Chapter 21- Shai’s Mark

The doorknob turned, and the man pushed opened the door, then waited for a full minute. Only after a detailed sweep did he walk in, every step full of caution.

SPLAT! BANG! 

As soon as he stepped inside, two seals on the ceiling and floor were activated. Firstly, the ground seal was a paralyzing seal. Even for a Jōnin like him, the surprise got him, paralyzing him for a couple of seconds. Then, from the above, the seals were released, releasing the contents stored inside it. A bucket of sticky fluid was dropped first, then chicken feather. 

The man stood there, dumbfounded, his body uncontrollably trembling. Moments later, he burst out laughing. 

Looking at a side, the man pointed at the space near the stairs and said, "You're really good, Raito. The progress you've made with these seals in just a few months surprised me." 

The space where the man pointed, distorted and Raito walked out from there. He wore an unhappy expression, looking at the man and said, "Cheater. Even Shun-nii is using shadow clones." 

The man looked a little shocked. After a silent pause, he asked, "How did you know?" 

"Naruto also uses this stupid technique all the time. So, now I can naturally tell which is real and which one is a shadow clone." Raito lied without even a blink.

"I don't believe you." The man took a step back and added, "There are five big nations in the Elemental Nations, but none of them can distinguish between a real body and a shadow clone, but you say that you are able to. I naturally won't believe that." He replied with a valid reasoning.

"Believe it if you want to. Don't believe it if you don't want to. I don't care." Raito rolled his eyes and switched on the lights.

Naturally, no one could differentiate a shadow clone and a real body. A shadow clone would create an exact copy of the user, and also their chakra flows. Neither the famed Byakugan nor Sharingan were able to differentiate between shadow clones and real body in the full history of shinobi world. 

However, today, from the Konohagakure, a mere academy student, not even a fully-fledged shinobi, managed to differentiate a shadow clone from a real person. 

In fact, it was simple thing for Raito. He just had to read the name hovering above the person. Just now, Raito saw the name of clone, above his head. 

[Morikawa Shun (Shadow Clone 1-0)]

Gamer power proved useful in situations like this, being able to know about the names and titles, even without asking or investigating.

"Mari-nee told me that you were coming, so I made a bit more than usual." Raito took food out of the fridge and started heating them. 'Since Shun-nii is super-fast I made the seals activate on its own and even used a paralyzing seal, but he is too cautious.'

The clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and moments later, a young man entered. He had tan skin, brown eyes and black spiky hair worn in a ponytail. Wearing a skintight black bodysuit, a standard flak jacket and a dark green pants with many pockets, he had a small smile hung on his face, showing his canines.

Checking the surrounding for any traps, the man slowly walked inside and sat on a chair.

"Shun-nii, you cheat. Even when coming to the house you use shadow clone." Raito said with anger mixed in his voice. 

Shun laughed, "Haha, as I always say, a good ninja is always prepared…of course, to a certain extent." 

Raito pouted, "Always prepared?"

"When you said you were giving me a big gift on my birthday, did your preparation included going on a mission and being half a year late?" 

Shun quickly pointed out, "It seems that you are more annoyed about not getting presents than me not coming to your birthday." 

"Hmph." 

Shun sniffed, "What's that? It smells delicious." 

Raito took out some more food from his inventory. As Shun saw the food items came out of thin air, he continued smiling. 

"Raito, give me a bigger share. Look (#holding his stomach) my empty stomach; I am starving. I came here quickly after entering the village, straight as a horse." Shun acted pitifully. 

"Liar, you went to Hokage tower than to Mari-nee's, and then here. I can already see your priority." Raito quickly exposed his lies, making Shun scratch his head. 

"Really? You have advanced that much?" Shun cracked his neck then asked rapid-fire question to Raito. "How much is the range? What else can you sense? Do you feel that it's different from what you have learned from the notes?" 

"Why are you in such a hurry? I will tell you slowly. Let me serve the food, first. I have something amazing to show you." Raito hit the pan and let out a smug smile.

"Here." Raito gave food to Shun. His portion seemed much bigger than what Naruto gets. 

