Chapter 6: The Eight Gates
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Battlefield of the Land of Water and the Land of Fire
Two patrolling Chunin whispered to each other.
"Did you hear?" one of them asked.
"Hear what?" the other replied, confused.
The first one lowered his voice. "Another Uchiha corpse has gone missing."
"Hah! They can't even guard their own dead. How useless."
"You think the Uchiha pissed off someone? Maybe they're being targeted?"
The other quickly covered his mouth. "Dude, shut up!" he hissed. "You trying to get yourself killed?!"
"If those Uchiha lunatics hear you, you're done for!"
They weren't part of the Uchiha clan—just regular ninja. They couldn't afford to offend one of the great clans.
The Uchiha were already on edge about the stolen corpses. They were like barrels of gunpowder waiting to explode. If someone rubbed them the wrong way now, it wouldn't end well.
Above them, a hundred meters in the air, a figure streaked across the sky, clad in gold and red.
Ron sighed.
Stealing corpses was getting harder and harder.
After absorbing the mist from Might Duy, he had indeed learned the Eight Gates. But his physical limits were a major drawback. He could barely open the first gate. The rest? Forget about it—just attempting it felt like his genes were about to collapse.
No choice but to head back to the battlefield.
Along the way, he even came across refugees who had starved to death by the roadside. He took a few of their corpses, but aside from some useless memories, he gained nothing of value.
At his current level, the energy he got from regular humans was negligible.
So once he reached the battlefield, he monitored everything in real-time using satellite mapping. The moment a red dot disappeared—indicating someone had died—he swooped in.
If he could steal the body, he would.
If he had to fight for it, he would.
Time was running out. The Mist ninja would retreat soon, and then finding bodies would be a nightmare.
For now, things were going well. He managed to collect quite a few corpses. Most of them were just Genin, but they helped him break through to Chunin level. Beyond that, they weren't doing much for him anymore.
So he shifted his focus to Uchiha corpses.
And other ninja with special bloodline limits.
At first, it went smoothly.
But once his reputation spread, people started guarding against him.
Not that he cared.
If he couldn't win a fight, he could always run. And with his tracking system, sneak attacks were out of the question.
A thousand meters per second.
No ninja could keep up.
They couldn't catch him, and all he did was steal corpses. So both sides on the battlefield just started ignoring him. Every time he appeared, they'd just glance at him and go back to fighting.
That unspoken agreement had just been broken.
Ron detected a fresh corpse and rushed in to grab it—only to find two other people already there!
Two figures were stuffing bodies into a sealing scroll.
"No freakin' way! People are out here stealing MY gig?!"
Then he saw the eerie masks on their faces.
And the Konoha headbands on their foreheads.
Ron blinked.
Then realization hit him.
Oh, hell no!
Danzo, that old bastard!
At this point, Orochimaru hadn't defected yet. Which meant they still needed a ton of corpses for human experiments.
And Danzo? That guy had always had his eyes on the Sharingan.
Targeting the Uchiha right now made perfect sense.
Sure, it made sense.
But Ron wasn't about to let it slide.
"Yo, you Konoha Root guys! Does the Uchiha clan know you're stealing their corpses?"
"Who's there?!" one of them barked.
"Your granddaddy!" Ron shouted back, hovering mid-air.
At the same time, he activated his suit's speaker system.
"Attention! Konoha's Shimura Danzo is stealing Uchiha corpses on the battlefield!"
"Attention! Konoha's Shimura Danzo is stealing Uchiha corpses on the battlefield!"
The booming voice echoed across the battlefield.
Everyone heard it.
In an instant, all eyes turned in their direction.
Especially the Uchiha.
The moment they saw that iconic gold-and-red suit, they abandoned their fights and sprinted toward him at full speed.
The two Root ninja's faces twisted in panic.
"Damn it! Someone's coming—move!"
They didn't even bother grabbing the last two bodies. They just turned and ran.
But what they didn't expect was...
The golden-red figure above them was like a piece of chewing gum stuck to their backs.
No matter what they did, they couldn't shake him off.
They tried transformation jutsu, body flicker techniques—
It bought them a few seconds at best.
Then, boom, he was back on their tails.
And the worst part?
His loudspeaker was still blasting their location!
Real-time updates.
This was pure hell.
The two Root ninja locked eyes.
They flashed through hand seals.
Clone Jutsu!
In an instant, two became four.
All four dashed off in different directions.
Ron blinked.
Then checked the map.
Still just two red dots.
His radar was too good.
But he couldn't split himself.
Clones? They didn't have his armor.
No point in making them.
After a brief hesitation, he made his choice.
He shot toward the one in the fox mask.
That guy had the sealing scroll!
...