Chapter 49 – Challenger’s Stage

“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.”

Following the release of a great amount of chakra, great destruction followed. Inside the ‘Forest of Death’, winds howled for a long time, trees uprooted and leaves fell like rain.

“Naruto, STOP!!” Raito shouted.

Naruto was so focused on the jutsu that he forgot about Raito who was behind him.

“Naruto!!”

Still, there wasn’t any response. In anger, Raito activated all his useful skills and reached Naruto then kicked with full force on Naruto’s butt, making him fall on the ground. Luckily he was not too high on the tree.

“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.”

Raito released the wind jutsu, making Naruto feel like he was flying. Comparing with Raito made Naruto feel like his was a whole lot different.

“But, but, more chakra I use, the more powerful jutsu is supposed to be?” Naruto shouted while sitting cross-legged.

“Let’s go for now.” Grabbing Naruto’s shoulder, both of them disappeared from the forest and appeared in the house.

Moments later, few Chūnin came to the forest to check.

Inside the house, Hinata was sitting with an ink brush inscribing seals on a scroll. Seeing Naruto and Raito appearing out of nowhere, she gave them a look then returned to her work. There weren’t any hints of shock as she was shocked for tens of time for this past week.

“Hey, Hinata-chan, how’s your Fuinjutsu coming?” Naruto immediately sat down beside Hinata and looked through a couple of seals Hinata made.

Raito rolled his eyes then went to his own side of the table and started working. Mass production, extreme mass production.

After looking at Hinata’s work, Naruto also sat down on his side and started making a talisman. Although his speed was slower than Raito, but due to his chakra pool, he naturally lasted far more.

An incredible amount of talisman papers stacked beside Raito and Naruto. Seeing the competitiveness between Naruto and Raito, Hinata could only sigh.

Knock! Knock!

Raito opened the door and welcomed Ino, Shika, Chōji trio. Behind him, Naruto and Hinata were equally prepared.

After giving a quick scan, Raito looked at his friends in front of him and with a smile asked, “Are you guys ready?”

“Mhm.” Everyone gave faint nods, seemingly not having much confidence.

“Sheesh, what’s with that depressing faces. Just remember we are preparing for Chūnin exams.” Naruto shouted then grabbed Hinata and Raito. Then remembering his unfortunate days just before academy exams, Naruto glared at Raito.

“What?” Raito asked in confusion.

“Nothing.”

“Let’s go.” Ino dragged Shikamaru and Chōji then stood beside Raito.

“Okay.”

“ID Create – Challenger’s Stage.”

They disappeared from the house and appeared in an arena like area. The stood in one of the boxes above and below was a wide stage with various kinds of obstacles. Trees, rocks, boulders, building. They looked like a random place from some village.

The stage was big in comparison to the one in the village. Just in front of the box was a circular platform for the participants to stand.

Opposite to the Konoha Genin was equally numbered people. Each of them having athletic body, tanned skin and two swords by their side. They had overgrown sharp teeth and an ‘X’ shaped scar on their face. With white hollow eyes they looked forward with no emotions, like a machine.

[Challenger 1]

HP: 50,000

CP: 50,000

STR: 50

VIT: 50

DEX: 50

INT: 50

WIS: 50

LUK: 50

Skills: Slash, Charge, Rushing Thunder, Thunder Chop.

Every single one of them had the same stats and skills, no different from one another. How lazy was whoever created this all? They gave these men numbers for name.

“Ugh, I don’t like them.” Ino glared touching her shoulder.

“I don’t like them too.” Chōji rubbed his stomach.

Weng!

A coin-shaped item floated in front of the participants. Raito extended his hand and grabbed the big coin and said, “First.”

A faint pillar of light covered Raito and he disappeared from the box, appearing in the circular platform in front of the box.

Again a pillar of light covered the circular stage and before he knew, Raito was standing on the stage.

“It’s really mysterious.”

Tut!

The alarm represented the start of the battle.

Raito jumped from his spot quickly blending in the shadows, activating ‘Stealth’.

Seconds after Raito’s disappearance, the ‘Challenger 1’ appeared. He looked around for a period before running towards another direction.

‘What the heck was that?’ Raito did a few hand seals and an earth clone appeared in front of him.

“Go,” Raito ordered.

It didn’t take long to find the man. After a brief exchange, the man was locked in a fierce loop.

