Chapter 69 — I Thought No One Wanted It
The night deepened.
Like a ghost blending into shadow, Yami lay silently concealed on the outskirts of the Chinoike settlement.
Kagura's Mind's Eye was fully expanded, capturing every fluctuation of chakra across the valley floor.
After a full day of covert observation, he now had a clearer understanding of the Chinoike clan's condition.
Once a proud bloodline family, they had declined pitifully. The entire clan numbered just over a hundred souls, and fewer than thirty possessed real combat capability.
Compared to a great shinobi village like Konoha—
They were negligible.
And yet, a starving camel was still larger than a horse.
Yami could distinctly sense at least five chakra signatures within the clan that were still formidable.
Especially the one emanating from the central stone house—
Calm and heavy as a mountain.
That had to be Clan Leader Chinoike Momoe.
Looks like I'll have to work from the inside, Yami mused.
A frontal assault would be foolish.
The Ketsuryūgan's strange abilities directly countered much of his combat style. Genjutsu remained one of the few weaknesses he could not completely erase.
Just as various plans flickered through his mind—
A faint disturbance came from the edge of the settlement.
A lone figure was sneaking toward the outer boundary of Hell Valley.
This was no casual midnight stroll.
"Trying to escape?" Interest flickered in Yami's eyes.
He followed soundlessly, curious whether this unexpected development might become the breakthrough he needed.
The Chinoike clansman clearly had studied the terrain in advance. He moved with familiarity, weaving through blind spots and carefully avoiding known patrol routes.
But just as he neared the valley entrance—
A figure blocked his path.
"Renji. Where do you think you're going?"
The voice was cold as winter wind.
Standing beneath the moonlight was the clan leader herself—Chinoike Momoe.
Alone.
Her eyes shimmered with blood-red light, eerie against the night.
The young man called Renji trembled.
"C-Clan Leader… I was just—"
"The Kumogakure envoy will arrive soon," Momoe interrupted icily. "Leaving now—are you trying to sabotage the clan's last hope?"
Renji seemed to snap.
"Hope? What hope?!" he burst out. "Kumo will never truly accept us! They only covet the power of our Ketsuryūgan!"
His pupils flared crimson.
In his emotional surge, the Ketsuryūgan awakened.
Even in confrontation with his own clan leader, his bloodline ignited under fury.
"Enough."
Momoe's own eyes blazed in response.
Though a trace of satisfaction flickered at another member awakening their bloodline—
She knew better.
Within this valley, even the Ketsuryūgan could not change the fact that their clan was trapped between two great powers.
From his hidden vantage point, Yami felt it—
A powerful, abnormal wave of spiritual pressure.
Renji's body suddenly stiffened.
The red in his eyes dimmed rapidly.
He collapsed.
"Take him back. Guard him closely," Momoe ordered the belated patrol members who had arrived. "Until the Kumogakure envoy comes, I want no further complications."
When everyone dispersed, Momoe remained standing alone, gazing toward the sky beyond the valley.
"You all… why can't you understand?" she murmured softly. "This is our only way out."
Yami watched her leave.
Just as he prepared to move—
A faint warning stirred in his mind.
He remained concealed, extending Kagura's Mind's Eye to track Renji as patrol members dragged him away.
As expected—
Minutes later, Momoe returned.
Her crimson eyes swept the area once more, scanning carefully.
She lingered, suspicion clouding her expression, as if suspecting an unseen hand manipulating the attempted escape—someone waiting outside to receive him.
Only after she departed again did Yami finally exhale.
He couldn't help but admire her instincts.
Unfortunately—
He hadn't done a single thing yet.
And somehow, he'd already been assigned the role of shadowy mastermind behind a defection plot he hadn't even started.
Troublesome.
He stretched his slightly stiff limbs and quietly followed the two Chinoike patrol shinobi carrying Renji, tracking them until they locked him inside a remote stone hut.
Once the guards left, Yami slipped inside without a sound.
Renji had been casually bound and tossed into a corner. Clearly, they were utterly confident in their clan leader's genjutsu—no guards had even been assigned.
As Yami approached, Renji's eyes remained tightly shut, but beneath his eyelids his eyeballs twitched rapidly. Sweat soaked his body.
He was deeply trapped within an illusion.
Yami studied him thoughtfully and placed a hand against his forehead, carefully probing his condition.
Even when he applied greater force, Renji showed no reaction whatsoever.
He was completely cut off from the outside world.
---
[Scan complete. Pawnable items detected:]
[Chinoike clansman (living) ×1 … Estimated value: 100 points/unit]
Yami blinked.
"No one wants it? Then I'll just pick it up."
"Pawn."
---
[Pawn complete.]
Yami opened the system shop. It had refreshed.
[Exchangeable Items:]
[Chinoike Bloodline — Cost: 600 points]
He did not hesitate.
"Exchange."
The instant the bloodline fused into his body, Yami felt a subtle but precise shift within himself.
His mind sharpened.
Thoughts flowed faster.
Neural responses accelerated noticeably.
The Chinoike bloodline's enhancement to the nervous system was immediate and tangible.
[Current Pawn Points: 7055]
Rather than sneak out conventionally, Yami left a Flying Thunder God mark in a concealed corner and instantly activated the technique, teleporting back to the edge of the valley.
The experiment yielded a pleasant surprise.
The side effects that had long troubled him when using Flying Thunder God were noticeably reduced.
After consecutive spatial jumps, his body adapted far more smoothly.
No dizziness.
No disorientation.
No loss of coordination.
The only unexpected detail—
Perhaps due to the special nature of this ocular bloodline—
He did not awaken the Ketsuryūgan immediately.
It felt as though some external stimulus was still required to fully activate it.
The situation resembled when his Uzumaki bloodline had not awakened the Adamantine Sealing Chains until triggered.
Fortunately—
He still had a trump card.
The system's Bloodline Traceback function, which he had never used before, now faintly glowed.
"Activate targeted traceback."
---
[Ding! Host possesses Chinoike bloodline.]
[Targeted Traceback: Chinoike (Ketsuryūgan)]
[Estimated Cost: 300 points.]
[Proceed with payment to complete bloodline genetic map?]
The cost was lower than expected.
"Confirm."
---
[300 points consumed. Initiating bloodline traceback…]
[Analyzing Chinoike bloodline traits…]
Yami felt the changes unfolding within his body.
A satisfied smile curved at the corner of his lips.
"This harvest exceeded expectations."
As for how the Chinoike clan would react tomorrow—
When they discovered one of their members had simply vanished—
That was another matter entirely.