I teleported back near Shikaku. They had already taken down 2 shinobis down.
"Ryuu, you're back. Does that mean he's safe?" I nodded.
"Alright let's finish this quickly, it's becoming such a drag." He said.
I nodded.
Now that I know a little more about my new power, maybe it's time to test it out in combat.
Ryuu opened his Sharingan and entered Phoenix Flame mode. for now, his body can only handle a half body transformation without risks.
Everyone suddenly looked at him.
"Ryuu, what is this power?" Shikaku asked.
"Don't worry about it." I said as I drew my blade.
"I wonder what will happen when I combine these."
Ryuu's fire covered his entire blade.
"Exceptional, this looks amazing."
He said while looking at his sword.
As he was admiring his blade, one ninja tried to attack him.
"Ryuu!" Shikaku tried to save him.
"FWOOSH!"
He was engulfed in flames; He didn't even have time to react and died instantly and his body was burning rapidly he was already bones.
The whole place fell silent. Everyone was shocked.
"What the hell is this kid?" One of them shakingly asked.
"He's a demon!" Another said.
"Well, that isn't a nice thing to say." Ryuu coldly replied.
Ryuu grew restless and took this opportunity to attack them. They were too slow to react to him in this form.
"Die."
The Flames pulled all 7 of them to the ground. They were screaming as they got swallowed.
"I can't believe it worked."
Ryuu said to himself.
A day before this…
Ryuu was lying on his bed trying to get some sleep after discovering he could lose some of his memories and his vast knowledge of the future, so he thought about something else.
"If Phoenix Flame is made from another world, does that mean it's like space-time ninjutsu?
But if it does, doesn't that mean at any point if I call to it, it will appear out of nowhere?
I guess that's possible because it's also like Amaterasu. If I use my Sharingan to focus it and direct it to a target, as long as I can see them, I should be able to kill them using Phoenix Flame.
Man, all these new powers can be quite boring. Maybe I'll be able to sleep now and try my theory later."
Back to the present…
Ryuu left the ino-shika-cho trio speechless…
He deactivated Phoenix Flame. The cocoon covered his entire right arm once he flexed it all the Ash fell on the ground.
"Now, to deal with you."
I pointed at the last one I left alive.
He started shivering. He felt a cold chill go down his spine because of Ryuu's killing intent, he couldn't even move he was too frightened.
"I'm going to ask you a question, and the way you die will depend on your answer."
Everyone turned their heads and looked at him.
"Who hired you?"
He looked at the room and knew there was no chance of escape; he took too long to answer.
"Fine, you've made your choice. I'm leaving it to you inoichi."
Inoichi searched his mind for memories.
"Ryuu, what was that earlier?"
Shikaku asked.
"Oh, that was my new power. I haven't fully learned much about it, hence my shock when it actually worked."
I said as I scratched my head while smiling.
"It was incredible." Choza said.
"I think I found something." Inoichi said.
"What is it?" Shikaku asked.
"A criminal who goes by the name, Kurai Matsummo, in public his shipping company is the 2nd largest in Konoha, but in private he also sells drugs while using those shipments to cover up his tracks."
Man, he just sounds like Gatō.
Ryuu said to himself as he shook his head.
"Shikaku, we have to stop him. He kidnapped a kid, and he was about to kill him. This time we were here to stop him, but if we don't end this now, it will only continue happening," I said.
Shikaku thought about it…
"Inoichi, do we have any idea where he could be?" He asked.
Inoichi nodded.
"Turns out he has an addiction to gambling. It goes so far that he always has his meetings. There's a town in the land of fire full of casinos, and that's where we can find him."
Shikaku nodded.
"Fine, let's go, Ryuu's right, we have to make him pay for his crime."
I nodded.
"But what should we do about Kenji? If we take him back, he could get kidnapped again, but we can't take him with us. It'll be too risky."
He nodded and said.
"Even though it will be risky, if we bring the kid back before taking down Kurai Matsummo, there's a higher chance he'll be taken if he goes back than if he stays close to us."
We all agreed to take him with us, after inoichi finished searching his memories.
"Alright, I'm done. What should we do now?" He asked.
"I almost forgot about you." Ryuu looked at the guy on the floor.
"Please don't kill me!" He said as he tried crawling.
