4 Chapter 4:

Nero's POV

I started walking towards the direction of where Mayami was located, along the way I disabled a rabbit and inserted some nanites into it before trying to absorb the energy, I only got a meagre and insignificant amount of points.

My hypothesis was that smaller animals offer less chakra and bigger animals offer more chakra, then there's the summons of this world this definitely had some chakra reserves but for now I would ignore them.

Not that I could take any of the more powerful summons on anyway, I also didn't want to risk absorbing nature energy and turning into a toad or something equally weird. The system also stated explicitly that taking in a high concentration of nature energy will certainly short circuit my entire nanobots since they aren't durable enough.

So for now I take the chakra that is constantly leaking from people and saturates the air. Apparently people always let out a small wisp of chakra, it's too small to even notice normally unless one has perfect chakra control and actively tries to stop the outflow of their chakra.

The trip to Mayami was not as eventful as I'd hoped, I spent days taking detours to find groups of bandits but my luck seemed to be non existent, I attributed the lack of bandits to the fact that the rulers of Soragakure spent a considerable sum of money and manpower to clear out any bandits since merchants frequent this route.

.....A random alleyway in Mayami

??? POV

I paced around nervously in the dark alley as I waited for my 'boss' to arrive, the strange device he gave me had started beeping a few days ago and he told me to go to a secluded location when it beeped and he'd find me.He had sent me here about 2 weeks ago, and told me to get him valuable information about the a powerful gang ruling the underworld of Mayami.

He had appeared in our base suddenly and killed off most of us easily, not even our leader who had chakra was able to stand up to him, I couldn't have hoped to kill him with my unremarkable sword skills.

After leaving only three of us alive out of 30 people he had given each of us a task to complete. He inserted a strange black substance in our blood and caused a sharp pain to assault me.I didn't need to be told twice, I was now basically his slave, and the only way to not die was to be 'useful'.

I had kept my head down and listened to his orders, although I wasn't really strong my cunning nature and ability to gather information was top notch, not all was bad though, he promised me a reward after I completed this mission so it wasn't all bad, it was better than working for my former boss who was content in running a small group robbing a few carriages that passed by.

My ambition simply did not allow me to stay with such person. My plan was to overthrow him but our group was massacred before I could. Luckily my new unknown boss seemed to also desire more than my last one.

"Why are you so nervous,did you fail your task? I wouldn't want to kill you too." A commanding and calm voice woke me from my thoughts.

Taking I deep breath to supress the scream that was about to leave my lips I turned around. Standing there was a strange man. Looking at his form I couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air. He wore strange clothes that I had never seen before and a plain white mask that covered the top of his face.

What scared me the most though was his aura. He had a sharp air around him that made me feel like an ant. I didn't even need to ask to know who this was, his arrogant smirk and pirecing red eyes suited a man who viewed everything in the world below him and only one person had given off such an aura before. My mysterious 'boss'.

"N- no, not at all boss I was just feeling a little chilly is all." I replied with a disarming forced smile. From what he said, I could deduce that my fellow companions had failed him and died.

"If you're cold let's leave this gloomy place then, walk with me." My mysterious 'boss' said and started walking out of the alley.

I gulped a mouthful of saliva and followed behind him.

....

Nero's POV

I left the alleyway with my subordinate in tow. She was a fairly beautiful woman who had short black hair and wore a simple grey kimono tied with a white obi. Her long hair was tied neatly into a bun and her alluring grey eyes stared deeply at my back trying to discern me.

She was a normal human for the most part, pitifully low reserves of chakra and her only redeeming quality was her sword skills, apparently she was an apprentice of a famous samurai, but her former teacher kicked her out due to her non existent chakra which meant she couldn't use any of his techniques and was a shame to his dojo. From there her life went downhill.

After that she joined a group of bandits, and that's how she ran into me.

"The new look suits you, makes you blend in quite well with this environment." I commented and gestured to the crowed of men and women who all wore traditional Japanese clothing.

"Thank-you, I couldn't wear my samurai armor since it would place too much attention and interfere with the job you gave me." She replied in a humble and respectful tone.

"Speaking of that, do you have any good news for me?" I asked cheerfully as we entered a brothel and booked a room.

"I managed to find the name of their leader and their base of operations, but it seems they are catching onto to me so I couldn't get any further information I apologize." She spoke in a submissive and almost believable tone. The only thing that betrayed her were her eyes, deeply rooted within them was am ambition almost similar to mine.

If she could she would kill me here and now, the only thing preventing her from doing so was the fear of what I could do to her without even moving a single step.

Usually I wouldn't have left her alive, but she was the most useful of all my pawns. Smart, strong, decisive but most importantly she was well aware of what I could offer her and in return she was willing to gamble with her life just to move one step closer to her ambition.

"It's fine, tell me everything you know." I waved dismissively poured a drink as I listened to her briefing.

"The gang is run by an unknown figure who goes by the name serpent, nobody besides his four lieutenants who are as strong as chunin ninja know how he/she looks or where we can find serpent.My sources claim that serpent only ever moves when the situation requires it and most of the time leaves the work to the lieutenants. In two days they have a shipment of slaves and drugs coming in which will be handled by one of the lieutenants." She explained and handed over a scroll that continued detailed info on the abilities of researchers lieutenants and how they look like.

It took roughly 2 minutes to read the details of the scroll and a plan started forming in mind.

"This will take a tad longer than I thought, since we don't want to make much noise I guess we'll need to smoke out our little friends and crush them in one fell swoop." I said with a light smile as I took a sip of my drink, we spent a few more hours discussing the next step before I decided to leave.

"Tomorrow meet me 10 km west of this town and make sure you aren't being followed."I ordered her and left the room with a satisfied grin plastered on my face.

...

The next day arrived, I left Mayami and headed west where I met my diligent subordinate waiting just like I instructed.

"Good you're here, by the way what's your name?." I asked cheerfully as I started setting up my drone for recon for the Carmen shipping the slaves and drugs.

"Uhh....my name is Ichigo boss how should I address you boss?" My subordinate whose name I now knew as Ichigo asked.

"We'll just go with Ryū, yeah my name is Ryū." I told her a fake name I decided to use just a few seconds after she asked me.

"I understand...uhh Ryū." Ichigo said respectfully.

"Okay now onto business, I want to test something so take this bracelet and this sword." I instructed Ichigo, who did as I told her, albeit hesitantly.

"Now then wear the bracelet on you arm and push that green button right there." I instructed.

She pushed the button and watched in amazement as the bracelet seemed to come to life and dig into her skin and activating the nanites I had injected into her, the purpose of doing this was to use my nanites natural ability to absorb chakra and instead of converting it to mana like usual I created a batch of different nanites that that will use the raw chakra to forcefully temper Ichigo's muscles, nerves and brain to increases strength, senses and her natural reflex, the cost was about 4000 mana points just for half a syringe worth of nanaites but it was worth it since this would increase the powers of my pawns to a certain extent.

She let out a shriek of pain before falling on her knees and rolling on the ground. After a minute of doing this the pain subsided and she stood back up again, steam was coming from her body and her pupils were dilated as she gasped for air.

"How do you feel? Any pain or discomfort?" I asked as I scanned her.

"N -no I feel stronger?." Ichigo said with surprise in her voice.

"That means my plan worked then, I used the natural chakra in the air to purify your body, so your strength and chakra levels might've increased by about 1.8 from how you originally were." I speculated as I used my nanites to scan her body using cybermind.

"This isn't enough though so for the next 6 hours we'll be artificially pushing your body to the extremes until you're 10 times stronger than how you are right now." I told her and without waiting for a reply I sent the order for the purification to commence.

