Border between Fire Country and Tea CountryRyoma, Recently Promoted Ninja
Chakra was the lifeblood of the ninja. And Samurai. And sometimes Monks. And maybe other groups that don't really fall under any of those categories. Really it was the lifeblood of anyone who actively used it.Chakra was both the energy produced and consumed by living beings, a combination and physical and mental energies that worked together in order to facilitate the biology of a creature to produce greater quantity and diversification of chakra. To the learned individual, this chakra could be expended and utilized to produce a dazzling array of quasi-natural effects known as 'jutsu'. The strings of chakra he used to control his puppets was a jutsu, the technique he used to turn soil into sand was a jutsu, and so on.Chakra, being the energy that fueled supernatural abilities, was a thing to carefully manage and then expend when the situation called for it. Immoderate expenditure of chakra could easily result in one combatant running out of supernatural fuel much earlier than the other, and without the ability to perform jutsu, they would be at a severe disadvantage against their opponent. Thus, it was critical for any aspiring shinobi to learn how to carefully measure and utilize their chakra when it was needed, but save it outside of those times.Despite this skill being critical, there was no standard method to actually measure one's reserves of chakra. At least not in Suna, Ryoma had checked. Because of this, he had ended up needing to invent one of his own. This meant selecting something as a standard unit of measure, then starting to test things from there.The unit he had initially decided to choose was the humble clone technique. Not the sand clone, which produced a physical drone-body for him to command around, just the clone technique which produced an illusory image of himself that he could command around. When he had started his measurement process as an academy student, he could produce one clone, eleven times. Eight times before he began to suffer chakra exhaustion, three times before he passed out and had to lay out of school for a week to recover.The teachers were both impressed and unimpressed with him for that one. Impressed by his initiative in exploring the limits of his body, unimpressed because he should've done this with supervision.By his later testing, he found that he had 8 'units' of 'available' chakra, and 3 units of 'chakra I need to function'. So long as he only spent 8 units of chakra at a time, it would recover with a few hours of rest, eight, as it turned out. If he tapped into his 'emergency' chakra, then some sort of system would go out of wack and his body would need to recover before nominal levels of chakra regeneration returned.There was probably more chakra locked away in his body that he outright couldn't access at all, on account of the 'passing out' thing, but that didn't matter for his measurements.He, referencing a thing from his past life, decided to call his 'available' chakra his 'peripheral' pool, his 'emergency' chakra his 'personal' pool, and each unit of chakra a 'mote'. Doing it things way allowed him to precisely track exactly how much effort he had been expending and how much he had left to expend, so long as his measurements were up to date.This was slightly complicated by his increased level of chakra efficiency later on, but that was easy enough to account for with refinements to how he counted things. Now, a 'mote' of chakra was the amount he needed to expend to create and maintain ten chakra strings for one hour. Having a standard unit of 'ten chakra strings' let him work in decimals if he really needed to, which thankfully he had managed to avoid so far.By his most recent measure, Ryoma had thirty-nine motes of chakra, eleven personal and twenty eight peripheral. He recovered three motes an hour, so he could maintain a full set of strings for as long as he needed to, more or less. Spending a single mote on the clone-jutsu now would produce three clones.All of this to say, Ryoma was currently down eight motes. One on remaking a set of chakra-strings for his next group of Bolters, three on making that sand clone earlier, three on using great breakthrough to make distance between himself and the Nude Bomber, and two halves used to create and maintain a pair of basic illusions. This left him with twenty motes left to finish the fight without long term consequence, and thirty one if the situation turned out really bad."YOU ASSHOLE!" The disgruntled roar of the nudist called out, emerging from the treeline in a furious set of rippling booms, smashing through thin branches and slamming his heels into the ground to carve grooves in the earth. His skin, formerly a reasonable pale shade, now looked rather tanned and almost blended in with his short, spiky brown hair.He looked rather unharmed by the long-distance launching, which told Ryoma that the tanned skin was probably some form of hardening technique. He didn't hear any explosions to cushion the landing earlier, just a crash, so it probably wasn't that.What a pain in the ass, a naked guy that runs around hard and bursts all over people.He