"Thank you for the food." Praying, Shun started to gobble them down, like a hungry demon.

"I don't understand how you eat that much but still look good. Can you tell the secret to Chōji?" Raito simply asked in curiosity. 

"There… is no secret, just pure hard work." Shun gulped and answered. 

"Oh, this one tastes good. Slurp… what is this warm feeling? What is with this meat? Did you add some drug to it? Holy mother, can a simple-looking salad this taste soo good? What the hell is going on?" Shun asked as he frantically ate the food.

"I read books on cooking and apply them, simple." Raito replied as he started cleaning the kitchenware.

"Hah… don't you want to become a ninja? Why are you learning theses useless things? Don't tell me you were serious about that!?" After gulping down a large amount of scented rice, he asked, staring deeply at Raito. 

"Good food is required for good growth." Raito said in a somewhat annoying way. "Haven't you heard about nutrition?"

Shun shrugged, "As long as you train hard, it doesn't really matter." 

Shun patted his stomach and made a satisfied face, "It feels really nice." 

"Now then as always, I will be washing them." Shun stood up and started gathering his plates and bowls. 

"Wait, Shun-nii, wait. I will do it." Hastily catching all the plates and bowl, Raito started washing the dishes. 

"You are acting different, lazy Raito." Shun commented, looking at him with his critical eyes.

"Your work is sloppy. There were stains on the plates the last time." Raito answered with a glare.

There was a pregnant pause as both of them enjoyed the quiet time. 

Inside the small kitchen and dining with dim lighting. Raito slowed his cleaning work, a bit of worry appearing on his face, "Shun-nii, Yūgao-nee gave me Jutsu scrolls in the open. According to shinobi rules-" 

"I learned about that." Shun nodded and let out a breath. "Don't worry about those things… just leave troublesome things to grownups." 

Shun looked at Raito's back with a sad smile on his face. 'Just try be a kid like others.'

There was another pause before Raito started. "So what did you know about me from them?" 

"Let's see, you learned sword techniques from Yūgao, learning dangerous things. You also learned 'all' the camping Jutsu… 'ALL'. Then Rock Fist technique, then it was beating the Uchiha." Shun quickly pointed a couple of things then stared at Raito before saying. "After Naruto joined the house, you changed." 

"Yeah… What? I did work hard even before Naruto came." Raito made a loud noise and glared at Shun. "Even when there was visits and such, I worked hard. It just…"

"Did something else happened?" Shun asked and after that there was a long pause.

Cleaning the last plate, Raito replied. "I got a bit motivated."

Slapping his head, Shun asked, "Forget what I asked. Why don't you show me what you wanted to?"

"Hehe, then be ready to be amazed." Raito dried his hand, waved once in the air, and then there was a ball in his hand. He threw the ball to the puzzled Shun. 

Again waving his hand, a bigger rock appeared, and with another wave, the rock disappeared. 

"You see that. So awesome."

Looking at Raito, Shun shouted, "What the heck?" 

Raito puffed his chest and answered proudly. "It's a kind of storage technique." 

"Like a storage seal?" 

"Yeah, but better." 

"Pfft," Shun laughed, then looked at Raito pitifully.

"You wanted to show me that. Well it's a nice trick but look at this." Shun raised his hand in front of his chest, with a puff of smoke a kunai appeared in his hand. 

"Huh?" Raito had a confused face. "A storage seal or summoning technique."

"Correct." The kunai disappeared. "Now look carefully. With high level of chakra control, there would be no waste." 

Waving his hands in an arc, two long dark katana suddenly appeared. This time there was no chakra smoke but there was faint chakra fluctuation. In the end, Shun had two katana in his hand standing straight like a spear. 

"Che, show off." The showoff was too much for Raito. For a moment, he even thought that Shun had an inventory with him. 

Shun turned his hand and the katana disappeared quietly. Looking at Raito, Shun said, "This is what you did, Chakra Control and nothing else, okay?" 

"…"

Shun sighed and looked outside the door, "Little brat, please be a little normal and don't show off. There are a lot of people looking."

"I am not… showing off." Raito looked sideways, not meeting his eyes, typical of a liar.

