Magnet Release: Thousand Machine Murders Technique

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, twenty days had gone by.

Over these ten days, Rinto first left the border of the Land of Rain, detouring through the Land of Grass, the Land of the Waterfall, the Land of Iron, and the Land of Fields. He made a full circuit around the north of the Land of Fire before finally arriving in the Land of Hot Water, northeast of the Land of Fire.

The reason he had taken such a huge detour was that Rinto was, after all, an undercover agent. A Dark Child. A traitor.

If he had swaggered straight from the Land of Rain into the Land of Fire and entered Konoha, his background would have been investigated.

Once Konoha saw that he had come from the Land of Rain, they would definitely connect him to the recent collapse of the Land of Rain's undercover agent network.

And with that line of thought, suspicion that Rinto was an undercover agent from the Land of Rain would grow considerably.

Besides, the method Shinda had so proudly devised—using children as undercover agents—might have seemed like nothing more than routine procedure in other people's eyes.

Then Rinto would be suspected, sent to the Yamanaka Clan, and have his secrets exposed. It would all be over.

He would truly be unable to live, yet unable to die.

Most importantly, Konoha's current Naruto was the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, who was said to love conducting research more than anything!

So Rinto would rather take a longer route than bear even the slightest risk!

Walking along a small road in the Land of Hot Water, Rinto wore a straw raincoat and a conical hat. He held a scroll in his hands, reading it with great interest.

It was the bundle of palm-sized scrolls Mizuguma had secretly given him.

Inside was a closely guarded secret technique of Amegakure. Its name was Nurarihyon no Jutsu.

There was no need to guess—Mizuguma had definitely taken an enormous risk by giving him this secret technique.

"Heh... what a meddlesome guy!"

Even so, the faint upward curve of his lips revealed how moved he was.

Putting away the scroll, Rinto tightened his backpack and continued onward.

In the distance, where heaven met earth, a wisp of smoke slowly rose.

"Heh, good things really do come in pairs! I've learned a secret technique, and there are people living up ahead too. I finally won't have to eat cold rations anymore!"

Muttering to himself, Rinto quickened his pace and strode toward the smoke beneath the setting sun.

As the sun set, darkness shrouded the earth. The smoke drifting through the air vanished into the darkness, no longer visible.

Still, Rinto found the village through his excellent sense of direction.

When he was less than a kilometer away from the village, he gradually sensed that something was wrong.

"This..." Looking at the Sea of Fire before him, Rinto's brows knitted sharply. Only then did he realize what had happened.

What he had seen was not cooking smoke, but thick smoke billowing from houses engulfed in flames. The distance had made it appear thin, seven parts similar to cooking smoke.

With his mind racing, Rinto quickly realized this was an opportunity.

The village was silent now. It looked as though there were no survivors. If he could replace one of the children from this disaster-stricken village and come up with a reasonable excuse, perhaps it would reduce the obstacles to infiltrating Konoha.

He acted at once. Rinto found a concealed patch of grass, hid his backpack containing his rations and belongings, then crouched low and made his way toward the burning village.

"Ox—Goat—Snake, Secret Technique: Nurarihyon no Jutsu!"

After forming the hand seals, Rinto waded through waist-high grass and slowly crept toward the village.

Closer, closer!

Suddenly, Rinto's gaze fixed on the village. His dark pupils shrank to pinpoints.

Within the burning village lay corpses everywhere. Crimson blood soaked every inch of the soil. Men, women, the elderly, and children—none had been spared.

The village was not large. In a small clearing near its center, four people sat around a bonfire, laughing and chatting loudly. Among them, Rinto spotted someone familiar.

He was a child of around twelve who had once attended Mizuguma's undercover agent training with Rinto.

Rinto had once heard by chance that he and another boy of around ten would be sent to Kirigakure in the Land of Water.

Originally, Rinto had been fairly friendly toward the children in that training class. After all, they were merely sacrifices of politics and war. But now, he no longer thought so.

Slowly rising, Rinto walked step by step toward the center of the village. In the firelight, his incomparably gloomy face flickered between light and shadow.

Soon, Rinto reached the center of the village and sat down beside the four without expression.

Strangely, the four showed no reaction at all to Rinto approaching. Not only that, whenever their gazes passed over him, they swept past as though he were just an ordinary roadside stone.

As he sat down, Rinto silently marveled at the power of Nurarihyon no Jutsu. Then his gaze swept across the faces of the four.

Rinto was most familiar with the twelve-year-old child.

As for the other three, they were all ninjas. Rinto had seen them near Hanzo's office building before.

At the moment, the three wore no Amegakure forehead protectors, and their bodies were covered in blood as they chatted and laughed.

Though Rinto was furious, he had no intention of doing anything to them. After all, this was an era where people devoured people.

Killing and being killed were merely the most common ripples in the river of time.

Before him, the four continued talking animatedly.

