"Fuck! It fucking blew up again!"
After a sharp crack, fragments of starfall iron scattered across the wooden board. Rinto jerked his hand back, his fingertips scalded red. A freshly scabbed cut split open again, beads of blood seeping out and smearing onto the scratched board.
He crouched down, picked up the fragment that had burst in two, and held it under the chakra lamp. The fracture was clean; the entire junction between the core anchor and the channel had shattered. He knew without thinking that the timing had been off again-the channel had only been half-built when the anchor activated first. With nowhere to go, the chakra had exploded inside.
That was the twelfth piece of material he had blown up today.
From dawn until the sun slanted west, he had holed up in this dilapidated granary, not even stopping for a sip of water, stubbornly wrestling with this full-reconstruction configuration. The framework he had spent the entire previous chapter staying up all night to draw had looked flawless. Only when he actually engraved it into the iron did he discover it was riddled with pitfalls.
What he wanted to make was nothing like his previous approach of "engraving the structure beforehand and switching anchors when changing modes." It was full dynamic reconstruction taken to an utterly insane extreme-within the same medium, he would engrave no fixed channels or anchors in advance, leaving only the most basic chakra primer. Whatever chakra nature was injected, the corresponding channels and anchors would be built on the spot, then completely dismantled after use, leaving nothing behind. Residue and compatibility issues simply would not exist.
It could not have sounded smoother in theory, but once he tried it, he discovered it was over ten times harder than working with three natures. The instant chakra was injected, channel construction, anchor arrangement, and nature adaptation all had to be completed simultaneously. An error of one ten-thousandth of a second meant a blowout. Worse, the black-market starfall iron looked highly pure but was full of tiny impurities. When he engraved micron-scale anchors, a single slip of the cutting tip ruined the entire section.
"Fucking crooks." He hurled the fragments into the scrap pile beside his feet with a curse. Back in Konoha, Orochimaru had supplied materials of the highest quality in the Shinobi World, with purity pushed to the limit. Engraving them had been smooth work. With this black-market junk, three pieces out of ten contained impurities. The time wasted on materials alone would have been enough for him to revise his plans three times.
Irritated, he tossed the engraving knife onto the board, stood up, and kicked the granary's earthen wall twice, shaking dust down from overhead. After a whole day of explosions, his thoughts only grew more tangled, his revisions straying further off course. The last version had not even survived its first nature switch before collapsing outright.
He walked to the granary entrance and gulped down two mouthfuls of cold water. The wind swept sand against his face, stinging his skin. Staring at the distant weeds, his mind filled with shattered anchors, he muttered, "Build the anchors before the channels? No, without channels, the chakra can't get in... do them simultaneously? How do I nail the timing? All four natures reconstruct at different speeds. How do I synchronize them?"
Less than ten minutes later, he was back at the board, grabbing a charcoal pencil and drawing on paper. In the middle of his irritation, an idea had suddenly occurred to him. If he split the primer into two, one responsible for channel construction and the other for anchor arrangement, and started both threads simultaneously, wouldn't that solve the timing problem?
As he drew, he got stuck again. Synchronizing two threads demanded far too much chakra precision. Ordinary shinobi could not control their chakra output that finely. He could test it himself without a problem, but surely he could not make a configuration that only he could use. Frowning, he bit the pencil shaft and stared blankly, going a long time without making a stroke. Suddenly, he remembered encountering a similar issue back in Konoha while drawing a senjutsu chakra diversion configuration. He seemed to have recorded a solution in his discarded drafts back then.
He quickly dropped the pencil, rummaged through the canvas bag he carried, and dumped everything out. After searching for ages, he still could not find that draft notebook. Only then did he remember that when the laboratory exploded, those old drafts spanning more than a decade had all burned in the fire. He had only managed to bring out the few most essential experiment logs.
"Fuck!" He slammed his fist into the board, bitterly regretting it. When he had blown up the laboratory, he had thought only of taking the core drafts, never considering those old discarded ones. Now that he needed them, he finally understood how important those casually jotted-down ideas were.
Just as his frustration peaked, the sensing anchors around the granary suddenly trembled-not one chakra signature, but four, carrying strong wind and earth nature fluctuations, were rushing toward him. They were less than a hundred meters away.
Rinto's face instantly darkened, his anger surging straight to his head. Damn it, I just drove off one batch from Konoha, and now there's another? They just won't leave me alone, will they?
He swept all the plans and experiment logs on the table into his bag, slung it over his back, and hooked his fingertips around the ring engraved with the kekkei genkai configuration. He darted behind the door, even quieting his breathing. He did not want to fight, much less waste time. He only wanted to get rid of these nuisances quickly and return to revising his plans.
Boom!
Wind Release blasted the granary's battered door apart, sending broken boards flying everywhere. Four shinobi wearing Sunagakure forehead protectors charged inside. Their leader was a man with a buzz cut, clutching a chakra detector. His gaze swept over the mess inside before finally settling on Rinto behind the door. "You're Rinto?" he asked coldly.
