Reborn into Naruto World with Tenseigan

by Little Merger

The trembling Hyuga Kuroto finally got the treasure that he dreamed of! How exactly will the world of Naruto be perceived with his glowing Royal Blue Tenseigan

5. 130 - 161

Reborn into Naruto World with Tenseigan #Chapter 130 - – 127 15 Years… - Read Reborn into Naruto World with Tenseigan Chapter 130 - – 127 15 Years… Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Playvolume00:00/00:00

Truvid

fullScreen

Ads by Pubfuture

Kuroto didn't bother answering, he just raised his arm to again cut Shinichi in half with the Golden Sword, as he wants to test the limits of Shinichi's Mangekyou ability.

But just as he was about to slash, Shinichi figure staggered and then fell on the ground and lost consciousness.

Kuroto's expression shrank and he immediately checked Shinichi's state with his Tenseigan.

Kuroto was able to notice that Shinichi's chakra level severely fell from his peak state to the bare minimum necessary for survival.

"His Guardian state has disappeared?" – muttered Kuroto as he slowly landed and the ground after deactivating the Tenseigan Chakra mode.

Since Shinichi was now unconscious, so after a moment of thinking, Kuroto created a Shadow Clone and immediately left the battle-field while carrying unconscious Shinichi.

After a while, since Kuroto's main body left, Shisui who has activated his Susanoo, arrived here first.

Looking at the plain that used to be a dense forest before, Shisui was obviously shocked but at the same time not so much since he has already seen a much shocking scene, and soon his eyes fell upon Kuroto's Shadow Clone who was standing idly in the middle of the battlefield, and he dashed forward.

Rushing towards Kuroto, Shisui asked hurriedly, "Kuroto-San, where is Shinichi?"

The Shadow Clone just shook his head and answered, "He escaped!"

Learning that Shinichi wasn't at least dead; Shisui breathed a sigh of relief and then asked again, "Where did he escape? I will chase after hi-!"

Even before Shisui could finish his words, more than a dozen figures surrounded them at the messy battlefield.

By their dress code alone; one could judge that all of them were Kumo ninjas led by Yugito Nii.

Kumo ninjas all took a breath of shock as they looked at the battlefield that was a complete wreck in front of them.

No one could imagine just how fierce the battle might have been that turned the entire forest area into what it is now.

Noticing that there was no sign of Uchiha Shinichi's presence in this area, Yugito Nii was a little disappointed and asked tentatively from Kuroto, "Where is Uchiha Shinichi, did you kill him?"

Ads by Pubfuture

Kuroto's Shadow Clone indifferently looked at her and said coldly, "Why should I answer you? This is Konoha's internal matter, and doesn't have anything to do with Kumo!"

As soon as Kuroto's cold voice fell, one after another the figure of Guy and Kakashi landed on the side, ready for battle against Kumo.

Now the scene turned into the four members of Team-11 standing in confrontation against Yugito Nii and the Kumo team led by her!

…

Inside a Cave far away from the Battlefield.

"Uh…" – With an intense headache, Uchiha Shinichi who has been unconscious slowly woke up with a tired expression.

After clearing his eyes, he realized that he was inside an unknown cave and was suddenly alert because this isn't where he should have been.

In the alert state, he tried getting up only to fall back as he didn't have enough strength to be able to do so.

At this time a voice sounded from the side, "You shouldn't get up immediately, you haven't recovered any Chakra, moreover, you are still quite exhausted!"

Looking in the direction from where the voice came, Shinichi saw Hyuga Kuroto, who was standing indifferently while leisurely leaning against the opposite wall with his arms over his chest.

Contrary to what Kuroto expected not only Shinichi didn't panic as soon as he saw him but simply stated, "This means I lose again, huh? I really am pathetic. Alright, if you want to kill me, do it, because I am not going to beg for mercy if that's what you are hoping for!"

Not caring about what Shinichi said, Kuroto questioned calmly, "Tell me the detail of your Mangekyou Sharingan ability!"

"Humph, as if I would!" – Shinichi snorted coldly and became silent.

Kuroto didn't care about Shinichi's attitude, just asked casually, "So, do you choose death now? Just like this, don't you regret it?"

It seems that Shinichi was suddenly agitated by Kuroto's words, and shouted as tears came out of his eyes, "So, what do you expect me to do? Destroy the entire Konoha Village? Kill every last one of the Konoha Shinobi? And then finally die in some battle?"

Curling his lips, Kuroto said with a smirk, "You should know that the Root ninja who killed Uchiha Kurumi was being manipulated, right?"

"I… I know… but does that change anything? He is still the one who killed Kurumi, how can I let him stay alive? Everyone involved with Kurumi's death must die!" – Shouted Shinichi with a hoarse voice.

"So, you should kill me now, because if you don't, then sooner or later I am going to come after Konoha!"

Ignoring Shinichi's tears, Kuroto asked indifferently, "Aren't you curious about who is the person pulling all the strings behind the scenes is?"

With a deep sigh, Shinichi's gaze hardened, and he said with a firm voice, "I know who it is, and after destroying Konoha, I will go after him!"

Ads by Pubfuture

This time Kuroto was surprised by Shinichi's words, initially, he thought that Shinichi might not know who the person behind the scenes is, but unexpectedly, Shinichi is aware of this and even has that masked man as his goal for revenge.

'Now this was interesting!' – thought Kuroto with a smirk at this info, in fact, now Kuroto should even be thankful to Obito for giving him a possible chess piece, that has his hatred directed towards Obito.

All Kuroto has to do now is to induce Shinichi to join him, and then things would start.

Looking at Kuroto's smirk, Shinichi shouted, "If you don't kill me now, I will make sure to kill all of you sooner or later, so stop asking such nonsense questions and just do it already, dying in your hands would at least not be so bad!"

"Kill, kill, kill! Is that all you can think of?" – with a deliberate snort, Kuroto continued, "Isn't it just a girl? What's such a big deal about it!? Instead of thinking of dying, shouldn't you look for methods to bring her back to you!"

Shinichi was angered at Kuroto's words and shouted, "Don't mock her death, I have already searched everything I could, there is no such method even in the secret scrolls of the Uchiha clan! If you can return Kurumi to me, I will give you anything!"

While holding his chin in a thinking posture, Kuroto asked with interest, "Hooh… Supposedly I do bring her back to life… what can you give me?"

"I… uh…" – Shinichi was left speechless when he thought of his identity as a missing-nin, and after a little consideration, he finally said, "As long as you bring Kurumi back to me, I will give you my Mangekyou Sharingan!"

Kuroto was a little surprised by this statement, "Are you willing to give away your Mangekyou Sharingan for her?"

Shinichi was obviously annoyed by this question and argued in a frustrated tone, "Are you serious? Compare to her, what is the worth of just a Mangekyou Sharingan? If she can come back to life, I am willing to give away anything!"

After pondering a little, Kuroto finally said, "In fact, it is not impossible to resurrect Uchiha Kurumi, but why should I bring her back? Why should I help you? If it's just your Mangekyou Sharingan, I can have it after I kill you, not like you can either run away or defeat me in your current state, can you?"

Kuroto said all this, but Shinichi ignored most of the part as he too knew that Hyuga Kuroto could have done that if he wanted, but focused on the more important words, "Can you… can you… r-really bring Kurumi back to life!?"

Kuroto nodded, "There is indeed a perfect method to resurrect a person, but it is costly, and again the question arises, just why should I use that power to bring her back to life?"

Kuroto is obviously not sure whether the Tenseigan has the ability to bring the dead back to life as he still hasn't explored the Tenseigan Dojutsu enough to understand this, but he does know that the Rinnegan is capable of such a feat, as Rinnagan can perfectly resurrect a person, after all, Nagato was able to resurrect so many of Konoha Shinobi!

Shinichi immediately became excited listening to Kuroto's statement, and even though he shouldn't be able to move based on the Chakra depletion, he still got up and kneeled before Kuroto with his forehead on the ground and stated, "Whatever you want, I promise you anything, my Mangekyou Sharingan, whether it is to kill anyone, even my life, I will give you everything. As long as you bring back Kurumi to me, I will do everything for you, I promise, please!"

After pondering a little, Kuroto who has already made up his mind with what he wants, stated clearly, "What I want is your loyalty, and your service, after fifteen years of servitude, I will resurrect Uchiha Kurumi-…!"

Even before Kuroto can complete his sentence, Shinichi immediately promised without thinking, "Alright, I promise you!"

Even Kuroto was a little dazed at just how fast Shinichi agreed and said, "Don't agree so quickly, first listen to what I want you to do in these fifteen years, your first assignment is to join the organization that murderer of Kurumi is part of, as my spy!"

Akatsuki's control over its core members is actually very limited as all of them are more or less Kage class people, Orochimaru was able to successfully leave the organization, so having Shinichi as an undercover in the Akatsuki is not impossible.

Shinichi's identity as a missing-nin helps a lot in this matter, especially the fact that this was all planned by Obito, so in this regard, Obito wouldn't be suspicious of Shinichi!

And that's what Kuroto wants…

...

Read up to Chapter - 270 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Ads by Pubfuture

Report chapter Comments

Shinichi was highly surprised and asked in shock, "What!? You want me to join his organization?"

Kuroto didn't bother explaining the ins and out of the matter; just stated flatly, "He should have invited you to join his organization, right? I need information on that organization, and your first assignment will be to join that organization as my spy!"

The current actions Obito took are already very different from the original story, from these alone; the direction of the plot has started to deviate more and more from what Kuroto remembers.

Therefore, his knowledge of the future would soon become less and less useful, and sometimes his actions to maintain the plot might even backfire, which Kuroto can't afford to have, so instead of wasting his time to keep the plot in check, Kuroto would rather use other means to have an advantage over others.

This is why he needs a spy in the Akatsuki Organization; to have a grasp over their real-time movements and goals, after all, Kuroto can't leave such dangerous people like Obito and Pain; without any check.

And what better candidate for this job than Shinichi?

Various reasons make Shinichi the perfect candidate for this job.

First is that all the events surrounding Shinichi's defection have been initiated by Obito, so in a sense, Shinichi is just a chess piece that Obito cultivated, therefore, he would be less wary of Shinichi.

The second is that; Shinichi is already strong enough to be a high-tier member of the Akatsuki, so it will be easier for him to gather intelligence on their movements.

The third is that Shinichi defected after killing many of the Root and Anbu ninjas, so there wouldn't be that much worry about him being a spy.

The fourth is that Kuroto can be sure that Shinichi wouldn't betray him, as long as, Kuroto keeps his word, so Kuroto doesn't have to worry about Shinichi's loyalty getting out of hand.

At this time Shinichi said with a little hesitation, "I… I'm not sure if I'll be a good spy, I am worried that I wouldn't be able to restrain my anger when I see that masked man and he will see through my façade…"

This statement made Kuroto smirk… this is the final reason, Uchiha Shinichi isn't an idiot, he may be arrogant, emotional, and a little annoying, but Shinichi is definitely not dumb, so this makes him one of the current best candidate if you don't count Itachi…

Crossing his arms over his chest, Kuroto said with a smile, "Yes, that's why you would be the perfect candidate…"

"Eh…? How come?" – Shinichi asked in confusion.

"It's very simple actually… You just don't need to cover your hatred towards him, you don't need to deliberately suppress yourself, in fact, you can even attack him whenever you see him, that will only make him believe that you are not a spy… and he would, in fact, drop his guard against you!"

Shinichi asked in confusion, "Why?"

Initially, Kuroto wanted to say, 'Because you are both crazy and idiots' but looking at Shinichi's serious look, Kuroto changed his words, "Because both of you are Uchiha!"

"Huh… as expected he is also an Uchiha… but aren't you afraid that I'll kill him; if I do attack him; that is?"

Kuroto sighed at this sentence and muttered in his heart, 'If only it was that simple! I have awakened the Tenseigan, and I am sure that I still can't kill him!'

Shaking his head, Kuroto answered Shinichi, "I mean even if you do attack him, he won't suspect you to be a spy, but I recommend not doing so as you still don't have any means to kill him."

Cough-cough…

Shinichi wanted to argue at Kuroto's blunt statement, but before he could speak, he spurted blood!

Kuroto frowned when he saw this happen and asked while narrowing his eye, "What's happening to you?"

While continuing to cough out more and more blood, Shinichi waved his hand towards Kuroto to indicate that he was alright.

Seeing all this happening Kuroto's expression became more and more serious.

This is because Kuroto was able to see that Shinichi's Chakra was getting weaker by the second and there are no signs of stopping.

Not only that, Kuroto even felt that Shinichi's vitality is also declining, it feels unclear but there is no doubt about it.

Puff…

However, before they could do anything, a cloud of blood burst out of Shinichi's chest.

Immediately afterward, several sword marks started to appear over his chest and arms, with obvious bluish-purple traces, indicating the presence of toxins within them.

At a glance; Kuroto recognized them as the spread of the paralytic poison he concocted and used on his Kusanagi Sword.

"That's the paralytic effect…?" – muttered Kuroto with a thoughtful look.

The injuries that started to appear on Shinichi's body are obviously the ones that Kuroto inflicted him with; in their previous battle.

This undoubtedly shows that Shinichi's 'Guardian' state has been lifted and they seem to all appear at once on his body.

Then Kuroto thought of the fact that how he slashed Shinichi's body into two halves with the 'Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion' and frowned, "He wouldn't die just like this, right?"

However, Kuroto's worries were soon becoming a reality!

As sword wounds started to appear on his chest.

Very soon, these cuts spread up to his waist, and finally, his body started being divided into upper and lower fragments.

"This…?" - Kuroto hurriedly ran towards Shinichi, to try to save him, but looking at Shinichi's body that was already divided into two parts, Kuroto wasn't able to do anything for a while.

At this moment, a bloody tear flowed out of Shinichi's other eye.

Seeing this tear, Kuroto was slightly surprised.

Immediately activating his Tenseigan, Kuroto looked at Shinichi's state.

Uchiha Shinichi, who should have already been dead because of his body dividing into two parts, didn't die, but in fact, recovered to his previous state in the blink of an eye.

If it was someone else, maybe they wouldn't have noticed anything, but in that brief moment, when his body has divided into two halves to the moment he recovered, Kuroto noticed many details, and just one thought flashed in his mind.

'This is not recovery or regeneration, it's actually backflow of time!'

Kuroto keenly noticed that the recovery of Shinichi's all the wounds happened in the exact opposite order of their appearance, and the recovery also happened as if the clock was turning back, this is simply the backflow of time, not just regeneration!

It didn't take long for Shinichi to recover to his peak state; and if it weren't for the shocking presence of all the blood that was still present on the ground, Kuroto might even suspect that the scene that happened before him wasn't true!

Recovering from his shock, Kuroto asked Shinichi with a curious expression, "Your Mangekyou Sharingan ability is related to time?"

Shinichi, who was slightly pale due to blood loss nodded and said with slight weakness, "The ability of my left Mangekyou is called 'Hachiman', it's a 'Guardian' ability; that will maintain my peak condition for a certain period of time, and all the injuries and chakra depletion I suffer in this period will become worthless in that time frame, and finally break out later when the ability is deactivated."

Kuroto nodded in understanding and said, "As I guessed, but what you just used a few seconds before was the ability of your right eye wasn't it?"

Shinichi covered his right eye and said with some pain he was feeling, "The ability of my right is called, 'Nakisawame', It's sort of a 'Resident Time House', and it allows me to revert the flow of time!"

'Seriously! Both of them are too much of cheat ability, and more so when combined together!' – this was Kuroto's thought when he heard the description of Shinichi's Mangekyou abilities.

After thinking a little, Kuroto asked, "You just used the ability of your right Mangekyou Sharingan to revert back the flow of time and then remove those injuries you suffered from the normal time flow, right?"

Shinichi glanced at Kuroto with a helpless expression, as he said weakly, "I didn't expect you to see through it in just one glance!"

After getting his confirmation, Kuroto pointed at the ground and asked in confusion, "If that's the case then what's the matter with all the blood? If you are reversing time and removing your injuries from the normal time flow, shouldn't this blood also return back to you?"

Shaking his head, Shinichi said with a saddened expression, "The power of Nakisawame only acts on me, once something is out of my Chakra range, i.e., the blood has flowed out of my body, my ability wouldn't affect it… this is also the reason I couldn't bring the dead back to life with this ability!"

Kuroto nodded in understanding, "No wonder we saw a lot of those bloodstains in a tree cave before. It turns out those bandages weren't used to wrap the wounds but to prevent the blood from flowing out of your body!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 272 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

'Hachiman' can distort all the injuries and chakra loss suffered by a person at a point for a certain duration, and 'Nakisawame' can completely remove that accumulated damage from the timeline by the backflow of time. When used in conjunction, these two abilities make a perfect match!

Sighing at just how much of a cheat all the known Mangekyou Sharingan abilities are, Kuroto can't help but think, 'Probably the presence of the small amount of Six Path Chakra in the Sharingan makes it possible for Mangekyou Sharingan to awaken such unreasonable techniques.'

The Six Path Chakra somehow gives birth to such abilities with conjunctions to the awakeners thought process and emotions at the time of awakening by giving it life through 'Yin-Yang Release' or 'Creation of All Things' to be more specific.

Now, it's not that the Uchiha have mastery over 'Yin-Yang Release' but maybe that's how the abilities of the Mangekyou Sharingan works, well, in theory at least.

But how that whole process works?

Kuroto isn't sure about it!

But anyway, the possible abilities that Kuroto thought that Shinichi might have awakened weren't that far from his guess, only a little superior to what he expected them to be.

At the same time, their limit is also what he expected, as long as the damage afflicted upon him is higher than what could be sustained by 'Hachiman', the consumption rate of the wear down of this ability would increase, and this is the only possible method to break through this ability, and that too unless Shinichi learns to use both of his abilities in conjunction.

But when Kuroto was thinking all these things, one thing still bugged him a little, as he asked in confusion, "Since you know that the blood loss cannot be reversed, why didn't you take any precaution to avoid losing too much blood, even in the worst-case scenario?"

While still covering his right eye, Shinichi answered lightly, "This time the burst of damage was all too sudden, most probably due to some sort of corrosion from your Jutsu, I didn't expect you to be able to do that, most probably that interfered with the working of my technique which significantly reduced the time limit, otherwise I would have prepared everything!"

After listening to this answer Kuroto thought to himself, 'It turns out that Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion played a role in influencing his time limit, as I expected, heh… that's why you can't take any attack from the Truth-Seeking Orbs without any damage 'Yin-Yang Release' is also cheat.'

While Kuroto was busy analyzing this, Shinichi who was on the side covering his right eye, suddenly yelled in pain…

"Now, what's wrong with you?" – asked Kuroto with a frowning expression.

"My eyes, aaahhhh... it's my eyes, they hurt so much... shit, damn it…" – shouted Shinichi while covering his as he rolled on the ground in pain, "How can this happen…, why do my eyes hurt so much...? aaaahhhh…!"

"Bear with it for a while, it should calm down soon enough!" – said Kuroto lightly, after a little bit of thinking.

And just as Kuroto said, after a while, Shinichi shouts gradually calmed down, and he asked while taking heavy breaths, "Do you know what's going on? Why do my eyes sting so much, it felt as if hundreds of needles are being poked into them!"

"It's probably because of overuse of Mangekyou Sharingan, after all these eyes aren't that stable, the more you use them, the faster you will get blind!" – Said Kuroto after a little bit of thinking.

"What…?" – Shinichi was shocked by this sudden information.

"What 'What…?'? I thought you knew these basic things!" – after a short pause, Kuroto continued speaking, "If you didn't know, then make sure to understand this now, make sure to not heavily rely on the Mangekyou Sharingan."

"B-but if that happens… my power will get heavily limited… isn't there some way to avoid going blind?" – Shinichi asked in a slightly worried tone.

Kuroto was now in a dilemma, he was seriously considering whether to really tell Shinichi or not about the method to cure the blindness… but after a little thinking, he decided to tell this; after all, Shinichi is going to learn this sooner or later anyway.

"As far as I know up to now, there are two methods… you should be aware of one of them… about the tales of how Uchiha Madara took away the eyes of his younger brother to regain his light?"

"Well, there have been such stories that have circulated within the Uchiha Clan… but what's that got to do with this, don't tell me it's actually true?"

"I don't know the specifics, but based on those stories; we can infer that one can probably gain eternal light by transplanting the eyes of your closest blood relatives, provided they too are Mangekyou Sharingan… in which case, Madara's younger brother for him… to gain a Mangekyou Sharingan that would never go blind… that is the 'Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan'"

"But my parents died in the third Shinobi War… and I also don't have any sibling or any other close blood relatives… and even if there are, I won't take away their eyes!"

"In that case, the second method could be used on you… which is to gain a high amount of Yang Chakra… the best method to do this is by the transplantation of Hashirama Cells… to gain certain characteristics of Sage Body that will help you to revitalize your lost pupil power and cure the blindness, at the same time also has other passive benefits."

"I get that and all, but there is one thing that has been bugging me for a while now… how come you, a Hyuga, know all these things about Sharingan, Mangekyou Sharingan, and Uchiha Clan, that even I, an Uchiha doesn't know of?" – asked Shinichi with a curious look.

His question was more than valid, after all, Hyuga Kuroto is of the Hyuga Clan, it wouldn't be strange if Kuroto knew all these secrets if they belonged to the Hyuga Clan, but they don't, and being a non-Uchiha, how come he knows about all these?

"..." – Kuroto.

Seeing Kuroto's silence, Shinichi sighed. "It's fine if you don't want to tell… I mean it's not like it's that important anyway!"

Kuroto nodded in appreciation, he really doesn't have any accurate response for this.

The reason Kuroto choose to give all this information to Shinichi is that he will most probably learn about it from Obito during his time in the Akatsuki Organization. So, letting Shinichi know of this information in advance will only bring some more points for Kuroto in Shinichi's books.

"Well, you don't have to worry about going blind or anything… as long as you keep to your words and continue passing me some intelligence about the movement of that organization… I'll make sure that you don't go blind… because I can't have a useful combat personnel losing all his combat power, ah… but make sure to do some sort of training that will decrease your dependency on your visual senses while in combat… this will definitely help you!"

"Alright, I guess I'll believe it if it's you!" – Shinichi nodded after a little bit of thinking.

Shinichi was already convinced of Kuroto's strength because he understood that even when fighting against him, who was using the Mangekyou Sharingan; Hyuga Kuroto was holding back, so there is some sort of faith Shinichi has in Kuroto.

If anyone really has the ability to resurrect a person, then Hyuga Kuroto might actually have such power… and based on what Kuroto said up to now… even if he doesn't at this point maybe he will in the future. So, betting on Kuroto is not without benefit.

While going through all these thoughts, Kuroto finally said, "Alright with that out of the way, the name of the organization that I want you to join is called the 'Akatsuki!'"

"Akatsuki!?"

"Hm, Akatsuki… Don't be too arrogant or careless after you join this organization, it's filled with people you might as well consider as true monsters in their own right, and just for example; even the Snake Sannin Orochimaru is also a part of this organization"

Shinichi was highly surprised by this piece of information, "Someone like Orochimaru would choose to join some no-name organization?"

Like most of Konoha Shinobi, Shinichi obviously only has the five great Shinobi Villages in his eyes, the rest are just some small bunches that can't be taken seriously.

But this thought is too wrong because Akatsuki is nothing like that.

"As I said, don't underestimate them! This organization has more than enough power to destroy any Shinobi Village with little ease. The combined strength of this Organization is more than enough to overpower any Shinobi Village, even Konoha for all that matter, and it will actually take the combined effort of all the shinobi Villages to get rid of them! So, don't take them lightly, I don't want you to use your eyes on the first day you join them!" – Seeing the serious look on Kuroto's face Shinichi gulped slightly.

"The front leader of Akatsuki is a person who is said to have awakened the mythical Rinnegan Eyes." After a short pause, Kuroto continued, "Rinnegan is one of three great dojutsu, aside from the Sharingan and the Byakugan, and is also said to be the eyes of the Sage of the Six Path from the legends foretold in the Shinobi World. So, make sure to not take him lightly or provoke him!"

"The Rinnegan?" – Shinichi asked in awe as he didn't believe that something like the Rinnegan actually existed.

'But if Kuroto is saying that is the case, then it might just be… wait-'

"You said that the leader of this organization? Isn't the bastard responsible for killing Kurumi the leader?"

"That's a little confusing, I'll leave it to you to figure it out for yourself during your stay in Akatsuki!" – Kuroto spoke in an amusing tone. "As for his true identity? It's better that you try to figure that out for yourself by your own methods."

"I understand!" – Shinichi nodded in understanding.

Finally glancing at Shinichi, Kuroto tentatively asked, "That's all well and good, but what are you going to do if that masked man says that he can also bring Uchiha Kurumi back to life?"

Shinichi answered coldly without any thinking, "I'll obviously not believe a single word that bastard says!"

"But what if he really could? What if he really had the ability to bring Uchiha Kurumi back to life?"

This time Shinichi was stunned when he heard Kuroto's question, and immediately said, "If you are worried that I'll betray you for that then don't be, as long as you don't break your word, I will not betray you. As long as you bring Kurumi back to life, I won't be swayed by any of his temptations!"

Kuroto didn't reply directly but stared at Shinichi intently.

Seeing Kuroto's look, Shinichi turned his face to the side with a blushing look. "Don't look at me so intently, I… I am not into men, if you stare so much at me, I'll start feeling insecure about my chastity!"

"Cough-cough… Don't talk bullshit, I am straight, also you know I have a fiancé, right?"

"Well, I do, but who knows if you have some eccentric habits… you know what I mean!" – Shinichi said while giving a strange look at Kuroto from the side.

Listening to Shinichi's words, Kuroto had an unamused look, as he stared at Shinichi with 'Really?' expression.

"Sigh… geez, lighten up a little… Anyway, jokes aside, I am not a fool, from the moment the masked-man made use of Kurumi as if she is nothing more than a pawn whose sole role is to die for me to awaken my Mangekyou Sharingan, any room for negotiations between me and him was over.

It is simply impossible for me to not hate him; therefore, I would never be able to trust him in bringing Kurumi back to life. Besides, even if he did, he might do something extra and add some sort of Jutsu to Kurumi's body that would leave me with no choice but to act as his puppet, therefore, I won't trust him with something so important! There is simply no possibility for that happening!"

Kuroto nodded in understanding and choose to believe this explanation.

"Alright, that satisfies me. Next, tell me the identity of the Kumo spy lurking in Konoha that made contact with you?"

This time Shinichi shook his head and stated, "I don't know the identity of the other party. I didn't meet him personally, he made contact with me through a Summon beast, that's a small 'Sparrow', and all the messages were sent using that little bird!

In fact, I didn't even trust his words, and my defection had nothing to do with him, even the matter of calling the Kumo Shinobi in the Land of Fire was initially unknown to me!"

Kuroto's face sank when he heard this.

"So, you don't have a method to get in contact with him?" – asked Kuroto.

"I am afraid not!" – Shinichi said while shaking his head in denial.

"Sigh, forget it then!" – Kuroto said helplessly.

Although Kuroto guessed that the Kumo spy lurking in Konoha would definitely not reveal his identity so easily, even to Uchiha Shinichi for that matter, he was still a little disappointed when Shinichi said this.

"Alright, then tell me the location where you buried Uchiha Kurumi?" – Kuroto asked inattentively.

"Why do you want to know that?" – Shinichi asked with a vigilant look.