"It was just a spar, you know." Raito defended himself then added, "I didn't even beat him that bad." 

Shun rubbed his chin and said, "Though you didn't beat him that bad, you overwhelmed him." 

Raito frowned and said, "He was…"

There were words he would like to say; Sasuke was out of control, he was seriously trying to go for the kill and so on but what Raito did was…

"Sorry," Raito murmured. 

Shun pulled Raito close, then patted his head, "Hide it. Hide your skills. This village is different, very different as compared to what it is seen in the day. The village was built to live under one roof in harmony. It was a hope, but there is always this… hate. So, I hope you understand that and hide yourself."

At some point. Raito tried to raise his head but Shun pushed it down, trying to hide the dark gleam from his eyes. 

"Remember, deceive everyone, and spare none. Strength is right but not everything." 

"Shun-nii," Raito called, shivering from the fluctuating chakra.

"Seal the room, and I will show you something." Shun said with a silent signal. 

Raito nodded and activated the seals in the room. 

"Follow me." Shun led the way. He walked quickly and reached the library. There, he stood in front of the full length mirror. 

Boar, Bird, Tiger, Boar, Snake, Rat. Chakra flare

[Secret Fūinjutsu: Sealed Mirror World – Release]

Fūinjutsu marks appeared on the mirror, covering almost all of the mirror. The marks appeared and disappeared, and at the end, even the glass disappeared, revealing the stairs leading downstairs.

Shun took the lead again and asked Raito to follow. At the end of the stair was a door with no handle. Instead, there was a white spot with one black circle in it at the middle of the door. 

"With your blood, swipe as you send chakra." Shun instructed. 

"Okay." Raito did as he was told. This part of the house, this mirror, he never knew. Even with his 'Chakra Sense', he could not ever see these stairs or this door. 

The seal glowed for a couple of seconds before fading, then the door opened on its own. 

In front of Raito was a large room, or it should be called space. It covered more than what Raito's '[Chakra Sense]' could cover. Except for the thick black pillars all over this place, there was nothing else. Walking up to one, Raito found some writings on them but they were so illegible that even Naruto's handwriting would be called a good one. "I don't think even Naruto can read this. What is this?" 

"I don't know." Shun looked around and sighed.

Walking a couple of steps further, Raito asked, "What is this room?"

"Your parents called it the training room. Not much of a name but it is what it is." Shun answered then added, "You parents had always kept this place a secret. Only a handful knows about this and now, you know about it too."

Raito walked around for quite a bit and looked around. There was indeed nothing else except for the black pillars.

"Well it's a big empty room; you can do whatever you want in here except… sleeping." Shun said ominously.

Raito felt his temples throbbing. How can you not explain everything at once when you say something like that? "Why is that?"

"This room is unique, you know. You can train and hide but you can't stay more than 12 hours here because… that is, in 12 hours everything here disappears." Shun replied, hesitating.

A heavy pause followed. It took Raito some time to process Shun's words and how he had reached that conclusion. How anyone could reach that conclusion. Wait. "What!?" 

"Yeah, everything disappears in 12 hours." 

"Even-" 

"Even humans." 

Raito laughed it off and said. "Okay then, I will not mind the fact that once in this very place a human disappeared, never to be seen again." 

Shun turned around and murmured, "More than just one."

Raito looked around and found a clock above the door. He pointed to the plain grey-bordered clock and asked, "What is that clock doing there?" 

"That tells the time." Answered Shun 

Raito rolled his eyes and said, "Apparently wrong time." 

"It's meant to be like that. See, the long hand it's in 1 it means the room was opened 5 minutes ago." Shun explained then added. "You have a full 12 hours to do things. Make sure you watch the shorthand." 

"Where is this place? I know for sure that this isn't my basement." Raito asked. 

"Stop asking the question I have no answer to." Shun replied helplessly. "It is just something your parents left behind for you."

"Do you know anything else?" Raito asked to end this. 

"Well, this place is really sturdy. You can throw an S-class Jutsu and it will be like nothing ever happened." 

'Observe.' To nothing.

[Room of Null] 

A space 

Owner: Yoshizawa Raito 

Special traits 

The room cannot be destroyed 

The room resets every 12 hours. (Modifiable) 

'So little detail. It is the first.' Raito thought and closed the box. 

"What are you daydreaming for? Just train here in the future." Shun slapped Raito's head then walked towards the door.

'Do I even need this?' Raito asked himself. 

Shun had crossed the door, "You and Naruto have so many secrets, so we thought that this would be perfect. Isn't this awesome?" 

"Shun-nii?" Raito called Shun in his best 'I am a good boy' voice. 

Shun looked at Raito with some fear, "Yeah?" It wasn't the first time he had heard that sweet sounding voice.

"What about my gift?" 

"What are you talking about? This room here is your gift." Shun spread his arms to the big room. 

"Eh? But this isn't a gift, because I already had it with me." Raito had a nonchalant face while looking at the space. 

"Selfish brat." Shun mercilessly rubbed Raito's head. Then, from his chest pocket, he took out a scroll. Unrolling it, one could see a very, very complex storage seal inscribed on it. 

Making a cut on his thumb, Shun made a kanji for 'hidden' with his blood then started injecting massive amount of chakra in it. 

From outside to inside the ink gathered to make a big black spot in the middle. Then the black spot disappeared, forming a chakra cloud. 

"It's done." Swatting the lingering cloud, Shun picked up a bracelet, what seemed to be made up of a thick rope with a wooden chip, upon which something was written.

Raito looked at the bracelet and felt a jolt in his heart. 

Closing the scroll and with bracelet in his hand, Shun coughed and started, "Ahem. Let me tell you how I got this thing." 

Raito's eye was glued to the bracelet as he said, "Can't you just give it to me?" 

"Do you want it or not?" 

"Want, want." Raito nodded like a dog.

Shun coughed for the mood and started, "It was after finishing the last mission. Me and my team, were returning to the village, but we had to stop at the capital because my teammates wanted some action. You know what I am mean right." 

Raito looked blankly at Shun. 'I should tell Mari-nee.'

Coughing lightly to hide his expression, Shun continued, "Ahem…Right. Because they wanted to, we all decided to stop at the capital. After we reached there, they abandoned me, alone in an unknown land... just kidding." 

"Shun-nii this…" Raito wanted to stop Shun from continue but Shun continued anyways. 

"So when I was left alone, I decided to visit the shrine there. After praying and enjoying the scenery in the shrine, I roamed around, looking to buy some souvenir. You know what I encountered?" 

"An interesting scene."

"A young woman, no older than you, with scars on her face. She was sitting under a tree near the park, and beside her, there was a banner made up of white cloth. It said, 'Bury the dead and pray for the living' and under that, 'A hundred thousand Ryo for wishing luck to be on your side for all eternity." 

"A hundred thousand Ryo?" Raito looked at Shun, then repeated. "A hundred thousand."

"Yeah, a few people looked at it. Some people wanted to help but decided against it, some people were scared, and other were just spectating. They were mocking her and cursing for being greedy, but she remained the same, not uttering a word. A few minutes later, some guards came and requested her to leave, or at least move to another place, but the girl remained unfazed. It looked like they were going to use force so I decided to step in." 

"Hero saving a beauty?" Raito rolled his eyes. It sounded just like those novels written by the perverted guys, writing about a princess encountering bandits and getting saved by the hero.

"Not exactly. After I decided to step in, the people there went, 'Shinobi-sama, shinobi-sama, so cool and such. Awesome, right? The guards stepped down, and the crowd also dispersed eventually." 

"I approached the girl and asked what she needed money for." Shun rubbed his shoulders remembering the answer. "I felt chills hearing her answer. She said it was for her mother, who died a couple of days ago. The body was still in the house, still waiting for the ritual, and she wanted to burn real money for her mother." 

Raito flinched. "Real money for the dead family but isn't that…?" 

"Yeah it's not a good omen, but do you know what was even odder?" 

Raito shook his head, as he could not even think what more there could be.

Shun took out a scroll and pointed at it. "I exactly had a hundred thousand stored in my scroll."

