After 2 weeks, the situation in the mine became plain and uneventful. All the children resumed their laborious assignment with Yoichi having a significant transformation among them.
[Heavenly Demon Posture: (Entry) 30/100]
His progress was noteworthy due to a change in Yoichi's overall attributes and nourishing benefits from the technique itself. With abundant resources, his physique went back to an average kid while his proficiency progress remained slow and steady.
Of course, Martial Arts and figure couldn't be completed in one go. Like sculpting, every move of the chisel required extreme focus and precision, resulting in an aesthetic masterpiece.
As for his friends, they made noticeable progress over time. Coupled with proper theoretical and practical combat, they could surely defeat other kids with short bursts of Chakra in each strike.
The regular days passed until an unexpected scene happened.
"Whoa! Look at that kid, he is big and undoubtedly strong like Masaru!"
"Where did these kids come from?!"
"Newcomers? Hah, they will definitely be traumatized by the impoverished condition here!"
Fledglings were transported to the mines as the surrounding voices buzzed around like bees, looking at the newbies with apprehension and curiosity.
"What are you thinking, Yoichi?"
In the corner, Genji and the others looked at Yoichi, who was furrowing his eyebrows before relaxing a little bit.
"No, it's nothing..." Yoichi said, "The mines demanded a lot of manpower and these kids can help by a huge margin."
Hearing him, the three nodded. The more work that has been done, the faster they can rest and learn Chakra techniques.
Moreover, Amegakure required new blood since the last shinobi war had made its troops dwindle in vast numbers. As a buffer zone of the Major Villages' squibbles, the quantity of troops needed must be considerable. Perhaps Genji and the others would be in the spotlight, recruiting these remarkable talents with Amegakure's resources.
"Silence!" a commanding voice soared across the cafeteria as the children glanced at the assertive man.
Hayate along with his assistants stood out amongst the shinobi behind him.
"From now on, these children will be your new acquaintances. Mingle with them and do as you all please."
With direct words, the children instinctively nodded while Hayate merely glanced a bit in Yoichi's direction until leaving the orders in Isamu's hand.
In the past 2 weeks, Hayate noticed Yoichi's improvement and felt satisfied. In Hayate's perspective, each effort exerted in one's expertise was a testament to a kid's future potential.
Although he was piqued by the kid's weird habits of practicing weird postures and throwing rocks, anything that involved dedication and resilience towards strength was always a good thing for him.
"Eat and work harder! I don't want to hear any squabbles, understand?" In front, Isamu put forth an authoritative tone.
"We understand!" All children replied in unison.
After that, they resumed eating while the newcomers associated themselves with urgency. Some of them were friendly while the others were silent and afraid, a mix of excitement and anxiety was often for these new children in an unknown environment.
"Look, that strong guy was socializing with Masaru!" Sabito pointed in a certain direction with apprehension.
"That doesn't concern us, let's eat," Genji said. As for Hikari and Yoichi, they merely ate their food.
"Hey, what's your name?" the strong kid went with blunt words and asked Masaru, who was eating his food.
"You bastard, who do you–" Tadao relented until he noticed a hand stopping him from his words.
"My name is Masaru, what's yours?" Masaru replied with a smile.
"Gorou from the Land of Lightning."
The kid named Gorou was a dark-skinned child with a robust physique. As a child, he inherited the genetics of his deceased parents. However, he wasn't the only one who had a mighty body in the orphanage.
People from the Land of Lightning were inherently powerful with their burly figures yet their techniques remained barbaric and desolate due to the disadvantageous geography and a divide of unity between the ethnicities.
Still, this doesn't change the fact that the Land of Lightning does have its unique talents and created a village capable of being one of the Major Villages, Kumogakure.
Initially, Gorou dreamed of being a Kumogakure Shinobi. However, life wasn't fair. Presently, he wanted to ally with Masaru, who has a connection and a bunch of lackeys.
"I saw your figure and a bunch of people on your side. You are the strongest here, eh?" Gorou said.
"You sure know how to joke around, Gorou-san. I can definitely help you with my ability. But for now, let's talk later. I'll be reaching out to you in a few days."
"Sure." After that, Gorou left with a mere reply.
"What do you even see in that brute, Masaru-sama?" Seeing Gorou's figure, Tadao asked him with intense curiosity.
"Ah, it's nothing... I need someone to test the waters and he appeared." Masaru responded with an imperceptible smile.
"Test the waters? Are you going to wash yourself, Masaru-sama?"
Hearing Tadao's foolish thoughts, Masaru's eyebrows twitched until he left alone and went to work.
"Do you know what he is talking about?" Tadao asked his colleagues, who shook their heads, not knowing their leader's deep words.
As the 7 days passed quickly, Yoichi and the others went ballistic with their massive gains. His proficiency in posture reached the 35th point while Genji, Hikari, and Sabito were wholeheartedly diligent throughout this past week.
However, something disturbingly changed around them. Children were now fearful and glancing frequently at their sides like being haunted by a spooky ghost. At first, the mood of the kids was calm but when Gorou and Masaru sneakily met in the mines, the latter became feral and aggressive.
Currently, the beastly newbie revealed his fangs.
Like an insatiable monster, Gorou ruthlessly extorted each meal of the children and saved the food only for himself. Furthermore, he has quite a good connection with Masaru which made the kids even more afraid of their retaliation.
If someone didn't give their resources, then the victims would be whacked to death inside the mine. On the other hand, they would die of hunger if these children surrendered their allocated meal.
'It felt like a stupid version of Masaru.'
Yoichi thought. He didn't care about it at all since they weren't affected. As long as Gorou stayed out of their food, anything hardly mattered.
Yoichi wasn't a hero or a guy filled with kindness in his heart like Buddha.
His only anchors in this world were his friends and his missing mother, nothing has changed.
...
The next morning.
"Hey, give me your food!" Gorou with his arrogant gestures, blatantly extorted Yoichi and his group.
"Did your master order you, loyal dog?" In contrast, Yoichi glanced a little bit before eating his food.
The crowd heard Yoichi's remarks as the gasps of surprise and disbelief hummed around the cafeteria.
"What did you say? HAAA?!?!" Simmering with anger in his face, Gorou slammed the table and held Yoichi's clothes, carrying him with his hands.
"So this dog was deaf! I've never seen a hound having a disability before..."
In an instant, Yoichi easily dismissed Gorou's hands from him and joked around. Hearing his words, Genji stifled a laugh while Hikari and Sabito held their mouth, preventing their cheeky smiles.
"Don't be a bad dog, okay? How about this, let me take you for a walk, shall we?" Each word pierced through Gorou's ego and became enraged.
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(Current Progress)
[Heavenly Demon Posture: (Entry) 38/100]
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A fight happening? AINTNOWAY! Just kidding, I'll try and do my best in this fight chapter so expect the chapters to be a little late tomorrow.
Bro, TES was dumpstered by T1. Another World's Appearance again, hayz.
Thanks for reading, commenting, and collecting the novel. See ya! XDD!