"You stole the dragon stones!" hissed a man in fine clothing—probably a craftsman or a minor official.
"Only the dust left after processing them, Yuto-sensei," the boy being scolded replied, kneeling with his forehead pressed to the floor.
"Do you even understand what you've done?!" the man whispered furiously. "If anyone finds out, both you and I will be executed!"
The two were arguing in a small room that looked like a cross between a jewelry or weapons workshop and a bedroom. Apparently, the boy both lived and worked there.
"We need to destroy it before it's too late," the master said grimly. "Where is it?"
"But, Sensei! This could increase the strength of our warriors!" the kneeling youth protested timidly.
"No one! Remember this—no one is going to care what exactly you made!" the man snapped, eyes blazing. "You're not the first to think yourself smarter than everyone else. Just in my lifetime, three apprentices and their masters were executed. Do you want to share their fate?!"
"Sensei…"
"Where is it?!"
A few seconds of silence followed, then a heavy sigh. The boy stood, rummaged through a chest, and pulled out a thin bracelet composed of small diamond-shaped links, connected to each other as if by magnets. Each piece was coated in pale lilac enamel.
Well—time to act.
The small white snake shook the rattle that had formed at the tip of its tail, using it to cast a genjutsu. Sly Mind Affect Technique worked flawlessly.
The two froze in place, their arms going limp. The bracelet slipped from the boy's hands, hit the wooden floor with a soft clink, and rolled across the boards.
Perfect.
You can go on believing you destroyed it—I, on the other hand, will take it for study.
Opening its jaws to an impossible one hundred and eighty degrees, the snake swallowed the bracelet, which quickly vanished into the stomach of the technique.
I left the palace the same way I had entered. Getting out in the rat's body hadn't worked—I nearly triggered a fuinjutsu trap. But the servant girl, with the hidden snake inside her, passed through the palace barriers without any trouble.
A warm sense of satisfaction at a job well done spread pleasantly through my body as the technique returned to me. And at the sight of the bracelet glinting in my hands—made up of some fifty separate steel rhombuses with lilac enamel—my lips curled into a serpentine smile of their own accord.
Luck was definitely on my side today!
Though I couldn't rule out that the palace security had been partially reassigned elsewhere—after all, a more important "asset" had recently appeared in the city, one that demanded heightened protection.
The Uzushio shinobi showed up only a couple of days later.
That both pleased and frustrated me.
Pleased—because I was already sick of sitting around in Roran doing nothing. My experiments were gathering dust back home! And I still hadn't managed to figure out that trinket I'd stolen. Damn it—I lack the necessary skill and knowledge! I can feel the chakra in the bracelet, but I have no idea how to use it. Frustrating.
I want to get stronger, but nothing's working at all.
What's the point of having plenty of Yin energy and mastering all the elemental transformations if, aside from my innate snake techniques, I can barely pull off anything worthwhile? And as someone without a clan, I can only learn the most basic genjutsu.
In short, the arrival of Uzushio's ninja irritated me precisely because it caught me off guard. I had snake clones all over the place, and still didn't notice a thing. Though, what's there to be surprised about? Where am I, and where are S-rank jonin? Still, that didn't stop me from springing into action and rushing to carry out Danzo's questionable orders.
It only took ten seconds to reach the site—I'd deliberately settled as close as possible. So I didn't miss anything interesting.
By then, the hostile shinobi were already having themselves quite the party.
The battlefield had been enclosed within Four Red Yang Formation. The technique sealed off the estate where the infant was being hidden with impenetrable red walls—the Uzumaki were deadly serious and had no intention of letting anyone slip through. Nothing from beyond the barrier could be heard outside, but through the crimson veil of the technique it was clear a fierce battle was raging within.
And I needed to get in there.
A rapid sequence of hand seals, followed by a snake-based version of Kawarimi no Jutsu—and my chakra reserves instantly plummeted.
Dropping to one knee, I struggled to catch my breath after the energy-draining technique, scanning my surroundings at the same time. For now, it seemed no one had noticed me—or was trying to kill me.
