Rinto ran through the woods for an entire night.
Only when dawn approached did he shake off the patrols on Konoha's outskirts and slip into the remote mountains along the Land of Fire's border. Dew had soaked his coat, his trouser legs were covered in tears, and dirt in the cuts on the backs of his hands stung like grit. Yet his mind was not on evading pursuit. It was on the four-nature anchor idea that had suddenly occurred to him while fleeing-splitting the compatibility anchors into a core and an outer layer, with the core handling nature adaptation and the outer layer handling channel clearing and reconstruction, neither interfering with the other.
The more he thought about it, the more workable it seemed. His steps even slowed. He picked up a twig, crouched down, and started to draw on the ground. He had barely scratched out two lines when he heard the rush of ninja traveling in the distance. Snapping back to his senses, he swore, threw away the twig, and plunged deeper into the mountains.
Fuck. These bastards just won't leave me alone. They're getting in the way of my thinking.
He kept running until the sun was overhead before finding somewhere to stop-an abandoned Konoha border watchtower deep in the mountains. Half of it had collapsed, cracks covered the tops of its walls, and dead branches and leaves filled the interior. It looked as though it had been deserted for over a decade. Even bandits would not come here.
He circled the watchtower twice first, casually carving sensing and warning anchors into several corners of its foundations. If anyone approached, he would know immediately. Then he set a trigger-activated Explosion Release trap at the entrance before slipping inside, sweeping the dead branches and rotting leaves aside, finding a reasonably flat stone, and setting down the canvas bag on his back.
He opened the bag and checked his things first. The more-than-half-filled Chakra Configuration Experiment Log was intact. The key diagrams, the drafts of the dual- and triple-nature configurations, and the anchor structures copied from Shukaku's scroll were all wrapped in oiled paper and had stayed dry. There was a carving knife, half a box of fresh blades, and a dozen or so pieces of starfall iron and crystal jade he had tossed in. Not much, but used sparingly, they could last a while.
The rest consisted of the rings engraved with kekkei genkai configurations and the defensive bracers Kabuto had given him earlier.
He breathed a sigh of relief. All the essentials were there. But remembering the laboratory he had blown up still made him curse. Two years' worth of accumulated materials and samples, over a decade's worth of discarded draft notebooks, and unfinished pieces he had yet to finish engraving had all been blasted to ash. Even the bench vise he was used to working with had burned away.
It hurt, but he had no regrets. If he could not take those things with him, he absolutely could not leave them to Konoha, much less Orochimaru. Even starting from scratch was better than letting someone hold leverage over him and use him as a tool.
Only when he leaned against the wall did he feel tired. It had been nearly a full day and night since the Anbu smashed at his door. He had not slept or eaten. His stomach felt alarmingly empty, and his mouth was dry and bitter. He rummaged through his bag and found only two packets of soda crackers Kabuto had stuffed in earlier, both already crushed. He poured them into his hand and tipped them into his mouth all at once, but they were too dry to swallow, choking him into a coughing fit.
There was a stream outside the watchtower. He went around and filled half his stomach with cold water. Only after the icy water poured into his stomach did he recover a little strength. Back inside, he did not rush to rest. He found a flat wooden board, wiped it clean, took out the diagrams wrapped in oiled paper and spread them out, then pulled out a charcoal pencil and scrap paper. If he did not draw the four-nature idea that had occurred to him on the road, he would soon forget it.
He crouched before the board, his pencil racing across the paper as he muttered, "Keep the core anchors unchanged and only replace the outer adaptation structure... no, the adaptation structures for four natures differ too much. The core won't hold up... it still needs layers. Each layer of anchors handles one nature, and reconstruction only replaces the corresponding layer. No need to dismantle everything..."
As he drew, he forgot the time, forgot that all of Konoha was hunting him, and forgot that pursuers might arrive outside at any moment. There were only the lines on the paper in his eyes. One moment he frowned, crossing things out and redrawing them; another, he cursed himself for being an idiot and getting a crucial structure wrong; then he would stare blankly at the diagrams without moving for ages.
The sun slowly sank westward, and the light in the mountains dimmed. Only then did he reach for a fire starter, light a small fire, and continue drawing by its light. When he grew tired of drawing, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes for a couple of minutes, still turning anchor arrangements over in his head. He had been dozing for less than ten minutes when a sensing anchor carved into the foundations suddenly shuddered.
Someone had come. More than one person, with chakra fluctuations that were far from weak, heading straight for the watchtower.
Rinto's brow knotted instantly. Swearing, he swiftly packed the diagrams and experiment log into his bag, slung it onto his back, hooked his fingertips around the rings, and slipped behind a broken wall of the watchtower, holding his breath.
Soon, five figures landed at the watchtower entrance, all dressed as Konoha Anbu and wearing masks. One was a sensory ninja. Eyes closed as he sensed his surroundings, he raised a hand and pointed toward the watchtower. "Captain, he's inside. His chakra fluctuations are very weak. He probably hasn't run."
The Anbu in the lead waved a hand, and the other four instantly moved to surround the watchtower. He said coldly, "Rinto, we know you're in there. Stop hiding and come back to Konoha with us. Lord Hokage said that as long as you hand over all your research materials and swear to serve Konoha, everything that happened before can be forgiven."
Behind the wall, Rinto rolled his eyes. Forgiven? Who the hell would believe that? If I really went back with them, I'd either be locked in the Anbu Ninja Tool Squad, spending my whole life as a diagram-drawing tool, or dragged off by Danzo's Root, squeezed dry of every technique I have, and end up dying without even knowing why.
He remained silent, lightly tracing his fingertips over the broken wall a few times to carve a simple Wind Release blade configuration, waiting for them to come inside.
"Not coming out? Search!" At the Anbu Captain's order, two Anbu instantly charged inside, kunai in hand. The moment they stepped through the entrance, they triggered the Explosion Release trap Rinto had laid.
Boom!
A violent explosion instantly rang out. The shock wave hurled both Anbu away, shattering their protective gear. They hit the ground and spat blood. The remaining three immediately went on alert, charging their ninjutsu. "You're asking for death! Full assault!"
Fire Release and Wind Release instantly slammed toward the watchtower, blasting away half the broken wall and scattering stone fragments. Using the dust and smoke as cover, Rinto darted out. Lightning flashed at his fingertips, and a Lightning Release blade shot straight toward the sensory ninja-he had to disable the sensor first to make escaping easier afterward.
The ninja had not expected him to attack so quickly. Before he could even finish his hand seals, the lightning blade was before his eyes. He hastily dodged aside, but it still sliced a deep gash in his arm. Blood immediately poured out, and his sensing cut off at once.
"Formation! Don't let him escape!" the Anbu Captain roared. The remaining three instantly rushed forward, their ninjutsu sealing every escape route. Before they came, the Third had repeatedly instructed them to bring him back. If they could not bring him back alive, they had to retrieve his corpse and the materials on him. They absolutely could not let him escape the Land of Fire, much less fall into Orochimaru's hands.
Rinto did not clash with them head-on at all. He did not want to fight, much less waste time here. If another group arrived, or Orochimaru's people showed up too, it would only become more troublesome. The rings on his fingers lit up in succession. Explosion Release blasted up clouds of dust, Wind Release blocked incoming ninjutsu, and Lava Release acid splashed over the ground, halting their advance.
The Anbu grew more alarmed as they fought.
They had already witnessed his ability to casually unleash kekkei genkai in the laboratory, but only when they actually fought him face-to-face did they realize how unreasonable his ninjutsu was. No hand seals, no windup, seamless switching between three kekkei genkai-more absurd than a ninja with a kekkei tōta. Every move targeted their openings. He never competed with them over chakra expenditure and sought only the quickest escape.
Just then, Rinto suddenly heard more rushing sounds from the distance. There was more than one group, and another chakra presence, cold and sinister. It was Orochimaru's people.
Fuck. This is trouble.
He did not want to keep wasting time with these two groups. His gaze chilled as he pinched two crystal jade pieces already engraved with Explosion Release configurations between his fingertips and smashed them onto the ground. A violent explosion instantly raised a sky-filling cloud of dust, reducing visibility to less than half a meter. The Anbu immediately held their breath and formed hand seals to defend themselves. By the time the dust cleared, Rinto was long gone.
