20:A new way to brainwash

.

As they reached intersection point near the building, Oni ordered the group to split.

Oni ordered Ryoichi to release the prisoners and Salamder to lead them outside to Squirrel who would lead them to the path that Oni and the other seven Anbu would secure.

With their simple plan, they separated and flickered into action. Ryoichi and Salamander quickly sneaked in avoiding the places with large Chakra signatures and soom reached the place that was guarded by a few Kuma-nin. They did not waste any time and dismantled the guards quickly.

"You go quickly release the captives, I'll watch over this place."

Ryoichi nodded at Salamander's words and entered the underground Chamber where he saw rows and rows of holding cells, some occupied some not.

Ryoichi paused for a moment to observe the Captive before he started breaking the seals holding the cells. He told each captive to go to Salamander outside and moved to the next. In just a few minutes he released every captive and stopped before a large steel door. He felt a few presence behind the door, one his supposed target and others Jonin level Chakra signatures.

Ryoichi placed his hand on the gate, an Inkish black liquid flowed from it and entered the seals on the gate, corroding the seals and bringing them down.

Ryoichi pushed the door open and saw a fat teen with a few Jonins surrounding him, doing what Ryoichi guessed a brainwashing.

'A very effective method…' Ryoichi noted as he saw the teen drooling with multiple delicacies surrounding him. He easily guessed the fat teen was deprived of food and the Jonins were trying to entice him with those.

While Ryoichi was busy praising them, the Jonins noticed him and formed a battle formation around him.

Ryoichi was rudely brought out of his musing when sharp wind blades severed him in multiple pieces.

The Jonins became confused for a moment, but that changed when Ryoichi exploded in smoke and became a well-cooked piece of meat.

The Jonins immediately comprehended the situation and swung their blades back where Ryoichi substituted.

Ryoichi caught the teen and did a backflip, letting all the blades narrowly sail past the teen's protruding belly. The teen screamed as Ryoichi slammed the chair hard while landing, the chair broke down from the slam and released the teen. The teen stands panicky and checks his belly for any holes before releasing a long relieved breath.

"Go… my teammate is waiting outside, I'll hold them back." Ryoichi said as he shielded the fat teen with his small body.

The teen looked at Ryoichi's small back and hesitated for a moment before breaking into a sprint but not before securing the fallen piece of meat.

The Jonins and Ryoichi blankly watched the teen running away while gulping down the meat for a moment before the Jonins attacked Ryoichi again.

Once the teen disappeared, Ryoichi stopped holding back as his body turned red and smoke started coming out.

He unsheathed his sword and accelerated towards the three Jonin who also attacked him back, but Ryoichi with his inhumane agility slipped through their attacks and stabbed his short sword in the back of first Jonin's neck.

Ryoichi swiped his plunged sword backward and blocked a Kunai from severing his head while simultaneously severing the stabbed Jonin's neck.

The blood splattered like a water jet as Ryoichi disappeared and appeared behind the third Jonin. He stabbed his sword through the third Jonin's heart, snuffing out his life.

"You!!!" The second Jonin whose vision got blacked by the blood saw his friend dropping with a shocked face and shouted as a small but healthy dose of fear seeped into his heart.

The Jonin flickered towards Ryoichi and swung his kunai which Ryoichi blocked with his sword.

The Jonin started to attack Ryoichi in a frenzy, throwing away all tactics and trickery, but Ryoichi blocked everything. Just as Jonin was going to shout, he saw his supposed dead friend rise and stab Ryoichi in the back. The frenzied Jonin didn't waste Ryoichi's momentary distraction and stabbed his heart.

The Jonin raised his head with a delighted expression to see Ryoichi's despaired look, but a sudden thought struck his mind.

'Huh raise my head? Wasn't the bastard short…'

The moment the thought struck his mind the whole world broke like a mirror, revealing the reality.

The Jonins saw themselves being stabbed by each other as a look of realisation passed through each of their faces as they dropped dead.

'Still not there…' Ryoichi lamented. The Jonins managed to break his Genjutus at the last moment.

Genjutsu is a branch which has the most potential in Ryoichi's mind. If someone masters Genjutsu then very few can be their opponent.

There's also the Kurama clan who can bend reality through Genjutsu.

Ryoichi is dying to know how's that possible, he can't wait for Yakumo to be born so he can satisfy his curiosity.

Kurama Yakumo's Genjutsu also interests him because the other ways he found to manipulate reality are IZANAGI and EDO TENSEI. Both have major restrictions placed on them.

Ryoichi doesn't remember what side effects Kurama Yakumo suffered but the mere possibility of bending reality to her whims triumphs all in his opinion.

Taking another look at fallen Shinobis, Ryoichi picked up a Kunai and stabbed his guts shallowly and made a few more injuries to show his struggle.

Although it's unbelievable for Oni and Lot, but for a pampered teen with a relatively good personality it was enough.

Ryoichi wouldn't have gone to such length, but the brief hesitation the teen showed and his control over this base's seals made him comfortable enough to do this dramatic act to make the teen feel more grateful.