“Earthen Fist.” Massive hands from the earth formed, sandwiching the man.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Raito appeared in the open area and saw the man being pummeled but looking at the man, Raito felt a shiver go down his spine. The man had no frown, smile, displeasure or annoyed look in his face.

Every hit would drop about a little less than a hundred points. Raito could have left the man to be pummeled to death but after he walked into the area, the man’s eye had moved to focus towards the new coming Raito.

The clone had perfectly followed orders and used only ‘Earthen Fist’ to trap the man. But the main problem was the ‘Earth Clone’, the clone thought was really stiff and couldn’t improvise. He could only act on command, not exactly what Raito was asking for.

“Earth clone – Return.”

Following Raito’s command, the clone disappeared and the fist barrage stopped completely. Not even a second later, the man disappeared midair and with loud sound appeared next to Raito.

“Fast.” Raito only turned but the man had unleashed a sword strike striking Raito’s hip.

Poof! As the hit landed successfully, Raito turned into a cloud of smoke, leaving behind a few stone beads.

“Lance!” Tens of stone lance pierced the man but the man didn’t flinch a bit. He looked at the side from where the voice came from and waved his sword. A blue layer of chakra covered the sword, as he slashed, the blue light traveling towards the area.

“Spike!” From another side, Raito shouted. The lance piercing the man’s body grew small spikes, multiplying the damage and decreasing the HP to the end.

[HP: 0/50,000]

‘It dropped amazingly fast at the last second.’ Raito looked at the body but found that he couldn’t get anything with his current knowledge. He could only guess that they were not human but zombies, better than that in the wasteland dungeon.

Immediately after defeating that man, Raito was teleported to another box.

[You gained one ‘Skill Level up Scroll’.]

[Skill Level up Scroll]

Type: One time use consumable

Use: Increase the level of one skill by 5 levels.

“Nice.” Raito smiled then looked down at the fight. Naruto was getting his ass kicked.

Tut!

“Who is voting? Come on out!” With bruises, Naruto appeared beside Raito.

“You lost again.” Raito started healing Naruto.

“If I had more time, I would have definitely won,” Naruto complained.

“Yeah, yeah.”

While Naruto complained Chōji had started his match. With Raito’s help and his own clan techniques, Chōji’s Partial Expansion Technique leveled up in a sense. Combining Partial expansion and Rock Fist, the challenger was smashed into pieces within five minutes of the match.

“Chōji improved so much.” Naruto looked in awe and a little disappointment, thinking about himself.

“Don’t worry too much about it, just train more.” Raito looked at Naruto and told him seriously.

The conclusion was – Raito, Chōji, and Hinata won while Shikamaru, Ino and Naruto lost.

Shikamaru: “I need to learn some offensive techniques.”

Ino: “How can Genjutsu not work on them?”

Hinata: “…It was easy.”

“They were like puppets this time,” Shikamaru commented.

“Hm… that’s why Genjutsu didn’t work.” Ino added her thoughts then she turned to look at Raito with anger, “Didn’t you say that I should learn Genjutsu?”

“…How should I know that it would be puppets this time?” Raito replied with a wronged expression.

“They were a perfect counter for Ino and me.” Shikamaru thought aloud.

“What about Naruto?”

“He is… he needs more fighting experience … and training.” Shikamaru replied with some hesitation.

“Hey, it was just a fluke that he won. If I had to fight him once more, I could beat his ass, easy.” Naruto tried to defend himself but saw everyone giving him an eye.

Challenge Arena, as the name suggests is a place to fight. Winners are rewarded and losers do not get even a singly Ryo. When Raito first opened this dungeon, he met up with a level 27 Fighter, who was proficient in tracking, laying traps, working with bow and arrow, and dagger. He was a typical village hunter. Without his Ninjutsu, Raito would have been defeated first. After winning, Raito got a skill book for dismantling traps. But since he had already learned the skill, it increased the skill ‘Dismantle Traps’ by ten levels.

The second time he entered this dungeon was with Naruto and Hinata. They fought a group battle against a team of one archer, healer, and swordsman with their level around 18 to 22.

Naruto and Hinata didn’t say what benefits they got from fighting that team but Raito guessed that they definitely didn’t get the skill book or like things. However, he was an exception, he was a gamer and the rules applied to him was different from the rest of them.

“Let’s go. We need to go to get our work experience too.” Raito tagged everyone with chakra threads and disappeared.