For the next 6 hours, screams of pain and pleas filled the forest as Ichigo felt every nerve in her body send impulses as her muscles tore themselves and were reformed by nanaites and chakra making her physically stronger than ever, now she should atleast be at the level of a peak genin.

Although the process was painful, it was also necessary since if this was all it took to break her then she wouldn't be worth much as my pain in the future.

After the process was complete Ichigo passed out and twitched continuously on the ground.

I also wiped off some sweat from my forehead since I had to continuously use cybermind on the nanobots to make sure nothing went wrong during the process, if I wasn't overseeing it she might've died since I had to actively keep her heart beating and her brain awake by stimulating her nerves.

I waited for about an hour or so before Ichigo's eyes fluttered and showed signs of waking up.

"Ugh, shit that hurt." She commented bitterly, If she didn't fear me as much as she did, she might've just glared daggers at me.

"You survived very good, also the pain was worth it since it took you six hours to do what people with a talent usually take atleast 14 months to achieve. You're quite ungrateful little Ichigo." I spoke in a slightly annoyed tone as I finished my statement.

"F-forgive me Ryū, it was not my intention to anger you please punish me accordingly." She bowed in a kowtow and spoke without looking up at me.

"I don't want to hear that, if you want forgiveness then go south from here and intercept the oncoming shipment of goods meant for serpent, your bracelet will guide you,it will also help in getting used to your new strength. I don't have to tell you what to do if you fail right Ichigo." I said coldly as killing intent leaked out of me and caused Ichigo to quake in fear.

"I'll do so at once my lord." She responded quickly picked up the sword I gave her and scurried off without hesitation, I nodded in approval she was a fast learner which was good, the more she feard and respected me

the less chances of rebellion would form in her mind.

Afterall fear keeps humans in check, people could cherish someone but still betray them when certain conditions are met, but with fear it was a different story the very thought of betrayal would cause them to shudder and imagine what gruesome fate would await them. Humans also responded favorably to being rewarded and granted their desires so I just needed to set them in their place using fear and motivate them at the concept of receiving their wish when they satisfy me. I started walking back to the town humming a tune to myself.

....

Ichigo POV

A day had passed since Ryū had sent me out to my newest mission, the carven had more than 30 guards who were skilled and trained ninja and samurai all of then were atleast at genin level which meant I was not only outnumbered I also lacked the raw power to take even half of the group down.

I sighed in defeat at the fact that I was basically being sent to my own death, it seemed I had finally outlived my usefulness to Ryū and now I was to be used as Canon fodder to take down as many people as I can since I doubted even he could handle this many ninja and samurai.

Although my chakra had leaped well beyond a normal human's it wasn't anywhere near enough to help me survive tonight ,but the thought of what he would do to me if I failed prevented me from just running, I knew he would undoubtedly find and torment me in all sorts of ways before killing me off.

I patiently waited for the carven to stop and set up camp for the night before begining my mission, my plan was simple kill as many as possible in their sleep and then attack the rest.

I waited for the bustle to die down and for the first group of guards to begin patrol. They walked in pairs, one of them being a ninja while the other was a samurai and currently 10 people were vigilantly looking out for any attackers.

I waited for an opening which showed itself two hours later. two of the guards left their posts and went inside the carriages giving me acess to enter the camp unnoticed.

There were about 17 tents in total and judging by my increased chakra perception the most luxurious one housed a mid jounin chakra level combatant. Atleast that's what this strange device strapped to my wrist said.

I unscathed my sword and crept inside the first tent to find two people happily snoring away, I approached them ever so slowly so as to not alert them. Once I once close enough I swung my sword at full forced and watched as the sword cut through the man's neck as if it was air.

I quickly stabbed the other man's throat using a kunai I carried on me and pushed him down until his struggles stopped.

After completing my first two kills I took a deep breath and decided to quicken my pace, if I kept up my current pace I wouldn't be done and only one hour was left before the guards changed shifts.

