The Real Newcomer

As the assembled ninja forces remained on standby at the Land of Fire's border, the Water Shadow directly ordered a full-scale invasion of the Land of Fire. At the same time, he personally set out. Accompanying him to receive Jiang Rui were Kaguya Tsuki and several elite clan members.

There were also Ito Rei and the others, who had regained the Kubikiribōchō through summoning.

It had to be mentioned that, because the Avatar Jiang Rui had left in Kirigakure possessed no combat ability, Ito Rei had bullied him quite a bit over the past few days.

From the looks of it, the Water Shadow clearly had no intention of getting along peacefully with Konoha.

Back to Jiang Rui. Compared to the upheaval and reputation he was about to cause in the Naruto World, he clearly cared more about what he had gained from this battle.

Besides that, he felt a little heartbroken over the corpse that had ultimately fallen at Jiraiya's feet.

A taijutsu-type ninja.

Jiang Rui wore an expression of utter anguish as he leaped onto a tree. If he ate it, he might even be able to advance...

At this moment, boosted by the attributes of more than a dozen High Ninjas, his stats had already reached:

Magic Power: 63/896
Constitution: 5 (6.1)
Strength: 4.4
Agility: 5 (11.6)
Spirit: 5 (6.6)
Charm: 5 (5.1)

Aside from the attribute gains, Jiang Rui had successfully acquired a large number of Lightning Style ninjutsu, as well as the ability he had gained by devouring the Yuki Clan—Ice Style!

Interestingly, the four skills Ice Style, Mist Concealment Technique, Water Manipulation, and Temperature Change Resistance had interacted, directly evolving Water Manipulation into "Omni Water Manipulation."

"Omni Water Manipulation": You have comprehended a trace of the concept of water and can manipulate it. The strength of your control is determined by the extent of the concept.

The Great Sage's description was vague, but Jiang Rui understood that feeling clearly. It was a sense of complete clarity, as though the ability to control the concept of water had been innate, as natural as moving an arm. It meant that Jiang Rui no longer needed the Great Sage to control it freely and precisely, and it barely consumed any magic power.

Most importantly, that last sentence: the strength of control was determined by the extent of the concept!

That meant Jiang Rui not only had absolute control over water, mist, steam, ice, and the like. If something contained even the slightest concept of water, he could exert weak control over it too—such as rain and snow, or even blood and mercury.

However, based on an experiment Jiang Rui had casually conducted on a surviving Cloud Ninja who had tried to ambush him, he could not even make blood boil yet. He still needed to keep working at it.

Maybe he should catch a vampire and devour it someday? Or advance into the vampire sequence?!

Jiang Rui pinched his chin. That did not sound impossible! Imagine fighting in the future: with a casual wave of his hand, male enemies would spray blood, while female enemies would start their periods...

Ahem, ahem...

He could take them out in minutes! Most importantly, it would be cool!

After all, being handsome was a lifelong pursuit.

Then a shout came from beside him—

"Die!"

Jiang Rui shook his head helplessly. He had already lost count of how many times this had happened. Since retreating from Jiraiya's side, who knew how many fleeing Kumogakure ninjas, mixed with a small number of Konoha ninjas, had attacked him.

With a casual lift of his hand, countless streams of transparent liquid shot out. Like sharp blades, they blocked the attacker's weapon while piercing straight through his chest.

His magic power immediately dropped to 43.

Tsk. The Water Blade infused with Ice Style really was much stronger. Even the tentacle-like water whips could now shift freely between soft and hard. They could bind enemies, and when necessary, pierce directly through them.

But the consumption had increased by a lot as well.

Jiang Rui braced one hand against the tree. His blue hair fell loose, and he could not help grabbing it and smoothing it out...

Although he had flooded Kumogakure's encampment and killed most of the ninjas, the water's impact had limited lethality in the end. Quite a few ninjas had probably escaped...

In that case, it no longer mattered what Konoha or Kirigakure claimed, because there were too many witnesses...