"Get out." Rinto's voice was ice-cold. "You don't belong in my place."
"Don't spit in our faces when we're offering you a favor." The leader sneered. "Konoha's hunting you as a missing-nin, but we in Sunagakure are offering you a way out. Come back to the Land of Wind with us. We'll build you the best laboratory and give you all the top-grade materials you want. Just hand over your chakra configuration technology, and you'll be able to do whatever you please in Sunagakure."
Rinto laughed, his laughter filled with anger. "I'll say it again. Get out. My technology has fuck-all to do with your Sunagakure. Keep talking, and the door won't be the thing I dismantle."
"So you'd rather do this the hard way." The man gestured, and the four Sunagakure shinobi instantly spread out to surround him, their hands already forming hand seals. "Take him alive. Once we bring him back, we'll have plenty of ways to make him talk."
The moment he finished speaking, Wind Release and Earth Release came crashing toward Rinto together, sealing off every escape route. Rinto did not dodge at all. The ring on his finger flashed, and a spray of Lava Release acid instantly shot out, dissolving the incoming wind blades completely before continuing unabated toward the shinobi on the far left.
Startled, the shinobi hastily raised an earthen wall with Earth Release, only for the acid to dissolve straight through it. Terrified, he scrambled away, but a little still splashed onto his arm. A large hole instantly corroded through his protective clothing, and he howled in pain.
Rinto had no interest in playing with them. He would finish this quickly. Under cover of Lava Release, a blade of Lightning Release energy slashed out instantly, heading straight for the leader's wrist-he did not want to kill anyone; it was too much trouble. Cripple their hands, and no one would bother him anymore.
The man had never expected him to strike so quickly. Before he could even finish his hand seals, the lightning blade was upon him. He hastily blocked with a kunai, but the lightning blade sliced straight through it and cut a wound deep enough to expose bone across his wrist. The detector in his hand fell straight to the ground.
In less than three minutes, all four Sunagakure jonin had been incapacitated. They lay groaning in pain, unable even to stand. Rinto planted a foot on their leader's back and said coldly, "Crawl back to the Land of Wind and tell your Kazekage to stop sending dogs to bother me. Come again, and next time, I won't stop at severing your wrist tendons."
He lifted his foot. Seeing the shattered door and the granary pitted by ninjutsu only made him angrier. The workbench he had just tidied had been shaken into a mess again, and his half-finished plans were covered in dirt. He cursed, crouched down to collect the plans, and brushed off the dust.
Just then, extremely faint footsteps came from the weeds outside the granary. The person's chakra was suppressed to almost nothing. Had Rinto not been sensitive to chakra fluctuations, he would never have noticed. His head snapped up, lightning flashing at his fingertips as he shouted, "Who's there? Get out here!"
"Mr. Rinto, don't attack. It's me."
Kabuto emerged from the weeds, still wearing that white lab coat, now coated with windblown sand. He carried two heavy cases, a cautious smile on his face, afraid Rinto might slash at him outright.
Rinto's brow furrowed even deeper. "What are you doing here? Did Orochimaru send you?"
"Lord Orochimaru did send me, but I'm not here to force you." Kabuto gently set the cases by the entrance. He did not dare go farther inside, afraid of irritating him. "He knew you were short on materials and asked me to bring you a few things. They're all the top-grade starfall iron you're used to, high-purity conductive crystal jade, and consumables like new engraving tips and asbestos boards."
He paused, then lifted the other, slightly smaller case, his tone softening. "There are also some old draft notebooks you left in the laboratory. He had people dig them out of the fire. Their edges are a little burned, but most of the contents are still intact. I've brought them for you."
Rinto's gaze shifted slightly. He had just been regretting not bringing those old drafts out, and he had never expected Orochimaru to have people dig them out of the burned, collapsed laboratory. But he knew perfectly well that Orochimaru meant him no good. These things were not free gifts; they were bait. He wanted Rinto indebted to him, wanted to pull him back.
"What are Orochimaru's terms?" Rinto remained still, watching him coldly.
"He hasn't imposed any conditions," Kabuto said hurriedly. "The offer is the same as before. If you're willing to return to the base in the Land of Fire, the best laboratory and the finest resources will all be yours. No one will dare disturb your research, and neither Konoha nor Sunagakure will ever find you. If you don't want to go, these things are still yours. He said to consider them thanks for helping revise the Cursed Seal configuration before."
"I'm not going." Rinto refused outright, without the slightest hesitation. "Leave the things. I'll count them as a purchase and pay you later. Take Orochimaru's terms and get out. Don't come looking for me again. I don't want anything to do with him."
"There's no need to pay, Mr. Rinto." Kabuto hastily waved his hands and pushed the cases closer to the entrance. "He prepared these specifically for you. You don't need to spend anything." He hesitated, but still added, "Konoha's pursuit teams are already heading into the Land of Rivers. It's not just the Anbu; there are elites from the Jonin Commander, too. Danzo's Root has also sent people, and they've already entered the Land of Rivers. Sunagakure won't give up, either. Word of your appearance in Falling Sand Town has spread. Scouts from Amegakure and Iwagakure are probably heading this way as well. It's too dangerous for you to stay here alone."
