The next day,
The group continues their journey and crosses the border of the Land of Fire. Yesterday, Yugo had already settled everything in Nanten City. He sent a request to anbu to continue the investigation and track the whereabouts of the person from the demon clan. The person responsible for corrupting Seto's mind must be tracked at all costs. This person's presence is a major threat to the nation's safety.
The convoy silently departs from the Land of Fire with little fanfare. Ritsu is lying in his mother's lap inside the carriage. There is a blindfold bandage around his eyes.
He was a bit mentally exhausted by yesterday's event. The backlash and the feedback of the evil chakra were a bit too overwhelming for his extremely sensitive senses.
Zing… Zing…
Suddenly, goosebumps spread across his body.
Whoosh…
He jumps out of his mother's lap and warily glances at his surroundings.
"What's the matter, Ritsu?" Ishiko is startled by his sudden action.
"Mom, I suddenly felt like some evil entity is eyeing us like prey." He attempts to phrase what he feels in words.
"Hmm… evil entity?!"
"Stop the carriage!" Ishiko orders everyone to stop the carriage.
"Guards!"
Yugo and other shinobis quickly gather in front of her. Ishiko turns to Kazetsu and asks him.
"Kazetsu, try to sense any foreign chakra in our surroundings."
"Yes, Lady Ishiko!" Kaztesu nods and makes a Ram hand seal and closes his eyes.
Whoosh… Swoosh…
Suddenly, Ritsu feels a faint pulse of chakra ripple past his body and expand outward.
'Hmm… so that's the principle behind the chakra sensing technique! A sensor shinobi expels a minuscule amount of chakra from their body outwards. This chakra quickly spread to their surroundings while still under their control.
When another chakra signature comes in contact with it, there is a faint disturbance in the chakra flow due to chakra interaction between the two bodies. The sensor shinobi pick up this faint disturbance as feedback from their chakra.
Then, doesn't this mean if a sensor attempts to sense an enemy, then an enemy sensor can also sense that sensor? It's like a double-edged sword.' He murmurs under his breath.
Soon, Kazetsu opens his eyes and shakes his head.
"Forgive me, Lady Ishiko, but I didn't pick up any foreign chakra signature in our vicinity." Kazetsu shakes his head.
"The intuition of a child can't be wrong. Kids are very sensitive to evil, especially those below 5 years of age. And Ritsu has even shown remarkable sensory skills." Ishiko ponders aloud.
She could ask Ritsu to sense his surroundings. But she is afraid that he might suffer another backlash and harm himself again. Evil chakra interacts in a volatile manner with normal chakra.
Hmm…
'Where could the enemy be?' Ishiko ponders.
Suddenly, Ishiko raises her head and glances at the sky.
"Kazetsu, check the sky for a foreign chakra signature." She remarks. Her intuition and experience of several years lead to this conclusion.
"Yes, Lady Ishiko!" Kazetsu follows her instructions.
After a few seconds, Kazetsu's expression changes and he quickly cancels his sensory technique.
"Found it!"
He points towards the sky.
"Lady Ishiko! There is an evil chakra signature flying through the sky."
"It's most probably a demonic summon!" She remarks and glances at the sky with a narrow gaze.
"I will take care of it!"
Swish… Swish… Swish…
Ishiko makes a series of hand signs.
'Mom is about to use a jutsu. I must watch carefully.' Ritsu peeks through the gap in the bandage.
Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram
After completing the hand signs, she slams her palm on the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu,"
Poof…
With a burst of white cloud, a giant brown hawk appears in front of the group.
Whoosh…
Ishiko leaps on top of it and points towards the sky.
"Garuda, take me up!"
"Yes, Lady Ishiko!" The hawk answers in a regal voice.
Fwoosh…
With a flap of its wings, the giant hawk creates a powerful gust of wind. It quickly soars into the sky.
'I can't miss the opportunity to watch such an exciting battle. It's the first time I will see mother in action. I can't miss this opportunity.'
He removes the bandages around his eyes. He has a powerful physique, the perk of being a part Senju and part Uzumaki. This allows him to rapidly recover from most ailments and injuries.
Hmm…
Ritsu cups his hands into small slits to observe his mother.
'I still can't see clearly. Perhaps I should try infusing chakra into my eyes.'
Being a bold kid with no regard for safety or any concern, he infuses chakra into his eyes. His eyes glow with a faint red light.
'If I use chakra to adjust the focal length of the lens in my eye, then I should be able to observe distant objects.'
