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Published at 16th of January 2019 08:48:33 AM


Chapter 68

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"I give you a chance."

Many minutes ago, Emerald Quaza hotel first floor, inside back corridor's restroom. Naruto and Liu Ruyan leaned their back on the platform sinks, the large mirror behind them reflecting their outline figure.

"Thanks, but first, do you recognize the term, 'expert world'?" Naruto curled the corner of his lips.

"Oh, yeah, of course..." Liu Ruyan gawked at him, her eyebrows tensed a little.

The expert world, an appellation for anyone or people who capable on accomplishing various extraordinary feats beyond the performance of ordinary man, they managed to perform those abilities after had gone through various hardship and torturous training.

In general, the expert world divided into 4 categorize:

1. Martial artist, any people who skilled and practiced unique technique in fight hand-to-hand combat.

2. Arme dancer, any people who skilled and practiced unique technique in utilizing one or more than one weapons.

3. Moshu maestro, any people who skilled and practiced in magecraft or mysticism.

4. Mistero player, any people who skilled in any other than mention above.

While these four indeed separated the expert world but that doesn't mean that anyone couldn't master more than one, hell, if they wanted and dedicated, they could master them all, for example: a man could be a master of boxing but also great on using machete while another person could be skillful in conjuring flame out of thin air but also capable of mixing pills (alchemist).

Like other descendants from an old and large family, Liu Ruyan had been introduced to the people from the expert world since her earlier days, including Uncle Liu who a master in martial artist and dabbled a little bit in moshu maestro, Taoism.

"Are you a martial artist?" Liu Ruyan tilted her head, she concluded that by judging him through his age and manner, also the way he handled melee combat, despite she yet to see his technique.

"No, I'm what you call... moshu maestro and mistero player," Naruto shrugged, he's good at some punch and kicks, or basic Taijutsu performance in shinobi's term, but he didn't harbor any special technique. The imitation palm technique he commenced previously in Snow Ice corporation just him moving his feet and struck his palm many times on his enemy's body.

He also doesn't have any special technique in using weapons, unlike Tenten with her unlimited tools and weapons trick or Shishui with his ninjato flash-speed beheading trick.

Other than Taijutsu and Bukijutsu, the rest of jutsu pretty much classified as moshu maestro or mistero player.

Surprised filled Liu Ruyan's honey-colored iris, her mouth turned agape, "What kind of mysticism skill you could do?"

Naruto raised his both hands and intersected his fingers, "Shadow Clone no Jutsu."

*Poof!*

Liu Ruyan jumped on her feet and almost fell into the floor, the appearance of another Naruto enough to scare her out of her wits, "there are two of you!"

"Yup," Both of them nodded, Naruto pointed out his thumb, "that's my clone."

"Is he solid? Or just transparent figure floating in the air?" She regained her composure and rubbed her jaw.

"You can touch it if you want," Naruto lightly curved the corner of his lips, "wait, let me make this easy for you."

The clone nodded, raising his hand, his finger formed; Dog- Boar- Ram hand seals, "Transformation Jutsu."

*Poof!*

The clone engulfed by a collective of smokes, after they were cleared, the tall and blonde figured disappeared, replaced by a white Persian kitten with a pair of blue sky eyes and fluffy fur, "Meow~"

"Waah, cute kitty~" Liu Ruyan grasped her hand before she strode forward, squatting her body and lifted the kitten, holding the lucky small fellow into her bosom. It let out a purr and snuggled itself deeper.

'Men, maybe if I transform myself into an animal, she'll crib me too!' Naruto stared in a daze, his eyes accidentally fixed on her full-chest that smothered the white creature soft body, 'when my turn comes, I'm going to shift into a frog, she can put me whole inside that slender JoJo dress and keep me warm!'

"Hey, eyes up here, pervert!"

Liu Ruyan took a step back, placing one arm over her chest and glared at Naruto with flushed cheek and blazing temperate eyes, Naruto abruptly glanced his face upward and stiffly smiled, "wait, you got a wrong idea! I'm not staring at your chest, I'm admiring the cute kitten!"

She snorted, her face twisted in disgust, "shameless man! At least have the guts to admit your deed!"

He sighed, "fine, I stared at your chest, happy?"

"Pervert!"

