12 CHAPTER 12

WIPEOUT

Katabami Gold mine village.

Under the shining moonlight, Ranmaru walked toward the camp calmly under the disguise of genjutsu. He walked closer to the other guard and the guard noticed him.

"Wow, that was quick. I thought you were going to take a dump." The man joked.

"I only took a piss." Ranmaru said.

When he got closer to the guard, he noticed that the guard tensed up, and was looking at him with caution while his mouth still upturned. The guard's hand was inching closer to the blade on his hip and was ready to shout when he was pulled into a genjutsu. The last thing the man saw was a kid looking at him with glowing red eyes.

Ranmaru did not understand how he got exposed, probably the words the guard said needed a code word and that's what exposed me. Ranmaru decided not to kill the guard immediately and put him to sleep as to not alert the sleeping shinobi inside the tent with the smell of blood. Ranmaru went to the one further away sleeping on the log. Like a cat on a hunt, he went closer without a sound.

'puchi!' The sound of a blade hitting flesh was heard when Ranmaru plunged the knife into the unfortunate bandit's neck while his other hand was covering the man's mouth.

Ranmaru didn't have to worry about the other eight people because they were dead drunk. Now, he has to think of a way on how to deal with the shinobi safely.

Ranmaru saw a bow and arrow beside the bandit he killed. He took the bow and tried to pull it. He pulled with his strength and determined that he can use it properly, so he took an arrow and went closer to the tent were the leader was.

Ranmaru can see the leader inside with his 'yureigan'. He went closer to the target four meters away so he can hit him accurately and give a room to respond to sudden changes. This is the first time that Ranmaru held a bow and arrow, but with the help of his dojutsu, granting him heightened perception and analytical powers, he took aim at the leader's neck confidently while taking a deep breath.

Ranmaru released the arrow and it went through the cloth and accurately pierced the leader's neck penetrating it and lodging deep into the ground. The leader abruptly opened his eyes and struggled to stand up and breathe but he failed. The arrow was deeply nailed to the ground so he reluctantly let go, dying the ground red with his blood. Ranmaru didn't get close to the shinobi because he can see through his eyes that the shinobi was pretending to be dead and was silently accumulating chakra for a burst attack. Ranmaru waited outside for a few minutes until the vitality of the bandit leader slowly dwindled and died.

The guard outside didn't wake up because he was still under the influence of genjutsu, and the other bandits that were drunk didn't even notice that they were being killed one by one. Ranmaru finished them quickly with one stab at the throat each.

After he was done, he laid down the ground while panting. He was hyperventilating, his hands were trembling, and he was sweating profusely while feeling cold. Ranmaru sat up and vomited to the side. This is the first time that he took lives from both of his lifetime so it was understandable that he had this kind of reaction. Ranmaru was just suppressing it earlier with his will and with the help of adrenaline but now that he relaxed, he completely let go.

Ranmaru stood up after a few minutes and searched for his spoils. He collected a few usable knives and the bow and arrow he used earlier from the bandit goons. He went to the leader and collected a kunai and few shurikens on his body and a whopping 54,000 ryo. What surprised him the most was an explosive tag although only one, it already is a good harvest. He also found a box under the bandit leader's pillow containing a scroll and decided to open it later.

After he was done looting and putting them inside a sack, he carried the bodies and put them into a stack. He poured all the alcohol and fuels he could find to the bodies and lit them up.

He stood there silently for an hour, watching their bodies burn to ashes. The fire was reflected in his eyes, it was burning brightly, illuminating the surrounding few meters. He prayed for them in his mind and hopes that in their next lives, they will become an honest and kind people.

Ranmaru went home past midnight. Although it was dark, but with his 'yureigan' activated, he can see at night without any problem. He arrived at his room and slumped to the bed exhausted. When he laid on the bed, the taught nerves relaxed and a few moments later he fell asleep.

This night was very wild and dangerous, putting him in great stress, with him being always on edge in the past few hours adding the fact that he used 'yureigan' continuously for a few minutes during that time.

This put a heavy burden in his mind coupled with his chakra being almost down to zero. But he has to get used to it sooner or later because he still had many battles ahead to win in the future.

The next morning he woke up late, fortunately he didn't have to go to work today and he had an entire three days for himself because it will take time to repair the shop.

Ranmaru started again with his daily yoga after his light stretching. He was doing his training while sticking to the wall vertically to practice his chakra control at the same time. In this way he won't waste time doing the separate exercises and focus the saved time in other training.

After finishing the set, he went for a jog around the village for a few laps, then he went on to weight training after. He didn't have enough money to buy weights just yesterday but now that he had enough funds he still didn't go and one of the reason is that the location of the shop where they sell weights was not in the village so he ignored the weights and instead made his own from a sack filled with sand and tied it to his body while doing pull-ups and push-ups.

When he was tired, he sat down for rest and remembered that he still had the box containing an unknown scroll so went back into his room and took a look at it.

The scroll was black with silver engravings on the back. When Ranmaru opened it, he was slightly surprised because of what was written at the top. The title of the scroll was fuinjutsu, specifically, the basic sealing techniques for dummies.

'Wow, this is really a big pie from the sky. I was thinking of learning some techniques and one came to me very fast…. Thank you author god-san for this gift and may your divine light shine upon your humble servant forever. If you truly exist please don't mess with my destiny too much and leave what is written in the holy book of judgement…I still want to live for a long time, thank you.'

Ranmaru was slightly confused why the bandit leader didn't put up barrier seals while on his sleep, but this is a good thing and in his favor. No need to think of unimportant problems that are already solved.

'The dead bandit leader was really good, donating tens of thousands of ryos to me with a few weapons included. The saying that a good enemy is the dead enemy is really appropriate to describe it.' Ranmaru thought in his mind.

The content of the scroll contained a few basic seals and list of materials needed to complete the seal. An example of which is chakra draining seal. A D rank seal that places a seal on a person that will drain it's chakra, so that the user can use it himself.

'Hmmm. This technique is very similar to my life drain, vitality drain or life steal whatsoever. The only difference is that I also absorb vitality in addition to chakra without needing for a seal.'

'Wait, maybe I can use this technique to enhance my own ability. That's it! I won't have to destroy the opponent's consciousness to drain their vitality for easy absorption if this plan succeeded." Ranmaru was very excited and started learning immediately on the spot, reading the scroll with renewed vigor.

The sealing scroll also contained the process of making explosive tags, sealing art: storage extension, sealing art: courier message, and sealing art: safeguard. Although all of them are in D rank, the value of the sealing art: storage extension was already very good which stores items on a scroll.

'I will buy arm braces and utility belt for shinobis in the future when I learn these sealing techniques and engrave them with seals.' Ranmaru was already planning for his future projects even though he doesn't have enough funds yet.

Ranmaru continued his enthusiasm in learning sealing arts for three days. He was very tired but still continued learning as the sealing arts was very interesting. It was noticeable how exhausted he was from his looks. His hair was like a bird's nest and he got dark circles on his eyes looking like a depraved hungry vampire, but his eyes are still shining bright.

With the help of yureigan, Ranmaru's perception and analytical powers were multiplied. He understood all of the seals on the scroll in these three days and he was even itching to try to combine the chakra draining seal technique with his life drain ability. Ranmaru was like Albert Einstein plus Albus Dumbledor combined and was injected with a chicken blood.

However, he was really exhausted and he had to go to work tomorrow. Ranmaru decided to continue this the other day and get some sleep after having a meal.

The next few days, Ranmaru continued practicing chakra control while at work and tried to modify the chakra drain seal after his yoga and meditation at night but he still had no success until now. Ranmaru didn't give up and continued to study the seal.