"Seriously? You are asking me this!" – Kuroto again asked with a 'Really?' look.

Suddenly Shinichi remembered that Kuroto promised to bring Kurumi back to life and answered while rubbing the back of his head with an embarrassing laugh, "Hahaha… sorry-sorry… I buried her in a cave in the lower reaches of the Naka River, no one in the Uchiha Clan or Village knows of this other than me!"

Kuroto nodded and said, "Now tell me the specific location?"

This time Shinichi realized that something was up and asked worriedly, "Are you worried about something…?"

"I have already told you not to underestimate the methods of the Akatsuki." After a short pause, Kuroto continued, "If by some chance, the masked-man found and took out her body, I won't be able to do anything!"

Since the matter was related to the resurrection of Uchiha Kurumi, so he understood the seriousness of Kuroto's words and without being anymore careless, Shinichi quickly described the specific location of Kurumi's grave and then added, "You must not let Kurumi's body fall into their hands!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 274 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

After learning the location of Uchiha Kurumi's grave, Kuroto thought a little and said, "It's not very safe here, take care of all the traces and change the site to recover!"

This cave, although a little hidden, isn't very far from the battlefield where the two of them fought.

Once Konoha or Kumo learns that Uchiha Shinichi disappeared/ran away from the battlefield, a carpet search will inevitably begin, and finding this cave wouldn't be very difficult, so neither of the two can stay here for very long.

Shinichi nodded and immediately used a 'Fireball Jutsu' on the place where the blood was left.

After being burned violently by the 'Fireball Jutsu', all the blood evaporated leaving only black traces, and nothing more.

…

On the Battlefield.

The silent confrontation between Team-11 and Kumo shinobi continued and neither side rushed to make the first move.

Both sides were afraid for a reason to make the first attack.

Team-11 as a whole wasn't afraid of the overall power of the Kumo unit led by Yugito Nii, but they were worried that the fight might again light the fuse of an all-out war between the two villages, so they were somewhat restrained.

On the Kumo side, Yugito Nii learned and personally witnessed the fact that the Anbu in the Cat Mask, i.e., Uchiha Shisui [based on the information published in the Bingo Book, seems to also have awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, and then there is Hyuga Kuroto; the guy with the Eagle mask; seem to have defeated Uchiha Shinichi; who has awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, so fighting these four Anbu; seems a little difficult for her.

After all, they are still in the Land of Fire; i.e., Enemy Territory; and it wouldn't take very much long for the Konoha Shinobi Army; personally, led by the Toad Sannin Jiraiya to arrive here. And once these reinforcements arrive; the already low chances of winning will even disappear completely.

Bang…

While Yugito Nii was considering whether to stay and fight or retreat; a red flare appeared in the distant sky signaling the arrival.

One of the Kumo Jonin who was part of the unit approached Yugito Nii and whispered silently, "It's Konoha's Flare; it's time we retreat!"

Sighing heavily at the fact that Team-11 was again spared from her clutches; Yugito Nii nodded towards the Jonin and ordered, "Retreat!"

Following Yugito Nii's order; all the Kumo ninjas took a backward step and started leaving the battlefield.

Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…

Finally giving a cold glance to the four members of Team-11; who still didn't drop their guard; she too retreated.

Whoosh…

All the Kumo ninjas turned into after-images and soon disappeared in the darkening night towards the direction of the Land of Hot Water.

"Whew…" Kakashi finally breathed a sigh of relief, he really didn't want the matter to escalate anymore.

While Kakashi was glad, Shisui asked Kuroto anxiously, "Kuroto-San, which direction did Shinichi escaped?"

Kuroto's clone didn't look at Shisui just answered calmly, "Don't be too anxious; let's first wait for Jiraiya-Sama's arrival and then decide the further course of action!"

Understanding that the reinforcements brought by Jiraiya were about to arrive, Shisui suppressed his anxiousness to chase after Shinichi. After all, persuing after Uchiha Shinichi in the night and this dense forest would be extremely difficult, not to mention his anti-tracking abilities would only make it more difficult.

Without making them wait for long, the Toad Sannin Jiraiya arrived at the battlefield along with the reinforcements.

He was quite surprised looking at the scale of damage and the messy battlefield.

Kakashi hurriedly stepped forwards and reported the basic situation about the battle to Jiraiya and finally stated, "After Uchiha Shinichi's fight with Eagle, he is currently missing."

Jiraiya glanced towards Kuroto's clone, and after looking at him from head to toe, he said with a smile, "Hey young guy, we meet again!"

Kuroto was a little speechless as to how to respond to that greeting.

Jiraiya also noticed the confusion and waved his hand, while stating, "Don't worry, aside from your details in the Bingo Book; the old man has already given me some basic information of the members of Team-11; so don't be too restrained!"

Kuroto nodded and bowed towards Jiraiya as a sign of his gratefulness, "I am still grateful for Jiraiya-Sama's help from that time."

The arrival of Jiraiya and Orochimaru; helped Kuroto and Itachi and prompted Yugito Nii to retreat during their mission; if not for the arrival of the two Sannin; the consequences of the accidental encounter with the Nibi's Jinchuriki might have been quite disastrous!

Jiraiya casually nodded and asked, "Tell me the details of your fight with Uchiha Shinichi!"

Kuroto will of course not give an accurate description of the battle between him and Shinichi, so he just vaguely described that the initial confrontation didn't work as all the injuries he suffered recovered strangely moreover even the poison wasn't being effective on him and Uchiha Shinichi activated the Susanoo and used a barrage of attacks which Kuroto continuously dodged; this went on for a while but because neither side was able to connect their attacks with the enemy, so in the end, Shinichi's Chakra levels started dropping and he retreated immediately, and even before Kuroto and others could pursue after him; they had to stop to confront the Kumo unit.

There is simply no loophole in this argument; because the surrounding forest was all damaged only by Shinichi's Susanoo while the attacks from Kuroto's side were very accurate and restricted; so it is difficult to analyze them, therefore, no matter who it is; they can't find any other detail based on the situation on the battlefield.

There are simply no loopholes in what Kuroto said.

As for the matter of Golden Light?

Obviously, it was caused by something on Shinichi's Susanoo… however, it was difficult to accurately identify it as it was some kind of Chakra weapon.

Simple and easy!

After roughly understanding the situation, Jiraiya also deployed the Konoha shinobi; and Kakashi too summoned his Ninken to search Shinichi's tracks.

But because of the interference from Kuroto's main body that was with Shinichi; no matter how much effort they put; no traces of Shinichi's presence were found.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

With Shinchi's speed of travel after a little recuperation, three days was more than enough for him to escape the territory of the Land of Fire; and exactly as Kuroto desired, Team-11 didn't find any results and had to return back to the village.

As soon as Team-11 returned back to the village, they were called to the Hokage Office by Sandaime-Sama.

…

In the Hokage office.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had a small frown, with eyes stern, seems to be busy in his thoughts.

On the side, Shimura Danzo also looked gloomy and angered.

The two other elder consultants, Mitokade Homura and Utatane Koharu were also worried.

As the captain of Team-11, Kakashi gave a detailed report of Team-11's pursuit of Shinichi without missing any detail.

By the time Kakashi finished his report, Sandaime asked solemnly, "That is to say, Uchiha Shinichi has defected to Kumo?"

Kakashi shook his head and answered with a guilty tone, "We can't be certain, but the probability of such a thing happening is very high!"

Sandaime nodded and waved his hands to signal Team-11 to leave.

With a courteous bow, Team-11 left the Hokage Office.

With only 4 members of the Advisor Council remaining in the meeting room, Danzo coldly said, "There is a Kumo spy in the Village!"

This conclusion isn't very difficult to draw; after all, if not for the fact that Uchiha Shinichi was more or less induced by that spy; then the Kumo wouldn't have been able to respond to Shinichi's defection and send a unit personally led by one of the Jinchuriki into the hinterland of the Land of Fire.

Not to mention that this time their arrival wasn't even noticed by the Konoha's side; this means that; the enemy had some information on the routes that had less security so they could enter easily.

Adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose, Homura added, "This spy was not only aware of the contradiction between Root and the Uchiha Clan, bypass the security of both the Anbu unit as well as the Uchiha Police force to make contact with Uchiha Shinichi and finally sent intelligence about the Konoha's border security details; this shows that his status is definitely not low, it is very likely that he/she is either part of Anbu unit or the Root unit."

Danzo was obviously unhappy at this statement and said with a dark tone, "There will never be any problem from my Root Unit!"

At this time, Koharu said with a mocking tone, "A mere Uchiha kid was not only able to breach the security of your Root Base but also single-handedly annihilated almost all the personnel at the time present at the base. I even heard that many of your storehouses were also robbed, are you sure that the spy didn't have his hands in all this?"

"You…" Danzo glared towards Koharu in annoyance, and finally snorted, "Fine, I will investigate the Root thoroughly, but this doesn't change the fact that there will be no spies among my men!"

Shimura Danzo had a big loss this time. Many of the Root Shinobi loyal to him were killed by Uchiha Shinichi single-handedly, then there was a theft, most of the warehouses and secret laboratory he had were robbed by someone, even the few Sharingan he had left were taken away by the thief!

And finally, Danzo's prestige in Konoha has also been affected severely, so his authority in the Advisor Council has fallen to the lowest of the four.

Sandaime ignored Danzo's look and nodded towards Homura and Koharu with a serious tone, "I will conduct a thorough investigation of the Anbu members."

Finally, with all the discussion over, Danzo stood up while tapping his cane and coldly said, "Hiruzen, now you should understand the threat posed by the Uchiha Clan towards the village, if we leave them as they are, the village will sooner or later be destroyed in their hands!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 276 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

The defection of Uchiha Shinichi not only highlighted the threat of the Uchiha Clan but it especially highlighted the degree of strength that the Uchiha can possess by simply awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan!

One single young Uchiha stirred the whole village upside down.

Not only was the prestige of the Hokage Faction plummeted, but there was also a loss of many combat personnel, and still there were no results as they all failed in capturing or killing Uchiha Shinichi!

If one single Uchiha can cause such trouble for Konoha, just imagine what would happen if the entire Uchiha Clan were to rebel?

Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but shudder with just the thought of such a thing happening, and this further cause him a headache.

His already less hair is growing weaker day by day being involved in all these tense situations, that are popping out of nowhere one after another.

If this continued, he wouldn't have any option but to go bald!

While Sandaime was having tension about his hair, Danzo continued to urge, "Sarutobi, it's about time you make up your mind!"

The robbery of test materials will put a stop to many of his experiments.

In particular, the disappearance of all the Sharingan that were stored in the Nutrient Solution made Danzo's heartache.

That was his hard work!

Some of the Sharingan were left by his teacher Tobirama and the others were collected by him over the course of many years during the three great shinobi wars.

But now that it's the time of peace, so collecting anymore Sharingan would be very difficult; and the disappearance of each one would prompt heavy investigations, so Danzo can't afford to take such actions!

So, the annihilation of the Uchiha Clan is his best bet to collect more Sharingan, all Hiruzen has to do is nod, and Shimura Danzo will have a large collection of Sharingan at his disposal that he can use freely.

However. Shimura Danzo has to be disappointed as Sandaime shook his head, "We will discuss the matter of the Uchiha Clan later, for now, focus on Kumogakure!"

Listening to Danzo's continued urging, Sandaime who were suddenly broken out of the fantasy of his wonderful hair disappearing with each passing day, declined Danzo's opinion coldly without much consideration.

Hiruzen was of course very disappointed with Danzo's performance this time. As one of the four representatives of the Hokage faction Danzo completely failed to catch Uchiha Shinichi's tracks.

Danzo has been the representative who has always suppressed the noble shinobi clans of Konoha, and this time he couldn't even suppress Uchiha Shinichi who has just awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, this made Sandaime very embarrassed of his old friend.

Even his prestige as the Hokage was slightly affected by all this fiasco.

Therefore, he is in no mood to entertain Danzo's blabbering for now.

Seeing Hiruzen directly diverting the topic, Danzo could only sigh and curse inwardly, 'If only I was the Hokage!'

But unfortunately, he is not the Hokage!

He had no choice but to give up the annihilation of the Uchiha Clan for now and focus on Kumogakure, as the discussion between the four advisors continued.

…

On Kuroto's side.

After leaving the Hokage Office, Team-11 was disbanded as all the four returned to their houses to rest and for other work.

After returning to his home and conforming with the Byakugan to make sure that no one was spying on him, Kuroto took out two scrolls from his ninja bag.

"Kai!"

Puff…

With a cloud of white smoke, a corpse appeared on each of the two scrolls.

The body on the first scroll belonged to Uchiha Kurumi.

To make sure that Obito or Zetsu don't get their hands on it, Kuroto ordered the Kazekage puppet to retrieve it from Uchiha Kurumi's grave.

"Hooh, this is a surprise!" – muttered Kuroto as he noticed that Uchiha Kurumi's body had some sort of potion over it that prevented the rotting of her cells, tissues, and organs.

'Does that mean Shinichi always had the intention to look for a method to bring her back to life? Otherwise, why would he use such expensive potion?' – Kuroto of course had some idea about this potion, after all, he wasn't playing stones while working in Orochimaru's lab.

That's why he was more surprised and impressed by Shinichi's action.

'Since that's the case, I don't need to be worried about her body for the time being!'

After confirming that there were almost no defects or problems with Uchiha Kurumi's corpse, including her Sharingan that was still present in her eyes, Kuroto resealed her body inside the scroll.

The storage scroll will obviously not prevent the decay of her body for a very long time, as they don't stop time as per their working mechanism, so this will only be a temporary option; until Kuroto finds some better means to prevent the decay of her body for the next 15 years or so.

After resealing Uchiha Kurumi's corpse, Kuroto moved his gaze towards the corpse on the other scroll.

This body belongs to none other than White Zetsu's clone that was attempting to spy on his and Shinichi's battle.

The only problem with this is it's the messy state because of suffering the explosion of many detonation charms. Therefore, at this point, it couldn't be considered anything other than a mass of tissues.

Activating his Tenseigan, Kuroto scanned Zetsu's body and perceived the slight traces of Chakra still present in it.

'It's really amazing that even after it's been destroyed, there are still some signs of vitality because of the presence of Hashirama's cells in it!'

After sighing at just how persistent can Shodaime Hokage-Sama's cells can be, Kuroto nodded slightly and resealed this corpse too.

Putting away the two scrolls, Kuroto walked towards his balcony and jumped on top of the roof of his house, and looked over the entire village with one hand over his waist.

Kuroto's current top priority is to build a secret laboratory as well as material storage that personally belongs to him.

Considering the issue of safety and secrecy, the choice of location is a very important issue.

While observing the layout of the village, Kuroto thought to himself, 'The location of the laboratory shouldn't be too far away from home, otherwise going back and forth will be a big hassle, and the location should definitely be hidden, otherwise, the perception ninjas might be able to find its location, which will again be troublesome!'

With that thought in mind, Kuroto's gaze turned towards the surrounding forest.

Although Konoha is surrounded by forests from all sides, it's not that they are unowned.

For example, Nara, Akimichi, Inuzuka, Aburame, and other clans are mostly near the forests and these forests are used by them for various purposes.

Now it's not that these are the only forest these clans own, after all, noble clans have a lot of property throughout the Land of Fire, so it's nothing strange.

But because these forests are near the village so they are still used quite a lot, and if Kuroto were to build his laboratory in the forest territory that is occasionally used by these clans for whatever purposes like, Insect keeping, Dog's breeding, and training, and other purposes, Kuroto can be sure that his laboratory will be discovered very soon, which is something he can't afford to have until he finds a better place.

So, moving his gaze away from this region, Kuroto turned to look towards the direction of the 'Death Forest' in one of the corners of the Village.

The 'Death Forest' in particular isn't owned by any of the Shinobi Clan and is actually a place where all shinobi have equal access to and use it for combat exercises. Almost all Konoha Shinobi either had or have a routine visit to this forest at some point in their life.

''Death Forest' is the territory where one will mostly find Genin and Chunin, Jonin rarely visits here as their activities will cause big movements, if I create my laboratory here, and as long as an appropriate location is chosen, the possibility of being discovered is quite less!

And most important of all, 'Death Forest' is not very far from the Village, so it would be very convenient to go back and forth. I can also use the excuse of concocting poisons for my visits to the 'Death Forest' '

The more he thought about it, the more Kuroto felt that this is the best temporary option, so after a little more consideration, Kuroto decided to map the 'Death Forest' and see if he can find some spot to meet his requirements.

With that decided Kuroto's figure flickered and disappeared.

After arriving at the Death Forest, he activated his Byakugan to have a look around.

After some search and find, he soon arrived around one particular spot at the edge of the Death Forest.

The reason Kuroto came here is very simple; this place actually shields his Byakugan perception.

After thinking about it a little, Kuroto murmured in understanding, "This should be one of the nodes of the Barrier enchantment covering Konoha!"

Entire Konoha Village is under the protection of the enchantment, and this barrier is erected using several nodes that have been transcribed with complex Fuinjutsu, so it is difficult to see past this spot with just one glance even if someone uses the Byakugan.

For this reason, general investigative methods don't work here or are shielded against to a varying degree.

"The maintenance of this spot should be under the responsibility of Team-3 of the Enchantment Department." – With a short pause, Kuroto tried to recall the specific information of the members of the Team-3 of the Enchantment Department.

'All the four members of Team-3 are Chunin Class, and there is also no strong perception ninja in their team! But I can't be sure about it, I'll have to check on this information once.'

As an Anbu, Kuroto has access to such information related to the abilities of the ordinary Konoha Chunin and Genin, and he once happened to look through these files of the enchantment class to see if could find someone that could help him with some doubts in Fuinjutsu practice that he was facing, but that aside, although Kuroto didn't pay much attention to anyone that wasn't much use to him, he still remembers some of their details.

But he still can't be sure if some talented Shinobi are lurking in the enchantment department.

Kuroto understands that he has to be cautious if he wants to keep the laboratory for a long period, so instead of rushing immediately to decide the location to build his laboratory, Kuroto decided to investigate the situation of Team-3 as well as also the abilities of some of the other members of the enchantment department, just to be perfectly sure, that there is no strong sensor class who would be able to find his laboratory if Kuroto does build one in this area…

...

Read up to Chapter - 278 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Because of Kuroto's identity as an Anbu; it didn't even take him half a day to investigate the details of the Team-3 of the Enchantment Class and he confirmed that there was no good perceptual ninja in that team.

So, after a little more consideration, Kuroto finally decided to make his laboratory in the 'Death Forest'

The place he finally chose was the remote area around the node that belongs to the edge of the Death Forest and close to the spot where no one comes to.

And since this area is under the influence of the enchantment node, so most of the perception Jutsu will be shielded by this, making it hard for anyone to find out the location of his laboratory.

All these points make this area one of the many blind spots in the village, but because the area it shields isn't very big, so it can't be used as a strategic location, and since there are no important facilities around, therefore no one cares about this place other than some routinely visits to maintain the Enchantment.

After the problem of finding a suitable location was resolved, Kuroto didn't delay any longer and started construction work.

According to Kuroto's plans, the laboratory will be constructed 20 m beneath the ground, so the entire construction process will involve quite a lot of work.

It took Kuroto, his shadow clones, and the Kazekage Puppet together about 1 week to complete the basic structure of the laboratory.

The entrance of the laboratory lies inside a tree hole, under a big tree.

Then there is a special mechanism Kuroto constructed in the tree cave according to which if someone other than him were to intentionally or accidentally touch the tree, there will be several explosions that would completely destroy the entrance part of the cave, making it impossible for anyone to notice that there could be a laboratory beneath the tree.

Then Kuroto made sure to use many secret sealing techniques along the passage under the tree hole.

If anyone attempts to break inside the laboratory the sealing techniques will activate causing hundreds of explosions by the detonation charms hidden under the passage, this will blow up the entire underground passage.

After passing through the underground passage, the sections of the main laboratory start.

Kazekage puppet will always be present here to guard against any possible intruder, and if there would be signs of any powerful enemy trying to break in, he will immediately collect all the important equipment or research items, and then destroy the entire laboratory.

Even with all this work, the appearance at the entrance of the cave hasn't changed from beginning to end. This is because Kuroto made sure to seal all the mud and gravel into storage scrolls and throw them away in some remote forests or lakes.

Even the people familiar with this place would never be able to realize or figure out the slightest of clues about the presence of an entire underground laboratory.

After completing the basic structure and finalizing some of the rooms, Kuroto transferred some experimental instruments that he stole from Root Base.

Large test benches, high precision microscopes, cell incubators, nutrition tanks, cold storage devices, and many other such instruments he robbed from Danzo became the first batch in his laboratory.

After completing the basic set-up, Kuroto took out a notebook and started writing some of the requirements that are still needed to be fulfilled.

Looking at the long list before him, Kuroto sighed helplessly.

This laboratory is the second and the next most important step for him to climb to the pinnacle of the shinobi world in the future. In his huge plan, at least 40% of the research and experiments will be conducted here, so there is still a requirement of at least 20 more large instruments and hundreds of small instruments for him to begin his research.

Looking at the laboratory set-up before him, Kuroto had a hard time figuring out a method to buy or arrange these instruments.

'The total amount needed to buy all these things would reach up to 3 Billion Ryo!'

Looking at such high prices Kuroto can't help but think to himself, 'Is that why Orochimaru had to seek help for funds from Danzo? Otherwise, buying such instruments is close to impossible!'

Scientific research always consumes a whole lot of money to produce rewarding results, there is no doubt about that.

And this is also the reason why Orochimaru was willing to cooperate with Shimura Danzo because Danzo obviously had access to large funds as one of the four elders of the Konoha Advisor Council.

It is obviously unrealistic for Kuroto to obtain 3 Billion Ryo in such a short amount of time, so he decided to only buy the instruments he needed most urgently to begin his research.

"1 Billion!?"

Even after that was done the price still reached up to 1 Billion Ryo!

As long as he collects about 1 Billion Ryo; the requirement to buy the much-needed instruments will be completed, with this, at least his plans can finally begin.

But collecting 1 Billion Ryo is also not an easy task!

After much deliberation, Kuroto finalized that becoming a bounty ninja is the only possible way to earn high rewards in a short amount of time.

After all, dealing with most of the targets wouldn't be much of a deal for Kuroto considering his strength, and as long as he doesn't go after the targets with a highly sensitive identity or background, making money will be very easy for him.

But the only problem is that Kuroto can't use his identity, Hyuga Kuroto can't act as a bounty hunter, therefore he now needs a brand-new identity.

After all, Black Market also has its own set of rules, and inexplicable people are generally unacceptable in Black Market, therefore Kuroto needs a good disguise that will allow him to adapt to the rules of the Black Market.

And only by gaining a certain reputation; along with winning the trust of the employer will he be able to successfully take high rewarding commissions.

After a little bit of consideration, Kuroto took out a black cloak and a mask.

This set of cloak and mask was specifically designed by him during the time he was learning Fuinjutsu. The initial purpose was just to hide his identity when acting in secrecy, but now Kuroto plans to use this as his disguise to act as a bounty hunter.

The Cloak is Midnight Black with golden lines over it, which is actually complex sealing techniques Kuroto engraved on it with Gold Thread. This Cloak is capable of isolating the wearer from most of the Sensory type techniques and is perfectly capable of shielding Byakugan's X-Ray vision.

The mask is also black with some white over it, symbolizing the Yin- Chakra element from the Yin-Yang symbol. The mask is also engraved with complex Fuinjutsu from the inner side that again prevents sensor ninjas or Byakugan Perception.

As soon as he wore the Cloak and the Mask, Kuroto's entire temperament changed.

He was no longer Hyuga Kuroto but was the incarnation of a certain God of Death.

"Now that I have a disguise, I also need an alias, how about 'In'? Or maybe 'Yama'?" – muttered Kuroto while curling his lips in a chuckle, because the name 'Yama' sounds quite good…

…

At the same time, in a cave in the territory of the Land of Grass.

The figure of Masked-Man and Zetsu appeared outside the Cave.

Looking at the dark cave before him, the masked-man asked curiously, "Is he inside?"

Zetsu nodded, "Yes, seems to be recuperating."

Giving a nod to the Zetsu whose lower body was still submerged in the ground, the masked-man casually walked into the cave.

Uchiha Shinichi, who was recovering inside the cave, immediately stood up carrying his sword.

The masked-man noticed Shinichi's action and said lightly, "No need to be so alert, it's just me!"

The moment Shinichi realized that it was the masked-man, his anger immediately flared, and shouted loudly as he lunged towards the masked-man with his sword, "You bastard! You have the gall to appear before me!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 280 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Shinichi's anger at this time was obviously not fake and because Kuroto allowed him to attack the masked-man as much as he wants, therefore Shinichi didn't restrain himself and directly shot towards the masked-man.

Whoosh…

Shinichi's figure immediately flashed to the side of the masked-man and waved his short sword upside down to cut the masked-man into two parts.

Unfortunately for him, the sword directly phased through the masked man's body as if there was only an elusive image present before Shinichi and nothing more.

Even though Shinichi has already awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, he still couldn't see through the masked man's ability; so, the failure of attack greatly dissatisfied him.

The masked-man who just casually stood with his hands at the back of his head; didn't even bother about Shinichi attacking him and just asked flatly. "Are you still obsessed with this False World!?"

"Tch…" – clicking his tongue in annoyance, Shinichi calmed himself as he understood that no matter how much he attacks the other party, unless and until; the other person materializes himself into this space; it wouldn't make any difference as all his attacks would just phase through Masked-man's body!

"Hooh! So, you do know how to calm down, that's a surprise? Well, since I don't have to waste time restraining you, how about you now consider my offer to join me? Join the organization I am part of, and I will help you create a world where you wouldn't have any regrets!" – stated the masked-man.

Shinichi just snorted coldly without dropping his guard, "And, why should I trust you?"

"You should have been to Naka Shrine after awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan!" After a pause, the masked-man continued, "With the Mangekyou Sharingan, you should have read the Stone Tablet left to the Uchiha Clan by the Sage of the Six Path, and you should have understood what is the message on the tablet, and that's exactly my goal!"

Shinichi was silent when he heard the masked man's words, as he has indeed read the text on the Stone Tablet, at least up to the point that his Mangekyou Sharingan allowed.

But whether he agrees with the masked man's ideology or not, that's not very hard for him to figure out.

Shinichi's ability implies 'Protection' and 'Retrospect', these are the true reflection of his inner thoughts.

Different from the masked-man who want to escape from the reality of someone's death by enveloping the whole world in an infinite genjutsu to unite with the person he loved the most, Shinichi desires to go back into the past or better yet, change the reality of Uchiha Kurumi's death and then protect or guard her alive self.

As for the fake world of genjutsu?

Shinichi has no interest in it!

After all, there is always a difference between reality and illusion!

Although Shinichi has promised Kuroto to join the Akatsuki as a spy, now that the matter is important and the masked-man has again invited him, he really couldn't open up his mouth and was frozen in his spot; because no words came to him.

The masked-man seems to have sensed Shinichi's hesitation, so he said while extending his hand, "No need to rush, think about it clearly, and come to the Land of Rain…"

"Why are you so sure that I will come?" – Shinichi couldn't help but ask in confusion.

"Heh… that's a good question… but its answer is incredibly simple… I know you will come to me is because I understand you… while no one else does, besides, you don't seem to have many options, isn't that right?"

Leaving this sentence, the Masked-man disappeared into the spiraling void.

In the masked man's eye, Uchiha Shinichi, who has defected from Konoha doesn't have any place to seek asylum, the Kumogakure might have taken the chance to step over Konoha using this opportunity, but in the Shinobi world, no village would ever trust a defected shinobi, much less a defected shinobi of other Village.

Therefore, Akatsuki is Shinichi's only option… and Uchiha Shinichi will definitely come to the Land of Rain, whether to join the Akatsuki or with the hope of killing the Masked-Man, whichever be his choice, his destination will definitely be the Land of Rain!

Only patience is needed, and he would eventually be drawn into the Akatsuki.

After coming out of the cave and appearing on Zetsu's side who stood far away from the cave, the Masked-man ordered lightly, "Bring that woman's body!"

Zetsu nodded and sunk into the ground.

'Uchiha Shinichi… I know you will come… because you are just like me!"

…

After leaving a shadow clone at his home, Kuroto disguised himself as 'Yama' and secretly left the Village.

He already had a good knowledge of the Black Market thanks to Orochimaru and Anbu, so finding the location of one of its units in the Land of Fire wasn't that big of a deal.

This branch was hidden under the cover of an Izakaya.

After confirming the identity of the in-charge and the secret password to get access by torturing out a small bounty hunter, Kuroto arrived at the location and was brought to a dark-room.

All the four walls of the dark-room had the lists of various rewards, the rewards were both old and new, some were even yellowed out because of the long time that they remained here.

Soon his eyes landed on the newly published list of four bounties, and these four belonged to none other than the Anbu Team-11.

Among the four members, Shisui's reward was the highest, with a skyrocketing value of 50 Million Ryo, and this reward was pasted under a special section that signifies the danger level of the target.

Then there was Kuroto's personal bounty which amounted to 30 Million Ryo, followed by Kakashi's which was 25 Million Ryo, and finally, Guy's bounty that was still 20 Million Ryo.

Looking at such an increase in Shisui's bounty, Kuroto helplessly muttered under his breath, "Che, Kumo is really very annoying!"

Undoubtedly, these new bounties are issued by Kumogakure.

The reason for such a stark increase in Shisui's bounty is his Mangekyou Sharingan. Shinichi's defection clearly highlighted the true power of the Mangekyou Sharingan, so even though, 50 Million Ryo is not a very high amount, it isn't a small amount either, and with this Shisui's awakening, the Mangekyou Sharingan is now a piece of common knowledge among all powers.

And Kuroto's bounty also increased from 20 Million Ryo to 30 Million Ryo, this is probably because Yugito Nii passed back the news about him defeating Uchiha Shinichi, so his danger level increased, but since Kumo can't accurately judge the process of the battle and only vaguely understand that Hyuga Kuroto repelled Uchiha Shinichi, who seem to be using the Susanoo; so, they only increased the amount by 10 Million Ryo.

The increase in Kakashi's bounty is also reasonable as he is the captain of the Team-11, but Guy seems to have been completely ignored by Kumo, so his bounty stayed 20 Million Ryo, too bad for them to ignore him.

The in-charge noticed that Kuroto was looking at the bounties of Team-11, and said to him from the side, "If you bring the heads of these four, we can make the immediate payment with only 10% commission!"

Most of the Bounty Ninjas are unwilling to meet their employers in person, after all, the employer could be anyone, even the likes of great Shinobi Villages, so both sides would want to avoid direct contact, therefore, the Black Market also acts as a mediator between the two parties, and only charges some commission fee for the mediation work.

Kuroto coldly snorted when he heard that, "I don't have any intention of involving myself with the five great Shinobi Villages, as of yet. Are there any other high-paying bounties that are uninvolved with the Five Great Shinobi Villages!?"

The in-charge wasn't surprised by this question, after all, the Five Great Shinobi Villages are not something that anyone can provoke, this is the most basic sense among all the shinobi, whether it be a rogue-nin, wandering-nin, missing-nin, bounty-nin, or the shinobi of other small nations.

Therefore, he nodded without much of a surprise and took out a small book from the side of his pocket and handed it to Kuroto with a cold smile, "These targets don't have any involvement with the Five Great Powers, you can check out each of them slowly by taking your time!"

The reason why the in-charge was being amiable towards Kuroto?

It's obvious, he was able to feel the great pressure radiating from the other side, so the in-charge understood that the person wearing the black and white mask and the Golden Printed Black Cloak is definitely not any ordinary Shinobi, so it's best to not offend the other party!

Kuroto only nodded in appreciation after flipping through the notebook, he tore a few pages that he selected as his targets.

The goals Kuroto choose were either defected-nin that cause too much trouble or some bandit-nin that only harms one side, therefore, there shouldn't be any follow-up trouble after killing these targets.

With Kuroto's current strength, coupled with the Konoha's intelligence support that he has access to courtesy to his Anbu identity, Kuroto was able to eliminate many groups of rogue-nin, as well as some bandits who were plundering the resources from the ordinary people.

Regardless of the bounties offered by these targets, Kuroto was able to earn about 25 Million Ryo, just by robbing these groups, plus the bounty, even with the amount deducted as the commission, he still collected a sum of 70 Million Ryo.

And because his task completion rate was both very fast and efficient, so the alias of his Disguise, i.e., Yama also began to spread in the underground world and Black-market circle.

…

At one of the branches of the Black-market Circle, Kakuzu, who was wearing the iconic Akatsuki High Collar Black Cloak with Red Clouds printed over it, threw a corpse on the desk of the Boss of this Black-market Branch.

After comparing the identity of the person that this corpse belonged to with the person in the bounty poster, the in-charge stored the corps in cold storage and said with a smile, "Kakuzu-Sama, the reward for the bounty will soon be delivered to you!"

As one of the top bounty hunters, Kakuzu has unparalleled prestige in the Black-Market Circle. The in-charge will always make sure to process the payment as early as possible to save Kakuzu-Sama's precious time.

Kakuzu nodded to the in-charge while looking towards the reward list to choose the next target, however as soon as he saw the wanted lists, he was surprised to find that the latest edition of the Bingo Book was much thinner than the previous one, so he asked in confusion, "What's the matter, is the business not going very smoothly?"

...

Read up to Chapter - 282 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

In the face of Kakuzu's question, the Black-market boss explained with a happy smile, "You should have heard about this Kakuzu-Sama, a shinobi named 'Yama' has recently appeared in the Black-Market Circle, and he has been taking many tasks… I heard that his task completion efficiency is amazing."

When Kakuzu heard the name 'Yama' he was a little confused and asked doubtfully, "Yama!?"

Black-Market boss nodded and said, "Yes, rumors have been floating that he is not only very efficient but also very powerful, in just a few months, he was able to complete many difficult tasks!"

"Humph! You don't say…" – hearing the admirable words, Kakuzu coldly snorted.

All the other Bounty Hunter-nin colleagues are enemies for Kakuzu, and a good bounty hunter is even a bigger enemy for him.

It should be known that the missions assigned to the Black Market are not endless.

Whatever may be the mission about, once it's been completed, the origin of that mission would become vacant, although the vacancy in power would be occupied by others, sooner or later. It would still take time for that to happen, and this period could be anything, maybe a few months to even a few years, but there's no guarantee…

Therefore, the number of tasks appearing in Black-market is always limited, unlike the ones in Great Shinobi Villages.

And if a bounty ninja completes so many tasks in a short span of time, the others would naturally not have much work to do.

Therefore, Kakuzu was very annoyed by the sudden appearance of a tough competitor.

The Black-Market Boss also noticed that Kakuzu didn't seem to want to talk about this 'Yama' too much, so he shut himself up on his own and did not mention 'Yama' anymore.

While the Black-Market Boss was quiet, Kakuzu held the Bingo Book in his hand and kept flipping through its pages with a thinking expression.

Looking at the list of tasks completed by this 'Yama' character, even Kakuzu felt that he was a little too efficient or fast in completing the tasks.

Take himself as an example, if his target is a certain rebel group, and if they aren't some idiots; it would generally take him one to two months to find the target.

It might even take more if he is unlucky or if the target is too cautious and doesn't leave any trail behind.

But with speed, this 'Yama' character is completing tasks shows that he is not only very powerful but also has extraordinary intelligence collecting capabilities, or maybe a highly efficient intelligence network spread throughout the Elemental Nations.

Thinking of this, Kakuzu reached a conclusion, 'There must be a very large organization standing behind him…!'

Putting this matter aside for now, Kakuzu turned towards the Black-Market Boss, who seems to be cleaning some Sake-cups, and asked again, "Is there any result on the matter that I asked you to pay attention to?"

The Black-market Boss shook his head and said with an apologetic tone, "We have been inquiring about the information you have mentioned, Kakuzu-Sama, but up to now we have not had any luck in getting any results about it…"

Kakuzu nodded in understanding and urged calmly, "Continue to inquire!"

In fact, Kakuzu himself doesn't understand why the leader of the organization, who is so powerful as a God suddenly wants to search for a person related to Konoha Village.

Moreover, the description of the target that he is looking for is also very vague. With such little information, it is very difficult to find the people even with his experience, therefore, although he inquired about this person in the Black-market Circle, Kakuzu doesn't have much hope for it to succeed!

…

On Kuroto's End.

Currently, Kuroto was sitting on a cliff, wearing the 'Yama' disguise and eating some rice balls along with counting his recent income.

Beside him lied the corpse of a rogue-nin who specifically kidnapped the Concubines of Wealthy Merchants in exchange for ransom.

'Even such low-class Chunin have so much money hidden in their pockets; how do they earn it? Is the business of kidnapping Concubines so good that people like him can make a good amount out of it?' – thought Kuroto while chewing on a piece of the rice ball.

Initially, he thought that it was just a small task of killing him, but while Kuroto tortured the guy by cutting his fingers, this chunin offered to redeem his life with the money he had. Kuroto obviously pretended to agree and after following the guy he found the spot where the money was hidden, but Kuroto was still surprised that he had more than 10 Million hidden there.

This is the task amount of up to 10 S-Class Mission in Konoha Village, and such a chunin, who didn't even have access to the S-Class missions has already collected it!

After pondering a little he understood that the Wealthy Merchants and politicians generally have strong security, even if they don't, they would be willing to pay to the great Shinobi Villages and seek help.

But this matter is different altogether when it involves Concubine.

For the sake of their reputation, they would rather pay the ransom than endanger the life of their abducted Concubines, so even though this rogue-nin only has the strength of a Chunin, but after repeatedly succeeding, he has saved quite a lot of wealth in the past years.

'Hehehe, well too bad for him, because it all belongs to me now!' – thought Kuroto with a grin.

As for the reason why Kuroto has been able to repeatedly complete so many tasks in such a short time?

It is indeed thanks to his strength but that's still not the primary reason.

The main reason is that he has access to Konoha's intelligence network with his Anbu identity, therefore Kuroto can easily find his targets.

The other reason is his unparalleled flying speed in the Tenseigan Chakra Mode, so traveling large distances doesn't take very long for Kuroto.

If not for these two reasons, no matter how strong Kuroto has been, his efficiency would have been either same as Kakuzu or probably a little better than him.

However, considering the number of tasks available in the Black Market is always limited unlike the case with the Village, once simple missions that are unrelated to the Five Great Powers are completed by him, Kuroto would need to find another source to make money.

And this rogue-nin gave Kuroto a very good inspiration, kidnapping the Concubines, wives, and children of Wealthy merchants or the Merchants themselves to ask for Ransom is also a good method to acquire Millions of Ryo.

And, it's not very strange to find some wealthy merchants that are as rich as some small countries in the Shinobi World. So, it should be fine to threaten a few of them to obtain funds for his experiments.

Puff…

While Kuroto was mulling over these issues, white smoke suddenly appeared on the side.

When the white smoke cleared, an Orange Cat appeared out of it.

As soon as it saw him, the Orange Cat stretched its front paw towards Kuroto and said, "Meow, One thousand Ryo!"

Kuroto was immediately annoyed by the demand and unwillingly handed over a thousand Ryo.

After Kuroto gave the money that the cat asked for, it passed over a scroll to Kuroto's hand.

This Orange cat is not just any ordinary cat but a ninja cat named 'Kasai', and also the summon cat of Uchiha Shinichi. In order to safely receive messages from Shinichi, Kuroto also signed a contract with it.

However, the problem is that this cat loves money and every time it will pass a scroll, it will ask for a thousand yen, Kuroto can't help but want to complain to Shinichi for choosing such a greedy ninja cat.

In annoyance, he opened the small scroll passed to him to look at the few lines Shinichi wrote on it.

"That bastard actually said that he is The Uchiha Madara, he really thinks that I am some idiot that would believe his bullshit!

I knew it from the start, this bastard doesn't speak even a single line of truth… everything is just his-…"

Skipping through Shinichi's ranting, Kuroto directly read the last line of the message that was the real intelligence, "Akatsuki is trying it's best to find a mysterious ninja that is somehow related to Konoha but they aren't having much luck at it, I gotta ask this, isn't that person you if I didn't guess wrong?"

...

Read up to Chapter - 284 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Kuroto is not surprised that Obito is using the power of the Akatsuki to find the mysterious black-masked man that he faced at the Root Base.

After all, Kuroto not only fought against Obito but in fact, survived that small bout, and this might have caused some doubts in Obito's mind about the identity of that mysterious person.

For Obito, the sudden appearance of such an existence is a great variable in the project Tsuki No Mi.

And Obito would obviously not allow such a variable to continue to exist that might interfere with his plan, but unfortunately for him, no matter how hard he tries, even if he uses all the power of the Akatsuki Organization, he wouldn't be able to find anything about Kuroto.

What's more, now that Shinichi has passed on this intelligence to him, so Kuroto would obviously be more careful.

"Heh… Shinichi is also very keen sometimes, from the vague description alone, he was able to guess that the person Obito is looking for is me!" – Kuroto chuckled and put away the scroll.

In the past few months, there has been no peace in the Shinobi World.

Uchiha Shinichi's defection broke away the peace talks going on between Konoha and Kumo, as a result, both the nations have again fallen into a deadlock state.

Konoha is accusing Kumo of giving asylum to Shinichi and plotting against Konoha.

Kumo obviously denies it with a straight face, claiming that they have never even seen Uchiha Shinichi, and have no plans of accepting a defected Shinobi.

However, the fact that Kumo dispatched the unit led by Yugito Ni into the hinterlands of the Land of Fire can't be hidden, so their words obviously not credible, let alone Konoha, even other great Villages have distrust at their pitiful excuse of self-defense.

This time Kumogakure's name has fallen into mud, and there is no way to change that.

There are even rumors that the Uchiha Clan also sent someone to Kumogakure secretly, in an attempt to contact Shinichi that might have defected to Kumo, but no one knows what happened to be exact.

It is only thanks to the fact that Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan was revealed and him fighting Shinichi on a one-on-one basis that stopped Kumogakure to not start a war again, but there is still a lot of Anbu tasks that Kuroto has been completing.

Mostly those tasks are done by his Shadow Clone that's still in Konoha, and thanks to Shisui's effort, no one has been able to figure this out yet. Kuroto would of course go back to Konoha after completing each mission to remain updated, and therefore he has knowledge of most of the underground movements.

In such currents, the information of the thievery of Ryuumyaku had very little impact.

Although Sandaime paid some attention to the intelligence that Ryuumyaku disappeared along with all the Roran Survivors, but the continuous troubles he has been facing that are involved to Konoha is keeping him occupied, so he has no energy to deal with Ryuumyaku's issue, therefore, that intelligence has been added to the archives.

Konoha's indifferent attitude towards the theft of Ryuumyaku caused the suspicions of the senior leaders of Sunagakure, so they are tending to believe that this is Konoha's handiwork. This again caused a headache for Sandaime-Sama.

Overall, the current situation has been too troublesome, but it had no major effect on Kuroto, he is still arranging things for the completion of his plan.

As for the too many Anbu mission that Team-11 has to handle?

Kuroto's Shadow Clone has about half of his Chakra, so the overall strength of the Clone also surpasses the level of a Jonin, coupled with the presence of Shisui, Kakashi, and guy.

There is hardly any opponent that they can't deal with!

…

A few weeks later, Mishima Clan Mansion.

"Yagami-San, the equipment you want has arrived." – The head of the Mishima Family, Mishima Yutaro said respectfully to the person opposite to him who was dressed as a Ronin with a bamboo stick in his mouth.

The Samurai named Yagami nodded with a smile, "Then bring it in."

This samurai named Yagami Iori is none other than Kuroto who used a Transformation Jutsu upon himself when he entered the territory of the Land of Iron.

Inspired by the rogue-nin, Kuroto was also going to take the villainous route to gather funds, so he had the idea of hitting on some wealthy merchants to start his rip-off streaks.

After a careful investigation, it didn't take him long to land on the Mishima Clan, which has a large-scale garment business in the Land of Iron, the party is both rich and also doesn't have the backing of any great Shinobi Village, so Mishima Clan was finalized by him as the first target.

Initially, Kuroto planned to kidnap one or two Concubines of the current Patriarch and ask for a big ransom in exchange, but it turned out that on the night he planned to make his move, he happened to discover that the Concubine had a secret affair with a Samurai hired by the Mishima Clan, and Kuroto actually witnessed them while they were doing the deed.

After a little investigation, Kuroto discovered that the secret couple planned to poison the head as well as the rest of the members of the Clan to seize all their property.

Upon finding such information, Kuroto immediately changed his approach and appeared before Mishima Yutaro, as a wandering samurai named 'Yagami Iori.'

And through careful planning, he revealed the conspiracy of the Concubine and the Samurai before Mishima Yutaro, and even the other conspirators involved in all that scheme were also eliminated by him with ease, making Mishima Patriarch very grateful of the said Ronin.

His life-saving grace and extraordinary skills immediately made Yagami Iori a special guest of Mishima Yutaro.

Although Mishima Yutaro doesn't have the backing of any of the Five great power, the business they have in major countries is not small, therefore they have many contacts in major countries.

For this reason, Kuroto used the Mishima Clan's contacts to purchase the various experimental equipment that he needed.

If he were to purchase these instruments with his own identity, he would soon be spotted by someone. The intelligence department of any village isn't blind to such purchases and would soon investigate him.

At least Konoha would, in the hopes of tracking the missing-nin, Orochimaru.

And if Kuroto purchased this equipment through the Black market, the price will increase by 40% to 50%, and such a large purchase would again attract attention from the interested parties.

So, through the contacts of the Mishima Clan, purchasing pieces of equipment in small batches would provide a cover as well as reduce costs.

So, although Kuroto didn't get any ransom, this approach still helped him.

After the servants of the Mishima Clan carefully brought everything into the yard, Kuroto hurriedly walked over.

Mishima Yutaro smiled at Kuroto's eagerness and followed after him and gave some description of the things present, "Look here, Yagami-San, this Filter Centrifuge is the latest piece of equipment from the Land of Lightning, I had to use several of my connection to get my hands on it!"

"I am really grateful Mishima-Sama!" – Kuroto nodded and moved his gaze to the other device, and asked with a frowning expression, "Hm, this one is a used, right?"

Mishima-Sama nodded and explained, "Don't worry, although it's not brand new, it is still in perfect working condition!"

Kuroto also understands that arranging some of the new equipment will be difficult for merchants even through their personal connections, so he didn't blame Mishima-Sama.

So, after an understanding nod, Kuroto checked the rest of the devices one-by-one, and finally expressed his gratefulness towards Mishima Yutaro with a satisfactory expression, "Thank you for helping me out!"

With that, Kuroto gave 90 Million Ryo he collected to Mishima Patriarch.

Kuroto estimates that the total market value of all these devices would be around 110 Million Ryo, and he buys them through the Black-Market connections, it would reach up to 140 Million Ryo, so obtaining the first batch at just 90 Million Ryo greatly benefitted Kuroto.

After one last check over everything, Kuroto carefully stored them in the storage Scrolls and left the Mishima Mansion.

Puff…

As soon as Kuroto stepped out of the Mansion Gate, Kasai emerged with a puff of smoke.

Stretching its furry paw towards Kuroto, it asked, "Meow, One Thousand Ryo, Boss!"

Listening to the cat's demand, Kuroto asked it, "Can't you ask Shinichi for the money?"

"He already gave it, meow!"

Kuroto was stunned, "So, you collect One Thousand Ryo from both sides?"

He always thought that only he had to pay, but unexpectedly even Shinichi had to spend money to receive the services of his summon ninja Cat.

The Orange Cat nodded with a greedy grin as the Dollar sign emerged in its eye, "Yes, that's it, meow!"

Helplessly shaking his head, Kuroto passed One Thousand Ryo and took the small scroll sent by Shinichi.

"The search for the mysterious person came to an end, the organization has locked two guys. Juzo Biwa, the guy who is my partner in the organization and I, are responsible for finding the first person whose name is Shinno, while Orochimaru and Sasori's team is responsible for finding another person named Hiruko."

...

Read up to Chapter - 286 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

"Hiruko too! You have got to be kidding me…!" – Upon seeing this name, Kuroto's expression became really solemn.

After all, in Kuroto's grand plan, Hiruko [another one of the Konoha missing-nin] has an irreplaceable role, therefore, Kuroto has been inquiring about his whereabouts for a while now.

The only problem is that Hiruko's tracks are extremely mysterious, so even if he used Konoha's Anbu intelligence network, he still couldn't find any clue related to Hiruko.

And never did Kuroto expect that the Akatsuki will take interest in Hiruko, as well as find his whereabouts first, now this has gone way beyond Kuroto's expectations.

"Sigh, I didn't expect that the short encounter with Obito at the Root Base would cause such a big change in the plot, the power of fate is also quite mysterious, it seems that escaping its clutches wouldn't be that easier, after all, who could have speculated that!"

As it is said in the chaos theory, the changes in the world are caused by small or tiny things, a mere flutter of a butterfly can create a storm on the other side of the world… and Kuroto has just started to witness these things personally… and if such changes keep happening, then the future would a completely different picture.

The current actions Akatsuki is taking have been inadvertently initiated by him, Kuroto can really feel that the casualty of everything in the world is impermanent.

But now that such a change has happened, Kuroto can't waste his time crying over the spilled milk, the next best thing to do is to decide on the further course of action with this knowledge.

Both Hiruko and Orochimaru are of the same generation, and it wouldn't be strange if both of them had some secret cooperation that nobody is aware of, and even if they don't, it still changes nothing. However, the fact that Akatsuki employed Orochimaru and Sasori to find Hiruko, they should have two intentions behind this move:

First is obviously that Obito would want to verify whether Hiruko is that mysterious person that he encountered at the Root Base.

The second is that, in either case, Pain or Obito would want to recruit Hiruko into the Akatsuki.

And this is more troublesome!

'It should be too late to stop this now!" – with one hand on his chin, Kuroto continued thinking.

There is no superior or subordinate relationship in the Akatsuki, between any of the team, therefore, Orochimaru and Sasori have no specific reason to disclose any information about their task to Shinichi.

And Shinichi also doesn't have any reasonable reason to ask Orochimaru such a detail, therefore, Kuroto can't stop Akatsuki from making contact with Hiruko.

"What impact will it have on my project if Hiruko does join the Akatsuki?"

What Kuroto needs from Hiruko is only his Jutsu, so even if he does join the Akatsuki, as long as Kuroto is able to get his hands on that technique, he could care less about it.

After all, even if Hiruko joins Akatsuki, all that would happen is that he would become one of their members. So, Kuroto isn't worried too much about it.

With that thought in mind, Kuroto unsummoned the greedy cat and quietly returned to the Village.

…

As soon as Kuroto returned to Konoha, Kuroto directly went to his laboratory without caring about any other matter.

The devices he bought in the first batch were very carefully selected by him, and they are some of the most urgently needed for the beginning of his current plan, therefore, now that he has them, Kuroto at least has the option to start his plan.

But before he does, he still needs to see his teacher Orochimaru once.

After all, in the field of Bio-Engineering, Genetics, and other related departments, Orochimaru can be regarded as the undisputable master, and even though Kuroto has awakened the Tenseigan by activation of all his gene sequences, this doesn't mean that he could rival Orochimaru in this field.

Therefore, Orochimaru's resources and research is indispensable if Kuroto wants to begin his big project.

Kuroto also needs to confirm Hiruko's situation through Orochimaru, what Kuroto is really worried about is not that Hiruko would join the Akatsuki, but that Hiruko would refuse to join the Akatsuki, and as a result, he would be eliminated by them.

If Hiruko were to die inexplicably, there would many twists and turns in Kuroto's plan, and this could be problematic.

Through the One-Eyed Viper, Kuroto sent a scroll with a request to meet Orochimaru as soon as possible.

And not long after, the One-Eyed Viper reappeared before Kuroto.

Taking out the scroll from the belly of the Viper, Kuroto immediately unfolded it and murmured, "So, the Land of Sound, huh…!"

There isn't any information on the scroll other than a few sentences, which states that Orochimaru will meet him at a secret base in the land of Sound previously known as the Land of Rice Field, about two weeks later from now.

Since that's decided, Kuroto burned the scroll and after adjusting his lab with the newest equipment, he returned home and had a simple Anbu life for the next two weeks that majorly involved some task completion within the territory of the Land of Fire.

…

Two Weeks Later, Land of Sound.

Currently, Kuroto was casually walking in a forest in the territory of the Land of Sound, dressed as a simple traveler with a simple white Kimono, a black hakama, and a black jacket over it, his brown hair braided at the side, giving Kuroto an innocent look, one would expect from a teenager.

Whoosh…

While Kuroto was walking, a Kunai suddenly shot at his step, prompting him to stop.

Coming to a standstill, Kuroto didn't take his hands out from his pockets and just said, "I am here to see Orochimaru-Sama!"

With Kuroto's sentence, a figure appeared before Kuroto and after taking a deep look at his appearance, he respectfully stated, "Please follow me!"

Looking at the face of the other party, Kuroto was highly stunned because the person that appeared before him was none other than the only lucky survivor of Orochimaru's cruel experiments, 'Yamato' who successfully awakened the Wood Release after adapting to the Hashirama Cells!

Why did Orochimaru defect in advance?

Why did Orochimaru and Danzo suddenly come to odds?

Why did Danzo try to eliminate all of Orochimaru's people on such a large-scale, even at the expense of severe loss of village manpower?

These doubts have been plaguing Kuroto for a long time, and the moment he saw Yamato before him, the picture turned quite clear, it may not be the exact reason, but it is the best explanation Kuroto could hope for at this stage.

Yamato, the only person to successfully fuse with the Hashirama Cells, is most likely the fuse of everything, and the fight between Orochimaru and Danzo has most likely occurred because of him, which prompted Orochimaru to defect.

Yamato who was still a kid looked at Kuroto in confusion and asked, "What's wrong with you? Why don't you move?"

Shaking his head slightly, Kuroto suppressed the shock on his face and started walking.

Silently following after Yamato, Kuroto thought to himself, 'In the main story, Orochimaru thought that Yamato was a failure, therefore, he was picked up by Danzo, but unexpectedly Orochimaru didn't ignore Yamato this time!'

As the only survivor of the Hashirama Cell transplantation project, Yamato has an incredible research value.

Therefore, it isn't difficult to understand that when Orochimaru and Danzo, both discovered that Yamato awakened the Wood Release, a conflict happened between the two parties.

The result is in front of Kuroto, Orochimaru was able to get his hands-on Yamato, but was forced to defect from the Village.

Following Yamato, Kuroto came all the way to an underground cave entrance.

