Analyzing the Ninja World Starting from Konoha

Chapter 339 The Death God Bug

The medical ninjas, their brows drenched in sweat and their hands glowing green, were providing emergency treatment to Rasa.

"Lord Kazekage's external injuries have stopped, but his internal organs have suffered severe shock, and his chakra pathways have also been damaged in several places."

"When will Lord Kazekage wake up?"

"A high-ranking member of the Sand Village asked."

"That depends on Lord Kazekage's recovery. Maybe a few days, maybe—a few months."

Upon hearing this, the high-ranking members of Sunagakure fell into a deathly silence.

Yekura stood to the side, her gaze sweeping over the devastated Sunagakure.

Half the village was destroyed.

One of the five great ninja villages was invaded and its tailed beast was stolen. Even the Kazekage was severely injured and fell into a coma.

Once this news gets out, Sunagakure will become a laughing stock in the entire ninja world.

Of course, being laughed at is secondary.

The most critical issue is that if other countries discover the weakness of Sunagakure, those covetous neighbors will not be lenient.

There are precedents for this!

Just when everyone was at a loss, Chiyo slowly walked over.

Her gaze did not fall on Rasa, but on the small figure in Yashamaru's arms.

Because the tailed beast was forcibly extracted, Gaara had completely lost his life force, and even his heartbeat had stopped.

Chiyo's gaze swept over Rasa and Gaara before finally settling on Yotsuya, who was standing to the side.

"Yakura".

Chiyo's hoarse voice broke the silence.

"You said before that this child is very talented, right?"

Ye Cang was slightly taken aback and looked at her with confusion.

"Could you take him as your disciple?"

Ye Cang frowned slightly.

"Elder Chiyo, what do you mean by that?"

Gaara is already dead, why would he take a dead man as his disciple?

Many people around looked at Advisor Chiyo in surprise, and Yashamaru also looked at her with disbelief.

Chiyo sighed.

"I'm old, I don't have much time left."

"Rasa is seriously injured and we don't know when he will wake up. Sunagakure cannot be without a leader for even a day."

"We must elect a new Fengyin to take charge of the situation."

Ye Cang's pupils contracted slightly, as if he had thought of something.

"Which technique do you want to use?"

Chiyo did not deny it.

"I would give my life for this child's life."

"But I have one condition."

"After I die, you will succeed me as the Fifth Kazekage, and you must take on at least three disciples in the village, one of whom must be Gaara."

"The next Kazekage will be chosen from among these three."

Everyone stared at Chiyo in shock.

Yekura also fell silent.

Looking at the old woman who was nearing the end of her life, she couldn't help but feel a complex mix of emotions.

She is no longer the political novice she once was.

They quickly understood the deeper meaning behind Chiyo's words.

What appears to be a death sentence is actually a brilliant political deal.

Chiyo saved Gaara's life with her own and helped Yoshikura rise to power. This was her way of using her life's political resources and prestige to endorse Yoshikura!

With Chiyo's willingness to sacrifice herself, the voices in the village opposing Yokura will be completely suppressed.

He demanded that Yekura accept Gaara as his disciple.

This was also to prevent Yekura from taking over and purging his former subordinates, and to prevent Sunagakure from falling into internal strife again.

Chiyo knew that Yokura might not do that, but she couldn't be sure if the people below her would do it to curry favor with their superiors.

Of course, these are secondary matters, and will come later.

Sunagakure is too weak right now!

The fact that the Kazekage was seriously injured after his tailed beast was stolen due to an invasion cannot be kept secret.

At this time, Sunagakure must have someone strong enough to deter other countries.

And Yekura is the perfect candidate.

Putting aside his terrifying transformation ability, the dual bloodline limits of Scorch Release and Magnet Release alone are enough to make any Kai covetous person think twice.

Moreover, Chiyo noticed it too.

Yekura and Konoha's Yamashiro Aoba have an inexplicable relationship.

When Sunagakure faced a life-or-death crisis, Pakura was able to use a summoning jutsu to call that man over for help, which is enough to show that the relationship between the two was extraordinary.

This also shows that Sunagakure still holds a significant place in Yoruichi's heart.

At least in times of crisis, she was willing to use her biggest trump card to protect the village.

The ninja world is changing too fast these days.

The legendary Rinnegan of the Sage of Six Paths has appeared; who knows what even more outrageous things will pop up next.