T and I department

“Argh! Wah! Huhuhu. Please, please…” One man was chained to the wall and opposite to him stood Anko, looking at him with emotionless eyes.

“How many people have begged you to let them live? Not only men and women, you even killed child and old.”

“They deserved it.” The man shouted.

“Even newborns? What did that an hour newborn did to you?” Anko waved her arm and the whip landed on the man’s body.

After ten minutes of physical abuse, Anko came out with a serene expression from the cubicle.

“He is a good liar, isn’t he?” Raito guessed and asked.

“Yup.” Anko sighed.

“…Should I?” Raito asked looking at the door.

“No, it's fine. Inoichi and Ibuki will be taking him.” Anko snacked on the dango Raito had brought and passed the file to Raito.

Looking at the man, a smile appeared on her face. “He indiscriminately killed around a hundred people believing that he would get power of immortality. What a moron.”

“Immortality?” Raito raised his head, looking at Anko.

Taking out the bingo book, he turned to a page and showed it to Anko. “Kakuzu, from the village hidden in waterfall, S-rank definitely an old guy. He was alive from when Hashirama-sama created the village.”

“Yeah… Don’t be a smart ass. Kakuzu, S-rank missing-nin, from Hidden Waterfall, practices forbidden techniques, which makes him powerful and… hard to kill. But he is not immortal.”

Taking a deep breath, Raito asked while shaking a bit, “Forbidden techniques are that powerful.”

Anko shook her head, then said, “There is a reason why they are called forbidden. Don’t you think, if the technique was really so powerful, wouldn’t the Hidden waterfall make all its ninja learn the technique and start controlling the whole continent. Not just the Hidden Waterfall have forbidden technique but all the hidden villages have.”

“So they have side effects? Hey, you said everyone has.”

“Of course. Not just one or two, a whole bunch.”

“Forbidden techniques have an absurd amount of chakra requirement. For normal regular Chūnins, if they use it, they would probably die of chakra exhaustion.”

“Die of chakra exhaustion?”

“Yeah, these techniques are like deals with the devil, it will bring harm to the user. The user will die of bleeding or their soul being extinguished. There were also records of people falling into coma or turning vegetables. There is one… special rank ninja who had to use forbidden Ninjutsu, he is still on the hospital getting some kind of treatment.”

“I don’t think I want to become a vegetable.” Raito laughed dryly.

“Forbidden techniques are so strong that it causes massive collateral damage, such as the total destruction of a village and end with the death of everyone in it. Think about it if someone uses a jutsu that is listed as forbidden to kill one guy, who he feels is undefeatable, he may kill that guy but at the same time, he can kill himself, his comrades or the whole area he was battling on.”

“Oi, killing a whole village? Please don’t brag about it, Anko-nee.” Raito felt his hand trembling thinking about a whole Konoha being destroyed.

“It isn’t exaggerated at all. Once you grow up, you’ll get to know everything.”

Anko didn’t exaggerate at all but she kept one point hidden, ‘Forbidden techniques also include those techniques which violate the laws of nature.’ Although it’s not true for all, there are indeed some techniques to bring life back as walking dead, seal soul into items, uses people life to raise one’s power.

“Anko.” Ibuki and Inoichi walked in.

“Ibuki, Inoichi.” Anko stood up straight and gave a small bow.

“Raito? It’s good that you are coming.” Inoichi nodded then waved the ninjas behind him.

“From tomorrow, get an individual room for yourself.” Inoichi looked at Raito and casually added.

But the two ninjas who heard it were shocked to the core.

“Inoichi,” Ibuki called from behind him.

“…” Inoichi didn’t answer all who had question.

Raito just nodded.

After Inoichi and Ibuki left Anko laughed loudly.

“Hmph.” Raito snorted.

The next day Raito walked in his investigation room while reading the file. As he walked in he had a stiff smile on his face. Walking into the cubicle he sighed deeply.

Raito had copied Kakashi and wore a face mask covering his mouth and nose.

Looking at the couple and women, Raito once again sighed deeply.

The small cubicle was a normal one with a big table and chairs. A window giving light to the room, making the room a bit warmer.

Even when Raito entered the room, the two women and men didn’t notice him.

“I don’t want this civilian investigation.” Raito cursed Inoichi non-stop as he investigated the whole story.

