Chapter 65

The screams were from the poison in the swamp. Everything in there was poison; From the waters and grass, to the mist surrounding the place. Swamp Release. After a year of hard work, I was finally able to create it. Honestly, I was trying to go for Hashirama's Mokuton, but no matter what I did, I was unable to. It made me wonder why; I had the same chakra natures, including yang, so then why? There had always been debate concerning the First Hokage's Wood release.

Some said it was a chakra mutation which he obtained only through luck. others said it was because of his body that he was filled with so much life force, he was able to give life to trees. None of that really concerned me, I just wanted to recreate it. But it was futile. Then I remembered older Uchiha Sasuke; He was able to combine water and wind to recreate ice; Although, according to him, was not the original Kekkei Genkai, Ice Release of the Yuki Clan, but an inferior version. Not that I watched Boruto; It was a click bait on youtube that attracted me. Glad I saw that before I was sent here.

That got me thinking; Did that not mean it was entirely possible to recreate inferior versions of bloodline limits? So, I got to working, trying everything I could think of, again to no avail, until one day I had an idea. After so many tiring months of nonstop combinations with water and earth together, chakra as the seed and yang as the sun, and my chakra facilitating the growth rate, I finally grew the inferior version; Grass. Well, to be honest, more like, weeds, but still. Science, Bitches!

That was how I created my Swamp Release. Coupled with the poisons, I had been looking forward to testing it out for so long and here they were; My beautiful test subjects. With nowhere to run because of the barrier set up, their screams were truly melodious to listen to.

I turned to look at the siblings frozen in fear who tensed up even more to see if they were enjoying the music, but thought to myself, 'I guess it is just me.' I once again dashed into the swamp to have a good look at my work. The poison corroded their skins and ate at their bones, barely leaving anything. For those who had chakra were in an even more deplorable state. The poison fed on their chakras and ate at them rather slowly, becoming a catalyst and causing fungi to grow in and on them.

I was unsatisfied. The poison was supposed to completely eat away everything without leaving traces but it seemed to leave a few parts uneaten. I would have to revisit it. I pulled out my tanto and began decapitating head, intending to finish this quickly and head on to my personal agenda. A few moments later, there was silence. The screams had died down with the whole place turning eerily quiet.

The mist cleared and the water receded, revealing a few pieces of flesh and bone parts. I could hear retching sounds a distance away but ignored it. I walked ahead to a man that looked barely alive. He was covered full with fungi with his left eye barely exposed.

"I am impressed Danzo. Is it the First's cells that kept you alive throughout? That must have been painful." His barely exposed eye glared at me with hate and rage. I shook my head and spoke to him again, "You should have stayed in the sewers where u belonged, Georg… oh no, Danzo. A coward who was afraid to become Hokage and run into the dark, has no business in the light." His eye widened and looked like he wanted to ask questions but I stabbed into his eye, finally ending the life of Danzo Himura.

"I told you I would take more than that if you came after me again." I whispered to his body and indicated for the siblings to continue the journey, which they quickly complied. I sent them outside of the barrier and pulled my mask to the side. I made a quick sign and spoke in my heart, 'Water Release: Corrosive wave'. I spat a huge amount of water from my mouth, and with the barrier still intact, it was concentrated in the vicinity of the receded swamp, completely corroding everything; be they remains of flesh and bone, or grass. Everything was gone in a few seconds. I am an assassin; Like I was going to leave any evidence behind.

I looked at the siblings and began contemplating whether or not to get rid of them. As if they could read my mind, Hiroko quickly spoke, "Please rest assured, we will not tell anyone. They tried to kill us and you have done us a favor which we do not even know how to repay. We shall talk to father once we return and make sure you receive the highest reward possible. Of course, the main thing is we saw nothing!" She seemed to be the smart one. Her brother by the side kept nodding vigorously like a lizard on adrenaline.

I narrowed my eyes in thought before nodding. "Big sister does not need to be so tense. I was only teasing. It is my mission and I intended on completing it, no matter what." This seemed to make them relaxed slightly. Only slightly. They felt the switch was too quick. If not for the blood still present on my face, they would not liken me to the monster that just took out over one hundred people in a matter of moments.

I cleaned myself up a little and we finally continued on our journey. The corrosive wave had long receded with nothing left but wet ground. As we run, I took the chance to think about my battle with Danzo, if you could call it that. My advantage was him coming with the intention to recruit me. If he had come with his unsealed arm and eyes, things might have gone completely different. Recalling his fight with Sasuke, it seemed he only used the eyes on his arm to perform the Izanagi. It did not really look like the eyes were connected to his 'brain', so to speak, granting him the vision a Sharingan usually provided.

Still, facing a constantly resetting man seemed troubling. Maybe I would be able to properly finish it if I used merge. But I did not want to. Merge was my trump card which left me too tired; I still could barely handle the stress of using it. Either way, it was a good thing it did not come down to it.

'Mm, I am strong.' I was quite pleased with myself. I got to test out my Swamp Release Jutsu and found a few flaws I could work on. Unfortunately, there is one more that I had yet to test and I was almost dying to try. I could barely wait.

After half a month of what should have been quiet traveling, we finally got to the drop point. The siblings, or more specifically, Hiroko, had been talking to me nonstop. After a while of relentless talking and questioning, I finally gave in and answered back. She was so happy to have 'broken my shell'. I could only roll my eyes at her. Needless to say, we had become friends. She even promised to visit during the chunin exam that would be held in Konoha even if I would not participate because she knew I would not show up if she asked me to visit the Daimyo's place. Such a lively girl. She looked to have had a burden lifted. I forgave her brother who apologized as well. There was no use in keeping such a grudge. He too looked like a weight had been lifted, although, his seemed more like fear of death.

There was someone waiting at the drop point, which did and did not surprise me; The old priest back at the temple. It did not surprise me that he was there because that was what he said to me before we left, 'I will see you soon, till then, please take care of both of them.' Now I wonder if that back there was a shadow clone or had the old man actually run ahead of us to meet us here? Either way, they were left in capable hands.

"Thank you, Sakura." Hiroko said with tear rimmed eyes and hugged me. I rolled my eyes at her and hugged her back. Her brother Nakasone nodded at me to relay his thanks as well. At least one of them understood I did not like this weird mushy stuff. After a few more goodbyes and farewells with promises, I disappeared from their sights but left a clone to make sure they arrived at the palace safely.