Kumogakure's involvement spooked a lot of the caravan's members which, combined with the issues brought by the ladies from the Land of Iron . . .
Let's just say . . . The unity and conviction of the caravan's people was suffering greatly.
Shiki was beginning to think the mission was getting far too troublesome in comparison to the possible benefits.
Though it might be an abuse of authority, he even thought about forcing the village leadership to let him out by himself or even promote him so he would have the right to do so.
If all else failed, because his shadow clones could replenish their chakra, so long as precautions were taken, he could leave a shadow clone to take his place and just sneak out.
Mito would have the Mission's Office to temporarily stop assigning him other duties and he would be golden.
Of course all of these solutions had their own issues so, leaving the talks with the caravan people to the more patient and diplomatically skilled Inori, the boy turned his thoughts to the issues he was having in regards to his combat effectiveness.
They hadn't changed from before but Shiki sensed a different approach to his current one or at least a slight adjustment would do him very good.
Currently, the boy's method for quickly increasing his power and arsenal of abilities was through the integration of chakra with his Ryumon techniques and abilities.
However, the more he pursued this endeavour, the more obvious a certain issue became.
While chakra did indeed amplify his Ryumon abilities immensely, it also exponentially increased their burden on the user.
As a result, Shiki could only maintain his peak combat effectiveness for a very short period of time and even worse, he would be left injured, possibly even defenseless afterwards.
The boy was aware of this issue from the beginning and Dragon Heart, currently his most powerful amp, had taken up a large portion of his time in attempts to reduce its side effects to no avail.
Technically speaking, Ryumon Hollows were very physically tough after completing their systematized physical training so, as long as Shiki did not go to wild for about eight years, his body would gain the power and resilience to withstand the full effects of his current jutsu.
But time was far too valuable a resource.
Shiki did not demand immediate solutions but he required at least short term improvements so a change in methodology was the way to go.
The boy's thievery, both inside and outside Konoha, had resulted in a vast mental repository of knowledge but he had yet to fully interiorize it, merely memorizing the content for future analysis.
However, in his downtime from training when rest became essential, he dove into this mental space to fully digest the knowledge.
The extensive mental library of jutsu from regular ones, to hidden jutsu to kekkei genkai did inspire some novel ideas.
Rather than outright combine Ryumon abilities with chakra, Shiki could split them into their core parts and then rearrange these parts to form techniques that would mesh with chakra in less self harming ways.
Before he could get started on that however, Mito's response to his request for support, finally came.
*
"So support is coming?" Inori questioned.
"Yeah. A full squad of four but two of the members will head back after securing our hostage, the rest will remain as support." Shiki replied.
"Got names?" The Violet Rose continued her inquiry.
"Senju Kanata, Uchiha Fugaku, Tsunade-sama and Hyuga Makoto." The boy revealed.
His sensei whistled with surprise.
"That's quite the lineup!" She commented.
"Nii-sama will be coming!?" Mei interjected with shock, appearing quite flustered.
Shiki nodded.
"Not just coming. He and Hyuga Makoto are going to be the ones sticking with us for support." He added.
{With that much firepower, dealing with Kumo and even taking care of the problem in the Land of Iron ought to be much simpler.{ Shinka signed.
{Mei's brother is already a full Jonin right?{ She inquired.
"Yes. Nii.sama's promotion to full Jonin is quite recent though." The bespectacled girl replied.
"Hyuga Makoto should be an Elite Chunin. I've worked with him before and his promotion to Special Jonin is pretty much a done deal, only needing a few more merits and experience." Inori commented.
The whole situation was a favor to Mito by the Uchiha and Hyuga clans, one the Uzumaki matriarch allowed them to sell in order to strengthen their still tenuous ties to her ship.
'I'm surprised the Hyuga are in on it too though.' Shiki thought to himself.
As for Tsunade and Senju Makoto, it should come as no surprise that two individuals already proven trustworthy beyond doubt, were chosen to transport the all important hostage.
"Alright. I'm gonna reassure the caravan folk again, the news reinforcements should calm them down." Inori declared.
"I've already told them not to leave the city but keep an eye out all the same, just in case." She gave her students that singular task and left it up to them what to do with their remaining time.
Mei and Shiki were about to head their own way when they caught Shinka waving, signaling them to hold from the corner of their eye.
"Something on your mind Shinka?" Mei inquired.
Shiki also raised his eyebrow in curiosity at the unexpected occurrence. The Aburame tended to keep human interaction to a minimum so this was most definitely not standard behaviour for her.
{I just . . .{ Shinka's hands hovered around in the air, showing her hesitation.
But her two teammates were not so insensitive as to not notice her plight and thus showed patience, waiting for the Aburame to proceed.
{When I was around Shiki's age . . . Maybe a bit older, I was recruited by an organization in Konoha.{ She started.
"The Root." Shiki mentioned as if it was obvious.
Shinka froze for a bit but furiously nodded, shaking the copious amount of clothing she covered herself in.
"Cute . . ." The boy casually commented, making not only Shinka but also Mei, freeze in place.
"Do continue." He prompted his frozen teammate.
{. . . This organization gave me the mission to watch you and, if there came a time where it was needed, I was to use my particular skills against you . . . For the good of the village.{ Shinka revealed.
"Well . . . I suspected as much." Shiki casually responded.
Mei also made an awkward expression. Such things became really obvious after the colossal debacle their first C rank mission turned into.
But when Shinka explained what the particular skills she was meant to use against them were . . . The reaction, especially Mei's, was significantly more visceral.
Rinkaichu that could disable, torture or kill with a single touch from Shinka, a nasty surprise for those intending to make use of the usual close combat weakness of mid range fighters like the Aburame.
Even more sinister were the Kochu, tiny, near imperceptible insects that could tracelessly take someone's life without leaving any evidence that could be linked back to the user.
Hearing how thoroughly a Konoha elder was preparing to eliminate them was definitely not a good feeling, putting it mildly.
Even Shiki was caught off guard.
'Kochu kill using neurotoxic poison which I'm highly resistant to so I might be able to make it but if I am caught off guard by the Rinkaichu which enter the body and use cells to multiply . . .
" They will continuously devour my cells and rapidly produce poison that makes chakra circulation nearly impossible, the continuous production of poison will overwhelm my resistance not to mention all the physical effects and well . . .'
The boy did not even want to think about it, without external support, even he would be cooked under those circumstances.
Needless to say, Shiki was immensely relieved his mute teammate came clean, even revealing her secret abilities.
Though . . .
There were still the In'yokuchu but Shinka had some completely personal reservations about revealing their existence and effects to others.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -