Ten minutes later, Sosuke stepped out of Zuiyetsurou.
Tucked safely inside his coat was a massive sum: 40,000 Ryo.
It was a staggering amount. In an era where an ordinary Chunin earned only thirty to fifty thousand Ryo for a C-Rank mission, Sosuke held the equivalent of a shinobi's blood money—the payout for risking their lives in the field.
Sosuke returned to the black market. He headed straight for the butcher shop.
The butcher was already sharpening his cleaver.
"Ho, the big spender returns." The butcher recognized Sosuke. After all, men who threw money around so freely were a rare sight in this filth.
"What's it gonna be this time?"
"A Fūri liver." Sosuke pointed at the dark cyan organ suspended from an iron hook.
"That's pricey," the butcher warned. "It's used to increase Wind Nature Affinity. Five thousand Ryo apiece."
"I'll take two."
Sosuke slapped 10,000 Ryo onto the cutting board.
The butcher froze for a second, then broke into a wide grin. "Straightforward. I'll throw in a tiger bone on the house."
Sosuke walked out of the black market, carrying the meat and bone.
Forty thousand Ryo, and over ten thousand was already gone in the blink of an eye. He didn't care. If he hoarded his money, he was doomed to live the rest of his life as mere Genin fodder.
Aside from the ninja beast meat, he also purchased the highest-quality trauma liniment and a pile of medicinal herbs to aid his physical recovery.
By the time he returned to the shop, night had fallen.
He boarded up the storefront tight. The curtains were drawn shut, leaving not a single gap.
Sosuke lit an oil lamp and placed it on the table in the back room. Under the dim, yellow glow, he slowly unwrapped the oil paper.
A raw, bloody stench wafted out. It wasn't just the scent of gore; it was a strange odor carrying the faint, sharp tang of ozone.
Two Fūri livers.
Dark cyan and only the size of a fist. Yet, under the lamplight, the blood vessels on their surface seemed to pulse faintly, emitting a weak, eerie luminescence.
The Fūri was a small breed of ninja beast native to the canyons of the Land of Wind. They survived by hunting venomous insects and absorbing the natural energy drifting in the harsh gales. Their livers were the core organs used to store Wind Release chakra.
Sosuke drew a silver scalpel. It was newly formed via [Precious Metal Generation], created specifically to process this ingredient.
He sliced off a small sliver of the liver. The flesh was exceedingly tough. As the blade pressed down, it met a rubbery resistance, like cutting through tanned leather.
No blood oozed from the incision. Instead, wisps of cyan gas seeped out. It was Wind Release chakra, rapidly dissipating into the air.
'I can't boil this,' Sosuke deduced.
High temperatures would destroy its highly unstable chakra structure. It had to be eaten raw.
But the damn thing was toxic. Fūri fed on venomous insects year-round; massive amounts of neurotoxins were deposited directly into their livers.
He opened the Basic Herbalism manual he had purchased for 1,500 Ryo. The pages rustled. In the 'Detoxification' chapter, he found the entry on consuming ninja beast organs.
"The internal organs of most Wind Nature ninja beasts accumulate toxins. Consumption requires pairing with licorice root water or strong spirits to neutralize their lethality."
Strong spirits.
Sosuke glanced at the corner of the room. A jug of shochu sat there, normally used for sterilization. Its alcohol by volume was incredibly high, close to the vodka of his past life.
Alcohol denatures proteins. This was basic science. While it couldn't fully neutralize the venom, it would disrupt the molecular structure of the toxins, drastically lowering their active potency.
As for the rest... his body would just have to tank it.
Sosuke poured out a large bowl of the liquor. He took a deep breath, picked up the dark cyan sliver of liver, and dropped it straight into the alcohol.
Sizzle.
A layer of fine bubbles frothed on the surface of the organ. The ethanol was reacting with the neurotoxins.
He let it soak for three minutes. Then, Sosuke pinched the liver, closed his eyes, and swallowed it in one gulp.
No chewing. Just a raw, whole swallow.
Slimy, ice-cold, and reeking of a nauseating metallic stench, it slid down his throat and plummeted into his stomach.
It felt like he had swallowed a handful of crushed glass. That was his immediate sensation.
Unlike the violent, fiery burning of the fire salamander meat, the Fūri liver brought a sharp, agonizing sensation of being sliced open from the inside.
Under the corrosive action of his stomach acid, the cyan aura was liberated. It surged up his esophagus and spiraled down his intestinal tract.
