Chapter 9: CH9: A Wild Dratini Appears

Kiso Dock was in ruins with black coal covering its shores, brackish waters slowly moving the coal downstream, and a massive 15000-ton barge sunk diagonally, blocking traffic. It had only been there for a week by the report to disastrous results. Winter was coming, and the people downstream needed coal to heat their homes. Fish dead and rotten washed up on the shore, stinking up the place and making life miserable for the locals. Samurai lined up thieves and cut off their hands to send a message to street urchins everywhere. Kiso dock was a powder keg waiting to go off, and Silas wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to accept the mission anymore.

 

A child saw their leaf headbands and jumped, arms splayed wide. “Leaf Shinobi,” The child yelled, and people started cheering. Even the Samarai broke from their executions to give them some face. Men and women cheered, and one brave merchant broke from the growing crowd to offer him a steaming sweet bun fresh from the oven.

 

Silas took the bun, broke a piece off, and gave it to the child. “Are you going to fix the Oni?” The child asked.

 

The barge towered even in the river, a pillar of steel and wealth for the Kiso Dock. “That is my mission,” Silas said, and people cheered. He didn’t know how to feel about that. Even the thieves who had their hands cut off seemed thrilled about the barge getting fixed.

 

An energy filled the town that had been sapped before they arrived. Silas could feel it in the air and couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

 

They made their way to a large building near the dock where a heavy-set old man limped on a cane with a fresh injury. “You’re the team who accepted the mission. I expected an army of welders, and the Leaf sent me a brat and a woman. Don’t expect my men to lift a finger to help for free. We don’t have a crane big enough to lift Oni. That’s why we purchased the mission.” Deku, the barge captain, said.

 

Silas thought about the barge, the damage, and the people. He lacked information or materials. To take out a barge the Oni’s size would take something extreme like an explosive or underwater mine. Who benefits from stopping the barge from going down the river to deliver coal. While winter was on its way, they had a few good warm months until the cold set in.

 

“Are there other ways to transport coal that have suddenly become profitable with the Oni shutting down traffic?” Silas asked.

 

Anko gave him a look that said it all. Yes, there was more to the incident, but she didn’t want to dig deeper than the surface level. Their job was simple, weld shut the hole in the Oni. Anything more would require payment on another mission.

 

“That’s a good question, young men, and I think young people who know how to ask questions have bright futures. Now how quickly do you think you can repair the damage?” Deku asked.

 

It was something that either involved a rival shinobi village, politics, or, and this one was his favorite, something unexplainable happened. No matter what option happened to be right, he was in for a bloody time once the barge was repaired and whoever orchestrated the incident found out.

 

…

 

A kunai bounced off his head as he stared at Anko’s breasts. “Pay attention, brat; you need to learn this if you want to be a real shinobi,” Anko said.

 

She turned and walked up the tree, booty bouncing hard as a diamond. When she wasn’t drunk and barfing out of her mind, Anko was hot.

 

“Now, don’t let how easy it looks fool you. Not everyone gets this right on the first day. The trick is to get a feel for it by sticking your foot to the tree with chakra and then try to pull it away.” Anko said.

 

Silas raised a foot to the tree and pushed his chakra against it. The leaf on his forehead wobbled in a nearby breeze but stayed put. He pulled and ripped a line of bark off the tree. He wasn’t deep enough; it was like fucking a woman; while they loved the initial penetration, they wrote ballads about going deep.

 

“Hey Anko, how deep do you take it,” Silas asked.

 

“Every tree is different, brat, experiment and find what works best for you,” Anko said.

 

Sadly, he didn’t know if she got the innuendo or if she was messing with him. He pushed deeper until he had a firmer grip on the tree and pushed himself to the next step. From there, he tried to focus charka with his other foot, and the leaf fell off his forehead, followed by him.

 

“Why continue leaf sticking exercise?” Anko asked.

 

“When I grow a third eye, I’ll have an excuse to hide it. Danzo has his bandages. So I’ll make do with a leaf.” Silas said.

 

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Anko said.

 

Silas gave his sensei a look, then shook his head. “Fine, Sasuke got all the girls from ignoring them and acting all mysterious. I thought if I’m always sticking a leaf to my forehead, maybe they’ll get curious too.” Silas said.

 

“Brat, that’s like wearing a diaper for a shinobi. Kunoichi will think you have chakra control problems and won’t want to hang around you. On second thought, keep doing it.” Anko said.

 

He stuck the leaf back on his forehead. It might take a decade, but there was a chance he could grow a third eye. Even if it was weird, having a plan to cover it up was better than floundering later.

 

Anko left him to practice, and he slowly progressed up the tree. Silas stopped slowly, getting a feel for the tree, and started running up it. Kakashi’s method worked out better even as he fell hard. His breathing grew ragged as he used up his chakra. Mana exhaustion still played a role, even if he was mostly back to normal.