Yeah, he needs to show the saved people he cared for their well-being rather than give them a cold look and make them believe their lives matter only because of the mission. He didn't want the same to happen when he saved a small clan's heir.

Ryoichi disappeared from the prison cell as he started flickering towards the Salamander. It only took him a minute to find the retreating group.

Ryoichi didn't use stealth so Salamander noticed his approach. He looked towards Ryoichi only to become confused at his appearance.

Salamander has never seen Ryoichi injured, he opened his mouth to question but got cutt off by Ryoichi.

"Let's hurry we don't have time to waste."

The hot headed Anbu swallowed whatever question was forming in his mouth and increased his pace.

The captives even if injured and Chakra-deprived, were trained Shinobis so they easily followed Salamander's increased pace.

"Huff Huff! Wa-wait!" Other than a certain fat son of a weapon merchant.

The captives ignored the fat teen's pleas and Salamder didn't care enough. In his mind, his target is a Nara, and no Nara is as fat as this teen.

But for Ryoichi, it was another opportunity, he went back and under the confused eyes of Salamnder lifted the teen up and carried him on his back. It was a comical sight to see delicate body of a child lifting an almost 200 kg man.

Ryoichi ignored all the weird gazes and passed the captives again and started running beside Salamander. He can see the Anbu's head filled with questions that were only supressed by the urgency of the situation.

They reached the location a few minutes later, expecting Squirrel waiting but only for them to see the whole Team Oni standing opposite to hundreds of Kumo-nins

"Ahh shit!"

Salamander cursed bringing the attention of both groups to them while also simultaneously sealing off their silent escape.

Ryoichi gave him a blank look before focusing back on the clashing group. He noticed many bodies lying and some injuries on Team Oni which indicated the skirmish before.

Ryoichi and Salamander regrouped with the team as Ryoichi whispered something in Oni's ears.

Oni gave a look to Ryoichi before speaking to the team.

"We're leaving, Ryoichi will hold them back."

Immediately a few indigenous voice raised at Oni's order. The Anbus didn't want to leave a comrade behind, but another of Oni's order kicked the cruel Anbu training in and made them realise the most realistic choice.

"But captain he can't possibly hold them all back." As if her words was trigger a few fireball flew towards them.

Ryoichi who heard Squirrel raised a giant water wall without any hand signs and casually blocked the fireballs.

"Go, you guys are a hindrance, no one here can stop me from retreating if you guys weren't here," Ryoichi spoke. His confident borderline arrogant words made the team comply and retreat.

Of course, it was questionable whether they believed his words or retreated back simply out of some selfishness.

"No, he's injured!" Came an unwilling voice of the fat teen who was carried by Oni, but unfortunately for him Oni ignored him.

Some of Kuma-nin tried to follow the team despite the water vapour blocking their view. Ryoichi didn't stop them because despite being cornered Team Oni was still a trained Assassin team that could take down an even number of elite Jonins.

So instead he circulated the drop of Nature Energy he absorbed beforehand and healed his wounds. Ryoichi learned from his mistake when he fought the so-called Impenetrable Defence. He now always carries refined Nature energy with him in case of some emergency.

He still doesn't know why he never carried before that but blamed it on his inexperience, after all, no matter how smart and cautious he is, some things are only learned through experience.

Ryoichi looked at the Hundred of Shinobi standing before him as he felt the adrenaline kicking in. It was an addicting feeling that only increased every time with his improved senses.

A smirk crept on his otherwise emotionless face as the SEAL MATRIX came to life and latched on the nearest seal.

Ryoichi felt himself being connected with the thousands of seals littered around. He waved his hand like an orchestra conductor which caused the hundreds of seals to lit and attack the Kuma-nins with whatever Jutsu was stored in them.

The Shinobis watched in both horror and surprise as their own seals started attacking them. It didn't matter who it was- a Genin, Chunin, Jonin or an elite Jonin, they were all powerless against the might of hundreds of combined Jutsu barrage.

The only people who could defend against the barrage of Jutsus were the few S-rank Shinobi. But that was all they could do. They weren't Kage rank Shinobi nor were semi-Kage who could change the whole terrain by themselves.

Ryoichi watched as the Kuma-nins number dwindled slowly as the barrage continued for a few minutes, and only when he felt that Team Oni should have reached area of Konoha's checkpoint did he stop and retreat.

He wanted to continue attacking until Kumo-nins were completely wiped, but unfortunately the seals were running dry and he couldn't use his own Chakra as his signature were different from the Chakra used to create those seals.

Chakra carries the signature or the Will of the user, if the seals weren't designed to be used by others they wouldn't even be activated by others like seals of FLYING THUNDER GOD which can be only used by the creator.

Ryoichi flicked away among the chaos and reunited with the team who were quite surprised to see him, they already considered him dead not that Ryoichi blamed them he would have done the same.

.

[AN: If you want to read more go to my Patr*on/41_Claws. There are 10+ advance unedited chapters on it…]

.