Tazuna and Raito went to the bridge with Shino and Naruto, who were on guard duty today. After checking everything they left the village heading north-east towards the capital of this small country.
"If you have a map, can you give it to me?" Raito asked while walking.
"Don"t have it, kid. What do we need a map for? We just want to live in peace." Tazuna was awfully long-winded today. His eyes looking around, checking the side of the roads.
"If we take this path all the way, we will reach the capital in no time. If we had a carriage, it wouldn"t even take more than an hour."
Raito stopped hearing that as he grabbed Tazuna stopping him. "I can show you a magic trick if you want."
"Magic trick? Like you did at the bridge?" Tazuna was mildly interested as he looked down.
"Um, if you close your eyes, the next time you open, you will be near the capital." Raito explained plainly as his hands reached for the hip pouch.
"Really?" Tazuna asked as he took a swig from his bottle. Looking at Raito, who was ready for action, he gave up and said, "Do your worst." Then he closed his eyes.
"You are a nice, old man." Raito covered Tazuna with his chakra. After letting out a small smile he shouted in his mind, "Store"
Tazuna disappeared and the various men hidden among the trees also stopped for a brief moment.
Raito turned back at the village and mouthed out the words, "Kakashi-sensei." Then a sword appeared out of nowhere. "I"ll do a little cleanup."
Men in various shaped big, small, thin or fat jumped and attacked Raito using weapons like their hand, short knives, dagger, a club or arrows.
"First archers." Raito quickly found the archer then disappeared from the spot. Next time he opened his eyes, Raito was behind a guy sitting on top of a tree with a bow in his hand.
Raito swung his sword cutting the thumb off his hand.
"My thumb!!" The archer guy shouted in pain as he fell down the tree.
The shouting alerted the men down as they looked up. Few of the people were good at aiming so, they threw small weapons like dagger and knives towards Raito.
Raito didn"t move much as he pointed his sword sheath to touch the projectiles. After traveling against gravity and wind, the force behind the projectile was quite weak.
Deflecting them, Raito sheathed back his sword then took out a few stone beads before throwing them towards them. The thugs below, jumped a bit dodging the beads.
But Raito stood there with half a rat seal. "Lance."
The small stone bead exploded on all sides. Thin but long pike/lance appeared piercing into the men all around. Thighs, shoulder, arms, everyone had extra two holes, some had additional pairs.
Raito sends out chakra threads attaching to the stone bead. With a thought, the stone pikes reformed back into a stone bead which made the people cry out again. Raito waved towards a direction before using "Body Flicker" to disappear into a distance.
Kakashi stood on top of a house as he saw Raito disappearing into a distance.
"That boy looks dangerous." Kurenai commented from behind.
Kakashi looked at his hand, remembering a few days ago, Raito had attempted to block his attack.
"Let"s go back." With a silent gust, the two disappeared.
The twenty men, who were on the ground, writhing in pain, finally stood up after half an hour. Pulling their weakened bodies, they traveled on carriages, finally reaching a big three storied building surrounded by few houses.
"You bunch of trash, you stupid trash." A short man with s.h.a.ggy brown hair and a pair of small, circular black gla.s.ses, wearing a black suit with a purple tie and closed-toed shoes, he stood behind a luxurious looking desk and a cigar in his hand.
He had a frown on his face as he looked at the twenty odd men in front of him. "Who was it? Was it copy-nin Kakashi? Or the new Jōnin, Kurenai?
"It wasn"t them… it wasn"t. It was a boy, boy with black hair and green eyes." One of the men, standing in front of the rest, answered.
"A boy? A Boy!?" Gatō grabbed one of the books behind him and threw, which hit the man in front.
"Useless, truly useless." Gatō jumped from his seat and walked towards the window, his two bodyguards walking forward with their sword on hand.
"Zōri, Waraji, let"s go." Gatō after a long time walked out of the room.
Waraji is a tall man wearing eye-patch over his right eye and has brown hair which he parts in three, finishing in an elaborate topknot. He has an intricate tattoo and a fairly long sword.
Zōri is a light-skinned man with bluish-white hair and black eyes, tattoos under his eye, wearing a dark purple hat on this head, the top of which extends far beyond the top of his head. He has a blue handled katana tied to his waist.
"Zabuza, that demon, should work after taking my money." Gatō laughed.
On a small house, a distance away from the building, Zabuza was sleeping on the bed and the masked man standing by his side.
Bang!
The door opened alarming the masked man but his head didn"t move, always facing Zabuza.
"Zabuza! What the h.e.l.l are you doing? They are still building that bridge. Tazuna is alive and now going to the capital.
Gatō waited for a while before walking in. Looking at the shabby hut, Gatō clicked his tongue in distaste.
Gatō raised his foot and kicked the small bed. "All the money I have given you and this is what you have been doing with it."
Gatō caught the Kubikiribōchō and examined it thoroughly. "How many times will you repair this useless sword?"
