The parasite lay curled up in the vial, not taking its attention off from the cork. It wasn’t showing any discomfort nor desire to do something. No attempt to break its prison.

It was a curious little creature. Well, I had few samples. I could afford to play around with some of them. Motioning towards the outer puppet that had been standing not far away from me, chakra thread extended from my finger and connected with the puppets heart. Throwing the vial at it, I manipulated its tendrils to catch it and uncork it.

The moment parasite sensed the opening, it immediately darted towards the nearby heat signature and latched onto the puppet, fusing into it. In response, the puppet’s aura intensified, its tendrils throbbing from the change in its chakra flow. The puppet's heart started to beat faster than before.

Satisfied with the initial reaction, I began to probe the strengthened puppet’s capabilities while the enhanced stated lasted. Time limit was short – 3 minutes and 27 seconds for this one, and the boost wasn’t without side effects. It wasn’t something to be used casually. Considering that this heart belonged to no one impressive, the duration was likely to vary from puppet to puppet, depending on their potential and compatibility. Still, I could make this work.

There was a knock on the door that awoke me from my thoughts and Ginji walked in with bunch of documents at hand.

This was becoming a regular occurrence as the work kept stockpiling.

After the parasite’s effects faded, the puppet entered a weakened state. The heart produced less chakra as well, while its movements were sluggish. Ginji glanced at the puppet and then at the state of the room with a blank expression.

“Am I interrupting something?”

I waved my hand, the wind blowing away the smoke through the window.

“No. Come in. You wouldn’t be here without reason.” I said as I lead him to our seats.

We both sat down and I motioned Ginji to begin.

“This is concerning kekkei genkai users.” Ginji placed relevant documents on the desk, depicting special shinobi belonging to different nations. “Something interesting had been going past few weeks. Three of them have disappeared and two have been found dead, bearing grave wounds. There has been only one case of survivor from the attacks. Young kid, a swift release user. Not in a good condition, both physically and mentally.”

Probably an attempt to harness the bloodline power. Nothing good would come out of such thing. I might have to interfere depending on the outcome.

I looked over the files, noticing a pattern. “None of the victims belong to five great nations.”

“They went through a lot of effort to avoid their ire. Most likely the same culprit. The attacks happened within short intervals. The injuries inflicted on the victims match, and kid’s description supports this, albeit it's a bit shaky.”

“Still, it’s a bold move. That’s one way to gain some unwanted attention. Anything else?”

Ginji coughed awkwardly.

“Well, yes. You see… a kid tried to infiltrate our branch.”

I raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t something he reported first, so probably nothing serious. But something seemed strange. “What did we lose? Any deaths?”

“That’s a thing, nothing. Nobodies dead, though they got some bruises. From what I could gather from reports, it seems that the motive was revenge.”

First person to come to mind about who could want a revenge against me was Shikamaru. But I discarded the idea. He was more calculated person that this. Plus, he did bury Hidan six feet under, so that should have calmed his anger enough to not do something reckless.

“Who’s the unlucky kid?”

Ginji slid out another file from the stack.

“Remember the fire temple that you destroyed? The kid was from there”

“Oh?”

“A group of monks, including him, were out of the temple when you attacked. The destruction and death that greeted him didn’t necessarily have a positive impact. Especially death of Chiriku.”

Ah, the guy worth thirty million. He wasn’t half-bad. Had a memorable presence.

There was one problem though. The branch wasn’t officially working under my name. My connection with it wasn’t a public knowledge. Just some random kid shouldn’t be able to find the connection.

“How did the kid manage to trace back that branch to me?”

“We don’t know for sure. The kid wanted to know where exactly you were. He escaped after the town’s guards interfered. Here’s something even more interesting – there just happened to be guards from Hozuki Castle nearby, transporting a criminal. They tried to apprehend him but the kid managed to slip through.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“People from the blood prison? Seems like a strange coincidence.”

“It does, doesn’t it? Now the kid’s a criminal. He’s charged with robbery, attempted murder and obstructing justice. The grass is personally going after him.”

“That doesn’t happen often.” I said as I looked over the papers. I paused when I came across a certain picture.

“Hokage and daimyo are staying quiet. I doubt they want to worsen their relationship with the Grass right now.”

“Yeah. Normally, it would be considered a serious offence to interfere in another nation’s politics by trying to arrest their civilian. But the circumstances allow Hozuki castle to make a good enough excuse. With Akatsuki looming over them, I doubt the Leaf wants to pursue the issue.”

“I’m still surprised that they are willing to risk it. It raises a question; what is so special about the kid?”

“Yeah, about that.” I said as stopped staring the picture and sighed. “So the kid’s name’s Sora... and he carry a metal claw as a weapon?”

