Looking every bit the part, Mukai took his mission reward of fifty thousand ryō
and headed for Komushi's home, following the location in his memory.
They said the closer one got to home, the more apprehensive one felt. He had taken over someone else's child's body,
and now that he was about to meet the boy's parents, he was feeling quite anxious.
Even so, he had to come back eventually.
During the past few days, while recovering from his injuries at Granny Chiyo's house and Sasori's puppet workshop,
he had actually been thinking about how to get along with them,
and waiting for the wound on his arm to heal a little more.
When he was in college, he had only shared good news when he called home, never his troubles.
There was no other reason: he simply hadn't wanted his parents to worry.
Now that he had taken their child's place, he couldn't very well make them fear for him as soon as he arrived, could he?
Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it!
How did that old saying back home go again?
Since he was already here!
Komushi's parents ran a small Japanese-style tavern in the southeastern corner of Sunagakure,
and the shop also sold some food.
In a place dominated by ninja, those with spending power were naturally mostly ninja as well.
Just as Mukai had prepared himself to face the original owner's parents,
the sight before him sent him into a rage.
At the entrance to the tavern on the street corner, two drunken Sand ninja were making trouble.
One of them, a tall, fat ninja wearing a Chunin vest, jabbed a finger hard into Komushi's father's chest:
"Hic! What kind of booze are you selling here?
Who knows how much water you've added!
How dare a crooked shop like this stay open?
I'll smash it up today!"
The original owner's mother tried to step forward and calm him down, only for the tall, fat ninja, Aramura Taku, to shove her to the ground:
"You damn woman, don't bothe-"
"Wind Release: Gale Wave!"
Mukai had yet to develop any better Ninjutsu,
and in his fury, he immediately formed Hand Seals and cast the only D-rank Wind Release technique he knew.
The technique used wind pressure to blow Shuriken away and was fairly weak,
but if used in a surprise attack, it could still cause an enemy some trouble.
Of course, that was assuming the enemy was unprepared.
"Wind Release: Roaring Wind Wall!"
Aramura Taku, whose face had been full of drunkenness, now showed no sign of it at all.
He formed Hand Seals before turning around, then waved a hand and conjured a defensive wall of swirling wind.
The short, skinny Chunin beside him, Hanyū Hiko, drew his Ninja Blade and stood ready.
Aramura Taku waited until the wind wall had easily blocked Mukai's Gale Wave,
then gave a scornful smile:
"I was wondering who was bold enough
to attack a ninja from his own village in the street.
So it's Sasori's little sidekick!
Hiko, what was this little sidekick's name again?"
Hanyū Hiko, holding his Ninja Blade, played along:
"Komushi, I think. The dead last of his class.
Trash is trash. He'll never amount to anything.
Just a bug you can crush underfoot!"
Mukai rubbed his nose with a finger. He smelled a conspiracy.
According to the original owner's memories, these two
belonged to the Sand ninja families close to Rasa.
Were these families' intentions of taking sides that obvious now?
Mukai said coldly:
"You're ninja of the village.
Aren't you supposed to protect it?
And yet you're making trouble in my family's shop?"
Aramura Taku stepped forward, his hands forming a seal:
"A mere Genin
attacked us with Ninjutsu in the village first.
I'd be perfectly justified in killing you.
And you still have the nerve to act righteous?
Come on, I challenge you to a duel!"
Just as I thought!
The trouble they were making really did seem to be an excuse.
Having known the plot of Naruto, he understood such underhanded tricks all too well.
They were trying to clip Sasori's wings!
He wondered how the original owner had gotten through this back then.
Two Chunin bullying a freshly graduated Genin-the outcome was easy to imagine.
By his reckoning, the boy would probably have kept it to himself even after suffering for it.
But now he was the one dealing with this!
Bring it on!
He had plenty of frustration to vent anyway!
Mukai clenched his fists and said:
"A duel it is!
