NOVEL WEB Chapter 73: CHAPTER 73
c73: Plan
At precisely ten o'clock the next morning, Genmei Uchiha stretched his limbs lazily, then straightened up with surprising energy. His body, conditioned by years of chakra training and Uchiha discipline, shook off fatigue easily. After performing a brief chakra circulation warm-up, he dressed in a clean set of civilian clothes, washed up swiftly, and checked his appearance in the mirror—an automatic gesture picked up from years of impersonation work.
Bang! With a practiced sequence of hand seals—Ram → Dog → Boar → Ox—followed by a puff of white smoke, Gen activated the Transformation Technique (Henge no Jutsu). His features blurred for a moment before reforming into a low-key yet presentable appearance. He exited his room and walked toward the hotel restaurant with calm precision.
Despite being far from Konoha, Gen did not deny himself comfort while traveling. The hotel he stayed in was known as Seika Pavilion, one of the most opulent and well-secured establishments in Shirai City, frequently visited by merchant lords, minor daimyō, local magistrates, and elite samurai retainers. Gen chose it not for luxury alone but because such places were the least likely to be raided and their tight internal security ensured few questions were asked.
After selecting a breakfast of high-grade rice, miso soup, grilled river fish, and sliced pickled lotus root, Gen carried his tray to a vacant seat in the dining hall. He sat facing a large window that overlooked a koi pond, but his ears were tuned to the background chatter of the wealthy guests always a better source of gossip than informants.
Just a few tables away, a middle-aged noble in fine robes leaned toward his companion and whispered with a dramatic flair:
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"My steward told me this morning the Viper Gang headquarters was wiped out overnight."
"What? Completely wiped out?"
"Not one survivor. Hundreds dead."
"Hiss… But the Viper Gang is one of the strongest syndicates in Shirai! They're backed by officials and rogue-nin from the Grass and Rain factions!"
"And yet, they're gone. Do you know what's more disturbing?"
"What?"
"None of the bodies had visible wounds. Not one. And their faces… frozen in terror."
"You're serious?"
"Serious enough that several samurai guards quit their posts this morning. Some of the surviving Viper affiliates came back, saw the corpses, and nearly went mad."
"But what could do that? A plague?"
"Don't be naive. The residents around the estate said they heard collective screams last night. Not the kind you get from torture or battle. The kind that... chills your spine."
"Are you implying it wasn't a person?"
"I'm saying I don't think it was a normal person. That kind of death—no marks, only fear it sounds like a curse, or worse, the work of a demon."
"But... that's ridiculous."
"Is it? You've seen what chakra can do. You think this is beyond the realm of jutsu?"
Before his companion could respond, the man pressed on:
"Sure, a ninja can destroy the Viper Gang. But to make over two hundred people die simultaneously in fear, without a single explosive tag, sword wound, or broken wall?"
"...That's true."
"Exactly. I'm not sticking around to find out who or what did it. I'll be leaving right after breakfast. You?"
"Together. Definitely together."
The conversation ended, and both men returned to their meals, visibly disturbed.
Meanwhile, the news of the Viper Gang's annihilation had begun spreading across Shirai City like wildfire. In a city where crime was rampant and gang warfare commonplace, the complete erasure of a dominant faction overnight was unprecedented. For the average citizen, it was a cause for celebration. For their extorted shopkeepers, kidnapped children, and trafficked workers, it was nothing short of liberation.
The bystanders cheered in hushed tones, clapping their hands in private. At the same time, the other criminal organizations, particularly those with ties to Fire Country's underground trade networks, responded like vultures spotting a fresh carcass. With the Viper Gang's elite eliminated, its smaller posts across the city its smuggling docks, black-market brothels, and gambling dens—stood unprotected.
The power vacuum triggered an immediate turf war.
Yet among all these reactions, the one consistent thread was uncertainty. Rumors ranged from divine retribution to chakra-fueled curses.
Some claimed it was the work of a ghost or jashinist priest, others pointed to ancient spirits from the Ryūmyaku. More skeptical voices said it was just an unknown S-rank missing-nin unleashing forbidden techniques.
But what confused even the most hardened killers was this:
The kidnapped victims were not harmed. In fact, they had been freed.
That alone challenged the demon theory. What malevolent spirit would go to the trouble of sparing captives?
The public could only speculate. But the Shirai City Lord's Mansion, which operated under the jurisdiction of the Fire Daimyō's regional governance, had already confirmed one thing: the event was man-made.
Why?
Because inside the Viper estate's treasury and dungeons, forensic sealing teams had discovered residual chakra traces, summoning signs, and signs of clone activity all unmistakably shinobi work. Yet the chakra was so faint, so carefully erased, that not even Jōnin-level trackers could extract a signature.
No ANBU mask fragments. No clan insignia. No left-behind scent.
The destruction was surgical.
To complicate things further, the only surviving trace pointed to something completely implausible.
The attack, the City Lord's Mansion concluded, had been triggered because three low-ranking thugs attempted to extort the wrong traveler.
No one would have believed it, had it not come from the city's top security division. But even they were baffled. Without more clues, they had no choice but to issue a high-priority B-rank investigation request to Konohagakure, asking the Fire Daimyō's shinobi allies to dispatch an investigator immediately.
The mission brief, however, was carefully worded: "Unknown agent has caused large-scale gang collapse via untraceable means. Request tactical assessment and containment strategy."
To most, the message sounded routine.
