Chapter 94 (Patreon)

The Coliseum

Under Nonō’s genjutsu, the captured traffickers confessed everything.

They had not been abducting lone shinobi to sell to the hidden villages as cannon fodder or human test subjects. Instead, their captives were delivered to an organization operating from an island far out at sea.

There, the prisoners were forced to fight one another for the entertainment of the nobles and wealthy merchants who visited the island. The spectators placed bets while the shinobi risked their lives in the arena.

In short, it was an underground Coliseum where shinobi were treated as contestants—and property.

The captain and his crew had naturally never heard of such a place. More surprisingly, even someone as well-informed as Yakushi Nonō knew nothing about it.

She recalled the many shinobi who had disappeared during the war. Until now, she had assumed they had been killed by enemy forces. Perhaps some of them had instead been captured and taken to that island.

Were the people behind it not afraid that the hidden villages would eventually discover the truth and retaliate?

Roy had no idea what Nonō was thinking. If he had, his answer would have been simple.

They were not afraid.

The people who visited the island and placed bets were influential figures from countries throughout the shinobi world.

In other words, the Coliseum survived because it was protected by the very nations that should have destroyed it.

Most nobles had no need to work for a living, and the shinobi world offered few forms of entertainment. Once even toying with men and women ceased to amuse them, they naturally began searching for more thrilling ways to pass the time.

Wars between hidden villages were undoubtedly exciting to watch, but such conflicts could not be started whenever the nobles became bored. After every major war, the villages needed several years—sometimes more than a decade—to recover.

The Coliseum was their solution.

Wars between hidden villages had simply been reduced to battles between individual shinobi.

Roy remembered Sasuke visiting a similar place in the original story. He wondered whether this was that same island.

Orochimaru was acquainted with En Oyashiro, an arms dealer deeply connected to the Coliseum, and understood the place remarkably well. That alone proved that the island’s existence was no secret within certain circles.

En Oyashiro belonged to the Chinoike Clan. After his wife was murdered, he slaughtered the rest of his clan in revenge before leaving the Valley of Hell with his daughter.

The Chinoike Clan possessed the Ketsuryūgan, a kekkei genkai whose genjutsu abilities were said to rival those of the Sharingan.

Roy had previously discovered a pair of Ketsuryūgan eyes among Danzō’s collection. They were still being kept at Kushina’s house.

“Orochimaru won’t bring Sasuke to the Coliseum to meet En Oyashiro for at least another sixteen years. Is En already involved with this place?”

Roy rested his chin against one hand and sank into thought.

Someone had tried to abduct one of his people, and Roy was not the type to simply let the matter go. If circumstances allowed it, he would wipe out everyone involved and tear the entire organization up by its roots.

The problem was that too many influential figures gathered on that island.

Roy did not yet possess the strength to overthrow the entire noble class.

His original plan was to strengthen Konoha first, gradually bring the Land of Fire under the village’s control, and draw more shinobi to Kushina’s side. Only then would they move against the nobles throughout the shinobi world.

If Roy attacked the nobles on the island now, the resulting panic would spread throughout the aristocracy. Every hidden village would receive orders to investigate the incident thoroughly.

Roy did not care if they discovered his involvement, but Nonō was different.

Even if he left her outside the island, Roy could only travel approximately five kilometers away from her. That would still place Nonō close enough to become an obvious suspect once something happened to the nobles.

As much as he disliked it, Roy had no choice but to let those parasites continue enjoying their comfortable lives a little longer.

Once the interrogation ended, Nonō used her genjutsu to command the traffickers. One after another, they climbed over the ship’s railing, threw themselves into the sea, and drowned.

Nonō ignored the crew’s grateful thanks and returned to her room.

After waiting there for a while, she saw Roy slip back through the door with a strangely furtive air. Fortunately, she had already grown accustomed to seeing him pass through walls and appear without warning. Otherwise, the sight would have terrified her.