'The heck?!' His eyes stared at her in disbelieve while his jaw dropped slightly, it seems whatever he said, it only came out wrong to her. He rolled his eyes, "never mind... let's just move on with the topic..."

Liu Ruyan nodded, she approached the sink again while brushing the kitten's fur in her bosom, Naruto rubbed his jaw, "so the plan is that I'm going to transform myself into you, going into the second-floor banquet's hall, and meet this boss. You, on the other hand, have to wait here for a while till my clone later take care of the person in the surveillance room so you can stay there later."

She curled her underlips sideway, her thick eyebrows wrinkled a little, "you can copy my appearance?"

He chuckled, "you just see my clone become an animal, what's so hard about turning into you?"

"Em, excuse me? In case you fail to notice but animals didn't wear any complex man-made apparel, and I don't want you to change into my form in nak-Oh my god, you turn into me!" She gasped as she put one hand to hold her mouth.

Naruto's body covered in a faint smoke, but the figure hidden inside was no longer a five-eight footman with bright yellow hair and black getup, instead, a young curvaceous lady with fair skin and tied up ponytail wavy hair replaced him. Liu Ruyan eyes absentmindedly grilled every part of her counterpart, from a single thin white thread on her dress till the pinkish nails on her thin fingers.

"Remarkable," Liu Ruyan mumbled, she sauntered her white mid-heels and approached her own self, this strange technique he used really superb indeed, every aspect in the figure almost identical with her own, except, certain part on her body looked... over-sexualize.

She crinkled her nose, glaring at 'her' with vicious and deadly stared, Naruto brought down 'her' forehead, twitching 'her' own lips, "hey, in my defense, I don't know your three sizes, ok?"

"And it better stays that way, also next time, tone it down a little!" She clenched her teeth.

"Why do I need next time..." Naruto rolled 'her' eyes, 'she' raised 'her' hands again and another smoke popped out, "is it fine now?"

"Oh... so handy," her eyes widened while sparkled with tons of glitters, her mind pictured and imagined how many things this man could do with the technique alone, added up with the previous weird clone technique, for example: he could become a model that can preview a lot of designs with a variety of size and style. She reached out her hand and grasped the dress, rubbing it between her fingers, it's fabric!

This is basically creating something without available raw material at all! The quality far different though, it's like comparing between gold and bronze metal, maybe because he never touch or least have a knowledge on the material in the first place.

She glanced upward, her burning passionate eyes successfully stroke a cold sweat from 'her' forehead, 'she' took a step back with a ghastly face, "W...what's wrong with you?"

"Work for me..." Her body shivered, "I'll give you any salary you desire, just quit from Yu Lei and came to my corporations!"

"What? No!" Naruto shook 'her' head.

"Come on! What Yu Lei give you? I'll give you more, please work for me!" She grasped Naruto's arm and waved it around.

"If I said no, then it's a no!"

"I give you a luxury apartment in one of my hotels!"

"Not interested!"

"I introduced you to my cousin, she's a pretty woman who likes to play cello!"

"Also not interested!"

"How about my other cousin? He's charming and elegant!"

"Absolutely definitely perfectly not interested, I'm a straight man, OK?!"

"Says someone who changes his appearance into a woman..."

"I'm changing because of circumstances, and this is you!"

"..." The white and black theme restroom filled with numerous alphabets that formed tons of heated arguments. The ludicrous sentences kept dancing, attracting, and enticing the man in woman appearance, in the end, Liu Ruyan couldn't manage to lure and poach this hard-head and strong-willed man.

"Ms. Liu, please, no matter how hard or sweet you offer, I'm not quitting Yu Lei!" Naruto rolled his eyes so hard that they almost dived out from their socket. 'Her' muscle face twitched in annoyance.

"Fine! But I'm not letting this go, after this whole trouble over, I'll dig you up until the source of water flushed out!" She roughly breathed while her cheek painted in red.

"Yeah, you do that..." Naruto stared in deadpanned expression, "in the meantime, tell me about this charity and the structure of this hotel especially the location of surveillance room, underground parking lot, escape routes, and other things."

Liu corporation planned to contribute the funds by trading most of them with foods, clothes, and books, the money's leftover will be given indirectly to each designated place. Most places destination still within Zhong Hai city's domain, while few in the villages around the perimeter. The furthest one was close to Shaanxi province borderline, in the village called Weinan.