smirked, hidden under the transformation technique and disguised as one of his bolters, amused by his own joke. Meanwhile, the bolter hovering in front of him was covered by a substitution technique, covered in the illusory image of himself. "It took you long enough to get back- I was starting to think that you had given up and gone home." He spoke from slightly behind his illusory double, the double gesturing a shrug appropriately.It was hard to get the mouth right, way easier to just cover everything so there's less to 'animate' when pulling tricks like this.Boomboom glared at him, glancing tensely at the puppets, then over at the clients and back to him. "So… You're not a wind specialist at all… you're a puppeteer…""You're absolutely correct." Ryoma called out, making sure to get across a humored tone."Shut up!" Boom yelled immediately, throwing an angry finger forwards. "Shut up! Shut the fuck up! Everything you say is bullshit and I'm not listening to it!""Sounds about right." Ryoma easily agreed, starting a slow walk around. He circled Boomman, making sure to approach the client as he did just to make him back off. Sure enough, Boomman circled the opposite direction, making sure to stay far away from where Ryoma had been standing previously. "From your lack of attacking- you're not actually here to pull your weight. You're just here to be a nice big distraction, aren't you?""Fuck that!" Boomman brought up a hand and poked himself in the chest with his thumb. "You're looking at Katsubachi! I'm the bomb! I've always been the bomb! I will continue to be the bomb! There's a bounty on those ladies heads, and I'm here to fucking collect!""A bounty eh?" Ryoma responded with tepid curiosity, stopping in place and using his foot to drag a line in the sand that covered the road, drawing the nervous eyes of Katsubachi down towards it. He had been using some spare strings to sweep it up while waiting for the boomman to come back, but it was a new detail in the scene that he didn't have any information on.Ryoma, however, had bought enough time to get more info of his own. Katsubachi's tan had been slowly fading, a clear indication that it was some kind of temporary condition. Highly likely to be an earth-natured skin-hardening jutsu. Ryoma wanted one.A pure bluff, more or less. "Before we get to the part where we tear each other apart- mind telling me about this bounty? It's news to me you see.""Oh-hoh?" Katsubachi laughed, tilting his head. "You didn't know? Laughing Smoke has declared open season on all nobles, five million for each one brought to him."There were a number of shocked gasps and sharp inhales from behind him. Ryoma could only hear that figure and immediately decide that it was a scam."Hehe~ You know, it would be way easier to cash in if I had a little cooperation. Sure I'd have to split it another way, but three million is still more than enough to retire with." Katsubachi shrugged with a grin. "Whaddya say, Sunanin? You help me turn those two ladies in and get the easiest three million of your life. I bet it's way more than what you're being paid to defend them."Illusion-Ryoma, Illyoma, nodded slowly, letting his head tip down and hat cover his eyes. "That's correct, it is a whole lot more than I'm being paid right now…" There was shuffling and worried sounds from behind him.Katsubachi's grin widened.Illyoma tilted his head back, raising the brim of his hat just enough to show his glaring eyes. "I refuse."It was always so satisfying to see the expression change.A few seconds of incredible violence followed immediately after.Katsubachi's eyes narrowed into a glare, as he clasped his hands into a seal and threw himself forwards in a body-flicker, a basic jutsu that allowed for extremely rapid movement by energizing the muscles with chakra. It was hard to determine where you'd end up afterwards, because you usually moved faster than your own reflexes could keep pace with, which was the main issue.That handseal, however, was not the seal for a body-flicker. Body-flickers used 'Tiger'. Katsubachi was using 'Snake', which usually corresponded to the body and more generally to earth techniques.Illyoma intercepted Boomman in the middle of the air, catching him with puppet-body and illusion carefully positioned to have the feeling lined up. Bracers and hands layered over claws and body-frame to stop the bandit well before the line in the sand was crossed.Katsubachi's skin turned dark brown, and a grin started to form. Dull blue eyes glinted into the dark brown of his illusory double."Gotcha."Boom, the man exploded, engulfing himself in a wave of violent force. At once, the illusion of himself dispelled as the Bolter was turned into shrapnel and scattered poisoned senbon around in the air.Katsu's eyes widened. "Substitution-?!"The bolters on either side unloaded, shuriken and kunai shooting rapidly from either side and making direct impact, bouncing off the bandit's hardened skin and going wide, leaving tiny scratches in their wake. He soon enough blew up again, shockwave sending those projectiles wide to either side of the road and throwing the bolters off. It took him one full second in between explosions.Confirmation that penetration was possible at this stage and timeframe between bursts, proceeding to step two.