Chapter 177: Bounty on Ryu’s Head

Ikkyu asked, "When will my order for a solar-powered home be delivered?"

"A few weeks maybe," Ryu replied, tossing him a sample vial. "Tell your architects to prep the roof and a room for battery sets and equipment.

"Your brilliance never ceases to amaze me, Ryu-san," Ikkyu said, his tone equal parts admiration and amusement. "First medical miracle in the hospital, this solar-paint technology. You even saved my sister's life. It's like you are unstoppable when you start."

Ryu glanced up, wiping sweat from his brow. "Flattery won't speed up your order. The solar paint's ready for deployment, but my team needs training to install it properly. Manufacturing's still slow."

Ikkyu smirked. "Patience isn't my virtue."

Nearby, Aoi giggled as Tsunade inspected her now unblemished arm. Her last laser session for laser treatment was over; she was free from her curse of blue skin.

"No more blue," Aoi whispered, tears glinting. "I can wear short sleeves!"

Ikkyu's playful demeanour softened. He turned to Ryu, voice low. "Father's stubborn, but I'll secure your Ninja Force licence. And I've scouted land near the shore in the Land of Rivers, near the Land of Wind. But I have to talk to the Daimyo of the Land of River first. But considering he is the grandfather of Aoi, he will agree. My secretary will contact yours once I talk things out."

Ryu nodded and said, "Thank you. I will be waiting for your reply."

Someplace else, a high-level meeting was being held in the Raikage office in the Cloud Village. They were all discussing the recent progress of the Leaf Village in the field of Fuinjutsu.

The Fourth Raikage, A, a mountain of muscle, lightly slammed a palm on the table. "Five new seals in six months."

Mabui answered, "Yes, Lord Raikage, as per the information received from our spies in the Land of Fire, five new seals have been developed by the Leaf Village. an optimised storage seal, two barrier seals, and two more unbelievable seals that had the Grandmasters Association worried."

Raikage asked, "What do those two seals do that had our grandmasters worried?"

Mabui answered, "One is a [Healing seal], which can heal a person. They no longer need to send their medical ninjas to the front lines.

This seal alone has sent a wave of surprise among grandmasters. According to our best grandmaster, to achieve the effects of a healing seal, we need to be able to store healing chakra in the seal and retrieve it on demand. That had been impossible until now.

If they made it possible, then they must also have had a seal that can store normal chakra into the seal and use the seal for chakra recovery of ordinary ninjas."

Raikage asked, "You suspect they are hiding more seals?"

One of the grandmasters in the room replied, "I am afraid that suspicion is most likely true."

The whole room became serious. Being able to store and recover chakra will raise military might for any ninja. Even the top ninjas cannot escape from chakra exhaustion. The Third Raikage met his end due to chakra exhaustion, and everyone in the room knew that.

Raikage asked, "What about the other seal?

Mabui answered, "The other seal is called an [Encoder Seal]. It basically protects their seals from theft. We cannot recreate their seals even if we get our hands on a copy of their seal if this seal is used."

Raikage muttered, "Another troublesome seal."

Dodai, one of the high-level members of the Cloud Council and advisor to Raikage, said, "If that is not scary, then know this: all five have been crafted by the same grandmaster.

The sale of secret fuinjutsu seals was tightly controlled. Only the open and widely known seals are sold in the market without strict supervision.

This control in some way protected our ninjas from fuinjutsu seals of the Leaf Village, which has the best fuinjutsu grandmasters alive.

However, because of this new [Encoder Seal], not only will we not be able to learn their fuinjutsu, but even third-rate ninjas will be able to use the protected fuinjutsu against us freely.

The might of the Leaf Village has increased by a great margin with this [Encoder Seal] and [Healing Seal].

And the fact that one person made these seals is also a point of concern."

Raikage asked, "Who is this person that created these seals?"

Dodai tells him, "He is a retired jonin named Dan Hamura. He is older than the third Hokage and used to be the personal guard of Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the 1st Hokage. I doubt that Mito Uzumaki is the source of all this innovation."

One council member asked, "What does the spy say about this Dan Hamua? Can we make a move on him?"