Liu Ruyan finger tapped on the sink's platform, "regarding the hotel outline, surveillance room located in the west wing side on this floor, this location is on the east wing, so you have to walk past the door that led into the main lobby, follow the path until you arrive in the cross path, turn left, then you will found the room. The emergency doors to underground parking lot built in the main lobby and another in these back corridor, each one in both wing side..."

Naruto nodded, "Ok, this information is enough, thank you, Ms. Liu."

Liu Ruyan smiled, "you welcome... and I want to say something to you..."

"What is it?" Naruto raised one eyebrow.

She took a deep breath, then faced him with a complicated face, "I know that... we only have met for a short time, like very short time, but the way you plans your move with full of care and caution, anticipated every little thing, have made me admire you, and despite what you said about, 'every life is not your responsible,' I believe that you will try your best to keep them safe, you did that in the auction department and you will do that again, also, you willing to replace me and go to the hall, at least, in my opinion, you consider my life as your responsibility... I... just want to say... thank you."

Naruto face turned delayed for a moment, 'she' raised 'her' finger and rubbed 'her' cheek, throwing a pair of eyes from Liu Ruyan and stared on the opposite direction, "don't mention it."

She nodded, letting out a faintly smiled as she found Naruto embarrassed gesture in her appearance both a bit hilarious and awkward. It's like staring at your own figure in front of the mirror, and sadly, there was a giant ass mirror on her right side, completely reflecting their both outline figure as if it's not creepy enough already.

"Change your mind about working with me?"

"Nope!"

"Dang!"

They both went silent, after a while, Naruto wrinkled 'her' eyebrows, 'she' glanced at the corridor direction, "two people approaching the group outside, must be the henchmen."

Liu Ruyan was astonished by Naruto's capability to sense human presence from this far, it made her wonder what other power that he might have in store, and amplified her desire to rope Naruto into her cohabitants lair.

"Then..." She glimpsed at the floor while her mouth rubbed together, then faced him and slanted her lips, "I guess I'll see you soon..."

"Yeah..." Naruto beckoned 'her' head, 'she' curled his lips, "meanwhile, satisfy yourself with my clone, just don't... go overboard."

"What shameless thought you're thinking right now?" Her eyelids sagged halfway.

"Nothing too naughty, maybe a little bit kinky," 'her' eyes turned upward and stared at the ceiling

"Get out."

"Calm down, sheesh, who make you a queen of restroom..." Naruto summoned four clones, they all wore a complete set of henchmen getup. They went into the booths and picked up the rifles from the dead bodies. Naruto and Liu Ruyan exchanged last words, then 'she' strolled toward the gate and carried three clones. Liu Ruyan waited for quite sometime before the clone number 4 informed her that it will go to the surveillance room. 5 minutes later, she noticed the door swung open and watched the clone walked in. They both traversed the corridor and stayed inside the middle-sized room with a lot of monitors.

"So, tell me, how this cloning technique work; What substance composed you? What stuffs you could do?" Liu Ruyan failed to suppress her curiosity any longer, the clone pondered a while before he finally decided to just explain to her. Clone Summoning or Bunshin No Jutsu, originally a technique that allowed the user to created an imaginary copy of one's own body, but only served as deceiver that would confused the enemies' eyes since they incapable to possess any sort of attack, but later, several people managed to improve the technique even created more diversion by mixing it with natural elements.

The advance clone technique called Shadow Clone Summoning or Kage Bunshin No Jutsu, it still holds the same principle but the user this time had to divide his spiritual energy or chakra evenly with the clones: creating one clone will give it half the user's chakra, creating two clones will give each one-third of the user's chakra, and so on. The larger chakra the user possessed, the more clones they could summon.

Unlike the basic technique, these clones possessed physically body and the same ability of their creator. They shared the same clothing, damage, and transformations the user intended to be, simple tools and weaponry could also be copied along the way. In the period of their existence, a link between the user and his clones would be established, allowing all of them to stay connected even when they separated apart.

"Fascinating," Liu Ruyan mumbled, albeit they were not a living being perse, but to be able performing such a task that people nowadays struggled even with advanced bio-engineering and high technology, this pretty impressive.

