Chapter 281: The Art of Negotiation
The searing heat instantly evaporated the surrounding moisture. Even before the blazing flames reached Hiruko, he already felt his mouth go dry.
Could a Fire Release technique of this level really be cast by someone this young?
For a moment, Hiruko felt that all his past years had been wasted. How old was Amemiya Kenichi? Yet he could already unleash Ninjutsu on this scale.
Hiruko could not help but think back to what he had been doing at the same age.
After a moment, he remembered.
At that time, he had still been following his captain on rear line supply missions.
With talent like this, Amemiya Kenichi would have been a monstrous genius even in Konoha. Which only made Hiruko feel even more disgusted. Just how braindead was Hiruzen Sarutobi to force a ninja of this caliber to defect from the village?
This was the kind of talent that reminded Hiruko of his three old friends.
Those friends who could laugh and walk forward while easily leaving him behind, no matter how hard he chased after them.
"That's exactly why I hate you geniuses the most!" Hiruko roared.
He desperately activated Storm Release, trying to use the lightning above to tear apart the sea of flames before him. But the lightning plunged into the fire like mud sinking into the ocean, vanishing without any effect at all.
Hiruko's stomach twisted with fury.
He had nowhere to run.
If he had already obtained Swift Release, he would not have ended up in such a miserable situation.
"Damn brat…" Hiruko ground his teeth and glanced at the unconscious Pakura beside him.
He sighed.
If Swift Release had not been so rare, and if it had not suited his plans so perfectly, he would never have bothered going this far for a woman like her.
But with the wall of fire crashing toward him, Hiruko had no choice except to defend. He used every method he had to protect himself while also shielding the extra burden beside him.
A Fire Release of this scale could not be dodged. Even Water Release would struggle to stop it.
Still, even after Hiruko used the strongest defensive Ninjutsu he knew, he felt a suffocating heat invading his body, as if his trachea and lungs were being scorched alive.
These flames devoured the oxygen in the surrounding area, forming a near vacuum zone. Fortunately, there were no other flammable materials nearby. Otherwise, the thick smoke from a secondary fire would have been even deadlier to both him and Pakura.
In most fires, people did not die from being burned.
They died from the poisonous gases.
In an instant, the roaring flames swallowed the entire sand dune, along with Hiruko himself.
"He shouldn't die from that, right?" Kenichi muttered, stroking his chin as he stood in the distance and watched the dune disappear within the inferno.
He honestly was not sure.
This time, he had consumed a huge amount of chakra just to unleash this wide-area Fire Release. The fire blotting out the sky looked incredibly spectacular, something straight out of a disaster film.
That said, its killing power was not actually that overwhelming.
Against people on the level of Madara Uchiha or the Third Hokage, a technique like this would only earn criticism for being a waste of chakra.
Madara probably would not even look twice at it. At most, he might scoff that modern ninja were getting more and more foolish, throwing away chakra without any restraint.
In the ninja world, power was not decided by who had more chakra alone.
If that were true, nobody would ever beat a Tailed Beast.
Yet powerful shinobi still made Tailed Beasts look like oversized pets. Obito had even controlled the Nine Tails with his Mangekyo Sharingan. It had been done through trickery, yes, but it still succeeded.
That alone proved that having more chakra did not mean you could withstand everything.
The real reason Kenichi had poured so much chakra into this was simple.
He wanted to disperse the cumulonimbus clouds overhead.
And now the effect was obvious. Under his deliberate control, the storm clouds had already started to thin.
"Kid! Are you trying to drag me down with you?" Hiruko's voice rang out angrily, though it sounded a little strained.
Kenichi turned to look.
The flames had already passed, largely because he had guided them upward into the storm clouds. That step alone had consumed an enormous amount of chakra.
But it had worked.
Sunlight now shone over the desert once more.
As for Hiruko, he was still alive, though he looked miserable.
A bulge rose from the blackened sand, like a turtle shell pushing through the earth. Then Hiruko poked his head out from inside. The sight was so ridiculous it was almost funny.
Even his hair had curled from the heat.
"How could I do that?" Kenichi asked calmly. "Uncle Hiruko, I only want to learn your Chimera Technique."
Hiruko looked up at the sky and finally noticed the problem.
The dark storm clouds were gone.
How had this brat done that?
He had seen Wind Release users try to blow away his storm clouds before, but never this. Fire Release dispersing Storm Release clouds was not something Hiruko had ever encountered.
At that moment, he also realized something else.
This brat was strong.
If Hiruko had already absorbed five Bloodline Limits and used Storm Demon Dragon, he probably could have defeated him. The problem was that he did not have that much chakra left right now.
And Kenichi was still pressing forward.
Even if Hiruko forced out Storm Demon Dragon, he doubted he could hold Kenichi in place long enough to complete the technique.
"You want to learn Chimera Technique?" Hiruko asked.
As Kenichi drew closer, Hiruko continued adjusting Pakura's body. Her breathing was weak, but she was still alive.
"Yes." Kenichi nodded. "I want to learn every Ninjutsu in this world."
He crouched beside Hiruko, chin in hand, as if he were watching a fascinating experiment rather than a life and death struggle.
"…You really are just like your teacher, Orochimaru." Hiruko paused, then glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
Kenichi's words had stirred up old memories.