Gatō then threw the sword away as he bends down slightly, his hand reaching for Zabuza"s face.
But he was immediately stopped by the masked man, his hand felt like it was going to be crushed into dust.
"Stop disturbing." The masked man"s faceless face looked at Gatō, his voice dangerous.
"Y-You ddare." Gatō shook his hand vigorously and escaped from the grip of the masked man.
Zōri and Waraji who were already in a battle stance unsheathed their sword, making an overhead swing, cleaving downward.
A cold gust of wind appeared in the room chilling the frozen Zōri and Waraji, as they saw their sword blocked by the masked man. He grabbed their sword descent with his fingers, in between his index and thumb finger.
The coldness in the room increased once more as the figure in front of them changed into ice then broke down. Zōri and Waraji felt heaviness pressing them down, making them tremble fiercely.
"Go away and don"t disturb us." He finally let go of their necks and said softly.
"Y-y-you take my money but don"t do your work. If-if you don"t kill Tazuna, I will not pay you this month." Gatō trembled, pointing his finger and started to threaten them.
But just as he finished speaking, Gatō found that the air seemed heavier and breathing felt a bit difficult.
Zabuza had woken up but his eyes had turned red, which looked like a demon"s from the h.e.l.l.
Gatō had to take a few steps back to maintain his whatever left bearing. The two guards grabbed Gatō then left the small shack.
"Zabuzsama, you should rest." The masked man stopped beside Zabuza then grabbed his hand.
"Hmph." Zabuza jerked off his hand then covering his shoulder, grabbed the Kubikiribōchō and sat on the bed.
Looking at the ice blocks in the room, Zabuza scanned through them then called the masked man, "Haku, clean it."
On the way to capital, Raito used "Body Flicker" fully and saw the improvement on it. The vague colors earlier were now had shapes and could be differentiated properly.
Raito stood in front of the path near the capital pa.s.sing by a few farm fields.
"Retrieve."
Tazuna appeared in front, his eyes still closed. After quite a while, Tazuna couldn"t stand anymore, still, with his eyes closed, he shouted, "Brat when are you going to start."
Raito smiled, his hands covering his mouth. "We are already here."
"What?" Tazuna opened his eyes then looked left and right, and only after a long time, Tazuna sat down to control his rapidly beating heart.
His hand shook as he brought it up to take a sip.
His hands holding his face, Raito finally used his skill to calm Tazuna.
"H-How? I-I was just there an-and now I am here." No longer trying to understand the situation, Tazuna finished the alcohol in the bottle.
Raito just facepalmed to the situation. Sighing to his fate, Raito used "Heal" and "Hypnotic wave" to help Tazuna recover.
Inside the capital, Raito walked in the shadows as Tazuna talked with a slightly plump man. The plump man had a face of good fortune and he gave a friendly but sad aura.
They walked around for a long time before appearing in front of a chain of buildings.
"Everything"s here?" Tazuna asked the plump man.
"Yes, everything." The plump man nodded before patting Tazuna and secretly whispering into his ear before leaving.
Looking at the chain of similar looking building which looked like a warehouse, Raito couldn"t help but take a deep breathe in.
"Brat, these warehouses have all the things we need to complete the bridge."
"Twelve building?"
"Yeah."
"Okay." Raito pulled out his book and activated the shadow clone technique.
The clones appeared dashing into the buildings.
"Ninja tricks… how can we, ordinary people match?" Tazuna gulped his Adam"s apple moving up and down, his voice filled with bitterness.
Raito looked back to see the amazed face on Tazuna.
Tazuna walked in on one of the warehouses but found it empty. One, two, three… every single one of them was empty.
"This really makes my heart hurt." Tazuna faked the pain as he walked towards Raito.
When Raito saw Tazuna coming, he had a sorry written on his face.
"Hey, hey, what"s with the face? We have gathered everything. So, we can now finish the bridge now."
Raito jumped appearing in front of Tazuna, grabbed him then stored him in the inventory.
Swish!
Raito dodged the arrow aimed at him. The more he moved, the more arrows fell down on him. Feeling that it was rather a warning than a killing shot, Raito stopped moving.
Expanding his sense, Raito could see that, this small road was surrounded by hundreds of archers. But they seemed to be a mismatch of people.
Raito waited for things to happen and just as he predicted, a group of people came into view on the road numbering more than fifty.
"Everyone is between thirteen and fifteen." Raito smiled strangely as the thugs walked towards him.
In the very front, a man covered with blood and dirt was being pushed by the people at the back. This man was the plump man who had left few moments ago.
Raito shook his head then brought out a big plain cloth, covering himself with it. As the cloth covered him, the Raito disappeared to appear in front of the plump man forcing him into the inventory, then disappearing leaving no dust behind.
Everyone was stunned. The thugs and the archers, they looked around for nothing as the figure was nowhere to be found.
Watching from an empty building, Raito saw the archers searching for him. "I have starred all of you, how are you going to run away from me?"
