Ninjutsu Acquired

Several black shadows flashed through the air without a sound. They were pure black kunai. In the dim twilight, they gave off no glint and made no whistling sound as they shot sinisterly toward Yota's back.

Having long detected the followers behind him with Observation Haki, Yota casually reached out. A light clinking sound rang out as he caught every kunai in his hand. Sparks actually flew where the kunai met his palms.

"Such a pointless test... I was looking for some test subjects anyway. Congratulations, you won the lottery." Yota sneered and turned around.

"This is bad, we've hit an iron wall." Seeing Yota's display, the Bounty Hunter Ninjas were no fools. On the contrary, people in their line of work were especially good at reading situations. They could tell from that move alone that Yota was formidable. Without another word or further probing, they threw their kunai and fled.

With a cold sneer, Yota ignored the kunai entirely. He had already consumed large amounts of metal with the Munch-Munch Fruit. At this moment, Yota truly possessed a Steel Body.

He pushed off lightly with his feet. Although the steel had reduced his agility somewhat, his straight-line speed had not dropped at all. In an instant, he arrived behind one of the Bounty Hunter Ninjas.

"Damn it!" the Bounty Hunter Ninja roared, slashing backward with his blade. Yota neither dodged nor blocked. The ninja sword scraped sparks across his body, yet failed to impede him in the slightest. Charging forward at high speed, Yota smashed the Bounty Hunter Ninja into a puddle of yellow mud.

"You think you can fool me with a clone? Keep dreaming." He casually punched the ground. Having already locked onto the Bounty Hunter Ninja with Observation Haki, he easily dragged out the man hiding underground, who had hoped to deceive him with nothing more than a clone.

"Urghhh!" The ninja forcibly pulled from the earth struggled desperately amid his screams. His bones cracked loudly, but he still could not break free from Yota's grip. His entire arm was wrenched completely out of its socket.

However, Yota swiftly ended his suffering. He brought down a punch like an iron rod and steel hammer. With a hum, he smashed open the Chunin's head, sending red and white matter spilling across the ground.

When he looked up, the other Chunin had already fled far enough away. Yota raised one hand, activating the Munch-Munch Fruit's transformation ability. The iron sheen on the rest of his body gradually faded, while that hand shifted like a Transformer, turning into a six-barreled machine gun.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat... After a burst of gunfire, the machine gun in Yota's hand reverted to its original iron arm, though streams of green smoke still rose from it.

"One still got away? Ninjas really are completely different from pirates," Yota muttered. Of the four Bounty Hunters, he had killed three. The remaining one had been injured, but ultimately escaped the range of his Observation Haki.

That was one difference between ninjas and pirates. Unless they had a reason they absolutely had to fight, ninjas rarely fought to the death against opponents they could not defeat. They were not as hardheaded as pirates.

Well... Uzumaki Naruto was an exception.

"But... three are enough." Looking at the three corpses on the ground, Yota's face turned slightly pale. He suddenly opened his mouth wide and swallowed one of the corpses whole.

"Bleurgh! That felt awful." After dry-heaving, Yota closed his eyes. In truth, consuming anything with the Munch-Munch Fruit did not taste bad, but swallowing a human corpse was still far too much of a psychological shock for him.

After swallowing the corpse, Yota immediately sensed a difference from the Pirate World. Aside from flesh, this corpse also contained the power of Chakra.

He extracted and broke down the Chakra completely, then opened his mouth and spat the corpse back out. The entire body was now shriveled and wrinkled, resembling a dried mummy.

However, Yota had no time to worry about the corpse now. Instead, he focused on the Chakra within his body. A moment later, he opened his eyes.

"My Chakra has indeed increased quite a bit... but... this should only be around one-twentieth of the Chakra that corpse had."

"With my current Chakra, I'd have to consume several hundred corpses at that level just to double it..."

"If I want to become a Chakra Ton this way... I'd be better off finding Hashirama Cells. Then I can use the Munch-Munch Fruit to modify myself directly and turn into a Sage Body!"

Though these thoughts ran through his mind, Yota honestly extracted the Chakra from the other two corpses as well. Still, the sensation of seemingly eating people made his stomach churn.

"Swallowing living people never felt like anything, so what's there to fear about swallowing dead ones?" Yota comforted himself a few times. Once the nausea subsided a little, he searched the three corpses thoroughly before using Earth Style Ninjutsu to bury them.

In fact, when Yota had swallowed living people before, he had merely stored them. This time, he had broken down the Chakra from the corpses, which was why it gave him such a nauseating psychological sensation.

Therefore, although he had discovered that he could indeed obtain Chakra from human bodies, he had no intention of actively devouring Chakra. He only thought that if someone truly provoked him in the future, he could make use of their corpses rather than waste them.

After killing those three ninjas, no one came to bother Yota again.

Over the next three days, Yota bought several items unique to the ninja world, especially ninja tools such as Exploding Tags and Sealing Scrolls. He was even lucky enough to purchase a piece of Chakra Metal.

For Yota, most weapons no longer held much meaning. Their only use to him was as food that temporarily enhanced his combat power. Thus, he had no need to forge the Chakra Metal into weapons. Once he ate it, he could directly shape the Chakra Metal into whatever he wanted, or simply turn it into blades extending from his body.

Three days later, Yota returned to the Black Market.

This time, however, the people who had once secretly watched Yota with greedy, covetous eyes immediately showed wary expressions the moment they saw him enter.

In the Bounty Hunter Ninja business, strength was everything. Four Bounty Hunter Ninjas had followed Yota when he left, yet only one had returned—and badly wounded.

To easily kill three ninjas while surrounded by four Bounty Hunter Ninjas was strength that absolutely placed him among the first-rate figures in the motley ranks of Bounty Hunter Ninjas. He was not someone small fry like them, merely scraping by, could afford to provoke.

"Have you prepared the goods?" Yota asked the Black Market owner.

The Black Market owner smiled as he took out several scrolls. "Of course. These are the ninjutsu you requested."

Yota opened one Medical Ninjutsu scroll, glanced over it, and nodded. With his current knowledge of Medical Ninjutsu, he could tell whether it was genuine.

Yota then took out the gold he had prepared and handed it directly to the owner, completing the transaction.