Naruto: I, Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan Princess

Chapter 225 Earthly Grudges and Evil Gods

Click!

Suzaku pushed open the door and entered, only to see Hiruzen Sarutobi standing alone by the window, his fingers braced against the scorching stone, looking down at the scenery outside, his aged face dark and unreadable.

There was no one else in the room except him.

Where did Miss Hui Li go?

He stayed downstairs the whole time, but he didn't see the other person leave.
Suzaku was slightly puzzled, but he maintained the basic qualities of an ANBU member and did not show much curiosity.

"Lord Hokage, the Land of Waves has offered very generous terms, but Lord Shikaku thinks they still have room to maneuver. Should we press them a little harder?"

He pressed his chin down and asked cautiously.

The Third Hokage has been in a bad mood lately because of the Chunin Exams, and he's been smoking a lot of cigarettes, making the room feel like it's been sealed by a mist concealment technique.

Although Hiruzen Sarutobi was usually kind and approachable, and his eyes looked particularly benevolent when he smiled, he had followed him for many years and had witnessed his ruthlessness in his youth, so he dared not be presumptuous in the slightest.

Strange to say.

When Danzo was young, he was gentle, kind, and handsome. Apart from being a bit lecherous, the Third Hokage was very similar to the Second Hokage in temperament, being cold, stern, and rarely smiling. Later, for some reason, their personalities completely reversed...

"The Land of Waves has already struggled to develop, and now their port has been destroyed by Hairi and the others. Let's just leave it at that! It's better to take it slow and steady than to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs..."

Looking down at the middle-aged ninja who had just accepted the mission and was carrying luggage while walking towards the village exit with his client, Hiruzen Sarutobi kept spouting high-sounding lies.

"Yes!"

Reluctantly lowering his head, Zhuque turned and walked out of the office.

The Land of Waves has a special location that can bring Konoha extremely high profits. If they can seize this opportunity, the village's development will not be restricted by the daimyo at every turn.

Pity!
The Third Hokage is good in every way after his transformation. He is kind and friendly to everyone, but he is too benevolent and kind. Hopefully, the Land of Waves will live up to his kindness!
Da da…

The footsteps faded into the distance, leaving only Hiruzen Sarutobi in the office.

He watched the slightly hunched middle-aged man below walk further and further away, his cloudy pupils trembling incessantly.

Sometimes even he doesn't know what he's doing.

The Land of Fire is situated on plains with countless arable lands, making it the country with the most favorable geographical environment among the five great nations, and its population is nearly 100 million.

Compared to the vast number of ordinary people, the total number of Konoha ninjas is only around 20,000.

That's equivalent to supporting one ninja with five thousand people.

Even considering the losses suffered by some nobles and officials of the Land of Fire, the wealth accumulated each year is more than enough to support these ninjas.

In fact, Konoha is not short of money at all.

The daimyo provides more money to the ninja villages each year than they could ever afford, and the ninjas don't live as extravagantly as the nobles. Kunai, shuriken, wire, and other ninja tools that don't involve chakra are piled up in warehouses, gathering dust, and they're still usable for twenty years.

The fact that ninjas fight against enemies for rewards is entirely the result of their deliberate manipulation.

First, the ninjas are controlled and not allowed to leave the village without permission. Those who disobey are considered traitors. This ensures that ninja resources are not lost, while also allowing them to spend all the high commissions they earn from missions in the village.

Then they inflated the price of Konoha land and raised taxes, making the prices in Konoha extremely high.

The money spent on an afternoon in the bustling and casino-filled Tanabata district would probably only buy three bowls of Ichiraku Ramen in Konoha.

Finally, the village invested heavily in ninja tool shops, selling highly versatile ninjutsu and tools, raising hospital treatment costs, and while improving the ninjas' strength, also depleting the mission funds they had painstakingly earned.

This way.

The circulation of currency drives economic prosperity, consumes ninja savings to prevent them from becoming complacent, teaches ninjutsu to improve average quality, carries out missions to accumulate combat experience and increase the village's influence. This system is the Konoha development strategy set by the Second Hokage.

When he finished explaining all of this...

Hui Li didn't say anything, as if this secret, which was enough to overturn the ninja village system, was just an ordinary little thing.

After confirming that he had nothing else to do, Hui Li turned into a wisp of smoke and dissipated.

It was at this moment that he learned:
It turns out that the one who killed Raiga Kurosuki and the unknown enemy two weeks after leaving the village was just a shadow clone of Kairi!

Surprise, relief, and trepidation.

Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't know if she would be like Tsunade and Jiraiya, utterly disappointed in him, the Kage, and the ninjas, and leave Konoha never to return.

……

the other side.

