Hyūga Akira walked over to the pile of charred remains and reached down, picking up the item that had dropped from the ashes.
[Exorcist Skill Fragment (1/10)]
"The second one."
Akira smiled as he looked at what used to be Kusen.
The two fragments in his inventory fused together immediately.
[Exorcist Skill Fragment (2/10)]
"Truly worthy of being my captain. Even in death, you still drop something good for me."
Even after dying, Kusen had contributed a valuable item.
What a considerate superior—loving his subordinates to the very end.
Akira was deeply moved. Truly touched to tears.
(Kusen: Say that to my face if you've got the guts!!)
Suppressing his emotions, Akira walked over to Akijima's shattered remains. Another item had dropped—a card.
He picked it up. On it was a strange figure, its eyes and mouth nothing but black voids.
[Nanika's Wish List Fragment (1/10)]
"This even dropped…?" Akira stared at the card in surprise. He'd honestly thought this item wouldn't appear at all.
Nanika's Wish List was a quest-bound item. Using it allowed one to make a limited wish—but afterward, the user would be forced into a time-limited mission.
The difficulty of the mission depended entirely on the wish made.
Failing the mission came with brutal penalties: permanent stat reduction, irreversible bodily damage, or even the loss of hundreds of thousands of experience points.
In other words—your character was basically ruined.
For players, this kind of punishment was the cruelest thing imaginable.
A character painstakingly built up over countless hours—destroyed by a single failed task.
Who wouldn't break down?
Akira had assumed that without the quest system, this item wouldn't exist anymore. Yet here it was.
"Even without quests, this thing's still not very usable." He rubbed his chin.
Even in the original Hunter x Hunter canon, Nanika's power came with a terrifying cost—three demands that had to be fulfilled before one wish could be granted.
The Zoldyck family feared those demands might wipe out their entire clan, which was why Nanika was sealed away like a monster.
Whether by canon rules or game mechanics, this was a double-edged sword.
In the game version, wishes couldn't produce items above level 60.
"Forget it. I'll stash it for now. No guarantee I'll ever collect all ten anyway."
The drop rate was absurdly low—possibly even lower than the Exorcist fragments. Completing the set was far from certain.
He'd worry about whether to use it after that.
Next, Akira took out the cards dropped by the three genin.
[Consumable: Replication C-40]
[Consumable: Lonely Sapphire]
[Consumable: Cyclops G-333]
The Replication card could duplicate any dropped item from the Hunter world—each item only once.
"Not very useful for me." Akira sighed. Its best use was copying rare Hunter abilities and selling them for massive in-game currency.
But in this world, he was the only player. Who was he supposed to trade with?
The second item wasn't bad. Even though it could only be sold for money, gemstones still fetched high prices in the ninja world.
In canon, this sapphire supposedly carried a curse, but the game version had removed that entirely. Now it was just a decorative item.
There were plenty of items like this. As long as he found opportunities to offload them, money would never be a concern.
The most satisfying drop, however, was the third card.
The Cyclops card could summon a Cyclops to fight.
Its strength ranged between level 20 and 30. Though it only had two skills, it wasn't something an average ninja could quickly deal with.
Unfortunately, it was single-use.
"Not bad. Could be worse."
Akira put everything away.
Rain ninja drops were like this—mostly cards.
Finally, he checked his experience.
[EXP Pool: 4568]
"I'm almost ready to change classes."
He spent 3999 experience points on leveling.
[Level: lv16 (3999/4000)]
[EXP Pool: 569]
"Still need a bit more, but this area's basically cleared."
Akira closed the panel.
There was nothing left in the city worth farming. Even the hidden rogue ninjas couldn't provide enough experience anymore.
As for the hidden Konoha operatives…
"If I wipe them out, my Konoha reputation's finished." He scratched his head in frustration.
Normal Naruto-world ninjutsu only dropped from Konoha enemies—or from bosses and rare field monsters.
Now that the game had become reality, there was another option: learning directly.
"Guess I'll have to rely on war merits. Hopefully the Hyūga clan doesn't pull any bullshit."
Akira's resentment toward the Hyūga main family wasn't unfounded. Those bastards even manipulated the branch family's war credits.
Why was the Hyūga clan so wealthy?
In many ways, they were Konoha's true richest family. And where did that money come from?
From the commissions and war merits earned by branch-family members.
Every branch member wanted to curse them.
That was also why Akira never missed a chance to provoke Hyūga Hiashi.
The main family's luxury was paid for with branch-family blood.
Sure, the clan provided housing, tools, food, and raised children—but for a talented branch member, those "benefits" were nothing more than shackles.
And Akira himself hadn't even received much from the clan.
All his assets were inherited. Aside from occasionally asking branch members for help, he'd never applied for a single thing from the Hyūga.
So no—he wasn't someone who ate their food and then cursed them afterward.
He hadn't eaten their food at all.
If they insisted on arguing that what Akira inherited came from the clan…
He was more than willing to send them to discuss it with his parents—who had died on the battlefield.
Whether they came back afterward?
That wasn't his problem.
Cursing inwardly, Akira glanced at the now-silent battlefield. After a moment's thought, he pulled out another explosive tag and placed it on Kusen's remains.
He casually took Kusen's belongings, slipping the ninja pouch into his inventory. As a subordinate, inheriting a superior's effects was perfectly reasonable—legally speaking.
Once everything was prepared, he stepped back.
Boom.
The explosion scattered what remained of Kusen's body.
"That should take care of it."
Akira turned and walked away, as if he'd made up his mind.
Thunder rolled through the dark clouds above, lightning flashing but failing to dispel the darkness below.
The rain was getting heavier.
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