Chapter 43

I Shunshined behind the Sword wielding Shimo-nin and tried to impale him with a bone spike.

He dodged and hit me in the mask with his sword but did little damage.

Bone spikes erupted from me but the sword wielder coated himself in lightning and sped off throwing a Kumo-nin at me who got impaled instead.

I blew an angry breath from my nose.

Why wasn't he using some weird frost centric Jutsu...?

I Shunshined after him.

Bone spikes erupted from my palms but Impaled another Kumo-nin instead of my target.

"Whatever..."

Orochimaru had finished with the other guy and was now bathing some ninja in a sea of flame, I however couldn't seem to kill this one.

And I was running a little low on chakra...

I Shunshined to Orochimaru and shot my fingerbones into the surrounding crowd.

"Why are we the only ones here?"

It was as Orochimaru predicted after we had decimated a good part of their force about five-hundred more came from behind and made our lives difficult.

And I wasn't seeing any Konoha Shinobi around us...

"They're probably having their own battle a distance awa..."

Orochimaru was interrupted by a streak of lightning that shot towards us.

He made a single hand-sign and waved his hands, blocking the lightning with a wall of wind.

I pointed my fingers at our attacker and fired them.

"I don't think I can do this for much longer."

I still had my seal but I hoped I wouldn't have to tap into it.

"I'm tired of this as well..."

He finished his sentence, slapped an explosive tag onto someone's forehead, and kicked them into the crowd.

Boom*

"I think it's time to retreat, I'm going to take one more shot at Shimo's remaining S-Rank."

Orochimaru shook his head and smiled at me.

He started going through some hand-seals.

"Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes!"

I watched in disgust as hundreds of snakes came from Orochimaru's mouth.

I absently mindedly impaled an attacker while I watched a tidal wave of snakes pass through the battlefield.

I watched a blade appear from within the snake's mouth and impale a screaming man.

People were running and trampling their slower comrades while trying to escape.

I stood quietly trying to understand what I was seeing.

After a while, Orochimaru stopped vomiting snakes and stood up.

"It seems I took care of the Shimo-nin for you."

I blinked.

"Probably?"

I just watched hundreds of people get buried in snakes...

Fuck...

I still don't have any army destroying attacks...

"Clean up any stragglers and meet me at the camp."

Orochimaru ran off in a light jog only pausing for a moment to launch a wind blade at a still living opponent.

Sigh...

I stayed where I was but pointed at a survivor and launched my fingerbone at him.

"Gah!"

...

Kumo and Shimo cut their losses and retreated, so I was left to wander and think.

I walked through camp absently looking at the wounded.

My main problem with the Shikotsumyaku was my lack of range.

I couldn't control my chakra when it got past six or so feet around my body.

If I could have created a forest of bone blades like Kimimaro did the battle could have ended much sooner.

Or at least I could have done more damage...

I could increase my range with training but it was slow going...

"Anyone have any Soldier Pills?"

Someone dropped two into my hand.

"Thank you, miss."

I popped one in my mouth and put the other in my pouch.

"Alrighty..."

I looked at the line of people waiting to get into the medical tent.

"You, You, and you, come here."

I pointed out some of the most injured.

"Come here, I'll heal you."

It didn't hurt to build some goodwill with the soldiers.

...

"How were things on your end?"

Mom didn't look like she had even fought so I wasn't overly worried about her.

But it never hurt to ask.

"I stayed out of it and directed the squads."

I hummed and pulled a senbon out of my poor patient's side.

I ignored his gasp of pain and looked at mom.

"And Duy?"

Mom smiled.

"Last I saw Duy kicked someone's head clean off."

Hmmm...

I activated my Byakugan and browsed the medical tents for a moment.

"He's flirting with one of the med-nin so I'm sure he's fine."

As I said that I saw Duy leap from his bed and start doing push-ups.

Alrighty...

I deactivated my Byakugan.

"How are you feeling, Shiro?"

I hummed for a moment and started looking for my next patient.

"Weird." Was what I eventually settled for.

I spied a nervous but unharmed woman and stared at her for a moment.

"The more I kill the less valuable life seems to me."

Mom hummed and stared at me but didn't speak, I waved the woman over when we made eye-contact.

"Hello miss what's the problem?"

She looked fine but slightly pale.

"I've been feeling sick, I wanted to see if I was poisoned."

I hummed, took her hand, and after a moment I knew her problem.

"You're not poisoned but you are pregnant."

I looked at mom and pointed at the now speechless woman.

Mom nodded and took the woman by the hand leading her away.

"Next!"

I pointed at someone missing an arm.

"You have that arm? I can reattach it if you have it."

