Shiki made out like a bandit.
Making a small opening on the seal and sucking up all of its contents was child's play for someone with his level of Uzumaki grade fuinjutsu training.
And so, the boy now had far more than a couple of genetic samples from the Chinoike clan.
Instead, he boasted a veritable collection of their signature Ketsuryugan, the Blood Dragon Eye.
The Ketsuryugan is quite an interesting dojutsu.
While it bears the standard ability of dojutsu to see chakra as color, it lacks true enhanced perception, being comparable to excellent shinobi level eyesight but no more.
This is unlike the Sharingan with its heightened visual acuity and dynamic vision, capable of seeing things with tremendous clarity whilst looking as if in slow motion.
However, much like the Sharingan, the Ketsuryugan boasts potent genjutsu capabilities. A user can even activate powerful genjutsu through touch, without any eye contact, something which a standard Sharingan is incapable of doing.
But its true uniqueness lies in its ability to manipulate fluids with high enough iron content, most notably, blood.
If there was ever a benefit to living in the Valley of Hell, it was the readily available iron rich water a Ketsuryugan user could employ. Its ultimate technique, the Blood Dragon Ascension, could even temporarily match a Susanoo.
Shiki interests however, were more focused on the special jutsu developed by Chino, Oyashiro En's daughter who likely wasn't yet born.
By studying the remains of several White Zetsu that washed up on the Valley of Hell during the Fourth Great War, Chino developed two very interesting techniques.
The Blood Transformation Jutsu, where she could touch a target and change their body structure by "expanding their blood" so they would look like a much larger and bulkier version of themselves.
And then the true source of Shiki's curiosity, the Exploding Human Jutsu.
First, the Ketsuryugan wielder would inject their chakra into the target's body through touch where it would act as a poisonous substance, destabilizing their physical form.
Then, once the target was made to bleed like with a small cut from a fight, their bodies would be covered with a dark substance and grotesquely expand before detonating in a violent, large scale explosion.
The only way to stop it was to block the target's chakra flow before they went critical, after which the poisonous chakra could be safely extracted.
Currently though, Shiki was not even sure if he could properly reproduce the abilities of the Ketsuryugan, much less developing jutsu that relied on them. It was still something to keep in mind however.
*
After rejoining the caravan, Shiki and Beni made no mention of their little excursion.
That however, did not mean it went unnoticed.
Inori wouldn't miss the fact that the boy had disappeared for hours, not when the whole group was together in one place, making it easy to see absentees.
Mei and Shinka, ever conscious of Shiki, especially the former, also noticed his absences while Ema and Tomoe noticed Benihime's.
That said, while this became the source of many suspicious glances, nobody asked questions.
The Konoha folk knew better. There always seemed to be a divide between Shiki and the rest of them. The trust was never fully there.
As for Beni's side, she was the young lady, usually level headed and the strongest of the Land of Iron trio so the other two did not usually question her unless there was some big issue.
The Violet Rose always suspected Shiki had ulterior motives for the mission and this was the first overtly suspicious thing he did, right near the end too.
She only noticed he left after he was completely gone.
There was that time where he was alone with the Land of Iron ladies in the Land of Medicine but the Yamanaka had no way of knowing about his movements there, at least not without possibly setting the boy off with suspicions regarding her intention, quite justifiably.
'Is there something in this area that would get his attention?' Inori internally questioned.
Unfortunately for her the Chinoike clan had long been declared officially extinct.
Their exile was ancient history by shinobi standards and Yugakure, the Hidden Village of the Land of Hot Water declared the Valley of Hell a forbidden zone long ago after spotting suspicious individuals seemingly drinking blood in the area.
In actuality, it was just a Chinoike clan member drinking the Valley's red water but it was enough to scare Yugakure off and add to the Valley's haunted reputation.
Shiki believed that kind of suspicious things is precisely the sort that a Hidden Village should investigate when it popped up in their territory but Yugakure were clearly not made of sterner enough stuff.
If the Violet Rose investigated deeper into the area, she might discover some old myths and rumours about the Valley of Hell and realize that is precisely the type of thing that would attract the boy's attention.
But even such rumors were hard to find these days and she did not even know what she was looking for to begin with.
*
The merchant's caravan had plenty to do in the Land of Hot Water and they would be staying a while but conflict was highly unlikely in such well reputed neutral ground.
Nobles of various foreign countries wandered from high class resort to high class resort, enjoying all manner of luxury and "local specialties".
This alone almost guaranteed the caravan's safety.
Some of the nobles were from the Land of Lightning itself and, so long as they existed under their Daimyo's rule, Kumogakure would not lightly risk running afoul of them.
And so, with this newfound free time, Shiki's thoughts turned towards the immediate future.
Seeing the boy in this ponderous state, the rest of Team 6 already knew he would effectively become a mindless zombie on the outside until he either was done pondering or something serious came up.
As such, they did not bother paying any more attention to him nor assign him any watch duties.
Only Beni, perfectly entertained by watching Shiki even if all he did was stare into nothing while in thought, was perfectly content.
Meanwhile, Mei could not help but resentfully stare at the oblivious boy and his ever watchful young admirer who purposefully ignored her hostile glares.
Tuning out reality, Shiki pondered on the mission so far and about what he should do once it was done.
They were now on the home stretch so it was a good time to start considering these things, he was conscious of the fact that his reactionary decisions when put on the spot tended to be somewhat outrageous at times so he preferred to plan things out beforehand, as he usually did.
And normally, his plans would consist entirely of training, research and Mito but now, a new item suddenly appeared on his mental list, completely unprompted.
You see, while he had gained a vehement admirer while on this mission, Shiki now realized that he too, had grown kind of used to her presence which came as a bit of a shock.
The boy had never considered himself as the kind of person to get easily attached to others but Beni had been very successful at establishing her presence in his mind.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -