"I've been squatting here for months, finally waited long enough for you." After returning to the shore, Haruma immediately laid Shisui's corpse down on the grass. As he sighed, he raised his right hand, from which a large amount of black and red mist emerged.
In the blink of an eye, his small hand turned into the powerful Devouring Hand. When the Devouring Hand touched Shisui's body, a scene straight from a fantasy novel unfolded before his eyes.
The mist began to spread the moment it touched Shisui's body, continuously pouring out and in just a few seconds, the mist completely engulfed the corpse.
Then, an intense suction force surged from Haruma's palm.
It resembled the Absorbing Technique from The World's No. 1 Martial Arts, or even a strengthened version of the Yami Yami no Mi's Dark Water from One Piece.
The suction force pulled all the black mist that had enveloped Shisui's body back into Haruma's hand.
Within the mist, Shisui's corpse twisted as it was sucked into a black hole formed by the pull, vanishing into a mysterious black bead, like it had been teleported through space.
With no time to inspect the changes, Haruma kicked Shisui's dropped short sword into the river and jumped into the water himself, washing off any scent.
Haruma knew this world's ninja dogs could track scent, if he didn't eliminate his own scent, Root's ninja could easily find his location and as a five-year-old kid, it'd be hard to explain why he was on the banks of the Naka River.
With Danzo's personality, he might even have the Yamanaka clan read Haruma's memory with their secret technique.
If that happened, his identity as a transmigrator and his devouring ability would be completely exposed.
So Haruma had to be extremely cautious.
After scrubbing off his scent, a dripping-wet Haruma left the Naka River, returned to the place where he practiced water-walking before, bathed again, and finally found the tree where he had stashed a change of clothes. He changed and slowly headed to the market to buy groceries.
After a long trip around the market, he returned home with groceries. Haruma didn't cook immediately. Instead, he went to take another shower.
Standing under the showerhead, eyes closed, he focused on sensing the mysterious bead inside his soul.
The bead, just like after every meal, was glowing with dark, lustrous light.
But this time, the glow was dazzling, far brighter than before.
Its pulsing frequency was many times faster than ever.
Each pulse emitted a wave of energy.
These waves were the refined energy from Shisui's body.
The energy transformed into warm currents, flowing from his soul into his physical body, flooding every inch of Haruma's body.
From the moment he devoured Shisui until now, Haruma had felt continuously warm. He didn't feel cold during the previous two showers either, this time, the warmth lasted an absurdly long time.
Normally, after eating, the bead's energy would only last around ten minutes then a few hours later, he'd feel hungry again.
But this time, Haruma had returned home after spending an hour buying groceries, yet the mysterious bead was still releasing energy, and the warm feeling remained and he didn't feel hungry at all.
Still, being a bottomless pit, he ate dinner anyway. Even after eating, the bead continued emitting waves, and the warm feeling stayed. In fact, in that state, Haruma couldn't even sleep.
He felt zero fatigue.
The next day, Haruma noticed that the mysterious bead was still producing energy waves. Despite not sleeping at all, he remained energetic, so he began training and checking for changes in his body.
The result? No physical changes.
If it weren't for the energy flowing from the bead and the buffed state of his body, he'd have thought he never devoured Shisui, clearly the devouring was real.
The fact there were no visible changes meant the transformation wasn't complete yet—it would only manifest once the bead had fully refined Shisui.
So, Haruma resumed daily training while waiting and he waited for a whole week. During that week, he didn't sleep even once, he couldn't sleep, he didn't need to no matter how hard he trained, his energy remained full.
Whoosh—
Once the bead ran it's course, Haruma's mind was pulled inside it.
Within the bead, there was nothing but a dark, directionless void.
As his consciousness entered, fragments of edited memories began appearing like slide projections, flashing rapidly before him.
These were Shisui's memories.
Not all of them, but a partial collection.
Every time a memory clip flashed, unfamiliar information would surface in Yagyu's mind.
These were Shisui's memories—some intel, some ninjutsu training methods. Haruma didn't know how long it lasted before his mind returned to the real world but when he opened his eyes, everything around him became extraordinarily clear.
Even a mosquito flying past him appeared frozen in time. But on closer look, the mosquito wasn't frozen—it was just moving incomparably slow in his vision.
Realizing something, Haruma rushed to the bathroom and looked into the mirror.
In the reflection, his ruby-like eyes had turned crimson.
In the center of each eye, a single tomoe rotated slowly.
It was—the Single-Tomoe Sharingan!
"Oh man..."
Staring at the Sharingan in the mirror, Haruma didn't feel excited. He felt a sense of regret. His connection to the mysterious bead had revealed not just Shisui's memories, but also new information about Devouring.
To fully maximize Devouring, one must consume a complete, living individual.
For example:
To obtain more of the target's memories, devour them while they're alive and to gain their full abilities, they must be alive and whole.
Devouring a living being yields energy that far surpasses that from the dead.
But Shisui was not only dead—he was incomplete.
So, devouring his corpse only gave Haruma partial memories and bloodline power, plus refined physical and spiritual energy.
That's why Haruma hadn't felt tired for an entire week—his body and spirit were continuously boosted.
Right now, both his physical and mental energy far exceeded other kids his age, but even that was a loss because this energy only came from devouring a dead body.
When someone dies, their chakra dissipates.
Had Haruma devoured a living Shisui, he could've devoured the chakra too, turning it into even more power.
If Shisui had still had both eyes, Haruma would've gained the Mangekyo Sharingan too.
Only devouring a complete, living target grants 100%, devouring a dead one only gives 50%—or less. Hence the regret, still, it wasn't all bad. If Shisui had been alive, Haruma would've had no chance to devour him.
And within the memories, Haruma had gotten what he really wanted:
Sharingan
Body Flicker Technique
Genjutsu!
Shisui the Teleporter's most terrifying power wasn't just his speed—but his genjutsu and teleportation.
His Body Flicker was a blend of simple Body Flicker, Clone Jutsu, and Sharingan-based illusions.
It let Shisui summon multiple illusions that attacked with him, so realistic, the enemy couldn't tell which was the real one.
Unlike regular clones, these illusions didn't vanish when struck.
So unless the enemy had god-tier perception and reflexes, they couldn't find the real Shisui and risked getting hit by the next real strike.
This illusion-body hybrid technique earned Shisui his legendary status. Even elite jonin would retreat upon meeting him.
In Haruma's eyes, this jutsu was on par with Flying Thunder God and Kamui.
To master it, though, required peak-level Body Flicker and genjutsu skills.
Before, even with the technique manual, Haruma could never dream of reaching Shisui's level.
But now, with Sharingan and Shisui's training memories, all he needed was time and he could become the next Shunshin no Shisui, and once he devoured Tobirama and Minato in the future for Flying Thunder God, he'd become the new fastest ninja in the world.
Now with Kage-level potential and a treasure trove of knowledge in his mind, Haruma was more hopeful for the future than ever.