Stopping at the entrance, Yamato turned towards Kuroto and said lightly, "There will be some snakes along the path but don't worry, they won't attack you as long as you follow me!"

Kuroto nodded with a smile.

This reminded him of the time when Kuroto used to do the work that currently Yamato is doing.

Shaking his head, he continued following behind Yamato and passed through a dark and damp underground passage and entered Orochimaru's secret base.

Passing through several corridors under Yamato's lead, he finally arrived in front of a secret room.

At this point, Yamato stepped aside and stated, "Orochimaru-Sama is inside, you can go and see him for yourself!"

Taking a look around at his current location, he nodded towards Yamato and stepped in.

Kuroto found ten traps, five seals, and over twenty ninjas hiding in the dark along the way, such a tight arrangement is obviously not very good hospitality.

Undoubtedly, Orochimaru is planning something for him.

However, in Kuroto's view too, this is more or less understandable.

If a subordinate suddenly wants to rise in the ranks to become an equal collaborator, it is inevitable that he would need to pass some unforeseen and unwanted tests, not to mention we are talking about Orochimaru here, so such a scene is obviously inevitable.

Turning the door handle, Kuroto composed himself and walked in with a calm expression…

...

Read up to Chapter - 288 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

As soon as Kuroto entered the secret room, he saw the figure of Orochimaru sitting on a chair and reading the content on a scroll.

Noticing that Kuroto walked in, Orochimaru spoke in his signature hoarse voice, "Kuroto-Kun, I have a doubt."

"What could that be, Orochimaru-Sama!?" – asked Kuroto while still standing at the door.

Orochimaru didn't rush to speak anything, just threw the scroll he was reading a moment ago towards Kuroto with a curious expression.

Catching the scroll, Kuroto opened it and read the information recorded on it.

The information recorded on the scroll was about himself, the latest news it recorded was about the mission that Team-11 was responsible for 'to hunt down the defected-nin, Uchiha Shinichi.'

After reading everything, Kuroto folded back the scroll and said with an innocent smile, "It seems that you have been paying quite a bit of attention to me, Orochimaru-Sama."

Orochimaru licked his lips and added an extra circle around his mouth while he said, "You have been growing so fast that I am afraid that I can't afford to ignore you, Kuroto-Kun!"

Kuroto nodded calmly, "Thank you for the compliment, Orochimaru-Sama!"

Orochimaru was a little doubtful at the moment, as Kuroto's calmness made him feel a little strange.

Compared to the rest of the World, Orochimaru has a better understanding of the Shinobi named Hyuga Kuroto, after all, the kid has been nurtured by him, and he perfectly understands the kid's character.

Initially, Orochimaru took Hyuga Kuroto under his wing because he was reminded of his own childhood, and considering that Kuroto's parents were his subordinates, Orochimaru decided to take the child under him.

His talent as a researcher was just an added benefit.

It was strange that Kuroto-Kun continued reminding of his younger self the more he interacted with the kid, the only problem was the kid's talent as a shinobi.

Orochimaru knows that the world is cruel, what could a kid with very meagre talent as a Shinobi do to survive…? He had to find that out… there was a reason behind it.

Although Hyuga Kuroto was not a very talented child, unlike him. The kid still had that desperate look in his eyes, this has always convinced Orochimaru that the kid will grow.

Why was Orochimaru so sure?

Because Orochimaru knew that the kid was just like him!

And look what do we have here… the kid that used to be so scared of him when he started as a genin… has grown into someone who has the confidence to stand up to him?

Orochimaru would never express it, but he is highly proud of his disciple, and somewhere in his heart Orochimaru knows that this kid is the only straw still connecting him with Humanity.

But be that as it may, there is still a need to test the kid, Orochimaru knows that Kuroto-Kun has become the Jinchuriki of the Dragon Vein, so it's about time he tests his disciple, and see if Kuroto is ready to graduate.

Of course, Kuroto was unaware of Orochimaru's thoughts… and if he was… he would be highly stunned… but that wouldn't be happening… as Orochimaru would rather die than show this on his face.

After all, that's not his style!

Orochimaru is a ruthless cold snake that would do anything to achieve his goal!

And for that purpose, he acts, witnessing Hyuga Kuroto's growth is just a good pastime for him.

After groaning a little, Orochimaru asked, "I heard that you not only fought against Uchiha Shinichi but even defeated him?"

Kuroto smirked when he heard this question and just nodded slightly, "I did fight him for a while, but to say that I defeated him would be an exaggeration, after all, you should be aware that Uchiha Shinichi has awakened the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan, so even if I have grown strong, how could I defeat someone like him, right Orochimaru-Sama?"

Orochimaru's questioning about Uchiha Shinichi was within Kuroto's expectations, and Kuroto suspected that Orochimaru was targeting Shinichi's Mangekyou Sharingan.

After all, in the original plot, it was only after Itachi Joined Akatsuki that tempted Orochimaru to grow impatient and attacking him.

So, Shinichi appearing in the Akatsuki with a similar situation would obviously tempt Orochimaru.

And exactly as Kuroto expected, Orochimaru asked, "So, what are his Mangekyou Sharingan abilities?"

Kuroto shook his head with an exaggerated look, "I don't know Orochimaru-Sama, other than the fact that it is so strong that no one in Konoha was able to stop him, there is no clear detail, it's actually very confusing."

"Is that so?" – asked Orochimaru with a sharp look.

"Yes! Even Shimura Danzo had to avoid him, initially." – Kuroto nodded without losing his calmness.

"Humph! It appears that I'll have to search for other ways!" – Orochimaru said coldly with a look of disdain.

Kuroto didn't know whether the disdainful look was towards Danzo or Shinichi.

At this time Kuroto said, "Orochimaru-Sama if you plan to deal with Uchiha Shinichi, I advise you to be more cautious against him!"

Since Kuroto needs to inquire about intelligence on Hiruko and going further, he needs the secret technique from Hiruko, therefore he doesn't want Orochimaru leaving the Akatsuki too early, therefore Kuroto advised this.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes towards Kuroto and asked with a vicious smirk, "Oh, and why would you say that, Kuroto-Kun? It's not as if I am going after Uchiha Shinichi specifically, is it?"

Kuroto just shrugged at this question, "It's not really strange for you to go after him, the research value of the Mangekyou Sharingan is well understandable, and considering your goal, it's not that strange to develop an interest in the Mangekyou Sharingan, and then you asked me about Uchiha Shinichi's abilities, so it wasn't hard to guess!"

As soon as Kuroto finished his explanation, "True…" – Orochimaru muttered. And lifting his hand he shot several shadow snakes at him.

Kuroto didn't dodge, just stretched his hand forward as the Kusanagi Sword appeared out of the cuff of his Kimono and he waved that sword very precisely.

Under the cold light of the Kusanagi Sword, all the snake shot from Orochimaru's cuff were cut into several pieces and fell on the ground as they twitched to breathe the last of their life.

Orochimaru wasn't surprised by this and said with a thoughtful expression, "Looks like you have cracked the 'The Caged Bird Seal'!"

Orochimaru was sure of this because if this wasn't the case, then Kuroto would never dare to confront him.

After all, as long as Orochimaru reveals Hyuga Kuroto's identity as a spy, even if Orochimaru doesn't do anything further, Kuroto would surely die by The Caged Bird Seal.

Therefore, Orochimaru was really curious about it.

After dealing with all the snakes, Kuroto just stood silently, neither agreeing nor denying.

Noticing Kuroto's silence, Orochimaru licked his lips again and said, "You really are becoming more and more fascinating Kuroto-Kun, let me see just how many secrets you are trying to hide!"

With that said, he quickly formed hand seals and shouted, "Ten Thousand Snake Formation!"

And instantly, the entire secret room was filled with poisonous snakes.

Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss… Hiss…

No sound other than hissing reached Kuroto's ears.

Without wasting any more time, Kuroto immediately took out a gas mask from a storage scroll.

After putting the Gas Mask over his face, Kuroto activated the Tenseigan.

Kuroto specifically prepared this gas mask before he set off to the Land of Sound. After all, he does know many of Orochimaru's techniques, so he will naturally guard against them.

In the Tenseigan vision, Kuroto immediately noticed Orochimaru's position and walked towards him with his Kusanagi Sword tapping over his shoulder.

Hiss… Hisss…

The snakes kept coming at Kuroto, but without any exception, they all fell under Kuroto's blade.

If such a thing happened in the past, Kuroto would have obviously used 'Revolving Heaven' to defend, but after experiencing so many battles and life-threatening situations ever since he awakened the Tenseigan, Kuroto has been constantly improving.

Plus, the joint training that Team-11 carries out has improved Kuroto's Kenjutsu skills greatly, because of repeated sparring with Kakashi, Shisui, and Guy.

Orochimaru however sneered as Kuroto approached him, and immediately spit out his own Kusanagi Sword from his belly.

Accompanied by the sound of cutting wind, the sword blade extended at super-fast speed and slashed towards Kuroto.

Kuroto didn't dare to be careless and immediately greeted him.

Clang…

As soon as the two swords met, a sharp sound of metal clashing sounded throughout the hideout.

Orochimaru was a little surprised that Kuroto could resist that slash with his sword and asked suspiciously, "Kusanagi Sword?"

Kuroto immediately took the advantage of this short gap and immediately rushed towards Orochimaru.

Clang… Clang… Clang…

The two didn't speak anymore, nor did they back down, and continued a Kenjutsu battle.

Slash…

Boom…

From the mere sword slash of the two parties, the secret room was starting to break down, as the things kept in the room were chopped into pieces by the sword wind.

Soon, the candle fixed at the walls were cut into pieces and the room turned to darkness, but the battle between the two didn't stop.

Clang… Clang… BOOM…

After a while, the secret room finally couldn't withstand the clash between the two and collapsed.

Along with the smoke and dust, two figures flashed out of it.

Glancing at opposite Orochimaru who just stood lazily with one hand at his waist and waving his sword, Kuroto said with a smile, "As expected, I still can't compare to Orochimaru-Sama in terms of pure Kenjutsu skills, even after I defended each of your strikes, some of the attacks still got through!"

Orochimaru smirk coldly, "Don't be too modest Kuroto-Kun, your taijutsu, and Kenjutsu skills have made great improvement, and if I counted right, fifteen of you attack managed to slash me… that's an overwhelming number… as expected of someone hailed as the most genius Hyuga… you really have become strong… but enough with the chit chat… as its almost time!"

Kuroto was confused and asked doubtfully while tilting his head to the side, "Time for what?"

Tapping the flat surface of the sword on his shoulder, Orochimaru hoarsely said, "You don't think that just because you wore a mask, you wouldn't be affected by the poison present in the air, right Kuroto-Kun?"

"Oh, you mean this?" After a short pause, Kuroto nodded and explained, "Maybe you will be disappointed by the result because even if my skin does absorb the poison, such a low amount wouldn't have much effect on me!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 290 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page : /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Although the Natural Energy present in the Ryuumyaku Chakra is extremely dangerous it still gives the Ryuumyaku a healing ability, therefore, Kuroto is somewhat immune to many toxins and poisons. As long as the poison Kuroto intake isn't too much it will remain ineffective.

As the same was happening right now, Orochimaru's smirk turned cold as he observed that Kuroto seems to be doing fine even after the poison has invaded his body through the skin pores.

And that wasn't the end, the cold expression soon turned into a slight frown.

Looking at Orochimaru's changing expression, Kuroto said lightly, "Oh, are you feeling it already? It should be the effect of the poison I concocted personally, after all, I can't shame your teachings, Orochimaru-Sama!"

Even Orochimaru felt a bit embarrassed as the opposite of what he was planning happened, and said hoarsely, "Heh, really good poison, looks like I'll have to borrow the recipe!"

Although Orochimaru looked indifferent on the front, in fact, he was having quite a bit of trouble to make body movements as the paralysis effect of the poison that invaded his body through the cuts by Kuroto's Kusanagi Sword started to kick in.

It's true that he could still move but the numbness was still there.

While both Kuroto and Orochimaru were engaged in a fierce staring competition… one after another piles of wood rose up from the ground and entwined Kuroto within them.

Immediately afterward, Yamato's figure landed before Orochimaru as if to protect him from Kuroto, as he asked worriedly, "Orochimaru-Sama, are you okay?"

Initially, Yamato believed that if Orochimaru-Sama wants to deal with Hyuga Kuroto, then it should just be a matter of a second, but unexpectedly not only Orochimaru failed to quickly take down Kuroto, but a fierce fight broke out between the two and it appeared as if Orochimaru was in a disadvantaged state.

This greatly worried Yamato.

While Kuroto was stuck into Wooden Confinement, he didn't try to struggle his way out of it but tried to feel the effect of Wood Release. After all, it's not every day, one gets to witness the power of the Legendary Wood Release.

"Is this Wood Release?" – muttered Kuroto with a thoughtful expression.

In terms of restraining power alone, even Yamato's weakened version of the Wood Release surpasses many of the strong restraining Jutsu of the other chakra nature, and Kuroto also felt that the wooden stakes were continuously absorbing chakra from his body as they continued to grow harder and even had a slight suppressing effect on the Ryuumyaku.

This came as a surprise, after all, Ryuumyaku isn't part of the God Tree, so technically, the Wood Release shouldn't have such an effect on the Ryuumyaku.

'Hmm, I'll have to see why this is happening!' – thought Kuroto as a point of note to later theorize a possible reason.

But that aside, if Yamato's Wood Release that was weakened by many times can have such an effect, just imagine how powerful and restraining Shodaime-Sama's Wood Release would have been at the time of his peak period combined with the Senjutsu.

It's really hard to imagine, more so the fact that Uchiha Madara was able to go toe to toe with him, but is it really that strange, after all, Uchiha Madara did awaken the Rinnegan, albeit that was thanks to Black Zetsu.

But that aside…

After experiencing the power of Wood Release and having a slight understanding of it, Kuroto poured the Tenseigan Chakra into the Kusanagi Sword in his hand and shoot his wrist slightly.

With just a light slash, the wooden stake binding Kuroto was cut off.

Yamato was taken aback by such a scene, "What…?"

Kuroto smirked at Yamato's shocked expression and chuckled lightly, "The Wood Release you use is far worse compared to what Shodaime-Sama used to use, now get out of here… you aren't yet worthy enough to interfere in this battle!"

Yamato has a great research value, therefore, Kuroto doesn't want to accidentally kill him.

But it appears that Kuroto's words weren't taken seriously by him as he still wanted to support Orochimaru, and as he was going to use another one of Wood release Jutsu, Orochimaru pressed his hands on Yamato's shoulder.

Yamato was surprised and turned back while asking in confusion, "Orochimaru-Sama?"

Orochimaru didn't reply to him but looked at Kuroto and without leaving any words, he disappeared into the tunnel along with Yamato.

At the same time, the twenty or so ninjas hiding in the cave made their move.

"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!"

"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bomb!"

"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!"

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bomb!"

"Earth Style: Earth and Stone Bamboo Shoot!"

"Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears!"

Kuroto's expression shrank, and he immediately jumped up to not be restrained by the swamp, at the same time, he dodged the continuous spears coming towards him, some were cut into pieces by the sword while some were simply avoided.

However, that wasn't over yet, as the turbulent flames kept rushing towards him.

From the Tenseigan vision, Kuroto quickly looked at the structure of the cave, he found one of the flaws in the rock wall, and without any wait, he immediately threw his Kusanagi Sword to precisely hit the flaw while he was still in mid-air.

Boom!

As the sword hit the flaw, the complete cave entrance collapsed to block the fire and earth Jutsu coming towards him.

As soon as he landed on the ground, two figures rushed towards him each with a pair of Kunai in their hand.

Without any surprise, Kuroto dodged each of their piercing strikes and used Gentle Fists to precisely kill both of them with a single strike each.

With that over, Kuroto dusted his clothes and drew his hand in the air.

The Kusanagi sword that was lying on the side of the cave immediately flew into the air and landed in Kuroto's hand.

Taking the sword in his hand, Kuroto walked towards the wall on the side and punched by enhancing his fist with Chakra.

Punch…

With just a single chakra enhanced punch, Kuroto smashed away the rock wall on the other side of the cave and stepped into the secret underground passage.

Whoosh…

As soon as he stepped in, four ninjas in black combat gear who seem to be waiting for him immediately surrounded Kuroto from all four directions. With just one look, one can only feel scared looking at their eyes that were cold and ruthless with no trace of compassion or fear of death within them.

But that wasn't one of those…

As soon as the four ninjas in black gear surrounded Kuroto, one of them took out a thick black iron chain, while others had either, Kunai, Senbon, or short swords in each of their hands.

Kuroto didn't speak, just waved his hands signalling them to come at him.

The ninja holding the iron chain nodded towards his companions.

Immediately following his order, the other three launched a combined attack, as each of them shot either shurikens, Kunai with Explosive Charms, or Senbon at him.

Kuroto wasn't much interested in wasting his time by entangling with them and immediately shouted, "Eight-Trigram: Heavenly Blade Rotation!"

Unlike the last time, when Kuroto just created this move at the Valley in the Land of Lightning, this time the move was completely stable and far more dangerous than the last time.

The four ninjas in black combat gear were like carrots thrown into a blender, instantly chopped into small slices with no recognition left whatsoever. The whole passage was covered in blood, bones, and Mass… as if in a horror story.

Kuroto ignored the gore scene and walked forward indifferently.

…

On the other side of the Underground Base.

Orochimaru lazily stood with one hand over his waist and curiously listened to the roaring noises coming from the underground base from time to time.

He didn't have to wait much longer as the stone gate blocking the exit soon shattered into several pieces, and the figure of Hyuga Kuroto casually walked out of it.

Looking at Kuroto who walked out of the underground base without any trouble, Orochimaru smiled slightly and said, "It seems that they all didn't cause you any trouble, right Kuroto-Kun?"

Kuroto nodded and said with a straight expression, "Orochimaru-Sama, are we done yet? Continuing our ongoing cooperation is beneficial for both of us!"

Orochimaru coldly smirked and stated, "In that case, I must verify whether you are worthy enough or have the qualification to cooperate with me!"

Kuroto was stumped and pointed at the underground passage that was now destroyed with a speechless expression, "Then, what was that?"

"Oh… don't mind that, it was just an appetizer!" – keeping his cold smirk, Orochimaru bit his finger and tapped the ground, "Now it's time for us to proceed to the main course!"

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Bang…

As the huge amount of White Smoke appeared, Kuroto felt the tremor on the ground.

Without waiting for Kuroto to relax, an arrogant voice came from above, "Hey, Orochimaru, didn't I tell you to not call me for dealing with such a weakling!"

Orochimaru's voice also came out in a timely manner, "This time it's different, don't worry, the sacrifices will be prepared!"

As the white smoke gradually disappeared, the giant body of the purple snake appeared before Kuroto. atop of which stood Orochimaru while viciously licking his lips.

"Manda!" – With just a glance, Kuroto recognized the identity of the purple snake, as this snake is Orochimaru's summoning beast or to say his favourite pet? And, the Boss Summon of the snakes of the Ryuchi Cave.

...

Ream up to chapter - 292 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Looking at the humongous body of Manda, Kuroto sheathed the Kusanagi Sword into its scabbard at his waist.

Using tools like Swords, Kunais, Shurikens, or Senbons is useless in the face of such large Summon Beasts, therefore, Kuroto will have to change his tactics now.

Standing atop Manda's head, Orochimaru crossed his hands over his chest and said, "Kuroto-Kun, now let me see your artificial tailed beast!"

Ignoring Orochimaru's words, Kuroto took a gentle fist stance as the blue chakra enveloped his palms.

Manda condescendingly looked at Kuroto and asked Orochimaru with a displeased tone, "Hey Orochimaru, do you have to call me to deal with the brat!"

Ignoring Manda's condescending expression, Orochimaru replied with a smirk, "Don't underestimate the kid, there is a monster hidden within his body!"

"Monster? Why don't I see anything other than the very same annoying brat!?" – Manda snorted coldly and shot towards Kuroto like a cannonball.

Boom… Boom… Boom…

The whole forest shook by the movements of Manda's large body. The impact of each of its movements is no less than a Class-A Earth Release Jutsu.

As Manda continued chasing him, Kuroto's figure continued flashing from one spot to another in retreat using the Body Flicker Technique.

After a little game of Catch when Mando couldn't catch Kuroto, he spoke to Orochimaru in annoyance, "Orochimaru, where is the monster you talked about? The kid is still running like always, I don't see any change!"

Orochimaru also scanned the forest, trying to find Kuroto's location but the flying sand and dust interfered with his vision.

He was obviously a little doubtful at this point.

Orochimaru was obviously a little confused as to why did Kuroto-Kun took Gentle Fist stance to counter Manda's attack, this is undoubtedly stupid.

It's common sense to use giant Summon Beasts to counter against another giant Summon Beast.

Secondly, even large-scale ninjutsu and taijutsu attacks are pretty much useless in the face of large Summon Beasts… unless, the person isn't targeting the Summon Beast but the Summoner!

As soon as this thought appeared in Orochimaru's mind, a figure jumped on Manda's large belly and rushed towards Orochimaru.

As soon as he notices this figure, Orochimaru immediately muttered, 'Sure enough, Kuroto-Kun is targeting me!"

Orochimaru immediately fired several Shadow Snakes at Kuroto who was running in his direction.

Kuroto who was running towards Orochimaru dodged, kicked, or punched away the snakes and continued running towards Orochimaru.

As soon as he was about to close in on Orochimaru, Kuroto immediately printed some hand seals, and shouted, "Eight-Trigram Secret Technique: Vacuum Palm!"

Orochimaru who was about to fire another round of Snakes towards Kuroto was suddenly taken aback.

He is aware of most of the Gentle Fist Style of the Hyuga Clan, but this 'Vacuum Palm' had been heard for the first time.

In that short moment, Kuroto stretched out his hand towards Orochimaru.

"W-what!?"

And suddenly Orochimaru felt an irresistible suction force pulling him towards Kuroto-Kun. The distance between the two was obviously not very much and in the interval of less than a second… Orochimaru was dragged towards Kuroto.

On the other side, Kuroto who expected such a thing to happen immediately pressed his arm on Orochimaru's chest and shouted, "Contract Seal!"

Before Orochimaru had the time to regain his balance, a series of symbols spread on his chest like a spider web with Kuroto's hand as the center!

Bang…

And not waiting for Orochimaru to react, the contract relation between him and Manda was severed by the contract seal and Manda's figure disappeared from the battlefield with a cloud of white smoke.

Having lost the footing. Both Kuroto and Orochimaru fell from the air and firmly landed on the ground.

Orochimaru glanced at his chest in a daze as the contract seal took its effect, "A Contract Seal, huh? It seems you have been hiding quite a lot of cards up your sleeve Kuroto-Kun!"

For someone like Orochimaru, terminating the Contract Seal isn't that troublesome, but if he wants to summon Manda again, he would have to go to the Ryuchi Cave.

And this issue isn't something to care about, for now, what intrigues him more is that secret Gentle Fist technique which put such tremendous suction force on him… it was only for a brief moment, but it did remind him of his encounter with the leader of the Akatsuki, Pain!

On the other side, Kuroto panted lightly.

Just now he had to put quite a lot of effort to dodge Manda's successive attacks, if not for using Rein Interaction combined with the Body Flicker Technique, he would have most certainly suffered heavily if crushed by that gigantic body!

As for the "Eight-Trigram Secret Technique: Vacuum Palm!?" It was just pure crap he used to confuse Orochimaru.

The purpose was only to cover the Rein Pull he used on Orochimaru, and for this reason only, Kuroto intently took Gentle Fist stance and even printed some fake hand seals.

The reason Kuroto used such a crap tactic to confuse him was that Orochimaru has inexplicable greed towards Dojutsu Kekkei Genkai, therefore he needed something to coverup the Tenseigan move.

After all, Kuroto wouldn't want a snake to eye his Tenseigan.

As long as Orochimaru believes that it was a Secret Technique of the Hyuga Clan, he wouldn't pay too much attention to it.

Otherwise, Orochimaru would pay too much attention to him.

And if this happens, let alone cooperate, Orochimaru may even use the power of the Akatsuki Organization to deal with him.

Looking at Kuroto's rough breathing, Orochimaru asked curiously, "Was that a secret technique of your Hyuga Clan?"

Kuroto nodded, "Yes!"

"Why have I never heard of such a secret technique?" – Orochimaru asked with a burning gaze.

"It's because nobody has been able to master it for some time, therefore you might not have heard of this secret technique…" – Kuroto continued spouting utter bullshit with a straight face.

Orochimaru eyed Kuroto but he couldn't figure out whether Kuroto was speaking the truth or not.

Sighing lightly, he muttered, "Figures… But I don't know why the technique you used just now reminded me of someone." – After a short pause, Orochimaru continued, "A person with the Rinnegan!"

Kuroto immediately made a shocked look as he spoke in an exaggerated tone, "W-what? The Rinnegan!? Oh, c'mon Orochimaru-Sama… since when did you start making such jokes…? How come anyone has the eyes of the Sage of the Six Paths? And even if that was the case, I wouldn't believe if you didn't go after that person, after all the Rinnegan would make anyone impatient!"

As soon as Kuroto spoke these lines, Orochimaru's face sank in the bad memories of his fight with Pain.

Kuroto noticed Orochimaru's change and smiled inwardly, as he understood that some bad memories have been triggered by him.

"Any way that aside, let's stop here, if this continues, I am afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up with you for very long!"

Orochimaru's gaze immediately became sharp as he said with a smirk, "Don't be so restless Kuroto-Kun, there is this one new Jutsu that I have come up with, not that you have used one of your secret technique it's obvious that I too use something don't you think? Besides, I haven't had many opportunities for using this one particular technique, this time seems to be the best… You would be willing to accompany me wouldn't you!"

Looking at Orochimaru's eyes, Kuroto couldn't help but gulp slightly…

'When is it going to over!?'

…

On a Large tree far away from the battlefield.

Yamato squatted on a tree branch with a solemn expression.

Beside him stood the young figures of an Orange hair Kid named Jugo, a white hair kid with two red dots on his forehead named Kimimaro, and finally the young figure of a black hair kid named Haku.

Looking at the distance battle, Kimimaro said, "We should help Orochimaru-Sama!"

Yamato shook his head, "Orochimaru-Sama has ordered to not interfere!"

"The other party is so powerful, it's incredible to be able to keep up with Orochimaru-Sama!" Haku also nodded with slight fear.

If not for Yamato to use Wood Release a while back to protect the four of them, the little guys would have become meat paste because of being squashed by Manda who didn't care whether they are enemies or allies.

At this moment, Kimimaro asked with a frown, "Why did Orochimaru-Sama's Summon Snake suddenly disappear?"

Obviously, none of the other three were knowledgeable enough to be able to answer this question.

While Kimimaro thought of the possible reason, Yamato suddenly pointed towards the battlefield and said, "Look, what is that!?"

Everyone followed his gaze and saw a behemoth that was even larger than Manda, suddenly appeared on the battlefield.

The humongous body was a giant serpent with eight heads and eight tails completely covered in white scales. Form appearance alone it no longer looked like a Snake but a 'Dragon God' from the legends. One known as Yamata no Orochi!

...

Read up to Chapter - 294 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

The sudden appearance of such a humongous monster was far beyond the imagination of the four, their bodies couldn't help but shudder instinctively from the mere Chakra pressure emitted by the monster!