Unfortunately, abandoning my original body and transferring my consciousness into a snake clone—then using it to form a new body—was the only way I could slip inside the barrier. It was practically a space-time technique… but it devoured far more chakra than a standard Body Replacement. Several times more, damn it!!
The results of my quick scan of the surroundings were grim. I'd landed in hell! And with almost no chakra left. Flames, steam, crackling puppets—everything inside the barrier was consumed by chaos.
Hiyaku no Jutsu—one of my own techniques, developed for enhanced stealth.
"Developed" might be a bit of an overstatement, though. In truth, my "chameleon" technique is simply a variation of the basic Kakuremino no Jutsu, the Cloak of Invisibility—adapted so that, thanks to the peculiarities of a serpent's body, it allows for movement.
Under the effect of this technique, movements become fluid yet subtly erratic, blending with the rustle of leaves—or the shifting play of shadows in firelight, as in this case. That's why I crept forward slowly, but no one could see me; even the flow of chakra within my body became barely noticeable. If I were to layer Sage Mode on top of that, it would make for perfect stealth at minimal cost.
The estate where the kidnapped Uzumaki was being held was half-destroyed—which wasn't surprising, considering how many Kage-level shinobi had gathered here. Oddly enough, there were no corpses yet—and likely wouldn't be any. For now, a fragile balance had formed.
Based on my quick assessment, the opposing sides would eventually reduce everything to rubble and then withdraw—because the very cause of the conflict would be swept away in the heat of battle. That would suit Uzushiogakure just fine, and Suna could accept it as well.
Which meant I needed to hurry, while the Uzumaki still have hope of getting their child back alive.
Moving unnoticed under the crossfire of multiple Kage-level shinobi was extremely difficult. I was drenched in sweat by the time I reached the interior—after covering a grand total of five meters.
Unfortunately, the clone I'd transferred into had been in the inner courtyard, and most of the surrounding buildings were already destroyed. In fact, only one structure remained relatively intact—the house that presumably belonged to the main family of the estate. Its walls were reinforced with seals, which is why even powerful ninjutsu hadn't reduced it to rubble in the opening minutes of the fight.
That was where the Sand shinobi had dug in.
And right into their rear I had slipped.
Relaxing was out of the question, so I kept moving under the Chameleon Technique. You never knew who might notice—and I already had more than enough problems. As it stood, some genius would occasionally send Scorch Release orbs blazing down the corridors.
A flicker of movement caught my eye.
A vortex of water senbon shot from my mouth, peppering a Sand shinobi who hadn't even managed to form hand seals.
That's how it's done!
Sometimes it's better to use a weaker technique—but a faster one.
I have plenty of such tricks up my sleeve, like this Tenkyū, which I picked up from the Second. I simply didn't have the chakra reserves to create massive fireballs, hurricanes, or lightning blades. As I'd said before, I lacked the physical energy needed to manifest large-scale techniques.
On the bright side, by the age of fifteen I'd mastered all the basic nature transformations! It turned out to be fairly easy, once you understood the nature of the elements.
I might be far from a physicist, but I still remember my school science—what fire is, what water is, electricity, air… that was enough.
Earth, though—that was where I ran into problems. My knowledge didn't help me understand how to make that element move on its own. It's earth. Stone! It doesn't move unless you kick it.
Fortunately, I turned out to have a genetic affinity for that element.
Tenkyu—Heavenly Weeping—was too weak to kill outright, but with enough skill, those water needles could paralyze a target. And I'd trained long enough. So, after quietly finishing off the Sand shinobi I'd immobilized with senbon that dissolved into water, I hid the body in a nearby storage room and carefully moved on.
If I'd run into a chunin here, that meant I was close.
I was almost out of chakra. I'd taken the pills, sure, but their effect wasn't nearly as strong as I'd like. And up ahead, there was bound to be some ridiculously strong bastard waiting—jonin-level at the very least. Murphy's law, after all.
…Well, whatever. I'll manage.
Probably.
At the very least, I can always run.