Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

In his final moments, he saw beneath the tiger-skin mask a pair of eyes gleaming with a scarlet light. Under the gaze of those eyes, his own eyes began to assimilate, transforming into a kaleidoscope shape.

This time, Uchiha Yan seemed much more relaxed.

If her eye power is 10, then the cost of controlling a Jonin is 1, while controlling a Jonin-level Jinchuriki consumes 2 eye power.

In reality, if two ordinary Jonin were to try to control a Jonin Jinchuriki who had donned a cloak of Tailed Beast chakra, they would absolutely fail. Not only would they fail, but they would most likely be killed instead.

The Mangekyou Sharingan has the same effect as Wood Release, and is particularly effective against Tailed Beasts. It often allows for "fighting opponents of higher levels, suppressing opponents of equal levels, and overwhelming lower-level opponents."

Of course, the Four Symbols Seal also played a part in making it so easy to control Zhi Zhao.

If you want to get a Jinchuriki into a half-Tailed Beast or even a full-fledged Tailed Beast state, you need to subdue them first and then control them with your Mangekyou Sharingan. After all, it's a Mangekyou Sharingan that was forcibly enhanced through technology.

"This guy isn't as honest as he seems."

Uchiha Yan looked at the controlled Zhi Zhao and murmured softly.

Zhi Zhao's act of forcibly breaking through the Four Symbols Seal made the guilt in Uchiha Yan's heart subside. After calming down a bit, she used the power of her Mangekyou Sharingan to guide Zhi Zhao to the Passionate Organization's top-secret base.

The outpost was located in a huge underground cave, hidden and difficult to detect.

For safety reasons.

Diavolo also instructed her to issue commissions to the underground ninja world, hiring barrier ninjas to set up barriers, and then killing them afterwards—it's unclear what she was guarding against. In short, this place is an impenetrable, top-secret fortress.

Having done all this, she reactivated Zero and conveyed her message to Shen:

"The Four-Tails Jinchuriki has been brought under control."

Chapter 118 The Wrath of Asura: The Divine Tree of the Spiritual World

On the third day, as the sun was about to set.

The Shen'er team arrived at a river. After crossing the river and walking a short distance, they would reach the first stop of their journey: Akatsuki Village.

The four of them stood together on the thick tree trunk, their eyes all gazing into the distance.

"Coming."

Looking at the town's silhouette at the edge of his vision, Nara Hiroshi couldn't help but remark, "Akatsuki Village looks like it's developing really well."

It's common for ninjas to spend their entire lives confined to their homeland. Their opportunities to set foot in other ninja villages are either to infiltrate and gather intelligence or to be captured. Seeing such an obscure little ninja village achieve its current status, it's hard not to feel a bit surprised.

Even so, the outline of the town became clear.

He had a parasite placed within Akatsuki Village, but this was the first time he had ever seen the village so closely from this perspective. The buildings in Akatsuki Village were mainly constructed of stone, giving Shen a strange sense of familiarity.

I always felt that some ninja village had the same style.

I've changed my mind.

Shen Er reminded them, "Get ready, we'll be entering Akatsuki Village soon."

All three were experienced Jonin, and they changed their clothes without any prompting, no longer wearing the Konoha Jonin vests.

After all, the mission's objective was to investigate these smaller ninja villages. If they were to swagger into other ninja villages wearing Konoha uniforms, it would be tantamount to telling others that the angels of Konoha had arrived.

After changing clothes, they also used a transformation spell to change their appearance.

Shen'er then made arrangements: "The operation will be divided into two teams. You three will form one team, disguised as caravan members, and conduct collective operations within the village to investigate the situation."

Nara Hiroshi then asked, "And you, sir?"

“I will act alone and conduct an independent investigation.” Shen’er said calmly, “Different perspectives will lead to different information and judgments. The investigation should be as comprehensive as possible.”

"The operation will last for three days, after which we will meet at the village entrance."

"If your identity is discovered, reveal it if you are sure that the Akatsuki ninjas are not hostile; if they are identified as enemies, retreat as soon as possible and do not expose each other's presence."