"How many clones he could summon?"

The clone glanced upward, "a thousand."

"What?!" This time she couldn't bear to yelp in surprise, her jaw dropped without any restraint, "that basically an army!"

"Awesome, right?" It grinned with a hint of proud, but eventually let out a sigh, "back in the past, Boss wouldn't hesitate to use it on the spot, but now..."

She noticed something amiss with the clone tone, she sat on the wheeled stool, crossing her arm, "has something happened?"

It's stared at the monitors, eyeing every scene they displayed, "..."

Looking at the clone that no longer gave out any response, Liu Ruyan decided to not pursue the matter, she respected people privacy, especially if it's a not good experience.

She turned her eyes to her left and gazed at the monitor that showed the banquets' hall.

(***)

The black energy kept pushing forward, breaking and destroying the greenish thin barrier that Naruto had set countless time, his Ruyan Liu disguise no longer persists as he retreated time to time, his distance with the crowd behind him had fastly shortened.

In his mind, he could see his clone separated in four directions with the crowd in the center, their forefinger sustained a small fire and constantly drew something in the red carpet below.

Scream and wail for help loudly shattered the room's quiet environment, accompanied by pale faces and desperate eyes, luckily, Mr. Liu managed to keep them staying in a group and not scattered in panic manner.

He assessed his surrounding, surprised by the appearance of 5 identical people inside the room, not just the face but also the clothes. The green and black energy in the room made three lines scratched his forehead, he could feel the spiritual power they emitted and the element they possessed.

Naruto jumped backward, his hand stayed in the front of his chest while his finger not even once stopped flashing seals. The black energy contained the element of darkness, an element that held a superiority over five anima power; fire, water, wind, earth, and thunder. No matter how strong or powerful the anima, their effectiveness will decrease into half the moment they clashed against darkness, so, unless your anima still above the darkness even after it had the debuff, they provide no chance at all.

Of course, every power had a weakness, the darkness may reign above the anima, but they just a pebble in front of the holy or light element. That's why Naruto commanded his clones to make a barrier with a holy base element. The barrier will collect the nature around them and selected a specific element it needed to reinforce. The problem was it took quite a while for the user to prepare the arrangement, a series of complex drawing of five needed circle.

It usually required five people to manage this, but Naruto could do it with his shadow clone since they capable of thinking on their own.

The darkness began to approach them, his wind walls only managed to obstruct it movement so far, buying some time for his clones to get the barrier ready.

*Pang!*

A sting occurred on a certain part of his brain, the corner of his eyes twitched while his vision slightly blurred.

'Boss, it's finished!'

'Good, do it now!'

The four clones stood tall within their respective circle, their hands and fingers busily made different various gestures, and they ended it with North, South, East, and West seal.

"Barrier Technique: Elemental Convergence Enlightenment!"

*Zing!*

The four circle formation blinked with mysterious grey color, like a blazing flame, the grey energy burned the entire line that connected the circle before a transparent wall emerged from them. It rose and slowly formed a dom, completely isolated the crowd from the rest of the environment. Several minutes later, the grey dom shifted its color, from the plain gloominess into white luster and bright glaring light, shining in the entire hall and elevated its dim ambiance.

Naruto tapped on his feet and jumped backward, entering the gleam dom. He landed in a steady manner while his eyes still warily observed the incoming darkness.

"Mr. Naruto..." The Liu elder approached from his left side, he didn't know why but his instinct told him, the young blonde in front was the original one.

"Oh, Mr. Liu..." Naruto faced him, a faint smile decorated his entire lips, "how are you feeling?"

"Haha, despite my ages, but I can still kicking!" Mr. Liu laughed, his venerable voice warmed each individual's senses.

"Huh, I guess you're right... You need to teach me your longevity secret," Naruto nodded.

"You are already healthy young man, keep it that way, you might get your own secret," the elder smiled.

Naruto chuckled, he shifted his attention and staring at the darkness that only several inches left before it reached the barrier.

"..." The crowd closed their eyes, a mother hugged her daughter and a husband blocked his wife vision. In the terror of something unknown, the uncertainty will always bring insecure inside people's guts. You don't know whether this thing will kill you or not, but the thought of finding it out scared the hell out of many people.

