The mission was straightforward: clear out the thieves. The Third Hokage had slipped in something extra—a kill order.
Konoha missing-nin: Uesugi Toru.
The Uesugi clan had always been small, barely a whisper in Konoha's sprawl. But Toru was a rare genius, born with an exceptional gift—the ability to erase his pheromones entirely. With that secret art, his stealth was legendary. It had earned him the rank of special jonin.
Then his mind twisted.
After the promotion, Toru became obsessed with restoring his family's lost glory. His resentment festered until he blamed the Hokage himself for the clan's decline. The hatred ran so deep that he'd actually attempted to assassinate Hiruzen Sarutobi.
It failed, of course.
Using his pheromone-erasing technique, he'd slipped away even from the ANBU. The intelligence Seiran had came from their investigation files.
At first, sympathy had flickered in him. He understood what it meant to belong to a fading family—the slow, suffocating decline. The Kato clan had been brilliant once, before the Second Shinobi World War. Kato Dan had mastered the S-rank Spiritual Transformation Technique, had known love with Tsunade, had burned bright and brief. Now? The clan couldn't even produce a single jonin. Their family secret lay sealed away in the Scroll of Seals.
Pathetic.
But then Seiran learned more about Toru. The sympathy died.
With his stealth abilities, Toru had gone on a killing spree after defecting—murdering civilians, his name climbing the black market bounty lists. The underground's intelligence network was sharper than the ANBU gave them credit for. A bit of ryo in the right hands could track anyone.
According to the intel, Toru had been spotted near the capital of the Land of Grass.
The journey took half a day. Now it was time for the hunter to close in.
---
The capital wasn't large. Seiran activated his Byakugan and Electromagnetic Manipulation in tandem, his vision flooding with chakra signatures and biomagnetic fields. Within moments, he spotted the anomaly.
A suspicious figure moving through the crowd—chakra levels close to a jonin's, but a biomagnetic field as weak as a civilian's.
Normally, the two ran parallel. Unless someone was practicing an obscure, occult art.
Cross-referencing with the Third Hokage's data, Seiran confirmed it. Uesugi Toru.
The man was cunning, hiding in plain sight among civilians. Without the Byakugan and Electromagnetic Manipulation, Seiran would have walked right past him.
Seiran waited. Patience was a hunter's greatest weapon.
It wasn't until evening that Toru finally moved. He slipped away from the city toward a deserted forest, checked that no one was watching, and disappeared into a hidden cave.
From a distance, Seiran narrowed his eyes. So that's his hideout. Right next to the capital? He must be confident in his stealth technique.
Too bad for him.
---
Silver-white metal flowed from Seiran's sleeves, condensing into form. An Armstrong: Electromagnetic Railgun.
Back when Konoha's restrictions bound him, he could only craft magnetic storm weapons from metal bows and arrows. But now, with his fluid metal and the memories of his past life, he could shape a rifle directly.
The interior wasn't a traditional firearm. He'd left a cavity for Electromagnetic Manipulation—the barrel serving as an acceleration track, giving any projectile insane velocity.
Two main types of electromagnetic guns existed: coilguns and railguns. Coilguns used multiple coils creating alternating current. Railguns used parallel conductors to generate massive electromagnetic forces.
This one was a railgun. A true magnetic storm sniper.
Seiran took a shallow breath and aimed. Through the Byakugan's vision, Toru couldn't escape his lock.
Inside the Armstrong, a drop of silver metal solidified into a bullet. A low hum rose. Blue electrical light crackled along the barrel, building, building—
He pulled the trigger.
In an instant, blue glow erupted from the muzzle.
Several kilometers away, Uesugi Toru felt a sudden chill crawl up his spine. No time to react. A spray of blood burst from his chest, and confusion froze on his face as his body fell.
Seiran lowered the weapon.
Toru's biomagnetic field had been barely detectable. But even after death, cellular activity lingered. Only when that finally ceased did the field vanish completely.
He approached the body. A drop of silver liquid slowly floated from the chest wound and flew back into his sleeve. After absorbing Toru's blood, it was noticeably larger than the original bullet.
Seiran suspected the Kubikiribōchō had similar properties—some type of recycled metal. If it only absorbed iron ions from blood, the change wouldn't be this dramatic. A human body only contained about 2.3 grams of iron total. But if it absorbed chakra as well...
Chakra effects could be strange.
So Seiran theorized: the Kubikiribōchō was made from a special recycled metal that split more metal atoms by absorbing blood and chakra. What had started as a magnetofluid decapitation knife was now a fist-sized sphere, close to the size of a football.
He severed Toru's head with a single clean stroke.
The missing-nin had a bounty. The head would fetch a reward. Belongings and rogue allowance turned in to the Third Hokage meant extra mission pay. One job, double the profit. If he was careful with the black market contract, even the Third Hokage wouldn't know he was double-dipping.
Seiran smirked.
His fingers brushed something hard in Toru's chest pouch—a thick package. Something important.
He ripped open the black cloth and unrolled a scroll. Four words jumped out at him.
Rotting Wood Technique.
Seiran frowned. He recognized this jutsu. One of many forbidden techniques stolen from the Scroll of Seals. A forbidden art of the Sage of Six Paths. It allowed the user to rot anything they touched—a terrifying ability.
He rolled the scroll back up and tucked it away. He'd examine it later.
Mission complete.
Seiran turned and vanished into the forest shadows.
---
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