Compared to most shinobi, Yūshin could be considered an exceptionally normal person.
As an outsider to this world, one could say his thinking was considerably disconnected from the Shinobi World's common understanding, or that being intellectually "isolated," he carried no heavy burdens from the past.
Against the backdrop of the entire Shinobi World descending into chaos, he could neither be blindly optimistic nor bitter enough to become nihilistically pessimistic.
He'd never viewed himself as a "protagonist" capable of determining the world's direction. In fact, for his current self, his life goal was simply to survive in these turbulent times through relatively normal means.
Therefore, he truly lacked that mentality of seeing someone and feeling compelled to kill them—too extreme.
Though someone had been killed in the explosion just now, this absolutely wasn't anyone's deliberate action, merely an accident caused by natural disaster.
Which swamp doesn't bury people, right?
This conflict shouldn't have occurred at all—Yūshin had only wanted to ask a few questions from beginning to end.
Now that the opposition had lost a companion, peaceful resolution became even more impossible.
The remaining shinobi crouched on his giant eagle summoning beast's back, overlooking Yūshin from midair.
After his head cleared and his senses were no longer affected by the explosion, he unhesitatingly commanded the flying eagle to dive straight down.
Yūshin's tinnitus gradually weakened as a piercing eagle cry reached his ears.
Such a large-scale summoning beast deserved serious attention. Yūshin acknowledged his physique insufficient for direct confrontation with this chakra-powered beast, so he decided not to give his opponent any chance to approach.
In the blink of an eye, the distance between them had closed to twenty meters.
At this range, among all ninjutsu Yūshin mastered, only one could guarantee one-hundred-percent effectiveness—Water Release: Water Severing Wave.
His hands rapidly formed seals, immediately followed by a fine water blade shooting intensely skyward.
High-speed, high-density water flow carried unimaginably high-frequency vibrations, powerful enough to split gold and cleave stone. Using such techniques against flesh and blood was utterly unstoppable.
The water blade slashed diagonally toward the sky, then the seemingly soft yet indestructible white line descended from midair. The slender water blade precisely cut into the giant eagle's body, then passed through without any hindrance.
Instantly blood splattered everywhere as the giant eagle's wing was easily severed.
Even in midair, large objects were always easier to hit than small ones.
Moreover, for unknown reasons, this eagle's reactions weren't sufficiently agile.
Facing enemies of this current level, Yūshin's use of such high-grade Water Release somewhat resembled using cannons against mosquitoes.
But there was no alternative—when dealing with distant targets, only Water Severing Wave had reliable range.
Water Dragon Bullet's attack range might barely suffice, but against airborne targets, gravity would severely constrain its impact force, with killing effectiveness definitely inferior to Water Severing Wave.
This extended to another issue: why do shinobi all prefer throwing shuriken? The answer was simple—shuriken's effective attack range exceeded over ninety percent of ninjutsu.
Ninjutsu with range exceeding twenty meters wasn't something ordinary shinobi could master.
The wing-severed giant eagle, along with the shinobi on its back, plummeted from midair, then struggled desperately on the ground like livestock awaiting slaughter.
That shinobi no longer had the ability to control his pain-dominated summoning beast. While dodging the giant eagle's chaotic attacks, he released another summoning beast.
Another massive lion-shaped monster suddenly appeared on the battlefield, with exposed fangs and extended claws—clearly not easily provoked.
Yūshin felt somewhat puzzled. Logically, large summoning beasts were scarce resources—how could a randomly encountered shinobi casually produce two?
However, what surprised him more came next. After being summoned, that lion-shaped summoning beast immediately assumed an aggressive posture.
Yūshin lowered his body, preparing for immediate counterattack.
But at this moment, that seemingly charging summoning beast suddenly turned sideways, extending its neck with uncanny movement and speed, opening its bloody maw to bite its nearby master.
This summoning beast's bite force was terrifyingly powerful—half that shinobi's body was instantly crushed, blood immediately staining half the summoning beast's body.
This death was far more miserable than being blown up—at least the explosion victim hadn't wailed in agony before dying.
The body-crushed shinobi soon had more breath going out than coming in. Next, the summoning beast shook its head, flinging the remaining half-body aside like discarding garbage.
Then the summoning beast approached the still-struggling giant eagle and bit through its neck with another bite.
After completing these actions, its gaze finally turned toward Yūshin.
Seeing this expression, Yūshin suddenly felt stunned—could a summoning beast display such complex emotions?
This was like... humans.
From this gaze, he perceived a certain death wish.
The summoning beast roared once, then charged toward Yūshin.
Yūshin seemed to understand something. His hands formed seals as the water blade shot forth again.
The running summoning beast was instantly bisected, dying as swiftly as possible.
Actually, Yūshin felt these two summoning beasts were all appearance—despite their massive size, he sensed they hadn't displayed corresponding combat power.
After ending the battle, he stood dazed for a while.
This fight could be said to have begun inexplicably and ended just as inexplicably.
He briefly cleaned the battlefield, scavenging some ninja tools and currency from those two shinobi—nothing else valuable.
Instead, when examining these two summoning beasts, certain traces on their bodies caught Yūshin's attention.
These summoning beasts concealed numerous scars, or rather modification marks, while their bodies contained buried talismans Yūshin couldn't comprehend.
After seeing these things and recalling that summoning beast's pre-death behavior, Yūshin's thoughts immediately diverged toward "Big Brother, let's play together" territory.
Could it truly be that nothing was new under the sun?
This wasn't Yūshin being psychologically dark—rather, no one could guarantee how low this era's shinobi moral boundaries could sink.
...
Having obtained no valuable clues from those two shinobi, Yūshin could only choose to return to town and explore that building.
The recent battle had no impact here—everything in town continued as always.
Yūshin wasn't certain whether the swamp commotion could reach here, but distance-wise, this place should have detected some disturbance... such massive-scale explosions produced exaggerated noise.
Yet judging by townspeople's reactions, they seemed completely unaware.
"Definitely suspicious."
Following previous memory, Yūshin found that building hidden in the alley. After brief consideration at the entrance, he still chose to directly push open the door and enter.
Behind the door lay an ordinary-looking courtyard, but whether due to psychological effects, Yūshin seemed to smell faint blood scent.
After entering the courtyard, that door he'd pushed open automatically closed behind him.
"An unfamiliar face—an outsider shinobi. You've been here several days now. What's your purpose? Or rather... who introduced you here?"
Without seeing anyone else, a voice abruptly rang out in this courtyard.
As expected, after arriving here, Yūshin was under the opponent's surveillance.
Hiding and playing mysterious—Yūshin inwardly grumbled while speaking aloud:
"I merely passed by coincidentally, then coincidentally saw shinobi frequently entering and leaving here, so I became somewhat curious."
"I see..."
The opponent seemingly believed Yūshin's explanation so simply, then "sincerely" explained:
"Nothing special—those people are merely my clients."
"If you wish, you could also become my new client like them."
Clients?
Yūshin was already dressed raggedly, having additionally acquired mud and stench from the swampland—utterly disheveled. If such a person could become a client, he'd definitely be VIP among Vagrants.
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