Chapter 77: The Return Journey

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  "After completing your mission, you didn't return to the base directly. Zero thought you would go kill people for money again, and didn't expect you to be a babysitter here." The words were clearly teasing, but they came from that person's mouth with a sinister tone.

  "It's not enough that I'm a member, and now I'm free to act. Meaning, you're interfering too much."

  "Just curious why you'd do something like that? Let me take a look."

  "Take a look? You've been following me for how many days now, and this is what you call taking a look?"

  "Aren't you disgusted with Konoha? How could you take on a mission related to Konoha, and even more strangely, you'd also accept this kind of 'escort' mission... Hehehehe." A strange laugh echoed at the end.

  "You have a lot to say, want to go to hell and continue talking? I remember that our members' bounties aren't small either!"

  "Who's this weirdo, anyway? How many years has it been since you've let someone else get this close to you, besides the dead? What's so special about this little dead guy?"

  "You don't know."

  "You wouldn't want anything from this little dead thing, would you? Don't forget, you're also a monster, and monsters shouldn't seek human emotions."

  "Shut up, or I'll kill you. I don't recall any rule in the organization that requires members to report everything they do. Speak quickly, what is it that you want with me?"

  "There are new people joining, so all members who have zero hope should return to the base for recognition. After all, when the plan starts later, it's basically two people per group."

  "Hmph, hopefully he's a guy with enough vitality."

  "Wait until you go back and try it yourself."

  The figure merged into the earth and disappeared like that.

  "Hmph, still that gloomy and eerie look, really don't know where it came from, suddenly appearing out of nowhere... woke up."

  I answered honestly, after all I didn't think the two of them would be unaware of my state. "Yes, from the time that person appeared, I was awake." I had been awake the whole time, and heard every word of the conversation between the two of you.

  "Aren't you curious who that person is?"

  I shook my head slightly, lacking the strength, knowing one more thing that I shouldn't know, and it brought me closer to death.

  Of course, what I'm more curious about is that you didn't even want to kill me to silence me! However... "It has nothing to do with me, if you're not going to sleep, then let's continue on our journey!" He had been very silent for the past few days, often not saying a word all day, so why was he talking so much now.

  "Then, let's go!"

  He habitually squatted down and let me sit on his shoulders, I don't know why he didn't want to use his back, but he insisted that the person with the most strength should take the lead, I had no objection.

  I am absolutely not the kind of person who takes advantage of others' kindness.

  He walks very fast, but it's within the range that I can tolerate now.

  However, there is something strange. I rarely see him eating anything, so I haven't eaten much either. Fortunately, I still have a lot of military rations on me, and eating one pill a day meets my body's needs.

  And his energy is amazing, I thought my ability to stay awake was already impressive, but after meeting him, I realized that there are people outside of people and heaven outside of heaven, indeed physical quality still has differences, it seems I still need training.

  I originally thought I could maintain this peaceful journey to Konoha, but it seems I was overoptimistic.

  I knew this body had a knack for attracting trouble no less than that Conan!

  Although I wasn't involved, it seems that there are quite a few people who want to take my new mount and the bounty on me is quite high. Some of them seem to be quite skilled, or maybe they just covet the large amount of cash on a six-year-old kid's body. The key point is, they also know his route. I shouted for quite a while, and probably more than half of the people in the underground company heard me.

  Under the two-phase synthesis, more and more people are attacking us, with better quality, and many of them are also on the wanted list!

  I also occasionally see some guys who might be wanted criminals and bounty hunters, being ambushed by people behind them when they're halfway through a fight, it's really an interesting scene.

  I didn't really join the battle, after all I need to focus on adjusting my body now, so when someone attacks, I just stay aside by myself and wait for everything to end before heading out again.

  Basically, those people can probably also tell who has "threat potential" and who doesn't look like they have "threat potential", and just obediently stay on the sidelines without running away. So most of them went to gang up on my new "mount". Occasionally there are some short-sighted ones, I think killing a few people won't have too much impact on my cultivation, not to mention that proper exercise is good for physical recovery, right?

  Moreover, others only saw that when someone approached me alone, they seemed to be hit by a "stray bullet" and died. At most, it was strange that the "ordinary kid" didn't get scared when seeing someone die nearby, but just slightly surprised.

  I don't like being treated as an exhibit, but thinking that these things will die soon... I still have a relatively high degree of sympathy for the dead.