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.The illusion around him vanished in a pull of smoke as he raised his hands, letting the bolters drop and catching the poisoned senbon around the airborne bandit.His eyes widened further, mouth opening in fear.Ryoma clenched his fist. The senbon followed, all rushing towards the target in the center. As expected, they barely scratched the bandit, leaving behind nicks and cuts and little more as they rushed forwards and bounced off his hardened skin.The bandit landed with a laugh, throwing himself forwards even as Ryoma jumped back behind his line in the sand. The reminder of the line made the bandit stop suddenly, looking down at it nervously before taking a step back and raising his hands.Ryoma let his guard drop, reaching up to scratch the side of his head. "Man… that's some pretty good defenses you have. All of my puppets only left little scratches.""Heh! Regretting not taking up my offer earlier?" Katsubachi laughed, shoulders squaring and reaching down to pick up a handful of the discarded shuriken. "That's too bad, I'm not about to let you off the hook."Ryoma twitched a pinky, making one of his Bolters explode. The bandit jumped away again, landing and looking around for whatever had just blown up. That's right, get that blood pumping and heart racing."W-what the hell was that!?" The bandit demanded, looking around and not being able to see anything in particular except the ruined shells of deactivated puppets. His eyes widened as he saw the kunai that one of the Bolters had fired, handles wrapped in explosive tags and ready to go off on a twitch."Oh… That would be the explosives I left in the ground. I think they'll be going off any moment now." Ryoma casually explained, shrugging and tapping the line in the sand with his foot. Implying that the line marked out the safe boundary. "As an aside, are you resistant to other people's explosives?"Katsubachi's eyes widened, sweat dripping down his brow as he threw himself forwards again.Ryoma smirked as he swayed, tripping as legs locked up and knees went weak, sliding across the ground. He slammed his fist into the ground, pushing up even as his limbs started to lock up."W-what the hell?! What is this?!" Katsubachi demanded, staggering around as he tried to return to a defensive stance."A paralytic made from boiled cactus bark. Good thing it only needs a few nicks and cuts to get into the system. Your exposed skin gave me a lot of surface area to work with." Ryoma shook his head. He gave it about ten seconds before the guy couldn't move at all, reaching into his side-pocket and withdrawing a kunai. He'd slit the dudes throat after he passed out from a paralyzed diaphragm, right now he was still a potential bomb.Instead, Katsubachi showed remarkable ability to still move by disappearing in another body-flicker, uncontrollably hurling himself off the side of the ledge and hurtling down into the river below. Ryoma almost moved to follow, before pausing and tilting his head.He turned to the clients and pointed his thumb. "I poisoned him with a paralytic and he jumped into a river." He explained with a confused tone and tilt of his head. "Either he knows something I don't, or he doesn't."The somewhat shellshocked nobleladies stared at him for a few moments, hugging each other tightly and silently. Like traumatized bunnies."...Pft." The old Samurai let out a tiny snort of laughter, hand on the hilt of his katana. The nobleladies looked over at the balding man with astonished expressions, before glancing at each other and breaking down into slightly hysterical giggles.Ryoma let out an amused, rolling snort himself. Shaking his head, he quickly unleashed another two Bolters to replace his losses and started to drag over all the scrap and supplies of the battlefield back towards him to seal away in bulk storage again. No need to litter, especially when that litter might be dangerous for his allies.The eye of a Bolter caught the sight of his mission-allies jumping back, making his head shoot up and his hand move over to unlatch his medical kit."Strawhat! We got injured!" Asuma called out with a worried growl in his voice, casting his gaze around worriedly. The giant ninja-dog was stained in blood and slightly limping, the genin carried the crumbled form of Mari and Gaku on their backs.An enemy that could mangle two Jonin was not something he wanted to deal with in an unprepared location. Moving forwards into unknown territory was an equally bad idea.Ryoma immediately turned and waved a hand to the escort. "Fall back a quarter-mile and set up camp!""But-" Madam Gozen almost complained, cut off by his sharp glare and a glance towards the blood-soaked forms of her escort.Shortly enough, she gave a sharp little nod as Lady Ikeda buried her face in her friend's robes. Soon enough, the little caravan had turned around and started down the way.Bolters watching their flanks, Ryoma gave a scowl and furrowed his brows down at the bloodied forms of the Jonin. Unconscious, but breathing and stabilized.What the hell had they encountered?—Position secured with wire and explosives, Ryoma finally had time to return to the improvised medical center in the middle of the camp. There laid out on sleeping mats and cleaned off with more thorough medical supplies, the unconscious and half-nude forms of both Mari and Gaku. Raido was monitoring them closely, but otherwise currently looking over the less-injured form of the massive chestnut-brown ninja-dog.Asuma and Kurenai were currently getting some rest in, as fitful as that might be, with the watch being secured through the eyes of four deployed Bolters. It was kinda hard to focus with his vision split five ways, but it was easy enough to handle so long as nothing moved across his vision at any point."Prognosis?" He asked the resident psuedomedic, dropping into a crouch next to their battered forms."Mostly heavy bruising, occasional fractures, and two major breaks. Chairomaru told me to use the antivenom too, but I'm not sure what for." Raido explained with a quiet and tense voice. The dog told him? Probably with a predetermined noise, those ninja-dogs were as smart as people were. "Largest injury is the missing arm. If they were civilians, they'd be down for half a year. As it is, they'll probably wake up within the next three days and be somewhat functional after a week.""You know…" He continued with a frown and a deliberate glance. "If I give them some braces and they don't need to actually fight. I can get Gaku fully healed in a month, but your comrade… A missing arm is usually career-ending."Ryoma gave a rueful huff and shake of his head, making a note to start carving a temporary puppetarm for her. It would be pretty shoddy in the field, but it would be functional enough to get her back into action long enough to get the mission done. "Any info on what did this?"A woman, but she jumped away pretty much immediately after we arrived, I don't have an-"The dog, Chairomaru, gave an attention-grabbing bark. Ryoma turned to look at him, the shaggy canine pushing himself up with mild pain before trodding over to sit in front of him and paw at the ground.…No, not pawing, writing.'Borrow', 'Hands', 'Tiger'Then a paw placed on his leg and a look of dog-concentration. Ryoma raised his brows, before raising his hands into the 'tiger' handseal and waiting.A foreign chakra pushed through his coils, starting from the paw and coming up to his arms and into the hands, before cycling back through and into the paw once more. It was pretty insistent, from the feel, but not hostile.A moment later, the dog was engulfed in a puff of smoke, and Gaku's form emerged from the cloud. A beast-man transformation, one of those Inuzuka clan techniques that allowed their dog to take the form of their human companion. Unlike normal transformation, this was one of those handful of physical transformations, in which the body actually changes instead of being an illusory shell."Thanks." The voice was deeper, rougher, and less practiced than Gaku's, he took his hand off his leg and leaned back, grunting and narrowing his eyes in mild pain as he did. "Those paws are good for fighting and walking- not so much handseals."Ryoma nodded. "Understandable, you got a good look at what they were up against?"Chairomaru nodded with a deep scowl and glaring face. "Yeah, some bitch with a skin-hardening technique and mouths where mouths shouldn't be.""Mouths?" Raido asked with his own expression of focus and concern."Mouths, tongues and all, on her paws and stomach." Chairomaru gestured, tapping at his palms and then belly. "The skin hardening was a pain, but it wasn't the problem, the issue was if you let her get a taste of your blood. It took me a minute to figure out, but the mouths stop being bitey after that and just start exhaling some kind of invisible poison gas, smells kinda like piss. Soon after partner got a hit in, he starts coughing and spasming.""Add in her physical strength and durability jutsu…" Ryoma shook his head. "She's practically tailor-made to take people on in close range.""Almost managed to win anyways." Chairomaru boasted with a sharp, fanged grin. "Tore a big damn gash in her gut, from inside the belly-mouth and out the side. She's gonna be feeling that one for weeks at least.""Unless they have a medic." Raido pointed out.Chairomaru grunted, leaning back again. "Aye, unless they have a medic."Ryoma let out a huff, then glanced at the injured."...Do we pull out?" Raido asked with a concerned expression. "This situation got really bad really fast, and a job isn't worth our lives as Gaku always said.""That's right." Chairomaru nodded. "Much as it's annoying, there's no shame in retreating."Ryoma considered the information relayed to him, before shaking his head. "If that's all she has, there's no way for me to lose against her- She was just Gaku's natural predator.""What about Mari?" Chairomaru asked sharply, raising a brow. "She lost an arm to the bitches' belly-mouth. Was she the natural prey here too?""Nah, she just got unlucky." Ryoma shook his head, before pausing and tilting his head. "You remembered her name?""She gives me snacks at dinnertime." The dog in man-shape explained.They all had a little laugh at that.