Ch 18: Ninjutsu

Chapter 18: Ninjutsu

Silent Attack

Silently, several black shadows flashed by—pure black kunai. In the dim light of dusk, there was no glint, no sound of them cutting through the air. They shot toward Ayaan's back in a sinister ambush.

But Ayaan, who had already sensed several pursuers behind him using Observation Haki, casually stretched out his hand. With a soft clink, all the kunai were caught in his palm. Sparks even burst out where they made contact with his steel-like hand.

"A meaningless test... I just happened to need some test subjects. Congratulations on being selected," Ayaan sneered as he turned around.

"Oh no… we picked the wrong target." The bounty ninjas instantly realized their mistake. They weren't fools—in fact, discerning power levels was a crucial skill in their line of work. Just that one move had shown them Ayaan's strength. Without another word, they threw down their weapons and bolted.

Ayaan sneered, unfazed by the attack. He had consumed a large amount of metal using the Baku Baku no Mi, and now possessed a body akin to solid steel.

He pushed off the ground with slight force. While his flexibility was slightly reduced due to the metallic transformation, his straight-line speed remained explosive. He instantly appeared behind one of the bounty ninjas.

"Bring it on!" the bounty ninja roared, swinging his blade backward in desperation. Ayaan didn't even bother dodging. The blade sparked against his body, leaving behind a shallow trail of flames—but it didn't slow him in the slightest. Ayaan charged forward and slammed the man into a puddle of yellow mud.

"You thought a clone could fool me? Keep dreaming." He casually punched the ground beside him. Using Observation Haki, he had already pinpointed the real body of the ninja attempting to trick him with a shadow clone. He reached into the earth and effortlessly pulled the man out.

"AAAHHH!" The struggling Chunin screamed as he was yanked from the ground. His arm cracked and twisted violently, bones audibly snapping, but he couldn't break free from Ayaan's iron grip. His entire shoulder was dislocated.

Ayaan quickly ended the suffering. With a steel-like punch, he smashed the ninja's head with a loud thud, bursting it like a watermelon. Blood and brain matter splattered across the mud.

Looking up, he saw the remaining Chunins had already fled. Ayaan raised his right hand, activating the Baku Baku no Mi's transformation. The steel sheen of his arm faded as the limb transformed like a mechanical construct—reshaping itself into a six-barrelled machine gun.

Da-da-da-da-da!

The rapid gunfire echoed. As the barrels cooled and green smoke hissed from the mechanism, the machine gun arm reverted to its original iron form.

"One of them escaped? Tch... Ninja really are different from pirates," Ayaan muttered. Of the four bounty hunters, he had killed three. The last had escaped his Observation Haki's range—though not unscathed.

That was the difference between pirates and ninja. When facing a hopeless battle, most ninjas knew when to cut their losses and retreat. Pirates, on the other hand, tended to fight to the death—driven by pride or madness.

Well… except for Uzumaki Naruto.

"But… three is enough," Ayaan murmured, glancing at the corpses. His expression turned slightly pale. Then, without hesitation, he opened his mouth wide and swallowed one of the bodies whole.

URGH! That was awful...

He gagged. Although the Baku Baku no Mi neutralized all taste, the psychological shock of swallowing a human corpse still hit him hard.

However, the moment the corpse entered his stomach, Ayaan immediately noticed a difference from when he used the fruit in the Pirate World. This time, the corpse carried chakra.

After fully extracting and breaking down the chakra, Ayaan spit the corpse back out. The body was now shriveled and dried like a mummy.

He wasn't concerned with the remains anymore. Instead, he focused inward, sensing the flow of chakra in his body. A moment later, he opened his eyes.

"My chakra definitely increased... but this is only about one-twentieth of what was in the body."

"At this rate, I'd have to swallow hundreds of corpses like this just to double my chakra..."

"If I want to boost my chakra that way… I might as well hunt down Hashirama's cells, eat them, and give myself a Sage Body."

Though he thought this, Ayaan still went ahead and extracted chakra from the other two corpses. Yet each time, the nausea returned.

"I didn't feel anything when I swallowed living people... So why does eating corpses make me sick?" Ayaan tried to console himself. After the worst of the disgust faded, he looted the three bodies and then used Earth-Style Ninjutsu to bury them.

When he had swallowed living enemies before, it had been for hostage-taking—never full digestion. This time, actually absorbing chakra from the dead left a far deeper psychological scar.

So while he confirmed that he could gain chakra from human bodies, he had no intention of doing it often. He would only use it on enemies who pushed him too far.

After that brutal skirmish, no one else came to bother him.

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Three Days Later…

Ayaan spent the next few days shopping around for goods unique to the ninja world—especially high-grade tools like ninja weapons, exploding tags, sealing scrolls, and more. He was even lucky enough to acquire a piece of chakra metal.

Weapons didn't hold much meaning for Ayaan anymore. They were little more than temporary combat boosters. With the Baku Baku no Mi, he didn't need to forge anything. As long as he ate the chakra metal, he could mold it into any shape—from blades to shields—directly from his body.

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Return to the Black Market

Three days later, Ayaan returned to the black market.

But this time, the atmosphere was very different.

Those who had once eyed him greedily were now visibly afraid. In the world of bounty ninjas, strength was everything. Four ninjas had followed Ayaan when he left. Only one had returned—seriously injured.

To kill three bounty hunters under siege conditions put Ayaan on par with elite bounty ninjas. That level of strength meant he wasn't someone small fry could afford to mess with.

"Are the goods ready?" Ayaan asked the black market boss calmly.

The man gave a nervous smile and quickly handed over a few scrolls. "Of course, of course. These are the techniques you requested."

Ayaan opened the medical ninjutsu scroll and scanned it briefly. With his current knowledge, he could easily tell it was genuine.

He then handed over a pouch of gold, completing the transaction.

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