Opportunistic Looting

Boom!

"Ahhh! Everyone, run!"

"It’s the Nine-Tails! The Nine-Tails has gone berserk!"

"All Anbu, come with me! Chunin and lower, escort the residents to the shelters!"

Hearing the rumbling outside, along with shouts, curses, and hurried footsteps, Yota sprang upright with a kip-up, relief showing on his face.

"It’s finally here. If it had come any later, I would’ve been ready to leave for a while tomorrow!"

A chilling Chakra presence drifted through the night breeze. Feeling the violent Chakra outside, Yota knew that although his own Chakra had nearly surpassed the limits of the Kage level, it was still far inferior to the Nine-Tails’ Chakra.

"With this much Chakra, even ordinary people without Chakra-sensing abilities probably feel like disaster is about to strike, right?" Yota muttered, then leaped out of his room. In the distance, the orange-red Nine-Tailed Fox was raising its head and roaring savagely at the sky.

"I’ll take this chance to visit the Hokage Residence first." Yota smiled, and his figure vanished in an instant.

Amid the current chaos, Yota moved as freely as a fish in water. Anyone remotely strong had gone outside to deal with the Nine-Tails. Those left in the village were mostly genin, with at most a few weak chunin among them. They could not even clearly see Yota’s Body Flicker Technique.

"Who goes there? Stop!"

Only when Yota neared the Hokage Residence did two somewhat capable ninja emerge. Clearly, even in a crisis like this, the Hokage Residence still maintained a minimum level of security.

The two ninja told him to stop, but their hands did not pause in the slightest. In an instant, two kunai flew out. Then two became four, and four became eight, like a dense rain of kunai shooting toward Yota.

Yet Yota had no intention of dodging. A metallic sheen flickered across his body, followed by a layer of jet-black Haki. He charged straight ahead.

Clang, clang, clang! The sharp kunai not only failed to harm Yota in the slightest, but shattered on impact. Some kunai created with the Kunai Shadow Clone Technique burst into white smoke, while the real ones were crushed into scrap metal.

The two ninja were instantly stunned. Seeing Yota about to rush into the Hokage Residence, they did not dare hesitate. With a casual throw, two thin steel wires wrapped around Yota’s body.

The wires were made from specially treated metal, incomparably tough and sharp. The two ninja pulled hard, expecting to slice Yota into several pieces, but it felt as though they were tugging on a mountain of refined steel. Yota did not move at all.

"Competing with me in strength? You really picked the right opponent!" Yota sneered. With a burst of force, he yanked the two men toward him. The tough steel wires finally gave way under his strength, snapping in two with a twang.

Though shocked, the two ninja did not panic. As they were dragged over, their hands were already forming seals, lightning and fire flashing at the same time.

Yota extended one hand, and dark mist instantly swallowed both ninja along with their Ninjutsu. Moments later, the mist dispersed, leaving only two unconscious ninja on the ground, their Chakra completely drained.

After all, this was the ninja village where he had been born. Unless forced to the limit, Yota did not want to kill anyone.

Turning toward the Hokage Residence, Yota pondered for a moment before smiling. "Why bother with all that? I’ll just pack the whole thing up. I can search through it slowly later."

Dark Hole!

Endless black mist spread from beneath his feet, enveloping the entire Hokage Residence. At once, the building began sinking layer by layer.

The ninja hidden inside the Hokage Residence immediately descended into chaos. However, the black mist covered far too wide an area. Any Ninjutsu attack vanished into it like mud cows entering the sea. Amid a round of shrill screams, the entire Hokage Residence was completely swallowed.

"No matter where he hid the Scroll of Seals, I’ve moved the entire Hokage Residence. There’s no way I won’t find it!"

As for the ninja inside the Hokage Residence, they were naturally corroded by the Dark-Dark Fruit’s power, drained of Chakra, and knocked unconscious before Yota tossed them back out.

"Next should be Root. There ought to be stocks of Hashirama Cells and Sharingan there!"

With that thought, Yota did not linger. He rushed in the direction he had previously investigated.

This time, however, things did not go so smoothly. Yota had stuffed the entire Hokage Residence into Dark Space. The ninja were not blind, so how could they possibly ignore such blatant opportunistic looting?

Even if most ninja had gone to fight the Nine-Tails, the ones remaining could not let Yota run wild in Konoha!

But how could these people possibly be Yota’s match? With the Dark-Dark Fruit activated at full power, Yota seemed like a mass of black demonic fog. Any Ninjutsu attack or thrown projectile was swept into the black mist and vanished without a trace. Ordinary ninja collapsed the moment they were brushed by it and fainted upon contact. Once the black mist passed, it left unconscious figures scattered all over the ground.

"No wonder the Dark-Dark Fruit doesn’t have Elementalization. What it truly corresponds to is attraction. If this thing could undergo Elementalization, it would practically become a humanoid black hole. No other Devil Fruit would stand a chance."

"Other than Sea Stone and Haki, any other ability swept into this black hole would be crushed to dregs."

"Unless someone forcibly used energy to burst it apart… but that would require at least three to five times more energy than the Dark-Dark Fruit!"

The more Yota used it, the more terrifying he found the Dark-Dark Fruit. Just then, he suddenly felt his body halt.

"I’ve got him! Hurry and attack!"

A pineapple-haired ninja shouted loudly, his face flushed red.

"Shadow Imitation Technique? The Nara Clan?" Yota was slightly surprised. He had been using the Dark-Dark Fruit at full power, with black mist filling the area, so the shadows on the ground were impossible to see. As for Observation Haki, it was not true vision. Its perception of intangible, formless things like shadows was also quite dull. That was why Yota had fallen for this sneak attack.

"However…" Yota sneered. "With your Chakra, you think you can control me?"

"And using a Devil Fruit doesn’t require hand seals!"

The Nara Clan ninja using the Shadow Imitation Technique suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. "No… I can’t control him!"

"I’ll do it!" With a thunderous roar, an Akimichi Clan ninja thrust out his palm. His hand rapidly expanded, but Yota violently shook his body and broke free from the Shadow Imitation Technique. Then, with endless black mist wrapped around his fist, he met the Akimichi Clan ninja’s Partial Multi-Size Technique—Super Push Hand.

The two fists, one large and one small, seeming to differ enormously in size, collided. Then a shrill scream rang out.

However, it did not come from the seemingly thin and small Yota, but from the massive Akimichi Clan ninja. A huge hole had been punched through his entire palm, which rapidly shrank back down. Under the Dark-Dark Fruit’s terrifying attraction, blood gushed from the wound like a flood and was sucked into the black hole in Yota’s hand. In mere moments, he had lost more than half the blood in his body, and he fainted with a deathly pale face.