Rinto was woken by a deafening noise outside.
It was not the sharp crack of explosives, but the dull tremor of ninjutsu striking walls. Even the concrete floor of the underground laboratory shook, the overhead lights rattled, and dust showered down.
He snapped his eyes open, grimacing at the pain in his stiff neck. His first reaction was not to check what was happening outside, but to lunge toward the desk and stuff the spread-out four-nature sketches, the half-filled experimental log, and all his earlier drafts of the core configurations into his clothes. When he could fit no more, he pulled open the innermost compartment of the blastproof cabinet and shoved all the most critical scrolls inside. His fingertips trembled-not from fear, but from anger.
Damn it, they were bothering him again.
Crash! Another deafening noise rang out. Sounds of fighting, curses, and the explosive clashes of chakra came from the corridor outside, drawing closer to his laboratory. Then someone pounded thunderously on the door, and Kabuto's voice came through, distorted by panic. "Mr. Rinto! This is bad! Konoha's Anbu forced their way in! They brought the Sealing Squad and Jonin. Lord Orochimaru's people couldn't stop them!"
Rinto locked the blastproof cabinet, then crammed every usable ninja tool, his engraving knife, and several pieces of his best starfall iron and crystal jade into his canvas bag before shouting coldly, "What's there to panic about? Tell them to get lost!"
"We can't stop them! They say your research is suspected of leaking Konoha secrets, and they're here to arrest you!" Kabuto sounded close to tears. Then came his muffled grunt as he was knocked down outside, followed by a cold, hard male voice through the thick iron door. "Rinto, by order of the Third Hokage and the Konoha Council of Elders, we are here to confiscate all your research materials and take you to the Hokage Building for questioning. Open the door immediately, or we will force our way in!"
Rinto's expression instantly turned icy.
He had tolerated the Anbu lurking outside before, and he understood what the Third was thinking. But he had never expected Konoha to dare force its way into Orochimaru's research and development department and come straight to smash his door down. He had stayed tucked away in this underground laboratory, bothering no one, wanting only to conduct his research in peace. How had that made him a criminal involved in classified information?
"I'll say it one more time. Get lost." Rinto walked behind the door and pressed his fingertips against the barrier trigger on the frame. Lightning-nature locking patterns instantly lit up, and crackling electricity darted through the gap around the door. "My things have absolutely nothing to do with Konoha. Hit that door again, and a wall won't be the only thing I tear apart."
"Stubborn fool." The man's voice outside turned cold. "Getting too full of yourself? You're some self-taught nobody who never even attended the Ninja Academy. You think a few underhanded tricks mean Konoha can't deal with you? Breach it!"
The moment he finished speaking, a violent explosion blasted against the door. The barrier Rinto had set up shuddered, and more than half its patterns instantly dimmed. Several more explosions followed in quick succession. The Sealing Squad's Sealing Jutsu covered the entire door, the barrier's electric glow grew weaker and weaker, and even the concrete around the frame cracked, shedding rubble.
Gritting his teeth, Rinto turned and dug several already-engraved ninja tool rings out of the materials rack, slipping them onto his fingers-Wind Release, Explosion Release, Lightning Release, all his deadliest offensive configurations. He also fastened the bracer Kabuto had given him, engraved with a defensive configuration, onto his arm. He did not want to fight or get mixed up in this bullshit, but if anyone dared destroy his research and delay his experiments, he did not mind showing them that his engraving knife could do more than carve patterns. It could take lives.
Crack-
The thick iron door was blasted open by force. Its twisted panel flew inward and slammed into the laboratory bench, sending glass tubes, water bottles, and drawings flying everywhere. Four masked Anbu rushed through the dust and smoke, their kunai gleaming coldly. Behind them came two ninja in Sealing Squad uniforms, their eyes fixed on his blastproof cabinet and the drawings on his desk.
"Rinto, surrender." The Anbu Captain at their head held up his kunai and spoke coldly. "Come back to the Hokage Building with us and hand over all your research materials. Lord Hokage may still give you a chance to atone through service and let you work for Konoha in the Ninja Tool Squad. Otherwise, you'll be treated as a prospective rogue ninja and executed on the spot."
"A rogue ninja?" Rinto laughed, his voice full of barely restrained fury and mockery. "Did I steal something from Konoha? Or kill someone from Konoha? I'm carving my own patterns here. What business is that of your Third Hokage?"