I managed to slaughter 6 more unsuspecting guards and just as I was about to attack another one.

My senses suddenly flared and purely by instinct I jumped back and watched as a blade slashed where my neck was a second later.

"Tch! Why did you kill my men?" A gruff voice asked.

Looking at the burly man who was looking down at me, I sweatdropped. His chakra levels were that of a chunin.

I didn't reply but instead threw my kunai at his face, he easily evaded it and rushed at me.

"It doesn't matter, you'll speak soon enough."He sad with a sadistic cackle and swung his chakra infused blade at me.

I used my sword to block his strike, my sword hummed and started glowing blue before the chakra on the man's blade was absorbed by mine.

The man jumped back wearily and weaved some handsigns.

"Wind release! air bullets jutsu!" He bellowed took a deep breath before spitting out a sphere made of compressed air.

Time seemed to slow down as my breathing quickened, my heart started beating faster, it was so fast I could hear it. The sphere moved so agonizingly slow I managed to jump out of the way and rush the man.

A hopeful smile adorned my face as I swung my sword aiming to decapitate him but he suddenly disappeared in a blur of speed, although my eyes could somehow keep up that wasn't the case with my body so I could only watch as the man got away.

Soon I was surrounded by a dozen men who all had their weapons out, a few of them assaulted me with their jutsu but was able to somehow evade the attacks, relying purely on my instincts I swung my blade at one if the balls of water I was too late to dodge and watched as it lost its shape and velocity, the water harmlessly splashed me.

The rest of the fight was a blur, my body felt like it was under someone else's control as I weaved through their attacks and cut them down one by one.

My body moved on it's own, although I was burnt, stabbed and cut and had deep gashes I still kept going.

As I fought my way through them, one of the men swung their sword and cleanly cut off my arm causing my to scream internally, my mouth just let out a grunt although a second later the pain subsided as the bleeding stopped and a black substance covered my stump.

My body didn't stop for even a second, as efficiently and brutally as possible I ran my sword through the man and watch as the smile on his face turned to horror as I twisted my sword and slashed his heart.

I avoided a blade of wind that came my way and my blank eyes stared at the last man standing, he was breathing heavily as he looked at me in horror.

"W-what the fuck are you?" He asked, instead of replying I rushed him and swung my sword. He jumped back fearing that I would disregard any injuries to kill him.

But I instinctively swung my sword at where he was gonna land and an arc of bluish energy cut off his legs from the thighs.

"Aaarg!!!" He let out a pained scream and started crawling away but I followed behind him and cut off his head.

Seeing as I was finally the only combatant left alive, my perception returned back to normal along with the rest of my senses.

A large amount of pain assaulted me and I let out a scream of agorny before passing out right after.

...

Nero's POV

I casually approached the camp in my armor after all the fighting stopped, I had been watching the entire fight using my drone and I must say I was impressed with myself.

What had just happened now is a state I called nanite overdrive, when the host is in danger the nanites forcefully suppress the restraints that the mind puts on the human body so as to not break itself it also dulls pain and allows the person to fight as effectively as possible, if losing an arm was deemed the effective method then they won't hesitate to do so as demonstrated by Ichigo.

My second experiment had proven to be a success, cybermind was really a great ability. I could reprogram the nanites to do anything and the mana cost was almost negligible but the results were astounding.

Looking at Ichigo's pathetic form, I approached her and did a full body diagnosis. Surprisingly she was still alive, although bearly, the only thing keeping her alive at this point was the nanites, but even then she wouldn't last if I did interfere.

Although nothing really motivated me to do so, she wasn't a loyal follower and would definitely betray me if she could and her ambition was a problem. She had also reached the cap of what her potential could allow her, this was really a dilemma.

Leave her to die? or save her and conduct more experiments through her? I could try to win her by my side as a loyal soldier.

...

Hope like this chapter, I don't know how many times a rewrote it for it to only be somewhat readable but please enjoy anyway and comment if you like it.