If you're not afraid of losing face, I'll be happy to beat you until you apologize!"
The original owner's mother, her hair in a bun, tried to rush over and stop them,
but Hanyū Hiko blocked her:
"They've agreed to a duel. No one can interfere!
Damn woman, stay out of the way,
or I won't-"
"Lightning Release: Earth Flow!"
"Hiko, look out-"
At the crackle of electricity from behind him,
and Aramura Taku's warning, Hanyū Hiko jumped into the air.
That was the standard response to defend against Lightning Release: Earth Flow.
But Mukai was no ordinary ninja who called out his attacks!
What he shouted was Lightning Release: Earth Flow,
but what he actually did was throw at the Ninja Blade-wielding Hanyū Hiko
two Shuriken with a thin sheet of paper between them!
"A petty trick!"
Hanyū Hiko realized that the attack coming at him wasn't Lightning Release: Earth Flow.
Feeling tricked, he turned and landed, drawing his Ninja Blade with a flourish to parry the Shuriken.
Mukai's throwing skills would probably have barely earned him a passing grade at the Ninja Academy, wouldn't they?
Just as Hanyū Hiko's Ninja Blade was about to touch the two Shuriken stuck together,
something unexpected happened!
Crackle!
A dazzling electric arc shot straight from the two Shuriken to the Ninja Blade!
Two pieces of metal sandwiching an insulator also made a capacitor!
Caught off guard, Hanyū Hiko was paralyzed on the spot by the capacitor's instantaneous high-voltage, low-current discharge!
Sorry, but it looks like your Ninja Blade isn't much of an insulator!
Mukai didn't expect this crude, makeshift capacitor to do much damage.
He only had Genin-level Chakra, but that didn't mean he had no way to deal with two Chunin!
The purpose of this crude capacitor was to stop his opponent from using a substitution!
Mukai rushed toward them and threw two more Shuriken.
Tethered to thin iron wires, the Shuriken spun through the air with a piercing whistle toward Aramura Taku and Hanyū Hiko.
Having already suffered once, Hanyū Hiko didn't dare block the Shuriken with his Ninja Blade this time.
As the Shuriken flew toward him, he barely managed to regain control of his body and used a Body Flicker Technique to reach Mukai's back.
Meanwhile, Aramura Taku blocked Mukai from the front,
taking a deep breath and puffing out his cheeks as he prepared to use Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, a technique that combined offense and defense.
The two worked together seamlessly, one in front and one behind, one attacking up close and the other using long-range Ninjutsu,
enough to seriously injure Mukai.
They hadn't intended to kill him outright.
As members of Rasa's faction, undermining Elder Chiyo's faction's prestige was what mattered most.
But their scheme failed once again.
The Mukai before them was no longer the Ninja Academy dead last they remembered!
Bloom!
Hanyū Hiko, who had used the Body Flicker Technique to get behind Mukai, was now raising his hand for a chop with a vicious grin,
aiming for the back of Mukai's neck.
Suddenly, he felt every hair on his body stand on end.
Before he could react, Mukai lit up before his eyes.
Crackle-
Dense electric arcs radiated from all over Mukai's body,
twisting and colliding with one another before traveling along the iron wires in his hands toward Aramura Taku, whose cheeks were puffed out.
They also spread toward Hanyū Hiko behind him.
Eighty percent of his Chakra, precisely controlled,
produced violent, half-meter-long electric arcs that raged around Mukai!
He had transformed into a shining ball of electricity!
Using the iron wires and his own immunity to electric charges,
he sent dazzling arcs straight through the air around him, melting the iron wires and Shuriken in his hands!
Before such extreme voltage, nothing was an insulator!
He had spent more than half his Chakra, converting it all precisely into electric charge,
and the spectacular result was this brilliant display!
Five hundred thousand volts! A three-milliamp pulse discharge lasting three seconds!
You want to use me as a stepping stone to strike at Sasori?
Sorry, but you've picked the wrong person!