"Your chakra configuration technology is enough to overturn the Shinobi World's entire system of combat power. It constitutes Konoha's highest defense secrets." The Anbu Captain stepped forward, and the Anbu behind him instantly moved to encircle Rinto. "Either hand over the technology and come with us, or die. Choose."
"I choose to make you get lost."
The moment Rinto finished speaking, he raised his fingertips. The rings on his fingers instantly flashed with lightning, and a blade of energy three times sharper than ordinary Lightning Release Ninjutsu slashed toward the lead Anbu. The man clearly had not expected him to attack without warning, let alone without making hand seals. He hurriedly raised his kunai to block, but the lightning blade sliced straight through it, grazed his shoulder, and carved a deep groove into the concrete wall behind him, scattering chips of stone.
"You're asking for death!" The Anbu Captain flew into a rage and signaled with his hand. All four Anbu charged at once, their ninjutsu and kunai cutting off every escape route.
Rinto did not engage them at close quarters at all. He stepped backward, the rings on his fingers lighting up in turn. An Explosion Release shock wave blasted the two leading Anbu away and slammed them into the wall; Lava Release acid splashed across the floor, halting those behind them; a Wind Release blade shattered the incoming Fire Release, its remaining force cutting cracks into the Anbu's masks.
The Anbu were stunned by the onslaught.
Before coming, all they had known was that he was a researcher developing ninja tools who, at most, knew a little basic ninjutsu. Who could have imagined that he could casually unleash Kekkei Genkai without even making hand seals, seamlessly switching between three of them, with greater ease than the Jonin of those Kekkei Genkai clans?
"What are you standing there for? Seal his chakra! Take him down!" the Anbu Captain roared, flinging more than a dozen sealing tags straight at Rinto's hands and feet.
Rinto dodged sideways. Lightning Release flashed at his fingertips, shredding every sealing tag into scraps of paper. But just then, several more people rushed through the doorway—not Anbu, but Danzo's Root. All of them carried restraining ninja tools designed to counter chakra. The moment they entered, they erected a sealing barrier, blocking even the air vents.
Attacked from front and rear, Rinto was completely surrounded inside the laboratory.
Rinto's brows drew tightly together. He was not afraid of these few Anbu, but he was afraid the fighting would destroy his experimental records and the discarded drafts and samples he had accumulated over more than a decade. Those things mattered more than his life.
Just then, a familiar, hissing laugh came from the corridor. Orochimaru strolled in, the hem of his black clothes brushing over the rubble on the floor. His golden, slit-pupiled eyes swept across the wrecked laboratory and settled on Rinto, surrounded in its center. His voice held feigned surprise. "Oh my, what happened here? Lord Hokage's people actually barged into my research and development department to arrest someone? Aren't you showing me rather little regard?"
The Anbu Captain's expression shifted when he saw Orochimaru. "Lord Orochimaru," he said gravely, "we are acting on Lord Hokage's orders to arrest Rinto for his involvement with classified information and confiscate dangerous research materials. Please do not interfere in Konoha's internal affairs."
"Rinto belongs to my research and development department. His research is a military ninja tool project that I approved." Orochimaru took two steps forward, placing himself between Rinto and the Anbu, his voice darkening. "You barged into my territory to arrest my man. Did you ask me first?"
Rinto stood behind him, his gaze intensely cold.
He knew Orochimaru all too well. When Konoha's Anbu had been lurking outside before, Orochimaru had kept them out as soon as he said he would. Today, so many people had forced their way inside and fought all the way to his laboratory door, yet Orochimaru's people had somehow "failed to stop them"? He had appeared neither earlier nor later, but precisely when Rinto was completely surrounded. Rinto knew exactly what he was planning.
He simply wanted to intensify the conflict between Rinto and Konoha, making him break with Konoha completely and leaving him no way back, so he would have no choice but to obediently depend on Orochimaru and offer up his research results with both hands.
The Anbu and Orochimaru's people faced off, weapons drawn, their chakra weighing down the air throughout the laboratory. Rinto had no interest in watching their performance. While everyone's attention was on Orochimaru, he quietly backed away and pressed his fingertips against the blastproof cabinet's self-destruct button, using his other hand to tuck the experimental log and core drawings inside his clothes more securely into his bag.
