Chapter 207: Isn't it normal for a Necromancer to have mental attacks?
"This bastard… no. I can't beat him." Takenaka Naoto stared at the corpses scattered around him, grief and rage twisting his face.
He recognized two of them. They were his friends. The others were bounty ninjas who had rushed over after learning someone had found the target and wanted to share the spoils.
In the end, everyone was dead except him.
Even his younger brother had died.
Naoto's hands clenched until his nails dug into his palms. His brother had been about to get married, and now he had lost his life here.
"It's all my fault… it's all my fault. I should die!" His eyes were bloodshot, but he didn't dare make a sound.
Now that his friends and the other bounty ninjas were dead, he had to live. He had to carry the hopes of the companions who could no longer speak.
"You want to run?"
That devil's voice rang out again.
Naoto didn't answer. He only formed hand seals frantically and cast Hidden Mist Jutsu once more, trying to cloud the enemy's vision.
Only then could he escape.
He couldn't stay here. If he stayed, he would truly die. The opponent's strength was terrifying, beyond reason. A monster.
Then, in the thick fog, he heard a strange crunching sound.
"What… what is that sound?"
He was confused, but he couldn't afford to care. He turned and ran, only to feel something clamp around his leg.
He whipped his head back.
His blood turned cold.
The one grabbing him was his friend, the friend who had died earlier.
Naoto remembered that face clearly. Like Naoto, his friend couldn't accept the Hidden Mist Village's blood mist policy, so he fled, became a rogue ninja, and survived by taking bounty missions.
But Naoto was certain. He had watched this man die.
Yet now…
The corpse clung to his leg and slowly lifted its head. Hollow eyes stared up at him. A strange smile tugged at the corner of its mouth.
Naoto's hair stood on end.
He kicked instinctively, but it wouldn't let go.
He kicked again, harder.
Bones cracked.
His foot sank into something that felt wrong, something that still held a trace of body warmth. Slimy, sticky, clinging.
Naoto gritted his teeth and yanked his leg free, but the thing still latched on, jaw opening wide as it tried to bite down.
Pain exploded in his calf.
Naoto's eyes widened in horror. His friend had bitten off a piece of flesh.
He couldn't endure it anymore.
He formed hand seals, and a Wind Blade Jutsu flashed.
The head and arms were severed, and only then did he finally rip himself free.
But before he could take a second step, he saw them.
Six figures, crawling up around him in the fog.
And his younger brother too.
His brother's abdomen had been pierced. Yet he was also rising, dragging himself forward and blocking Naoto's only path out.
"Forgive me…" Naoto looked at his brother's charred face, nearly unrecognizable now, and agony twisted through him.
But to survive, he had to move.
He had to act.
"Brother… brother…"
Just as Naoto was about to use Earth Release to send all of them away, his breath caught.
His brother was speaking.
"Run… fast."
His brother struggled to open his mouth. Sticky skin and damaged flesh made the words unclear, but Naoto heard him anyway.
Naoto trembled, gripping the weapon in his hand as he stared at his brother.
That swaying figure stumbled toward him with a sword, repeating the same words again and again.
"Run fast… run fast…"
His brother's face was filled with pain.
Nearby, Kenichi sat on a railing, watching the scene with clear interest.
He was genuinely curious what choice this man would make when faced with the dead, especially when the dead walking toward him clearly had a connection to him.
Deidara stared at Kenichi with a look of awe.
He suddenly understood why Kenichi carried the title of "Demon." The scene in front of him was…
"Senior Jade… is this a ninjutsu you developed?" Deidara asked in a low voice.
He had just seen white bones crawl out from graves. Even now, those bones were still wandering the cemetery behind them.
"More or less," Kenichi said, nodding. "A ninjutsu developed from a forbidden technique."
He had once considered creating something like necromantic resurrection. In the end, he succeeded by combining the concept with Edo Tensei.
But in practical terms, the technique wasn't very strong. Kenichi had shelved it for a long time.
Just now, though, a new idea had struck him.
The lethality was low, but the mental pressure it created was immense. So he simply tried covering the newly dead with the technique.
The result was that they crawled back up.
Some completely lost independent consciousness and became puppets under his control.
Others, however, seemed to retain fragments of themselves.