He shook his head.

Sigh...

"Get some friends and look for it, if you find it in time, I can reattach it."

I shoed him off looked around for someone else.

"You, come here."

I pointed at someone who was holding his intestines in both of his hands.

...

"Are you sure you won't come with us?"

I eyed my mom as she pouted.

"Yes, I'm sure, and don't pout at me."

As much as I wanted to get to Konoha and take some DNA from every Hyuga I could, I was better off staying where I was and learning under Orochimaru.

"Here give these to who they're addressed to."

I handed her a stack of envelopes.

"And buy a house or an apartment complex, I don't want to have to do any missions ever again."

I had been done with missions for a long time, I had no interest anymore.

"Alright write to me, and don't let them send you to grass."

I gave mom a hug and Duy a youthful thumbs-up.

"Alright, get out of here before someone needs something."

Mom and Duy nodded.

I sent a final wave and turned not bothering to see them join the other ninja heading home.

...

"So, what's the plan for today?"Orochimaru was having a blast, a good amount of people 'surrendered' so he had a lot of test subjects.

"I'm going to continue my experiments, you are free to do as you wish."

I rolled my eyes, he was politely asking me to scram...

"Alright, see ya later Sensei."

I started making my way out of Orochimaru's lab.

Shimo only had one more S-Ranked ninja, so they were unlikely to participate in the war any further.

Kumo on the other hand had a surplus of S-Ranked ninja, I was wary of engaging with them.

They had the current Raikage, whatever Jinchuriki they had, and the future Forth Raikage, all of whom I was extremely wary of engaging with.

With their crappy S-Ranks dead they would likely send one of the dangerous ones.

Though hopefully they stayed where they were and kept Kiri busy...

...

Looking at my DNA provided no clues about my limited control at a distance.

Or at least I couldn't see anything obvious...

There was probably something amongst my Hyuga DNA.

But I had no idea what most of it did and it wouldn't be easy to find out what they did or could do.

It was foreign, but that was about as much as I could discover...

It's going to take a while to discover what it is without invasive gene manipulation.

I don't think I could get away with doing that...

Sigh...

...

I looked at my burnt hair in the mirror and pondered the future.

I was finally somewhat strong.

Now I needed to decide what to do.

Zetsu and the Akatsuki were going to be my main concern in a few years, most of the old ninja like the third Raikage will die, with Ōnoki and the Third Hokage being the exceptions.

I got the Shikotsumyaku, so the Tenseigan was next on the list.

Although I still had no clue how I would get it.

Going to the moon seemed like my best bet, but there were other avenues to explore.

After the war, things would be slow until the Ninetails attack.

I'll use that time to shore up my Fuinjutsu and see if I can get into space-time seals.

If I could get my hands on the Hiraishin even better...

I wouldn't be able to travel to the moon right away, but I would have somewhere to start...

Maybe if I was lucky, I could find what those moon Ōtsutsuki used to travel to the elemental nations.

That guy must've had a way there and back, how else would he have acquired the Byakugan...?

...

I had regrown my hair and felt like a new man.

Well boy...

I decided that it was time I go do something I had wanted to do for a while.

"Sensei, would the Hokage be mad if we took over Shimogakure?"

I watched Orochimaru ponder on the idea for a moment.

"Probably..."

Orochimaru returned to writing some sort of seal on someone.

"Why? We have the manpower to occupy Shimo, we just need to bring our stuff in and get set-up."

I only really wanted to look around the place, their version of the Kage tower didn't have any scrolls so I wanted to have a look around the village and find their loot.

"The Hokage wants us to continue as we were and occupy our small corner of Frost."

I hummed and admired Orochimaru's seal work, he seemed to be making some sort of cursed seal prototype.

Exciting and worrying...

"Can I go pillage them then?"

Orochimaru nodded distractedly.

"Don't get caught and if you do get caught find a way to shift the blame onto someone else."

I nodded and gave him a sloppy salute.

"Will do, I'll make sure either Iwa or Kiri get the blame!"

Orochimaru shook his head and shoed me with his hand.

I spun on my heel and started towards the exit.

I've got a village to loot.

...

A couple of Shunshins later and I was standing within viewing distance of the wall.

I activated my Byakugan and took my time scanning the village with my telescopic sight.

I wasn't seeing much, they had some sort of underground system of bases connected by tunnels but other than that there was nothing of interest.

I watched the chakra of those in the tunnels for a moment before getting bored.

The tunnels seemed to be where most of the Shinobi lived or operated in.

I created some bone claws on my fingertips and concealed my chakra.

I'm going to climb that wall and find some loot...

...