 

By the end of the day, he had tree walking mostly down and was ready to start the second exercise, water walking. Already he felt a little stronger. He wasn’t sure at first, but he could feel his chakra better than he could before. It was wild, like always being in a caffeine rush. Raw power flooded his veins, multiplying his power level briefly before settling down. He felt like he had gained some strength from training that was worthwhile.

 

It was dark out before he called it quits. His chakra had grown stronger, and his power level increased with it. But there was more to it. Silas could feel more power than merely his stats. That gave him some hope that he could survive and become a part of the world. He died quickly in all the other worlds before, barely building a foundation in each world’s powers.

 

A small seed of hope opened in his heart for the leaf, the girls he wanted, and his path forward.

 

PL 200

 

That was without his chakra increasing the effectiveness even more. Tree walking gave him something he hadn’t thought about before.

 

Leverage, on the ground or horizontally on a tree, had become dependent on his chakra control. His weight was no longer a factor in a fight as much as acceleration and chakra control. When he learned the tree walking exercise, combat changed like a switch was flipped between pre and post-tree walking exercise.

 

Silas stared at the Oni. He had a rebreather and a decent filter for the coal-filled river. What he needed to master next was the water-walking exercise to give him leverage in the water. After learning the tree walking exercise, Anko’s plan came together before his eyes. Tree walking through his hands would increase the area distributed by his strength to give him a grip on the barge’s hull. Then he would use water walking to stand on the river and lift the barge out. Once he got the hole unburied from the riverbed, he could repair it.

 

He walked towards the town a bit more confident in the mission after thinking out the reason behind the exercise. Or the reason why he was learning them once after the other. To solve the problem, they would be instrumental; otherwise, they would need to strip the forest and hire engineers to build a crane to lift the ship. Buying up logging land near a wealthy city like Kiso Docks would eat away at the reward for the mission. Taking it wasn’t an option; they were leaf shinobi, not thugs.

 

The smell of fish filled his nose even through the smell of coal. A clammy feeling washed over him as he felt something sharp racing towards his back.

 

Silas weaved out of reach of the blade in the last second, copying one of Anko’s moves. A glittering foot and a half-long blade of some blue material flashed in the moonlight, slashing at his neck. “Die vile kin killer.”

 

A few things came to mind while the blade cut towards his neck. Silas could practically taste something transcendent clinging to the blade and knew it would cut him.

 

In the moonlight, he saw sea-green hair wet and mixed with coal from the river. The girl had raw fish on her breath and a crazed look in her eyes. There was webbing between her fingers and tiny scales instead of skin. The mutants' strange markings were absent, but the girl exuded the same chakra the curse seal gave the escaped prisoners naturally.

 

She could kill him. He stepped in her guard, grabbed her wrist, and kicked the girl’s legs out from under her. After he grabbed her wrist, he understood that she was at least 5 times stronger than the mutants. If she had attacked him before he had learned tree walking, she might have ended his life as a leaf shinobi early. Leverage, a higher chakra capacity, and greater chakra control were game changers. Still, sage chakra flowed through her naturally, and by the horns poking out of her head, she would only grow more powerful with age. This girl was a natural dragon, basically what Kabuto tried to become.

 

It was good that she was an untrained brat with a sword. Silas slammed her into a nearby tree, ripping it to splinters before running while dragging her through roots and dirt. Silas twisted her wrist, throwing the weapon out of her grip and leaving it behind; he jerked her up and kicked her in the chest before shooting forward. As she flew back, Silas punched her, picking up speed. Trees tore to pieces as he pummeled her through the forest at supersonic speeds.

 

You are reading story Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi at novel35.com

He stopped punching when she finally blacked out and let her blast through several dense trees before cratering into an ancient redwood. Silas walked up to her, feeling like he beat up some dumb kid. He wouldn't have bothered putting up so much effort if she wasn’t tough enough to tank the damage. After the beating he gave her, the girl opened her eyes and stared at him.

 

She spat a mouthful of blood on his bare chest. “Fool, the heroine always wins in the end; don’t you know the stories.” She said, slurring her speech. 

 

Silas bounced on his feet and shadow-boxed a little. “Come at me then, and I’ll beat you down some more little dragon.” A smile spread across his face. “Do you think I’d let a chance to catch a dragon type pass me up? You might be lvl5 little Dratini, but I know what you’ll be like when you evolve.”

 

“You’re insane.” The girl concluded.

 

“Not by a certain point of view. So, be mine; you can’t out-fight me.” The girl blinked, and she had fin ears; he hadn’t noticed those before; they were so adorable.

 

“You don’t know anything about me; how could you say that?” The Dratini girl asked with a blush.

 

Silas grabbed her hand and yanked her out of the tree with a crack. Bits of wood exploded everywhere while the girl bore her extremely sharp-looking teeth. He looked her over and saw no sign of the curse mark.

 

“Are you one of the prisoners? I don’t see a cursed mark on you?” Silas said.

