28 Martin

"Rich Romance, Poor Paths"

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"Yeah, I can speak. What! You thought I am some random animal lying there on the ground?" asked the crow in a cold voice, seemingly offended at Reo.

"No, I didn't mean that-"

"I don't want to listen to your rubbish. I asked you a question and you should reply to it by now." ordered the crow, forgetting that it was Reo who treated and rescued his depleting life force.

"You... anyways, you said that my meditation method is bad. But why?" asked Reo, trying to get some conversation going and to get some information on the crow.

He thought that it was better to keep the crow's ego high and try to get as much info from him. Thus, he followed his plan and probed the crow as much as he could.

"Why, you asked. It's simple. The meditation technique you are practicing does not follow the conventions of your body. Neither does it open any arteries nor any chakra regions on your body. In other words, you're efficiency is very low in increasing the quality and quantity of your chakra." answered the crow with his neck held high, like a teacher correcting the errors of his student.

"These many," Reo was dumbfounded after knowing the misdirection in his practice, still he did not fully trust him and asked back, "Why do I believe you? I even don't know your name?"

"I'm Martin." replied the crow after thinking for a moment and added, "Haven't you known of beasts containing power, so much that they were sealed into restricted regions. You can think of me as one of them, though I am not someone among them. I'm basically from a far away place that it very difficult for anyone of the humans in this realm to jump over."

Martin took a deep sigh as he continued on," never-mind me, young man, just believe me. If you keep on practicing with this technique, it might very well take another 5-10 years before you see any qualitative improvement in your body."

Reo had a feeling that Martin was speaking the truth. He too felt that recently his meditation quality seemed to drop a notch and it felt the deteriorating ever since. If he would try to guess, that as Martin said, it might really take a long period of time before being able to see any feasible effects.

"So do you have an alternative?" asked Reo with an excited voice to his tone.

He thought that if the crow could discern his malpractice, then he should also be able to get its cure. Right?

"Yes, I have," nodded Martin but then smirked as he added, "but do you think that I would willing give it to you for free?"

"You... what do you want?" Reo was starting to angry. The crow knew the technique, still he had to toil hard to obtain it.

"Promise me something," replied Martin as he continued on, "If and when you beat a person you will be up against, and win your encounter, then you must under all circumstances, find me as it would be my only opportunity to return to my homeland."

"Hmm... person destined to fight... win against him... return to find you... and take you to your homeland," Reo was confused after Martin said him a bunch of things.

"Who is that person? And if you only want to return to your homeland, let us go right now. I will tell my dad. He is an excellent shinobi and would help you reach your homeland." replied Reo, wanting to get a gist of the situation.

Martin looked over his shoulder, to the far east, and Reo could sense that Martin, even though in the form of a crow, had a smirk over his face as he said, "Your shinobi world will face a dangerous opponent in the future, or so shall the battle with him decide. Many fates will be intertwined as many are set to be destroyed and many are set to be re-formed."

Shaking his head, Martin continued on, "You will get acquainted with many heroes that could very well make your path easy, but they would only stick with you if you are strong enough to be stocked onto."

Suddenly, Martin disappeared from his resting place and arrived over Reo's shoulder and aimed at Reo neck, popping in his beak into his neck.

"Ah..." cried Reo from pain and attacked in defense but Martin was quick enough to evade his attack.

As Reo was crying from the aftershock, a voice came down into his ears which seem to travel from a long distance, "Young Man, I have given you 3 drops of my blood essence. It's my way of thanking you to save my life. It will help you in practicing your 'Mystic Shadow' and many more restricted heritage techniques. And also, as for the meditation technique, it was all a joke. Take care my friend."