of a student.
Jiraiya's gaze locked onto Mizuki's right eye, "Why do you have Nagato's eyes?" He shouted, "Did you kill Nagato and the others?"
Rage burned in his expression.
After teaching Yahiko and the other two for three years and leaving the Land of Rain, Jiraiya had never stopped watching over them from afar. Then, one day, the news arrived: all three were dead.
In the ninja world, death was familiar. He did not allow himself to grieve. He had long since grown used to people dying. But now, seeing the Rinnegan in Mizuki's right eye, his mind drew a single, instinctive conclusion.
Old and new grudges would be settled today. In Jiraiya's eyes, Mizuki had gained one more reason to die.
Mizuki shook his head, "Don't talk nonsense. It wasn't me. Careful, or I'll sue you for slander."
"Whether it was you or not, I'm killing you." Jiraiya said coldly, "You became a missing-nin and didn't even bother to hide, yet you came back to steal jutsu. The nerve. These scrolls belong to Konoha. I can't let you take them."
He fixed Mizuki with a hard stare, and his hands began to fly through seals.
Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari ▻ Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind
Jiraiya knew Mizuki had a teleportation jutsu and was notoriously hard to pin down. The instant the door opened, Mizuki could vanish.
So Jiraiya decided to summon the stomach of the Rock Lodging Toad and seal the entire scroll room inside it. With the exits swallowed, Mizuki would have nowhere to run. The toad's stomach was unbelievably tough, and ordinary Ninjutsu could not break through it.
Jiraiya's hands blurred through the seals. In an instant, he completed the sequence and raised his palm to strike the floor.
Mizuki's left eye opened.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan activated.
Jiraiya slammed his hand down, but nothing happened.
His eyes snapped to Mizuki's left eye, "You have the Sharingan too? What did you do to me? Why can't I use Ninjutsu?"
Inside his body, chakra raged out of control, surging chaotically through his pathways. No matter what he tried, he could not form a technique.
Mizuki said calmly, "This is my Mangekyō dōjutsu: Takamitamanomikoto. Anyone caught in this eye's gaze loses control of their chakra and cannot use Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Kekkei Genkai."
{T/N: I'm going to translate this as "Heavenly Restriction", it makes more sense.}
After more than half a month of research, Mizuki had finally understood how to use it.
In game terms, Takamitamanomikoto's effect was simple: Silence.
A perfect mage killer, turning a caster into nothing more than an elite infantryman.
Against anyone who was not a Taijutsu specialist, it was absolute suppression. If a Ninjutsu- or Genjutsu-type shinobi could not use techniques, what strength did they have left?
Calling them lambs to the slaughter was not an exaggeration. Jiraiya was living proof.
The technique had no cooldown. It consumed 0.1 chakra per second and could be maintained as long as the target stayed within Mizuki's field of view. Its only weakness was that it worked on one target at a time, and the moment Mizuki's gaze left the target, the silence would end.
Jiraiya drew a sharp breath.
"Y-you… what kind of hellish technique is that?!"
Mizuki laughed, "The Mangekyō Sharingan lives up to its name. Its dōjutsu can take any number of strange forms. There's nothing to be surprised about."
Jiraiya let out a long sigh, "Then kill me." He said, blunt as ever, "The day I became a ninja, I started waiting for this one."
"I'm not killing you." Mizuki said.
"What?" Jiraiya's eyes widened. He stared at Mizuki as if he had misheard.
"Why would I?" Mizuki replied, "I left Konoha because of the Third. I don't hate the village, and I don't hate its shinobi. If he hadn't cornered me again and again, I never would have defected. Konoha is a good place. The air is good, the food is good, and the people are talented. Everyone speaks so politely, and they're all dum— ahem."
Careless. He had almost said what he was really thinking.
Jiraiya looked at him, speechless. This one really was a complete idiot.
"Listen." Jiraiya said at last, "You can still come back. I'll vouch for you, and the Third won't touch you again. I know what he's been doing. Orochimaru's defection. Tsunade's wandering. Even me being gone most of the year. It's all tied to the same thing. But Konoha is one of the Five Great Nations. A place like that can't be spotless. Still… I can tell you aren't as evil as he claims. It's not too late to turn around."
Jiraiya was kind, almost to a fault. Anyone could see it in the way he had stayed in the Land of Rain to watch over and teach Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan.
Because of the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, he had wandered the ninja world searching for the Child of Prophecy. First Minato. Then Nagato. Finally Naruto.
He was naive too, like Naruto. The difference was that Naruto's idealism became reality. Naruto brought Sasuke back. Naruto brought peace.
Jiraiya's idealism, though, remained only that.
When Orochimaru defected, Jiraiya tried to stop it and failed. He chased Orochimaru across the world, hoping to bring them back, and failed again.
"It's too late." Mizuki said, voice hard, "The Third Hokage… today, I'm going to kill him. He tried to kill me again and again. I don't repay hatred with virtue. I, Mizuki, return every grudge."
Jiraiya's expression shifted. In the end, he exhaled and fell silent.
"Fine." He said, "I won't kill you. Go."
Mizuki turned, reaching for the Book of Seals.
"Stop." Jiraiya warned, "You can't take it out. The pedestal itself is sealed. Force it, and the scroll inside will be destroyed. And there's a seal on the scroll's surface, too. Even if you break the pedestal's seal and remove it, you still won't be able to open it. Try to pry it open, and it will self-destruct."
Mizuki's thoughts flickered. So this was the real Book of Seals.
In the anime, Naruto stealing it had basically been a joke.
Mizuki reached out again. A transparent, inverted dome of chakra flared up at once, halting his hand.
His right Rinnegan opened wide and he murured:
Fūjutsu Kyūin ▻ Blocking Technique Absorption Seal
A pulling force formed in his palm and drank in the chakra sustaining the barrier. Deprived of power, the seal collapsed and vanished.
"H-how did you…?" Jiraiya asked, stunned.
Mizuki did not answer. He simply lifted the scroll and slipped it into his storage ring.
Just like that, Konoha's scroll treasury was stripped clean. Not a single scroll remained.
Mizuki strode toward the door.
"Now I'm going to kill the Third." He said, "I won't keep you company. Goodbye."
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T/N: Comment, give me Power Stones, like and favorite, it all supports me and makes me go foward with this. Appreciate my other stories as well, I guarantee the good work!
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Take a look at the new books I'm translating on my profile, Cyberpunk 2077: A God-Level Skill Every Day and Infinite Worlds: Building the Strongest Harem! They are also on my website for $5 and $1.5, respectively!
That's it and happy reading! (-‿◦)