"Damn it... to think I'd die at the hands... of a brat like this..."
The rain grew heavier, washing down from a murky, bruised sky. The Rogue Ninja's blood flowed freely into the mud, his vitality rapidly fading away with it. Eventually, his desperate act of playing dead became a reality. His heart was filled with agonizing hatred, yet he was powerless to stop the cold creeping into his veins.
The vast majority of shinobi were glass cannons. They possessed terrifying, supernatural attack power, but their physical defense was incredibly low, suffering from almost all the same biological weaknesses as normal humans.
Seeing the Rogue Ninja's body go limp for real this time, Ooka Shin remained standing quietly in the rain, silently calculating the time.
Based on the anatomical knowledge shared by Tasaka Sensuke, combined with Shin's own grim practical experience in killing, he ran the numbers in his head.
From the angle and depth at which his dagger had pierced the man's ribs, Shin could accurately estimate the rate of internal bleeding. Then, based on the average total blood volume of an adult human body, he could deduce the exact minute the Rogue Ninja's brain would suffer irreversible hypoxia and bleed to death.
It went to show that even in a world of magic, shinobi had to study hard. Mathematics was of paramount importance. Combat trajectories, chakra control, medical ninjutsu, logistical supply lines, cartography, intelligence reconnaissance—absolutely none of it could be done without math.
With the constant, looming threat of death breathing down his neck, Shin's math skills were far sharper than they had ever been in his previous life.
After ten minutes passed, confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that the enemy was dead, Shin slowly walked over.
He walked painstakingly slowly. With every step, his eyes scanned the corpse and the surrounding mud for any hidden traps, only taking his next step after confirming the ground was safe.
Ultimately, Shin safely reached down and retrieved the fallen short sword. As for the corpse and the man's pockets, he didn't touch them at all.
According to Sensuke's Academy textbooks, some hardcore shinobi would swallow potent poisons before dying to trap their killers. Some poisons could even be transmitted through simple skin contact. Furthermore, personal pouches were infamous for being rigged with Sealing Jutsu traps, explosive tags, or spring-loaded poison needles.
Although most missing-nin were dirt poor and generally couldn't afford such expensive tools, Shin absolutely refused to take the risk. After all, he was even poorer and lacked advanced medical knowledge. If he got poisoned out here in the rain, he was finished.
Gripping his newly acquired short sword, Shin found a partially collapsed house to take shelter from the storm. He gnawed on some stale dry rations to replenish his rapidly depleting stamina.
When I first spotted those two Rogue Ninjas, I saw them tying up two little red-haired kids, Shin thought, chewing thoughtfully. Red hair... they might be remnants of the Uzumaki Clan. Should I try to get them?
On one hand, Shin had no idea what kind of jutsu the second Rogue Ninja possessed. Walking into a 1-on-1 fight right now was a massive risk.
On the other hand, if those kids really were pure-blooded Uzumaki, their inherent vitality and massive chakra reserves made them incredibly valuable. They could be trained as powerful, loyal subordinates, or perhaps used as bargaining chips or experimental subjects in the future.
More importantly, bringing two Uzumaki orphans to the newly founded Akatsuki Organization might instantly earn him Nagato's favor.
Regardless of Nagato's tragic ending in the original anime timeline, for the next two decades, Nagato and his Rinnegan would be an absolute top-tier combat power in the ninja world. If Shin could build a solid relationship with him early on, not only would his daily survival be guaranteed, but he might also learn advanced Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu from him directly.
Let's do it, Shin decided, his eyes hardening. At worst, I'll just die and the guys will have to bring me back with Edo Tensei later.
It had to be said that sharing a soul with four other people gave Shin a terrifying amount of courage. As long as one of the five survived and grew strong enough, death was merely a temporary inconvenience.
Rainwater continuously leaked through the ruined roof as Shin recovered his stamina and formulated a tactical plan. He tried to pull his consciousness into the Dream Space once, but because he had missed their usual appointed time, the space was empty. He couldn't consult the others.
One cannot actually rest their brain while in the dream state, so the five of them couldn't stay in the realm 24/7; they still needed real, physical sleep. He was on his own for this one.
A mile away, inside a damp, shallow cave, the second Rogue Ninja angrily wiped down his scythe, frowning at the heavy rain pouring outside the entrance.
"Damn it. It was just capturing one starving brat. Why is Saito taking so long? He couldn't have run into an Amegakure patrol, could he?"
Although the Land of Rain was a chaotic mess and Amegakure's total military strength couldn't match the Five Great Ninja Villages, they were not to be trifled with. Under the iron-fisted rule of the 'Demi-God' Hanzo of the Salamander, Ame shinobi were hardened veterans who fought year-round in the worst conditions imaginable. Rogue Ninjas operating in the area still held a deep, fearful awe of Amegakure.