"W-what is that!?" – Haku asked while trying to control his trembling body.

Even Yamato, the oldest of the four couldn't answer Haku's doubts as even he was at a loss at the sight of such a freaky eight-headed snake.

Jugo was the calmest as he intently stared at the eight-headed white snake in the distance and muttered with a doubtful expression, "I-I can feel Orochimaru-Sama's aura from that monster!"

"What!?" – Everyone was taken aback as soon as they heard Jugo's sentence.

Jugo was also a little doubtful so after sensing again, he said with some surety, "There's no mistaking it, that monster does have Orochimaru-Sama's aura!"

Jugo's perception is not like that of simple sensory ninjas… His skills incline more towards the perception through Natural Energy, this is why Jugo was more sure that even if he couldn't sense the Chakra of that monster, it did have Orochimaru's aura.

Kimimaro was highly unbelievable, "Is that really Orochimaru-Sama?"

At this time Yamato stood up and said to the three after a brief glance at the battle site, "Whether that is Orochimaru-Sama or not is not important for now, I believe Orochimaru-Sama will not be defeated by Hyuga Kuroto, but we have to retreat further because I have a feeling that the battle between the two of them would only become more devastating from here on!"

…

On the Battlefield.

Looking at the incomparably huge Yamata no Orochi, Kuroto couldn't help but feel a little gloomy.

Obviously, he is no stranger to this technique, as this is Orochimaru's greatest and strongest snake-related technique called the 'Eight Branches Technique', giving Orochimaru enough power to even go toe to toe against a tailed beast.

In the main story, Orochimaru used this Jutsu to fight Uchiha Itachi in the fated battle between brothers but was easily sealed by Itachi's Totsuka Sword.

Although that battle doesn't give a complete analysis of the power level of this Jutsu because Orochimaru was weakened at that time while Itachi too was just a few steps away from his death.

Therefore, there is no clear explanation of the weakness of this Jutsu.

After all, even Nagato in the Edo Tensei form, who was more than enough to crush both Kyuubi Naruto and Hachibi Killer Bee two perfect Jinchuriki at the same time, couldn't resist the sealing power of Itachi's Totsuka Sword.

Therefore, using that battle to judge the freakiness of Yamata no Orochi wouldn't be appropriate.

"Sigh… looks like I have no other choice!" – muttered Kuroto as he slowly raised his hand to begin hand seals.

Since Kuroto isn't going to reveal his Tenseigan Chakra Mode in the fight against Orochimaru, therefore, he has no other option but to use the power of Ryuumyaku.

After he finished printing the seal, Kuroto spoke in a low voice, "Ryuumyaku seal: Release!"

As soon as the Ryuumyaku's seal was released, its chakra was expelled from Kuroto's belly and the purple chakra condensed into a chubby purple Dragon form, hovering above Kuroto.

On the opposite side, one of the heads of the Yamata no Orochi opened its mouth to reveal Orochimaru's half body.

Currently, he was covered in sticky mucus and looked at Ryuumyaku with interest as he licked his lips playfully with his long tongue, "Such rich Chakra… is this Ryuumyaku? It's really fascinating!"

Kuroto's expression also returned to calmness while he watched Orochimaru vigilantly who was observing Ryuumyaku with fascination.

The biggest flaw or weakness of the artificial tailed beast is its instability, even Nidaime-Sama couldn't solve this issue, which was the reason for terminating the artificial tailed beast project in Konoha.

Although Kuroto has been able to create an artificial tailed beast, it is still not as stable as the real ones, after all, he didn't use something like the Yin-Yang Release to create it, therefore, even if he has become Ryuumyaku's Jinchuriki, he isn't using its power as anything more than a chakra battery. He has absolutely not used the Ryuumyaku itself for the battle.

The first reason is obviously to keep the existence of Ryuumyaku hidden.

The second reason is to prevent the Ryuumyaku from running away, as Kuroto might lose control over it and go berserk, and that would be incredibly problematic.

But if he still doesn't use Ryuumyaku in the face of Yamata no Orochi, then Orochimaru would obviously get suspicious… This is something that Kuroto doesn't want either.

All thoughts aside, as more and more chakra emerged from Kuroto, the purple dragon hovering over Kuroto's quickly expanded several times.

Gradually its size was even comparable to that of Yamata no Orochi… and under the effect of Ryuumyaku Chakra, Kuroto's body hovered in the air.

Controlling Ryuumyaku is similar to controlling other tailed beasts, he doesn't need to give any verbal instructions… only metal commands are needed.

And since Kuroto doesn't have to worry about Natural Energy invading his body in this state, it doesn't matter how much chakra Ryuumyaku uses, as long as Kuroto makes sure to keep Ryuumyaku under control.

With the complete emergence of the two behemoths, the battle site fell into a strange silence.

Looking at the towering body of Ryuumyaku, even Orochimaru's had a solemn look.

His face was no longer of curiosity or playfulness but was replaced by jealousy and greed!

While slithering his tongue, Orochimaru said coldly, "Kuroto-Kun, you seem to have gained something interesting, let me have a look at it!"

With that sentence, all the eight serpent heads rushed towards the purple dragon!

Whoosh… Whoosh…

The mere wind pressure generated by the movement of the eight heads was more than enough to surpass most Class-A Wind Style Jutsu as all the nearby trees were uprooted and blown away.

Even Kuroto's expression shrank looking at the might of Yamata no Orochi and he immediately controlled the Ryuumyaku to confront it.

Instantly the two behemoths fought against each other.

This was a battle between two monsters in a true sense, the momentum and impact were far greater than what Manda brought, in just a few seconds the entire forest was razed to the ground.

Three heads tried to bound Ryuumyaku's body while the other ones attempted to bite in several places one after another, but how can Kuroto let such a thing happen, as soon as the first head approached to bite from the side, it was copped off its torso by the Dragon Claw… while the other head that wasn't much far behind was ripped of its neck by the Dragon Fangs in just one bite.

Puff…

As the two heads were ripped off one after another, a large amount of blood sprayed out like rain.

However, much to Kuroto's shock and Orochimaru's amusement, the two heads grew again.

Orochimaru smiled in amusement as he questioned, "Kuroto-Kun, why don't we take this up a notch? Show me your Tailed beast mode or the entity of the artificial tailed beast itself… I want to see everything that you can do!"

Kuroto didn't answer and continued controlling Ryuumyaku with a calm face.

While making the core of Ryuumyaku, Kuroto was sure that he wouldn't have to fight using the Ryuumyaku itself, so he created the shape of the core into a simple sphere, which accidentally turned into a chubby form because of the sentience Chakra, giving it a funny look.

Therefore, Kuroto is obviously a little embarrassed to directly use Ryuumyaku.

But the main reason why he doesn't use the Ryuumyaku as a tailed beast form or the main entity is because of the risk of it going a little berserk.

The Purple Dragon hovering above is just the Chakra manifestation, therefore it's a bit disadvantageous to fight a physical battle with Yamata no Orochi, but it still may not be that bad as it's more agile than the white snake.

...

Read up to Chapter - 296 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

The figure of Yamata no Orochi and Ryuumyaku kept chasing one after another while fighting in the forest, everywhere they go, the ground will shake and the dust will fly, making the already messed up forest messier.

Smash…

Ryuumyaku waved its tail that swept away countless trees on its path and landed on Orochi's body!

Seven of its head landed on the ground while the last one managed to dodge.

At this time Orochimaru was looking at Kuroto's hovering figure with a cold expression as if he would rip out Kuroto's head of his body.

Feeling the burning gaze, Kuroto gulped slightly and urged Ryuumyaku to rush over.

Even if he has gotten stronger; the instinctive fear from Orochimaru still lingers within his heart.

As Ryuumyaku rushed over, all the seven heads again attacked it with all their might.

In the cover of smoke and dust, one of the snakeheads that were again ripped off by the Ryuumyaku's jaws flew out leaving a lot of blood.

But in that short moment, the remaining snakeheads also managed to bite off some chakra parts from the Ryuumyaku's body.

Kuroto curled his lips slightly as he saw Orochimaru do that… the Ryuumyaku Chakra has a high concentration of Natural Energy, Kuroto wonders if Orochimaru would be able to handle such an amount.

But considering that Orochimaru does have some help from the White Snake Sage, he might in fact be able to do that, after all… Yamata no Jutsu also depends on the 'Power of Reincarnation' possessed by the White Snake.

But that aside, Kuroto was still a little troubled to continue this battle.

What Orochimaru is best at is a stalemate, with the continuous supply of Chakra from his part, the body of Yamata no Orochi could have limitless regeneration ability, making it not any inferior to that of a real tailed beast even in hand-to-hand combat.

Therefore, if Kuroto doesn't use some trick that might conclude the battle in just one shot, this battle will be a headache for him.

'Now I wish that I had practiced how to use the Tailed Beast Ball' – thought Kuroto, as using the Tailed Beast Ball could have been a good method to effectively deal with Orochimaru.

But unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and the fight continued between the two as the entire forest was continuously destroyed by the two monstrosities.

While entangling with each other, neither of them dare get distracted, it wasn't until he heard a faint cry for help did Kuroto decided to look over only to notice a young figure barely hanging on a tree branch not very far away.

The child was probably about four to five years old with a delicate face and thin body. And below that boy, Yamato used a Wood Style Shield to protect the other two children by his side.

As soon as he saw the four of them, Kuroto immediately flew towards the tree branch and landed before Yamato and the others after picking up the child from the tree branch.

Looking at Kuroto carrying Haku with him, Yamato hurriedly stepped forward and exclaimed, "You… what do you want to do? Let go of him this instant or Orochimaru-Sama wouldn't forgive you!"

Now Yamato understood that the opposite person wasn't just some ordinary guy but a powerful ninja with enough strength to be able to fight against Orochimaru.

Therefore, he was really worried about what was he planning to do with Haku.

Kimimaro and Jugo that were under Yamato's protection also rushed out and shouted in unison, "You, put Haku down this instant!"

"Haku!?" Kuroto was shocked when he heard that name, but immediately suppressing his shock, he threw Haku in the hands of Yamato and said, "What are you guys still doing here? You all should stay away from here!"

Even Yamato was a little helpless when he heard this. They obviously tried their best to get as far away as possible, but the two fightings monstrosities were far beyond the imagination of the four kids in terms of speed and range of battle movements, so although tried still couldn't get far enough and still got affected by the battle.

At this time, Yamata no Orochi also rushed over, and Orochimaru looked at five of them with a little interest.

Noticing Orochimaru's gaze, Kuroto said lightly, "Orochimaru-Sama, both of us are in a stalemate, neither are you able to do anything nor am I. Is it that interesting to continue such a boring battle?"

Orochimaru glanced towards Yamato and the other kids who were within Kuroto's reach and smiled slightly after pondering over Kuroto's words, "Kuroto-Kun, your artificial tailed beast has really opened my eyes, although I am not satisfied yet!"

Kuroto nodded and said calmly, "Orochimaru-Sama, not only have you saved my life countless times, but you are also my teacher, I can't ever forget how grateful I am to you, therefore, I believe that we shouldn't become enemies!"

Orochimaru thought slightly, and spoke with a sigh, "Having a disciple like you, I don't seem to be any worse than that idiot Jiraiya!" – then released the 'Eight Branches Technique!'

In this fight with Kuroto, Orochimaru felt that he figured out much of Kuroto's abilities. In his opinion, although the kid has grown strong enough to have the qualification to cooperate on an equal footing, Kuroto's strength is still some distance away from reaching his level.

In short, Orochimaru feels that he still has control over Hyuga Kuroto!

With Orochimaru releasing the Eight branches Technique, Kuroto also quickly sealed Ryuumyaku in his body.

This battle also gave him some insight into Ryuumyaku, after all, Kuroto had to use the power of the Tenseigan several times to suppress it from losing control, it obviously doesn't mean that Ryuumyaku is repelling Kuroto, no, it's just that Ryuumyaku's sentience is a bit week for it to be able to hold such large Chakra, therefore, once it isn't under restriction, a possibility remains that Ryuumyaku might go on a rampage.

But it's nothing Kuroto can't deal with. So, he is not very worried about it for now, at least until he finds a good enough solution to this problem.

And until he does that, it would be difficult for him to use the Perfect Tailed Beast Mode, as he will have to spend some effort in suppressing Ryuumyaku, but that's something to focus on in the future.

Kuroto was still quite satisfied with this battle, even if he didn't use the Tenseigan Chakra Mode to fight against Orochimaru, he was still able to hold his own against the Snake, by solely relying on his normal strength and Ryuumyaku shows the degree of improvement in his basic abilities.

Looking at the messy devastated forest before him, Kuroto glanced at Orochimaru from the corner of his eyes and couldn't help but think silently, "Genjutsu is the best method to deal with Orochimaru!"

Facts have proven that using Genjutsu is the best method to defeat Orochimaru quickly, otherwise, using Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, or Kenjutsu and all other combat methods will be very laborious and only stall him at most, while Genjutsu will have an immediate result.

This also reminded Kuroto of Itachi, the biggest difference between Itachi and other Uchiha is that Itachi never underestimates his opponents nor is he ever unprepared for a battle.

In this regard, even Shisui is a bit inferior, otherwise, how else would his Mangekyou be taken away by Shimura Danzo?

Even if Shisui didn't know that Shimura Danzo could use Izanagi, he should have been careful, if it had been Itachi, then something like this wouldn't have happened!

After all, the only reason Shisui lost his Mangekyou Sharingan to Danzo was because of his carelessness!

Therefore, this is one of the greatest points to be learned from Itachi.

Putting aside these thoughts, for now. Kuroto looked over towards Orochimaru who casually walked towards them and said with a smile, "So, Kuroto-Kun, you sneaked out of Konoha to specifically meet me, there must be something important, right?"

Kuroto nodded with a chuckle, while he removed the gas mask from his face after deactivating the Tenseigan, and said, "There are some experiments that I am planning to do, so I really needed your help to be able to begin them."

Looking at the two people who were fighting such an intense battle a few moments ago, now talking and laughing while walking side by side as if nothing much happened, made Yamato and others a little dumbfounded!

Haku who still haven't forgotten that he almost touched death, couldn't help but speak meekly, "I… I thought… I was dead for sure!"

Jugo asked curiously, "So, just who is he?"

After pondering a little, Yamato told them, "His name is Hyuga Kuroto, a Konoha Shinobi, and also seems to be Orochimaru-Sama's favorite disciple!"

"It turns out that he is Orochimaru-Sama's disciple!" – Kimimaro stared at Kuroto with burning eyes, and secretly swore to himself, 'Hyuga Kuroto, one day I will surpass you, only I will get to discover the truth of this world with Orochimaru-Sama!'

Nobody noticed Kimimaro's fiery look.

Yamato was relieved and looked at the three and asked, "Are three of you alright!?"

…

On Kuroto's side, after a few short conversations, he finally decided to ask the main question, "You should have met Hiruko recently, right?"

As soon as Kuroto asked this, Orochimaru immediately stopped and stared at Kuroto viciously, "And I wonder how you came to know about this, Kuroto-Kun?"

Kuroto shrugged and just said calmly, "Hiruko is on Konoha's hunting list, as an Anbu, it's natural that I have to pay attention to this news!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 298 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Orochimaru carefully examined Kuroto's expression for a while and after judging something, he finally started walking and said, "It's true, not very long ago, Hiruko joined the organization I am part of!"

Kuroto pretended to be a little surprised by Orochimaru's words, "I didn't expect him to join your organization!"

Orochimaru snorted softly, "Well not like he had any right to choose, and it might not be such a bad thing for him!"

Kuroto nodded and after a bit of thinking, he asked tentatively, "Orochimaru-Sama, I have heard that Hiruko has been creating a very practical forbidden Jutsu, is this rumor actually true?"

Orochimaru glanced at Kuroto with slight intrigue, "Hooh, so you have an interest in that technique?"

"Heh, there is nothing I can hide from you, Orochimaru-Sama!" – Now that Orochimaru has seen through what Kuroto was interested in, he didn't try to hide it and nodded bluntly, "Yes, I am very interested in that technique!"

Orochimaru looked into the distance as if he was recalling his older memories.

After a while of thinking, he slowly said, "Hiruko is from my generation, a contemporary and a former friend of the Sannin, you should know that. But the thing is, he desired to become a strong Shinobi similar to me, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, however, he lacked the necessary talent, nor was he born with any special abilities.

To overcome this advantage, he delved himself into creating a Kinjutsu, which would allow him to leech the Kekkei Genkai of other ninjas by fusing their bodies into his own. Although it does appear to be very practical even if you don't count the many negatives it has, it still shouldn't be very attractive to you with the Hyuga Clan's very own Byakugan and the incredible talent you have shown recently!"

To a certain extent, Orochimaru and Hiruko are somewhat similar types of people, both are proficient researchers.

It's just that compared to Hiruko's mediocre talent as a Shinobi which often made others overlook him, Orochimaru has a very high talent as a Shinobi. This fact made, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru to be personally selected as disciples by Sandaime-Sama, and the three later came to be known as the Sannin.

On the other hand, Hiruko, a good friend of the same generation who had been close to Orochimaru during their Ninja Academy years, eventually drifted away from them.

But even Orochimaru with his excellent talent realized the insurmountable gap between the ninja with Kekkei and the ninja without Kekkei Genkai, after reaching his current power level.

Coupled with his obsession and goal of learning the secrets and all the technique in the world directed his attention towards the many forbidden techniques, and therefore he developed the 'Living Corpse Reincarnation Technique' that allows him to take over others body and also allows him to use their Kekkei Genkai.

Maybe around this time, Orochimaru somewhat understood Hiruko's struggle and the reason for him to go into hiding to develop such a Jutsu!

…

Every time Kuroto is praised as a 'Genius' by some of the most genii of the Shinobi World, Kuroto couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable.

Not trying to let Orochimaru-Sama's praise get over him, Kuroto asked, "I think, the forbidden technique he has been creating has great potential for development."

Orochimaru retracted his thoughts and asked curiously, "Are you really sure that you have an interest in the Chimera Technique?"

Kuroto nodded lightly, although he still had a faint smile, his eyes had that firm look. There was no doubt or any need for reconsideration, he really needed the 'Chimera Technique.' This is his biggest opportunity to become God in the future.

Looking at those eyes, Orochimaru realized that Kuroto was indeed serious, and decided to give Kuroto some insight on this technique, "That technique is currently in a semi-completed state, but that aside, it still has a negative impact according to which no one can bear the kind of burden it causes to the user." With a pause, Orochimaru chuckled again, "And if there is someone, whose body will be able to bear the burden of this technique, he wouldn't be needing such a nondescript technique in the first place."

Kuroto nodded, he understood what Orochimaru meant, but whether he agrees with Orochimaru's analysis was another matter altogether… Although Kuroto knows that Orochimaru is more or less correct, it still doesn't mean that he is spot on.

Using such a crude approach to leech of others Kekkei Genkai by fusing their bodies into his own, would obviously put an incredible burden upon anyone. After undergoing such body modifications, anyone will eventually become inhuman.

So, in this regard, Orochimaru is indeed correct.

But Orochimaru obviously underestimates Hiruko's talent and obsession, it's true that Hiruko might not have talent as a shinobi, but as a researcher, he might not be that inferior to Orochimaru himself, and this is something that Orochimaru hasn't recognized yet.

In the main story, although crudely, Hiruko did manage to leech four Kekkei Genkai using the 'Chimera Technique.' Even if he failed in that last step to fuse Kakashi's Sharingan because of some technical problems, combined with the activation of Tsunade's technique that she applied on Kakashi and thanks to Naruto's interference at the last minute. He still managed to acquire four Kekkei Genkai, and with that alone, his combat power surpassed the level of a Kage.

The Anbu elites couldn't resist any of his moves, even Kakashi and the entire of Naruto's generation had to join together to be able to defeat Hiruko. Does that not prove how effective even the incomplete version of the 'Chimera Technique' is?

Then just think of how strong can the complete version of the Chimera Technique be?

With this thought, Kuroto asked Orochimaru, "What happens if he manages to solve the problem of the physical burden?"

Hearing Kuroto's question, Orochimaru replied with an unusual surety, "Each Forbidden Technique has its limitation, there is no perfect Jutsu, he wouldn't be able to overcome that last step!"

Kuroto nodded, and indeed Hiruko wasn't able to overcome that last weakness perfectly and had to undergo several body modifications.

'But still, Hiruko has to be admired for his ingenuity to use the celestial phenomenon to draw power from the Sun's Corona during a Solar Eclipse to reach the last step.'

And Kuroto has already sensed at this moment that Orochimaru doesn't care too much about the 'Chimera Technique,' of course, there are too many flaws in it, which makes it less desirable for Orochimaru, but perhaps it has a lot to do with Orochimaru's arrogance too.

Maybe in Orochimaru's eyes, the low-level Hiruko could never create a technique of such a calibre, he was and always will be behind the Sannin.

But Kuroto is clearer, Hiruko who has been left behind is not inferior in terms of scientific talent, what he lacks is a broader vision to perfect that technique.

The Chimera Technique developed by Hiruko can indeed achieve the goal of leeching off others Kekkei Genkai, but this fusion is only quantitative and a heavy cost of Body Modification has to be paid to achieve it.

Its focus is to collect several different Kekkei Genkai to create a perfect ninja capable of dealing with all the situations.

There is no overall qualitative improvement in it.

This is the reason why Hiruko, even after assimilating four Kekkei Genkai lost to Naruto.

His Dark Release may have been very effective against normal ninjutsu, but when he encountered Naruto's 'Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!' which he couldn't replicate because of its highly complex combination of Shape and Nature Transformation, Hiruko immediately lost.

And there is no shortage of Jutsu as strong as or even more powerful and Complex than the Rasenshuriken in the Shinobi World.

Therefore, if there is no qualitative improvement, it doesn't matter how many Kekkei Genkai one assimilates, against an encounter of really strong Shinobi he/she will inevitably fall.

But that's just another issue altogether.

However, nobody could deny that Hiruko's original idea of being able to create the 'Chimera Technique' is really a genius one.

And Kuroto got his own inspiration from this idea.

The most wonderful thing about the 'Chimera Technique' is that it is capable of fusing Kekkei Genkai, in other words, it is capable of fusing Chakra Natures, with the only disadvantage being that the method of fusion is too rough, crude, and unstable.

Living Beings tend to walk towards stability, that's just an instinctive nature, therefore, harmony with the Soul is very essential.

After all, Chakra at the basic stage is a combination of physical and mental energies in an equal ratio. Mental energy is the spiritual power, that is the power of the soul, therefore the stability of the Soul with the body is highly essential for qualitative improvement.

It's similar to how 'Reanimation Jutsu' works, the level of power the different Reanimation shows is completely different based on the sacrifices used to bring the dead back to the living world as the Reanimation. After all, the sacrifice used must be compatible enough to bear the burden of the spiritual presence of strong individuals.

This is the main reason why White Zetsu Clone strengthened by Hashirama Cells were used as a sacrifice for all the Reanimation Summoning. And this also the only reason why the first Four Hokage's were able to use power close to their peak level even in their Reanimation State.

And the 'Chimera Technique,' as per Hiruko's use not only destroys the balance between one's soul and body but also the ratio of all Chakra Natures, this is the reason why Hiruko, didn't get any qualitative improvement even after assimilating four Kekkei Genkai.

But Kuroto has thought up a way to circumvent that shortcoming.

Since the method of fusion in the 'Chimera Technique' is too rough, and a person has to absorb the bodies of other ninjas to be able to use their Kekkei Genkai, so why not use Cloning, to create several clones that are fully compatible with oneself and his soul and then absorb those Clones that already have the necessary spiritual connection?

This method avoids the biggest flaw of the 'Chimera Technique' and doesn't disrupt the balance between one's Body and Soul.

And this is basically Kuroto's Grand Plan.

For this very reason, Kuroto has created that underground secret laboratory.

After all, Kuroto will have to create, Water Clone, Fire Clone, Earth Clone, Wind Clone, Lightning Clone the five basic Chakra natures, and finally Yang Clone representing Senjutsu…

With these six perfect clones, combined with his current main body that is of the Yin Nature courtesy to the Tenseigan. Kuroto will merge those six perfect clones into the main body with the Tenseigan as the core through the 'Chimera Technique', to achieve the perfect fusion of the five Chakra Natures combined with Yin, Yang, and Senjutsu Energy to achieve the supreme Kekkei Mora…

...

Read up to Chapter - 300 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: https//Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

The path Kuroto has chosen will indeed be very difficult to tread on, however, Kuroto has the will to overcome all the obstacles and finally achieve his dream.

After considering a little he asked, "Orochimaru-Sama, can you help me to get the scroll of the 'Chimera Technique?'"

The indifferent attitude Orochimaru showed towards the 'Chimera Technique' is very fortunate for Kuroto, as long as Orochimaru himself doesn't value this technique very much, Kuroto wouldn't have to pay too big of a price to be able to exchange it with Orochimaru.

Orochimaru seems to have already expected Kuroto's question and questioned back with a smirk, "Sure, I can get you the scroll for the 'Chimera Technique,' but the question is, what are you going to do for me in return?"

As soon as Kuroto saw Orochimaru's smirk, he suddenly had a bad feeling about it.

While tapping his chin, Orochimaru said, "I recently heard a piece of interesting news, and it states that Uchiha Shisui has also awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, if I am not wrong, he is a member of your team -11 in the Anbu, right?"

Kuroto immediately understood what Orochimaru meant, and asked, "You want Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan?"

Kuroto was a little surprised by this, initially, he thought that Orochimaru was going after Uchiha Shinichi, and maybe needed help to deal with Shinichi in one fell swoop, he never really thought that the snake would be too greedy and was also eying another Mangekyou Sharingan pair!

Orochimaru also didn't deny Kuroto's question as his smirk deepened into a crazy and obsessive one.

Looking at that maniacal smirk, Kuroto couldn't help thinking of Orochimaru's will being modified by Koto Amatsukami, changing him into Konoha's loyal dog who would give his all for the sake of Village… you know as that Will of Fire crap says… how would that turn out?

As soon as this thought emerged, Kuroto immediately shook his head and drove that absurd and freaky thought out of his mind, because if such a thing really happened then it would be too scary.

Regaining his calmness, Kuroto said with a helpless expression, "Orochimaru-Sama, I advise you to give up the idea of going after Uchiha Shisui!"

Orochimaru was obviously not angered but rather curious as to why would Kuroto-Kun say such a thing so bluntly, "Why?"

"As far as I know, Uchiha Shisui's strength is beyond anyone; I have ever seen. I am afraid that even if both of us go after him at the same time, we wouldn't be able to match him, that's how strong Uchiha Shisui is!" – with a bitter smile Kuroto continued, "I am not persuading you to give up, but I want to tell you that I don't have a wish to accompany you to the Pure Land at such an early age, going after Uchiha Shisui is simply looking for death!"

To deepen the weight of his words, Kuroto even briefly gave the 'Official' information of Shisui's endeavors in the Land of Lightning.

Of course, he just put most of his credit on Shisui's head, that's why the 'Official' information. After all, even Konoha Advisory Board believes that it was Uchiha Shisui who razed that valley. And Kuroto is sure that even if Orochimaru had obtained any intelligence about that event, all he would have gotten is the exact same information as what Kuroto said.

And sure enough, Orochimaru didn't seem very surprised by Kuroto's words, this simply meant that Orochimaru knew the basic gist about it.

Now what Kuroto has revealed is a more detailed version of what Orochimaru would have heard previously.