"After him! He can't have gone far! Scan for him!" the Anbu Captain roared. But the sensory ninja's wounded arm had greatly reduced his sensing range, leaving him unable to pick up any trace of Rinto's chakra. They could only head deeper into the mountains in pursuit.
Meanwhile, Rinto had already slipped into the dense forest nearby under cover of the explosion. Rather than heading deeper into the mountains, he circled around toward the border.
That brief encounter had shown him that Konoha had sent more than this one group of pursuers. More people were certain to follow, and Danzo's Root would never let him go either. He could no longer stay in the Land of Fire. Hiding deeper in the mountains would only leave him surrounded there. Sooner or later, they would find him.
His only option was to cross the border.
The Land of Rice Fields? No. Orochimaru's base is there. That would be walking straight into a trap. The Land of Wind? Sunagakure and Konoha are allies. They might help capture me too. The Land of Rain? Constant warfare, far too chaotic. There's no way to conduct research in peace.
As he moved swiftly through the woods, he rapidly weighed his options. Finally, he gritted his teeth. He would go to the Land of Rivers first. It was a small country wedged between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, with lax controls and a jumble of ninja factions. Konoha's reach did not extend that far, and Orochimaru's people would not have too many informants there either. He would find somewhere to settle, work out the four-nature configuration, and think about the rest afterward.
His decision made, he kept moving, heading straight for the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers.
Night fell completely, and the mountain wind grew colder. Rinto dared not stop or light a fire, so he could only travel by moonlight. After running for most of the night, he finally reached the border. Avoiding Konoha's border outpost, he crossed the mountain and stepped into the Land of Rivers.
Only once Konoha's border watchtower was out of sight did he relax slightly. He found a concealed cave and slipped inside to rest.
The cave was small and dry, with no signs that wild animals had lived there. He set warnings and traps at the entrance before leaning against the cave wall, setting down his bag, and slumping onto the ground. His nerves, taut for two days, finally loosened a little.
His stomach felt alarmingly empty. The crackers in his bag were long gone, and he had drunk all his water. His throat was parched. But he had no mind to look for food. Instead, he pulled out his diagrams and charcoal pencil and, by the moonlight filtering through the entrance, continued drawing the layered four-nature anchor structure he had left unfinished during the day.
Another idea had occurred to him while fleeing: combining layered anchors with gently curving channels could solve the compatibility problem while preventing residue buildup. The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. His pencil flew over the paper, and he even forgot his hunger.
As he drew, dawn arrived. Morning light shone through the cave entrance onto the densely covered scrap paper. Only then did he look up, rub his bloodshot eyes, and stretch, his bones cracking.
The framework was more or less worked out. Next came engraving it and testing it, then revising it after it exploded. But there was a problem: he had only a dozen or so pieces of starfall iron and crystal jade left in his bag. Even used sparingly, they would not last through many explosions. He was also running low on charcoal pencils and scrap paper.
He needed to find a town first, buy food and supplies, and get some more materials.
He packed away the diagrams, shouldered his bag, brushed the dust off himself, and left the cave. The border towns of the Land of Rivers were full of all sorts of people and plenty of black markets. With money, he could buy things like starfall iron and crystal jade. As it happened, he had barely spent any of the payment Kabuto had given him for drawing configurations for Orochimaru over the years. It was all deposited in a Konoha bank. Unfortunately, he had been unable to bring it out. He had only a little cash on him, but if he spent carefully, it should be enough.
Rinto headed toward the town below the mountain, his thoughts occupied entirely by how much material to buy, what sort of place to find for a temporary laboratory, and which natures to engrave first for the initial four-nature prototype.
He had no idea that, from the moment he blew up the laboratory and escaped Konoha, the technology in his hands had become a prize coveted by the entire shinobi world. Konoha's pursuit would not stop, nor would Orochimaru's schemes. Even the other four great ninja villages would soon learn of his existence.
Yet right now, he had only one thing on his mind-finding somewhere no one would disturb him and working out the four-nature configuration. If anyone dared interfere with his research again, he would not mind letting them taste what seamless switching between kekkei genkai felt like.