The explosion outside the cave had barely faded when three figures burst through the smoke and landed in the clearing at its entrance.
They were three elite Root jonin, their faces hidden behind masks, their kunai gleaming coldly with poison. Five Sealing Squad ninja followed behind them, holding sealing talismans as they encircled and tightly blocked the entrance. The lead ninja stared at the poisonous vines hanging over the opening, his voice icy. "Rinto, we know you're in there. Lord Danzo's orders: anyone who resists is to be killed on the spot. This is your last chance. Hand over your research and surrender."
The answer came as a sharp crack from the poisonous vines bursting apart.
Countless barbed tendrils swept toward them, wrapped in Wind Release blade energy. The two ninja at the front hastily raised their arms to block, but their bracers were shredded in an instant. Several cuts opened on their arms, deep enough to expose bone. Poison seeped in at once, making them grunt in pain and stagger backward.
Rinto walked out of the cave, a little charcoal dust clinging to his black cloak. His face still bore the exhaustion of several sleepless nights, but his eyes were frighteningly cold. His right hand idly spun the starfall iron ring he had just finished engraving with Dust Release, while his left hung at his side, faint lightning flickering at his fingertips.
"I told you before. Stop bothering me." His voice was level, but his anger was impossible to suppress. "I didn't kill you back at the mine. Did you really think I had no temper?"
"Don't get too arrogant, Rinto." The lead ninja gritted his teeth and signaled. All eight ninja scattered instantly, the sealing talismans in their hands lighting up together. "You think a few unorthodox kekkei genkai ninja tools can stand against Konoha? This time, we brought a jutsu-sealing barrier designed specifically to counter your attributes. You couldn't escape even if you had wings!"
Before he finished speaking, eight sealing talismans were slapped onto the ground at once. A blue formation spread out instantly, its cold chakra locking down the surrounding space. Even the miasma among the trees froze in midair. Unlike the sealing formation at the mine, this one had been modified specifically to counter his switching between multiple attributes. Every formation node could seal chakra. The moment he released ninjutsu, the formation would send a backlash along his chakra and lock down its circulation.
"Attack! Take him alive!" At the leader's command, the three elite jonin charged together, their kunai aimed straight at his wrists and knees-first cripple the hands that held his engraving knife, then break the legs he used to flee. He would have no choice but to submit.
Rinto stood where he was, not even trying to dodge.
Just as the kunai came within half a meter, the ring at his fingertips lit up. An Earth Release stone wall rose from the ground in an instant, blocking the frontal attack. Immediately afterward, Lava Release acid splashed through the gaps in the wall, forcing the ninja on the left to scramble away. The acid melted deep pits into the ground beneath his feet.
The ninja on the right had just circled behind him and was about to slap a sealing talisman onto his back when Rinto swung a hand backward without even turning his head. A slash of Lightning Release blade energy split both the kunai and sealing talisman in the ninja's hand. It skimmed past his neck and sliced off half an ear, sending blood spurting.
In less than ten seconds, two of the three attacking jonin were wounded, and the third had been driven back.
The lead ninja's expression changed. Before coming, they had pored over Rinto's intelligence files. They knew he could seamlessly switch between three-attribute kekkei genkai and use ninjutsu of all five attributes, and had specifically prepared a sealing formation to counter him. Yet his ninjutsu was completely unaffected by it. There had not even been any chakra backlash.
They had no idea that Rinto's understanding of chakra anchors surpassed that of these Sealing Squad ninja by more than an order of magnitude. He could find the flaws in a formation that locked down chakra through fixed nodes with his eyes closed. The instant the stone wall rose, he had shattered three concealed nodes with Lightning Release blade energy. The formation had long since become an empty shell.
"The formation's useless. Stop pretending." Rinto tugged at the corner of his mouth, his tone full of mockery. "Whatever else you've got, use it. Don't waste my time."
"You're asking to die!" Thoroughly enraged, the lead ninja ripped off his mask and rapidly formed hand seals. "Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"
The ground beneath them instantly turned into flowing mud, seeking to trap Rinto. Behind the leader, the Sealing Squad ninja also formed hand seals, sending Fire Release and Wind Release crashing toward him together, cutting off every avenue of escape.
Rinto neither dodged nor used single-attribute ninjutsu to counter them again. He took a deep breath and poured chakra into the ring. The core anchor activated instantly, deconstructing and reconstructing wind-, earth-, and fire-attribute chakra simultaneously. Translucent white light shone at his fingertips, carrying a heart-stopping aura of disintegration.
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique."
He spoke the name softly. The white light at his fingertips expanded instantly into a translucent cube, which he pushed straight toward the incoming ninjutsu and mud.
There was no earth-shaking explosion, no piercing roar. Wherever the white light passed, the flowing mud vanished, the Fire Release fireballs vanished, and the Wind Release blade energy vanished as well. Even the rocks on the ground and the roots of ancient trees silently dissolved into nothing within the white light, leaving not a speck of dust.
The two ninja charging at the front did not even have time to scream. The white light swept across half their bodies, erasing those halves without a trace. Their remaining halves fell to the ground, blood instantly staining the soil red.
