Chapter 39: The Sheathed Blade
Damn it! Ryouma's mind screamed. He tried to twist away, but a paralyzing shock had locked his muscles the moment the blade entered his body. It was a precise strike, laced with chakra to disrupt his nervous system.
"Pfft!"
The katana erupted from his abdomen in a spray of crimson. Ryouma's face contorted, a grimace of agony and self-recrimination. How could he have been so careless?
He looked down with difficulty, watching his own blood stream down the polished steel. Every slight movement of the blade inside him sent waves of nauseating pain through his entire being, a feeling akin to being turned inside out.
"Three seconds have passed..." he murmured to himself, a internal countdown beginning.
Instead of collapsing, he forced his left hand to grip the blade protruding from his stomach, using it as a grisly support to keep himself upright. With his other hand, he wiped a mixture of rain and cold sweat from his brow, his voice strained. "Your Dance of the Three Suns and Moons... it's more refined than Moonlight Hayate's own."
"You know Hayate? I suppose it's not surprising, given he proctored your Chūnin Exam," the woman, Uzuki Xiyan, replied, her voice cool and clinical. She maintained her grip on the katana's hilt, feeling the life force of the young man before her ebbing away. "My sword is sharper... but it would be more accurate to say I had a thorough grasp of your abilities. Since I knew you could teleport, did you think I wouldn't prepare a counter?"
"You didn't lose to my skill. You are dying by your own arrogance."
"Arrogance?" Ryouma let out a weak, raspy chuckle, a montage of his recent actions flashing behind his eyes—defying Danzo, declaring himself rogue, believing he could outmaneuver any opponent. "Perhaps... you're right."
"Then... die in peace." Uzuki Xiyan's voice was almost a whisper. She gave the katana a gentle, cruel twist, intending to shred his internal organs and ensure a final, messy end. "Uzuki Xiyan. You've earned the right to know the name of who killed you."
"Oh... I'll come find you," Ryouma breathed, a ghost of a smile on his pale lips.
"What?" Uzuki Xiyan's pupils constricted. A cold dread, entirely separate from the rainy night, shot down her spine. She tried to yank the blade free for a final strike, but the space in front of her distorted. In the blink of an eye, Ryouma was gone. All that remained was her blood-soaked katana, hanging in the air for a moment before clattering to the ground, and a large, rapidly diluting puddle of blood on the cave floor.
"He escaped? Even like that?" Uzuki Xiyan shook her head in disbelief, but her training took over. She had to pursue. The mission parameters were clear: confirm the kill. She needed to see the body. If she failed to produce either the living target or his corpse before reinforcements arrived, the consequences from Konoha would be severe.
She dashed out into the relentless rain, leaving the cave in silence. The only occupants were Jiehe's cold, stiffening corpse and the dying embers of the fire, which finally sputtered out, plunging the scene into darkness.
Outside, the rain continued its mournful dirge, needling against the skin.
"Ugh..."
A pained groan was swallowed by the storm, emanating from behind the ruins of a collapsed house a kilometer away.
Ryouma felt the potent, life-giving energy of the Regeneration Pill—a 50-point emergency item he had instinctively exchanged for—coursing through him, knitting torn flesh and ruptured organs back together at an incredible rate. The sensation of rapid cellular regeneration was intensely uncomfortable, pulling a soft groan from his lips.
Once the worst of the injury was stabilized, he suppressed the lingering pain and the surge of volatile emotions—the shame, the anger, the shock. He closed his eyes, sitting in the mud and the rain, and simply thought.
Minutes stretched on. The rain soaked him to the bone, but his mind grew clearer, colder. When his eyes finally snapped open, they held a new, hardened light, like stars that had been polished by the tempest.
"Haah..."
He exhaled a long, slow breath, expelling the lingering frustration and fear. He stood up, his movements deliberate and steady. His hand went to the hilt of his own long sword, his grip firm. He didn't know what lay ahead on this rain-swept path, nor what new dangers awaited, but he knew he could not remain stagnant.