Sosuke clutched his abdomen, the veins on his forehead bulging grotesquely.
"Ngh..."
He clamped his jaw shut, refusing to cry out.
He felt as though the lining of his stomach was being scraped raw by countless microscopic wind blades.
Had that bowl of strong spirits not prematurely broken down the toxins' structural integrity, and had he not spent the past weeks fortifying his internal organs with salamander meat, this single bite would have instantly perforated his stomach.
With trembling hands, he formed the Ram seal. Cold sweat dripped from his chin onto the floorboards.
He began to guide it.
Painful as it was, this razor-sharp energy was exceptionally pure. It permeated the cells of his gastric walls, bleeding into his bloodstream and circulating throughout his entire body.
Every inch of his muscle fiber shuddered. They were tearing apart, only to reconstruct themselves under the nourishment of the chakra.
It was an enhancement bordering on self-mutilation.
The residual Wind Release chakra was artificially raising his body's resistance to "slashing" and "piercing" damage. Simultaneously, the violent expansion was forcefully widening his naturally narrow, rigid chakra pathways.
Sosuke spent the night in a haze of semi-consciousness.
He felt as if he were trapped in a fever dream. He dreamt he was standing in a canyon within the Land of Wind, subjected to death by a thousand cuts from endless, howling gales.
Until daybreak.
Sosuke opened his eyes. The whites of his eyes were webbed with blood vessels, his face pale as a sheet of paper.
But when he stood up, that lingering sense of weakness was entirely gone. In its place was an uncanny lightness.
He tried to jump. It required almost zero muscular exertion. His body, as if buoyed by the wind, effortlessly vaulted over a meter into the air. He landed without a sound.
'My agility has increased.' Sosuke clenched his fists.
His raw strength hadn't grown by much, but his bodily flexibility and kinetic reaction speed had seen a marginal spike.
This was the effect of a 5,000 Ryo liver. Compared to the grueling grind of basic Taijutsu conditioning, this was a massive shortcut. A shortcut exclusively available to the rich.
Sosuke looked at the remaining liver on the table, alongside the massive tiger bone.
He didn't eat the second liver. The human body demanded an adaptation period. Continually consuming something so highly toxic would outright kill him.
He shifted his gaze to the tiger bone. It was the femur of a mutated beast. The osseous tissue was almost crystalline, and he could faintly see golden marrow flowing within its core.
"Tiger bone liquor."
Sosuke hauled the jug of strong spirits out from under the counter. He took his silver scalpel, scraped the bone entirely clean of cartilage, and then smashed it with a hammer.
The bone was incredibly dense. With every strike of the hammer, it rang out with the sharp clatter of clashing steel.
He tossed the fragmented shards into the liquor jug. Then, he added a few blood-stimulating herbs he'd purchased from the apothecary: Angelica root, safflower, and Sichuan lovage.
He sealed the mouth of the jug tight.
In a few months' time, this tiger bone liquor would serve as a superlative tonic to strengthen his muscles and fortify his skeleton.
Having finished processing his purchases, Sosuke took a bath and changed into a clean, utilitarian martial arts uniform.
Today marked his second day of training under Genzo.
The garbage disposal plant still reeked to high heaven. Genzo hadn't woken up yet. Earth-shattering snores rumbled out from inside the rusted shipping container.
Sosuke didn't bother to wake him. He stood atop a mountain of refuse and began practicing his hand seals according to the records in the scroll.
Ram — Snake — Tiger.
This was the most fundamental Clone Jutsu.
Ram — Boar — Ox — Dog — Tiger.
This was the Substitution Jutsu.
Sosuke's fingers were stiff. Hands that had grown accustomed to typing on a keyboard in his past life found these complex, joint-contorting gestures incredibly alien.
He practiced them over and over. When his fingers cramped, he stopped to massage the muscles, then immediately resumed.
Two hours later.
Genzo kicked open the door panel and walked out, stifling a yawn. He still clutched a liquor bottle in his hand.
"You're here?" Genzo threw a half-lidded glance at Sosuke. "Your hand seals are too damn slow. In a real fight, your head would be separated from your shoulders before you even finished molding chakra."
"I'm practicing." Sosuke halted his hand movements.
"Just practicing the finger forms is useless." Genzo chugged a mouthful of cheap booze. "Your chakra needs to move in sync. Every single hand seal corresponds to a specific flow-node of chakra inside your body. You have to connect them."