Ninja ≠ merc
The hearts I robbed were beating frantically in my chest as I tried to get as far away from the village as possible. Our, no, their leadership would be unstable since I killed everyone that took part in my imprisonment, but in time, they’d send out squads after me who knew my fighting styles. Scavenging for cash and gears in the aftermath of a battlefield, I had no time to feel sorry for myself. I must learn the mechanisms of the Earth Grudge Fear for it to be more of a help than liability, or I’d get killed sooner than later.
Well then, let’s walk before we run. I spotted a deer in the forest, a perfect subject for experimentation. With a tentative lift of my arm, my parasite understood my intentions and shot its threads out at the seams, but the animal was alerted as it ran for its life, forcing me to extend my reach. I pierced its skin, impaling its heart, but the overextension tore my muscle and drained more chakra than the deer’s flesh could provide.
However, the effects of my threads were better than I anticipated: even just a sliver of it was sharper than a needle, enough to penetrate the dead tissues as well as living ones. I could use it to stitch up my tore up muscles, and even limbs, since they were already ripped off and sewn together the first day that I got this technique.
As I used the new techniques to climb on top of things, I noted: Maximum energy conservation happened when I didn’t rely purely on my own taijutsu or the parasite. It needed action in order to avoid overheating, but overexertion could cost me a heart, which I learnt the hard way when I tried to pull myself up a cliff almost solely using the threads. The elders lived way too long for their cardiac tissues to be good as new, and using them was like burning rotten firewood. Funny how Sato and his cronies were more helpful to me dead than alive, but not by much. It was time to move on to human targets.
Bounty offices could be a way to start. They would provide information about just how strong the targets were, but since I must’ve made the list too by now, probably not a good idea to loiter around them. Not till I mastered the way of setting traps combining the threads with the hardwares.
Speaking of which, the threads were able to stay alive for some time even after being cut off from my body: I was getting ready to practice the newly acquired jutsus from the muscle memories of the elders, when I heard footsteps approaching my camping ground. Startled yet determined to gain the element of surprise, I buried a few strands under the dirt, crouching in a pond nearby. The owners of those footsteps treaded lightly, but my threads caught onto the vibrations they sent anyway, and shot through their feet the second I thought of it. I broke from the water surface and slit the throat of the man who was the closest to me. The other screamed, but I didn’t give him time to prepare for the next attack.
Trading two of the atrophied hearts for fresher ones, I felt the energy streaming in while I checked the belongings of the deceased. They weren’t here to hunt me down, just innocent passersby from the land of the mist with the stinking bad luck to run into me. I took their cash, buried their bodies along with their personal belongings with my bare hands, and put their headbands on the top of the graves. Sorry I had to know you this way, Inoue and Taro. Rest in peace. In this world, beggars can't be choosers. If I didn't do this, I'd die in your place, which I couldn't afford.
As I traveled to a new site and rested in a freezing cave, I felt the loneliness eating away at my soul, crushing my own heart. The parasite was never much of a chatting partner, and it never had friends like I used to, but feeling my frustration, it unleashed one of the hearts I robbed today to give me some company, which resembled more of a strange animal than a piece of tissue that was supposed to be about the size of a human fist, crouching on my laps like a puppy. Then it dawned on me: The threads could be deployed outside my body in larger quantities if I wanted to send my hearts out to fight.
Controlling them like this also required me to store more chakra on my own since they’d emit heat even faster outside my body, but I couldn’t stand the sight of seeing nothing except stalagmites all around me, so I closed my eyes while holding the creature in my own arms. It was so warm, like a little stove, and I fell asleep quickly.
When morning came, I was alone again, realizing that my body absorbed the heart back into my chest the moment I passed out. It was a perfect time to learn some jutsus from the hearts’ former masters before they get replaced. The elders' hearts were meager in chakra reserve, but they stored lots of knowledge. It was a shame I got rid of two of them before full mastery. Not a mistake I was going to make again. However, with 3 fresh hearts ( one of which mine) and 2 old ones in my chest, I could afford to train for more time in a day. The sooner I become one with the parasite, the sooner I could start taking on stronger opponents.
The little stove that lulled me to sleep was of lightning nature, same as Ren’s chakra affinity. I remembered how he’d spar with me using his techniques, and in rare times, we’d tie up as lightning was stronger against earth. When I tried unleashing a massive range jutsu he showed me once to honor his memory—false darkness, I lost control of the power and scorched my own arm along with the grass around me. Even though the initial integration with the jiongu fried most of my nerve endings that dealt with pain, the burn wasn’t anything remotely dismissible. Grinding my teeth in pain, I went back into the cave where I leaned against the stone to cool my tissues off.
The heart I stole from the teenager was of water nature. I had less sources as reference so I had to ask the dead, but the muscle’s memory turned out to be almost as efficient as my own earth nature. Perhaps it was easy because there was less to learn, as I didn't have such an easy time with the elders' hearts though they were also water.
Feeling more confident, I decided it was time to approach the bounty office nearest to me. Someone would alert the pursuers from my village no doubt, but I was strong enough to take them on even before I got the jiongu. If I couldn’t cement my skills through combat, they’d get ahead of me before I knew it. However, I probably would have more to worry about from possible contenders and fellow nukenins. They've been in this underworld system longer than I'd been even if they weren't any older than me, and I got no idea what to really expect.
The cash I scavenged from the dead was just enough to buy me a basic list which contained lower rank deserters, equivalent to C class missions or below. I needed to kill at least 50,000 ryo worth of targets to make up for the capital. Staring at the list, I was never more confused: how in the world was I to track these men down when I didn't have an intel source of my own or the cash to bribe informants? Money made money apparently, but I was broke. Never thought I'd be so clueless and helpless despite all the the missions I carried out perfectly during my life in the waterfall village. However, competitors around me were already getting to go, a few of whom snickering at my direction, as if saying: "No refunds".