16 - Trait Duplicated
The ever-widening distance and the intense, deadlocked battle left both Suna and Kiri ninjas with no time to care for their wounded comrades left behind.
Three crows suddenly shot down from the sky.
A Kiri ninja, hastily tending to his own wounds, looked up abruptly.
Before he could draw his kunai and strike down the incoming crows, his gaze met theirs. In that instant, his mind was seized by Kei. His consciousness slipped, and he stood frozen in place.
A flicker of golden light.
Minato appeared, his kunai slashing clean across the ninja's throat.
He was already upon the next target, positioned precisely by another crow.
Squelch.
By the time the first Kiri ninja's blood finally spurted from his neck, staining the air, Minato had already ended a second life.
The sensation of pain and suffocation rushed to his fading consciousness. His vision dimmed.
The three crows weaved like phantoms through the dense forest, pinpointing the perfect landing spots for Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique.
A golden flash—living up to the name.
The six enemies left behind on the battlefield didn't last ten seconds.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Deep in a town alley, a severed Kiri ninja's head landed at Kei's feet, tossed there by Minato.
Minato himself reappeared in the alley, carrying an unconscious, gravely injured Suna ninja over one shoulder, another unconscious Kiri ninja in his right hand, and the massive Samehada in his left.
With a casual flick of his wrist, the still-warm Samehada landed in Kei's hands.
"Minato, you're a beast!" Kei grinned, praising his reliable comrade.
He toyed with the struggling, badly burned Samehada, which writhed weakly with its mouth open and tongue lolling out, before sealing it away into a scroll from his chest pouch.
The severed Kiri ninja's head? That went into a sealing scroll as well.
"Have your summon find a good hiding place. Should we move out first?" Minato, still holding both unconscious captives, sought Kei's opinion.
Their boat had left the port the moment it dropped them off.
Extracting intel from these ninjas would require a safe, hidden location.
"We don't know the terrain as well as Kiri and Suna. Instead of running blind, why not hide right under their noses?"
Kei formed a hand seal, instantly dismissing his summoned crows.
Miles away, the three birds vanished, reappearing in Konoha's avian summoning beast shelter.
With precise hand movements, Kei performed the signature jutsu of the Yamanaka clan.
His Mind Clone Switch Technique took hold of the two unconscious captives, overriding their control.
Through their bodies, he used a Transformation Jutsu, turning them into alluring, dolled-up women.
With a sultry pose, he even struck a flirtatious look at Minato.
Then, without hesitation, he transformed himself into a greasy middle-aged man.
"You… I… Ah…"
Minato opened his mouth several times but gave up with a sigh, resigning himself to mimic Kei's disguise—a sleazy, middle-aged man.
After masking all traces of blood and any scents that could be tracked, they each carried a 'charming lady' in their arms.
Swaggering into the town's most luxurious inn.
---
Inside the largest suite, Minato set up a simple soundproof barrier while Kei got straight to work.
His Eye Mind Reading activated, diving into the captives' memories.
It was a technique mandatory for Konoha's Intelligence Division.
Due to its high mental strain, even in Konoha, only a handful of people could master it.
Among them, Inoichi's exceptional Yin Release mastery allowed him to extract a day's worth of memories in under sixty seconds.
But only a few knew the truth.
Kei could do it in under thirty seconds for an elite jonin.
After he gained Memory Master of the Shinobi World, his speed had more than doubled.
For the next five and a half hours until dusk, he absorbed every memory from both captives, meticulously extracting key intelligence and recording it all in a scroll.
---
[S-Rank Mission completed.]
[Detail: Obtain Suna and Kiri War Intelligence]
[Reward:
- 1 trait extraction
- 1 trait duplication]
---
"!!!"
Just as he finished organizing the scroll, the system notification in his mind left him momentarily stunned.
What did he just hear?
Trait Duplication?
Duplication!
Almost instinctively, he turned toward Minato, who stood by the window.
[Spatial Insight].
The Flying Thunder God Technique, a jutsu he had long coveted, was now within reach.
Without hesitation, he immediately used his duplication reward on Minato.
---
[Trait Duplication Successful.]
[Obtained:
- Spatial Insight (Purple)]
[Host: Yamanaka Kei]
[Career: Ninja]
[Active Traits: Transmigrator (Red), Yin Release Mastery (Purple), Spatial Insight (Purple), Shout and It Comes (Purple), Handsome (Blue), Memory Master of the Shinobi World (Blue)]
[Inactive Traits: Stealthy Crawler (White), Fragile Yet Tenacious (White)]
[Trait Extraction: 1]
[Trait Gifting: 1]
---
A strange, indescribable sensation washed over him.
The space around him seemed to shift within his perception.
Before, space had always been intangible—impossible to grasp, elusive like a fleeting illusion. He could never truly sense it.
But now, with the new trait, the intricate pathways of space were unfolding before his eyes. The hidden nodes of spatial coordinates, once undetectable, were now fully exposed.
Even the faintest spatial fluctuations could no longer escape his awareness.
The coordinates of the Flying Thunder God, which had eluded him countless times before, were now crystal clear.
Constructing the Flying Thunder God mark and establishing spatial markers suddenly felt effortless.
If he wanted, he could carve his own Flying Thunder God marks just as easily as Minato.
More than that, he could even sense the Flying Thunder God kunai within Minato's ninja pouch.
These kunai, which bore Minato's personal spatial markers, resonated perfectly with his chakra.
Kei realized something intriguing—he could potentially use those coordinates to teleport as well.
However, due to the fundamental differences in their chakra nature, his movement speed and fluidity would likely be far inferior to Minato's.
A personal spatial coordinate, huh?
It all made sense.
Every ninja's chakra carried unique characteristics. Even when using the same jutsu, individual differences led to subtle variations in effect.
But when it came to a technique as precise and demanding as the Flying Thunder God, these differences would be magnified exponentially.
Looks like I need to develop my own spatial markers.