Even Orochimaru had a solemn look when he heard all the detail, and looking at his silence, Kuroto said, "None of the Uchiha who has awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan would be easy to deal with, so before going after either of them, I suggest that you better investigate all their abilities thoroughly, otherwise…"

Kuroto left the last part unsaid, which would have more impact as Orochimaru's mind could work out on its own to imagine all sort of scenarios… after all, a word to the wise is more than enough.

A tacit silence lasted between the two as they continued walking forward. After a little consideration, Orochimaru smiled slightly to which Kuroto could only sigh.

Not only Orochimaru wasn't depressed, instead, his expression indicated as if he found the perfect prey. There was an inexplicable enthusiasm, and greed clearly visible in snake eyes. Stretching out his long tongue, he licked around his thin lips and spoke, "Kuroto-Kun, you sure are underestimating me, aren't you?"

Kuroto only shook his head helplessly.

Orochimaru obviously didn't take Kuroto's advice to heart, but that's also normal, after all, if Orochimaru would just give up the Mangekyou Sharingan so easily then he wouldn't be Orochimaru!

His obsession is more powerful, so not only Kuroto's, Orochimaru wouldn't take anyone's persuasion to heart.

Whether Uchiha Shinichi or Uchiha Shisui, one of them must be attained…

But Kuroto knows that Orochimaru wouldn't succeed because both the targets he plans to go after are precisely the kind of Shinobi that restrains him the most.

Whether it is Shisui or Shinichi, both of them are Genjutsu masters in their own right, adding the fact that both of them have awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan which has further increased their Genjutsu mastery, so the battle would more or less turn out the same way as it did with Itachi.

And compared to Itachi, facing Shisui would be more dangerous for Orochimaru, because Shisui might just use Kotoamatsukami on him.

The same will be the case when going up against Shinichi who could continue with the battle for who knows how long courtesy to Hachiman and Nakisawame.

Kuroto understood that his advice didn't have any meaning, because even if anyone tells him to not go after the 'Chimera Technique,' Kuroto wouldn't listen and continue chasing after it.

Similarly, Orochimaru wouldn't give up, so it's better not waste any time on it. Orochimaru wouldn't change his mind without suffering repeatedly.

Therefore, he didn't speak anymore and continued walking beside Orochimaru towards another secret laboratory.

After reaching this laboratory, Orochimaru took out a scroll and threw it towards Kuroto.

Hastily opening the scroll, Kuroto took a closer look and found that the information recorded in it was exactly what he needed about Orochimaru's studies of 'Human Cells' and 'Cell Cloning.'

After a brief glance, Kuroto put away the scroll and thanked Orochimaru sincerely, "Thank you very much Orochimaru-Sama!"

Orochimaru didn't care much and spoke in a hoarse voice, "If you want to start with studies of Human Cells, and if you want to start with experimentations, you would need many supporting equipment, but that is something you'll have to prepare for yourself!"

"I wouldn't trouble you with such trivial matters, Orochimaru-Sama!" – Kuroto said with a nod.

'Trivial!?' – Orochimaru raised his eyebrow, but after thinking a little that Kuroto is part of the Hyuga Clan, so he must have access to very large funds, therefore, Orochimaru decided to ignore the matter.

At this time Kuroto asked again, "What about the Chimera Technique?"

Orochimaru's smile immediately turned creepy as he said, "Come to me again when you find out what are Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan abilities!"

Kuroto nodded.

Kuroto still has no idea whether Hiruko has completed the 'Chimera Technique,' after all it is still fifteen years early to the time when Hiruko initiated the final step of absorbing the five Kekkei Genkai, based on the original timeline.

Since it is still fifteen years early, there is no clarity about the status of the 'Chimera Technique.'

Therefore, Kuroto isn't too anxious to get his hands on the 'Chimera Technique.' His main purpose for this visit was to obtain the information on 'Cell Studies,' 'Cloning' and to confirm the current status of Hiruko.

With Orochimaru's confirmation that Hiruko has joined the Akatsuki and obtaining the two scrolls, both of his purposes have been completed.

As soon as he was about to leave, Kuroto suddenly had an idea, so he said to Orochimaru, "You seem to have collected many children here Orochimaru-Sama, must be hard on you to manage them!"

Orochimaru squinted and glanced viciously towards Kuroto. Except for Haku, the other three kids are important for his research, so he wouldn't share them with anyone no matter what!

Kuroto ignored Orochimaru's vicious glare and continued with a smile, "I think the child named Haku seems a bit interesting, I hope you will allow me to take him to the Village!"

Orochimaru thought a little about Kuroto's request, he couldn't understand why would Kuroto choose Haku? The child that Orochimaru specifically doesn't value much.

Among the four, Yamato, Jugo, Kimimaro, and Haku, the simplest is Haku, therefore, Orochimaru didn't think that Kuroto's attention was on Haku, he thought that Kuroto was talking about the other three.

And Orochimaru also knows that Kuroto wouldn't have his eyes on Haku without a reason so he thought to himself, 'Is there something special about Yuki Haku that I wasn't able to see through?'

Kuroto noticed that Orochimaru had no intention to let Kuroto take Haku with him, so he decided to step back a bit, "If you are unwilling to allow me to take him permanently, how about a few months?"

...

Read up to Chapter - 302 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Kuroto slowly walked in the forest from tree to tree followed by a young child.

The child's name was Yuki Haku, and he looked at Kuroto from time to time as they continued their travel and after repeatedly hesitating, he finally mustered the courage to ask, "Ano… K-Kuroto-Sama, w-where do you want to t-take me?"

Most of Kuroto's attention was currently delved towards planning out his experimental project so he answered somewhat absent-mindedly, "Konohagakure."

Haku got the answer and lowered his head to murmur, "Konoha…gakure…?"

Haku obviously has no concept of where is Konohagakure. He couldn't even begin to imagine just what kind of place Konohagakure would be, and considering his time of living in the Land of Water, he was a little nervous at the moment.

Kuroto perceived Haku's nervousness and fear and said with a calming smile, "Don't be afraid, you won't be in danger."

Calming down a little, Haku asked lightly, "I… will I still be able to meet Jugo and the others?"

Even though it hasn't been very long since he met them, but Haku has become friends with Jugo and Kimimaro, who are of the same age as him, and now that he had to suddenly part ways with them, this made him feel sad.

Noticing Haku's sadness, Kuroto gently touched his head and then said with a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, if everything goes well, maybe you will be able to see them again in a few months."

Listening to Kuroto's reassuring words; Haku nodded slightly and then continued their travel.

It didn't take them very long to reach Konohagakure.

After sneaking into Konoha through a secret path, instead of bringing Haku to his home, Kuroto led him to the secret laboratory that Orochimaru left him.

He has already transferred all the equipment that Orochimaru left him to his own laboratory, therefore, this place was now modified into a secret underground residence that can be used as a small shelter during an emergency.

As a shinobi Village, Konoha's investigation procedure of all outsiders is very thorough and strict.

Even an ordinary child is no exception to this, not to mention, Haku isn't an ordinary child, but most probably the last survivor of the Yuki Clan of the Land of Water, and the child has already awakened the unique Kekkei Genkai of the Yuki Clan; Ice Release. If his presence in Kuroto's home is discovered by anyone, then Kuroto will in big trouble.

Therefore, he obviously wouldn't keep Haku at his home in the Hyuga Compound, but at this secret underground residence, that would prevent anyone from discovering him.

After arranging Haku at the secret underground residence, Kuroto directly returned to his home to retrieve all the memories of his Shadow Clone.

Through the memories passed back by the Shadow Clone, Kuroto learned that nothing noteworthy happened in the Village during his absence, aside from the regular Anbu duties.

But there was information that relieved him a little, it was about the peace talks with Kumogakure.

The peace talks that have been in a deadlocked state for such a long time seem to have made some progress recently.

Additionally, there was also the news that the Uchiha Clan has been continuously searching Uchiha Shinichi's whereabouts, but up until now, they haven't received any helpful trail.

Poof…

While Kuroto was going through the memories he got, the greedy Orange Cat, Kasai appeared in his room with a puff of white smoke.

While leisurely licking its fur on the paw, it spoke boringly, "Nya, One thousand Ryo, Kuroto-San!"

Kuroto immediately paid a One Thousand Ryo note and took the small information scroll from the cat.

It's been a little while since Shinichi last sent him any message, therefore Kuroto was a little worried, now that a message has finally come, so he was really relieved.

After unfolding the scroll, Kuroto glanced at the lines:

"This guy Shinno is really a rat; he was hidden so deeply that it took me and Biwa Juzo such long to find his trace and catch him!"

"Do you know his true identity? Oh, you wouldn't believe it and might be highly surprised, it turns out that the old doctor was just a façade, in reality, he is the leader of the remnant Shinobi of the Land of Sky, surprised, right? Even me and the rest of the members of the Akatsuki were too! Bet you couldn't have thought of this!"

"Oh, by the way, I tortured out the secret information he was hiding, this guy actually intends to create an artificial tailed beast called Reibi, and use it to destroy the five great Shinobi Villages and rule over the entire Shinobi World!"

"Hahaha…, that's hilarious, right!? Putting aside the thought of destroying the five great powers and ruling the shinobi world, the mere thought of him wanting to create an artificial tailed beast cracked me up! How can anyone make an artificial tailed beast? He is an idiot I am telling you…!"

"Oh, and also…

After reading everything, Kuroto burned the scroll and thought to himself, 'Control yourself, don't get angry, don't be angry, Shinichi is neurotic and you know that… So, don't get affected by his monologue.'

Every time Shinichi sends him a message or some intel, instead of directly describing the detail going straight to the point, he would choose the roundabout way as if he is talking like an idiot.

But Kuroto also doesn't have much of a choice to berate Shinichi, as the guy is only venting out his depression from his time at the Akatsuki.

Being a spy in the Akatsuki is obviously not as easy as it may sound, and since there aren't any allies in Akatsuki, therefore, he can't open up to anyone, so Kuroto is the only one he could speak freely to while passing on the intelligence.

So Kuroto is also helpless in this matter.

Sighing heavily, Kuroto completed some of the trivial matters and came to the secret laboratory.

As soon as he entered the secret laboratory after passing through several layers of security, he was immediately greeted by Sandaime Kazekage puppet, "Kuroto-Sama!"

Ever since he created this laboratory, Sandaime Kazekage puppet has been left in the laboratory by Kuroto for twenty-four cross seven. The purpose is obviously to guard the secret laboratory so that even when Kuroto, himself is not in the village, there are no tedious issues.

…

At the edge of the Death Forest.

Jonin Minazuki Yuki looked at the three genins of Team-2 and said with utmost seriousness, "Three of you listen very carefully, this task is not easy, there are chances that you might lose your life if you aren't careful!"

Izumo Tenma, a young boy with somewhat long, grey hair spiked more so towards the right side with his bangs framing his face, black eyes, wearing a blue Konoha forehead protector that his bangs hung to the side of; lazily kept both his hands behind his head and spoke in annoyance, "What danger? It's another one of those boring D-Class missions, to drive out a wild boar? What's the big deal about it!"

"Minazuki-Sensei, you are underestimating us way too much, it's just a wild boar, how can it kill us?" – said Shinko Inari, a young girl with two small pigtails and a blue bandana with the village symbol facing forward and a foreign appearance that isn't very hard to identify.

The final and last member of Team-2, Uchiha Itachi didn't say a word, but carefully checked the map of the Death Forest.

Minazuki Yuki held his forehead and said with a headache, "Didn't the official at the mission commission office already told you that it's no ordinary wild boar but a ninja boar. A-Ninja-Boar!"

Initially, when he saw the content of the mission, Minazuki Yuki didn't care too much, as it's just another one of those simple D-Class missions that any new Genin team has to complete to develop a better understanding of one another, but when he inquired some of the details about the mission, he realized that this task is not as easy as it may seem as first glance.

According to the content of the mission, a very powerful wild boar has appeared in the Death Forest not long ago, but the problem is that it has immediately become the boss of the forest with no natural enemies.

His appearance has seriously affected the ecological balance of the Death Forest.

It should be understood that the Death Forest isn't any ordinary forest but a practice field specifically managed by Konoha to have the same or even more fierce ecosystem than anywhere. So, if the Wild Boar has already become the boss of the Death Forest, he would no longer be allowed to continue to stay here and disturb the ecosystem anymore

But with that comes a problem, can newly Graduate Genins handle such a task? This is worrying.

Seeing that neither Tenma nor Shinko had any change even after he reminded them, Yuki shook his head helplessly and ordered, "Go!"

He thought about it a little, although this task seems a bit tricky, his Team-2 is still quite good, even if that Wild Boar happens to be strong, the three of them should manage it somehow without any accidents.

What's more, with Uchiha Itachi in the team, Minazuki Yuki wasn't that worried.

…

In Kuroto's Secret laboratory.

Looking at the two large nutrition tanks, Kuroto sighed.

At this time both the nutrition tanks have a deformed clone each, immersed in the Nutrient Solution.

These two clones were Kuroto's first attempt in the branch of Cloning before he went to see his teacher Orochimaru.

Looking at the distorted and deformed shape of both the clones, even an amateur in the field of Biotechnology could tell that the first attempt resulted in a complete failure.

Shaking his head helplessly, Kuroto readjusted his mentality and took out a scroll to record all the data.

After doing that, he took out the information scroll that Orochimaru gave him about the data and Cloning Technology and read it line by line.

Kuroto believes that experiencing failure is not a terrible thing, but if one can't learn anything from their past failures then that is a really terrible thing! Therefore, he must figure out what went wrong in his first attempt.

While Kuroto was busy, suddenly slight vibration was felt in the laboratory.

Byakugan…

Although the vibrations were very weak, they weren't unnoticed by Kuroto. Frowning slightly, he activated the Byakugan and looked in the direction of the source past the walls…

...

Read up to Chapter - 304 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Whish… Whish…

Accompanied by the sound of breaking wind, several shurikens were shot straight towards the massive wild boar that was sleeping lazily.

Unfortunately for team-2, the shuriken did hit it but instead of piercing through his skin, they were all bounced off as if they encountered an incomparable hard wall on their path!

Even though the shurikens didn't cause the wild boar to be severely hurt, it did cause him annoyance and woke it from its sleep.

Roar…

The wild boar snorted hot air from its snout and let out an angry growl.

Seeing that the situation wasn't right, Tenma said, "Hey, hey, this guy's skin is too hard!"

Minazuki Yuki, the leader of Team-2 hurriedly shouted: "Be careful, it's going to attack!"

Before Minazuki even finished, the wild boar already rushed towards the three genins with a fierce momentum living a dust trail behind.

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Technique!"

Contrary to the rest of the panicked genins, Itachi calmly used the Fire Release Jutsu towards the incoming wild boar.

The huge fireball immediately drowned the wild boar, but before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, its huge figure that was now blackish jumped out of the flames with great momentum and rushed towards the three genins.

Minazuki and Itachi immediately caught the panicked Shinko and the dazed Tenma respectively and flickered away from their spot.

Boom…

The wild boar that failed to hit its target collided with the big three on its path.

The momentum of the wild boar was more than what the tree could handle and it instantly fell to the ground with a muffled noise.

Not to mention the Tenma and Shinko, even Minazuki was shocked at the sight of the entire giant tree falling by a mere collision.

Shinko was a little afraid and said, "T-that was dangerous… M-Minazuki-Sensei… is this really a D-Class mission!?"

On the other hand, the wild boar that just collided with the big tree wasn't hurt in the slightest, and immediately got up, shook his head, and again snorted hot air from its snout and rushed towards Itachi and Tenma.

Tenma also spoke from the side, "That's not a wild boar… it's a monster!"

This time they were more cautious and understood that dealing with this wild boar wouldn't be as easy as they thought initially.

So, without any more hesitation, Itachi printed some hand seal and spoke in a low voice, "Genjutsu!"

As Itachi used the Genjutsu, the wild boar staggered a few more steps and then collapsed to the ground.

Seeing that the Wild boar was defeated, Shinko immediately jumped from the tree and cheered: "Wow, Itachi-Kun you defeated it!"

Minazuki also landed next to Itachi and patted on his shoulder, "Good job, Itachi!"

While the four were celebrating the completion of the mission, the wild boar who blacked out only for a few short seconds suddenly woke up and rushed towards the four.

"Be careful everyone!" – Itachi suddenly noticed the boar getting up and immediately warned the rest, but by the time his voice fell the boar was already close at hand.

Minazuki immediately turned around and was shocked, he had no time to make any moves so all he could do was spread his arms open to guard the three genins behind him.

Both Tenma and Shinko were horrified and couldn't do anything.

Whistle…

Suddenly, a clear whistle sounded from the other side.

The wild boar that was inches away from Minazuki and the three genins suddenly came to a halt as soon as it heard the whistle and turned to look in the direction from where it came.

At this time, a person slowly walked out of the forest.

As soon as, Itachi saw the person he muttered in surprise, "Kuroto-San!"

The person that came out from the other side was none other than Kuroto.

With his hands in the side pocket of his Kimono, he walked leisurely, his eyes shifted up and down of the wild boar and back and forth between the team-2 and the wild boar.

Realizing that it was Kuroto, the wild boar immediately turned around and walked towards him to confirm his scent.

Kuroto looked at the more than two meters high wild boar intimately nudging his feet and muttered in amazement, "Hey… I haven't seen you for just half a year, how come you have already grown up so big?"

The last time Kuroto saw the wild boar it only reached up to his waist, and now Kuroto himself doesn't reach up to the other party's waist.

While the boar was excitedly wagging its small tail, Itachi came towards Kuroto and asked curiously, "Kuroto-San, is this Ninja boar your summon beast?"

"Uh…" – Kuroto didn't know how to answer that, although this wild boar wasn't his summon beast, he was somewhat responsible for such growth, so after considering a little, he nodded, "That's right."

Itachi was surprised, "It turns out to be your summon beast, no wonder it's so powerful!"

While the three genins were admiring Kuroto and the boar much to its annoyance, Minazuki came over and introduced himself with a polite smile, "I am Minazuki Yuki, Konoha Jonin, thank you for helping us out a few moments ago!"

Kuroto nodded and after introducing himself, he asked Minazuki, why was his team fighting the boar and learned that while Kuroto was busy with all sorts of tasks and preparing to build his personal laboratory, the once little guy has become the boss of this forest area and severely damaged the ecosystem here.

Listening to this he didn't know what to feel about it.

Kuroto never expected that his momentary interest and random action at the beginning had cultivated such beast.

So, after a little consideration, Kuroto said to Minazuki, "Don't worry, I will drive it out of the Death forest."

Kuroto obviously can't let it stay in the Death Forest anymore, otherwise, it would continue to cause trouble and would ultimately be used to fulfil the belly of many shinobi at the Akimichi Restaurant Chain.

Although Kuroto too would want to try the taste, he still has better options for the wild boar.

So after sending away the Team-2, Kuroto circled around the wild boar and observed it more carefully.

To be honest, the potential displayed by this guy has been a little beyond Kuroto's initial expectations. Now he is more curious as to how far can it continue to grow, so after thinking a little he decided to create a summoning contract with it by making it his summon beast.

Perhaps it was because of the presence of the Tenseigan Chakra that has been flowing through the boar's body, or maybe because Kuroto fed it during its young age, it didn't resist the summoning contract and smoothly became his summon beast.

After sighing the summoning contract, Kuroto named it 'Okina Buta' which literally means 'Big Pig', and ordered Okina Buta to leave the territory of the Death Forest.

Kuroto didn't have enough energy to train Okina Buta so he decided to send it towards some of the dangerous forest territories of the Land of fire, and let it grow up naturally. As for how far it can grow in the future remains on it.

At the end of this short episode, Kuroto immediately returned to his laboratory.

The failure of the first attempt to create clones, Kuroto understood that instead of rushing headfirst for early results; he will have to invest some time to learn the science of cloning from the information scroll he obtained from Orochimaru, and review the mistakes he made.

Perhaps because of his research and development of the 'Living Corpse Reincarnation,' and all those cruel experiments' that Orochimaru currently has a deep knowledge of human anatomy, from the body structure to organ transplantation.

Just from casually reading through the information written in the scroll, Kuroto already learned a lot and figured out a lot of his mistakes, some of which can even be considered very minor but in fact, have a very important role.

After summing up all his mistakes turn-by-turn, Kuroto created the next plan.

With the devices he has in the laboratory currently, Kuroto can barely try the experiments involved in the process of creating a Water Clone.

The reason why he chose the Water Clone because the water Clone is the most stable of the five basic chakra natures, therefore, the success rate for the formation of a Water Clone is the highest, theoretically at least.

For creating other clones, either Kuroto lacks the necessary devices or that their characteristics are too unstable and Kuroto would need more experience to create them, so currently their theoretical success rate is not very high.

And lastly, there is also the Yang Clone, which would represent Natural Energy, and be mainly useful for the Six Path Senjutsu, Kuroto has no idea where to begin about it so it can only be postponed for the last.

The development has to be done step-by-step, so starting with the most stable Water Clone seems most reasonable, and this is also the main reason why he brought Yuki Haku with him.

The reason is obviously the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai of the Yuki Clan.

...

Read up to Chapter - 306 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

According to Kuroto's experimental plan, the main part of the Water Clone will still be his own cell tissues.

However, considering that there will be Kuroto's own Chakra nature in his cell tissues, so these cell tissues will have to be filtered using several types of scientific equipment to remove these Chakra Nature and then use Haku's cell tissues to add his genes to add Water Chakra Nature and Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

Haku has the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, so his Major Chakra Nature will be Water followed by Wind, as the fusion of Water and Wind nature results in the Ice Release.

Therefore, Haku's cells can be used to create the clone with Water Release as the main affinity.

However, it is easier said than done, as the whole plan will have two main difficulties.

The first problem is how to filter out the Yin Chakra from his own cells and the second is how to solve the problem of the rejection reaction between his cells and Haku's cells. After all, the two will have to fuse for the successful cultivation of the Water Clone.

For both the problems, Kuroto doesn't have an option and will have to rely on the process of trial and error.

For the first, the most he could is to only filter the cells through the cutting-edge devices such as centrifuge filter; several times, but that still gives rise to another problem, which would be the appropriate number of filtrations, if the number isn't enough, Yin Chakra will remain in his cells and if the number of filtrations is too much then the cell activity will be greatly reduced.

How to grasp the accurate number cannot be guessed nor can anyone tell him, he will have to find it through repeated trial and error.

And similarly, he doesn't have any solution to solve the second problem either, it will completely rely on luck. After all, rejection between the cells of two different people also has a degree of uncertainty, sometimes it could be as extreme as 99.99% while the other times it could be as low as 0.001%. Therefore, it would depend on luck, at least for now, until he becomes knowledgeable enough to get rid of the luck factor.

As the experimental plan was perfected step by step, the Water Clone Creation Project finally commenced.

Firstly, Kuroto extracted his own cell tissues and placed them in one hundred small Petri dishes, and then filtered them using a Filter Centrifuge device, step-by-step and through various potency.

This was all manual work and had to be carried out very precisely therefore it took Kuroto three full days to complete it.

At the end out of the hundred samples, only six samples were suitably cleared of the Yin Chakra Nature while the other samples either still have the remains of Yin Chakra Nature or complete lost Cell activity making them unsuitable for the further process, i.e., they were deemed unsuitable to be used for cloning.

With the six samples ready, Kuroto observed each of them through the high precision microscope only to find that they were slightly damaged, but the degree was within the acceptable range.

So without any further ado, Kuroto processed them for the next step and extracted Haku's cells.

Since Ice Release is the result of the fusion of the Water Chakra Nature and the Wind Chakra Nature. This means that the progenitor of the Yuki Clan was an extraordinary ninja who mastered Water Release to the extreme and then fused it with the Wind Release. His further mastery with the Ice release was developed enough that he managed to fuse the Water Chakra and Wind chakra at the genetic level which was later passed down from generation to generation giving birth to the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai of the Yuki Clan.

Therefore, even though Haku is just a child, his affinity with the Water Chakra Nature that he had in his genetic combination was far extraordinary, in fact, considering Haku's talent, he might even have a very high affinity with the Water Nature.

Therefore, Haku is the best subject Kuroto could use to extract cells from for his cloning purpose.

After injecting Haku's cells into the Six Sample Petri Dishes, Kuroto waited quietly for the result.

After the timer was off, Kuroto observed the results:

The cell tissues in the first Petri Dish were dead i.e., they lost their vitality due to rejection between his and Haku's cells.

Kuroto's mood didn't fluctuate and he calmly removed the Sample-A from the Large cell incubator.

The rejection between the cells was long expected by him, so Kuroto wasn't depressed because of it and calmly looked at the situation of the next five samples.

Soon the timer of the third and the fourth incubator reached zero and similar two the Sample-A, Sample-C, and Sample-D also had a rejection between the two types of cells, therefore, losing their vitality and were tacitly removed from their cell incubators by Kuroto.

After a little more waiting, the timers of the second, fifth, and sixth incubators reached zero, and fortunately, Sample-B, Sample-E, and Sample-F survived the rejection reaction.

The average survival percentage of the rejection reaction turned out to be 50%, much higher than what Kuroto expected initially which was highly surprising.

'How come the survival rate was as high as 50%? It's weird, is it because our cells have a certain fit?' – thought Kuroto in slight confusion.

Many factors affect the rejection reaction, therefore, Kuroto can't conform; what is the possible cause of such a high fusion rate, at least not now.

Putting this thought at the back of his mind to consider later, Kuroto observed the three samples with the super precision microscope only to find that cells in Sample-E were tending towards Haku, that is to say, if Sample-E is used for the clone, then it would produce Haku's clone not his, so Sample-E was also discarded.

The reason for such a thing to happen was that the Cells of Kuroto in Sample-E were highly damaged due to filtration, therefore, Haku's cells were dominating.

After discarding Sample-E, only Sample-B and Sample-F were left. And strangely enough, Kuroto also happened to have only two Nutrition Tanks in his laboratory so this was a good coincidence.

Anyway, that aside, the two samples were separated and placed into the two nutrition tanks after the bud creation.

Now the final step of the cloning began which was the growth of the Clone body.

On average it takes at least three months for the growth process, no matter how high the quality of the nutrient solution is.

Nobody can change this fact, neither Orochimaru nor Danzo, no matter how many accelerators they add to the nutrient solution. If the process is speeded up too much, then the quality of the Clone body would be very inferior.

But Kuroto is an exception to this fact. Thanks to his Tenseigan, he can use the Tenseigan Chakra to promote the growth process, this would not only enhance the base strength of the clone body, increase its affinity with his soul but also speed up the growth period at the same time wouldn't cause any damage to the Clone body.

In fact, if Kuroto is willing to spend heavily on the nutrient solution, he can even accelerate the growth speed and reduce the growth period to as short as one month.

Time Flew quickly and in the blink of an eye One month has passed away.

For this whole month, except for occasionally visiting Haku to record the Chakra flow method in his Chakra veins while he uses Ice Release, Kuroto spent most of the time in the laboratory.

And all the Anbu tasks were handed to his Shadow Clone as usual.

Fortunately, enough, the Anbu missions that Team-11 was getting in this period weren't very difficult or tricky and were limited to the territory of the Land of Fire, to keep team-11 on standby because of their high combat strength.

So Kuroto didn't have to worry too much about it.

And there was also the intelligence that the Peace Treaty between Konoha and Kumo would also be concluded shortly.

