Hunt Complete!
Just barely evading the initial strike, Yamashima Kaze stared at the deep puncture mark gouged into the earth by the peacock's deadly beak. Cold sweat streamed down his face—had he hesitated for even a second, that thrust would've punched a hole straight through his body.
Unfortunately for him, that lightning-fast strike was only the beginning.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The chakra peacock's blinding speed, completely disproportionate to its massive size, made Yamashima's heart tremble in dread. What was worse, its attacks were becoming faster and more unpredictable. It didn't take long for Yamashima to realize—this young monster wasn't just trying to kill him. He was using him to test his jutsu.
Fury burned in his chest, but panic quickly followed. The overwhelming barrage of the peacock's attacks left him with no time to counter or even form a single hand seal.
Boom!!
Razor-sharp talons raked across Yamashima's face, narrowly missing his eye but slicing a deep gash across his cheek. The claws didn't stop there—they tore through the massive boulder beneath him like it was nothing.
Crash!
The peacock's right wing lifted like a guillotine and swept down in a brutal arc.
Yamashima couldn't react in time.
Slash!
A flash of violet light.
His body was cut in two.
Two bloodied halves were flung into the air—but there was no pause, no mercy. The peacock's head darted to the right, and in an instant, a panicked figure burst from the ground, dodging at the last possible second.
Yamashima Kaze staggered into the open, his breathing ragged and uneven. His clothes were tattered, and a deep, ugly gash stretched across his chest, blood pouring freely. Pain twisted his face, his legs shaking uncontrollably. The two "halves" of him that had been flung moments earlier dissolved into clumps of earth—it was a substitution jutsu. But it had barely bought him time, and his condition was deteriorating fast.
Through this battle with a real upper-jōnin rogue, Ryan had begun to truly familiarize himself with the offensive capabilities of the Peacock Sage Art. If he hadn't deliberately held back to test out more of its functions, Yamashima would've been dead from the very first strike.
Yamashima looked down at his abdomen, where blood now dripped freely from the deep wound. His vision blurred. Damn it! he cursed inwardly, eyes glaring murderously at Ryan, who stood calmly within the protective belly of the chakra peacock.
But anger wouldn't save him. If he didn't treat this wound immediately, he would bleed to death before his enemy even lifted a finger again.
Unfortunately for him, Ryan wasn't about to let that happen.
Screee!!
A piercing cry shook the forest as the peacock's left wing swept out. Chakra feathers condensed into a blade of violet light, slicing through the air like a guillotine. Nearly ten meters long, the chakra blade glittered with killing intent and stirred up a powerful gale, hurling sand and leaves into the air as it carved a path of destruction straight for Yamashima.
It was fast—far faster than Yamashima could react.
He gritted his teeth.
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
Because Ryan had intentionally paused for a few seconds earlier, Yamashima had just barely managed to gather enough chakra. His hands moved in a blur, faster than he'd ever achieved before, pushed to the limits by desperation. Just as the chakra blade came within a few meters of him, a thick stone wall rose in his defense.
At the same time, Yamashima threw himself backward, hurling his battered body into the trees in a last-ditch effort to escape.
Boom!!!
The chakra blade collided with the wall.
Like tofu.
The earth split open as the blade cleaved the stone apart effortlessly, sending rock fragments flying. The wind howled, obscuring everything in a cloud of dust.
Through the haze, Ryan spotted Yamashima's silhouette retreating deeper into the woods.
He smiled coldly.
"Trying to use the trees to slow me down and buy time? What a joke."
His hands formed a seal. The massive chakra peacock shrank, compressing to a smaller but more agile form with wings about five or six meters long.
With a powerful flap, it became a blur of violet light.
Boom-boom-boom!
Tree after tree exploded in splinters as the chakra peacock tore through them like paper. The dense woods couldn't slow it in the slightest. If anything, its speed was increasing.
In seconds, it caught up to Yamashima.
Crash!
Just as Yamashima turned around, eyes wide with fear, the peacock's sharp beak shot forward like a spear, impaling him through the chest and pinning him to the base of a massive tree.
Blood poured down in streams.
His lips trembled. He tried to raise his arm toward Ryan as if he wanted to grab him—or plead for mercy—but in the next instant, his body went limp.
His head slumped to the side. Dead.
The entire battle—from ambush to final strike—had lasted less than five minutes.
Even holding back, Ryan had ended it cleanly.
"Fwoosh."
The chakra peacock tossed the corpse aside with a flick of its head. Despite delivering the killing blow, its beak remained pristine, untouched by even a drop of blood.
Ryan dismissed the Peacock Sage Art and landed softly on the ground beside the body. His gaze lingered on Yamashima's lifeless face with a rare flicker of emotion.
Not long ago, he was just a university graduate. Now, he could end a jōnin's life with ease.
From his gear pouch, he retrieved a sealing scroll and instantly body-flickered beside the corpse.
His irises were no longer black—they glowed faintly purple.
His vision swept across the body, tracing every remnant chakra fluctuation.
He was searching for traps—detonating tags, explosive triggers, anything that might be rigged on a dead rogue's body. Such traps were common among seasoned ninja. A careless bounty hunter might lose a limb—or their life.
Ryan wasn't about to let that happen. A regular explosive tag might not kill him, but it could certainly wound him.
This wasn't any secret dojutsu—just focused chakra condensed around the eyes to enhance perception and chakra sensing. Many experienced ninja could do it, like Akahoshi or Summer Star.
But had a Hyūga been here, they would've been shocked: Ryan's entire chakra network flowed violet—not blue like ordinary shinobi. Years of exposure to the "Star" chakra had transformed his body completely. His chakra was now uniquely dense and potent.
After confirming the body was safe, Ryan rifled through Yamashima's tool pouch.
"Hmm? What's this?"
He pulled out a small scroll and cautiously examined it.
After checking for traps, he opened it.
"Ninjutsu scroll? And mostly A-rank techniques?"
He blinked, then smirked.
"So that's why he defected. He must've stolen this from Iwagakure."
Though the scroll didn't contain any jutsu he needed personally, it was a treasure for Hoshigakure, which lacked a deep library of elite techniques.
He had more than enough Lightning Release now, especially after creating his own techniques based on Kakashi's Chidori. What he lacked were top-tier Fire and Wind Release jutsu. Hoshigakure's original wind jutsu were pitiful—only one B-rank and two C-rank techniques.
Still, this was a massive win.
"Not what I needed, but a great haul nonetheless. A lucky start—may the rest of my hunts go just as well."
He sealed the scroll and then sealed Yamashima's corpse into the storage scroll.
A quick note on sealing scrolls: while they weren't rare in the shinobi world, large-capacity scrolls were a different story. They were expensive and wore out with use.
Even Hoshigakure didn't have many of them. Luckily, Ryan had taken this one from the Third Star Shadow's treasury.
Sure, sealing a corpse inside it would shorten its lifespan. But Ryan wasn't about to haul around a dead body like Kakuzu. The 2 million ryō bounty was more than enough to cover the cost of a new scroll.
Kakuzu would've died before spending that kind of money.
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T/N:
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