The Pitfall and Revenge

After killing the last Cloud Ninja Anbu member.

Ryosuke sat down to rest for a while, and began familiarizing himself with the new jutsu he had acquired.

Lightning Release: Lightning Armor went without saying—it was an extremely powerful defensive jutsu. It activated the body far more than Lightning Release: Rampage, but its chakra consumption was just as astonishing.

For now, then, Ryosuke could only use Lightning Release: Rampage as a buff.

The reward he was most satisfied with this time was naturally Magnet Release, a Kekkei Genkai.

He inspected the jutsu mastered by the Magnet Release ninja and realized that the man's weakness was likely tied to his imagination.

All the techniques he had developed were variations on clones and restraints.

It seemed that, no matter where you were, the thing that limited a person's potential was their imagination.

Now that this Kekkei Genkai was in Ryosuke's hands, he could use it to perform techniques every bit as powerful as Magneto's.

The only drawback was that he still had to form Hand Seals, unlike Magneto, who could use it effortlessly.

After resting for over an hour, eating two boxed meals and a Military Ration Pill, Ryosuke set out again.

He was full of confidence and enthusiasm for the next mission—or rather, the next battle.

An hour later, he arrived at the second mission target.

Just like at the first location, the Cloud Ninja here were also using Shadow Clones as bait.

But there were six Cloud Ninja here, one of them a Jonin.

It seemed unlikely that there would be any Kekkei Genkai here.

That took some of the fun out of it for Ryosuke.

But he had come all this way, and leaving just like that wasn't in his nature.

He thought it over and decided to go big.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, the six Cloud Ninja were killing time playing cards. Only one of them was keeping watch on their surroundings.

"Captain, can I take a turn playing? I've been on watch for six hours. My eyes are killing me."

"What are you whining about? As a ninja, you shouldn't complain. Don't worry. Once we finish this mission, I'll rank your contribution second."

"Thank you, Captain."

"But can those Uchiha brats really make it all the way here? No matter how strong the Uchiha are, they're still just three kids."

One of the Cloud Ninja playing cards asked the Jonin.

"Don't underestimate them. Uchiha Shisui, known as 'Body Flicker Shisui,' is leading them. And they've already killed more than a dozen of our Anbu comrades. Only one person made it back alive."

The Jonin set down his cards and spoke seriously.

"'Body Flicker Shisui,' huh? In the last war against Konoha, aside from the 'Yellow Flash,' he killed more of our people than anyone else."

Another Cloud Ninja chimed in.

"Exactly. That's why the Raikage specifically named him as a condition for the peace treaty."

"If we had the Sharingan, would we be able to use every jutsu?"

"Yeah. Wasn't Hatake Kakashi of Konoha only famous because he had a Sharingan?"

The Cloud Ninja began imagining what life would be like if they had the Sharingan, completely unaware that the ground around them was slowly sinking.

No one knew how much time passed.

Suddenly, one of them cried out.

"Who threw a rock at me?"

He looked up and immediately fell backward in fright.

"Captain, everyone, look! How did we end up in a pit?"

Only then did the others realize in shock that they were surrounded by a wall.

The earthen slope that had been concealing them had now grown more than ten meters high.

"Koji, you idiot! What were you doing just now? How could you not warn us about something this obvious?"

The Jonin grabbed the Chunin who had been on watch. The man's eyes were completely black.

"Damn it, he's under a genjutsu! We're under attack. It must be Shisui. Get out of here, now!"

The Jonin shouted at once.

The others sprang to their feet and tried to leap out of the pit.

But the next moment, the earthen slope above them began to move and came crashing down on them.

With a thunderous crash, the ground that had caved in returned to its original level.

The noise died away.

[Congratulations, host, you have killed an enemy. Randomly obtained a jutsu.]

[Congratulations, host, you have obtained the jutsu Lightning Release: Lightning Clone.]

[Congratulations, host, you have killed an enemy. Randomly obtained a jutsu.]

[...]

The system notifications rang out one after another, and Ryosuke breathed a sigh of relief.

He drank some water to regain his strength.

He had just used Magnet Release to hollow out the soil beneath the Cloud Ninja over a wide area.

At the same time, he had magnetized the slope by imbuing it with magnetic force, creating this astonishing scene.

But it had also drained the chakra he had just managed to recover to more than half.

"When will I finally stop having to worry about chakra? Using experience points to raise my chakra limit is taking forever."

Ryosuke couldn't help complaining.

Suddenly, the hairs all over his body stood on end. Without hesitation, he used the Substitution Technique.

Bang!

A large crater appeared where he had just been standing.

A ragged figure emerged from the dust.

It was the Jonin from the group of six Cloud Ninja.

His eyes were bloodshot as he glared viciously at Ryosuke.

"Uchiha brat, what have you done?"

Ryosuke's mouth twitched.

He had been careless this time, failing to check whether everyone was dead.

It seemed that killing a Jonin—even an ordinary one—wasn't so simple.

Ryosuke said nothing. Instead, he drew the Ninja Blade from behind his back.

He was stalling for time, waiting for his chakra to recover.

In his current state, he could only use Sonido twice.

The Jonin stared at the Ninja Blade in Ryosuke's hand, his expression growing even more vicious.

It seemed he recognized the weapon. It belonged to the Cloud Ninja Anbu.

He could no longer suppress the fury inside him.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Snake Thrust!"

[ Ding, detected... ]

Ryosuke had no time to listen to the system notification. He used Sonido and vanished from the spot.

Another crater appeared where he had just been standing.

This guy was insane—he'd opened with a desperate, all-out attack.

And Ryosuke was almost out of chakra.

It seemed he could only win in the last-resort way.

With that in mind, Ryosuke used no jutsu at all and charged straight at the Cloud Ninja Jonin.

His opponent also pulled out a Kunai and coated it with Lightning Release Chakra.

Then he charged at Ryosuke at even greater speed.

"Die!"

The death of his comrades had enraged the Jonin.

Ignoring the order to capture Ryosuke alive, he thrust his Kunai straight through Ryosuke's chest.

Then he lifted him up.

"Koji, everyone, I've avenged you!"