"Do you have anything else to do?" Kuromori's expression darkened as he began to usher him out.
The report that was supposed to exaggerate his merits had ended up being written truthfully instead.
How was he supposed to catch Lord Hanzo's attention like this?
Don't be fooled by how he lorded it over genin—when it came to Hanzo, he was nothing more than an inconspicuous chūnin. Without some truly outstanding contribution, Hanzo might not even spare him a glance.
"Nothing in particular," Hyuga Arin replied with a beaming smile. "I just came to see whether Kuromori-sama had gone to sleep."
You lunatic!!
Who in their right mind comes to check whether someone's asleep? Kuromori nearly cursed out loud.
Wait—
Suddenly, he became alert. His gaze locked onto the bronze knife in Hyuga Arin's hand.
This really didn't look like someone checking whether he was asleep.
It looked more like someone making sure he'd sleep forever.
Seeing Kuromori's wary stare, Hyuga Arin put the bronze knife away with a regretful expression.
"Since Kuromori-sama isn't asleep, I'll go back and sleep myself."
Why the hell do you look so regretful?!
Kuromori felt his scalp go numb. If he really had fallen asleep, would he even see tomorrow's sun?
"Good night, Kuromori-sama." Hyuga Arin tapped two fingers against his forehead protector, then turned and left through the doorway.
Only after Hyuga Arin was gone did Kuromori finally let out a long breath.
"After losing his memory, this kid completely changed."
"No—"
Recalling Hyuga Arin's actions, Kuromori ground his teeth.
"He's become less and less like a human."
The things he did weren't things normal people could pull off.
"I can't keep staying in this room."
Glancing around the room he'd lived in for years, Kuromori realized that ever since Mu Yu went crazy, this place was no longer safe.
Before, he'd worried about enemies breaking in to kill him.
Now, he was worried that his own teammate would do it.
Even though Mu Yu was "just" a genin.
Nothing in this world was absolute. Teammates really couldn't be trusted.
"At this rate, I'm going to be driven insane by him."
He hurriedly packed his things, planning to move somewhere else to rest.
After all these years, he might not have accomplished much—but he had plenty of safe houses.
…
The night passed without incident.
The next morning, when Kuromori returned to the tower, he saw Hyuga Arin doing one-handed handstand push-ups.
"1022."
"1023."
Seeing Kuromori walk in, Hyuga Arin finally stopped. His body was already drenched in sweat.
Hyuga Arin had a very clear understanding of himself.
NinTechnique could be learned directly through the game system and leveled up with experience.
But his own physical condition still required personal effort.
Most of his free time wasn't spent researching ninTechnique—it was spent training his body or refining chakra control.
Of course, his physical training wasn't the suicidal, limit-breaking kind used by Might Duy or Might Guy.
Breaking limits might work once or twice, but doing it too frequently in a short span would cause irreversible damage.
Hyuga Arin trained in moderation.
"You're more diligent than you used to be," Kuromori said, looking at him with a complicated expression. Mu Yu hadn't been like this before.
"Better than realizing I can't beat the enemy and regretting it later," Hyuga Arin replied with a grin.
He had his eyes firmly set on the coming war. Without sufficient capital, he'd just end up as cannon fodder.
"Kuromori-sama, when are we going to ambush the ninja who's replacing you?"
Hyuga Arin asked eagerly.
Kuromori tossed him a scroll. "They'll arrive tomorrow—one chūnin leading three genin."
"A standard ninja squad?" Hyuga Arin took the scroll. The intel was written clearly on it, and disappointment showed on his face.
Three genin just weren't worth as much experience as a single chūnin.
Unless they were exceptionally strong.
A four-man squad was the standard formation in the ninja world: one chūnin plus three genin.
A high-end version would be four jōnin—but such teams were extremely rare. Jōnin were the top-tier forces of any village, each burdened with many responsibilities. Situations that warranted four jōnin forming a squad were almost nonexistent.
Though he knew it wasn't quite appropriate, Kuromori still couldn't help asking,
"What exactly are you disappointed about?"
Hyuga Arin replied with a helpless look.
"One chūnin and three genin—not enough to kill."
Then how many would be enough?
Would eighty or a hundred chūnin do it?
Don't end up running faster than me when that happens.
Kuromori forcibly suppressed the flood of colorful profanity rising in his heart and said darkly,
"We'll make our move tomorrow. Get ready."
His poison had been neutralized, and after a night's rest, he'd mostly recovered. Combat-wise, there was no issue.
Handling one chūnin wouldn't be a problem.
As for Mu Yu—ordinary genin probably weren't his match.
Even now, Kuromori still couldn't figure out where all of Mu Yu's weapons came from.
He'd never found any sealing scrolls on him.
Summoning techniques had noticeable signs when used.
As for that single ninja pouch on Mu Yu's lower back—it could barely hold a Fuma Shuriken at most. Judging by how deflated it looked, there was no way it contained that much stuff.
Could he have awakened some kind of bloodline limit that allowed him to create ninja tools?
But did something that absurd even exist in the ninja world?
Tool Release?
"Don't worry, Kuromori-sama. Mission guaranteed."
Hyuga Arin replied casually, ignoring Kuromori's probing gaze.
After all, Kuromori couldn't see his inventory. Everything he owned was stored there.
"And today, don't go anywhere. Do your job properly!" Kuromori suddenly roared, recalling something.
He really didn't want this guy going off to provoke rogue ninja again.
Rogue ninja were a minor issue. But if this somehow flushed out a covert Konoha squad that had snuck in—
That would be catastrophic.
"Got it." Hyuga Arin said perfunctorily, picking at his ear.
There wasn't much useful intelligence on this side anyway—only trivial things to report back.
Hidan—or rather, Hiruko—was probably already a little annoyed.
Kuromori left, apparently to attend to other matters.
Hyuga Arin was left alone, reading through the delivered intelligence reports.
All of it was mundane daily nonsense from around the city.
"Rain ninja shouldn't even be called ninja anymore. They should be called voyeurs."
Looking at a report that meticulously recorded the color of a young girl's underwear, Hyuga Arin's face darkened.
He continued reading.
"What's the point of writing about what a man wears?!"
Hyuga Arin slammed the report onto the floor.
These Rain ninja really did nothing all day but handle this kind of trivial garbage.
Just glancing at it made his eyes hurt.
How bored did they have to be?
Still, there was some useful information mixed in—like the discovery of several Konoha ninja who had infiltrated the Land of Rain to gather intelligence.
He wasn't sure whether reporting this to Hiruko would make him so angry that he'd come over just to scold him.
So Hyuga Arin decided not to pass on the detailed Konoha-related intelligence.
He only reported that Konoha's movements had already been exposed—along with the eye-burning trash intel that nearly gave him needle-eye.
With no one else in the tower, Hyuga Arin directly used a summoning technique to bundle up the reports and send them back.
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