"I'm telling you, Arong, you're not that old, but you sure learned corruption fast! You kill people even more cleanly than I do."

The twelve-year-old boy beside him curled his lip.

"Brother Buji, that's not right. That big stupid bear who taught the undercover agent classes said not to go easy when killing people. I was just following his teachings."

Hearing this, Rinto gave a cold laugh.

He had clearly meant that if their identities were exposed, they should not hesitate if there was a chance to stop the information from spreading.

He had not meant for them to turn their butcher's blades on defenseless civilians.

If Mizuguma knew he had a student like this, he would probably be furious to death.

Heh! Big stupid bear!

Beside them, the conversation continued.

The Rain Ninja named Buji took up the boy's words and said sarcastically, "Following your teacher's teachings? Did that big stupid bear teacher of yours teach you not to get 'distracted' while killing?"

At those words, all four men around the fire broke into lewd laughter.

Another ninja joined in, teasing the boy named Arong. "Arong, now that you've had your first taste, won't you be suffocated by the time you reach Kirigakure? Where will there be villages for you to burn then? Where will there be pretty little girls for you to ruin?"

The three ninjas burst out laughing again.

The boy named Arong snorted in dissatisfaction.

"Once I become a ninja of Kirigakure, I'll bring my underlings out to keep burning villages. Then I'll burn them openly! What about it? Is that not allowed?"

"Sure, sure, you're the best. Just don't forget your Brother when the time comes."

"But seriously, there are quite a few beautiful women in this remote village!"

"Of course. This is the Land of Hot Water, after all, a place famous for producing beauties. We brothers really made out today. Women like these, if you put them on the 'flower street' in the village, would start at a hundred thousand Ryo for one night!"

As they spoke, their expressions grew increasingly lecherous and ugly.

"But we didn't get to play with the prettiest one. That's a bit of a shame." Arong smacked his lips.

Buji sneered beside him.

"Heh... you want to play with the prettiest one too? Let me tell you, only Lord Onobuta is qualified to play with the most beautiful!"

At this, Arong lowered his head in dissatisfaction and muttered, "What's so great about that? The adults can play with the grown ones, so can't I play with the little ones? Does he have to take them all?"

Listening to their words, Rinto's expression darkened further.

It seemed these bastards had not only killed people—they had apparently done quite a few outrageous things as well!

"Hehe... you really are scum." A somewhat desolate voice sounded among the four, startling them all.

The next second, the four suddenly discovered that a person in a conical hat and straw raincoat had appeared among them without anyone noticing.

"Y-You! Who are you?"

"Oh? You don't recognize me so soon?" Rinto spoke leisurely as he casually removed his conical hat.

"Zhu Kangping!"

Arong's pupils contracted sharply as Rinto's alias blurted from his mouth.

The other three ninjas immediately reacted as well.

Though they had never met Rinto, they had heard of Lord Hanzo's disciple, Zhu Kangping.

However, as Shinda's subordinates, they also knew that Rinto was merely an irritating brat who could not use ninjutsu.

"Didn't you go to the Land of Fire? Why are you here?" Arong demanded rudely.

In the undercover agent training class, he had been the oldest. Just like in schools everywhere, older children always had an inexplicable sense of superiority over younger ones.

Rinto ignored him and instead looked curiously at the other three ninjas.

"Where is your boss? I need to discuss something with him."

"What is it?" one ninja asked in a low voice.

Rinto's sudden appearance had been far too strange, making them somewhat wary.

"I need to borrow his life."

"You're courting death!" Buji, who had a fiery temper, glared murderously.

"Brat, I don't care who you are. For the sake of us both being from Amegakure, get on your knees and apologize now! Otherwise, even if I kill you, no one will know we did it!" Buji roared fiercely, though his voice betrayed his weakness. His arrogant shout carried far through the empty night.

"Hehe... Trying to warn that pig? Let me teach you a lesson!"

With that, he brought his hands together and was about to form hand seals.

Seeing this, Buji was the first to throw a Kunai and roar, "Attack! This brat wants to die!"

Facing the Kunai, Rinto neither dodged nor avoided it. His hands came together sharply as he formed the Goat seal.

"Magnet Release: Thousand Machine Murders Technique!"

The next second, countless Senbon gleaming with cold light shot out from the Ninja Pouch, instantly engulfing everything around Rinto.

Magnetic force controlled the light, concealed Senbon, sending them hurtling forth at more than ten times the speed of thrown Kunai.

The Senbon blasted outward, indiscriminately piercing every object within range, including Rinto.

In an instant, the three Rain Ninja were unable to evade them and were pierced through by countless Senbon.

In less than a second, all five of them, including Rinto, were riddled with holes.

Instant kill!

Rinto formed hand seals again and activated his "magnetic" Chakra, recalling every Senbon. Looking at the four people writhing painfully in pools of blood, the corners of his mouth curled upward.

"Everyone, how does it feel to have ten thousand arrows pierce your hearts?"