"You—ahhh!"Before Uchiha Jun'yi could even react, it hit him. His skull felt like someone had rammed a red-hot iron into it, nerves being ripped apart one by one.
"GAH!"He clutched his head, rolling on the ground, veins bulging hideously across his face. His teeth ground so hard they cracked his lips, blood and spit dribbling down his chin in long, filthy strings.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!"To dull the agony, he slammed his head against the earth, skin splitting, blood spraying. It didn't help. The proud Uchiha prodigy was gone—what remained looked like a raving beggar, howling into the night.
His cries echoed through the forest and sky, raw and broken.
Natsume Yō's eyes suddenly narrowed, a trace of irritation flashing across his face."Tch. Someone's coming. Hmph—lucky bastard. Guess you won't get the full taste of my hell tonight."
With a sharp hand-chop, he struck Jun'yi's neck, dropping him into unconsciousness. Then, with clinical precision, Yō wiped away the memory of the torment he'd just inflicted.
"Learn some sense. Cross me again, and I won't be so merciful."
He planted the Control-Soul Curse inside Jun'yi's mind, erased every trace of his presence, and vanished into the shadows.
—Half a minute later—
A figure flickered into the clearing. His eyes narrowed, Sharingan spinning with three tomoe, radiating the oppressive aura of a jōnin.
"Don't let me find out who did this. Or I'll make them pay in blood."
But Natsume Yō's cleanup was immaculate. No clues remained. The intruder cursed and disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a hollow threat.
—Back at Yō's home—
"Host, sell C-rank jutsu [Wind Style: Wind Cutter] for 200 gold?" the System chimed.
Yō smirked. Wind Cutter had served its purpose, but with [Sword of Wind] in hand, it was outdated—same slicing power, lower cost, and no need for hand seals. What caught his eye instead was something far more tempting.
[Wind Shunshin]—an advanced body-flicker technique.Train it, and his attack speed, evasion, and agility would double. Chakra consumption? Just one-tenth of the norm. And best of all—completely silent.
A perfect assassination tool.To Yō, it was like an oasis in the desert—exactly what he needed to boost his mission efficiency.
"Alright then. Let's see what I can become after mastering both Water Style: Water Arm Surge and Wind Shunshin."
He sat down, exhaled, and muttered:"Comprehend—Water Style: Water Arm Surge."
A flood of memories poured into his brain as if he'd drilled the jutsu a thousand times. Yō groaned, clenching his teeth until the torrent eased. A few days of adaptation—that's all he needed, and the technique would be his completely.
"Next—Wind Shunshin."
He whispered the words, and another tidal wave of knowledge slammed into him. This time, the overload was too much. His vision blacked out.
When he finally woke, the sky outside was already black. It was past nine at night. His head throbbed, heavy and swollen from the strain of two power-up downloads in a row.