One second, two seconds, five seconds, fifteen seconds...

They closed their eyes for a long time but felt nothing changed in their body, one of the kids peeked through his eyelids, he screamed almost immediately. The rest got affected by the alarm cue and snapped open their eyes.

Right outside the dom, a semi-dark world dominated the entire place, a stream colored in purple light lingering and floating around, like a mysterious creature in one of those horror movies.

They huddled up as the stream crashed against the barrier but got deflected instead. Naruto let out a mouthful of breath as he witnessed the barrier at least worked. He's not 100% certain but grateful that things turned in his favor.

*Pang!*

Another pain stung him in the brain, it's more hurtful than the previous one, the usage of this barrier was extremely taxing his mental, especially when he had to preserve the four clones existence. Technically, he could distribute the pain into all of the clones, but he feared if he does that, the clones would disappear thus focused all the burden into the main brain.

Naruto grasped his head, he could use his chakra to protect his brain from receiving more damage but sadly, he currently using them to... suppress something, so he needed to wait for his chakra's core to regenerate.

He squinted his eyes, the paint and every furniture in this hall had been replaced with a mixture between silver and black, the bizarre dark steam that danced out from the surfaces enough to creep any people back hair.

"Aah... So you, not Ms. Liu after all..."

On the dark-colored stage that resembled a haunted house, a man knelt with his both knees on the ground. His body covered in indigo skin, his spiky hair no longer groomed on the head, and the rest of his getup had broken.

"Your power kinda strange... I sense spiritual energy but no near Qi or Mana..."

Around the man's vicinity, nine bodies with hazardous streams had lain, they showed no movement or twitching, just stayed still without any sign of life at all.

"Aah... I get it... you must be the one who disturbs Wrath operation..."

His eerie voice shivered and shook the people's heart, gripped it tightly as if ready to squeeze them into a crumple of carton box.

The man rose on his feet, he tilted his head upward and exposed his facial expression toward the fearful audience, they simultaneously gasped in fright, the man's lips were gone, but his mouth still exists, in fact, his teeth completely visible for the naked eyes. His eyes were pitch black with two set of crimson iris embedded on them. His appearance really reminded them of a demon that crawled from hell.

"What it will be hotshot?"

He strolled forward, the deep footsteps he bore clanking a dull sound in the entire dark space.

"Are you coming here or should I walk over there?"

Naruto's face remained solemn despite other people panic manner. Even elder Liu had a pale within his healthy tanned skin, his practice in Taoism allowed him to see other people's aura and felt them with his heart, the aura this man possessed completely overwhelm his guts, made him felt dreary and suffocated.

Naruto stayed silent for a while, he raised his finger and small flame ignited, he wrote several words in the air before they strode forward and entered his body, the light element that collected inside the dom gathered around him and stuck few into his body.

"Mr. Naruto, be careful... his power was extremely terrifying..."

"Thank you, but I had dealt with something far dangerous..."

Naruto strolled forward and exited the dom, traversing until he stopped only a few meters from the man.

"What should I call you?" Naruto twisted his shoulder and waved around his hand.

"Greed," the man rubbed his finger, his crimson eyes stared on it, "Greed the Avaricious."

"Interesting..." Naruto nodded, he pressed his nose, sneezing a bit, "seven desires?"

"Oh, you know your stuff, always happy to make the introduction short," Greed laughed.

"What happens to Ling Yao?"

"He had served his purpose and his soul now on his way toward the underworld river, so this body belongs to me now," he shrugged.

"Ah, that's too bad, the dude started growing on me..." Naruto sighed in genuine pity in his tone.

"I feel bad now separating you guys, but no worry, you will meet him soon," Greed narrowed his eyes.

"That is kind of you..."

"..." Silent groomed between them.

*Bang!*

In a split of a second, two figure disappeared from their initial spots, two fists met in the air and shockwave blasted out. Naruto flew backward and crashed against the ground, tore up a piece of the concrete surface beneath him. Greed meanwhile, landed heavily, his expression showed no change as if the previous combat weight nothing.

Naruto fixed his stance and hunkered down, his right hand turned numb, feeling like he just punched a very hard steel, he even thought the bone within his hand cracked a bit.

