Chapter 13: Hidden Dragon in the Swamp
[Activation successful! Compatibility rating: 70%]
[Ability Assessment Updated:]
[Character: Maruyama Qifeng]
Age: 13 years old
[Attributes: Fire, Earth]
[Strength: Elite Jonin]
[Taijustu: 65]
[Chakra: 59]
[Ninjustu: 70]
[Genjutsu: 49]
[Control: 58]
[Fuinjustu: 63]
[Ninjutsu: Basic Three Techniques, Fire Style - Phoenix Sage Fire, Earth Style - Rock Camouflage, Earth Style - Mud Wall Return, Fire Style - Flame Bullet]
[Items: Uchiha Clan Rare Bloodline Card (2/3), Houshi's Obsession]
Power surged through Qifeng's body like liquid lightning, every cell suddenly remembering what it felt like to be genuinely dangerous. He had to bite down on his tongue to stop himself from making embarrassing noises of pleasure—the kind that would've made this whole situation even more awkward than it already was.
Christ, that feels good.
One thing was bugging him though: what exactly was the system using to calculate these compatibility ratings? His previous experience card with Miura Kazuo had only hit 50% compatibility, but this time he'd scored a solid 70%. Not that he was complaining—going from "probably going to die horribly" to "elite jonin" was the kind of upgrade that made a man believe in Christmas miracles.
For the first time in his admittedly short and traumatic ninja career, Qifeng understood why people got addicted to power. It was like upgrading from a beaten-up Honda Civic to a Ferrari—suddenly, the world looked a lot more manageable.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to appreciate his temporary god-mode status, because Kaguya Chiren was staring at him with the intensity of a serial killer who'd just spotted his next victim.
But something had changed. Where before Chiren had looked at him like he was an appetizer, now there was actual wariness in those unhinged eyes. The aura radiating from Qifeng had shifted from "mildly threatening housecat" to "apex predator having a bad day."
Chiren didn't understand the sudden transformation—and given his personality, he wasn't about to waste brain cells trying to figure it out. The man operated on a simple philosophy: if it looked dangerous, punch it until it stopped being dangerous. If it still looked dangerous after that, punch it harder.
What mattered was that his boring warm-up exercise had just turned into something genuinely entertaining.
"Interesting, interesting!!" Chiren's eyes went wide with the kind of manic glee usually reserved for people who collected human teeth as a hobby. His expression twisted into something that belonged in a psychological thriller.
"Yep, complete psychopath," Qifeng thought, watching the man's face contort with unrestrained bloodlust.
In the next heartbeat, they moved.
No signal, no warning—just the mutual understanding that talking time was over and murder time had begun. They launched themselves at each other with the kind of synchronized violence that would've been almost beautiful if it weren't so terrifying.
*CRACK!*
Their fists met in mid-air with the sound of thunder, generating a shockwave that turned the surrounding forest into a temporary wind tunnel. Leaves exploded outward in all directions as if the trees themselves had decided to evacuate the area.
The ground beneath their feet spider-webbed with cracks, both fighters anchored in place by pure stubborn force. Neither gave an inch, muscles straining against each other in a contest of wills that had all the subtlety of a car crash.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
What followed was less of a fight and more of an extremely violent dance. Fists and feet blurred together in a symphony of impacts that echoed through the forest like a machine gun having an argument with a jackhammer.
Thanks to his borrowed quasi-Kage experience and his suddenly superhuman physical stats, Qifeng managed to keep up with Chiren's relentless assault. It was like having someone else's muscle memory downloaded directly into his brain—his body knew moves he'd never learned, dodged attacks he'd never seen coming.
But Chiren wasn't making it easy. Even without his bone manipulation abilities fully awakened, the Kaguya bloodline made him tough as nails and twice as sharp. His fighting style was pure chaos—no regard for defense, no concern for his own safety, just relentless aggression delivered with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely enjoyed bleeding.
This is insane, Qifeng thought, barely ducking under a haymaker that would've taken his head clean off. It's like fighting a blender with daddy issues.
A random thought flashed through his mind: if the Kaguya clan ever learned the Eight Gates technique, they'd probably kick someone like Madara Uchiha and then immediately die because their own bones had exploded from the impact. The mental image was both hilarious and deeply disturbing.
After what felt like a lifetime of trading blows, both fighters used the force of their last exchange to spring apart, creating some much-needed breathing room.
"Good! Very good!" Chiren shouted, practically vibrating with excitement. He was staring at Qifeng like a kid who'd just discovered his favorite toy store. "I didn't expect some random brat to have such a strong body!"
Qifeng was too busy trying to formulate a survival strategy to engage in villain banter. Every second he spent trading punches was a second closer to his experience card wearing off and leaving him back to his original "corpse collector" power level.
Half an hour max, then I'm screwed.
Time to stop playing fair.
Unlike his previous experience card, where Miura Ikgo had been all about the punchy-kicky action, Akagi Tsukasa was a ninjutsu specialist. When you had access to techniques that could reshape the landscape, why settle for a fistfight?
His hands became a blur of motion, fingers weaving through hand seals with the fluid precision of a master pianist playing a particularly violent concerto.
"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!"
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
"Combination Technique: Hidden Dragon in the Swamp!"
Combining two B-rank techniques was like mixing two kinds of explosives—the result packed the punch of some A-rank jutsu, but with the added benefit of being absolutely terrifying to witness.
The ground beneath Chiren's feet instantly transformed into a bubbling, stinking morass that smelled like death had taken up residence and forgotten to pay rent. At the same time, a massive dragon head erupted from the mud, its maw opened wide to reveal rows of earthen teeth before it began spitting molten rock bombs the size of bowling balls.
Each impact drove Chiren deeper into the swamp while coating him in sticky mud that clung like napalm. The man was strong, but even superhuman strength had its limits when you were being simultaneously drowned and pelted with liquid stone.
"Dance of the Willow!"
Twin blades appeared in Chiren's hands as if summoned by his sheer refusal to die quietly. His body began moving in ways that defied basic anatomy, twisting and contorting like a snake having a seizure while somehow maintaining perfect balance.
The Kaguya clan's signature taijutsu techniques were a sight to behold—part martial arts, part interpretive dance, and entirely nightmare fuel. Even without his bone manipulation fully awakened, Chiren could still perform the less bone-dependent techniques by substituting weapons for his missing skeletal arsenal.
*Swish! Swish!*
Chiren's form flowed like water, his blades carving through the muddy prison with surgical precision. Within moments, he'd not only escaped the swamp but was already closing the distance between them, moving with the fluid grace of a predator who'd just remembered why he was the apex of his food chain.
But Qifeng had expected this. The combination technique hadn't been meant to finish the fight—it was a setup, buying him the precious seconds needed to prepare something with significantly more stopping power.
His chakra surged through his body like liquid fire as he wove through an increasingly complex series of hand seals. This wasn't the simple three-seal combo of academy techniques—this was the kind of high-level jutsu that required perfect chakra control and the ability to hold seventeen different concepts in your head simultaneously.
"Earth Style: Sandwich Technique!"
A-rank ninjutsu was like owning a nuclear weapon—devastating when it worked, but the setup was so complicated that you'd better hope nobody interrupted you while you were trying to use it. The technique was powerful enough to crush buildings, but the hand seals were so complex that most ninja would die of old age before they finished weaving them.
It was techniques like this that made the Rasengan so revolutionary. Sure, it might not level city blocks, but you could use it without needing a PhD in advanced chakra theory and fifteen minutes of prep time.
*BOOM!*
The earth erupted around Chiren like the world's angriest flower, twin massive stone slabs rising from the ground to form a triangle with him at the center. The technique was designed to be inescapable—once you were caught, the only way out was through several tons of compressed rock.