After all, even if Konoha and Kumo are two of the five great Shinobi Villages, they couldn't support the military confrontation between the two parties for too long, now that the war has conflict has been concluded, there must be a result in the war.

This was a piece of good news, as the peace period is best for Kuroto to see through his plans without much trouble.

After a month of accelerated growth, both the Clones from Sample-B and Sample-F were successfully completed.

Through the glass of the large nutrition tank, Kuroto was also able to observe that both the clones looked identical to one another and greatly matched his appearance with only the difference of hair color and some physical features that were more lean and slender.

Overall, Kuroto was still quite happy with the result.

Calming down his mood Kuroto drained the nutrient solution that was now useless and took out the two clones and placed them on the test benches one by one.

Firstly, he checked all the body parts of the two clones and after that everything was normal, he gently opened the eyelids of the two clones and saw a Byakugan pair in the sockets of each clone.

As soon as he saw this, his expression shrank and he muttered in surprise, "Sure Enough!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 310 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Kuroto observed the two pairs of Byakugan in the Eye Sockets and confirmed that they were indeed Byakugan, at least, from the outside nobody would be able to distinguish whether they were cloned or original.

But for Kuroto who has the Tenseigan, he could feel that these two pairs of Byakugan were semi-finished, or better yet incomplete.

And this didn't surprise him.

With the presence of 'Dead Demon Consuming Seal' that seals the soul of the target within the belly of the Shinigami, 'Impure World Reincarnation' that summons the soul of the dead to the world of the living, and so on, such soul related Jutsu have come out one after another in the Shinobi World, therefore, the question whether the souls exist isn't debatable.

Although the presence of Souls has always appeared in the form of Chakra, like the presence of Uzumaki Kushina and Yondaime-Sama's Chakra sealed inside Uzumaki Naruto, there is no doubt that Chakra itself doesn't represent the souls, nor is it equivalent to the soul.

What Kuroto thinks is that the Chakra is merely a carrier for the Soul, but the true essence of a soul should be a unique spiritual symbol.

This reasoning is understandable as it also explains why everyone has a different Chakra signature.

And what the Clones on the test benches lack is the unique spiritual symbol.

Therefore, the Byakugan pair within the eye sockets of the two clones are incomplete, they are just a pile of cells tissues with the Byakugan characteristics, that lacks a spiritual symbol.

This is why the research value of these incomplete Byakugan isn't that high.

In fact, this is also reasonable, if cloning alone could perfectly replicate everything, then Orochimaru wouldn't be madly chasing after the geniuses of the Uchiha Clan, for their Mangekyou Sharingan.

He could just somehow obtain their cells and create clones then use the 'Living Corpse Reincarnation,' but since he didn't do that, therefore it does give some explanation.

But Kuroto wasn't disappointed by this finding and continued the tests to record all the data.

These two clones may not be that useful for others but these soulless clones are exactly what he needs the most, thanks to the new ability of the Tenseigan that he has figured out.

It was during the Chakra transfer to the Kazekage puppet that Kuroto managed to accidentally discover that his consciousness could temporarily take over the puppet body of the Sandaime Kazekage.

This discovery made him understand that the Tenseigan has another very useful ability!

In his memory too, Otsutsuki Toneri seems to have used this ability by temporarily transferring his soul to a puppet and come to Earth to send an invitation to Hinata, but when Naruto discovered it, Toneri withdrew his soul and abandoned the puppet.

To a certain extent, this ability of the Tenseigan is very similar to the Forbidden Technique of Living Corpse Reincarnation developed by Orochimaru.

However, the Soul Descend ability of the Tenseigan is much easier to use with fewer constraints. Not only can one transfer his/her soul to other bodies and puppets but it is also possible to withdraw them at any time.

And using this ability of the Tenseigan, Kuroto plans to cultivate the six clones perfectly and fuse them into his main body with the Chimera Technique.

Otherwise without the Tenseigan Soul Descend, simply relying on cloning will not cultivate the perfect clones that would fit the soul in a true sense.

With that thought, after recording all the physical indicators of the two clones, Kuroto carefully compared the data between the two, and unsurprisingly enough both the clones had relatively similar data.

There was no significant difference in strength or weaknesses.

Nodding in appreciation that both the clones are somewhat acceptable, Kuroto named them Clone-A and Clone-B respectively.

With that out of the way, Kuroto sat cross-legged facing the two test benches and used the Tenseigan Soul Descend to transfer his soul to the Clone-A.

As soon as Kuroto's eyelids closed, the Clone-A lying naked on the Test Bench opened its eyes.

Sitting up with the support of the Kazekage Puppet, Clone-A opened its mouth, as if it wanted to say something but all that came out were some incoherent voices without any meaning.

After a while of continuous trial, finally, some recognizable words came out of its mouth, "Really… it feels quite awkward!"

Undoubtedly, Kuroto's soul was currently occupying the body of the Clone-A, in other words, currently, the Clone-A has become Hyuga Kuroto.

After getting up from the test bench again with the support of the Kazekage puppet, he staggered a few steps before he could stand firmly.

Walking was still very difficult for him initially but gradually; the body movements became easier and the initial strangeness disappeared.

After getting used to this new body, Kuroto wore a lab gown while thinking to himself, 'The test data is really not as accurate as of the real feeling of the body, the Tenseigan Soul Descend is more useful to recognize many minor details.

After he was dressed in a blue lab gown, Kuroto walked towards the mirror and carefully looked at the appearance of his eyes in the mirror.

From the outside, there doesn't seem to be much change in the physical appearance of the Byakugan, but Kuroto knows that the pair of Byakugan in his eye sockets is no longer incomplete as before.

Byakugan…

As soon as Kuroto transferred the minimal Chakra he could towards his eyes, the veins and meridians around his eyes bulged and his field of vision also changed entering into a three sixty-degree Byakugan Vision.

'It truly is because of the Soul descend…'

As Kuroto expected, because of the Soul Descend, the Byakugan pair in the sockets of Clone-A was no longer incomplete, but real and complete now.

In order to confirm his guess, Kuroto hurriedly walked towards his main body and gently opened its eyelids.

"This…?"

He was surprised to find that the Tenseigan in his sockets has lost its glow and reverted to the state of the Byakugan. This is obviously strange as the Tenseigan was obviously active before Kuroto used the Tenseigan Soul Descend.

Rubbing his chin, Kuroto thought for the possible reason for this, 'Even my main body is unable to keep the Tenseigan active after losing the soul? Then is my Tenseigan part of my physical body or Soul body?'

In order to understand this, he hurriedly conducted some tests with the Clone-A body.

After conducting these tests, Kuroto concluded that he could not activate the Tenseigan, neither was he able to use the Rein Interaction nor was he able to use the Tenseigan Chakra Mode while in the Clone-A body.

And the advanced techniques like the 'Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion' and 'Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion' need not be mentioned because they can only be used in the Tenseigan Chakra Mode.

There seems to be only one Tenseigan ability that he can use, and that is 'Soul Withdrawal.'

"No wonder Naruto was easily able to defeat the puppet Toneri used to descend on Earth" – muttered Kuroto in understanding.

At this moment, Kuroto has confirmed that his Soul has a fraction of the Tenseigan, but his soul needs to be in the main body to be able to actually use that power, that is to say, the soul and the physical body combine together to form the Tenseigan, so without a materialistic physical body, it is pretty difficult for him to use the Tenseigan.

After understanding this, another doubt arose, "If the Tenseigan pair is removed from the eye sockets of the main body while the soul is still inside it, will the state of the Tenseigan remain active at that time?"

...

Read up to Chapter - 314 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Kuroto thought of Uchiha Madara who removed his Rinnegan and transplanted them into Nagato.

Although the Rinnegan remained in a dormant state for a long time until Nagato awakened them in his later years under heavy emotional stimulation, it is still undeniable that Madara did transplant his Rinnegan to Nagato.

"Perhaps it was because Nagato was too young at that time and his soul was able to partially fuse with the Madara's Rinnegan as he grew up, or maybe Madara also abandoned a part of his soul when he removed the Rinnegan." – This was Kuroto's conclusion.

There is no doubt that Madara wasn't ignorant of the knowledge of the soul in his later years because of knowing the Yin-Yang Techniques.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have attempted to create Black Zetsu to monitor Obito before his death.

So, the fact that the presence of the Soul plays a vital role has been determined.

With that understood, Kuroto didn't remain in the Clone-A for too long and withdrew his soul back to the main body.

Before cultivating the Water Clone, he must first take care of the Ryuumyaku that is sealed within his body, after all, once his soul leaves the main body and enters the Clone Body, then the suppression on the Ryuumyaku would disappear, and it would become nearly impossible for him to suppress the extremely large amount of Ryuumyaku Chakra.

Ryuumyaku may stay fine for some time, but it would inevitably go on a rampage as Ryuumyaku's consciousness is obviously not mature enough to handle such large chakra.

This hidden danger must be solved first, otherwise, it might lead to some disastrous consequences, so after leaving a Shadow Clone in the Village, Kuroto again secretly sneaked out of Konohagakure!

…

A few days later.

The Land of Demon, Temple of Miko.

"Shion-Sama, don't run so fast and be careful to not fall…"

A large group of maids chased after the young Shion.

The little girl who ran ahead didn't listen to the urging of the maids and kept running while holding a beautiful kite, panting and struggling to fly the kite but there was a clear smile on her face and she giggled occasionally in excitement.

The guards around the temple shook their heads and sighed helplessly as this wasn't the first time they were witnessing the predicament of the maids.

In the private room on the other side of the main hall, Miroku looked through some documents with a frowned expression.

Thud… Thud…

When suddenly she heard the muffled sounds of the bodies collapsing on the floor and not long after a person with a black mask and black full-body cloak walked into the room from the front door.

Looking at the person walking towards her calmly, Miroku was a little doubtful because she couldn't sense any negative intentions from the other party and asked with a confused expression, "Who are you?"

Hearing Miko-Sama's question the person removed his mask and greeted her with a polite apologetic smile, "Please don't be cautious Miko-Sama, it is I, Hyuga Kuroto!"

Looking at the familiar face of Hyuga Kuroto, Miroku sighed in relief and immediately asked again, "Ara, Kuroto-Kun, how come you managed to sneak in? The enchantment barrier has obviously been activated, and upgraded from the last time!"

Kuroto awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and apologized for his discourtesy, "I had to hide my identity and my visit to Miroku-Sama, therefore I had to sneak in, as for the barrier enchantment, passing through it is no longer that difficult for me, please forgive me for this disrespect!"

The enchantment arranged by Miko-Sama is indeed difficult to pass through, but that's only for ordinary shinobi, such a minor enchantment cannot stop Kuroto.

Using his Tenseigan, Kuroto only had to study the basic structure of the enchantment, the Chakra flow around it, and simply use the Truth-Seeking Orbs to cut a small entrance and sneak inside, pretty easy, isn't that right?

From beginning to end, it was all a piece of cake for him.

As for the reason why he had to sneak into the temple?

There was obviously a reason behind it.

Although the Land of Demon is an independent country with no shinobi Village here, that does not stop the infiltration of intelligence agents into the Land of Demons, so the possibility of the presence of spies inside the temple of Miko cannot be ruled out.

Especially after the other Shinobi Villages witnessed the power of Moryo the Demon.

And in this case, if Kuroto was to come here openly, there are chances that this intelligence might be passed onto other Villages, which is not something Kuroto wants to deal with, so being cautious is the best choice.

Miko-Sama nodded in understanding and said, "Maa, it's fine if it is you, I owe you my life and trust you, so it is alright, by the way, you were so anxious to meet me, what's the matter?"

Kuroto briefly summarised the matter of Ryuumyaku to Miko-Sama and then asked, "I needed your help in sealing Ryuumyaku in an artifact, but I am not confident enough to carry out this type of sealing, so coming here was the only option, as this matter is important."

Miroku was surprised at this and muttered, "So the person behind the disappearance of the Ryuumyaku was really you Kuroto-Kun!"

Kuroto learned all the sealing techniques involved in the artificial tailed beast creation project under Miko-Sama's teaching, additionally, the purple clay was also provided by her, so when she heard the news of the disappearance of Ryuumyaku, the first target of suspicion was naturally Hyuga Kuroto.

Kuroto nodded with a happy smile, "Yes, I needed a large enough Chakra Source for the Artificial Tailed Beast Project, and Ryuumyaku just happened to fit the requirements, therefore, I used it!"

"Fair enough, but you should know that it was quite a bold action, you have to be careful, the power of Ryuumyaku wouldn't be so easy to control!" – Miko-Sama warned.

Kuroto nodded.

With that out of the way, Miroku spoke after a little consideration, "So, you want to seal the Ryuumyaku's Chakra in an artifact? Hmm, considering there are stories of Ichibi being sealed inside a tea kettle, so it is possible!"

"Hmm? How do you know about Ichibi being sealed inside the Tea Kettle at the Temple in the Land of Wind?" – Kuroto asked in confusion, as such information shouldn't be easily accessible for Miko-Sama.

"Are you underestimating me Kuroto-Kun? The authority of the Miko is more than you might think and after the last incident because I didn't die while sealing Moryo, as per my prediction of the future, so I decided to learn all that I can about the sealing so that I can create a path for my daughter when it is her turn to face the other half!" – Miko-Sama explained.

"Does that mean you have had another prediction of the future!?" – Kuroto asked doubtfully.

Miko-Sama nodded, and looking at her Kuroto wanted to ask but before he could speak, Miko-Sama spoke, "I know that you want to know what that might be, but it's better not to, all you need to know is that my daughter too will play a critical role in the future, as for what that is, I am not perfectly sure either…"

Kuroto nodded, if Miko-Sama says that it's better to not know then he will leave it aside for now.

"Anyway, coming back to your request, as I said, it's not impossible but ordinary artifacts can't be used for sealing Ryuumyaku, as they will just collapse!"

Understanding that Miko-Sama was indeed right, Kuroto asked quickly, "Then what kind of artifact do you suggest Miko-Sama?"

Miroku didn't speak directly, but stood up and removed a scroll from the many scrolls aligned on the shelf nearby.

Taking the scroll, she spread it on the table before Kuroto.

Kuroto's gaze was immediately attracted by the contents of the scroll that seemed to be a map of the land of Demons.

The map printed on the scroll was a very detailed one, as it clearly marked the location of most of the towns, villages, famous mountains, rivers, lakes, forest territories, etc, that are part of the Land of Demons.

While Kuroto was looking at the detailed map, Miko-Sama pointed at a mountain named 'Morning Mountain' and said, "This is the place where we can find the required artifact material, and you are lucky enough to be here at just the right time for its harvest!"

Kuroto asked curiously, "What treasure is it?"

Miko-Sama folded back the scroll and said with a mischievous smile, "Wouldn't it be better to directly see it?"

With that said, Miko-Sama announced seclusion, for important research, and quickly sneaked out of the temple with Kuroto and went to the Morning Mountain.

…

On the way, while he held Miko-Sama on his back, Kuroto asked something that has been bugging him for a while, "Miko-Sama, when I sneaked into the Temple, I noticed that the security at the temple was very strict and the guards looked as if they were all battle-ready to face an enemy, what happened to make you so cautious?"

Hearing Kuroto's question, Miroku sighed helplessly and said, "Sigh, Yomi has appeared again!"

Kuroto narrowed his eyes and spoke after a bit of thinking, "Don't worry, I will help you to completely eliminate Yomi and his cult!"

Miko-Sama immediately cheered up and spoke, "In that case, I am grateful to you Kuroto-Kun!"

The two of them continued some light conversation along the way and soon arrived at the foot of the Morning Mountain.

After walking for another quarter of an hour under Miko-Sama's guidance, they finally stopped in front of a rock wall.

As they stopped before the rock wall, Miroku got off Kuroto's back, walked closer to the wall, made a few hand seals, and pressed lightly on the rock wall.

As soon as she pressed her fingers at the rock wall, complex sealing symbols emerged at the wall and soon a brilliant light flashed.

The previous rock wall immediately blurred and became transparent, and finally disappeared along with the disappearance of the brilliance.

Kuroto who was standing at the back was shocked at such a scene and thought to himself, 'Miko's bloodline seals are really extraordinary, even me with the Tenseigan couldn't see through the entrance!'

Miko-Sama noticed Kuroto's shock and beckoned him to follow after her, "Keep calm as this is just the beginning of what you are about to see, come on in!"

Following Miko-Sama's lead, Kuroto passed through the enchantment barrier and was again surprised at the sight before him.

What lied before Kuroto was the beautiful scenery inside the mountain.

A beautiful valley with lush green grass and beautiful flowers that oozed vitality and sweet fragrance, then there was a lake that had several lotuses floating in the clear water at the center of which stood a small tree with a face of a woman on its trunk.

Miko-sama enjoyed Kuroto's surprised look and spoke, "Beautiful, right?"

Kuroto could only nod, as this might just be the most beautiful scenery he has ever witnessed, and asked in wonder, "Ahem, Miko-Sama, what is this place!?"

"Heh, well this mountain is the Morning Mountain and this place inside is called the 'Morning Valley' It is actually the spot where the first light of the day comes to illuminate that tree over there, which is called the Mother Tree, apparently the face engraved on that tree is of the first Miko of the Land of Demon, and it is said that the tree is her true body. Therefore, we call it the Mother TreeI" – said Miko-Sama as she pointed towards the green gourd vine hanging from the lower center of the tree that has a hole in it, "That gourd vine is the perfect artifact material!"

Kuroto looked over and saw the green gourd that reminded him of the small gourd Gaara carried with him to store Sand within it.

"Legends say that the Sage of the Six Path spent twenty years of his life in the Morning Valley after the catastrophic battle of the myth and finally obtained a gourd out of the Mother Tree and refined a powerful artifact out of it!" – Miko-Sama continued with a smile, "But this is just a legend, although I am not very sure whether the last part involving the Sage of Six Path is true or not, the story of the First Miko is true as I have the memories about her!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 320 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

"The Sage of Six Path and the First Miko?" – Listening to Miko-Sama's story Kuroto was a little dazed.

Kuroto isn't sure about the First Miko but that's not the case with the Sage of Six Path.

To others, the Sage of Six Path who created the Shinobi World may have been a character from the mythology, but that's not the case with Kuroto, because he regards the Sage of Six Paths as just a powerful figure worth admiration.

Moreover, Kuroto knows that the Sage of Six Path may have been dead physically for countless years but that doesn't mean he has disappeared.

His spirit still exists within the Shinobi world, monitoring the order of the world and maintaining the peace of this world as per his own standard.

This is one of the reasons why Kuroto has always been very cautious of his actions because no one could know just how powerful the Sage of Six Paths maybe, even if he is in his soul state.

After all, not only he saved the lives but also distributed half of his chakra to both Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke at the most critical point in the fourth great shinobi war.

And just from receiving the gifts from the Sage of Six Path:

Naruto mastered the Six Path Sage Mode and Yin-Yang release, as a result not only was he capable of using the Truth-Seeking Balls along with many other techniques but also managed to save Guy who was sure to die having opened the Eighth Gate and created an entirely new eye for Kakashi.

While Sasuke awakened the six tomoe Rinnegan that even allowed him to learn a special type of rare space-time technique, mastered all the chakra nature, as a result, he could play around with all the tailed beast as toys with just one look, can travel between dimensions along with many other techniques.

Therefore, Kuroto believes that even if the Sage of Six Path is not as strong as his peak, he is still the strongest in the Shinobi World even in his soul state, and no way in hell would Kuroto want to offend such a being, therefore, Kuroto is very mindful of his actions.

After all, he is more than sure that by now he would have definitely caught the Sage of Six Path's attention, therefore, Kuroto can't afford to do something that would make him an enemy of such a god.

As for the treasured tools of the Sage of Six Path?

Kuroto recalled it, and it seems that among the five tools used by the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers, there was indeed a gourd tool, 'If I recall it correctly, it was called Benihisago, does that mean that the gourd was also picked up from the Mother tree of the Morning Valley?'

With this question in his mind, Kuroto walked towards the gourd vine the hung between the small tree hole and observed it with the Tenseigan.

Although the Gourd Vine hung inside the tree hole looked very ordinary, but it contained a very high amount of natural energy.

After looking at the vine, Kuroto observed the Mother Tree and noticed that the tree was acting as a medium of transferring the Natural Energy into the gourd, and finally, the roots of the Mother Tree went way deep into the ground and absorbed Natural Energy from the Earth Veins.

'So, this Mother Tree can absorb Natural Energy from the Earth Veins!' - after discovering this strangeness, Kuroto was really surprised.

And while Kuroto was thinking about all this, Miko-Sama also came near the lake and spoke, "The first Miko turned herself into the tree after separating from her other half, and the Miko of the further generations have always guarded this valley, in fact, other than the Miko of each generation, nobody in the entire world knows of this place, you are the second one if the legend of the Sage of Six Path is true!"

"It is indeed my honor!" – Kuroto murmured in a daze.

"The Mother Tree produces a Gourd Vine every 30 years and each gourd is an excellent material to create a treasured artifact." – Added Miko-Sama.

"So when will this gourd be ready for the harvest?"

"That's where I said that you were lucky to have come at just the right time, this gourd has fully matured a few months ago, and has been ready for the harvest!" – With a chuckle, she continued, "If you had come at a later date, I might have already used it to make some artifact."

Kuroto was indeed happy but there was a hesitation, how can he take such a precious thing?

Miroku noticed Kuroto's hesitation and spoke, "If you feel uncomfortable about it, then think of this gourd as the payment for the task of eliminating Yomi and his cult from the Land of Demons, that sounds acceptable doesn't it?"

Kuroto nodded, if he was to still deny it, then that would be spitting on the kindness of Miko-Sama, who is akin to a teacher for Kuroto.

With Kuroto's nod, Miroku smiled and plucked off the gourd from the Tree.

As soon as it was detached from the tree, the gourd's color changed from green to cyan and it looked very ordinary from the outside, but after experiencing decades of growth under Natural Energy, it has turned into an extremely rare material.

As per Kuroto's requests, Miko-Sama added Miko's Fuinjutsu on the small gourd which strengthed its Chakra isolating ability and then passed it to Kuroto.

After receiving the gourd from Miko-Sama, Kuroto found that exactly as he wanted; the Chakra isolating ability of the Gourd was extremely strong, so much so that even his Tenseigan Chakra couldn't pass through it.

With that done, Kuroto immediately walked a distance and after placing the gourd before him, he released the Ryuumyaku's seal.

As the Ryuumyaku's seal was lifted, this heavy Chakra pressure of Ryuumyaku immediately swept the entire mountain cave and the heavy wind started rising above.

Whish… Whish… Whish…

Miko-Sama understood that the Ryuumyaku sealed within Kuroto-Kun was about to come out and hid behind a large piece of stone, and only poked half of her from the side to see the appearance of the legendary Ryuumyaku.

At this time, a purple figure emerged out of Kuroto's belly and took the shape into the air.

Undoubtedly, the purple figure was the body of the Ryuumyaku.

Since the Ryuumyaku isn't a real tailed beast, therefore, even if it is extracted from Kuroto's main body, it wouldn't endanger his life, not to mention that spiritually he will still be connected with the Ryuumyaku, so no threat.

The Ryuumyaku that has was no longer subject to the seal restraints immediately swelled rapidly and covered the whole sky, as a result shadowing the entire cave mountain.

"Uh…"

Looking at the chubby figure of Ryuumyaku floating in the air, the Miko-Sama hiding behind the large rock fell into a dazed state for a second as she was reminded of the Moryo, but immediately that feeling went away as there was no maliciousness from this chakra, moreover, she just couldn't feel scared by the chubby and cute figure of Ryuumyaku.

She really didn't expect that the legendary Ryuumyaku would look like this!

From the corner of his eyes, Kuroto looked at Miko-Sama trying to restrain her laughter, and he couldn't help feeling embarrassed about it.

"Fuin!" – Not wanting to think about it, he hurriedly sealed the Ryuumyaku inside the gourd.

Thankfully, there was no resistance from the Ryuumyaku, so as soon as Kuroto cast the seal, it was sucked into the small gourd.

With that completed, Kuroto finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After the seal was completed, Miko-Sama came over and asked while staring at the gourd, "Why does it have that appear-…"

Before Miko-Sama could finish her words, Kuroto hurriedly exclaimed, "I-it was an accident, that's all, I didn't design it like that!"

Miko-Sama chuckled looking at Kuroto's embarrassment, "I didn't know that you have such cute interests, If Shion were to see it, she would definitely love it."

With no retort left to Miko-Sama's teasing, Kuroto could only lower his head to hide the embarrassment and pretend to check the state of the small gourd.

With the Ryuumyaku sealed within the gourd, as long as Kuroto has the small gourd to his side, he can continue to take Chakra from the Ryuumyaku because of his spiritual connection with the Ryuumyaku, therefore, he is still an artificial Jinchuriki.

The only problem would the efficiency, because of the extra layer of isolation thanks to the Gourd, the efficiency would be decreased to a certain extent.

But with no other option available, this is already the best option Kuroto could have asked for at this time, so instead of complaining, he focused on the other issue.

And that is the increased danger of the Ryuumyaku going on a rampage.

Since the Ryuumyaku no longer being sealed within his body, the danger does increase but thanks to the sealing technique placed by Miko-Sama, this danger is still within the acceptable range, and as long as he doesn't excessively use Ryuumyaku's Chakra or completely release Ryuumyaku, the probability of Ryuumyaku running away would be very low.

With that out of the way, since the size of the Gourd is only about as big as a small water bottle, so Kuroto tied a string around it and wrapped the gourd directly around his waist.

With the issue of Ryuumyaku resolved, Kuroto turned towards Miko-Sama and bowed thankfully, "I am again grateful to you for not only helping me but also sharing such valuable information and treasure with me, and I am even more grateful that you see me worthy enough to have your trust. Now, as promised, I will eliminate Yomi and his cult, please give me all the information that you have so that I can immediately get rid of them!"

Miko-Sama smiled kindly and nodded after which she took out a scroll and handed it to Kuroto.

Taking the scroll, Kuroto looked over to see the intel mapping the several possible strongholds of Yomi, including the information about the several main leaders under him. Among them, a character was particularly highlighted with red ink, with the name, Yomi!

...

Read up to Chapter - 324 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

After reading the scroll; Kuroto nodded towards Miko-Sama, "Please rest assured Miko-Sama, I will completely solve your troubles this time."

The Cult worshipping Moryo that has entrenched the Land of Demons is not very strong, even its leader Yomi is at most a Jonin class strength, not someone Kuroto has to worry about. Considering his current strength coupled with the information provided by Miko-Sama, eliminating the entire cult would be a spring breeze.

The only thing he needs to worry about is to make sure that no fish slip the net in this hunt that would again cause her any trouble.

Miko-Sama chuckled, "You know, initially, I was actually thinking of entrusting this as an official task to Konohagakure, but with Kuroto-Kun promising to help with the matter, I guess I wouldn't have to worry about it!"

Kuroto nodded, and with that, after he escorted Miko-Sama back to her temple, he immediately rushed towards the cult's strongholds marked on the map…

…

Mount Myoboku

Jiraiya hurriedly spoke, "Boss, you summoned me so anxiously, what's the matter, the matter with the Kumogakure hasn't been resolved completely, so I don't have much time in my hands!"

Sage Fukasaku jumped on Jiraiya's shoulder and banged his head while he said, "Of course the matter is very important, that is why I brought you here so urgently!"

