Stealing secrets completely undetected went without a hitch.
Or so Shiki thought.
To this point, he had still not realized, there was one individual capable of sensing his Enlightened Mind's Eye, not to mention Meikyo Shisui.
Little Beni, while working through her own mental blocks, watched his every action with great interest, it was slowly turning into an obsession.
And for the boy's misfortune, unless he found a way to upgrade the depth of his sensing abilities by a whole tier, he would never find out he had a stalker.
But while Shiki might get there in the future, he was not yet there and mistakenly believed his sensory and counter-sensory abilities were enough for the time being.
As a result, he continued to focus on the areas he previously determined, the Rasengan and its variants as well as his Nirvana Art: Elemental.
And in the time the caravan hung out at the Rinha village, the boy did achieve some successes in both areas.
The Taikyoku Rasengan shown in the movies was still far off with Shiki's shadow clones blowing themselves up constantly during their attempts to recreate the jutsu.
However, the simpler project, the Rasendan, a compressed and ranged form of the Rasengan, was unexpectedly easy to complete with his near perfect chakra control.
This was because it was "near perfect" by his standards, by everyone else's, it was beyond the boundaries of regular shinobi already. Maybe only adult Sakura would reach the level of control he currently had, not even Mito could currently match him in that particular area.
As for the Nirvana Art: Elemental, it was progressing but development was slow.
For Shiki, this was destined to be one his most critical techniques in the future, a powerful tool all on its own sure but also the foundation for all elemental jutsu to follow so the boy was being extra careful and dedicated in its development.
He could not yet use it to influence nature energy and control the elements like the Yamakaze's Weather Manipulation Jutsu could but self enhancement with elemental chakra was becoming gradually more efficient.
Not only that, while under the self amp of Nirvana Art: Elemental, his elemental jutsu could generate more power than the chakra he expended should allow.
So while Shiki's influence on nature energy was still not enough to generate phenomena on its own, it could amplify his standard elemental jutsu beyond what should be possible with no additional cost besides the upkeep of Nirvana Art: Elemental.
The effects however, were still too weak to justify the Elemental's current upkeep so more work was needed.
Soon enough however, it came the time for the caravan to get on the move once more, forcing the boy to put a pause on all his training projects.
*
The caravan was setting off from the Rinha village at dawn but Kairi and his family seemed to be there not just for farewells.
"Daiki, before you leave, I have a request to make." Kairi started.
"Kairi . . ." Daiki started in a tone to dissuade his friend but he persisted.
"It is nothing outrageous. I merely wish for you to let my daughter accompany your caravan. She is a skilled medical nin and will no doubt help in your travels." Kairi made his request.
Daiki was caught slightly off guard by the unexpected request but seriously considered it.
'Just one more person will not strain our supplies much and a full fledged Rinha medical nin would indeed be useful and would bring in a lot of customers if we sell healing services along with the medicine of the Land of Iron group . . .' The seasoned merchant mulled over things.
It was a request from an old friend which would likely bring him more benefits so he figured he might as well accept.
Though bringing in a new member when their group had already embroiled themselves in quite a bit of trouble was a bit questionable, he ultimately believed everything would end up alright.
And like so, a new member joined the caravan however . . . Not long after departure, Daiki was already slightly regretting his decision . . .
*
"So Ema-san, you seem quite close with Tenki-sama." Maya, the new member of the caravan, probingly questioned while eyeing the serene brown haired beauty.
"All of us traveled together in this caravan for a while now so I believe I made friends with everyone." Ema diplomatically replied with a polite tone.
"Mhmm . . ." Maya didn't seem entirely convinced but backed off and went somewhere, probably to find Tenki.
Shiki's shadow clone in charge of keeping watch, had been catching several similar moments in the last few days.
'This must be the so-called shuraba, Tenki-san is a lucky man though . . . I'm not quite sure Ema-san is into it . . . Maybe it's more of a love triangle? Maya-san loves Tenki-san but he loves Ema-san who doesn't love him back, I think. Yep, love triangle is more accurate.'
The boy idly wrote a whole story in his mind based on the real life romantic drama he was witnessing.
Shiki's mental scenarios aside however, Maya's general attitude was starting to cause friction.
Ema was still being polite but there was no doubt that each probing question, each veiled accusation, wore down on her patience.
Tenki was having the problem of every rom-com protagonist.
Being indecisive.
He sisterzoned Maya but didn't have the balls to say it to her face because he did not want to break her heart.
But at least he was not too dense to notice her obvious affections, he merely pretended not to.
He was, however, too dense to notice Ema's lack of interest not just in him but relationships in general.
Shiki evaluated her as a woman married to her career as Beni's caretaker.
Ema's single hobby was medicine making and she picked up on it because it seemed useful for her job at first before coming to genuinely enjoying it.
Shiki heard that from Tenki who seemed to want advice from Inori on how to win his crush's affection and so described her to the Violet Rose in excruciating detail.
From his perspective because both the boy and his sensei could sense some inaccuracies.
One would think of her as a perfect goddess, too beautiful to behold, gentle and understanding, serene and comforting, fragrant like a field of flowers and pure like jade if Tenki's word was taken at face value.
Shiki outright classified the boy as sick to the point of being unsavable but Inori's love for drama, romantic drama in particular, made her jump into the situation for fun.
'Wasn't she taking that woman Zee's boyfriend that made the bitch mad enough to deploy that many people to capture me. I bet there wouldn't be that many if Inori-sensei was responsible for that.' The boy internally complained as his sensei gleefully handed out love advice.
Not only to Tenki who asked for it but, before anyone even knew, she had her little claws on Maya as well, turning the relationship into her personal drama script.
Regardless, even with love induced troubles beginning to plague the caravan, it still progressed on schedule, soon making its way to Roran.
*
"Well . . . That's a bit disappointing." Shiki commented out loud at the sight of Roran in the distance.
The Roran from the movie and the one in front of him were wildly different and that meant one thing.
'The Ryumyaku isn't being used . . . Let's hope it's a mindset problem and not an ability problem.' The boy thought to himself.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -