“I only told them the truth they wanted to know.
Did they really need to get that excited?” Tony looked genuinely baffled as he straightened out his somewhat disheveled clothes.
He had only wanted to show off a little and let the world know that he was the Iron Man mentioned in the newspaper headlines.
As it turned out, he had severely underestimated the reporters’ “enthusiasm.” If Rhodes and the security staff hadn’t escorted him out, Tony wouldn’t even have been able to leave the lobby and return to the office.
The overly enthusiastic reporters would have surrounded him so completely that he couldn’t move an inch.
Hearing what he said, Pepper and Rhodes immediately rolled their eyes.
“One of America’s most famous billionaires and playboys just revealed himself as Iron Man, a man wearing cutting-edge powered armor.” “If the reporters weren’t excited, that would only prove they were terrible at their jobs.” Roy didn’t roll his eyes at Tony.
Instead, he spoke at an unhurried pace.
Pepper and Rhodes hadn’t expected Tony to do something like that.
Roy, however, had seen it coming from the beginning.
Or rather— It would’ve been more surprising if Tony had obediently read S.H.I.E.L.D.’s prepared statement.
“I still think they got a little too excited.” Tony continued.
He knew that publicly revealing himself as Iron Man would bring him plenty of trouble.
He simply didn’t care.
“Enough about that.” “The press conference is basically over now.” “It’s time for you to pay me.” Roy looked at Tony.
“You think I’m going to stiff you?” Tony frowned.
“Of course you won’t.” “But there’s an old saying from China.” “Money on paper is still just empty wealth.
Only money in your pocket lets you sleep easy.” “It means you can only truly relax once the money is actually yours.” Roy replied.
Naturally, he wasn’t going to tell Tony that until he received his payment, the commission wouldn’t technically count as completed and he wouldn’t receive the system reward.
Tony stared at him for a moment.
Then he turned toward Pepper and gave her a gesture.
Without hesitation, Pepper picked up the handbag nearby and took out a fountain pen and checkbook.
Tony accepted both and once again wrote Roy a check for $30.5 million.
He handed it over.
As he returned the pen and checkbook to Pepper, Tony said, “In just over a month, you’ve made sixty-one million dollars off me.” “And that doesn’t even include what you made shorting Stark Industries.” “From that perspective, you’ve managed to dramatically raise the earning ceiling for private investigators everywhere.” Roy glanced at the amount on the check and smiled.
“I’m just earning some hard-earned money.” “I can’t compare with a major capitalist like you.” With that, he stored the check inside his system storage.
At the same time, a system notification appeared before his eyes.
[Commission: Serve as Tony Stark’s Secret Bodyguard] [Commission Status: Completed] [Commission Reward: Lightning Style: Chidori — Reward Issued] As the system notification appeared, all information concerning Lightning Style: Chidori appeared in Roy’s mind out of nowhere.
After closing the panel, he continued, “If you have any more commissions in the future, remember to come find me in Manhattan.” “Since you’re a repeat client, I’ll give you a discounted rate.” Tony looked at him with his usual proud expression.
“If you ever run into trouble you can’t solve, you can come find me in Los Angeles too.” Roy smiled without answering.
Then he decisively activated the Flying Raijin Jutsu.
The next second, he vanished from the sight of Tony, Pepper, and Rhodes.
He instantly returned from Tony’s office to the living room of his villa on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
After arriving home, Roy immediately raised both hands and formed three hand seals.
Ox.
Rabbit.
Monkey.
The system had granted him the talent for hand-seal-free casting.
But this was the first time in his life he’d ever used Chidori.
For the sake of ceremony, he decided to form the hand seals anyway.
Not only did he deliberately form the seals— He even called out the technique’s name.
“Lightning Style: Chidori!” A high-intensity electrical current formed from Lightning Style chakra gathered in the palm of his right hand.
A sharp, piercing sound immediately filled the room— As though a thousand birds were chirping at once.
