'How nice of them to deliver such a gift straight to my doorstep,' A devious chuckle escaped Suguru's lips.
Suguru could pick off the Suna-nins individually like harvesting fruits from a tree. Then, by consuming their chakra and hiding their bodies, he could hide all evidence of his deeds.
Of course, they would still be unable to find him even if he did not hide their bodies.
After all, his Vampiric Gaze was a space-time Ninjutsu that left little to no traces other than the manner and time of death.
'Time to have a good meal,' Suguru's lips widened in a smile.
Suguru thus hid his presence entirely and snuck into the building beside him. Then, he walked through a few hallways and descended several flights of stairs until he arrived at the room where all the shinobi headed.
When he was there, he activated his Kaisugan and rushed down one of the hallways.
'Vampiric Gaze!'
The nearest shinobi was only an average chunin. He was unable to escape Suguru's gaze and fell to the ground without any resistance. Suguru arrived a minute later.
'Dark Release: Inhaling Maw,' Suguru consumed the shinobi's chakra.
Upon analyzing, he realized that the shinobi had a Fire Release affinity just like him. It was quite rare for a shinobi in the Land of Wind.
'When I get a shinobi with Earth Release and some underground movement jutsu, then I can hasten my assault.' Suguru's mouth was beginning to water uncontrollably.
A little more and he would be drooling.
Suguru moved on to the next shinobi. He rushed back to the room and took another path. While he did that, he created two Shadow Clones. Each one had enough chakra to activate Vampiric Gaze once.
Then, once they consumed their target's chakra, they could reactivate Vampiric Gaze and continue making more clones.
One after another, members of the Anti-Formation faction disappeared from the world. Most of them were chuunins, with only a select few being genins. For some reason, there weren't any jounins.
Suguru left a clone in the central room to keep track of any approaching variable. Death arrived with each passing second.
After half an hour, Suguru returned and so did his clones. Each of them carried a lifeless body with them which were all promptly stored in scrolls. Seventeen shinobi in total.
All of which had their chakra consumed by Suguru.
'Mmmm,' Suguru licked his lips upon collecting all the chakra from his clones. His chakra reserves had skyrocketed, and he was now at the peak of genins from his chakra alone. He could create up to twelve clones now. Furthermore, there was a greater benefit.
'My various affinities have increased.'
His Wind Affinity especially. It turns out that, unlike Hiruko who could instantly use his target's chakra to perform jutsus of various elements, Suguru's Dark Release instead made him stronger with each devoured shinobi.
His earlier conjecture about being able to use an Earth Release jutsu instantly was wrong. There was still a required amount of analysis needed. However, the ability to increase his affinities and chakra reserves was an excellent replacement.
It seemed like this venture had successfully sated his hunger.
Suguru thus exited the room and vanished without a trace.
***
Elsewhere, Suguru walked the streets of Sunagakure. The morning sun was still rising, and the villagers were all going about their routines. Not many had discovered that a lot of blood had been spilled in a revolt against the current leadership.
The Kazekage had acted swiftly. Giving hush money to those who were implicated and ensuring no unrest would befall the village. This was a crucial moment for Sunagakure given that the Wind Daimyo was visiting.
It was a chance for them to show the daimyo that he did not have to outsource missions to Konoha anymore. Rasa could finally stop mining gold if such a change of mind occurred.
Suguru chuckled. It seemed like he had helped Sunagakure's leadership with such a move.
It all depended on how the Anti-Formation faction would react to eighteen of their chuunins dying. If they fought even harder, then Suguru's actions could instead implicate Sunagakure.
Either way, none of those things would be Suguru's concern. The weight on his chest was light.
***
Suguru walked until he reached the location where the genins from the chuunin exam were told to wait. It was the foot of a small arena, situated north of the village's center.
It seemed like he was the last one to arrive, as the genins were all allowed in once he appeared. Walking up a narrow staircase, Suguru eventually saw the battlefield. A flat, sandy ground that was clearly disadvantageous to shinobi who were unfamiliar with such a terrain.
It was a wide, square arena, dyed a gleaming yellow in the late-morning sun.
Looking at this arena gave Suguru a few ideas. It also restricted him a bit, given his preference for ultra-long-range fighting.
Hellfire Artillery wouldn't be as useful as it was and his Kaisugan was long out of the equation.
'I'll have to rely on my speed for this,' Suguru thought.
Luckily, he was already pretty fast after inheriting Shisui's Body Flicker Jutsu. Although he had yet to reach the same levels, his analysis had long borne fruit. His speed was staggering.
Given that Shisui could fight an Anbu shinobi at such a young age with just the Body Flicker Jutsu spoke miles of how powerful such speed could be.
'Unfortunately, using my Sharingan is out of the question.'
This meant that Suguru would be restricted in terms of reaction time. Without heightened visual acuity, he didn't have much control over his speed. If he tried moving as fast as Shisui, he would likely lose control of his surroundings.
After a few moments of pondering, Suguru decided to win using his Blaze Battle Body and Body Flicker jutsus. Although he could weave in a Great Fireball here and there, it was too slow of a jutsu for his taste.
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