"Aren't you the one who kidnapped him?"
He was hesitant to answer, but he had no their choice.
"Yes, my clan has a secret jutsu that use genjutsu against its enemy without them realising but it only works for a short time, that Brat was an easy target, he was only protected by one man as he was training to be a ninja Hmph, what a joke."
Ryuu frowned.
I aimed a small low level Phoenix Flame towards his leg. It latched onto him and kept growing and climbing while burning him slowly. He kept screaming for help, but it was futile and soon his body was nothing but Ash.
"Let's go!" I said. I looked back, and the others were terrified.
We didn't waste anytime there we teleported back to where we were camping…
We found Kenji asleep.
"Is he on fire!?" Inoichi asked.
I shook my head.
"This is my doing. I did it to keep him warm. He was freezing when we found him. Don't worry, it won't hurt him."
Choza looked confused, and Shikaku was simply stunned.
"He must've been exhausted from everything his gone through in these past few days."
I dispelled my shadow clones and carried him on my shoulder
"Let's go, we should hurry."
They all nodded
We've been on this mission for 3 days now, it's taken longer than I would've thought I've had to remove my Phoenix Flame from Kenji many times, it also helps with healing others, although not by that much, I suppose it will be better the more I use it.
We didn't get far. Shikaku and the others said they wanted to stop at a tavern, hoping we'd get some info. They think I don't know their tricks, but I've been on a mission with Jiraiya-sensei.
Unfortunately, I'm not nearly old enough to enter, so I took Kenji and went back to the hotel we were staying.
"Now what do we do?" He shrugged.
"GRRR!" Ryuu's and Kenji's stomach started growling.
"Let's go for some ramen!" Ryuu said. Kenji nodded.
They left their room and went to look for a ramen restaurant.
They found one nearby.
"Two tonkotsu ramen please."
He took the order. A few minutes later, the ramen was ready, we both ate.
"Hey Kenji, do you want to have a race?" He nodded.
"Let's go!" the two of them were quick. It looked like they were swallowing it whole, but in the end, there can only be one winner…
"I can't believe it. I lost.
"No way, let's go again." I suggested.
He didn't back down and agreed. This time I won, but he challenged me.
Before we knew it, we had been eating for an hour. Our stomachs couldn't take it anymore.
"Here's your bill. We gave you a discount because you two now hold a record for most ramen bowls eaten, an impressive 27 bowls of ramen."
Wow, I didn't think we ate that much.
Once I saw the bill, it felt like my soul was leaving my body… Kenji noticed Ryuu's expression.
"Here I'll pay for it." He said.
"Oh no, you don't have to!" Ryuu said while shaking his head.
"Don't worry about it. I'd be ashamed if I didn't pay for this. It's been a fun night, and you saved my life, so I guess I kind of owe you."
He said.
Ryuu smiled and nodded.
After paying the bill, they both went back to the hotel.
"it's nighttime and we have to wake up early tomorrow. If we're going to catch up to him, have a goodnight Kenji."
"You too Ryuu."
We fell asleep fast. I put a seal around the room just in case someone tries to break in.
Morning reached and ino-shika-cho was still asleep. Ryuu and Kenji woke them up. They drank too much and ended up blacking out, especially shikaku he drinks too much.
"At least tell me you found something."
I said.
"Of course I found something. It would be such a drag if we still had to look for clues today."
"Well, spill it. What did you find?"
Ryuu impatiently asked.
"Kids these days are always so impatient. Anyway, I found out not only where he's going to stay, but we also have a special guest nearby."
Ryuu scratched his head, thinking of who it was.
"It can't be!"
He realised who it was, and his eyes glistened.
"She's here too!" He nodded.
"Ryuu, who is she?" Kenji asked.
"Only the sexiest woman alive, Princess Tsunade. She's also one of the legendary sanin!"
Just thinking about her made Ryuus' nose bleed.
Shikaku smirked and said.
"Jiraiya-sama was right. You get a little pervy as well."
Ryuu's head dropped
"He said that?"
Shikaku nodded.
Kenji just chuckled.
After breakfast, we all finished getting ready and soon left the hotel.
"I can't believe I'm going to finally meet her! This is going to be amazing!"
Ryuu said to himself as they traveled to the gambling spot.