Mabui answered, "Futile; he is very well protected. There are ANBU guards stationed near his home. Our spies had a hard time getting even near his house without getting attention from ANBU. 

All our spies returned without any luck.

There is one more strange thing the spies told us."

Raikage asked, "What?"

Mabui answered, "All the spies experienced a headache whenever they looked in the general direction of Dan Hamura's home."

Raikage said, "That must be some kind of defensive ninjutsu."

Mabui added, "Or maybe another fuinjutsu seal of this grandmaster."

Raikage, while looking at the scroll containing general information on Dan, asked, "What are his weaknesses? 

Mabui answered, "There are no real relatives. All his family died in the Nine Tails attack. He did, however, adopt a boy to be his grandson."

She took another scroll and read Ryu's information.

"Ryu Hamura, eight years old. Second year of Leaf Ninja Academy. Top of his class. He entered the medical apprentice course a year ago. There are rumours that he is a disciple of Yuki Sarutobi, who had also taught medical ninjutsu to Tsunade Senju, one of the Legendary Sannin.

We tried to look into him more, but he too is protected by the ANBU."

Raikage said, "So he is a talented kid and probably on the same scale as that of that old hag."

He looked at the council and asked, "What do you suggest we do about this, Dan Hamura?

Councilman Onnen, son of the deceased Second Raikage, spoke, "Place bounties. Dan's head: 100 million ryo. The boy's: 50 million.

If even half of what the spy told us is true, then we must crush this bud before he becomes Konoha's future ninja.

We must either kidnap him or eliminate him."

Many nodded and supported this idea, while others looked at him with disdain but did not say anything.

Dodai thought, 'This bastard was the one behind the kidnapping attempt on that Uzumaki and Hyuga girl.

The alliance with the leaf village broke due to his old grudges. Just because he is the son of the deceased Second Raikage, he thinks he can do anything he wants.

He still blames Konoha for what happened to his father. His father was a pacifist, but he turned out like this. He must realise that there are lines one must not cross. Raikage will never agree to this willingly, as it won't be good for his image or that of the village.'

Raikage asked, "How long will it take for him to officially become a ninja?"

Mabui replied, "Four more years if he does not graduate early like other geniuses had done in the past. But that's highly unlikely considering those were warring periods."

Raikage then spoke, "Issuing a bounty on this Dan Hamura. 40 million RYO. And this boy, a bounty, is pretty useless before he graduates; he needs to be an active ninja to become an easy target. issue a bounty on this boy's head as soon as he becomes a Genin."

Onnen, the guy who made the suggestion, smiled. He was hell-bent on destroying the Leaf Village because his father was killed during an alliance meeting.

At the same time, similar discussions were happening in other ninja villages as well. Other villages also issued bounties to the underworld. The collective bounty became large enough to rival top active ninjas. 

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at Dan's bounty poster—100 million Ryo—and sighed. "Ox."

An ANBU materialised, mask carved with bovine horns. "Lord Hokage?"

"Double Dan's guard. And assign one more person to his grandson." Hiruzen said.

Ox bowed and said, "Understood."

As the ANBU vanished, Hiruzen muttered, "It happened faster than I thought."

Ryu was in the academy listening to a boring theory lecture on ninjutsu. He was training his carbon control by making a one-dimensional hair-like structure of carbon atoms by focusing chakra into them and realigning atoms into the desired shape.

He thought, 'This is very hard. It needed to be more natural and effortless, or else this jutsu would never be battle-ready. I can't ask my enemy to wait while reshaping carbon. Lightning took me almost a month; lets see how much this takes.'

He sighed and went back to training [Carbon Control], a brand new affinity that in the future will become his signature fighting style.

A/N: Please donate some power stones and cheer me up, and leave a review if you liked the story so far. If possible, please support me on Patreon.

Please comment if you liked [Carbon Control] skill. I wanted not to copy other fics and give my character Shirangan/Rinnegan/Tenseigan.

So I thought very hard about what other skills to give him without making him stupidly overpowered without hard work. I came up with [Carbon Control] and [Diamond Release]. And there are new Fuinjutsu seals Ryu would gain.

I also made a new original character, Onnen, a villain for my next arc. He is the son of the second Raikage and a powerful character.

Ryu's next serious fight will blow your minds.