He tapped his feet, a green colored energy wildly shot out from his body, with conviction in his eyes, he launched forward, lashing out another fist toward his enemy. Greed raised both hands, didn't even try to put up any guard.

*Bam!*

Naruto struck his enemy's torso, dull sound sparked out with waved of wind whipped their surrounding. Greed slightly slid backward but his body bore no injuries, in a swift move, he formed a claw with his both hand and slashed the right one toward his target. He missed as his enemy bent down and commenced another slash with his left hand in a vertical manner, also missed since Naruto fell to his left and dodged roll.

Naruto clenched his left fist and instilled some chakra in it, he launched forward and smacked Greed's left waist, but still no effect whatsoever besides a dull sound.

Greed swung his right hand and backhanded Naruto's cheek, taking the opportunity, he propelled his left claw and aimed toward Naruto's left shoulder.

*Poof!*

Naruto summoned a clone, it grabbed Naruto by his shirt and whirled him around while avoiding Greed's left claw, Naruto prepared his left knee and banged the back of greed's head. Albeit it still bore no injury toward his physical, but the attack managed to stumble him forward, Naruto quickly made a seal with his hand, "Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere!"

Naruto took a deep breath and burst out small winds from his mouth, blasted Greed few meters away, but his body still fit no matter what, not a scratch at all.

Naruto landed on the ground while keeping his stance ready, Greed turned around, it's hard to discern the expression he masked right now.

"Wind element... fascinating, and your fighting prowess really marvelous..." Greed let out a chuckle.

"Thanks, your defense is not bad too..." Naruto curled his lips.

Greed widened his legs stance before dashed forward, Naruto breathed out more small winds but this time in larger scale, the effect somehow unable to affect Greed movement whatsoever, he kept running without obstruction, both claw-hands readied to scratch!

Greed whipped out his claws, cleaving and slashing every part of Naruto's body, but they failed to land a single hit, Naruto bent his body as the claw passed above him, his hand flashed another seal, "Wind Release: Whirlwind Fist!"

Naruto's right fist clad in a typhoon and he unleashed it upon Greed's abdomen, the result should his body getting pierced by many blades of wind and threw him to the air, but on the contrary, his body only hovered a little although dents marked his abdomen, Greed's eyes smiled, he brought down his left claw and impale Naruto.

*Puchi!*

A speck of blood spilled to the air, since he's right hand still occupied, he's unable to summon his clone this time, with a fast thinking Naruto gave up his legs, letting his own body hit the ground thus distancing himself from Greed deadly strike, he rolled his body again but Greed action was too fast, he managed to scratch Naruto's right waist, the suit Naruto wore tear up immediately.

They both separated, their breath not even heavied or weary never know them at all.

'It seems, the wind really had no effect on him...' Naruto frowned, 'his hard skin wouldn't be able to get a slash.'

*Pang!*

Another pain struck his brain, the muscle on his face twitched again, 'can't let this fight prolong much longer...'

Naruto rose on his feet, his countenance completely unfazed by the claw mark on his waist, Greed brought up his nails and rubbed them together, he seemed unsatisfied with the result of his strike, he faced Naruto, their gaze clashed in the mid-air.

Both people strengthened their foot and dashed toward each other, Greed moved his claw and slashed Naruto horizontally, Naruto leaned back then a spiral attack from Greed claw threatened his left chest, Naruto swayed to his right and the danger only managed to graze his left shoulder, Naruto joined his hand and made a series of seals, "Water Release: Running Water Spear!"

A group of water manifested from thin air, they formed three spear edges and stabbed toward Greed's body.

Greed didn't try to avoid the attack, he had absolute trust in his own hard skin surface, after all, his ability didn't come with "The Ultimate Shield" for nothing.

*Puchi!*

Greed eyes widened, red blood splattered, tainted the black-ish floor, from his proud hard skin, dropped tons of red beads, flowed from the punctured spots.

"How..."

He's unable to imagine that someone managed to break through his defense, even round of bullets, tons of knife, a massive explosion, and biochemical effect couldn't do it.

Yet this three water made spears, easily passed his stronger than steel skin and stabbed him on the spots.

"I didn't plan to stab you with water, but to destroy your skin..." Naruto chuckled, he curled his lips, "when it comes to destructive power, water rule all other elements."




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