"My business is none of your concern." Rinto frowned, his voice full of impatience. "Anything else? If not, get out. Stop wasting my time."
"There's one personal matter I'd like to trouble you with." Kabuto hurriedly pulled a crumpled drawing from inside his coat and cautiously offered it to him. "The Cursed Seal senjutsu adaptation configuration I revised collapses as soon as senjutsu chakra enters it. There's nothing wrong with the filtering structure you revised for me, but the core circulation is still wrong. Could you take a quick look? Just one look. It won't take much of your time."
Rinto stared at him for two seconds, then reached out and took the drawing anyway. After glancing over it, he picked up his charcoal pencil, casually marked three places, and tossed it back. "Change the anchors at these three nodes and switch the circulation order. If it collapses again, don't come looking for me."
"Thank you, Mr. Rinto! Thank you so much!" Kabuto hurriedly caught the drawing. Looking at the few marks on it, he understood instantly, his eyes full of gratitude. He did not dare say more for fear of irritating Rinto. After one last warning-"Please be careful. Konoha's people will be here soon"-he quietly backed out, turned, and disappeared into the weeds without leaving a trace.
Rinto closed the door and dragged both cases over to the board, opening the smaller case of drafts first. They really were his old notebooks, over a dozen of them. Their page edges were charred black, and some pages had stuck together, but the sketches he had casually drawn, the ideas he had recorded, and the lessons from his blowouts were all still there. He flipped through them and, sure enough, found those pages on the senjutsu diversion configuration from back then. In an instant, he had a lead on the problem that had stalled him for so long.
His anger eased a little, but his head also grew clearer. Orochimaru's move was far more insidious than Konoha's forced entry. Giving him exactly what he needed for free, even recovering the discarded drafts he cared about most-he had calculated that Rinto responded to a soft approach rather than force, and that his research could not do without these things. He wanted to snare him little by little.
Besides, he absolutely could not stay in this granary anymore. Konoha's people had come, Sunagakure's people had been here, and Orochimaru's people had found him too. If he stayed, people would keep coming in wave after wave. He could forget about researching in peace.
He had no interest in examining the materials anymore. First, he carefully packed away his plans, experiment logs, and draft notebooks, wrapped them in two layers of oilpaper, and tucked them into the innermost compartment of his bag. Then he selected a few of the finest pieces of starfall iron and crystal jade Kabuto had brought and stuffed them into the bag. He found some waterproof cloth, wrapped the rest, and shouldered that bundle as well.
While packing, his mind kept turning over the blowout problem and the diversion approach he had just seen in the old drafts. If synchronizing two threads would not work, could he use a preactivation stage? Let the anchors reshape themselves in advance according to the chakra nature, then build the channels in sync with the anchors' deformation, instead of waiting until the chakra entered to start.
The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He pulled out a sheet of scrap paper and crouched on the ground to draw, forgetting even to finish packing. His pencil raced over the paper as he muttered, "Right, preactivation. The primer scans the chakra nature first, the anchors reshape first, and the channels build in sync. Once the chakra comes in, it's ready to use. That gets the timing right..."
Only after drawing for nearly half an hour and completing the new framework did he remember he needed to flee. He looked up to find the sun nearly setting and the windblown sand growing heavier. In the direction of the distant town, he could faintly see the sounds of shinobi cutting through the air as they traveled.
He dared not delay any longer. He folded the finished drawing and tucked it inside his clothes, close to his body, then shouldered his bag and picked up the remaining materials. He took one last look at the granary where he had spent only two days-the ruined materials, the scrap paper covered in lines, and the unfinished dry flatbread were all left behind. He did not set a fire or destroy his traces. There was no need; everyone who was going to come had already been here anyway.
He turned and walked into the barren mountains, heading away from the border and the town. Deep in the Land of Rivers' mountains, there were plenty of unvisited caves and abandoned villages. If he found somewhere more secluded, he would surely be able to engrave the four-nature configuration in peace.
The blowing sand made it hard to keep his eyes open. He pulled his battered hat lower and kept walking, but one hand slipped inside his clothes to touch the freshly drawn plans. His fingertips unconsciously traced the anchor positions on the back of the paper. His mind was filled with how to get the preactivation timing right. He paid no attention to the road beneath his feet, nor to the fact that the eyes of the entire Shinobi World had already settled on him, a researcher who had escaped from Konoha.
Konoha's pursuit teams, Sunagakure's capture squad, Orochimaru's eyes, and the restless forces of other shinobi villages were all converging on the Land of Rivers. Yet the man at the center of the storm had only one thing on his mind-finding somewhere no one would disturb him, engraving this new configuration, and seeing whether it would explode again this time.