Ronin wasn't moving very fast—or rather, he was heading toward Z City in a stop-and-go manner.
On one hand, he was getting used to his Nen. On the other, he was experimenting with his newly awakened two-tomoe Sharingan.
The fusion had significantly increased his chakra reserves, allowing him to use more ninjutsu than before.
Techniques he had already tested—Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu and Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu—could now be cast smoothly as long as he completed the hand seals.
The more chakra he poured into them, the greater their power became.
At first, all he could do was spit out a small fireball. Now, he could unleash a fireball the size of an entire house. The rate of improvement was downright terrifying.
Of course, that kind of oversized fireball also consumed a massive amount of Nen. In real combat, Ronin felt it probably wasn't as practical as the Phoenix Flower Jutsu.
While practicing ninjutsu, Ronin also noticed something interesting.
Using the same amount of chakra, a technique cast with simplified hand seals was clearly weaker than one cast with full hand seals.
The reduction was about fifty percent.
Another key point was that the accuracy of the hand seals wasn't as important as the number of seals.
Forty-four seals seemed to be the upper limit. Once he completed forty-four seals—regardless of which seals they were—the power of the jutsu would reach its maximum.
If he reduced it to seven seals, the jutsu would retain about seventy percent of its full power.
Given that comparison, the choice was obvious.
Most of the time, Ronin preferred using a single seal for fifty percent power. When he needed more punch, he'd go with seven seals.
He could also deliberately use seven seals to mislead an opponent, then suddenly fire off a single-seal jutsu to catch them off guard.
As for forty-four seals?
Anyone who liked that kind of thing was welcome to use it.
Even for someone like Ronin—who had trained in hand seals and now possessed superhuman strength and speed—completing forty-four seals still took six to seven seconds.
With repeated practice, he might shorten that time.
But realistically, by the time he finished all the seals, the enemy would've already blasted his hands apart.
Based on his own assessment, with a two-tomoe Sharingan, the highest-level ninjutsu Ronin could use was C-rank.
It felt like some kind of restriction was holding him back, preventing him from casting higher-level techniques.
It seemed that every evolution of his eyes unlocked a higher tier of ninjutsu.
If he wanted to use B-rank techniques, he'd need to evolve his two-tomoe Sharingan into a three-tomoe one.
And if this logic held true…
To use S-rank techniques, he'd have to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
As for which techniques counted as C-rank, Ronin honestly couldn't remember them all. He'd have to explore and test them one by one.
Another thing that concerned him was his Nen affinity.
The Sharingan state was special. As a member of the Kurta Clan, when his eyes weren't activated, he theoretically shouldn't be a Specialist.
As for which category he actually belonged to, he'd need to perform a Water Divination test to find out.
Water Divination was a common method in the Shingen-Ryu school. By pouring Nen into a cup of water, the changes in the water would clearly reveal one's Nen category.
What Ronin wanted—just like Kurapika—was Enhancement.
With ninjutsu and the Sharingan already at his disposal, he didn't need to develop some flashy, unique ability.
All he needed was more Nen—more raw aura—and a stronger body.
That way, when he activated the Sharingan, he'd have more chakra to draw from, allowing him to unleash stronger and more numerous techniques.
So when Ronin saw the water level in his makeshift bamboo cup steadily rise as he poured Nen into it, excitement surged through his chest.
An increase in water volume was the unmistakable sign of an Enhancer.
But then he remembered Hisoka's evaluation of Enhancers, and his expression twitched.
He definitely didn't think of himself as simple-minded—or naïve, for that matter.
Looks like Hisoka wasn't as good at judging people as he thought.
As for how to develop his Enhancer abilities, Ronin already had a rough plan:
increase both his aura reserves and his physical body.
His first small goal—
Surpass Uvogin.
To reach the point where he could tank a rocket launcher head-on with nothing but his body and Nen—and walk away without a scratch.
But how was he supposed to do that?
Images of Biscuit training Killua and Gon flashed through Ronin's mind. If he just followed that kind of systematic training, his strength should increase rapidly.
Unfortunately, he had no way to find Biscuit—let alone convince her to train him.
If he could, her guidance would probably save him an enormous amount of time.
In this stop-and-go journey, on the fifth day after escaping Uvogin's pursuit, Ronin finally arrived in Z City.
He exchanged his dried, wrinkled bills for a clean set of clothes, then treated himself to a full meal at a restaurant before heading to the airship terminal.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, he planned to leave Z City as quickly as possible.
Still, as he passed a newsstand, he saw reports about the Kurta Clan massacre plastered across the newspaper.
The news had spread fast.
In just a few days, it was already causing a massive stir.
The report was pretty much the same as what he remembered from the manga—a woman who had gotten lost in the forest discovered the slaughtered Kurta village.
Only one clue pointing to the killers had been left behind:
> "We reject nothing—but don't even think about taking anything from us."
Ronin didn't know how Kurapika had connected that message to the Phantom Troupe. Maybe there were clearer clues left behind in the village.
He casually stuffed the newspaper into a nearby trash can and quickened his pace into the airship terminal.
He didn't buy a ticket.
After confirming the flight, he used the Sharingan's genjutsu on the ticket inspector during boarding and slipped onto the airship.
Genjutsu didn't work very well on someone like Uvogin, who had Nen constantly protecting his body—but against ordinary people, it was absolute overkill.
Ronin had only one goal in doing this:
Even if Shalnark investigated the flight records, he wouldn't find Ronin's name on the passenger list.
As long as he left Z City, it would be far harder for the Phantom Troupe to track him down.
The airship slowly lifted off.
Standing in the corridor, Ronin looked through the glass at the shrinking airport below—
When suddenly, a voice he least wanted to hear spoke from behind him.
"Trying to run? If you jump right now, you might still survive."
The instant the voice rang out, Ronin spun around, his body instinctively shifting into a combat stance.
Without hesitation, his eyes activated the Sharingan.
But confusion crept into his mind.
Why was Uvogin on the airship?
Had he been under Uvogin's surveillance from the moment he entered Z City?
Otherwise… how could Uvogin possibly have shown up here so quickly?
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