Looking at his right hand, which now resembled a blade forged from lightning, Roy nodded in satisfaction.
In the official Naruto databooks, Chidori and Lightning Blade were classified as two separate ninjutsu.
Chidori was an A-rank Lightning Style ninjutsu.
Lightning Blade, meanwhile, was an S-rank Lightning Style ninjutsu.
In terms of learning difficulty, Lightning Blade was harder.
But in terms of their fundamental nature and destructive power, there wasn’t much essential difference between the two.
Even their hand seals were the same: Ox, Rabbit, Monkey.
Roy admired his right hand for a moment.
It was enveloped in high-intensity electricity, silver-white lightning constantly crackling outward.
Then he ended the technique and assessed how much chakra he’d consumed.
At present, excluding the One-Tail’s Tailed Beast chakra, Roy possessed a total of 12 Kakashi Units of chakra.
Judging by the amount Chidori had just consumed, one Kakashi Unit of chakra was enough to use Chidori four times.
Exactly as Kakashi had explained when teaching Sasuke the technique.
That meant— Without drawing on Tailed Beast chakra, Roy could use Chidori at most forty-eight times per day.
After confirming Chidori’s chakra consumption, Roy took a Kusanagi Sword out of his system storage.
More precisely— It was the straight-bladed Kusanagi Sword used by Sasuke.
Just like Gaara’s gourds and the Akatsuki cloak, this Kusanagi Sword was also a commission reward granted by the system.
It was an authentic item from the Naruto world.
Roy casually flourished the sword once.
Then he began trying to channel Chidori through the Kusanagi Sword in order to develop— Kusanagi Sword: Chidori Blade.
Although Roy had never received a formal ninja education, every time he obtained a ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu technique from the system, he also received all the corresponding knowledge.
And Chidori Blade wasn’t the only derivative technique Sasuke had developed from Chidori.
There was also— Chidori Current.
Chidori Sharp Spear.
Chidori Senbon.
Roy intended to develop all of them.
Not only that— He also had no intention of ignoring techniques Kakashi had developed based on Lightning Blade, such as Lightning Transmission and Lightning Beast Tracking Fang.
Since he was going to develop techniques on his own anyway, there was no harm in developing a few extra ones.
Time slowly passed.
It took Roy only a little over two hours to successfully develop Chidori Blade.
Its principle was extremely simple.
He injected Lightning Style chakra into the blade, increasing its destructive power and causing the Kusanagi Sword to display an effect similar to Chidori.
Put more simply— Instead of using Chidori with his hand, he was using Chidori through the Kusanagi Sword.
The Kusanagi Sword was already exceptionally sharp.
After being enhanced with Chidori Blade, its cutting power increased even further.
It could slice through steel with ease.
In addition, anyone struck by Chidori Blade would also be paralyzed throughout their entire body by the powerful electrical current, making it difficult for them to move freely.
After successfully developing Chidori Blade, Roy opened his status panel and looked at the ninjutsu section.
Chidori was now displayed there.
But the newly developed Chidori Blade, just like Flying Raijin: Second Step and Flying Raijin Slash, did not appear.
So it really is because my proficiency isn’t high enough?
Roy sighed inwardly.
Then he returned the Kusanagi Sword to his system storage and prepared to keep going while he still had momentum.
Next— Chidori Current.
If Chidori Blade was essentially using Chidori through the Kusanagi Sword, then Chidori Current involved spreading Chidori across the entire body to achieve both offense and defense at once.
The high-intensity electricity generated by Chidori Current could not only be used defensively and to paralyze enemies— It could also be conducted into the ground to launch an area-of-effect attack.
With his experience developing Chidori Blade, developing Chidori Current went smoothly.
In less than an hour— Roy successfully developed Chidori Current.
After experiencing what it felt like to spread Chidori across his entire body, Roy ended this round of ninjutsu development with complete satisfaction.