Naruto: The Ninja World's Life Buyer

Chapter 19 The Essence of Disguise

"Become it."

Yuanzao pointed to a tin bucket with a hole in the bottom in the corner.

The bucket was covered in rust and filth, and it smelled terrible.

Sosuke did not hesitate.

戌-亥-寅.

Chakra flowed, covering the entire body.

boom.

The smoke dissipated.

A dilapidated tin bucket appeared on the spot.

The rust texture and the notches on the edges are perfectly replicated.

Sousuke hunched over, trying to hide his hands and feet in the blind spot created by chakra.

This is not comfortable.

To fit the size of the iron bucket, he had to curl up like a baby.

Muscles are tight.

A muffled groan came from inside the metal bucket.

This kick landed squarely on Sousuke's back.

"Will the metal bucket squeal?"

Yuan asked coldly.

Boom!

Another kick.

This time, the kick was to the "bottom of the bucket," which is Sousuke's buttocks.

Sosuke gritted his teeth and desperately tried to suppress his voice.

Pain shielding.

Yuanzao took a sip of wine, his voice cold.

"Transformation isn't just about changing your skin. You have to become that thing yourself."

"You're like an iron barrel; you feel no pain. Even if someone smashes you flat, you can't make a sound."

He held up the empty wine bottle in his hand.

Snapped.

The bottle smashed against the metal bucket, scattering glass shards everywhere.

The shards tore through the chakra cloak and cut Sousuke's calf.

Fresh blood seeped out.

But the iron bucket remained completely still.

There were no screams, no trembling.

"This is getting interesting."

Genzo nodded.

"Hold on. Ten minutes."

He walked to the side, unbuckled his belt, and began to urinate over the pile of garbage.

Urine splashed onto the tire next to him, just centimeters away from the iron bucket that Sosuke had turned into.

This is a humiliation.

It is also a form of extreme psychological desensitization training.

For missions, ninjas sometimes had to lie in wait in latrines or disguise themselves as corpses to be trampled on.

Sosuke huddled under the cover of the iron barrel.

He smelled urine.

He finally couldn't tolerate it anymore and deactivated the transformation.

He was covered in sweat, his back was bruised, and the wound on his calf had already scabbed over.

"Continue," Genzo said coldly.

"Turn into a trash can."

"To become that piece of rotten wood."

On this day, Sosuke experienced hell.

He is no longer alone.

He is everything in the garbage dump.

He was trampled on, kicked, splashed with dirty water, and even urinated on by the stray dogs released by Genzo.

Every time he reverts to his transformation due to pain or nausea, he is met with Genzo's merciless mockery and extra training.

Until the sun sets in the west.

Sosuke lay in the garbage heap, his body reeking of stench, his clothes so faded they were unrecognizable.

But the stone he had turned into remained in stone form even after Genzo struck it three times with his iron crutch.

There was no trembling.

He is not breathing.

He even deliberately lowered the temperature using chakra.

"It's starting to look promising."

Yuanzao put away the iron crutch.

"Remember this feeling. Throw away your dignity, block out the pain. Only then can you deceive the enemy."

It's just an appetizer.

The next day, they continued practicing the transformation technique.

"Become that."

Yuanzao pointed to a patch of wasteland at the edge of the landfill.

There stood a crooked scarecrow.

It was not only dilapidated, but also half-rotten, with blackened hay inside and several pieces of tattered cloth of indeterminate color hanging on it.

Several crows were perched on its shoulder, pecking at the grass seeds and insects inside without restraint.

"A scarecrow?" Sosuke asked.

"This is called environmental mimicry." Genzo took a sip of his drink. "The transformation technique not only has to fool the eyes, but also truly blend into the surrounding environment."

"You need to become a tree, or a scarecrow. Even if the wind blows and the rain pours down, and birds poop on your head, you can't move."

"Go ahead. Pull out the old one, and you stand there."

Sosuke did as he was told.

He walked to the wasteland and pulled up the musty-smelling scarecrow.

Then, 戌-亥-寅.

Chakra flow.

boom.

A brand new, but outwardly dilapidated, scarecrow appeared.

Sosuke maintained a "T"-shaped posture, standing on one leg—in order to simulate the stick stuck in the ground, he had to tuck his other leg in, which was a great test of his balance and muscle endurance.

"Keep it up."

Yuanzao found a comfortable place to sit down.

"You can't move unless I tell you to stop. Even if the sky falls down."

The first ten minutes weren't too hard to get through.

But half an hour later, the pain began.

First, the shoulders. The action of raising both arms to shoulder height seems simple, but if you hold it for more than half an hour, your deltoid muscles will feel like they are on fire.

Next was the foot supporting the weight on one leg. The ankle began to tremble, and the calf muscles were as tense as stone.

"Don't shake." Genzo's voice came from afar. "A scarecrow is an inanimate object. Inanimate objects don't shake because of muscle soreness."

Sousuke gritted his teeth and forcibly mobilized his chakra to envelop his trembling muscles, fixing his body in place like a layer of plaster.

The wind blew by.

The weeds brushed against his legs. It itched.

A greenbottle fly buzzed by and landed on the tip of his nose (the scarecrow's cloth face).

The fly rubbed its hands together, and the subtle tactile sensation was amplified infinitely by the chakra perception.

Sosuke felt like sneezing.

But he held back.

He controlled his diaphragm, forcibly suppressing the sneeze, turning it into an extremely slight internal tremor.

But that's not the hardest part.

There were also crows.

A few crows flew over.

They saw Sosuke as a real scarecrow, or as part of a garbage dump.

A crow landed on his shoulder.

The claws were sharp, digging into the flesh through the thin chakra cloak.

Sousuke remained motionless.

The crow tilted its head and pecked at Sosuke's ear with its sharp beak.

It wanted to see if this thing was edible.

excruciating pain.

My ears felt like they were being pierced by needles.

Sousuke's chakra fluctuations were momentarily disrupted.

Bang.

Transformation spell canceled.

"Ah!" Sosuke cried out in pain, clutching his bleeding ear.

The crow was startled and flew away, cawing loudly.

"Is this your limit?"

Genzo remained seated, unmoved.

"If you were an enemy scout, you would be dead by now."

"continue."

Sosuke gritted his teeth, covered his ears, and stood up.

Blood trickled down between his fingers.

But he didn't complain and started forming the hand seals again.

Bang.

The scarecrow stood once again atop the garbage mountain.

This stop lasted for the entire morning.

He was crawled on by flies, pecked by crows, and even made dizzy by the wind and sun.

But he gradually found his rhythm.

That's a state of "sinking" one's self-awareness.

Slow down your heartbeat.

Conceal your breath.

When he stopped resisting external stimuli and instead considered himself part of the environment, the pain seemed to fade away.

Until noon.

Another crow landed on his head.

It didn't peck at him, but stayed there peacefully, preening its feathers.

He even defecated and a clump of poop dripped down the brim of his hat.

Sosuke did not move.

Even the fluctuations in chakra became negligible.

It wasn't until the sun was setting that Yuanzao yawned and stood up.

"Alright."

Sousuke deactivated his transformation.

He fell directly into the grass.

Both arms had lost all feeling and hung limply at their sides, as if broken. The foot on which they were standing was swollen.

"His composure is passable."

Genzo walked over and glanced at the bird droppings and scratches on Sousuke's shoulder.

"You've passed this test."

Sosuke lay on the ground, panting heavily.

This kind of static torture is more mentally taxing than physical training.

"Tomorrow," Genzo looked down at him, a cruel smile in his eyes, "practice dynamics."

"Wrap your whole body in bandages beforehand. You'll bleed tomorrow."