But to those who understood shinobi code, it was clear:
Someone with ANBU-level capability had walked into Shirai, erased a criminal empire, and vanished without leaving a name.
And now, the city's most powerful factions were watching the shadows—terrified that they might be next.
When Konohagakure received the emergency mission request from the Fire Daimyō's regional office in Shirai City, Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato took it seriously. Though the village had numerous priorities, Minato immediately authorized the deployment of a special reconnaissance and analysis unit.
This was no ordinary team it was a reinforced investigative squad, composed of clan shinobi from the Hyūga, Nara, Yamanaka, Aburame, and Inuzuka clans. Each of these clans was known for unique capabilities: the Byakugan's near-360° vision, the Nara clan's shadow manipulation and tactical intelligence, the Yamanaka's mind transfer and sensory techniques, the Aburame's kikaichū swarm scouts, and the Inuzuka's advanced olfactory tracking.
The five shinobi conducted a methodical sweep of the former Viper Gang compound, using coordinated techniques to map terrain residue, chakra traces, and psychological echoes. Despite their formidable skills, their investigation turned up few tangible clues.
The only anomaly detected was found in a traumatic flashback memory extracted from a dying Viper thug by the Yamanaka operative a vision of blood-red feathers falling from the sky like snow. The feathers seemed to paralyze and terrify all those who saw them. The description bore some resemblance to Konoha's own Temple of Nirvana Technique (Nehan Shōja no Jutsu) a genjutsu that induces sleep but this version lacked the chakra signature and operated through fear, not sedation. It suggested either a highly modified genjutsu or a forbidden art unknown even in Konoha's archives.
Back in the shadows, Gen Uchiha had long anticipated that Konoha would become involved. After all, once the Fire Country's military administration caught wind of mass civilian and criminal deaths, it was only a matter of time before ANBU-level investigators were dispatched.
That's why, before leaving Shirai, Gen had already performed extensive stealth precautions. He altered his facial structure using advanced Transformation Jutsu, masked his body odor with a compound synthesized from crushed medicinal herbs and chakra-based scent suppressants, and even distorted his chakra signature using a technique similar in principle to the Chakra Suppression Technique used by ANBU operatives. All these measures rendered him nearly untraceable by even the sharpest Inuzuka or Hyūga sensors.
Of course, all of that was in the past. By the time the Konoha ninja arrived in Shirai, Gen had already vanished, leaving behind only rumors, fear, and a trail of corpses too clean to dissect.
…
This mission to Shirai wasn't just business for Gen Uchiha it was a rare opportunity. He had no intention of returning to his base in the Land of Fire too soon. With the city in chaos, it was the perfect time to harvest souls and absorb lifespans.
Lifespans were relatively consistent between civilians and shinobi, but the soul was another matter entirely.
Chakra, over time, nourishes the soul and shinobi who had trained for years had spiritually enriched souls, amplified in both density and strength compared to those of ordinary people. The longer and more intensely one had used chakra, the greater the spiritual resilience and quality of their soul. This divergence was not merely metaphysical it was a measurable, practical resource for Gen.
Moreover, the chakra bound to a shinobi's soul was of a different nature than the chakra used in the body. It was subtle, refined, not easily dispersed, and carried emotional weight often trauma, anger, or fear which made it nutrient-rich for Gen's devouring technique. While it couldn't instantly elevate his soul's base strength, consistent feeding on shinobi souls could refine it over time an effect not unlike how certain Forbidden Jutsu allowed gradual evolution.
Thus, Gen had made a conscious decision: his next prey would be missing-nin and underground rogue shinobi.
Though the souls of civilians could also be consumed, Gen had just stirred a hornet's nest with the Viper Gang massacre. Targeting ordinary people again would draw too much attention. The smarter move was to lie low and harvest under the radar.
Eventually, Gen planned to employ the Spirit Transformation Technique (Shintenshin no Jutsu) or a modified possession jutsu, enabling him to take over the bodies of low-level shinobi, infiltrate new areas under false identities, and continue harvesting without raising alarms.
Of course, Gen could possess civilians as well, but their frail constitutions and lack of chakra control made the process inefficient. They also lacked the emotional depth and chakra-rich memories that made shinobi ideal hosts. And since Gen often used illusion-based methods to induce terror before harvesting, civilians' weak resistance made for less satisfying or stable energy yield.
Undeniably, with this path, the number of unnatural deaths in the ninja world would spike. But in a world where war, betrayal, and secret assassination were daily occurrences, such a trend wouldn't seem abnormal. Death was not rare in the shinobi world it was routine. Accidents, skirmishes, failed missions—most deaths weren't even investigated seriously.
The ninja world was infested with human traffickers, gangsters, rogue mercenaries, sadists, warlords, and missing-nin—a nearly infinite supply of "weeds" to be cut down. Even with the powers of the Soul-Soul Fruit, which allowed Gen to split, manipulate, and store souls, there was no chance of cleaning all that rot alone.
Unless the roots of darkness themselves were destroyed, there would always be more evil to devour.
But unlike the famous pacifists of history or the ascetic monks of the Fire Temple, Gen Uchiha's "purification" was not spiritual or symbolic, it was absolute. Where Namo Gatling Bodhisattva sought to cleanse through compassion or reform, Gen purified through annihilation he erased wickedness from the world by removing it from existence altogether.
So, where would such corrupt shinobi be found in abundance?
The answer was obvious, and Gen's eyes gleamed with resolve.
The black market.
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