Capture Alive

It turned out that this bandit leader was none other than Senju Nawaki using Object Transformation. He hadn't expected Zhixin to lower his guard while reminiscing about the past, and combined with the distraction of his lies, he had easily allowed Nawaki to get within striking distance.

Upon grabbing the man's hands, Nawaki utilized the attachment ability of the Spore Technique to fuse his own cells with the man's, subsequently beginning to absorb his chakra. If Nawaki were willing, he could have completely integrated into the man's body like the brothers Ukon and Sakon, but that was too repulsive and carried the risk of the enemy taking them both down together, so he chose to target the hands instead.

Feeling his chakra rapidly draining away, Zhixin displayed the decisiveness of a rogue ninja, lifting his right leg and kicking violently at his enemy.

Unexpectedly, Nawaki easily released his grip and vanished from before his eyes in an instant.

The full-force kick struck empty air. Due to the excessive momentum and lack of time to retract the limb, his right leg remained high in the air due to inertia. Then, he felt a numbness in the back of his neck and completely lost control of his body from the neck down.

Immediately following, a calm voice sounded behind him: "Ninjutsu: Body Pathway Derangement."

Unable to maintain his balance, his body fell backward onto the ground due to inertia.

Zhixin rotated the only part of his body still under his control—his head—and finally saw the true face of his enemy. It was a brat of only ten years old! The Shinobi World was truly full of surprises and dangers; a random child appearing could take his life. So-called genius ninjas were all monsters! If Zhixin had known that the brat before him was not ten, but five, he would have felt even more resentment and frustration.

"Ding! Zhixin has generated intense hatred and jealousy toward the host, producing 1000 points of Wish Power."

It turned out that Nawaki had anticipated his intentions from Zhixin's gaze and micro-expressions, playing along to lure him in before using Shunpo (which was Soru, but Nawaki found Shunpo easier to understand and renamed it; no further explanations will be provided) to appear behind him, then using the medical ninjutsu taught by Tsunade, Body Pathway Derangement, to sever his control over his nerves below the neck.

Medical Attack Ninjutsu: Body Pathway Derangement: By converting chakra within the body into electricity to create an electric field, and discharging this electricity into the enemy's nervous system, it disrupts the body's control.

Although this was an A-rank ninjutsu, its difficulty lay in the precise control of Yang Release chakra. Its effect was similar to the pressure point strikes in martial arts, and it consumed the least amount of chakra of any A-rank ninjutsu. Furthermore, having just absorbed a large amount of chakra from Zhixin, Nawaki was able to execute it with ease.

Watching the frustration in Zhixin's eyes, Nawaki smiled. He did not act like a typical villain, gloating and wasting time with chatter; instead, he cautiously and swiftly broke all four of Zhixin's limbs.

Because the nerve signals had been severed, Zhixin did not feel intense pain, which actually spared him some suffering.

Only after confirming that all four of Zhixin's limbs were broken did Nawaki breathe a sigh of relief. Then, he seemed to remember something important. "Oh! Right! Your chakra shouldn't go to waste."

After saying this, Nawaki grabbed Zhixin's hands again and used the Spore Technique to drain his chakra dry.

Although this real clone only contained two-thousandths of Nawaki's cells and chakra, it possessed all the characteristics of a clone technique, and since its main body was composed of chakra, it could absorb the chakra of others for its own use. However, it could not increase his total chakra capacity; the absorbed chakra was a one-time consumable that could not be replenished.

After absorbing all of Zhixin's chakra, this clone of Nawaki possessed the strength of a Jonin, though the chakra would only decrease with use. Additionally, he could use Object Transformation to perfectly mimic Zhixin's appearance, making it difficult even for those most familiar with Zhixin to spot any flaws in his appearance or aura.

After spending less than a minute efficiently completing this series of actions, Nawaki finally exhaled in relief. If not for the fact that this was his first time doing such a thing, resulting in less-than-fluid movements, he could have been even faster with his hand speed. (I always feel this sentence is a bit awkward, but the pure author cannot find the reason.)

After cautiously dealing with the first defeated opponent of his life, Nawaki finally had time to glance at Zhixin, discovering that his eyes were bloodshot and his expression was as ferocious as a starving wolf, as if he wanted to bite him.

Nawaki smiled nonchalantly: "Lord Zhixin, my apologies. I was busy dealing with your body earlier, so I wasted a little time. Please forgive my rudeness! Nice to meet you, I am Konoha Special Jonin Senju Nawaki, here to rescue the innocent civilians you have locked in cages like 'chicks'."

Hearing the self-introduction of "Special Jonin," Zhixin's pupils couldn't help but constrict. This ten-year-old Special Jonin was truly a "special injury" indeed!

Watching this monster brat before him speaking polite words with a smile, Zhixin felt he was intentionally humiliating him in this way. He didn't want to see this hateful face anymore, so he simply closed his eyes. "If you are a ninja, then kill me! Brat of the Senju Clan! There is no point in humiliating a defeated ninja."

Seeing Zhixin's tsundere-like attitude, Nawaki laughed. He was best at dealing with tsunderes.

"Oh? Lord Zhixin is not afraid of death? If that is the case, why did you defect back then out of fear of punishment?" Nawaki asked with deliberate mockery.

Zhixin, eyes closed, could not stop Nawaki's voice from drilling into his heart.

Sure enough, hearing Nawaki's sarcasm, Zhixin opened his eyes in agitation and said angrily: "How could a monster brat like you, called a genius, understand the hardships of ordinary ninjas? I only made a promise to live on for someone else."

"Someone else? That idiot who loved flowers and plants you mentioned? In that case, your life is even more precious! Bearing the life of a comrade, you shouldn't be in such a hurry to seek death. Do you want to be a coward who runs away again? If you really want to die, you can choose to bite your tongue; I certainly won't stop you."

Nawaki's talk-no-jutsu was truly excellent, leaving Zhixin flushed and speechless.

"What exactly do you want?" After a long silence, Zhixin finally asked helplessly under Nawaki's smiling gaze. He truly lacked the courage to bite his tongue; was it cowardice or the promise? He himself could not tell.

Nawaki nodded with satisfaction: "As a 'senior' among the rogue ninjas under the consortium, you must be very familiar with other rogue ninjas and bandit forces in the Land of Fire, right?"

"You want me to betray my comrades? That is impossible!" Zhixin seemed to have a strong aversion to betrayal.

"Comrades? From what I know, your relationship doesn't seem that close. For example, a comrade named Baran, who seems to have used ninjutsu as a threat to make you his subordinate? You didn't know, did you? He has already bribed the bandit leader under your command to monitor you."

"Jiro!" Zhixin gritted his teeth.

"Jiro? Is that the name of that bandit leader? It seems you really are full of aversion toward acts of betrayal, and your hatred for him exceeds that of Baran, the mastermind!

Does it have something to do with that failed mission before you defected from the village?" Nawaki asked curiously.