Really?

It sucked that we were not able to fully kill Kakuzu but that guy was stronger than I gave him credit for. His ability to deal massive amounts of damage and shrug off hits that would put down anyone else is rather impressive.

We also went into that fight with a large advantage from my traps. Although the key point for fighting him is taking care of the Earth mask first even if it does not do well in combination jutsu.

Kakuzu had that one earth jutsu that massively increased his durability. If he had that Mask still he could shrug off the blows from Ringo's sword.

Hell, the only reason we were able to get the Earth Mask in the first place was because I lowered his durability massively with my curses. That and Ringo's mastery of the lightning element.

That fight had to happen as Kakuzu got his eyes on us and he was not going to let us go without one. It's a shame we could not get all that sweet sweet loot.

Instead, we had to settle for just some of it.

Yeah, it came as a surprise to me but each of his Masks was worth a decent amount of experience and they even had a good amount of loot. 

I guess that each of his masks was considered a summoned beast or minon. So the XP was good but Kakuzu would still be worth far more.

We got a surprising amount of Ryu from the kills but I guess Kakuzu treats others as a walking money bags so it makes sense that he was one as well.

Other than the money we received orbs that increased the elemental affinities of Earth and Lightning. Well, I say we but the loot was in my inventory.

I did plan on giving Ringo the Lightning one as she already had an impressive mastery over that element I was wondering if we could push it further.

Her strength was my own after all. I also wanted to ensure that she was safe in the long run. She really was rubbing off on me.

While the Loot was shared between us Rino was the only one who leveled up. 

The level difference between us meant that all the experience went to Ringo in that battle but that was fine. Without her I stood no chance at even running from Kakuzu.

I would just have to dry my tears with the large chunk of money I got from him. That and the other Orb.

I guess I could give the Earth Orb to Ringo as well. It would make her stronger no doubt but I kind of wanted it…..fuck it, I could do without it.

While we were running towards Raiga, Ringo was going over the options with me. She had a good feel over her own fighting style but I was the one that knew the system better.

So she asked for my advice. Well, she at first suggested dumping all her points in CHA and gave me an exaggerated wink but that passed quickly.

Say what you will about the girl but once she got something in her mind she ran with it.

Since she asked for my advice I had to think about this clearly. I did not want to lead her down the wrong path after all. 

Her stats were skewed heavily. STR was okay but barley outclassed me when I added all my buffs. She could certainly use the strength in her blows but it was not that important to her fighting style.

DEX was her main focus as striking fast was tailored made for the Kiba blades. Sure she enhanced her speed with her mastery of lighting release but that still had to build off of her base stats. 

INT was okay but she was not going to win any Nobel Peace prizes. WIS was surprisingly high but I suppose she was pretty rational about most things.

That left LUK, CHA, and CON. I was a firm believer in investing in LUK but she was not outrageously low in that regard. So it would not be that helpful to her and I knew I was being a bit irrational when I invested my points in it.

CHA can be useful for commanding respect and brokering deals but that is not something she really needs. Even before she chose to follow me she was not a leader. She was a mad dog that bit and chased whatever was in front of her and she was happy with that. So CHA would not be that helpful for her even if it would affect her looks.

It was not like she was horrible to look at. I may call her shark girl and question my aesthetics when I appreciate her but she is good-looking. Long flowing hair that she insists on wearing in an odd style but it still looks nice. Her features while sharp drew attention and when she genuinely smiled it softened the sharpness giving you a look at something unexpected.

When she was hunting or fighting her face looked like a shark on the hunt but in the day to day moments, she was charming.

Okay think less about her looks and concentrate on the points.

CON was probably her worst stat and it led to her health being far too low. When I gave her my blood it allowed her to recover from her disease but it did not improve her CON. Dumping those points would barely affect her since it was so low but she really needed it.

So the question comes out to whether she should play to her strengths or round out her weaknesses.

I looked over at her pale pallor and her short height and made a decision. I guess her height might not be due to her previous unhealthy body but it's hard to get the proper nutrition when you are fighting to survive.

"You should dump the points into CON. It's too low and it makes prolonged battles hard. With an increase in health, you can also increase your training beyond what you already are doing." I mentally spoke out to her my reasonings.

Although it was rather clear I had some bias here. I just wanted her to be healthy. I do think the long term benefits were better in CON but that was not my driving force here.

"I was thinking the same thing." She shot back without anything else added. She had this sort of wistful expression on her face that told me there was more to unpack here.

She had lived her entire life feeling sickly and weak so any route out of there was probably the first thing she wanted. Even if her fighting style mainly relied on speed and throwing lighting around when she had her blades.

I wanted to say something but I just could not figure out the right words. So I let her silently add the points but made a mental note about the future.

After a few more moments of Ringo running towards our destination, I decided to pipe in again.

"How much longer till we get there?" I asked breaking the silent mood brewing. It was not the greatest of questions but I'm not that good on the fly.

"Eh, should be another hour. The Land of Rivers is a lot closer in comparison to The Mist so we lucked out here. We also don't have to take a boat or run over water." Ringo shot back quickly. While she had a wistful look on her face before she collected herself quickly.

She was not the type of person to dwell on things like that.

"Great, when we near the place shift me to your back." I commented as I started to plot the destined battle of backpacks.

There was some silence as Ringo wore a frown on her face before she responded.

"I appreciate the help brat but Raiga is a bitch. I'm already going to bully him adding you to the fight would just make everything boring." Ringo shouts back with that frown on her face.

Ah, I forgot Ringo was someone who enjoyed the thrill of battle. Adding my help would make everything too easy. It would kill the thrill for her.

Well, time to be reasonable.