The roots, the honeycomb-like experimental department.

In the cold, empty room, four men dressed in white coats surrounded the operating table, meticulously chopping up the cursing Hidan into minced meat.

Wearing the Root uniform, Yang Release: Gray, with his Byakugan shining through his blindfold, unleashed his ocular power as it coursed through Hidan's body, seemingly searching for something.

Behind him.

Gray Glass's true form clutched a heart covered in black whiskers, carefully examining the chakra fluctuations within, searching for the secrets of Earth Grudge Fear.

Just now.

When she saw the Root ninja carrying a wooden coffin into the laboratory, she thought it was a genin clone who had captured Haku. She immediately stopped studying the Wood Release and came over to see the structure of the Ice Release bloodline limit.

Upon opening the wooden coffin, they found:
The heart of the Earth Grudge, stretching out, climbed inside the coffin like a red spider covered in veins. Hidan, who had been dismembered and looked listless, suddenly started spewing filth the moment he saw her, and the coffin was filled with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers.

It's... really bizarre!

Then her mind went blank as a flood of memories rushed in: Kakuzu, Hidan, Zabuza, the Chunin Exams, Konoha and the Kage...

A jumble of memories flooded her mind, making her brain feel like it had been thrown into a Joyoung soymilk maker, churning painfully. And the more she sorted out the information contained in those memories, the more her brain ached!
Five Kage Gather?

Super Chunin Exams?
Am I the examiner?

Would Orochimaru still dare to come?

What should I do about my Ice Release?
A series of questions churned in her mind, entangled with fragments of memory that were still flickering.

She gently rubbed her temples with two fingers, feeling as if the plot had completely gone off the rails, and she couldn't grasp the future at all.

She couldn't even understand what she had done to get all three major ninja villages to participate in the Chunin Exams at the same time.

She couldn't figure it out, and she was too lazy to keep trying.

there is always a solution to a problem.

The four great ninja villages that kept Hiruzen Sarutobi awake at night were not invincible enemies to her. She also needed research materials to explore the mysteries of bloodline limits, and Onoki's Light-Weight Rock Technique and Bloodline Limit were extremely important to her!
Mei Terumi's dual bloodline limit also came to them automatically.

Maybe this is actually a good thing?
Hui Li revealed a pair of small tiger teeth and suddenly felt that her brain no longer hurt.

As for the conversation between her clone and Hiruzen Sarutobi in the office, she didn't care at all.

There is an inherent class conflict between rulers and the ruled, and this is true in all worlds. If you are not satisfied, you can overthrow everything and rebuild yourself, although it will most likely just lead to a new cycle!

Clear away the jumbled memories.

With at least a month to go before the Chunin Exams, she planned to digest her gains from the Land of Waves in order to prepare for any potential crises that might come.

Hidan was too talkative, so she left it to her clone to handle, while she studied Kakuzu's heart on her own.

呲呲!

Black tentacles climbed up her snow-white wrist. With her white eyes activated, Gray Glass magnified the tentacles infinitely, revealing their internal structure in every detail. Just as she had predicted, this thing was a special, mutated human tissue.

And it's not just one kind!
The tentacles are very thin, pure black, and have a smooth, glossy surface. The outer layer of cells has a flat, scale-like structure, resembling the hair of some kind of creature, while the middle layer has fibrous structures similar to fascia tissue and contains channels for transporting chakra.

Over the past five years, thanks to the accelerated training effect of Shadow Clone Techniques, she has completely absorbed the knowledge of Yin and Yang Release techniques in the Konoha and Root libraries. Now she is a master of Yin and Yang Release techniques, and even the Second Hokage and Orochimaru can only discuss and learn from each other in person.

So just by looking at the internal structure of the black beard, she could roughly guess its essence.

Undoubtedly a product of Yin and Yang Dun.

The so-called Yin and Yang Release Techniques are unique ninjutsu developed by ninjas using chakra to simulate the Yin and Yang powers of humans.

One point needs to be specifically stated here!
Yin Release, Yang Release, and Yin-Yang Release are three completely different escape techniques, and their relationship is roughly similar to that of Water Release, Earth Release, and Wood Release.

Yin Dun creates form from nothingness, Yang Dun bestows life upon form; Yin and Yang Dun together create all things.

The first two are not particularly rare; all the secret techniques are Yin and Yang escape. The latter, however, is only vaguely described in the records left by the Second Hokage. It is a powerful secret technique that only the Sage of Six Paths can use, according to legend.

All the secret techniques in the ninja world that involve Yin and Yang Release are simply the combined use of Yin and Yang Release, not the Yin-Yang Release that can create all things.

anyway.