This is a common phenomenon by which eyes observe distant objects and is called accommodation. Normal eyes have a limit on the amount of adjustment they can make before reaching a limit. Having read some science in his past life, he isn't hesitant to use such a piece of knowledge in this new world.
'With chakra, it should be possible to overcome that limit, right? Time to give it a try!'
He infuses chakra in his eyes and adds a layer of chakra to his eye lens and uses more chakra to manipulate the capillary muscle. Veins pop around his eyes, but his vision increases significantly.
Despite the strain on his eye, he can observe at a much longer distance.
"Yugo-san! Look at Ritsu, he is…" A member of Yugo's team notices Ritsu's sudden change and informs Yugo.
"Huh!" Yugo is shocked to see the veins around Ritsu's eyes.
"This kid… What is he up to now?"
However, Ritsu is too engrossed in the battle in the sky to hear their remarks.
-----------------------
High above in the sky,
Ishiko confronts a cloaked figure on top of a massive bird-like creature.
The gigantic creature resembles a pterodactyl and has an intimidating, demonic presence. The demonic bird creature has a large wingspan of almost 30 feet. Its wings have a stretched, leathery, bat-like appearance, showcasing intricate webbings, and are slightly translucence near the edges. The color of the wings is a mix of earthly, muted tones of dark gray, and brown with tints of uneven dark green patches.
The bird has a long, elongated head with a sharp, beak-like snout in the shape of a long spear with a slight hook-like curve at the end. Its large, keen eye, embedded deep within its skull, stares at Ishiko and her hawk like a predator. A prominent crest jut from its head like a crown. The giant bird has a lean, muscular build, specializing in powerful bursts of speed and gliding in the air. Its clawed talon gleams with a metallic glow and emits a purple aura. The bird emits a fierce, demonic aura, solidifying its status as a demonic summon.
"You found me?!" The cloaked man atop the bird is slightly surprised.
However, Ishiko ignores his words and makes a series of hand signs. She inhales sharply and opens her mouth.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu,"
She spews out a massive fireball spanning a radius of tens of meters towards the enemy.
SCREE…
The demonic bird opens its mouth and emits a loud screech. Its screech carries a wisp of demonic aura that clashes with the giant fireball.
BOOM…
The giant fireball explodes into several small balls of flames and rains down.
Swish…
A barrage of kunais flies out from the fireball and clashes with the bird's body.
Clang… Clang… Clang…
Metallic noise echoes in the air. The bird's sturdy body deflects them with ease.
"KAI!"
However, Ishiko makes a hand seal, igniting the series of paper bombs attached to the end of the kunais.
BOOM… BOOM… BOOM…
A series of explosions rings in the air, covering the bird and its owner in a violent eruption of fire. Smoke covers the sky with bits and shrapnel of the kunai flying everywhere.
Ishiko's giant hawk erects a wind barrier to block the shrapnel.
Hmm…
Ishiko frowns as the explosion dies down. The body of the man atop the giant bird is encased in several metallic scales.
"As I expected, you are a demon kin!" Ishiko mumbles.
Humans who infuse demon blood into their bodies are called demonic humans. In most cases, such humans lose control of their minds, only seeking death and destruction.
However, a few of them retain their sanity and can control the power of demonic transformation at will. Such humans are closer in nature to demons than humans and are thus called demon kins. Demon kins are humans who have forsaken their humanity and embraced the side of demons.
Most of the members of the demonic clans, like the Majin clan and Akuma clan, are demon kins. The purer the demon bloodline in their body, the stronger and closer they are to the demons.
The scales on this demon kin are a part of its demonic transformation and provide it with a powerful defense.
Keke…
The demon kin releases an ugly laughter and glares at Ishiko with a deadly gaze.
"I didn't expect to be discovered so soon. However, it doesn't matter. I was initially planning to let you live a bit longer. But I have changed my mind. I will kill you right now and end this farce for good."
The demon kin, confident of his abilities, ignores the warnings of his superior. This demon kin's task was to monitor the Uzumaki woman and report her activities to the higher-ups.
Later, the higher-ups will set an ambush and get rid of the group. However, with his location exposed, he can no longer continue his mission.
His priority should be to retreat as soon as possible. Since he had no confidence in dealing with an elite group of shinobis.
However, this aerial battle shifted the odds in his favor. The group of elite shinobis are stranded down on the ground, unable to reach the sky. And his only opponent is a weak woman, who needs escort protection to reach the sealing place.
And now, this woman is facing him head-on in a confrontation. With his powerful abilities and demonic transformation, he is confident enough to deal with the woman in front of her.