Nara Hiroshi hesitated, as if his arrangement was somewhat against the rules.

In the past, such reconnaissance missions, unless carried out solo, were usually conducted in pairs. This allowed them to cooperate to improve efficiency and also to keep each other in check to prevent dissent. The person giving the orders was Shen Er, and even if the arrangements differed, everyone tacitly obeyed.

"Set off."

The four set off, crossing rivers and traversing hills, and successfully arrived at the entrance of Xiaoren Village.

Akatsuki Village did not have a large-scale defensive barrier, nor were there any Byakugan ninja stationed there. Only a few genin were on duty, checking passersby and merchants. The group entered the village without any hindrance.

After entering the village, Shen'er deliberately pretended not to know them and they dispersed.

Although nominally called a ninja village, Akatsuki Village had long since developed into a town. While not as prosperous and expansive as Konoha, it was still considered a large city. The group split up, and unless deliberately followed, it would be difficult to meet even after a whole day of searching.

They successfully got the three away.

After sensing that the group had gone far away, he lowered his guard and turned to walk in the opposite direction.

Upon receiving news from Uchiha Yan that only one step remained to subdue the Four-Tails, Shen'er was in a fairly good mood.

He wasn't in a hurry, and finally had the leisure to stroll along the village streets, observing the buildings along the way. Akatsuki Village's layout imitated Konoha in many ways, and it had all the necessary infrastructure such as a mini ninja academy and medical clinics.

Small but complete.

He couldn't help but think that if one day he faced the worst situation due to unforeseen circumstances and had to defect from Konoha, this place would be a good place to stay.

In terms of domestic affairs ability, he far surpasses Orochimaru.

Even relying solely on remote control via parasites, Akatsuki's overall development far surpassed that of the future Sound Village. The latter was more like a large-scale experimental base and never managed to form a self-sufficient, stable, and complete ninja village system.

At the same time, Shen Er finally remembered which ninja village, the Sky Ninja Village, resembled this rough stone architectural style.

The aerial fortress of the Sky Ninja Village seems to be in this style.

This discovery puzzled Shen Er; he hadn't realized that Akatsuki and Sora had made contact. Uchiha Yan hadn't told him about it either. Was it ignorance, or was there another reason?

They quietly left through the hidden exit of Xiaoren Village and arrived at an underground cave not far away.

He changed into the uniform and mask of the Enthusiast Organization, casually untied the barrier set up at the entrance, and walked into the cave.

The vast underground space was filled with various supplies and equipment. On the stone platform in the center, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki was firmly imprisoned. Uchiha Yan, wearing a tiger-skin mask, stood quietly to the side with his arms crossed, waiting.

The fact that she didn't take off her mask indicates that she was angry inside.

It's not surprising, after all, it's normal to feel dissatisfied when given orders that completely contradict one's own will. As long as the assigned task can be completed efficiently, he allows his subordinates to have their own emotions.

A person without emotions is no different from a puppet.

But puppets can't get anything done.

In short, it's great that things didn't get to the worst possible outcome.

"You've arrived." Uchiha Yan greeted him. "This seems to be the first time I've seen your true form outside of the lab. What, you've finally decided to come out for the Four-Tails Jinchuriki?"

"Yes, to remove the tailed beast and reseal it, the original body must be present."

He ignored her strange tone and stepped forward to check on the Jinchūriki. He placed his hand on her lower abdomen, somewhat surprised: "The Four Symbols Seal shows signs of damage. Did you do that?"

"You overestimate me. I have no ability to break the seal."

Killing the Jinchuriki is easy, but breaking the seal is very difficult. For laymen, sealing techniques are simply beyond their understanding, and brute force cannot break them.

"He broke the seal himself. The tailed beast chakra had already leaked out and condensed into a tailed beast chakra cloak, but it was controlled by me with genjutsu before it could fully erupt."

“Well done,” Shen Er said approvingly.