Managing to maintain an independent, autonomous state while physically sandwiched between three warring superpowers was a terrifying manifestation of Hanzo's strength.
Deep inside the cave, a little boy covered in mud huddled into a tight ball. His soaked clothes were full of holes, and his right ankle was tied tightly to a heavy boulder with rough rope.
The boy was only four or five years old. At this moment, he was starving, freezing, and utterly terrified. His teeth chattered uncontrollably, and the skin around his ankle had been rubbed raw and bloody by the rope. The muddy water dripping from the ceiling stung the wound terribly, yet his small hands gently, rhythmically patted his own back.
Strapped to the boy's back in a dirty cloth wrap was a dangerously thin infant. It was his little sister. She had her small mouth open, weakly sucking on her own muddy fingers, too exhausted to even cry.
"Sir... please let me go outside... just to catch some rainwater for her to drink. I beg of you..."
The little boy's stomach was screaming in hunger, but he was far more terrified that his sister would die of dehydration. He looked up at the Rogue Ninja with wide, pleading eyes.
"Shut up, you little bastard! Once I kill you, you won't need to drink anything!"
The Rogue Ninja was already incredibly anxious about his missing partner, and his mood had soured into pure irritability. The child's begging instantly ignited his temper. He grabbed his scythe and stalked over, fully prepared to slaughter his "cargo" and flee the area.
He could always catch more orphans later, but only if he stayed alive to do it.
The boy's eyes widened in sheer terror as the man approached. His mouth trembled, unable to form words, and his hands simply clamped tighter around the cloth wrap holding his sister.
"Who's there?!"
The Rogue Ninja suddenly stopped, whipping around to face the cave entrance. A figure had just stumbled out of the treeline.
The man watched as a person collapsed face-first into the mud just outside the cave. A massive, horrifying wound on the person's back was bleeding profusely into the puddles. The body violently twitched twice before going completely still.
Squinting through the gloom, the Rogue Ninja realized the fallen man was none other than Saito, his partner.
Before he could even shout a question, a second silhouette materialized from the sheets of rain, approaching the cave at a slow, menacing pace.
Because the storm was so heavy and the night so dark, the Rogue Ninja couldn't make out any details of the approaching figure. However, combining his partner's brutal death with the current situation, the math was simple: Saito had provoked a powerful enemy and dragged them right to their hideout.
"Why didn't you just die in the woods, you useless piece of trash?! You brought them right to me!"
The Rogue Ninja cursed his dead partner vehemently. He watched the shadowy figure outside suddenly burst into a full sprint, charging straight into the cave.
The Rogue Ninja knew his own strength was roughly equal to Saito's. If this enemy could slaughter Saito, they could kill him too. He didn't dare be careless. Gripping his scythe tightly, he roared and charged forward, intending to force a clash, stagger the enemy, and immediately flee into the pitch-black woods.
The two collided near the entrance.
The Rogue Ninja swung his scythe in a vicious, horizontal arc. The curved blade easily sliced clean through the opponent's torso—but there was absolutely no sensation of hitting flesh or bone. At that exact moment, the Rogue Ninja noticed the opponent's body looked strangely transparent under the wash of the rain.
It's a Clone Jutsu—!
The realization hit his brain a fraction of a second too late.
Before the thought could even finish forming, the world suddenly spun wildly around him. A cold flash of steel erupted from the blind spot behind his neck. He was cleanly decapitated, his headless body falling limply to the cave floor with a wet thud.
Ooka Shin stood over the corpse, shaking the blood from his newly acquired short sword. Out of pure, ingrained habit, he immediately took a step back into the shadows, observing the cave for a long moment to confirm there were no other threats before finally relaxing his grip.
To smoothly execute this assassination, Shin had utilized a perfectly layered trap.
He didn't know if the two Rogue Ninjas shared secret codes, nor did he know Saito's behavioral habits, speech patterns, or tone of voice. Trying to simply disguise himself as Saito and walk in would have instantly exposed him.
Instead, Shin had used a combination of the Clone Jutsu and the Transformation Jutsu. He created an illusory clone disguised as a generic, shadowy pursuer, while he himself used Transformation to play the role of the dying Saito. This instantly created a high-stress, chaotic environment of a powerful enemy attack.
By playing dead on the ground, Shin completely avoided the need to speak to the second rogue. The terrifying illusion of the "pursuer" naturally drew 100% of the man's attention and aggro, leaving Shin entirely ignored in the mud.
When the man charged the clone, Shin simply dropped the Transformation, stood up behind him, and swung his sword.
In terms of raw physical strength and chakra, the Rogue Ninja was absolutely not weaker than Shin. He was simply outsmarted, misdirected, and slaughtered before he even knew the real fight had begun.
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