"Human Bullet Tank!"
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"
"Ninja Art: Fang Passing Fang!"
Late in the morning, a remarkable scene appeared in Konoha's main shopping district. A group of people were openly using Five-Element Ninjutsu techniques out in the street—something strictly forbidden under normal circumstances.
But no patrol ninja came by to question or arrest them, because this was a demolition project that had already been approved.
Centered on the remains of the old onsen (hot springs inn), multiple buildings around it had been cordoned off. Led by Sasuke Uchiha, the "rookies" (Konoha's young shinobi) were in full swing, blasting those houses that Izayoi had purchased. Their goal: tear them down by force.
A few days had passed since Itachi Uchiha's visit to the village. At that time, Sasuke had been assisting Izayoi with demolition. At first, only he and Chōji Akimichi helped. But other passing rookies stumbled on the scene and spontaneously joined in.
Money was irrelevant; the main appeal was a chance to demolish buildings out in the open—way more fun than practicing ninjutsu at the training grounds.
One explosion after another shook the air, churning up clouds of smoke. But even after the group had expended nearly all their chakra, huffing and puffing, not a single structure was fully knocked down.
"Alright, guess I'll handle it."
Izayoi—wearing a safety helmet as "project supervisor"—shook his head and stepped forward. He formed a small sphere of swirling chakra, about the size of a Rasengan, then infused it with Water and Lightning natures.
This instantly formed a miniature Storm Release orb. He raised his arm and fired off a "Judgment" beam. The battered house, already weakened, collapsed with a thunderous crash. Within fewer than ten shots, Izayoi demolished every house inside the cordon.
Afterward, Izayoi turned to a nearby work squad. "All yours."
"Yes, sir!"
A dozen people in matching gear moved in at once to clear away the rubble. The rookies, who hadn't managed to contribute much, joined them, though progress remained slow. At this rate, it might take ten days just to haul off all the broken stone and debris.
So Izayoi pulled out a forbidden jutsu he'd learned long ago yet never had a chance to use. Making a few hand signs, he shouted:
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A flurry of balloon-burst sounds echoed—white smoke billowed everywhere. After a moment, the breeze revealed two hundred Izayoi clones, immediately splitting up to work. Three of them dashed toward the Naka River to fetch sealing scrolls.
Seeing Izayoi summon so many clones, the rookies were taken aback.
"Izayoi, how'd you learn Naruto's jutsu?" Shikamaru Nara narrowed his eyes. "If I recall, that's a forbidden technique from the Scroll of Seals."
He wasn't accusing Izayoi of stealing the scroll. In fact, Shikamaru didn't even know the Scroll of Seals had been stolen. Konoha's higher-ups had kept that quiet, since they'd long prepared separate scrolls for any forbidden jutsu—precisely in case the master copy got lost.
As long as the separate jutsu scrolls remained safe, the next Hokage could replicate the main scroll whenever needed. The real damage was that those jutsu had leaked out of the village, meaning future enemies might use Konoha's own forbidden arts against it.
Shikamaru was simply curious how a ninja of Izayoi's rank could have learned the Multi Shadow Clone technique. Even the Hyūga Clan would have trouble acquiring a forbidden jutsu like that. Could Naruto have taught him?
But Izayoi's reply made Shikamaru's mouth twitch. One of the shadow clones, busily carrying stones, glanced over at Shikamaru with a puzzled look:
"You need to learn it? I picked it up after watching it once. Isn't that all it takes?"
Then, as if he'd just recalled something, the clone added in an apologetic tone, "Oh, sorry… I forgot you guys don't have enough chakra to use it anyway, even if you did learn it."
"What a jerk! I can't stand it—die!" Inuzuka Kiba, passing by, chucked a rock at the clone, dispersing it in a puff of white smoke. "Arf! Arf!" Akamaru barked in agreement. Encouraged by Kiba, the other rookies piled in for a brawl, but within moments the swarm of clones pinned them all, forcing them to surrender.
"You've all worked hard! Come have some fruit!"
Right then, a girl's cheerful voice called out. Hinata, Hanabi, Ino, and Sakura pushed along a cart full of fruit. "Onii-chan, have some water."
With unwavering loyalty to her brother, Hanabi ran to Izayoi's real body first, handing him a bottle of water.
"Thanks, Hanabi." Izayoi smiled, ruffling her hair. But seeing the rookies abandon their demolition so quickly to snack and chat left him rubbing his temples in exasperation.
Why do I always have these lazy, food-loving friends in every world? At least once they rested up and regained chakra, the rookies began using shadow clones themselves—finally getting serious.
With Izayoi's two hundred clones, the rookies' clones, plus a dozen-man work crew all pitching in, the enormous debris field was fully cleared in under two days—something that might otherwise have taken ages.
Out of gratitude, Izayoi sprang for dinner two nights in a row, burning through nearly a million ryō—about the payout of a basic S-rank mission. He felt the pinch in his wallet, but forging deeper camaraderie with his former classmates was worth it.
After the demolition came the foundation work. Izayoi simply posted a mission at the Hokage Building requesting a few Earth Release specialists to help.
Ninjutsu, at its core, was meant to make life easier. What would have taken days in his past life was done in half a morning.
With the foundation laid, the rest was up to a professional construction team. Izayoi was finally free to relax. Strolling alone back to the Uchiha district, he suddenly paused, turning his head to glance down a wooded path. "Was that my imagination?" he murmured, resuming his pace.