 

“I was one of the ones born after mother and father escaped the vile white serpent.” She said.

 

Vile white serpent, if that wasn’t Orochimaru, he would eat his headband. Anko would love the girl.

 

“I’m Silas; what’s your name, cutie. I can continue calling you Dratini, but you probably don’t want that.” Silas said.

 

“Niko, my father won’t let you get away with this. He destroyed the Oni once, and he’ll do it again.” Niko said.

 

“He can’t be tougher than you. Orochimaru wouldn’t have let him escape if he was. I bet you’re a special case. Are your siblings like you, or are they weak?” Silas asked.

 

He snatched up her sword and tossed it in the air before catching it. “That sword was made from one of father’s scales. Mother’s scales were too tough to carve.” Niko said.

 

“I don’t know. I hit you pretty hard, but you didn’t turn to mush; it must be your natural sage chakra. Why don’t you join the Leaf? You can be the first of my wives?” Silas grabbed her hand, and she didn’t feel like he would break her on accident.

 

“You may have beaten me, but that doesn’t make me yours,” Niko said.

 

She didn’t seem bothered by the multiple wives’ part, so her father must get around.

 

 He thought about using blackmail. Orochimaru would be interested in this little free ranged experiment. It solidified that they weren’t in the canon timeline. If a perfect sage-mode body existed, Orochimaru would be on it. Even if he didn’t know for whatever reason during the time skip, he would have found out while searching for his replacement body. Forget Sasuke Niko was going to be one powerful little Dragonite when she grew up. He planned to lock her down and get in on her bloodline. The only problem was the rampant cannibalism among the mutants.

 

“That’s a shame. I thought you had the type of culture where the strong got the girls.” Silas said.

 

She threw a sloppy punch, and he caught it. He didn’t move a millimeter, thanks to the tree-walking exercise. Leverage was an extremely important factor in combat. After learning the exercise, he used it constantly. It was like walking once he learned he wouldn’t forget.

 

He would have been sent flying by her punch if she had the training to refine her natural sage Chakra. He clearly sensed the potential in her, but that was squandered.

 

“I will avenge my people,” Niko said.

 

Silas pulled her in close. “They ate humans; I smelled it on their breath,” Silas said.

 

“They didn’t have a choice. Most of them can’t think straight anymore, but that’s no reason to kill them.” Niko said.

 

He yanked her over to a log near the redwood. Large trees swayed in the wind, popping and cracking after his brief fight with Niko. Silas sat down and gave her a look. “Take a seat.” She reluctantly sat beside him, and he wrapped an arm around her. “Are you cold?”

 

She gave him an odd look. “No, it’s a warm night.”

 

“In a few months, it won’t be anymore, and many people will die without the coal on the Oni. They will freeze to death because they can’t heat their homes. The cold doesn’t care if it kills men, women, or children; it's why I’m here. While they may never know it, I’m their hero. When your people attacked, driving us into the arms of an ambush, they made a choice themselves. To be the hero of others, I will be the villain to your people.” Silas said.

 

“It's all the monster’s fault that damn white snake made us different,” Niko said.

 

“Why did you attack the barge in the first place?” Silas asked.

 

“A plant man told my father that if we didn’t, he would tell Orochimaru our whereabouts. I’m starting to think it was playing with us. After father sank, the barge mother got sick. She needs the river to breathe, but the coal moving downstream poisoned her.” Niko said.

 

“Well, it sounds like the plant guy wanted to wipe you out, and you fell into his hands. Have you reconsidered joining the leaf?” Silas asked.   

 

They would either be wiped out by an army of angry samurai, shinobi sent to help the village, or Orochimaru. Really, they were in a no-win situation. It wasn’t made any better with the whole cannibal mutants thing. Fortunately, he didn’t smell human flesh on Niko’s breath. It might have been a trait of those too far gone due to the curse mark.

 

“No, why did you ask again?” Niko growled.

 

“Hey, relax. I’m just trying to get between your legs and have my way with you; no reason to be defensive.” Silas said.

 

“If I could convince my father to join, could the leaf protect us?” Niko asked.

 

Silas ran the odds. The real question was could Silas reach the level of the Sannin before the chunin exams. They were still at least three months away. If he got the gravity chamber running, some good training weights, and a decent sparing partner, he could reach the level he needed. All he needed was to wear out the snake Sanin’s shed skin jutsu, then hit him with hellfire. If Orochimaru fucked around and didn’t take Silas seriously until it was too late, he would be golden.

 

“Yes,” Silas said and felt it.  

 

“If you don’t hear back from me in a week, then well, I don’t think we’ll see each other again,” Niko said.

 

He tossed her the sword back and slapped her ass. “Oh, firm; I guess that’s what a swimmer's body is for,” Silas said.

 

You can find story with these keywords: Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi, Read Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi, Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi novel, Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi book, Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi story, Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi full, Got To Catch All Them Kunoichi Latest Chapter