Perfect! He was famous!

His influence in this world was secured!

If it still was not enough, he could always go stir things up on Amegakure's battlefield next time!

And then there was the Raikage's pursuit...

Well, that was nothing to worry about. Leaving aside the fact that his teacher and the others were already on their way, if his magic power recovered... could he counterkill him?!

If he killed a Kage, he would definitely be able to advance, right? More importantly, not only would he definitely get good loot, but a boost to his base evaluation would be guaranteed.

Hehe, he was so strong! In his first official world, he could already hunt the Raikage!

"According to the conclusion of comprehensive analysis, this is clearly a cognitive bias caused by things going too smoothly for you."

Speak normally!

"You're getting carried away!"

Fine, then I'm getting carried away!

Jiang Rui nonchalantly clapped his hands and tossed his hair behind his head. Time to work, Great Sage.

Continue the hunt!

Advancing was the most important thing right now!

If he could advance before the Raikage arrived, he might really be able to try killing him!

Getting carried away?

Hmph, getting carried away when you had the strength for it was called confidence!

"Unknown energy source detected 368 meters to the north."

And so, guided by the Great Sage's search.

Instead of immediately retreating toward Kirigakure, Jiang Rui continued hunting down the surviving Cloud Ninjas!

The bright moon hung high in the sky, scattering specks of silver light.

The surrounding grass trembled from time to time in the wind, rustling softly.

An inexplicable silence mingled with the chirping of insects.

A drop of cold sweat fell...

"Gulp."

He swallowed the saliva secreted from his nervousness...

Just minutes ago, his teammates had died one after another right in front of him!

At the hands of that blue-haired little girl, who had smiled so sweetly!

Two crystal-clear water spears, gleaming beneath the moonlight, had directly skewered the two of them together!!

She was a demon!

On a branch above him, Jiang Rui watched him with great interest.

Tsk!

Turning Naruto into a horror movie—kid, you really were talented!

The reason he had not acted yet was because that familiar notification had appeared again.

"Notice: Killing someone from the same Supernatural Paradise faction will result in a penalty of 500 Extraordinary Points."

Jiang Rui was a little surprised. He had thought that the Extraordinary ones around the Land of Rice Fields and the northern part of the Land of Fire, those who had joined Kumogakure, had probably all been cleaned out by Raka's group of three.

He had not expected there to be a survivor here?!

But judging by his appearance, it was probably because he was timid—or rather, afraid of death.

The young man cautiously poked his head out and glanced toward where his teammates had died. It was quiet.

He let out a breath. He should have left, right? Why would a big shot care about trash like me?

Behind him, water slowly condensed into Jiang Rui's form. In a crisp voice, he asked, "Did he leave?"

"He should have..."

In an instant.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"

Realizing what had happened, the young man let out a miserable wail!

"Spare me...!! Don't... don't... kill me!"

Jiang Rui stood there, black lines filling his face as he watched the big boy, nearly a head taller than him, beg for mercy with tears and snot running down his face.

There really was no one else who could be scared this badly by him.

Jiang Rui bared his little canine teeth and snarled, "Don't cry! Am I that scary?!"

"...Wah..." The young man sniffled and secretly glanced at Jiang Rui.

Only then did he seriously examine the murderous demon who had appeared and immediately used a water spear to skewer his two teammates like meat on a skewer.

Up close, she did not seem that scary... She was unexpectedly kind of cute...

Waaah, Song Sicheng, what are you thinking? She just killed two of your companions! Sob, sob, girls in the Naruto World were all so terrifying...

At the same time, Jiang Rui was seriously examining him too. Well, he had observed quite a few Extraordinary ones by now, but they had all been corpses...

Mainly because most living ones could not make him lower his guard. But this giant baby monster in front of him... sorry, he genuinely could not be bothered.

"Hey!"

"Don't... don't kill me...!"

Jiang Rui: ...

As usual, rolling around begging for votes and support, w