Raito wore a grim smile as his hand grew black and shiny rocks. With a jump, Raito disappeared into thin air (Yup, Dungeon), next time he appeared he was behind a thin man with long nose. Raito"s fist hit the man"s back and bones cracked before screams came out, Raito pulled him inside inventory.
Maybe a few had heard the small scream, the thugs started walking towards the direction. Raito dropped a few stone beads then jumped into the shadows using a vanishing Genjutsu to hide.
The thugs came into groups, walking all over the narrow alley.
"Lance." The stone bead burst and pike/lance erupted piercing the thugs, incapacitating them instantly.
Dropping down from the shadows, Raito picked one then stored them in the inventory.
Seeing that one of their comrades has disappeared in thin air, the thugs were mad and also fearful. They started making a commotion.
Frowning Raito activated one of the Genjutsu skills that he had learned in the previous month. "Genjutsu - Turtle"s Pace"
It was a mid-level Genjutsu but it was it consumed too much chakra points. The effect was clearly visible but the effect only lasted for less than a minute. And the main defect was that it only worked in someone who hadn"t practiced his chakra.
When Raito found that he had wasted this month"s half quota, he was very mad, wanting to rob the library.
"It"s okay." Raito quickly grabbed everyone, putting them in the inventory.
First Raito pulled out Tazuna then explained to him everything that happened. Next he pulled out the plump man. When he was pulled out, Tazuna dropped down shaking the plump man.
Raito rolled his eyes and pulled Tazuna, "If you do that, he will lose more blood."
"Heal."
Only after completely healing the plump man, Raito used his "Chakra Sense" in full power. He saw that a man was watching at him using a telescope. Standing at that man"s position he could see that the man only seemed to look at Tazuna as he was hidden by the wall.
"My son… they have my son?" the plump man who had walked with Tazuna and laughed with him was now in despair as he looked at the sky blankly.
Raito felt like the words were heavy, hitting his heart, causing pain. Not knowing what to say, Raito found that Tazuna was looking at him.
Raito nodded and called the plump man. The man calmed down and faced Raito, "What"s your name? What is your son"s name?"
Raito wanted to ask what had happened but the man had already started speaking, "I"m Eda Seison. My son is called Eda Konosuke. Please save him."
Even under Raito"s hypnotic wave, he had the ability to plead for his son. Immediately after Raito heard his true name, two profiles appeared in the info book.
After looking at the 3-D picture, Raito used his upgraded "Chakra Sense" to cover the whole of the small capital. Raito had used extra chakra per minute to increase the range, quickly finding the small boy.
Eyes shining, Raito grabbed the two grown men and pulled them in the inventory, not letting them to even talk.
Disappearing into a dungeon, Raito appeared in front of a pub. Quickly walking down, he appeared in an underground bas.e.m.e.nt and took out an earth stick.
[Earth Stick (+11)]
Made by manipulating rock into a stick
ATK: 33-34
Weight: 42
(Confuse: 10% chance of giving a "confused" effect.)
Four bulky men stood guarding the door inside and outside. A boy was tied down in a chair, he had tear stains and was currently sleeping. Most probably, the boy had cried to sleep.
Raito appeared in the middle of the two men striking the head with the stick. Getting hit on the head, the immediately lost consciousness and fell down, making a big sound.
Ignoring the door being opened and the men screaming, Raito grabbed the boy and disappeared from their sight.
"We have to inform them."
"Quick."
These men seem to have made a mad dash but there were other people in the pub who were waiting left for observing.
Looking at these plays Raito rolled his eyes and went to an abandoned building, helping the father and son meet.
Seison cried, hugged then kept saying "sorry".
"Old friend if you want, you can come to our nameless village."
Seison shook his head then began talking with Tazuna.
Raito shook his head as he tuned them out opting to use "Chakra Sense".
While using it for fun, Raito found a pair walking in robes dark in color with red patterns. They were wearing a hat, so, he was unable to know who they were. Getting his interest caught by other people, Raito turned around and continued exploring.
Seison kneeled down with his child and said, "Young ninja, I thank you, really, really. If there is anything I can do I will do. This man and his son are forever in your debt."
"I…" Raito had indeed immediately thought of those groups of children in the nameless village but in the end Raito just shook his head.
"Old man Tazuna, let"s go." Raito walked out immediately and Tazuna followed him.
"We wasted so much time." Raito sighed as he stood in front of the gates.
Pushing his hand forward, Raito waited for Tazuna to grab his hand.
"Brat, thanks for saving him."
"No problem." Raito immediately grabbed him disappearing from the area.
Raito thought that he had left hidden and not made too much noise inside but there was a figure looking at him couple of miles away from where he was standing.
"What a technique." The man with his expressionless face jumped down and met with the taller member of the pair.
"What happened?" The nasal voice was jarring but it seemed the expressionless man didn"t care.
"I recalled someone interesting." The emotionless man with his red eyes looked back then walked away. (you know who that is.)