'If I kill her now, then not only will I complete the mission. But also make substantial contributions in exchange for more drops of demon blood. Infusing more demon blood will allow me to enrich my demon bloodline and awaken new abilities, raising my status in the clan.'
A sinister glint flashes across the demon kin's eyes as he targets Ishiko.
Ishiko, unaware of this demon kin's thoughts, prepares her attack.
Swish… Swish… Swish…
Snake → Dragon → Rabbit → Tiger
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique,"
She spits out dense flames from her mouth. The flames morph into a giant fire dragon and quickly travel toward the demon kin on top of the bird. The blazing heat and light of the giant fire dragon cast an enormous shadow on the ground. Its massive size even surpasses the giant demonic bird.
'Holy crap! What a powerful fire release technique!'
Ritsu mumbles in shock. He has never seen anyone use this technique before, but from his meager knowledge, he understands that this technique wasn't supposed to be this big.
'It's mother's Uzumaki genes. With her large chakra pool, she can empower any technique to another level by infusing a large amount of chakra into it.'
Under such conditions, even a small fireball can unleash a deadly explosion, capable of devastating a large area.
BOOM…
The massive fire dragon opens its maw wide and engulfs the demon kin.
"SHIMATA!"
The demon kin, who was underestimating Ishiko, is shocked to see such an outburst of chakra. He rapidly makes a series of hand signs.
"Demon Arts: Water Release: Jet Burst Pistol," (Demon Arts or "Akijutsu")
The cloaked demon kin's palm glows with bright bluish-purple chakra. He slaps the palm on the crown of the demonic bird.
SCREE…
The demon bird releases a sharp, high-pitched scream and opens its mouth to fire a burst of water with a dark purple aura.
The giant fire dragon and the purple water beam collide, neutralizing each other. Their clash releases a large amount of steam. The steam forms a thick mist, hindering everyone's vision.
Hmm…
Ritsu, who was watching the battle with great enthusiasm, frowned.
"How am I supposed to watch like this?" He grits his teeth and makes a series of hand signs.
'Sensing Technique,'
Ritsu closes his eyes to sense his surroundings and observe the battle in the sky. He restrains his chakra to avoid making contact with the demon kin. He might suffer another backlash if his chakra comes in contact with the demon.
Soon, he senses two chakra flames in the sky. The bright red mini sun-like flame is his mother's chakra signature and the dim cyan and yellow chakra flame must be her summon.
The chakra flames are almost stationary, only moving up and down in a slightly vertical direction.
'Hmm… this must be the hawk's flight to maintain the same altitude. But where is her enemy?' Ritsu dare not to pry into demon kin's chakra.
Hmm…
Ritsu ponders for a while before picking up the bandage and blindfolding himself.
'Should I try infusing chakra into my ears?' He wonders.
Improving hearing is harder than improving vision using chakra. His ears need to pick up more sounds for better hearing, but there are several unnecessary sounds and noises in the surroundings. If his ears pick more sounds, then he will hear more gibberish and the large number of sounds might even overload his brain.
He needs an effective method to filter all those unnecessary sounds and solely focus on collecting useful information. After some consideration, he gives up on infusing chakra into his ears.
'I need to train my brain better to filter unnecessary information. Honing one's five senses is also a part of the Sensory skills.' He decides on another goal.
The group silently stares at the battle unfolding in the sky.
Occasional sparks, thunderous roars, screeches, and bursts of flames would erupt from the mist cloud. There is also an occasional burst of violet lightning and water beams.
"How long will the battle last?" Worry appears on Princess Natsumi's face.
The overwhelming demonic presence in the sky is adversely affecting her mind and body. The demonic chakra has a sinister nature, and it tends to affect nearby living beings. Princess Natsumi is an ordinary woman and, without any protection, she is prone to the demonic chakra's side effects.
Yugo and Kazetsu sense her discomfort.
"Lady Natsumi, we will shield you!"
Both of them take out a Fuinjutsu scroll from their pockets and infuse their chakra into the scroll after making a series of hand signs.
The scroll releases a bright light, erecting a small dome-shaped barrier around the carriage. The other merchants also inch closer to the carriage and take shelter inside the barrier.
They heave a sigh of relief as the immense pressure acting on them vanished after entering the barrier.
Crackle… Boom…
Suddenly, with a loud boom, a massive shadow falls from the sky. It crashes on the ground and creates a deep crater with a large radius.
"Who is that?"
The group hurriedly rushes towards the crater. Ritsu also follows them.
"Be careful, young Ritsu!" Baru accompanies him.