Roy did not explain where he had gone or what he had done, and Nonō did not ask.

The crew members, who should have gathered together to discuss the attack, were now behaving as though nothing had happened. Each of them had quietly returned to work.

“Go back to sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you. Thank you, Roy-kun.”

Nonō did not argue.

Although she no longer felt as sleepy after resting for a while, the exhaustion weighing on her body had not completely faded. She lay back down and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Roy returned to his previous position and leaned against the wall.

“En Oyashiro has a daughter named Chino, but she shouldn’t have awakened the Ketsuryūgan yet. She also has a companion named Fūshin, the wielder of the Typhoon Release kekkei genkai. At his strongest, he was capable of holding his ground against a fully manifested Susanoo, at least for a short time. Judging by the timeline, though, Fūshin should still be only a few years old.”

Before long, a plan began to take shape in Roy’s mind.

After returning from the Summoning Island, he would search the regions surrounding the Land of Water.

In the original story, En Oyashiro told Orochimaru and Sasuke that Fūshin had come from a village somewhere near the Land of Water. Because of his kekkei genkai, the villagers feared him and treated him like a monster.

Eventually, his own parents sold him to human traffickers.

Fūshin was purchased by a noble and taken to the Coliseum. After losing to Chino, he became one of En Oyashiro’s subordinates.

Kirigakure had not yet fallen under the rule of the Fourth Mizukage whom Obito would later control, but the persecution of kekkei genkai wielders had already begun throughout the Land of Water.

Fūshin had been sold because of his bloodline. Haku would suffer from that same hatred.

Haku was approximately two or three years older than Naruto, and Zabuza had found him when he was around five or six. That meant Yagura would become the Fourth Mizukage within the next year or two and fall under Obito’s control. Not long afterward, Zabuza would fail in his attempt to assassinate him and defect from Kirigakure.

The timing matched.

“While I’m searching for Fūshin, perhaps I can try finding Haku as well.”

Fūshin’s village was unknown, making him difficult to locate. Haku should be easier. As long as Roy searched the permanently snow-covered regions of the Land of Water, he should eventually find the right place.

Once he found both children, Kushina would gain two more powerful kekkei genkai wielders for the future.

Roy had truly gone to extraordinary lengths for that lovely woman. Surely it would not be unreasonable to expect a little reward once he returned.

For the next two and a half days, Yakushi Nonō continued practicing lower-numbered Kidō spells.

Roy did not remain idle either. He repeatedly consumed and restored his reiatsu, attempting to increase the maximum amount he could hold.

Unfortunately, his reiatsu recovered far too slowly. He did not dare exhaust it completely, since he had no idea how long it would take to recover from reaching his absolute limit.

As a result, his overall capacity barely increased. His ability to recite Kidō incantations, however, became noticeably smoother.

Roy thought of the Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique. Depending on the user, the technique could be performed with as few as three to five hand seals or with the complete sequence of forty-four.

Using that as inspiration, Roy began identifying which portions of his Kidō incantations could be removed without affecting the spell itself.

To his surprise, it worked.

For Hadō and Bakudō spells numbered below ten, Roy managed to shorten their five-line incantations to three lines without sacrificing any of their original power.

Kaidō was excluded from his experiments for the time being. He rarely had an opportunity to use it, and his proficiency was still far too poor to begin modifying its incantations.

“My reiatsu is still too weak. Otherwise, I should be able to shorten them even further.”

Roy sighed helplessly.

The shinobi world was not like the Soul Society. Its concentration of reishi was even lower than that of the Human World, which made the recovery of his reiatsu painfully slow.

The only reason reishi existed here in measurable amounts was probably the frequency of large-scale death throughout the shinobi world. Without its countless wars and conflicts, the concentration might have been even lower—or perhaps nonexistent.

Knock, knock, knock.

A knock sounded from the other side of the door.

“My lady,” the captain called out, “we’ve arrived in the Land of the Sea.”