No sooner had he gone than a pale face emerged from the trunk of a large tree. Such a sight would've frightened any local kids out of going into the woods ever again. Watching Izayoi's retreating figure, the White Zetsu clone sighed, "Incredible sense for danger. So that kid is the Izayoi that Kisame and Itachi mentioned? Flight ninjutsu and 'Dust Release'—he's basically another Ōnoki. Talk about Konoha's luck. Of all times, they get a genius like that."
However, the White Zetsu clone didn't know that Izayoi had spotted him. Izayoi's eyes flickered blue for an instant, and he mused inwardly, So they snuck someone in after all.
Figures—an incident this big? Of course they'd send clones to gather intel, and likely more than one. Gazing a moment longer in a certain direction, Izayoi gave a cold smirk.
Yes, this Mayfly jutsu is powerful—merging with the earth and trees, concealing chakra so the Tenseigan can't detect it if they don't poke their heads out. But as a transmigrator, I have more than one way to handle you. I'll let you enjoy a few days, then the tables will turn.
…
Elsewhere, in a remote section of the Land of Waves, a large purple rectangular barrier loomed.
Inside lay a dense forest echoing with the sounds of combat. Yamato—kidnapped by Izayoi's shadow clone—was in that forest using his Wood Release.
Vines extended from his arm like a nest of serpents, aiming to bind a black-cloaked boy with white bandages covering his face from the nose down, leaving only a pair of red eyes visible.
Unmoved by the vines, the boy merely watched them coil around him—then he dissolved into red powder.
A moment later, Yamato felt a blow to his back; black, tadpole-like curse seals spread across him.
He lost control of his body, and the cloaked boy reappeared in front, delivering a barrage of Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.
Those strikes sealed Yamato's chakra flow, ending with a finishing Vacuum Palm. The battered Yamato spat blood, collapsed. The boy stared down at him for a few seconds, then turned to leave.
"Heal him."
No sooner had he gone than a man's voice resounded through the trees. A masked girl in a black cloak appeared, knelt beside Yamato, and used Medical Palm Technique to treat him.
"Urk… Who are you people?"
His bodily control sealed by that curse mark, his chakra locked by Gentle Fist, Yamato could only speak. Glancing up at the masked girl, he rasped, "If you're trying to torture me for intel, you're wasting your time. You might as well kill me now rather than draw it out."
The girl remained silent. After performing some basic healing, she pried Yamato's mouth open and fed him a soldier pill, then stood and left. Before long, the cloaked boy returned, removed the sealing tags, and let Yamato free up his chakra points a bit.
At this, Yamato felt numb. Day after day, the boy had tortured him at least a dozen times. Yamato once thought he'd surely died back in that subterranean battle under Konoha, caught by Izayoi's shockwave.
Yet he woke to find himself trapped in a barrier, forced to be a training dummy for that boy. The boy began with only the Five Basic Natures, gradually showing the Hyūga Gentle Fist—despite not having the Byakugan—then some mysterious Red Eye dojutsu that supposedly counters the Byakugan.
Then came a variety of sealing arts and advanced Five-Element ninjutsu.
In mere five days, Yamato had gone from being his equal to completely outclassed. Yet, oddly, they never killed him or interrogated him for secrets, nor did the "mastermind" behind the barrier.
Every time Yamato was beaten, they healed him, gave him soldier pills. Very strange indeed! But he clung to that shred of hope, fighting the boy again and again, still searching for a chance to escape.
As Ranmaru and Yamato began yet another round, Izayoi's shadow clone outside the barrier turned to Karin, who stepped forward. "Karin, you can head back now."
"You don't need my help anymore?" she asked, reluctant.
"No, it's not that. I actually have good news," the clone explained. "Konoha's Fifth Hokage is about to take office. My real body should come find you soon and recommend you to join Konoha. So head home and pack your things, wait there for him."
"For real?!" Karin's eyes lit up. She nodded fervently. "Alright, I'll head back and get ready, then."
"Thanks for all your effort," the clone said, inclining his head.
"It was nothing. It's what I should do." Karin waved goodbye. "I'll be off. If you need anything, just say the word!"
"Got it. See you."
Apparently, it was Karin's providence at work—or maybe it was just the payoff for relentless grinding.
Less than two hours after she left, the clone and Ranmaru fought three more matches against Yamato, and at last Izayoi saw a purple-colored flash emerge from Yamato's body.
At that instant, Izayoi felt a massive relief, as though a heavy burden was lifted.
"Finally! The drop rate on this is insane—just because it's Mokuton?" he muttered in exasperation.
He knew it wasn't actually about Mokuton. Under the new system, the probability of loot from defeating an enemy is entirely different from the rate for killing them.
In principle, killing an enemy yields better odds, while just defeating them can yield either something or nothing at all. Yamato had proven an uncooperative "loot piñata."
Now that Izayoi had the means to counter that dreaded Mayfly Technique, the disguised clone released the Four Violet Flames barrier. Approaching Yamato, whose limbs were once again sealed and paralyzed, the clone said:
"Are you going to kill me now?"
Yamato braced for the worst. The clone placed a hand over his head. "You've done well. Now just sleep for a few years."
With that cryptic remark, he cast a sealing jutsu to seal Yamato's consciousness. Izayoi took out a scroll, retrieved the stone coffin Karin had brought earlier, and sealed Yamato inside it with another fūinjutsu.
Then he blasted out a cave in a nearby mountain, placed the coffin inside, and sealed the entrance. Finally, accompanied by his puppets, the clone returned to the mainland.
After returning, the shadow clone vanished in a puff of white smoke, handing control of the puppets back to Izayoi's real body.
~~~
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