His laboratory, his research-whatever he could not take with him, no one else would get.
"Lord Orochimaru, are you openly defying Lord Hokage's orders?" The Anbu Captain rested his hand on his ninja tool pouch, and the Anbu behind him all assumed attacking stances. "If you insist on protecting him, you will be making an enemy of all Konoha."
"Making an enemy of Konoha?" Orochimaru chuckled, his laughter filled with coldness. "The Third has grown old, and he meddles in far too much. He has no say in what happens to my people."
The instant he finished speaking, the two sides' chakra collided. Every light in the laboratory exploded, spraying glass everywhere. The Anbu and Orochimaru's people began fighting outright. Exploding ninjutsu, clashing metal, and screams mingled together as the entire laboratory descended into chaos.
That chaos was exactly what Rinto wanted.
He turned and headed straight for the laboratory's rear door-the emergency escape passage he had left in place earlier, leading directly to the alley behind the research and development department. Before leaving, he took one last look at the laboratory where he had spent almost two years: the drawings covering the desk, the scraps littering the floor, the bench vise and desk lamp he had used for so long, the notebooks of discarded drafts he had accumulated over more than a decade, and the material samples he could not take.
He could not take these things with him, but he absolutely could not leave them to Konoha, much less to Orochimaru.
He pressed the blastproof cabinet's self-destruct button, then triggered every Explosive Tag array he had laid out beforehand. He took one last look at the place where he had quietly conducted his research, muttered "Fuck," and rushed into the passage behind the rear door.
The instant he entered the passage, an earth-shattering explosion erupted behind him.
The Explosive Tags he had laid detonated together with the blastproof cabinet's self-destruct mechanism. The entire underground laboratory was instantly engulfed in flames. The drawings, records, samples, and equipment he could not take were all blasted to pieces and burned clean away. Whether it was what Konoha wanted or what Orochimaru coveted, nothing remained.
The passage shook, showering dirt down around him. Rinto ran forward without looking back. His canvas bag held only the most essential experimental log, a few critical configuration drawings, an engraving knife, and several pieces of his best materials, along with the configuration-engraved rings on his hands. Everything else had burned.
The passage opened into an alley at the edge of Konoha. Outside, Anbu were rushing toward the research and development department, and everything was in chaos. Rinto tugged down his hat, avoided the patrolling ninja, and ran along the alleys toward the edge of the village.
He did not seek out Orochimaru, nor did he consider explaining himself to Konoha. He understood all too well: from the moment Konoha decided to force its way into his laboratory, steal his research, and use him as a tool, he could no longer stay there. Going to Orochimaru was even less of an option. If he did, he would become Orochimaru's puppet and never again be able to pursue the research he wanted.
He only wanted somewhere no one would bother him, where he could quietly figure out the essence of chakra. If anyone dared get in his way, he would stake his life against them.
Only after running beyond Konoha's barrier and plunging into the woods outside the village did Rinto stop, leaning against a tree to catch his breath. He looked back toward Konoha. Black smoke still rose from the direction of the research and development department, and he could faintly hear alarms sounding inside the village.
He looked down at his bag. The essential things were all there, as was his engraving knife, and the rings on his fingers still worked. He breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned again and cursed, "Damn it. A bunch of lunatics, getting in the way of my four-nature research."
The night wind swept through the woods, rustling the leaves. He leaned against the tree for a long while before straightening, tightening his grip on his engraving knife, and turning to walk deeper into the woods.
He could no longer stay in Konoha, and even the Land of Fire might not be safe. The Third and Danzo would not leave him alone, and Orochimaru would search for him everywhere too. The technology he possessed was a juicy prize everyone coveted.
But he was not afraid.
More than a decade ago, in that dilapidated wooden shack at the edge of the village, he had not even been able to afford a decent piece of dark iron, yet he had still managed to engrave a Wind Release configuration. Now that he held technology capable of overturning the entire Shinobi World, where could he not conduct research?
Rinto's figure soon vanished into the pitch-black woods.
The underground laboratory was still burning, and Konoha's leadership was searching for him like mad. Yet as Orochimaru looked at the laboratory, burned down to its bare framework, the corners of his mouth curled into a smile.
The peace of the Shinobi World shattered completely the moment Rinto stepped out of Konoha. Yet all he could think about was finding somewhere quiet and secure to finish drawing the framework for his four-nature configuration.