While Raito was under the troublesome situation, Inoichi and Hiruzen were laughing, looking at the chamber with the crystal ball.

After Raito found everything, he couldn’t help but massage his forehead. This was a complex case of adultery. The couple both were the citizen of Konoha. The husband had a small business that needed to travel and sell things whereas the wife was a simple housewife, she took care of their child of two years and did all the household work. Two months ago when her husband returned from the capital, she heard from the members of the crew that her husband has been visiting a woman. The wife searched through her husband’s clothes and found some lipstick marks, a new handkerchief and smelling a bit hard, she added that she could even smell perfume of a woman. And now, this morning, her husband came with another woman asking for her to leave home with her child.

Her husband’s reply to this all situation was that since she was not letting him to bed her, he naturally has to find someone who was allowing him.

Raito coughed lightly as he put down the big red book and looked at the group.

“This case has been forwarded to the shinobi intelligence department because you brought someone who has no citizenship.” Raito looked at the man and said as per the regulations.

“Sir, you have to register your marriage before bringing her in the village, officially. Second… your new wife has to undergo a detailed process of confirming her identity.” He looked at the new couple and announced while writing on the paper.

Raito turned to the woman who had tears in her eye, “Ma’am, would you like to divorce your husband?”

“…” The women didn’t say anything. What could she even say? Sign a divorce?

“If you divorce your husband, you will get thirty percent of his total wealth,” Raito announced

Bang! “That’s too much.” The man immediately banged the table and shouted, standing up.

Raito continued but due to the man’s shouting his voice was not heard by the woman. Glaring at the man, he softly said, “Sit down, please.”

The man immediately sat down.

“As I said, ma’am you will get thirty percent of his total wealth and your son will get the twenty percent of the current wealth, which will be stored into the bank as investment, with interest of fourteen percent per year. You can retrieve when he reaches sixteen years of age.”

“Is-is that true?” the wife looked at wife with tears collecting in her eyes

“Yes, it’s written with black, printed on white.” Raito turned the pages and pointed at a paragraph.

The problem was solved thought Raito but in the end, the husband started to deny to pay and in addition to the new wife crying, the situation was in total chaos. Raito was paralyzed, not knowing what to do next. He couldn’t just beat these people, could he?

Anko had to walk in and use her ‘Kind’ words to solve the situation.

Raito sat gloomily at the lobby, hugging his knees.

“Don’t worry too much, everyone faced this kind of stupid things.” Anko consoled Raito with jokes but it didn’t change Raito’s mood.

Standing up suddenly, Raito said with a bit of force, “I will only take cases where it is about gathering information and finding out the truth. Hmph! And I wanna do more field missions.” Throwing a tantrum, Raito walked out.

Raito couldn’t see in anger but he saw it later that Anko had a large smile when Raito left the T and I department.

Challenger’s Stage

Raito stood on the stage waiting for the enemy to come.

[Mad Saber Challenger]

HP: 125,000

CP: 80,000

STR: 100

VIT: 60

DEX: 70

INT: 50

WIS: 50

LUK: 50

Skill: Mad Dash, Lightning Cleave, Parry, Saber Beam, Charge, Triple Sweep, Murderer’s edge, Killer wave…

“Haa!” A big muscular man with a naked chest came charging in with a loud shout. Clad in red aura, his red eyes locked onto Raito. As the barbarian swung his saber, Raito could feel a kind of heaviness about to land on him.

Raito also charged in with a shout trading a blow for blow. But this type of trading blows made Raito lose out as he felt numbness in his hands. Even the sword in his hand had cracks starting to form just after ten blows.

After another strike, Raito felt his hand was going to fall off. And the barbarian who saw that immediately gave a left punch.

“Damn.” That punch immediately dropped 300 points of health.

After hitting a tree, Raito snapped from whatever zone he was in and said to himself, “I am a ninja, damn it.”

Standing up, Raito shuffled a few steps behind the forest and disappeared. The barbarian followed Raito and slashed the few of the branches, which were on his way.

Hidden in the branches of the tree at the top, Raito took out two stone beads and prayed in his mind. “Fuse.”

[Stone Bead]

A round and smooth bead made by the manipulating stones and rocks. Made by fusing two +11 stone beads.