Kenichi had naturally heard what the deceased had said earlier. It made him realize there were still improvements to be made. Maybe refining it further could lead to unexpected gains.
While Kenichi was watching his little show, the surrounded ninja finally seemed to figure it out.
He used Water Shockwave to blast through the resurrected bodies, forcing a path open, and then fled at full speed.
Kenichi pouted.
Just as he expected, the practical value of this technique was low unless he could keep improving it until it reached an effect closer to Edo Tensei.
In its current state, it could only serve as intimidation.
If the enemy was cold blooded, then it was essentially useless. The revived corpses had only basic mobility.
They couldn't use ninjutsu. Their threat was limited.
"Still," Kenichi murmured, thinking, "maybe I can attach plague toxins to the corpses too. A double attack, physical and mental."
He nodded, satisfied with the direction.
The problem was that ordinary toxins rarely took effect immediately, so he would need to think carefully over the long term.
As he watched the fleeing figure, Kenichi didn't hesitate.
A sharp birdlike cry condensed in his left hand.
Chidori roared.
Kenichi surged forward and caught up in an instant.
"You fell for it!"
The moment he struck, the target's body turned into a puff of smoke. A wooden stake dropped to the ground.
At the same time, a ninja appeared behind Kenichi and stabbed him with a sword.
But the blade pierced a wooden stake as well.
And in that same instant, the piercing bird cry sounded again.
Takenaka Naoto didn't even have time to turn his head.
Pain flashed.
Then darkness swallowed his sight.
Kenichi casually tossed the corpse onto the ground and began searching for valuables.
Unfortunately, there were only scattered items. Nothing impressive.
All together, the valuables on all of them added up to about ten million ryo.
So poor.
No wonder they had become bounty ninjas.
"Burn them," Kenichi told Deidara.
Deidara carried it out cleanly, without hesitation. His expression didn't show the slightest discomfort, as if he had done similar things many times before.
Kenichi glanced toward the villagers watching from a distance, hiding in fear and curiosity. He ignored them and left with Deidara without slowing down.
Before leaving, Kenichi casually dispelled his technique.
The white bones instantly collapsed back to the ground.
Otherwise, it would be a little too easy to scare people.
These bounty ninjas were only a small interlude. Kenichi hoped there would be fewer idiots like them in the future.
Still, he hadn't expected to encounter bounty hunters here of all places. That was what truly surprised him.
After dealing with the fools, Kenichi quickly brought Deidara to the capital of the Land of Bears.
It was a city that looked as prosperous as Hot Spring Town in the Land of Fire.
And there, Kenichi finally met the daimyo of the Land of Bears.
"You're the daimyo of the Land of Bears?" Kenichi stood on the eaves, looking down at the fat man lounging in a chair, thinly dressed maids feeding him fruit as if he couldn't even lift his own hands.
"Wh who is it? Cough, cough… who are you?" The daimyo was far more timid than Kenichi expected. The moment he heard Kenichi's voice, he tumbled off the chair, panicked and flustered.
Kenichi pouted.
Then he jumped down with Deidara, landing directly in front of the daimyo.
"Didn't you post the bounty mission to our organization?" Kenichi asked bluntly.
Hearing that, the daimyo's expression eased slightly.
"Cough, cough…" The daimyo glanced around nervously, then gestured. "Guests, come with me."
He led Kenichi and Deidara into a more private room.
Kenichi looked around.
The décor was luxurious, no worse than the richest merchants in the Land of Fire. It was worlds apart from the more ordinary streets outside.
Kenichi didn't comment.
This world had always been like this. Expecting a daimyo to live like ordinary people was laughable.
The world was inherently unfair.
"Two sirs," the daimyo said with a smile as he poured Kenichi a cup of sake, "for this bounty, I want the Hoshigakure to disappear from this world."
"Fine," Kenichi replied straightforwardly. "But the price you offered before isn't enough."
Deidara sat quietly beside him, not speaking. This time, he was simply there as a backdrop.
The daimyo's hand paused mid motion.
"This… ninja sama, I really have…" He wiped sweat from his face and looked at Kenichi with a troubled expression.
"That depends," Kenichi said, smiling slightly, "on whether Daimyo sama considers the Hoshigakure a thorn in his side, or just a minor annoyance."
The daimyo's hatred was too strong.
That made it very likely he would be willing to pay more.
.....
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