"No way."

"Yup."

Raito covered his forehead and sighed, "Shun-nii… um… you didn't just give that girl the money, did you?" 

"Yup I gave her." Shun replied with a smile.

"…Baka-nii. If Mari-nee knew, she would beat you to an inch of your life. You didn't think she could, ugh…right, maybe she used some Jutsu on you." 

"I am A-Rank on the bingo book, and I have faced many dangerous people in my life. Do you think I can't notice a small girl casting a jutsu on me?" Shun looked at Raito with anger and complication.

He turned sideways and snorted. "You think low of me, don't you?" 

"Then tell me why did you give the money to her?" 

"Because of the look in her eyes." 

"…" Raito facepalmed. 

"Let me continue. After I gave her the money, she said she would not pray for me. I was stunned, then replied with no problem. Then she took out a pouch from her breast pocket, yup, a big one, definitely the size of watermelons. Ahem, opening the pouch, she gave me this bracelet." 

'Really this bracelet…' 

[Shai's Bracelet] 

Unique equipment, user bound equipment 

Increase LUCK stat by 1 for every 1 level. 

Add 1 Stat point per level

|Bound equipment|

Binds permanently to the first user 

Raito quickly snatched the bracelet and stared at it, inspecting every corner, "I'll be taking this." 

"If you have time in future, then try to meet this girl.' Raito looked at Shun in puzzlement. Shun shrugged, "She will draw your eyes."

"If you want to meet her, go to the capital. Her name was something like Sai or Shai…" 

Raito looked at the bracelet then at Shun. "Yup, Shun-nii is definitely a baka and a big one at that." 

Raito kept the bracelet in the inventory and added. "If I were in your place, I would have definitely not given her the money." 

"Haha, little Raito… this continent is so full of mysteries. In time, you will be able to judge what is good or what is bad with your own eyes." 

"Baka-nii, for bringing me this, I will let you have a sample of the new sweet I learned from the traveling merchants a few months back. I didn't even let Anko-nee taste it, so, you are the first one." 

"Oi, don't call me baka." 

"This is a sweet called 'Gulab Jamun' from the lands beyond Wind Country." Ignoring Shun, Raito continued. 

"From lands beyond the Wind Country. I have heard about it, but for you to get its recipe, how much did it cost?" Shun also quickly asked. 

"Shun-nii, do you want?" Raito asked, taking out a small bowl.

"Um, but don't tell Mari… if she knew, ugh." Remembering the few times, Shun shuddered. 

"I accept any and all form of payments." Raito smiled 

Shun left Raito's house and went back. 

Seeing that Shun left the house, Raito activated the seals and went upstairs. Opening Naruto's room, he saw Naruto in his pajamas, sleeping in a difficult position and snoring loudly. His room was full of mess, with books and scrolls lying everywhere on the floor. 

Switching off the lights, Raito closed the door and went to his room. His room was very different from Naruto's – a clean room with books and scrolls neatly arranged on the shelves. In a corner, there were some weights on the corner of the room, kunai pouch and other trinkets on the table. A reading table with scrolls opened, an inkstone, and a brush at the top.

Raito closed the door, then activated his '[Chakra Sense]'. After a thorough sweep, Raito took out the bracelet and examined it. The word on the chip was illegible. The word 'binding' and 'permanent' ate on him. 

Raito looked at it, thought about it, used '[Observe]' and '[Analysis]' but found little to no additional information.

"What can happen?" Raito stretched it and put it on his left wrist. He waited for a full minute, and nothing happened.

Just as he could sigh in relief, the wooden chip broke into pieces and the rope turned white.

"Damn it." Raito quickly grabbed the rope and tried to remove it, but before he could do anything, his fingers passed the rope, and before long, the rope had turned into a line thin white mark on his left wrist. 

[Shai's Mark] 

Increase LUCK stat by 1 for every 1 level. 

Add 1 Stat point per level

Permanently bound to user 'Raito'.

A sense of exhaustion fell on Raito as he lay on the bed. 'It's not that bad.'

With his last thoughts, Raito closed his eyes and pulled the blanket.