If That Doesn't Work, Then the Ninja World Will Have to Suffer a Little; Izayoi's Anxiety

Izayoi had no idea that his actions had inspired Zabuza Momochi, helping him find a different path as a rogue ninja.

After obtaining the materials needed to create Human Puppets and Chakra Cores, Izayoi did not immediately return to the Hidden Leaf Village.

During this time, every three days, he created a Shadow Clone with an enormous amount of chakra and sent it back to the village to switch shifts with the clone that was about to automatically dispel.

Other than Hinata and Hanabi, no one knew that the Izayoi in the village was merely a Shadow Clone.

Having already informed the Hyuga Sister Duo, Izayoi was in no hurry to return. Instead, he changed his identity and first met up with the Shadow Clone that had been plundering Gato's other treasure caches, sorting through the gains from this trip.

In the end, he discovered that Gato's assets were simply impossible to tally.

The most valuable things among Gato's assets were neither banknotes nor gold bars and jewelry, but those Land Deeds.

The Land Deeds Gato had hidden away were naturally no worthless junk.

They were all deeds to houses or shops in prosperous districts across various countries.

Just by selling a few Land Deeds, Izayoi earned the equivalent of several Asuma Sarutobis.

After becoming obscenely rich, Izayoi immediately followed the deeds to find a villa Gato had bought in the Land of Fire. Then, in the city where the villa was located, he purchased a clothing store and left behind a Shadow Clone to study under the tailors and designers there.

His Main Body, however, did not return to the Hidden Leaf Village. Instead, carrying two large, completely empty Storage Scrolls, he left the Land of Fire and entered the Land of Rivers.

Rumble...

Above a certain mountain village, dark clouds blanketed the sky as muffled thunder rolled.

Before long, a light rain began to fall.

Even so, bare-chested villagers continued hauling cart after cart of ore out of a mine outside the village, while the sounds of mining still echoed from within.

In an open area not far from the mine stood countless gravestones.

Even now, several people in black raincoats stood around a coffin that had just been lowered into the ground, attending the funeral for the person inside.

"Ah... Why did such a good person as you have to die too?! It breaks my heart—truly, it breaks my heart!"

The man shouting at the front moved with exaggerated flair, his emotions seemingly laid bare.

Yet no one around him felt any sadness. Their eyes held only fear toward the man leading them.

In their eyes, this clan head was simply someone with an unpredictable temper.

At the slightest disagreement, he would hold a funeral for someone!

"Raiga, a powerful chakra signature is approaching."

Just as the leading man was performing to his heart's content, a childish voice suddenly came from the bulge beneath the raincoat on his back. It sounded somewhat panicked. "Be careful. That person can fly!"

Hearing this, Kurosuki Raiga immediately lowered the hand covering his face and looked up at the sky with a grave expression.

Through the curtain of rain, a black figure descended from the heavens.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Ball!"

Before the figure could land or speak, Kurosuki Raiga drew his strangely shaped twin blades and crossed them toward the sky. Chakra transformed through Lightning Release Nature Transformation gathered at their tips, forming a blue-white sphere of light that shot forth.

Watching the Lightning Ball fly toward him, the figure merely extended a hand from his sleeve and spread his fingers.

Then, as though it had struck an invisible wall, the Lightning Ball exploded with a boom, countless electric arcs flashing and vanishing like fireworks.

"As expected, I didn't mistake you for someone else. It's you two—Kurosuki Raiga, and... the possessor of the Kekkei Genkai, Red Eye." Izayoi smiled. "Since I let the genuine one go, you counterfeit pair can become my Human Puppets instead."

"I'm in a hurry, so let's end this quickly... Almighty Pull!"

Invisible Gravity, like an unseen giant hand, seized Kurosuki Raiga from the ground.

"No Hand Seals, and I can't see anything—what kind of damned ninjutsu is this?"

Kurosuki Raiga's expression changed drastically, but his movements were swift. He crossed his twin blades again and poured a massive amount of chakra into the Lightning Blades, converting all of it into Lightning Release Nature Transformation.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Fang!"

The twin blades transformed into lightning, firing one twisting bolt after another at Izayoi like a barrage of lasers.

This was Kurosuki Raiga's signature technique, much like Kakashi Hatake's Raikiri.

If the lightning failed to strike its target, it would fly into the sky, merge with the storm clouds, and then descend once more as thunderbolts.

"Not a bad technique, and the blades are good too. But... that's the only praise I can offer you."

Izayoi spread his hands, and a green barrier formed around him, distorting the air as it charged with power.

"Shinra Tensei!"

As Izayoi's words fell, the barrier abruptly burst like a water-filled balloon pushed beyond its limit.

The Repulsion storm contained within instantly blasted apart the rain curtain, engulfing Kurosuki Raiga as he fell after losing Gravity's pull, along with the fleeing members of the Kurosuki Clan below.

Boom----

A deafening explosion resounded throughout the entire mountain village.

Whether they were working in the mine or living in the village, everyone heard the explosion.

The nearby mine even felt the entire cavern shake violently.

Fortunately, the cave did not collapse.

When the curtain of rain fell once more and the gusts dispersed the Dust Mist, the graveyard had vanished, replaced by a massive meteor crater.

Every member of the Kurosuki Clan was dead.

Kurosuki Raiga, who had made intimate contact with the earth and endured the impact of Repulsion, had suffered shattered bones and severe internal bleeding.

Before being blasted into the ground, however, Kurosuki Raiga had decisively thrown away the twin blades and chosen to protect Ranmaru behind him. As a result, the latter had not died on the spot, only sustaining grievous injuries like him.

When Izayoi descended from the sky, Kurosuki Raiga was still coughing blood as he pleaded weakly, "Pl-please... spare... spare Ranmaru."

"Didn't the people you killed say the same thing to you?"

Izayoi sneered. "You're an Elite Jonin-level rogue ninja, yet you speak so childishly."

After saying that, Izayoi raised a hand and drew the twin blades over with Gravity, but he did not turn them around and fire them at Kurosuki Raiga and Ranmaru.

Instead, he smiled at Kurosuki Raiga. "Help me with an experiment. Make your final bit of value count before you die."

Izayoi then formed Hand Seals with one hand and created a Shadow Clone containing only a small amount of Chakra.

Then, the Main Body and the Shadow Clone each gripped a Lightning Blade, channeling Chakra into them and converting it into Lightning Release Nature Transformation. In an instant, it was as though they held lightning in their hands.

The Main Body and the Shadow Clone hurled the lightning in their hands, piercing through Kurosuki Raiga and Ranmaru's bodies.

Yet the sight Izayoi had wanted to see did not appear.

Neither Kurosuki Raiga nor Ranmaru dropped any traits.

Shadow Clones and killing people can't raise the drop rate. Could there really be no other mechanism to increase it? Izayoi thought. Chakra definitely isn't the standard for measuring strength. Otherwise, apart from Jinchuriki and Naruto, no one could provide me with traits. So how exactly is strength determined? If it's based on traits, then since I was three years old, there have only been a few people in the Ninja World who could provide them. But those classmates who dropped traits prove it isn't determined by traits! Is it based on jutsu, or performance?

Looking at Kurosuki Raiga and Ranmaru's corpses, Izayoi softly said, "I'll try this method once more. If it still doesn't work, then I'll have to get a little more forceful and let the Ninja World suffer a bit."

"After all, with my build, how can I let people with worse builds than mine catch up to more than a decade of my hard work in just a few years?"

No one could understand Izayoi's anxiety.