After stealing some clothes, I was bundled up and enjoying a nice walk with a smile on my face.

Shimo was a nice place, on the surface, it seemed to be mostly civilian with only the occasional ninja bounding from rooftop to rooftop.

If I hadn't seen the underground complex I probably wouldn't have suspected they would have such a thing.

I wandered Shimo's market and eyed their wears, there was a distinct lack of vegetables and what seemed to be a surplus of meat.

I browsed a while longer before setting off in search of their bank.

...

There was a surprising lack of Fuinjutsu in the bank...

Or as it was named 'The Shimogakure Bank'.

There was some sort of sensors and what seemed to be pressure sensors under the floor panels.

Some Chunin level guards rotated every couple of hours.

All in all, their defenses were shit...

The Chunin guards were likely sensors so I'd have to take them out before they sounded or triggered any alarms.

Would they have seals tied to their vitals...?

That's what I would do...

But I guess it's unlikely they would do the same...

They didn't even have any chakra sensing seals...

I deactivated my Byakugan, blew a breath out of my mouth, and watched the fog my breath created fade and disappear.

The lack if seals oddly made me feel less safe, if there were stronger defenses, I would probably feel better about robbing the bank...

Sigh...

I'll look around a little longer, maybe I can find where they keep their forbidden techniques...

...

I stood staring at what I dubbed as the underground library, it had a lot of traffic around it, people were coming and going and there were even some residences built around it.

There was some seal work on the walls as well, though it only seemed to be for reinforcing the tunnel.

There was also a well-stocked armory.

Though it was heavily guarded...

I decided that it was too much work to get in there.

I turned and started back towards the bank, there would be a shift change in a few hours.

That's when I'll strike...

...

Five minutes after the shift change, I struck, I killed the two guards and went on my merry way.

The sensors were annoying but they seemed to have no back-up, I cut the wires and the sensors were dealt with...

The pressure sensors weren't much trouble either, they activated an alarm at the guard station so they could be ignored.

My real problem was the vault...

I stood looking at the vault door, there was a combination lock and two keyholes.

I eyed the keyholes.

I walked over and stuck my finger into the opening.

Bone started to fill the keyhole...

Eventually, I turned my wrist and heard a satisfying click.

I repeated the process with the second keyhole and smiled when I heard a second click.

Now I stood staring at the combination lock.

I placed my hand on the lock and started pumping chakra into the mechanism.

I placed my hand on the dial and started turning it at random.

There were four wheels like pieces of metal inside the lock, each wheel had to align so a piece of metal at the top could fall in and allow a handle on the vault to turn unobstructed.

I hummed, gave up on the dial, and started turning the wheels with my chakra.

Eventually, the wheels were in the correct position and the piece of metal fell into a slot and no longer obstructed the handle.

Finally...

I grasped the handle and gave it a turn.

I heard something shift and tugged at the vault door.

The door cracked open.

I smiled and pulled the door open the rest of the way.

I walked into the vault room and looked around.

There was a shelf with surprisingly little cash...

And a few bars of gold and silver.

I blinked at the cash and sighed.

There was around two-million Ryo, which sounded like a lot but was only enough to buy a nice house.

Every one-hundred Ryo was about what a dollar was in my last world...

I sighed again and started sealing the spoils away in some scrolls I prepared.

Clearly, Shimo kept most of their funds elsewhere...

I looked at the wall of lockboxes, I wasn't too interested in them but for the sake of completion, I decided I should clear them out.

I walked over and stuck a finger into one of the keyholes and made a bone key.

I turned the key, pulled the door open, and the lockbox out.

I opened the box and admired the jewelry and bills in the box.

I closed the box, I think I'll just seal the boxes up, I won't have time to empty every one of them...

I blew a breath from my nose and cracked my knuckles.

...

I got most of the lockboxes, there was a row at the top that I had given up on because I was too short to reach it.

I decided to forgo them and just loot the easy to reach ones.

I gave the lockboxes one last look before I started plastering explosive notes all around the vault.

I eyed the pile of bone keys on the floor and sealed them up as well.

I didn't need to leave any evidence...

I left the vault and started placing as many explosive notes as I could around the building.

I decided that this would coverup my chakra signature or at least delay someone trying to find my chakra signature left from my chakra usage in the bank.

I gave the interior of the bank one last look before I made my way towards the back door which I entered from.

...

I was crouched on top of Shimo's walls and eyeing the village.

It's too bad Orochimaru wasn't interested in occupying the place...

Shirogakure had a nice ring to it...

I made a hand-seal and an explosion lit up the night.

I admired it for a moment before turning around and jumping down.

...