At the moment when Rinto's eyes were locked onto Isamu Igane, everything changed.
"Bang!" A soft sound filled the air.
Suddenly, in front of Igane Isamu, Rinto, who had been buried in the soil, exploded into a puff of white smoke.
The next second, a wooden mound appeared in the pit.
"Body Replacement Technique!"
Isamu's eyes widened, and his heart raced with shock.
"Damn it," he thought, "Experiments showed that Chakra can't be extracted from undead monsters! How is this possible? How did he perform the Body Replacement Technique?"
While he was still stunned, he heard the faint sound of a hissing noise from the ground.
A small hissing noise grew louder.
"Oh no! Exploding Talisman!" Isamu yelled, but before he could react, the brilliant light of the explosion swallowed him whole.
With a loud rumble, the dark alley was suddenly illuminated as if it were daytime.
Rinto, drenched and clutching his chest, emerged from the mist of smoke. His eyes reflected the flames, his face a mixture of pain and satisfaction.
"Ah, Kaito Fujiwara's ninja bag really is a life-saving artifact!" Rinto chuckled, glancing at the detonating tags and ninjutsu scrolls. "Too bad I've run out of detonating tags."
The explosion had thrown a broken body into the air, which landed heavily on the ground. It was Isamu Igane, now in a pitiful state. His body was charred and riddled with wounds, and his legs were missing below the knees.
Rinto's expression turned grim.
Though he was immortal, the pain was still real. The sensation of losing his heart sent waves of agony through his body, twisting his handsome face in anguish.
Clutching his chest, Rinto slowly approached Isamu's body and examined it closely. After surviving the explosion, Isamu's body was still wrapped in his hood. For some reason, Rinto felt compelled to reveal what lay beneath.
One hand pressed against his chest, Rinto reached forward to lift the hood of this ruthless cultist.
Suddenly, Rinto's eyes went wide, his entire body frozen in place. The next second, his outstretched hands and the hand pressing on his chest were locked in a painful grip.
"Illusion: Heart by Me Technique!"
The next moment, Rinto felt a powerful force freeze his body. His muscles stiffened, and he couldn't move a muscle.
On the ground, Igane's eyes turned black, and he bent over, coughing up blood. A trail of crimson dripped from his mouth, and his hand, which had been forming seals, collapsed weakly.
"Damn it, you little devil!" Isamu gritted his teeth, his face twisted with fury. "I swear, you will live in my torture for the rest of your life!"
Blood continued to spill from the corners of his mouth as his energy surged.
Though the flames from the explosion had been extinguished by the downpour, the loud blast would certainly draw the attention of ninjas from Amegakure. He had to leave immediately.
Fortunately, he still had control over the heart technique to manage the monster in front of him. If not, he would have fallen into Rinto's hands today.
The anger only fueled him further. The blood he had carefully suppressed surged again, causing another mouthful of blood to burst from his mouth.
"You damn monster, come here and take me away from here!" Isamu ordered, his voice dripping with disdain.
Despite being under the effect of the illusion, Rinto obeyed the command. He reached down effortlessly and picked up Igane Isamu in a princess carry, his strength unwavering.
"Go!" Isamu barked, but just as he was about to give another order, a sound caught his attention.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss…"
The unmistakable sound of a detonating talisman!
"What's that sound?!" Isamu's face drained of color, his eyes wide with terror. The sound was so close, and he knew the danger all too well.
Suddenly, a brilliant white light appeared under Rinto's clothes.
The next second, an explosion ripped through the air, engulfing both men in a violent blast of fire and light.
In the final moments before they lost consciousness, Isamu remembered a warning from an old man in a white coat: "If you find an immortal, cut them up and bring them back. Don't waste your time with words!"
As the flames roared, two figures were hurled in opposite directions.
One was sent into the human world, the other into hell.
With a muffled "Bang!" both Rinto and Igane Isamu crashed to the ground.
Rinto was jolted awake by the agony of his burns. His eyelids, singed from the blast, fought to open. His vision blurred, but he soon understood the situation. A grim smile slowly spread across his burned face as he muttered under his breath.
"Why not just die quietly? Why make such a fuss?"
However, his immediate concern wasn't Isamu's body but the approaching ninjas from Amegakure.
If they discovered the secret of his immortality, he would be sliced to pieces for research, and that was something he couldn't afford.
Ignoring the pain in his scorched body, Rinto shoved a few military pills from Kaito Fujiwara's ninja bag into his mouth. These pills were essential for rapid healing.
Over time, Rinto had learned that as long as he had enough food, his wounds would heal faster.
Unlike Hidan, who was torn into pieces by countless explosive talismans, Rinto hadn't been reduced to dust. There were only two detonating tags in Fujiwara's bag. One had blown apart his cursed heart and Isamu's legs, while the other had taken care of Isamu and caused some serious internal damage to Rinto.
Rinto chuckled bitterly to himself.
"Lucky I'm not Nawaki, Tsunade's younger brother, otherwise, I'd be dead for sure."
As he continued to consume the pills, Rinto shed his tattered linen clothes and staggered deeper into the alley, waiting for his body to recover.
In the midst of the recovery process, a curious thought crept into Rinto's mind.
"What if… what if I learned the Eight Inner Gates?" he mused. "Then, wouldn't it be like: in the morning, I'm a peacock; in the afternoon, a tiger; and at night, a graceful dancer?"
Rinto felt a spark of excitement just imagining it.
"Forget your illusions, your ninjutsu, and even your eye techniques! They're nothing compared to my strength!"
He smirked, a wicked grin forming as he fantasized about taking down the Sage of Six Paths with just a few kicks.
"If one kick doesn't work, I'll just kick a few more times until I win!"
He laughed, but his thoughts soon returned to the reality of his situation.
The Eight Inner Gates might be a powerful technique, but the difference in effectiveness depended on the practitioner's physical abilities. Those who excelled in physical combat gained far more from it.
Rinto was beginning to understand that his strength came from continuous training and using his physical skills.
As he sat in the shadows of the alley, Rinto began using his hands to pull at the skin on his abdomen, desperately trying to close the wounds. It was too soon for his internal organs to regenerate, but the skin was healing.
His immortality resembled Hidan's, though without his curse-based immortality. Still, Rinto agreed with the old man in the white coat that this immortality felt more like a curse.
One of the biggest drawbacks was the pain. Unlike Hidan, who thrived on pain, Rinto hated it. No matter how many times he was cut, burned, or struck by lightning, he still couldn't get used to it. The pain of healing was particularly unbearable—the raw, agonizing sensation of his bones and organs slowly piecing themselves back together.
The other problem was Chakra. While Rinto had learned the technique to extract Chakra, it was still very slow. His abilities in this regard were far less efficient than other ninjas, but at least he had an infinite supply of it.
Still, there was no time to worry about that now.
What mattered was the sound of footsteps approaching. Footsteps that splashed through the water, getting closer with each passing moment.
"Be alert! The explosion happened right here!" a mature, magnetic male voice called from the entrance of the alley.