Ginji nodded. “Yeah. Do you know him?”

Seems I wasn’t mistaken. Not sure this was a good thing.

“You could say I remember him from somewhere.” That somewhere being Naruto filler. “That reminds me. Zangei has been imprisoned there, right?”

“Yes.”

I planned to get him out anyway. This would just be moving the date up. There was just one question that bugged me about this. Was Sora pseudo-jinchuriki like the silver and golden brothers, same as he was in filler?

“Have someone pay attention to the kid. If he attacks us again, inform the personnel to give the kid one of the warehouses’ locations and immediately contact me. And I need you to prepare some things.”

I could feel a sigh coming from his soul when I gave him more work. He laughed when I reminded that busting Zangei out would take some of his load off. I couldn’t have him die of exhaustion. People like him held immense importance in managing operations.

After Ginji left, I absentmindedly flipped through the files until something caught my attention again. Another profile with an attached picture.

It was about the shrine that the cult was targeting. As the cultists revealed, there has indeed been attack carried out a decade ago. The shrine’s high priestess has died as she sacrificed herself to repel the cultist and seal Moryo, leaving behind a daughter. The girl displayed talents in fuinjutsu surpassing even her mother. Yet, according to her mother’s wishes, she refrained herself from learning ninjutsu.

That face, the shrine, the demon. It rang a bell. I looked back at the priestess's name.

Shion… wait, wasn’t that a girl from the movie?

---

Next few days were spent tracking down and capturing the remaining cult branches. The cultists were too weak to pose much resistance, so things mostly went smoothly. What irritated me was that their leader wasn’t showing himself. Even if I was moving fast, there was no chance he hadn’t realizing that his people were vanishing one after another. His caution was warranted, but he basically decided to do nothing about the issue.

I dropped the body of cultist, releasing my hand from his neck. He struggled against the bonds until I knocked him out.

This was the fourth, and probably last branch that the cult owned. Interestingly enough, carved into the cave. There was only main one remaining.

I walked up to the last room that the branch leader supposedly resided in. This was it. I would capture the last branch leader who probably have no idea where Yomi was and would be left with nothing to follow. I wanted to get rid off the man before he did something stupid and created a butterfly effect. As if my own wasn’t enough of a headache already.

I might have to pay more money to hire someone especially for this job. But it would take time. And time was on short supply as of right now.

I broke open the iron door, revealing the moderate-sized room with half-dozen men inside, glaring a hole through my head.

Something interesting about them that was different from others was that all of them were already transformed. They had been waiting for me, hadn’t they? Injected themselves with parasites to boot. A shame. More samples would speed up the research. That was for when I got a scientist I could trust, though. And I sure as hell wouldn’t trust the ones operating in the black market with this.

The thing sort of worked like a mix of Orochimaru’s Curse Mark and Eight Gates. It sacrificed physical and mental health to draw upon power. More aggressive and less refined technique than either of them. But there was a one advantage. It didn’t require years of relentless training nor was there a need for compatibility for it to work.

Quite handy for some disposable tools.

The five cultists in the front acted as a wall while the sixth one stood in the back, gazing me with a resigned expression.

Four men rushed at me with their claws and fists, resorting to their enhanced bodies rather than their weapons. Not exactly because it was a superior choice, but because their deformed hands wouldn’t be able to wield those weapons with skill. The fifth one stood back, bringing his hands up to perform a jutsu.

Within seconds, they were all lying down groaning as they struggled against the tendrils with delirious fury. But I wasn’t paying attention to them. Something was off about the situation. The branch leader was acting strange. Despite his chakra signature being stronger than all five of them combined, he hadn’t made a move against me. Instead, he was kneeling, with his hands palmed against the floor.

“How did we attract the attention of such monster?”

I raised an eyebrow at the question. He was calling me a monster? I mean, yeah, but look who was talking.

“But if I can free the holy order from the obstacle this troublesome, what is my life in exchange?”

Oh, I didn’t like the tone of that. The tendrils rushed at the man and got hold of him. In less than a second, he had no way to move freely. But not before he managed to send a pulse of chakra through the earth beneath.

The man finally broke his expressionless face, his mouth twisting upwards. The delirious laughter echoed throughout the room. Never had I wanted to shut someone up this strongly.

Something flashed beneath the ground, and I noticed something that had been covered by earth, poking out.

Would you look at that. An explosive tag.

“Glory for our lord Moroi! Glory for the thousand year old kingdo-”

Multiple small explosions engulfed the room, that immediately turned into a chain reaction, the ignition activating the explosives that hadn’t been infused with chakra.

God damn it.

Everything went white. And the cave collapsed onto me.