If the seal is broken prematurely, the situation will be extremely troublesome. Given the Jinchuriki's current state, he is highly susceptible to being completely berserk by the Tailed Beast's consciousness. Once the Four-Tails completely breaks free from the Jinchuriki and is exposed to the public, this plan to secretly seize the Tailed Beast will fail.

Furthermore, the difficulty of subduing a tailed beast that has completely broken free is vastly different from that of extracting a tailed beast from a jinchūriki and then sealing it separately.

Even with Uchiha Yan's assistance, there is no guarantee that the seal will succeed.

Uchiha Yan explained from the side, "The reason we chose Tomoaki as our Jinchūriki was because of his unique physique. However, he used a secret technique when we subdued him, so he's probably not an ordinary ninja..."

“I’ve never heard of such a secret technique in the Land of Rice Fields. I suspect he’s a spy from some ninja village.”

"Over the years, Xiaoren's superiors have all been deceived by him because they didn't thoroughly investigate his background back then."

While listening, Shen Er checked Zhi Zhao's physical condition.

Logically speaking, ordinary Chunin have no ability to break through the Four Symbols Seal, and not every Jinchuriki is as idealistic as Naruto.

If the problem cannot be found, he is worried that there may be changes in the subsequent stripping and sealing process.

After a thorough investigation, he discovered that the other party's body energy was abnormally active, and cell activity had surged dramatically, which allowed them to unleash a large amount of chakra in a short period of time, thus breaking through the seal.

This state is like a stress response to a sudden change in altitude; the rapid and drastic changes in a short period of time caused a surge in chakra that the Four Symbols Seal could not withstand...

"The secret to activating cells..."

Shen Er immediately guessed Zhi Zhao's identity.

Empty Endurance.

The forbidden medical technique used, Body Activation, can revitalize one's body cells at the cost of sacrificing life force, but it also greatly enhances bodily functions. This massive overdraft of chakra is likely related to the Eight Gates.

"He is a ninja."

"Ku Ninja?"

Uchiha Yan looked astonished. She had heard of this organization before—an organization that wandered like a ghost along the borders of various small countries. The Akatsuki ninja had tracked and attacked it several times, but all their efforts had been in vain.

Who would have thought that their own Jinchūriki would be a Void Ninja?

“His identity doesn’t matter.” Shen Er withdrew his hand. “He’s going to die soon.”

If they possessed the secret techniques of the Yamanaka clan, they wouldn't mind invading Tomoaki's brain to gather information about the Sky Ninja before extracting the Four-Tails.

However, this is an extra gain. It would be best if we could acquire the technology and physical secrets of the Sky Ninja through this, but it wouldn't be a pity if we didn't get them, as there will be many more opportunities in the future.

"No, identity is still quite important." Uchiha Yan breathed a sigh of relief. With this information, she could give the Akatsuki higher-ups an explanation, and she wouldn't have to rely on genjutsu to control them all the time.

"We can pin the blame for stealing the Four-Tails on the Sky Ninja."

"The matter of the Jinchuriki needs to be kept secret from the outside world," Shen Er instructed. "Only mention the Sky Ninja when Konoha presses for answers and it can no longer be hidden."

It is definitely not a good thing to spread the news of the tailed beast being stolen too early.

This could very likely alert all the major ninja villages, triggering a chain reaction that would cause all factions to shift their focus to the struggle for the tailed beasts, making the situation very complicated.

At present, Shen'er is far from taking the power of the Tailed Beasts on his own against the pressure from the major ninja villages. In essence, he relies on the information gap and makes his move in advance before the major ninja villages have developed the power of the Tailed Beasts.

At this point, confronting the five great ninja villages head-on would not give them any advantage.

"Dispel the illusion on him, stand guard on the perimeter, and don't let anyone approach the stronghold."

Extracting the Tailed Beasts cannot be interfered with by external factors. The Mangekyou Sharingan genjutsu will disrupt the Jinchuriki's spiritual energy, making it difficult to extract the Tailed Beast's chakra from their body.