Excessive use of the Five Elements Escape Techniques can affect a ninja's body, let alone special escape techniques like Yin and Yang that explore the origin of life.

It is common for ninjas to undergo mutations in their genes and chakra seeds due to excessive research into Yin-Yang Release techniques.

Therefore, there are countless freaks in the ninja world, with Sakon and Ukon being typical examples.

If things go as she expected:
It is likely that they captured a person with a mutated body, took their hair, blood vessels, fascia, meridians, neurons and other tissues, and used Yin and Yang Release techniques to fuse them together to create a black-bearded monster. Takigakure named it Jigō-gū, and it was eventually taken by Kakuzu, thus granting him immortality.

Gudong!

Gudong!

A scarlet heart beat in Gray Glass's palm, and she could sense the vibrant life force within it.

The heart is the part of the human body that contains the most vitality and is also the ultimate source of life. The last gate of the Eight Gates Formation, the Death Gate, is meant to open the life source in the heart to form the Eight Gates Formation.

There is still a lot of life force inside this heart. The chakra seed inside is flashing with blue-purple light. The blood vessels and meridians inside the heart have been modified by black tentacles, which are constantly extracting chakra from the seed.

That's interesting!
As the Earth Grudge Devours chakra, its black whiskers stretch out and climb up her forearm into her sleeve. Gray Glass's eyes shone brightly, showing great interest in this monster.

Earthly Grudges and Yu's Reversal of the Eight Gates are similar, both involving the manipulation of human life force.

He plunders the life force of others, uses his black beard to modify the nerves and blood vessels in their hearts to gain control, and turns them into a core tool for refining chakra.

Then it can absorb chakra and grow indefinitely. Once the fibrous tissue structure contracts, it hardens and forms tension to generate powerful force. This thing is simply a perfect biomaterial!

In a flash, she thought of Venom from the movie.

Perhaps I should turn this into a battle suit?
呲呲!

The black tentacles continued to climb up Gray Glass's body, already close to her shoulder. Watching the tentacles rub against her clothes, she silently rejected her development plan.

The wind and thunder mode is activated, and her naked body is covered in tentacles... That scene feels a bit strange!
"How's the research on the Earthly Grudge?"

Just as Hui Li was pondering, the Yang Release clone responsible for studying Hidan suddenly turned around and asked a question.

"We've roughly figured out the source and materials, but we still need to figure out the manufacturing method, and we have no idea how to use them yet..."

"Wait! Is this okay?"

The Yang Release clone suddenly interrupted Hui Li, pointing at the Earth Grudge that had already crawled into her clothes, its expression somewhat unpleasant.

The two looked alike, and seeing those black tentacles throbbing inside her clothes always made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

"I have a protective barrier!"

Hui Li ignored the Earth Grudge's movements, and a red barrier suddenly appeared on her skin. The Earth Grudge's black whiskers did not touch her body, but instead crawled along the barrier.

"Oh, I forgot!"

The Yang Escape clone lightly patted its forehead, but still walked over and pulled out the black beard, throwing the heart aside along with it.

"I've almost finished researching Hidan's immortal body!"

"Huh? So fast?"

Hui Li was immediately stunned. In less than a few hours, he had already broken Hidan's immortality?

"There's absolutely no trace of it!"

Seemingly sensing the main body's thoughts, the Yang Release clone shook its head with a solemn expression.

Since she thoroughly studied ninjutsu, chakra, cursed seals, bloodline limits, and other knowledge, she can see any ninjutsu from a high vantage point and easily grasp its essence. Even a bizarre monster like Earth Grudge Fear can be seen through in just a few glances.

Only Hidan's immortality... she couldn't understand it!
"Where exactly is the problem?" Hui Li frowned. She was certain that she was among the top tier in the ninja world when it came to the study of chakra, this kind of energy.

Yin and Yang, wind, thunder, water, fire, earth—all ninjutsu are nothing more than combinations of these seven elements. Even if they cannot be replicated, it is impossible for a ninjutsu to appear that one cannot fully comprehend.

"I can't find the problem, but there are problems everywhere!"

The distressed Yang Release clone pointed to the operating table. Two clones stood there, holding a bowl of pig brains and a lump of minced meat, their expressions horrified. Meanwhile, Hidan, with only his mouth remaining on the table, continued to shout:
"It's no use! It's no use! You wicked woman! The evil god is with me!"

"I have taken out his heart and brain and turned them into minced meat, and I have also completely crushed his chakra core, but he is still not dead. As long as his mouth and tongue are sewn up, he can speak normally as if nothing happened."

It has nothing to do with chakra, ninjutsu, or cursed seals; he is truly immortal!

(End of this chapter)