  Finally, in the fourth attack action, my new "mount" was killed, and then I saw him grow out of his body a strange avatar, start to counterattack, and finally, I witnessed him snatch a heart from one of the sneak attackers back into his own body.

  I calmly waited for him to reassemble all the split bodies and some limbs that had left his body, and also took back a certain part that was very close to me, before speaking to him, "Excuse me, can you teach me? This... skill." I really couldn't think of any adjectives to describe this skill!

  It's really a very interesting technique, if I learn it, maybe I can remove the scars on my face. This is not an ordinary external skill, but an organ that can move freely by relying on blood. How does it affect movement? Obviously, muscles and bones are completely separate, yet they can still be connected! It's really worth studying!

  Looking at his face, it seems that he didn't expect me to have seen his fighting form before, and the first words out of his mouth were actually these. Although I can sense that there aren't many parts to his inner self, I still saw a clear trend of his pupils dilating, “………”

  Although he didn't say a word, his eyes revealed a hint of "Aren't you afraid of me? Aren't you surprised?"

  My mind was certainly surprised, it's just that you didn't notice.

  "Why should I be afraid?" I shot back at him, "Do you think you're scary? Or are you regretful of what you've done? If not, then that's good."

  He fell silent.

  "That has nothing to do with me, I'm just asking if you'll teach me, but I've already run out of money on my body." My implication is that I want free instruction.

  "This can't be taught."

  "That makes me want to study it even more! Different types of chakras are in the same body, even if they have different hearts, how does the physical body withstand it? Or is the physical body also seen as replaceable parts?" It's a very unique perspective, just like robots, with different motors and external plug-ins, relying on a highly compatible main brain, not quite like an advanced concept that people in this world would have.

  "……Let's take a break next time!" His tone was unusually calm.

  I didn't think he would agree, but well, as they say, "having many skills doesn't weigh you down", especially when it comes to life-or-death skills. "Hey, you don't want to carry me because of those faces on your back?" I saw them during the battle just now, all bumpy and uneven, if he carried me it would definitely be uncomfortable, for both him and me.

  He looked at me coldly, and I said again with a nonchalant tone: "Then let's go! I think you shouldn't be tired yet!" Since I knew he had so many hearts powering him, and the smell of staying in this place wasn't good either, it was likely that others would come to discover us, after all, such a big ** just happened.

  "Alright."

  "You just stitched your own wrist with your own blood, that's amazing! Can I have some of that blood? I think it has great potential for further research. The strength of that blood should be able to support a very strong physique... the body of the strongest clan."

  "Next time you think about killing someone, can't you do it in a deserted place? Otherwise, we'll be chased by the regular troops again. Although they can't kill us, it's like being cockroaches." Every town we pass through has a batch of them coming after us. Is it because among those people we killed before, there was someone with a very noble status?

  "And to kill so many without a bounty, don't you think it's a waste of time? And next time we go to the bounty office, don't tell me not to run around, it's really fun there, I've always wanted to take a stroll. Besides, I haven't been there for a long time, and the smell over there is still the same, I've only been there twice, usually the ones I kill aren't even at that level."

  "Aren't you going to respond to me? Are you annoyed with me?" I sat on his shoulder, unable to see his expression.

  "I won't."

  "Hehe, let's go!" I patted his shoulder.

  He didn't get angry at all, instead he added a hand to steady me and sped up.

  I stretched out my other hand and wrapped it around his neck, he trembled slightly afterwards, but didn't resist.

  "If you're even afraid of yourself, how can you live on? You say, is that right? Not wanting to die is just one reason, it can only be a reason, not the purpose. Just like Orochimaru's pursuit of immortality, in order to understand all the truths of the world, including ninjutsu and life, I don't know what your reason for not wanting to die is, but it must be an important one, important enough to make you ignore the death of loved ones, important enough to make you live a lonely life in this world."

  "I know, but I have to do this. I need to find 'him', I must see 'him' again. If the plan succeeds, I'll be able to find him." His tone was filled with determination and obsession.

  I don't know how he could tell me something so private like this, it's not like him, and...

  "Who is he?" For a person, giving up his normal life span and turning himself into an extremely abnormal person without regret, he is also a persistent person.

  A persistent person usually doesn't have a good ending, right? Brothers and sisters, just like your persistence hurt each other so much, the persistence of that clan created how many evils, the persistence of "Ming", was established on the destruction of how many things...

  Of course, becoming an obsessed target is also the same, isn't it? I muttered to myself in a low voice, with a mocking expression on my face.