Ronin had actually already started to grasp this the moment he deactivated his Sharingan state.
Because as soon as the Sharingan state ended, the energy he'd been seeing hidden inside his body while it was active spilled outward and wrapped around his entire body.
Ronin knew what that was: the basic Nen technique, Ten.
A technique that prevents "aura" from naturally leaking away, keeping it contained.
Once he understood that, Ronin also understood what he needed to do next.
He had to activate the Scarlet Eyes and enter Sharingan "ninja mode," converting his Nen into chakra—so he could truly use ninjutsu.
And how do you enter the Scarlet Eyes state?
Simple: heightened emotion.
Anger, excitement, fear—any intense emotion could push him into Scarlet Eyes.
Thinking of Uvogin—who could catch up from behind at any time—Ronin's eyes really did change, and the change was obvious, especially in the darkness.
His vision sharpened. A powerful force surged from within his body. Even his running speed increased by quite a bit.
Realizing he'd activated the Scarlet Eyes, Ronin didn't dare waste time—every second they were active would drain his stamina heavily.
It was still the same simple three hand seals: Ram – Snake – Tiger.
But this time, when he finished the seals, Ronin felt something strange.
A small portion of the limited energy inside him was suddenly consumed—and then, right in front of him, another "him" appeared.
The Clone Technique—success!
Was it really that easy?
Ronin abruptly stopped and stared at the boy standing before him with the exact same face—especially at the single-tomoe Sharingan in the boy's eyes. He couldn't help feeling a surge of excitement.
But as he studied the clone more clearly, another suspicion formed in his mind: his "ninja" abilities were probably connected to his transmigration too. Otherwise, even if this was a Specialist-type ability, it shouldn't be this easy to cast ninjutsu.
Still, now wasn't the time to investigate that. Ronin focused and began testing other techniques.
Gradually, he discovered he couldn't cast every jutsu he could imagine.
Instead, whenever he attempted a technique with hand seals, he could feel his "chakra" being mobilized.
Every jutsu consumed a certain amount of chakra. If he could afford the cost, the jutsu would activate. If he couldn't, then no matter how perfectly he formed the seals, nothing would happen.
In other words, for him—while in Sharingan state—casting ninjutsu only required two conditions:
1. Enough chakra.
2. Hand seals.
And right now, Ronin didn't remember many hand seal sequences. After all, a lot of jutsu hand seals were simplified in the manga.
He also clearly remembered that at the very beginning of the series, when Kakashi copied Zabuza's Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet, he used 44 hand seals.
But later on, no matter how powerful the jutsu, most ninja only used a few seals—some even used just one: "Ren", a seal that basically referred to any arbitrary hand gesture.
With that in mind, Ronin tried forming random seals to cast jutsu—and to his surprise, it actually worked.
He lifted his hand and formed a casual seal, and it reproduced the same jutsu that had previously required three seals.
That gave Ronin a few new theories.
Maybe hand seals were a restriction for him—but not a fixed one.
Then there was the chakra issue.
Ronin realized that with his current chakra pool, he was at best only slightly stronger than an average Konoha Academy graduate—and not by much.
But that made sense. His "ninja" power source was Nen.
After activating the Sharingan, he was converting his "aura" into "chakra." So if he wanted to get stronger, the simplest path was to increase his aura.
More aura meant more chakra, which meant more and stronger jutsu.
Even so, for now, the jutsu he could use were still extremely limited. After sorting through what he had, he found he could only cast jutsu around D-rank or lower.
As for techniques he remembered as C-rank—like Fire Style: Great Fireball, or Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire—he couldn't cast them even though he knew the hand seal sequences.
That felt strange, but for the moment he chalked it up to insufficient chakra.
After gaining a deeper understanding of his condition, Ronin looked up at the rain still falling and couldn't help thinking of a jutsu that would be perfect for a situation like this.
But before acting, he needed to test all the abilities he was about to rely on.
Only by combining them—along with the combat experience he'd inherited from the previous owner's memories—would he have a chance to carve out a slim path to survival.
Fortunately, Ronin wasn't afraid of fighting. Maybe that had something to do with how he'd kept up taekwondo and sanda training for years.
…
Uvogin couldn't exactly be called good at tracking, but judging by the traces left in the woods, the one who'd escaped was clearly even less professional.
It even gave him the impression of someone fleeing blindly in panic.
But as the pursuit went deeper, Uvogin's expression gradually grew serious.
Because the traces the other party left behind became fewer and fewer. Now, when Uvogin stopped and stared into the shifting shadows of the forest, it was hard to find any clear trail at all.
Still, Uvogin knew the target didn't have many options.
Either he was running toward Nancha City, about a hundred kilometers away, or he was heading deeper into the mountains.
But none of that really mattered—because Uvogin had an easier way to locate him.
Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating Uvogin in the forest—an eyeless head hanging from his waist—like a man-eating demon.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. After a few rings, the call was answered.
"One got away. I need a direction," Uvogin said flatly.
Back when they were rounding people up in the village, Kortopi had stuck replicated stickers onto everyone they captured.
One, to prevent people from escaping. Two, to keep a record.
After all, Kortopi's ability—Gallery Fake—could create copies of dead or motionless objects by touch. The fakes lasted twenty-four hours and had all the original item's functions. And by touching the original, he could also sense the location of its copy.
When Uvogin left the group to pursue Ronin and his father, he had Kortopi place a sticker on him as well. So as long as Ronin hadn't torn the sticker off, Uvogin could find Ronin's exact location at any time within twenty-four hours.
Kortopi's voice came through the phone, puzzled:
"Hm? Weren't you all together?"