Everyone left stood frozen in shock, trembling all over. They even forgot to finish the hand seals they were forming. Their eyes were filled with bone-deep terror as they stared at Rinto.
Dust Release! That was the kekkei tōta of Iwagakure's Second and Third Tsuchikage, one of the Shinobi World's most powerful killing techniques, something only those with Kage-level strength could master! And this man, who spent his time holed up in a laboratory doing research, had unleashed it so casually?
The lead ninja's face was white as paper, and even the hand gripping his kunai trembled. They had come to capture a defected researcher, not throw their lives away! Against someone who could casually unleash Dust Release, their handful of men would not even amount to a mouthful.
"Retreat... retreat, now!" He forced the words through gritted teeth, turned, and ran, unable to spare a thought for his wounded companions. The others were even more terrified, fleeing the forest like madmen, wishing they had another pair of legs.
Rinto did not pursue them. The white light at his fingertips slowly faded as he watched their retreating figures. He frowned but did not attack again. Killing these people would be easy, but Konoha would only send more and stronger people after them, without end. He did not want to kill. He wanted them afraid, wanted them to know that pursuing him again meant certain death.
He turned and returned to the cave, in no mood to deal with the mess outside. While using Dust Release, he had discovered a problem-the reconstruction ratios were still slightly off, and his control over its range was not precise enough. He had only intended to block the ninjutsu, yet ended up dissolving half a stretch of woodland. The chakra consumption had also been greater than expected. It needed optimization.
But the moment he sat back down at the workbench, he frowned.
The Dust Release in that battle had caused too much of a disturbance. The entire Forest of Death could have sensed those chakra fluctuations. Konoha's search teams would certainly keep coming, and the survivors would definitely report that he could use Dust Release. The Third and Danzo would only grow more frenzied. Never mind jonin-it would not be surprising if they sent Jiraiya, one of the Sannin.
He could no longer stay in the Forest of Death.
"Fuck," he cursed, raking his fingers irritably through his hair. In the month or so since escaping Konoha, he had changed locations five or six times: a granary, a ruined temple, a mine, a limestone cavern, and this cave. Every time, pursuers showed up before he had enjoyed more than a few peaceful days. He could not do his research in peace at all. Once news of his Dust Release spread, the entire Shinobi World would search for him like mad. Never mind the Land of Rivers-even the surrounding small nations would offer no peaceful refuge.
He had to find somewhere truly remote, beyond the reach of the major hidden villages, somewhere people did not even dare visit.
He leaned against the cave wall and pondered with his eyes closed. The Land of Rice Fields was Orochimaru's base, so that was out. The Lands of Wind, Earth, and Lightning were full of people watching for him; going there would be walking straight into a trap. The Land of Rain was Akatsuki's territory, far too chaotic for research. The Land of Hot Water was too close to the Land of Fire; Konoha's people could come whenever they pleased.
After considering every option, only one place fit.
The former site of the Land of Whirlpools.
Uzushiogakure had been destroyed decades ago. During its destruction, war had devastated the entire country, leaving ruins and abandoned sealing traps everywhere. Not even elite jonin, let alone ordinary ninja, dared venture in recklessly, and the major hidden villages rarely sent people there. More importantly, the Land of Whirlpools had been renowned throughout the Shinobi World for its Sealing Jutsu. Even after its destruction, its ruins were bound to contain large numbers of fragmentary Sealing Jutsu scrolls and remnants.
At its core, Sealing Jutsu was the arrangement of chakra anchors and configurations, fundamentally connected to his own research. Many of his ideas about dynamic reconstruction and anchor adaptation could be corroborated through Sealing Jutsu. If he could obtain the Land of Whirlpools' Sealing Jutsu materials, he could avoid countless detours in his research.
The Land of Whirlpools it is.
His mind made up, he immediately began packing. He wrapped his essential experiment records, configuration drafts, and old draft notebooks in layer after layer of oiled paper, stuffed them into a waterproof bag, and kept it close on his back. From the top-grade starfall iron and conductive crystal jade he had bought at black-market auctions, along with his engraving knives and consumables, he selected the best to take. He hid the rest in the most concealed rock crevice he could find, laying overlapping explosive traps and concealment barriers around it. Anyone who touched it would die.
He piled together all the scrap he could not carry, the shattered fragments, and the useless wastepaper, then set up an explosive tag formation. After he left, it would automatically blast everything clean away, leaving not a trace of his research.
By the time he finished packing, it was already dark. He checked the cave one last time, confirming that he had packed all the essentials and left no important drafts behind, before shouldering his bag and walking out.
Before leaving, he raised a hand and unleashed Dust Release, completely sealing the cave entrance. Collapsed rocks and ancient trees buried the opening tightly. Even if someone came looking, they would not find the entrance, much less the things hidden inside.
In the darkness, the Forest of Death's miasma grew thicker. In the distance, he could faintly hear Konoha search teams signaling to assemble, along with the rush of ninja speeding through the air. Rinto activated his concealment ring, suppressing every trace of his chakra fluctuations. Under cover of darkness and miasma, he vanished deep into the forest in a few leaps, heading for the eastern coastline.
The Land of Whirlpools was on an offshore island. He needed to reach the coast first and find a boat to cross the sea. He avoided main roads, villages, and towns, choosing only uninhabited mountain wilderness. By day, he hid in caves to revise his diagrams and optimize the Dust Release configuration. By night, he traveled, avoiding every ninja outpost and patrol.
Meanwhile, the Dust Release he had casually unleashed had struck like a thunderbolt, throwing the entire Shinobi World into turmoil.
Konoha, the Hokage's office.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe dropped onto his desk, scattering tobacco across it. He stared at the Root ninja kneeling on one knee before him, his voice trembling. "Say that again. What did he use?"
"Dust Release, Lord Hokage." The ninja was covered in wounds, and lingering fear still colored his voice. "Rinto... he unleashed Dust Release just like that. It was exactly the same as Iwagakure's Ōnoki's. Of the eight of us who went, three died on the spot. The rest of us only made it back alive because he didn't pursue us."
Beside him, Danzo's lone eye filled with shock, which was swiftly replaced by frenzied greed and ruthlessness. He had thought Rinto was merely a researcher capable of creating kekkei genkai ninja tools. Capturing him and squeezing out his technology could multiply Root's strength several times over. But now, this man could create Dust Release! A kekkei tōta! That was technology capable of mass-producing Kage-level combat power!
"Sarutobi, we cannot wait any longer." Danzo's voice was cold. "This is no longer a matter of a Konoha missing-nin. His technology can overturn the entire Shinobi World's order. We must capture him at any cost, or kill him outright. We absolutely cannot let him fall into another hidden village's hands."
The Third Hokage remained silent for a long time, the wrinkles on his face drawing together, then let out a heavy sigh. Before, he had still wondered whether he could persuade Rinto to return, give him a chance, and have him serve Konoha. But someone who could casually create a kekkei tōta was now beyond his control.
"Raise his bounty to ten million ryō and designate him an S-rank missing-nin." The Third's voice grew grave. "Notify every border outpost in the Land of Fire to strictly inspect everyone passing through. At the same time, send word to Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure. Share our intelligence on Rinto. He is now a threat to the entire Shinobi World."
A vicious smile curled Danzo's lips. He was already calculating how many Root elites to deploy, and even how many trump cards to use. He had to bring Rinto back. Even if all he recovered was a corpse, he would dig the technology out of his brain.
Meanwhile, in Orochimaru's base in the Land of Rice Fields.
Kabuto stood before Orochimaru and reported every word of the newly received intelligence, then lowered his head and waited for his response.
Orochimaru sat in his chair, his golden slit pupils filled with irrepressible excitement and madness. He extended his tongue, licked his lips, and began to chuckle. His laughter grew louder and louder, carrying a hissing breathiness as it echoed through the empty laboratory.
"Dust Release... to think I still underestimated him." Orochimaru's voice was filled with fervor. "Kekkei genkai could no longer satisfy him. He's actually reached the threshold of kekkei tōta. Interesting. Far too interesting."
"My lord, Konoha has already designated him an S-rank missing-nin, and intends to join forces with the other hidden villages to hunt him down," Kabuto said quietly. "Our people discovered that he's already left the Forest of Death and headed east. It appears he's making for the coast."
"East... the Land of Whirlpools?" Orochimaru guessed Rinto's destination at once, the smile on his lips deepening. "Of course. Other than that wretched place full of Sealing Jutsu ruins, there's nowhere left in the Shinobi World for him to hide."
He stood, the hem of his black robe sweeping across the floor, and issued an unquestionable order. "Prepare a ship. We're going to the Land of Whirlpools. We can't let those old fools in Konoha destroy such an interesting treasure. I want to see for myself how many more surprises he can bring me."
It was not just Konoha and Orochimaru. The moment Iwagakure received the news, Tsuchikage Ōnoki slammed his hand on his desk and ordered the border ninja to devote every effort to searching for Rinto. Someone who could casually create Dust Release posed far too great a threat to Iwagakure. They had to either recruit him or eliminate him. Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure also frantically dispatched spies to the surrounding small nations. The eyes of the entire Shinobi World were fixed on this researcher who had escaped Konoha.
And Rinto, the focus of the entire Shinobi World, was currently hiding in an abandoned fishing hut by the sea, bent over a wooden plank as he revised his diagrams by lamplight.
He had already reached the coast, found a fishing boat setting out the next day, and paid a deposit. Once he crossed the sea and reached the Land of Whirlpools' island, he could finally shake off those irritating pursuers and conduct his research in peace.
The oil lamp's light fell on the paper as the charcoal pencil in his hand moved swiftly, optimizing the Dust Release configuration. His mind was still considering whether, once he reached the Land of Whirlpools, he could find a way to stabilize multi-attribute fusion in its Sealing Jutsu ruins-or even incorporate senjutsu chakra into this framework of dynamic reconstruction.
As for the turmoil he had caused throughout the Shinobi World, he did not take it to heart at all. Bounties or a joint manhunt, it made no difference. If anyone dared follow him to the Land of Whirlpools and interfere with his research, he would not mind letting them taste Dust Release's disintegration.