He would not go hunting for Uzuki Xiyan, not yet. She had seen through his primary tactic. In his current state, confronting her again without a new strategy would be suicide, a foolish waste of the second chance he'd been given.
To anyone who had known the brash, impulsive Ryouma of just days before, the change would have been stark. The sharp, exposed edge had been tempered. Akizuki Ryouma was now a sword sheathed in ice and calculation.
Tap… Tap… Tap…
The sound of footsteps on water was rhythmic and hurried. Uzuki Xiyan moved swiftly through the downpour, her senses stretched to their limit as she searched the area.
She was growing anxious. She had scoured every possible hiding place within a one-kilometer radius, but there was no trace of Ryouma—no body, no blood trail, nothing. The rain had washed everything away.
"It's no use..." she finally admitted to herself, a knot of professional failure tightening in her stomach. However reluctant she was to accept it, the reality was undeniable: Akizuki Ryouma had survived a wound that should have been fatal and had evaded her pursuit entirely.
She tilted her head back, letting the cold rain hammer against her face, and released a heavy sigh.
"Judging by the time, reinforcements should arrive by tomorrow..."
"They're already here." A high-pitched voice came from a nearby rooftop. A small ninja dog, one of Pakkun's pack, looked down at her.
"This is... Kakashi-senpai's summon?" Uzuki Xiyan looked at the dog in surprise, then scanned the surroundings. "Where is Kakashi-senpai?"
"Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma have already gone after the target," the ninja dog stated flatly.
"Why so quickly? The mission was mine to—"
"New orders from the Hokage."
"What are they?"
"Classified."
"Pakkun, how much farther?" A man in a coir raincoat and samurai hat, the familiar mask covering his face, spoke to the lead pug running ahead of him.
"He's on the move, Kakashi. And you know his pattern—he teleports in short, unpredictable bursts. Locking him down is a nightmare. Fastest intercept time is still five minutes away," Pakkun reported, his nose twitching as he tracked the faint, flickering scent.
The masked man was, of course, Kakashi Hatake. Upon receiving the Hokage's urgent directive, he had mobilized immediately, bringing Kurenai Yūhi and Asuma Sarutobi with him to the Land of Rain with a single objective: locate Akizuki Ryouma.
"This is the Land of Rain. We find him fast, before he draws the attention of other, less friendly parties," Kakashi said, his single visible eye narrowed in concentration.
"Understood!" Asuma grunted, a cigarette somehow still lit despite the rain.
"Right!" Kurenai's response was firm, but a thread of personal concern wove through her professional duty. Ryouma… just what are you doing? Please, be safe. Her pace unconsciously quickened.
Ryouma walked through the deluge, no longer fighting the rain but moving with it. The cold water was a balm, clearing his head.
I have 220 Almighty Points left. What's the most efficient exchange? he pondered, his mind now analytical.
An S-Rank ninjutsu? Powerful, but his body was still recovering. The recoil from a single use could cripple him again.
General physical enhancement? Solid, but perhaps not the most strategic use of points given his immediate needs.
His hand instinctively went to his stomach, where the flesh was now smooth and whole, thanks to the pill. The memory of the katana's penetration was seared into his mind.
"System," he commanded internally. "Display options for physical enhancement."
Acknowledge, the system's grand, emotionless voice resonated in his mind. Physical enhancement is divided into two primary categories.
"Detail them."
*Category One: Holistic Reinforcement. Utilizes Almighty Points to multiplicatively enhance the host's overall physical quality. First-tier reinforcement requires 50 points. Second-tier reinforcement requires 500 points. Cost escalates with each subsequent tier.*
Category Two: Bloodline Assimilation. Utilizes Almighty Points to exchange for established kekkei genkai or unique physiologies, granting their inherent physical abilities directly.
As the system finished, the vast orb of light in his mind's eye shimmered and split apart, presenting a new, detailed list of options. The path forward was being defined, not by impulse, but by necessity. The fugitive was learning to adapt.