Back then, Orochimaru had once said the same thing. That he wanted to learn every Ninjutsu in the world.
Jiraiya, meanwhile, had declared that his dream was to master Transparent Escape and then tour every hot spring in the world.
Tsunade had responded by punching him so hard he flew a great distance.
Later, Orochimaru had secretly told Hiruko that Jiraiya would never end up with Tsunade. On one hand, Jiraiya liked her. On the other, he was a wanderer at heart. A man like that could never stay by her side.
For a moment, Hiruko fell silent.
Those bright, carefree days in Konoha really were gone forever.
"Otherwise, how could I become my teacher's student?" Kenichi replied with a smile.
That very line had been one of the things that convinced Orochimaru to take him in. Kenichi knew enough about Orochimaru to play directly to his interests.
Of course, that was not the only reason. His learning attitude and his views on scientific research had also helped.
"Do you really think I'd teach you Chimera Technique?" Hiruko asked, looking at him with amused contempt.
"No." Kenichi smiled back. "But I'll make you agree."
Hiruko's expression darkened slightly.
Kenichi knew very well that Hiruko would never willingly hand it over.
Still, Kenichi had plenty of ways to deal with him.
Force.
Threats.
Death.
All of those were on the table.
And if Hiruko truly reached the point where he no longer feared death, then Kenichi still had his final trump card.
Shisui.
Shisui's Kotoamatsukami had not yet been used. If it were cast on Hiruko, making him unconditionally obey, then obtaining Chimera Technique would be easy.
The only problem was that Kotoamatsukami, while terrifying in theory, had almost no real battle record. Shisui had died too early. No one truly knew how effective it would be against powerful opponents. Some people even fantasized about using it on Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
Kenichi thought that was absurd.
The Sharingan itself was a power inherited from the Ōtsutsuki bloodline. Using it to control Kaguya directly sounded ridiculous.
But against someone like Hiruko, it should not be a problem.
Hiruko curled his lip.
His luck today really was terrible.
If only Kenichi had shown up a little later. Even a little later would have been enough. Once Pakura's Bloodline Limit had been fused into him, this situation would have been completely different.
"…Are you going to kill me?" Hiruko asked after a long silence.
Kenichi did not answer immediately. Instead, he studied Hiruko's eyes.
There was no fear there.
No trembling.
No panic.
Just determination.
It seemed threatening him with death would not work.
"You're trying to become the ultimate ninja, aren't you?" Kenichi said softly. "Wouldn't it be a waste to die now?"
As he spoke, he watched Hiruko continue drawing strange markings on Pakura's face and body.
Hiruko's hand paused.
"Yes," he said flatly. "But I will not hand my life's work to anyone. No one."
His voice was calm, but absolute.
Kenichi sighed inwardly.
So force and death threats were ineffective.
That left only two real paths now. Shisui's eye, or brainwashing.
He was not fully sure whether brainwashing would work on someone like Hiruko. Ninja in this world were often absurdly stubborn.
Still, Kenichi had another option.
"Uncle Hiruko," he said with a smile, "you were once a Konoha ninja, so you must know about a Ninjutsu developed by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama."
"Edo Tensei."
Edo Tensei was an excellent technique.
The only real problem was this: if you wanted a resurrected ninja to teach techniques properly, you needed to remove the restraints and give them enough autonomy.
"I know it." Hiruko glanced at him. "Are you planning to threaten me with that? But if I'm already dead, why would I teach you something I refused to teach while alive?"
"Then can you accept becoming mediocre again after death?" Kenichi asked.
Hiruko froze.
Kenichi smiled faintly.
"If you're revived through Edo Tensei, will that body still have all these Bloodline Limits you worked so hard to collect? Or will you just go back to being the same mediocre person you once hated?"
Orochimaru had once evaluated Hiruko for Kenichi.
He knew Hiruko's heart was sensitive and fragile. Hiruko had defected from Konoha precisely because he could not bear being ordinary while standing beside three geniuses.
He wanted to become someone extraordinary.
That obsession had defined his life.
As expected, Hiruko fell completely silent.
A long time passed before he finally looked up at Kenichi.
"I need time to think," he said bitterly.
There was resentment in his voice.
There was frustration.
But there was no anger.
Hiruko was smart. Smart enough to know that showing killing intent right now would be pointless. He himself was the sort of person who would never spare someone who wanted him dead, which was exactly why he suppressed that emotion completely.
Kenichi did not object.
He knew Hiruko was stalling.
But that was fine.
The fact that Hiruko hesitated at all meant there was still room to negotiate.
And honestly, dragging things out was part of Kenichi's own plan too. He intended to bring Hiruko back with him.
If Hiruko continued to refuse or stall after that, then Shisui could step in.
Using Kotoamatsukami here felt a little extravagant.
Still, Chimera Technique was worth it.
"Then let's go, Uncle Hiruko." Kenichi smiled.
He bent down, picked up Pakura, and added casually, "As for this girl, you don't mind if I take her first, right?"
There was no way Kenichi was going to let Hiruko continue drawing on her body. Who knew whether those markings were part of the activation process for Chimera Technique?
"…Of course not." Hiruko ground out through clenched teeth.
.....
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