Ronin reappeared on the rooftop of a residential building.
The lightning around him cracked and dissipated with a pop, and heavier-than-usual breathing escaped his lips.
That Omokage bastard really had set up a lot of ambushes—but from the brief contact, it seemed there were no other Phantom Troupe members around.
Could it really be… just him?
Ronin pulled a bottle meant for storing Scarlet Eyes from the backpack behind him.
Only then did he remove the Scarlet Eyes from the Nobunaga doll. He could clearly feel that "absorbable" pull—meaning these weren't a Kortopi copy.
Ronin cast the Transformation Jutsu, secured the Scarlet Eyes on his back, went downstairs, and returned to the hotel. Only then did he finally let out a breath.
He told Kurapika what they'd discovered, and also took out the Scarlet Eyes they'd obtained.
The moment Kurapika saw the eyes suspended inside the bottle, he went blank. His own eyes turned the same crimson as the eyes in the bottle.
Ronin sighed. He didn't absorb the Scarlet Eyes right away—he gave Kurapika time to sit with them.
Ronin entered Zetsu to recover quickly from his expenditure, while his mind turned toward the church.
Kurapika didn't stay alone for long. Ronin had barely closed his eyes when Kurapika came out of the room carrying the bottle of Scarlet Eyes.
Kurapika's eyes were still a little red.
Not the Scarlet Eyes state—just the normal redness from crying.
"nii-san Ronin." Kurapika held the bottle out solemnly. "We have more important things to do next. So you should get stronger as quickly as possible—then we'll have a better chance at revenge!"
Ronin accepted the bottle, but he didn't plan to absorb it in secret. Right in front of Kurapika, he hugged the bottle close and infused it with Nen.
The Scarlet Eyes inside the bottle reacted the moment Ronin's Nen touched them—as if stimulated or summoned—and slowly melted into a vivid, crimson warm current that even Kurapika, who hadn't awakened Nen, could see.
That warm current flowed along Ronin's Nen into his body and gathered toward his eyes.
Ronin's Nen gradually withdrew, but the crimson warmth continued to course through him. And without him even realizing it, his pitch-black eyes began to change.
They turned blood-red, and two tomoe—different from Scarlet Eyes—appeared.
Then, under Kurapika's gaze, the tomoe rotated… and a third tomoe slowly formed in Ronin's eyes.
When the crimson current finally faded, Ronin's eyes had fully become the three-tomoe Sharingan.
Kurapika watched the entire process.
nii-san Ronin hadn't lied. Maybe because he'd been there during the massacre… the clan had placed their hope in him.
Kurapika didn't cry this time, but the look he gave Ronin grew more complicated.
This time, the aura increase didn't double again.
But using Milia's calculation method, Ronin estimated the aura gain from this fusion was still over 5,000.
It seemed that might be the maximum "return" a pair of Scarlet Eyes could provide. Future fusions would likely no longer produce doubling effects.
Excluding Ronin and Kurapika, there were 32 pairs of Scarlet Eyes left. If each gave around 5,000, fully fusing them all would add about 160,000 aura.
And that was only what the Scarlet Eyes could supply.
Ronin would still keep training in the meantime—and he was still in a rapid growth phase. He couldn't help feeling excited about how far his aura could eventually go.
For now, though, after fusing this new pair, his aura capacity was close to 15,000.
B-rank ninjutsu now felt much more manageable to cast. As for A-rank…
Ronin didn't deactivate the Sharingan. He raised his hand and formed seals; green chakra quickly gathered on his palm.
Mystical Palm Technique.
An A-rank medical ninjutsu—high cost, high difficulty, extremely powerful healing. It could treat both internal and external injuries.
And with the third pair of Scarlet Eyes fused, Ronin cast it easily.
So easily that it felt unreal.
If the third pair unlocked A-rank, would the fourth unlock S-rank?
And what would come after S-rank?
Ronin couldn't even imagine—but as long as he kept fusing, he would find out.
Right now, what he needed to think about was which A-rank techniques existed.
For their current situation, the most useful would be sensory-type jutsu he'd been considering earlier.
The Third Hokage's Telescope Technique—used to monitor Naruto.
But before using it, he would need a crystal ball—something you could buy in a department store.
And there was another requirement: he needed to know the target's chakra "signature" in advance.
Fortunately, when Ronin had taken the Nobunaga doll's head earlier, he had already come into contact with Omokage's Nen.
So Ronin told Kurapika briefly and left the hotel again in disguise.
As ninjutsu difficulty increased, its consumption also rose. Many A-rank jutsu—even if Ronin had "unlocked" them—could still be hard to cast (especially those involving summoning), and even if cast, might not reach the results he imagined.
Of course, Ronin's "expected results" were based on Uchiha Madara's level of ninjutsu—because if Ronin used forty-four seals and perfectly cast, he could boost jutsu power through sheer output.
So in the end, it came back to one thing:
Aura capacity.
Aura capacity.
Only when his capacity reached a certain level would his Great Fire Annihilation become Madara-level—rather than maxing out at "cover one arena."
If only he could unlock S-rank techniques. Then he could unlock Tsunade's Sealing Art—Strength of a Hundred Seal.
A technique that stored chakra for later release—an absolute god-tier skill for him.
And Tsunade's perfected Byakugō Technique and Creation Rebirth were also S-rank forbidden techniques. Paired with that seal, it was perfect.
After buying a crystal ball from a department store, Ronin quickly returned to the hotel.
When he used Telescope Technique, images immediately formed on the crystal ball—showing nearby scenes.
Ronin guided the viewpoint little by little, and soon he spotted the dolls near the earlier battle location.
But when he tried to track them further, he discovered that his current Telescope Technique could only display an area within about one kilometer.
The church was about three kilometers from their hotel.
"Looks like we need to move," Ronin said, putting the crystal ball away.
Kurapika picked up Neon—who had just woken up and still looked confused—and brought her along.
The three went downstairs, got into a second-hand sedan Ronin had bought, and slowly drove toward the church.
Neon stared out the window. She no longer had any desire to break away from Ronin and Kurapika.
Because earlier that morning, she'd seen a newspaper story about herself.
It covered the kidnapping incident—saying her father, Light, hadn't cared about her abduction at all, and was still busy socializing.
The article even included a photo of Light with his arm around a woman only a few years older than Neon, laughing as they entered a high-end venue.
It was obvious.
Her father had abandoned her.
In that case, she might as well follow Ronin and Kurapika. If they really died because of her prophecy, then dying with them wouldn't be so bad either.
After all, Ronin had given her a pretty nice collectible.
~~~
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