"I have no doubt that you could take him but he has a kid with him with a unique Dojutsu. The thing operates like the Byakugan but it also has sound." I explained and was going to get into it but Ringo interrupted me.

"What the fuck? How does that work!? I could understand reading lips but his fucking eyes hear!? What kind of bullshit am I getting involved in?" Ring let out a series of questions as she looked like she wanted to face-palm. Sadly for her, I was in her arms.

"Fuck it, A dumb version of the Byakugan is not that scary kid. Even with the backup I can take care of Raiga with my hands tied behind my back." Ringo shot off after a moment of collecting herself.

"Again I agree but that is not all the thing can do. The kid can pull off resurrections as well but he will die after he does his stick. But the stupidly power ability from him is he can cast Genjustu that you can't escape from." I shot out mentally. 

Hearing what I just said Ringo stopped running for a moment. The sudden drop of speed was well sudden but Ringo kept a good hold on me. Ringo kind of stood still for a moment before looking up at the sky as if again questioning the world around her.

"Okay, what the fuck is up with the world. I could understand you throwing around resurrections cause well you are weird brat but when did defying death become a gimmick that everyone has?

" Ringo spat out after a moment of cursing the gods.

"I mean he can only do it the one time." I spoke out softly as it looked like Ringo was going through it.

"Like that makes a fucking difference brat. What has the world come to? Wait, does this fucker also exist in our world or is it just in this strange copy? A clan of resurrecting unstoppable Genjustu users should be fucking famous." Ringo shot out with some urgency.

I feel like she was latching onto the wrong thing here as the Genjustu thing was the one I was worried about.

"They do, the kid is not part of a clan he just has a Dojustu," I spoke out slowly as I realized the ridiculousness of my words. Why was this a thing? I got that villains of the week are a thing but Ranmaru's existence kind of just said fuck you to the world settings.

"Fucks sake. Alright we speed blitz the kid and then you let me bully Raiga by myself the punk needs to be reminded who fucking runs the show." Ringo eventually admitted. I let out a sigh of relief as she was being reasonable.

I made a joke about the battle of backpacks but honestly, the unstoppable Genjustu stick freaked me out. I wanted that kid dead. Kind of a shit thing to want but the kid was working with someone that would murder me with no issues.

At least this is just a construct of the kid. Although that brings into question what is really real here. This world may be made from my skill but clearly the creatures in here had lives and a functioning society. One could argue that they are just as real as Ringo is to me.

Fucking introspection hurts my head, I got to stop this. Think of the loot, think of the loot.

Ringo picked me back up and we started our journey to the Land of Rivers again.

We soon reached the Gold Mine where Raiga was hiding out at. Ringo put me on her back and we started to walk into the place looking for our prey.

Before we could get into the place we spotted several figures pushing around civilians that were walking into the mine with reluctance.

Before anything else could happen they spotted us.

"Shit, we got fucking ninja's boys. Go Raiga-sama while we stall." The apparent leader of this small band of guards shot to another member who bolted as soon as he was told.

Ringo raised an eyebrow and threw a kunai at the retreating figure. The knife sunk into the back of his head and he slumped over from the sudden strike.

There was silence in the air as everyone took that in. The guards were shocked that their comrade died so easily. While Ringo was shocked that they were so weak.

"What the fuck? Did that punk really fall so low that he runs with dumbasses like this?" Ringo shot out with a face palm.

"FUCK! She killed Zatsuchi! Fuck! Alright, we got to pull off that move or we're dead boys! Time to nut up or shut up!" The lead one shouted out as they all jumped onto each other's shoulders?

What am I even looking at here? Ringo seemed to share my sentiment as she froze looking at the strange shit in front of us.

They then started to spin rapidly while approaching us with knives swirling around with them. I'll give them the fact that they were spinning rapidly enough to form a tornado but it was fucking baffling.

It was the equivalent of a three year old spinning his arms in his ultimate attack. They might deal some damage but they can't see shit with the world spinning around them. I'm also not even sure if that thing would hurt.

Ringo just paused while looking at them.

"Are they fucking with me?" Ringo asked while rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"I honestly think they think this is a good attack," I muttered out numbly as the tornado almost reached us.

"Take care of them brat. This is just sad." Ringo shot out with a pitying look on her face and honestly, I got it.

I shot out a wave of flames which joined into the tornado. The thing quickly caught on fire as well increasing their damage output but judging from the screams of pain and despair the grunts did not appreciate that fact.

The tornado faded as the charred remains of the grunts fell out of it.

Ringo just looked at the for a moment before rubbing the bridge of her nose again.

"Did Raiga hit his head or something? He stumbled upon an overpowered kid and he decides to take over a gold mine and hire retards as guards." Ringo spoke slowly as she followed the tracking spell I shot out.

She was kind of right. Those guys were jokes and not even funny ones. I'm kind of upset that I got a level up from that. The Legion Zombie was way scarier.

We soon found Raiga lying outside basking in the sun while a child sat near him eating an onigiri. Again Ringo stood still as if questioning what the fuck she was seeing.

She then let out a sigh and put me down. Before I could question what she was doing she flashed towards the kid and had a knife sunk into his head before anyone could blink.

"Sorry brat but if the pansy has fallen this low I don't need help taking care of this," Ringo spoke out over her position of the now-dead Ranmaru.

Lightning started to fall onto their locations almost instantly but Ringo channeled some lighting into her sword and the swung the natural lighting into the ground.

"HOW DARE YOU! I'....wait, no no you are dead. I SAW YOU FUCKING DIE! GET BACK!" Raiga shouted out fearfully as he backed away from Ringo shooting out as much lightning as he could from the Kiba blades.

The sheer bullying that took place in front of me could not be put into words.