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"This trip was definitely worth the effort," Xuan chuckled, pulling his Amanokumo sword free from the Blood Ninja's corpse.
Using the thick smoke from the colliding Ninjutsu as a smokescreen, he had discreetly cast the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Handing his sword to the clone, he sent it charging in for a frontal assault, while his true body used the Flying Raijin Jutsu to teleport silently behind the mercenary.
Since the Shadow Clone was an unprecedented technique in this era, the Blood Ninja naturally hadn't factored it into his calculations and fell for the trap without the slightest suspense. Xuan couldn't help but sigh. Outdated intelligence truly was a fatal flaw. Decades from now, any standard Jōnin would instinctively consider the possibility of fighting a Shadow Clone during a high-stakes duel.
He rummaged through the dead man's ninja pouch, finding only a mundane assortment of kunai and shuriken. Uninterested, Xuan continued patting down the body.
"A scroll for his Blood Secret Arts?" Xuan murmured, pulling two scrolls from the man's inner robes.
Unrolling the first one, he found detailed instructions on how to cultivate the terrifying blood techniques. Secret Arts (Hiden) were essentially a specialized branch of Ninjutsu. While they weren't strictly Kekkei Genkai (Bloodline Limits), they were heavily guarded clan secrets with highly unorthodox training methods. Due to their exclusivity, they generally possessed greater lethality than standard elemental Ninjutsu.
There were many famous examples in the original story. The Aburame clan's insect manipulation, for instance, involved using their own bodies as living hives. By feeding the insects with their chakra over many years, the bugs became an extension of their own limbs, boasting immense versatility. The Inuzuka clan operated on a similar principle. By raising ninja hounds from birth and sharing their chakra through specialized methods, they achieved a terrifying synergy between man and beast.
The scroll in Xuan's hands detailed a grotesque method of infusing chakra directly into the bloodstream. Through years of agonizing practice, the user could eventually manipulate the flow of their own blood at will. The scroll contained over a dozen lethal Blood Secret Arts. The final entry was a terrifying S-rank kinjutsu dubbed "Blood Regeneration." According to the description, as long as the user retained at least ten percent of their total blood volume, they could survive normally fatal wounds—even a pierced heart or decapitation.
Xuan glanced down at the Blood Ninja's corpse. Clearly, the man had never managed to master that particular technique.
Tucking the valuable scroll into his robes, he thought, Not a bad haul at all! He then unrolled the second scroll.
This one wasn't a Secret Art. Instead, it was a standard Earth Style manual containing three Jutsu: the B-rank Earth Style: Great Mud River, the A-rank Earth Style Barrier: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness, and the A-rank Earth Style: Earth and Stone Burst.
He tucked the Earth Style scroll away as well. After thoroughly searching the mercenary and finding nothing else of value, Xuan moved over to Tsubasa's corpse. Aside from some loose ryō and basic ninja tools, the Chiba boy had nothing useful on him—certainly no clan secret scrolls. It made sense; unlike a rogue missing-nin constantly on the run, a standard clan shinobi had no reason to carry highly classified Jutsu manuals into the field.
Using the Amanokumo, Xuan cleanly severed the Blood Ninja's head and wrapped it in a torn strip of the man's grey robes. He needed the physical proof to claim the bounty back at the compound. While his primary motivation had been grinding System points, nobody in their right mind would turn down an 80,000 ryō payout.
During the journey back, Xuan constantly debated whether he should feed the stolen scrolls to the System in exchange for points. Ultimately, he decided against it. The System's exchange rate for recycling items was a complete scam. Since he wasn't in desperate need of points right now, it would be a massive waste.
The Blood Secret Arts are incredibly lethal, he reasoned. In this era, Ninjutsu manuals are rare and heavily monopolized resources. If I'm going to build my own independent faction in the future, securing a diverse archive of Jutsu is an absolute necessity. I'll keep them. As for the Earth Style scroll, it'll save me from having to buy those Jutsu from the System once I unlock my Earth chakra nature.
When Xuan returned to the clan and tossed the Blood Ninja's head onto the one-eyed elder's desk, the old man nearly jumped out of his skin.
The elder unwrapped the cloth, staring in shock at the severed head. He looked at Xuan as if he were staring at a literal monster, unable to find his voice for a long time.
If the person who had accepted this mission had been an Uchiha Jōnin, the elder wouldn't have batted an eye. Even if it had been a squad of three three-tomoe Tokubetsu Jōnin working together, he could have begrudgingly accepted it. But this was a child—a mere Tokubetsu Jōnin—and he had soloed a high-level bounty. It completely overturned the elder's common sense.
"Are you going to process the mission or not?"
Xuan's impatient voice finally broke the silence. The one-eyed elder snapped out of his trance and hurriedly logged the mission completion, double-checking the head's identity.
As he handed over the reward money, he couldn't help but sigh. "I originally thought you were just a once-in-a-century genius. Now, I suspect you might be the most monstrous existence our clan has ever seen in its entire history."
Xuan gave a thin smile but said nothing. He accepted the bounty, counted it, and turned to leave.
Walking through the streets of the Uchiha compound, he noticed the atmosphere was even more suffocating than when he had left. Mountains of supplies were being loaded onto wagons bound for the borders of the Senju and Hyūga territories. The Uchiha clan was a well-oiled war machine, completing its mobilization in record time. In just two days, the army would officially march.
When he reached home, his little maid was overjoyed to see him. She served him with frantic devotion, and Xuan allowed it; his five-day trek to the northwestern edge of the Land of Fire and back had been grueling, spent sleeping in the wild and eating on the move.
Soaking in a tub of hot water, Xuan closed his eyes in bliss as Hotaru gave him a full-body massage. She had finally learned how to apply the proper amount of pressure.
"Has anything happened in the clan while I was gone?" he asked casually.
"Young Master Madara came by yesterday to ask if you had returned. Other than that, everything has been the same as usual."
Xuan nodded and lapsed into silence. After his bath, he handed the mission reward over to Hotaru for safekeeping. When she took the money bag, her eyes practically turned into gold coins, and she clutched it to her chest with a death grip.
The Uchiha are definitely loaded, Xuan mused. The Hatamoto clan's 80,000 ryō bounty for a rogue Jōnin was already well above the market average for the Warring States. Yet Tajima put a 100,000 ryō price tag on every Hyūga Jōnin. I'll never understand the world of the ultra-rich.
He sat down with a cup of tea, enjoying a rare moment of peace as he chatted idly with his maid.
Suddenly, the door was slammed open. Madara strode into the room, making Xuan's brow twitch in annoyance.
This guy's intel is way too good. I haven't even been back for an hour and he's already at my door.
"Xuan! How about coming to the battlefield with me?" Madara announced with typical Uchiha bravado the moment he entered.
Xuan nearly spat out a mouthful of tea. He stared at his friend with a look of pure bewilderment.
Did this guy get kicked in the head by a donkey? That was the only thought running through Xuan's mind at that moment.