"Dance of the Camillia!"
Chiren's body became a blur of motion, his blades striking the stone walls with the rapid-fire precision of a machine gun. Sparks flew as metal met stone in a contest that filled the air with the sound of grinding death.
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
The noise was deafening, like being trapped inside a bell while someone used it for target practice. Chunks of stone rained down as Chiren's weapons chipped away at his prison, but Qifeng was continuously feeding chakra into the technique, replacing the damage as fast as it was being inflicted.
For the first time since the fight began, Chiren's expression showed something other than manic joy. Now there was a hint of genuine concern, the kind of look you got when you realized your favorite toy might actually be dangerous.
*Snap! Crack!*
The weapons weren't made of Kaguya bone—they were just high-quality steel, and steel had its limits. Under the relentless pressure of stone and repetitive impacts, the blades finally gave up and shattered like glass.
But Chiren wasn't finished. With a roar of pure stubbornness, he braced his arms against the closing walls, muscles bulging as he tried to physically hold back several tons of compressed earth. Blood ran down his arms as his muscles tore, but his bones held—testament to the Kaguya bloodline's legendary durability.
Qifeng wasn't impressed. He'd seen enough action movies to know that this was the part where the villain made a dramatic comeback through sheer force of will and poor writing.
He clapped his hands together with the finality of a judge's gavel.
"Compress!"
*BOOM!*
The stone slabs slammed together with the force of a mountain falling over, creating a small hill where Chiren had been standing. The impact sent shockwaves through the ground that probably registered on seismographs three countries over.
But Qifeng wasn't taking any chances. The Kaguya clan had a reputation for being unkillable for a reason—they were like cockroaches, but with better hair and a more violent disposition.
His hands moved through another set of seals, creating a technique that was less "finishing move" and more "absolutely making sure."
"Earth Style: Stone Spear!"
*Thwip, thwip, thwip!*
Multiple razor-sharp stone spears erupted from the ground, turning the small hill into a particularly lethal porcupine. Each spear was designed to penetrate even the toughest armor, and there were enough of them to ensure that whatever was left of Chiren had been thoroughly ventilated.
Qi Feng dusted off his hands with the satisfaction of a man who'd just completed a particularly challenging home improvement project.
"The Kaguya clan might be tough," he said to nobody in particular, "but they're not exactly known for their strategic thinking."
It was true—the clan's philosophy seemed to revolve around "hit it until it stops moving, then hit it some more for good measure." Effective in most situations, but not particularly helpful when you were trapped under a mountain with multiple sharp objects poking important bits of your anatomy.
Then a horrible thought occurred to him.
"Oh shit, did I just destroy a perfectly good corpse?"
He'd used his quasi-Kage experience card on what was supposed to be a simple body recovery mission. The math was not working out in his favor. But if he could salvage something from Chiren's remains—ninja tools, secret techniques, maybe some valuable organs—he might be able to break even on this disaster.
Frantically, he began dispelling his earth techniques, rocks crumbling away to reveal the thoroughly mangled corpse within. Chiren's body looked like it had been processed through a cement mixer, then run over by a steamroller, then used as a chew toy by something with very large teeth.
But there was still a faint golden glow emanating from the remains, which in Qifeng's experience meant "valuable loot detected."
"Thank god," he muttered, relief flooding through him. "Even hamburger meat is still technically a corpse."
What he didn't notice was the small brown snake slithering away through the underbrush, its tongue flicking out to taste the air. It moved with the kind of purposeful stealth that suggested it wasn't just any ordinary reptile—and that his little display of overwhelming force had been witnessed by someone who would find it very, very interesting.
But for now, Qifeng was just happy to be alive and moderately profitable. He'd started the day as a simple corpse collector and ended it as a temporary quasi-Kage who'd just demolished one of the Mist Village's most dangerous psychopaths.
All in all, not a bad day's work.