Chapter 56: Science!
Boom!
A deafening crack of thunder rolled across the sky. Kenichi felt the hair on his head flutter and lift, and his expression tightened at once.
Thunderclouds carried an intense electric field. When that field strengthened, tiny charges on the surface of the body interacted with it, making hair and even fine body hair stand on end.
In other words, if this happened, it usually meant there was a dangerous electric field directly overhead. A thunderstorm was imminent, and the next strike could come without warning.
"What is that?!" A shinobi from Kirigakure stared upward in horror. He had sensed something wrong an instant ago, but only now did he understand why.
Even through the thick fog, a massive shape was pushing its way out of the clouds. It was not a normal bolt of lightning. It was a head.
A monster sized head.
"Is this a natural disaster?"
Far off on the shore, civilians of the Land of Waves looked toward the sea with terror on their faces. Dark clouds churned above the water, and from those clouds a gigantic head emerged.
It had horns. It had tentacle like whiskers. Scales ran along its body like armor, and its outline resembled a monstrous fish. Its entire form was a dark, blood red color, radiating a despairing pressure that made people freeze in place.
If a shinobi from a major village were here, they might have been able to guess what it was. But to ordinary people, it was an unknown horror, something that should not exist.
Kenichi looked grim.
"Amen... no. I believe in science. It should be science." He gritted his teeth. "I messed up."
He had not expected the experiment to succeed.
The moment he entered Sage Mode, he had mobilized Sage Chakra and combined it with his Sharingan, forcing out a Sage Lightning Release technique.
This was something he created after thinking about Sasuke's Lightning Release, Kirin, and trying to modify it through Sage Mode.
The good news was that it worked.
The bad news was that it worked too well.
Lightning was natural energy in its most violent form, difficult to tame even in ideal conditions. And to test the upper limit of the technique, Kenichi had poured in a massive amount of Sage Chakra.
The result was a monster. A terrifying monster.
The thunder dragon above the sea had only revealed its head and a small portion of its body, yet Kenichi already felt it slipping beyond his control. It continued drawing in his Sage Chakra greedily, as if it had a will of its own.
If he let it fall here, it would be disastrous.
"No. If it strikes now, I will be in the blast zone too." Kenichi frowned, shaking his head.
With fog this dense, even if he was not in the direct center of the attack, the aftermath would still tear everything apart.
"I have to throw it far away."
Straining, Kenichi forced control back into his hands. He adjusted the dragon's trajectory, aimed it at a distant point, and then hurled it outward.
The thunder dragon vanished from his sight in an instant. Even with the three tomoe Sharingan, he only caught a blurred streak before it disappeared beyond his vision.
Kenichi finally let out a breath.
So this was the lesson. Do not test dangerous techniques at full power without a controlled environment. If that thing had dropped earlier, even a Rashomon summon would not have stopped it.
Even if he could create pure water with Sage Chakra, the resistance of pure water would probably be nowhere near enough to halt a lightning dragon of that scale.
"Wait. Where did I just throw it?"
The thought flashed through his mind, but before he could reconstruct the direction, he noticed something else.
The Kirigakure shinobi who had attacked him earlier were gone.
They were not fools. Even with the Hidden Mist Technique as cover, they understood they were facing something completely beyond them. They were hired blades, nothing more. Even if they failed the mission, the worst they faced was punishment. Their lives mattered more than any payment.
So they ran. And they ran fast.
Kenichi did not chase. Instead, he formed hand seals and used Wind Release to blast the fog apart. The mist tore open, revealing the harbor again.
Then he spotted Gato.
The man was hiding under a small boat nearby.
Kenichi stared at him, his expression turning strange.
"You really are a talent," he muttered.
Gato had deliberately avoided hiding on his own ship. Instead, he had chosen someone else's boat, using it as a shield. To be even more discreet, he had slipped into the water and only raised his nose above the surface now and then to breathe.
That kind of ruthlessness was rare in an ordinary man. No wonder he would become the boss of such a massive company later.
"Hehehe. Master Shinobi, may I ask what brings you here?" Gato wore a humble smile, his tone syrupy and cautious.
"Enough nonsense. Money or life," Kenichi said flatly. If he had not been considering squeezing funds out of Gato, he would never have come here in the first place.
Gato did not argue. He did not cry. He did not try to stall.
Instead, he led Kenichi straight onto the cargo ship and produced all the money he had with him.
Kenichi raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the stacks.
"You are pretty rich, arent you?"
He had not even started counting, but the sheer volume was already blinding.
"Master Shinobi, this is all the money I have on this trip. You can take it all." Gato rubbed his hands together, wearing that same slick smile.
Kenichi glanced at him.
Generally speaking, the richest people in the ninja world only stayed rich because something powerful stood behind them, a country, a village, or a major faction. Otherwise, having wealth without strength only turned you into a walking cash box.
And Gato was very likely backed by Kirigakure, the Hidden Mist Village of the Land of Water.
"Fine. I will spare your life," Kenichi said.
Using the Sharingan, he estimated the total at no less than one hundred million ryo. An astronomical amount.
No wonder people said Gato would become a famous tycoon. Even now, he already had frightening reserves.
Kenichi truly intended to let him live. After all, money came from the masses, and sustainable harvesting mattered. You needed the leeks to keep growing if you wanted to cut them again later.
As for exposing his identity?
What did a Konoha shinobi with a Sharingan have to do with him, Kenichi Amamiya?
Still, to avoid future complications, Kenichi grabbed Gato by the collar and stared directly into his eyes. The three tomoe spun slowly, and Gato's gaze turned dull and unfocused.
Kenichi implanted a new story into his mind.
After arriving in the Land of Waves, Gato had been robbed by a passing shinobi wearing Konoha attire.
That was the surface layer.
If Gato later found someone capable of dispelling genjutsu, then the deeper truth would surface: he had been controlled by a passing shinobi through illusion techniques, and his stolen memories would return.
And even if someone perceived something unusual beneath the illusion, it would not matter much.
Kenichi had been wearing a mask when he approached Gato in the first place.
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