Made by – Yoshizawa Raito

Owned by – Yoshizawa Raito

Durability – 2400

Weight – 240 kg

Raito was happy for a moment then sad the next moment. He was happy that the stone beads of more than 100 kilo weights finally fused but sad seeing that the enhancement was destroyed and the extra effects disappeared.

“It’s good.” Raito controlled the stone bead with his chakra and earth elemental manipulation so that it wouldn’t fall.

After fusing a few of the stone beads, he brought out a few of the old lighter stone beads.

“Demonic Illusion: Veil Technique.”

The barbarian searched the entire stage but couldn’t find Raito. He was enraged with all the misleading noises and now even simple noises could trigger him. He didn’t dare to ignore the noises as he was already hit a couple of times.

Kacha!

The barbarian immediately turned around waving his saber. The red light of energy flew from the saber smashing the stone into pieces.

“Musclehead!” Raito laughed loudly teasing the barbarian, exposing himself.

Although the barbarian couldn’t understand what Raito was saying, he felt that Raito was saying bad things about him.

“Mad Dash, Killer’s Edge,” The red aura on the barbarian’s body grew and the blade let out a piercing red light.

Raito who was standing at a distance, raised his head, transformed the stone bead into a spear before throwing it towards the barbarian. “Throw”

The stone spear flew rotating at high speed and soon reached the barbarian. The red-eyed barbarian looked at the spear coming then leaned his body a bit downward, moving as minimum as possible to dodge a fatal shot while still gaining the momentum.

But just as the barbarian leaned down, the stone spear also changed its angle. The barbarian looked at the spear and a scene conjured in his mind. The spear which looked very much unremarkable had pierced his back.

Because there was still half a distance left and the skill ‘Mad Dash’ was in effect where he couldn’t slow down, the barbarian decided to jump and at the same time activate a defensive skill ‘Bone Armor’ which covered his chest, back, and crotch.

He jumped even higher than the spear. Taking a big swing, the barbarian drew his saber back overhead, ready to activate an attack skill.

“Lightning Cleave.”

Raito who seemed to be waiting for this also had rat hand seal ready. “Earth Seal – Activate.”

Lightning gathered on the barbarian’s saber and an arc of purple light appeared as he swung saber.

The ground below the barbarian lit up with white character seals. There were a total of twenty circles from where sharp stone spears exploded upwards.

Comparing the two, unfortunately, the barbarian was a lot slower as the lightning took time to gather.

The stone spears exploded upwards to the midair barbarian and soon the body fell down with a loud ‘thud’ and blood was spilled.

Raito who had eyes on the HP bar alone didn’t dare underestimate the barbarian. The spears had pierced the right thigh and the right forearm. It seemed that the bones in that area were totally broken. The barbarian struggled to turn around. Finally his face upward, Raito truly confirmed that he was truly alive… and how fatal his attacks were. The last true hit was on the face. It seemed to cut through the flesh and muscle from the right jaw to cheek to the eye.

The bone armor had several concentric rings with several crossing one another. The bone armor was totally cracked and was about to be turned into dust.

The saber had been dropped far away and was covered with blood. Trying to store the saber but failing to do so, he threw the saber far away. “Too heavy and useless.” Raito snorted then looked at the barbarian.

“…”

Raito watched as the HP gradually fell down. It had already passed fifty health points and gradually reaching to the end. Raito finally relaxed as the minus ten count down started.

“Blood Explosion.” The barbarian let out an ugly smile as his body reddened.

“Stupid.” Raito who was on the tree pointed his finger letting out a small ball of lightning energy. The lightning bullet flew in extreme speed killing the barbarian and the earth clone together.

Looking at the pile of rock, formerly Earth Clone, Raito sighed.

[Challenger’s Arena]

[Winner – Yoshizawa Raito]

[You gained one Katana, one Skill book and one Item.]

[Red Star]

[Barbarian’s Rage]

[Red Lantern]

[Red Star](Rare)

Type – Katana/Sword

ATK – 400

Durability – 6,000

Special – Life drain

Owner – Yoshizawa Raito

Made using Red Iron Ore…

[Barbarian’s Rage]

Effect: On activation, double the base stat.

Duration: 15 minutes

Side Effect: Half the Stat for 1 Day.

Cooldown: 1 Day

[Red Lantern] (Special)

Effect: On lighting the lantern, for half an hour, increase focus on whom the light shines.

Raito looked at the things in awe. With a huge smile on his face, Raito caressed the items like a baby.