Sunagakure wants to survive this great upheaval, and even seize the opportunity to advance further.

We must stick to the Yekura line.

Or to be more precise, it's about clinging to the line of Yamashiro Aoba.

Ye Cang looked at the old woman in front of him, feeling a mix of emotions.

In fact, she didn't care about the position of Kazekage at all. She came back this time purely to disgust Rasa and, incidentally, to complete the task assigned by her boss.

But now, Chiyo has used her own life to forcibly place the future of the entire Sunagakure village into her hands.

Is this what the boss meant by "old and shrewd"?!

Ye Cang took a deep breath, his expression serious.

"Okay, I promise."

Upon hearing this, Chiyo finally showed a relieved smile.

She turned around and took Gaara from Yasha-o's arms.

Gently place Gaara on the ground.

She placed her hands on Gaara's chest and began to form hand seals.

"Reincarnated from one's own life!"

Pale blue chakra emanated from her palms, along with a sense of life.

"grandmother!"

Scorpion strode over, but was stopped by Chiyo's glance.

"Don't come any closer."

"Scorpion—Grandma is so sorry."

"I've left you all alone for so many years —"

"But now—Grandma is leaving."

Scorpion stood still, his fists clenched.

He opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

But Chiyo wore a relieved smile.

"Yakura—please."

These were her last words.

The next second, Chiyo's body collapsed to the ground.

At the same time, Gaara's chest began to rise and fall again.

The ruins of Uzushio Village, the land of whirlpools.

More than 20 years have passed, and this place is still a ruin.

The once prosperous territory of the Whirlpool Clan is now reduced to ruins, telling the story of the tragedy that followed.

Two figures moved swiftly through the ruins.

It was Aoba and Orochimaru.

The two stopped in front of a dilapidated building.

This building is the only relatively intact part of the entire Wochao Village site.

Because it was just an ordinary temple, and there was nothing of value inside.

When Wochao Village was captured, the temple was not severely damaged, but even though it had been uninhabited for a long time, a corner of the building still collapsed.

And that is precisely their goal for this trip.

In the original work, it has another name.

Namen-do!

"arrive."

Aoba pushed open the creaking wooden door and went inside.

The interior of the temple was dilapidated and covered with cobwebs.

But on the wall in front, three rows of masks were neatly hung.

There are twenty-seven in total.

These masks come in various shapes and sizes; some have green faces and fangs, while others have a half-smile, exuding an eerie aura.

He recalled his memories from his past life.

My gaze finally settled on the third-to-last mask in the first row.

The mask was almost identical in design to the ghouls he had seen before.

(Aoba was present when Minato sealed the Nine-Tails and saw the Shiki.)

Orochimaru noticed Aoba's gaze and chuckled.

"It seems Aoba-kun has also done some research?"

Aoba shook his head.

"I haven't studied it, I've only seen that ghoul."

Snake Hand emerged from Orochimaru's sleeve and removed the corpse demon mask from the wall.

"Please begin your performance!"

Honestly, Aoba is very curious about how Orochimaru will evade the Shinigami.

In the original work, Orochimaru utilized the properties of the Reanimation Jutsu.

First, let Death cut open his own stomach to release the sealed soul.

Then he activated the Reanimation Jutsu, took over the body of a White Zetsu, and thus exploited a bug in the Shinigami's abilities.

However, now, due to Aoba's intervention, Orochimaru has long since abandoned the problematic Reanimation Jutsu.

Without the ability to reincarnate, how is he supposed to survive after his stomach is cut open?

"Heh heh heh—Aoba-kun, since you know about the future, you should understand that the so-called 'Reaper Death Seal' is essentially just a high-level sealing technique."

"That so-called 'corpse demon' is more like a created, unconscious, high-level spirit."

"It has no emotions, no judgment; it simply operates mechanically, following a set of fixed procedures and rules."

Orochimaru turned his head, stuck out his tongue to wash his face, and revealed a wicked smile.

"The price of using the Corpse Demon Sealing Technique is the caster's soul; this is a rule of the technique."

"To break the seal, the caster must sacrifice their own body and cut open the Grim Reaper's belly; this is the rule."

"But every rule has loopholes."

After saying that, Orochimaru clapped his hands together, and two puffs of white smoke exploded inside the dilapidated temple.

As the smoke cleared, two clones appeared before the two men.

"I see."

Aoba understood instantly.

As for why there are two.

Of course, it's because one of them was the caster, and the other was a sacrifice for the Impure World Reincarnation.

However, these two clones clearly lack self-awareness; they are like two empty shells. How could they possibly use ninjutsu on their own?

If I remember correctly, these clones are not perfect; they should not have souls.

Orochimaru's neck stretched out strangely, and he bit down on the shoulder of one of the clones, injecting a cursed seal.

The black cursed marks spread rapidly, and the clone's originally empty eyes instantly became bright and alert, as Orochimaru's consciousness took over the body.

Aoba's eyes flickered slightly, and he immediately understood the move.

Orochimaru handed over the Reaper Mask, which the clone took and slapped onto his face.

A cold wind suddenly arose.

A chilling wave of chakra spread out.

The clone then began performing shamanistic rituals uncontrollably.

A blue light flashed in Qingye's eyes; he was all too familiar with this.

He had skipped that before using the Sharingan Reincarnation Technique, but summoning a Shinigami obviously doesn't require that much trouble.

The clone spread its arms, and a phantom-like, enormous figure slowly emerged.

He had long white hair, a blue face with fangs, a short knife in his mouth, and prayer beads wrapped around his hands.

It is Death!

Without pausing, the clone controlled the phantom of death to remove the dagger from its mouth, aimed it at its own abdomen, and slashed it down hard.

puff!

A gash had been cut open on Death's stomach.

The same injury instantly appeared on the clone's abdomen, and blood gushed out immediately.

A wisp of eerie blue soul fire emerged from the belly of Death.

The spell on the ground lit up, locking the ball of soul fire in place.

At the same time, Orochimaru formed a hand seal with one hand.

"untie!"

The curse mark on the clone disappeared instantly.

Aoba clearly sensed a surge of chakra rapidly flowing from the clone back into Orochimaru's body.

"Holy crap!"

As expected of Orochimaru.

Aoba was also amused.

This means that not even a tiny fragment of the soul is left for Death.

The clone, having lost Orochimaru's control, instantly reverted to an empty shell devoid of a soul, standing there blankly, blood still flowing from its abdomen.

At this moment, neither Aoba nor Orochimaru moved, but stared intently at the huge phantom of the Grim Reaper behind them, observing its reaction.

Then a bizarre scene unfolded.

The Grim Reaper, who should have been mechanically following the rules, suddenly displayed a hint of agility.

Its empty eyes slowly turned and looked at Aoba and Orochimaru standing to the side.

The moment he was stared at by Death, Aoba felt the hairs on his body stand on end.

Orochimaru was not afraid at all; on the contrary, his eyes lit up, like a lecherous man seeing a beautiful woman, his mouth practically watering.

However, that's all that Death's gaze can take you by.

After waiting for a while and confirming that the masked "caster" had no further reaction, the Reaper Death Seal technique began to automatically dissipate.

Before disappearing, the phantom of death extracted a nearly transparent, faint spiritual entity from the clone and swallowed it whole.

Aoba swore that he had definitely seen a trace of extremely human disdain in the eyes of the Grim Reaper.

As the phantom of death completely dissipated, the chilling atmosphere within the temple also faded away.

Orochimaru grinned and let out his signature hoarse laugh.

"Hehehe—this is so interesting."

"The soul does indeed hold mysteries that we have yet to uncover."

Then, he turned to look at Qingye, his eyes filled with a strange expression.

"Aoba-kun, have you noticed something interesting?"

"Why did the ghoul release only one soul?"

"It seems we're thinking the same thing."

The technique of sealing the corpse demon has certainly been used more than once in history; there is definitely more than one soul inside the Grim Reaper's belly.

So, where did all those souls go?

According to the description of the spell, the souls of the caster and the enemy will forever hate and fight each other inside the belly of Death, and will never be able to be reborn.

Where did all the previous souls go?

Furthermore, according to Orochimaru's research, this Grim Reaper is a specially sealed spirit that was artificially created.

Logically speaking, they shouldn't have made such a humane gesture.

Where have all those souls from the past gone?

Was it digested by Death? Or was it transferred to some unknown space?

"This is getting more and more interesting."

"It seems that next time we can send in a few more clones' spirit bodies, then cut open their bellies and see how it goes."

Aoba: ————