Jiraiya listened to Sage Fukasaku's words while rubbing the small bump on his head and asked, "What important matter?"

Fukasaku shook his head and explained, "I don't know exactly, but it seems to be about the 'Child of the Prophecy,' you'll know for yourself when you meet Ojiji-Sama!"

"Oh? Alright!" – When it was mentioned that it was about the 'Child of the Prophecy', Jiraiya immediately became serious.

According to the prophecy of the Great Toad Sage, the 'Child of the Prophecy' will become a ninja that will bring great change to the world of shinobi.

Therefore, the Child of Prophecy is a key figure.

And according to what the Great Toad Sage said, that ninja will be Jiraiya's disciple, and the choice will be upon Jiraiya that will determine the direction of the change.

For this reason, Jiraiya has always been traveling around the Shinobi world, in addition to his natural unwillingness to be unbound, there is also the thought of the 'Child of Prophecy' mentioned by the Great Toad Sage.

Although Jiraiya initially believed one of Minato or Nagato to be the 'Child of Prophecy,' but unfortunately, they weren't.

And now that he has been summoned to the Land of Toads for some reason that involves the 'Child of the Prophecy,' so he was immediately very serious and followed after Fukasaku to the hall of Great Toad Sage.

Arriving before Great Toad Sage, Fukasaku jumped down from Jiraiya's shoulder and spoke, "Ojiji-Sama, Jiraiya-Chan is here."

Immediately kneeling before Great Toad Sage, Jiraiya greeted Gamamaru with respect.

Great Toad Sage squinted slightly and spoke with a smile, "Oh, Jiraiya-Chan is here!"

After the greeting, Jiraiya asked urgently, "Ojiji-Sama, have you found the Child of Prophecy?"

Great Toad Sage shook his head.

Jiraiya was a little disappointed and asked, "Then the purpose of summoning me?"

Hearing Jiraiya's question, Gamamaru seemed to suddenly remember something and said slowly, "Not long ago, there were some changes in the prophecy, in my dream, I saw a person with Royal-Blue Eyes."

As soon as he heard this, Jiraiya immediately came back to spirit, "Is he the Child of the Prophecy?"

Gamamaru shook his head again: "Unfortunately I am not sure; this ninja has never appeared in any of my dreams before."

"Royal-Blue Eyes?" – after a pause, Jiraiya frowned and said, "Ojiji-Sama, are there any other clues? Just relying on the clue of 'Royal-Blue eyes' is very difficult to find!"

As if he suddenly remembered something, Gamamaru added, "Ah, he was wearing the forehead protector of your Konohagakure."

"Heh, you should have said so earlier, now it would be much easier to find!" – Jiraiya laughed happily and turned around and was about to leave.

Fukasaku hurriedly stopped Jiraiya, "Wait Jiraiya-Chan, Ojiji-sama hasn't finished yet!"

Since Great Toad Sage wasn't finished yet, he immediately stopped and sat cross-legged, staring straight at Gamamaru.

After a while, the Great Toad sage spoke, "In the subsequent dream, the ninja with the Royal-Blue Eyes never appeared again, not once."

Jiraiya frowned and had a thoughtful expression on his face.

If the ninja with Royal-Blue eyes didn't have some important role that would affect the entire Shinobi World, then the Great Toad Sage wouldn't have mentioned him to Jiraiya.

Now what's troublesome is that this person stopped coming in any more prophecies?

Shima; sitting on the other side of the Great Toad Sage glanced at him and muttered, "Ojiji-Sama must be confused!"

Fukasaku immediately scolded him, "What the hell are you talking about!"

Gamamaru just smiled nonchalantly and then said to Jiraiya, "There must be interference of some power, this ninja is alive, that I can be sure of, but he must be around something that is disturbing my power of prediction!"

After thinking a little, Jiraiya asked again, "Ojiji-Sama, when was it that you first saw him?"

Gamamaru replied, "Not long ago."

Jiraiya asked helplessly, "How long ago was this not long ago?"

Great Toad Sage replied, "Maybe half a year ago, maybe a year ago… I am not so sure…"

The Great Toad Sage has been alive for over a millennium. Time has lost its meaning for him and he isn't much preceptive to the passage of time anymore, therefore it is hard to recall when was it that he exactly saw the ninja with the Royal Blue eyes in his dream.

Shima said, "Did you see, I said that the senile geezer is confused."

At this time, Jiraiya stood up and said, "I understand, if he is really the 'Child of the Prophecy,' I will definitely find him!"

Initially, Jiraiya thought that Nagato who had the Rinnegan similar to the Sage of Six Path is the 'Child of the Prophecy,' but then he heard of Nagato's death, later he thought that his other disciple Minato is the 'Child of the Prophecy' but then Minoto too died.

Although deeply frustrated and saddened, Jiraiya's determination to find the 'Child of the prophecy' has not changed, because Jiraiya firmly believes that only the 'Child of the Prophecy' can finally bring true peace to this war-ridden Shinobi World.

…

Boom…

With a loud door crashing sound, a figure calmly walked into the dark hall.

In the main hall, the leader of the Cult, 'Yomi' turned towards the figure and asked with a dark expression, "Who are you and why do you wish to become an enemy of Yomi!?"

"Yomi?" – with a light snort, the figure continued walking forward and spoke, "The nether world is the resting ground of the fallen, do you think you are worthy, just coz' you are called 'Yomi'?"

Yomi asked sternly, "Just who on Earth are you?"

The other party was covered in a full-body black cloak with golden textual prints, the symbol of Yin at the chest along with the symbols of five Chakra nature spread around the Yin-Yang symbol in a circle at the back, and finally, a black evil spirit mask symbolizing Yin covered his face.

From just one look, he appeared to be a messenger from the Underworld.

The figure chuckled slightly and spoke, "Who am I? I am Yama, the deity of Death, one who rules over the nether world!" – As soon as he finished speaking, Yama appeared next to Yomi with a flicker.

'Too fast!" – Was the only thought that appeared in Yomi's mind, but soon he was confused because a very familiar figure appeared before his eyes, "Hmm, is that me, how come there are two of me?"

But before he could understand what was happening, his consciousness quickly blurred and fell into darkness.

Thud…

Accompanied by the muffled sound, the head that was momentarily floating in the air, and the torso that stood there unfazed, both fell to the ground lifelessly.

...

Read up to Chapter - 326 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Looking at Yomi whose head was separated from his body, Yama frowned slightly and muttered to himself, "Is he dead?"

Although Yama doesn't take Yomi very seriously, his performance as the leader of this cult that worships Moryo has been a bit surprising. Even after they were completely eliminated the last time, but within a short period of around two years, they have already developed so much again, such an accomplishment is kind of difficult to achieve for a simple Chunin or low-class Jonin.

Therefore, Yama was a bit doubtful whether this dead body really belonged to Yomi or not?

'A Body Double? No! Then is it some special type of Shadow Clone?' – This thought flashed in Yama's mind.

The task of elimination of this cult is not a bounty task from the Black Market but a task that he took upon himself to repay Miko-Sama's favor, therefore, Yama can't afford to be perfunctory about it and has to take this very seriously.

Using the Tenseigan, he observer Yomi's corpse while looking at the information in the scroll in his hands that was given to him by Miko-Sama.

This scroll recorded a lot of information about Yomi and after multiple comparisons with the image in the scroll, Yama confirmed that the body lying before him indeed belonged to Yomi.

Finally, he glanced at the corpse to check for any Chakra reaction that might still be left but found nothing which clearly indicated that Yomi was indeed dead.

With that confirmed he thoroughly searched the entire stronghold and even after the complete elimination of the cult, Kuroto didn't find much money.

As expected, they really did store all their money in some secret place or maybe in their Black-Market Vault.

Thinking that he couldn't find any money here, Yama could only sigh helplessly.

The problem of money has been giving him a headache for quite a while.

The Water Clone creation experiment that he has carried out has consumed much of his resources, with Nutrient Solution almost out of stock, along with some other medicinal material that would soon be finished, so he must do everything he can; to get all money he needs to continue with the experiments.

Shaking his head in disappointment, Yama flickered and disappeared from the base; leaving a strange silence at the base.

If not for all the corpses still lying here, nobody would have guessed that there was a massacre in here just a few moments ago.

…

High in the sky.

Hiruko, wearing a high collar black cloak with red clouds on it stood quietly on a large bird, staring into the distance with a clod gaze.

On the side, Shinno sat in a cross-legged position wearing a similar high collar black cloak with red clouds on it and asked calmly, "Did you use that forbidden technique on this Summon Beast?"

The corner of Hiruko's mouth curved and he spoke arrogantly, "What do you think of my masterpiece?"

Shinno smiled, "With this, the traveling has indeed become convenient!"

Hiruko seemed to be happy with Shinno's compliment and snorted with a triumphant look, "This is a synthetic beast I cultivated using a forbidden technique!"

Shinno's eyes flickered and he nodded in admiration, "The forbidden technique you have developed is really amazing!"

Hiruko nodded and immediately asked, "Is the guy we are looking for really as useful as you said?"

Shinno put away his smile and turned serious, "To be honest, that guy isn't very strong, in fact, his personal strength is just average, but the 'The Dark Medical Ninjutsu' he has mastered is extremely useful for both you and me!"

Shinno, who has been traveling in the Shinobi World for over a decade now; has obviously discovered many secrets of the Shinobi World by virtue of his own talent and zeal, and Yomi's 'Dark Medical Ninjutsu' is one of those secret techniques, especially because he too is a Medical Nin, therefore, he is especially aware of the Medical branch.

However, even if he knew of these many secrets, he didn't have much energy to focus on these techniques while preparing to carry out his plan because of being a solo person.

But now that he has joined the Akatsuki Organization, Shinno discovered that with the help of the Akatsuki, many of his plans that he thought he couldn't implement before are now being carried out very smoothly.

This is why he had enough time to search for Yomi's traces and look into the Dark Medical Ninjutsu.

And because of Shinno constantly advocating the Dark Medical Ninjutsu to be extremely useful, even Hiruko has become a bit interested in it.

Hiruko also knows that the Chimera Technique is quite overbearing for the physical body of a shinobi during the fusion process, therefore the caster has to bear an unusually high burden and undergo many synthetic body modifications, to become suitable for the Chimera Technique.

This is because, theoretically, a person can't carry the burden of the Chimera Technique, therefore, the Dark Medical Ninjutsu that Shinno has explained to Hiruko has piqued his interest quite a lot.

And here they are in the Land of Demon, searching for the person who is said to have mastered the Dark Medical Ninjutsu to an unusually high degree.

Before long, the flying beast landed in the stronghold where Yomi should be, as per the information they have collected.

Jumping off the beast's back, Hiruko looked around and said, "It appears that we are a step late!"

From the outside, everything looked normal, but there was a heavy stench of blood permeating the air, clearly telling a tale of some massacre.

Shinno had a gloomy face, "Damn it, who did it?"

The two nodded to each other and walked inside the cave building, on the way, they could see all the corpses lying all over the place, the more inside they go, the thicker the stench.

Not paying much mind to all the corpses, the two observed them and moved on towards the main hall only to find that the said leader of this cult, 'Yomi' too was lying in cold blood with his head separated from his torso.

Hiruko checked his state and said, "Like all the previous ones, cut off by a Kunai, Clean and neat, no use of any extra moves!"

Shinno too nodded in agreement after checking the state, "It seems that the attacker is very strong, this guy couldn't even put up a resistance and suffered heavily!"

Whether it is Shinno or Hiruko, both of them have very high attainment in the study of human anatomy and gross anatomy, and some extent of histology, so just from a rough look; they concluded the process of all the deaths and the strength of the person responsible for this massacre.

The more concerning fact is that all the corpses lying here were dressed similarly, and the method of killing every individual was also the same, that is to say, this wasn't the work of some organization or any team, but only one person was responsible for the said massacre.

However, that didn't cause them to feel sad for the killed, both were sort of disappointed that coming here turned out to be a waste of time.

While Hiruko was busy thinking somethings, Shinno picked up Yomi's head and attached it to Yomi's torso.

Hiruko was confused by this meaningless action and asked with a frown, "What are you doing?"

Shinno just smiled and said, "Well, I want to try something, and see if that's useful!"

"What are you going to do, there are clearly no signs of life in his body?" – Hiruko.

"You think so? Maybe that's indeed the case, but there is no harm in trying once, right? Besides even if he is dead, we can just take his corpse and Sasori could use it as a puppet or we can just give it to the leader Pain, and see if he can do something about him!" – with that said, Shinno used the Forbidden technique of Physical regeneration on Yomi's body, while Hiruko carefully observed Yomi.

Under the effect of the forbidden Jutsu used by Shinno, the head was again reattached to the torso, soon the heart began to pump the blood, pulse returned to normal, the chest began to expand and contract and the air began to flow through the nostrils, clearly indicating all the signs of being alive.

"Phew…" – As soon as he was conscious again, Yomi exhaled a breath of relief.

Hiruko looked at the entire process of Yomi's said, 'Ressurection from the Death' with interest and asked, "Are you Yomi?"

Yomi, who has just regained consciousness looked at Hiruko and Shinno with vigilance and asked alertly, "Who are you?"

Previously, the momentum Yama displayed was very strong, and as soon as he flickered next to Yomi, Yomi realized that he wouldn't be able to defeat or escape that monster, so at the last moment, just before he lost his head, he activated the most secret technique of the Dark medical Ninjutsu, known as the 'The Art of Fake Death,' however, because, Yomi didn't have Moryo's chakra with him, so it took a bit of time to initialize and before he could complete it, he was already in a death state.

'The Art of Fake Death' is one of the most mysterious forbidden secret techniques of the Dark Medical Ninjutsu that erases all the vital signs of the caster and the body enters a suspended state, and as long as the body isn't destroyed it would recover sooner or later.

The period of resurrection is of course quite long and may even take a few months, depends upon the mastery of the caster and his chakra level at the time of casting.

And because Yomi himself doesn't have very high Chakra Volume, so it would have taken him quite a lot of time to be back to life, and that too only if the technique was successfully cast, which was obviously not the case here because his head was already separated from his torso before he could complete the final step.

This is why Yomi was almost dead, after all, no matter how miraculous a Jutsu may be, one can't be brought back to life if his body has already been destroyed.

Therefore, if not for the coincidental arrival of Hiruko and Shinno, that helped him here, the false death would have become a real death.

But no matter how grateful Yomi may have been to the two individuals before him, he was still very vigilant of them because of nearly experiencing death.

Noticing Yomi's vigilant look, Hiruko said coldly, "Hand over the Dark Medical Ninjutsu, we might consider letting you leave!"

Since he was still in a weak state, so Yomi didn't try putting up any resistance and immediately nodded, "Okay, I will teach you Dark Medical Ninjutsu, but in return, you must ensure my safety!"

Shinno asked curiously: "Who was responsible for the massacre here?"

When he thought of the figure with the black full-body cloak and a black evil spirit mask, coupled with that cold and indifferent tone, Yomi couldn't help but shudder and said with a panic, "He… he is a demon!"

Hiruko raised his eyebrow and said condescendingly, "Huh…What demon? Just some guy pretending to be a ghost! Say what is his name? Will he be capable of fighting the 'God'?"

Yomi blankly looked at the two and muttered in a low voice, "H-his name i-is Y-Y-Yama!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 328 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

After completing the task of eliminating Yomi's cult, Kuroto immediately returned to Konoha and directly sneaked into his laboratory.

Now that the Ryuumyaku has been extracted from his body and sealed into the portable Gourd artifact, Kuroto no longer has to worry about the risk of Ryuumyaku going on a rampage while he uses the Tenseigan Soul Descend.

Coming to the laboratory, Kuroto looked at the Kazekage puppet who was standing beside him and thought a little.

'The security of the laboratory cannot be compromised, no matter what!'

This laboratory hides most of Kuroto's secrets, and he must ensure that its safety isn't affected. Therefore, Kuroto must see that the Kazekage Puppet remains active even when Kuroto uses the Soul Descend.

After all, once he uses the Tenseigan Soul Descend to transfer his soul from the main body to the Clone body, the Tenseigan itself will become inactive so Kuroto wouldn't be able to regularly transfer the Tenseigan Chakra to the Kazekage puppet which is required for its working and functioning.

So, after thinking a little, he decided to use another method and that is to seal a large volume of Tenseigan Chakra inside the Kazekage puppet.

This method isn't that uncommon in the Shinobi world.

Just before their death, Yondaime-Sama and his wife Uzumaki Kushina sealed all their remaining Chakra inside the body of their child Uzumaki Naruto, so that they could help Naruto tide over the difficulties in the times of crisis.

And Orochimaru also uses the Curse Seal technique to store his Chakra inside other shinobi as a backhand to ensure his resurrection.

Therefore, Kuroto can also use a Chakra Sealing method to ensure the continuous functioning of the Kazekage puppet.

Being a full-fledged activist, once Kuroto has an idea, he immediately tries it.

With that decision, he turned towards the Kazekage puppet and pressed his right hand on the puppet's chest area, and immediately a huge volume of Tenseigan Chakra flowed along with his right hand and transferred into the Kazekage Puppet.

Instantly, a bluish gleam appeared around the puppet's body.

When the amount of Chakra transferred was more than enough, Kuroto immediately performed the sealing technique.

"The Four-Symbols Seal: Seal!"

With the completion of the sealing technique, a series of black symbols spread around the chest of the Kazekage puppet and quickly contracted into a small size Four-Symbols Seal Technique's symbol on the chest.

When Kuroto was done, he casually asked the puppet while monitoring its state, "So, how do you feel?"

After a short pause, Kazekage Puppet felt it and replied, "Kuroto-Sama, with this amount of Chakra; if I don't partake in any battle, then the continuous functioning will last for about three months give or take."

Kuroto nodded in satisfaction.

Although a period of three months is not very long, it is still more than enough.

As for how long the sealed Chakra will last if the Puppet were to participate in a battle is hard to say, as different amount of chakra is consumed against different opponents, so no one can make an accurate estimation.

And that's not very important for now.

After dealing with this issue, Kuroto immediately used the 'Tenseigan Soul Descend Technique' to transfer his soul into the Clone-A body.

After putting on his clothes, and adjusting the Ryuumyaku Gourd, along with all the necessary tools and his Kusanagi Sword around his waist, Kuroto left the laboratory in his water Clone body.

At its current state, the Clone-A body is obviously far from being perfect to be ready for being used in the Chimera Technique as per Kuroto's standards.

Firstly, he has to let this clone 'which is just an accumulation of the fusion of his and Haku's cells' to adapt to his soul to achieve a Yin-Yang balance between the strength of Soul and Body.

This step is crucial!

If Kuroto doesn't do this, then there wouldn't be any essential difference between the Chimera Technique he plans to use and the one Hiruko plans to.

Secondly, Kuroto has to further cultivate the Water Clone to increase its strength, so that its strength is around the same level as his main body.

The reason for doing this is to have the same Chakra intensity of all seven natures to achieve a perfect balance when fusing them through the Chimera Technique.

Now, this is obviously very difficult because the Water Clone doesn't have the Tenseigan or anything that would help him reach the level as a Super Kage, but meh… there's no harm in trying, anyway, he has a lot of time in his hands, Kuroto will eventually find out some method to compensate.

Only in this way will he be able to reach a perfect balance of seven natures, to reach 'Kekkei Mora.'

Walking out of the Secret Laboratory, Kuroto applied a simple Transformation Technique upon himself to change the color of Clone-A's Black hair into brown; to avoid dealing with unnecessary troubles and came to the Underground residence where Haku was living temporarily.

Seeing Kuroto's arrival, Haku let go of the little rabbit from his hands to the ground and quickly greeted Kuroto, "Kuroto-Sama!"

Kuroto nodded towards Haku and asked, "Are you somewhat used to living here?"

The little rabbit that Haku was playing with was actually a test subject that Kuroto didn't use, and after he met OkinaButa he didn't need to use it anymore.

Initially, he kept it to use it as food, but because Yui loves rabbits very much, so this one was left alive.

Just to make sure that Haku doesn't get bored all the time while he lived in the underground residence, Kuroto decided to bring the little guy here as a playmate for Haku.

Now a rabbit as a playmate may sound strange, but it's still better over nothing.

Haku nodded repeatedly towards Kuroto's question.

With initial greetings out of the way, Kuroto spoke, "Alright, if that's so then it's good, now put Maron in her cage and follow me."

After giving this order, Kuroto turned and left the underground residence.

Haku also put Maron in her cage and quickly followed behind Kuroto and asked curiously, "Kuroto-Sama, are we going to practice ninjutsu?"

The corner of Kuroto's lips curved and he spoke, "Yes!" While he thought silently to himself, 'Unfortunately Haku, you won't, I will be practicing ninjutsu with your help!'

A short while later, Kuroto and Haku came near a lake at the lower reaches of the Naka River, far from the village, and way out of the patrol range, a safe place to practice ninjutsu and not attract unwanted attention.

Coming by the lakeside, Kuroto looked at the sparkling lake water with some emotions, he was reminded of some of his past.

Sighing lightly to not think about it, for now. Kuroto turned towards Haku and spoke, "Haku, at Orochimaru-Sama's place, you must have learned some Water Release Techniques, right?"

Haku nodded ignorantly.

With that confirmation, Kuroto pointed towards the lake and said, "Currently we are near a water body, so you can practice all those ninjutsu to higher proficiency, therefore show me all the Water Release Techniques that you have mastered!"

Haku was a little doubtful, the last time Kuroto ordered him to practice Ice Release Techniques, but how come today he suddenly ordered for him to show Water release Technique?

However, even if the kid was doubtful, he didn't dare refuse or question Kuroto's orders, Haku is still somewhat afraid of Kuroto because of witnessing the battle with Orochimaru.

So, nodding as per Kuroto's orders, Haku walked towards the lake and started printing hand seals to use Water release techniques.

Tiger – Ox – Tiger – Rat: "Water Release: Water Bullet Technique!"

As soon as he finished printing, a large amount of Chakra kneaded in Haku's stomach and he expelled a large quantity of water from his mouth in the form of a torrent towards the lake.

"Hm, a Class-C ninjutsu…" – after a nod, he added, "Continue!"

With Kuroto's order, Haku again started printing hand seals to perform other water-release ninjutsu.

Dragon – Tiger – Hare: "Water Release: Wild Water Wave!"

Dragon – Tiger – Hare: "Water Release: Water Trumpet!"

Ox – Monkey – Hare – Rat – Boar – Bird – Ox – Horse – Bird – Rat – Tiger – Dog – Tiger – Snake – Ox – Ram – Snake – Boar – Ram – Rat – Yang Water – Monkey – Bird – Dragon – Bird – Ox – Horse – Ram – Tiger – Snake – Rat – Monkey – Hare – Boar – Dragon – Ram – Rat – Ox – Monkey – Bird – Yang Water – Rat – Boar – Bird: "Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

'Hooh, Nidaime-Sama's Jutsu?' – thought Kuroto in surprise.

"Water Gun Technique!"

"Water release: Rising Water Slicer!"

After performing five Water Style Jutsu one-after-another even with the help of a water source nearby, Haku was already out of breath.

Kuroto observed him and asked, "Do you know any other Water Release Techniques?"

Haku replied lightly while trying to catch his breath, "I… I can still use the Waterfall Technique, but I don't have enough Chakra left."

"Waterfall Technique!?" – Kuroto was slightly taken aback and asked, "Waterfall Technique is the reduced version of the Great Waterfall Technique, you learned it at such a young age?"

When asked this question, Haku lowered his head and replied, "At Orochimaru-Sama's place… I…if I can't learn ninjutsu, I don't get to have dinner."

Kuroto just smiled at Haku's reply and didn't say much.

This isn't strange or anything new, even Anko-Chan had to suffer from such punishments back when they were training under Orochimaru, thankfully Kuroto was a researcher and had to practice the Hyuga Style Taijutsu, therefore, he wasn't subject to such punishments, but that wasn't the case with Anko, who would repeatedly complain and bad mouth Orochimaru whenever she would meet Yui.

And according to Orochimaru, not giving dinner is just a light punishment, but even such light punishment led Haku to master quite a lot of Water Release Techniques in a short time and at such a young age. This shows that Haku's talent is really exceptional.

'If Haku could become so dangerous and strong with just wandering around as a mercenary under Zabuza's tutelage, then his future achievements will undoubtedly be highly exceptional under Orochimaru's teachings!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 330 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Putting away the unnecessary thoughts, Kuroto looked towards the lake and started printing hand seals.

Tiger – Ox – Tiger – Rat –

As Kuroto completed the hand signs; a very large amount of Chakra kneaded in his stomach and he immediately expelled an extremely large quantity of water from his mouth in the form of a torrent towards the lake.

"Water Release: Water Bullet Technique!"

The torrent of water was shot towards the other side of the lake with a howling sound.

Haku who was standing behind Kuroto was stunned.

This Water Bullet Technique was much superior to the one Haku used, as the diameter of the torrent was easily over two meters.

But Kuroto wasn't finished yet and continued printing hand seals.

Dragon – Tiger – Hare: "Water Release: Wild Water Wave!"

Dragon – Tiger – Hare: "Water Release: Water Trumpet!"

Ox – Monkey – Hare – Rat – Boar – Bird – Ox – Horse – Bird – Rat – Tiger – Dog – Tiger – Snake – Ox – Ram – Snake – Boar – Ram – Rat – Yang Water – Monkey – Bird – Dragon – Bird – Ox – Horse – Ram – Tiger – Snake – Rat – Monkey – Hare – Boar – Dragon – Ram – Rat – Ox – Monkey – Bird – Yang Water – Rat – Boar – Bird: "Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

"Water Gun Technique!"

"Water release: Rising Water Slicer!"

Without any pause, one-by-one Kuroto performed all the other five Water Release techniques in the same order that Haku previously performed.

After the effects of Water Release gradually faded, Haku was left speechless as he looked at the still-raging water in the lake along with the condensed moisture in the air that turned into the fog.

On the other side, Kuroto who just performed six Water Release Ninjutsu not only didn't look any tired but muttered in disappointment, "It looks like it would take some time for the flow of Chakra to become smooth enough in this clone-body."

At this time Haku calmed himself and looked at Kuroto with admiration, "Kuroto-Sama, I didn't expect that you would be so proficient and powerful in using the Water Release!"

Kuroto smiled lightly and spoke, "What amazing? I just learned these from watching you!"

"What!?" – Haku was stunned and immediately asked, "Does that mean, this is the first time you have used Water Release?"

Kuroto nodded, "Indeed, this is the first time I have performed Water Release Techniques, and it appears that it would still take some work for me to gain some proficiency in them!"

When Haku heard Kuroto's words, he couldn't help but look at Kuroto with more admiration.

Although Haku is very young, however, considering that he has awakened the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, therefore, his perception of Water Nature is very high, and he can clearly feel that Kuroto-Sama has a frightening level of Water Nature Chakra within him.

Because of this Haku initially believed that even if Water Release wasn't Kuroto's exclusive and most powerful nature, he would still be quite familiar with Water Ninjutsu.

And now that Haku heard that this is the first time Kuroto has used the Water Release techniques, so it is hard to imagine to what extent will Kuroto grow in just water Release techniques.

After answering a few of Haku's questions, Kuroto didn't explain anymore and said, "Follow me."

With that said, Kuroto jumped on the lake surface and walked towards its center using the Water Walking Technique.

Following Kuroto's order, Haku took a deep breath and carefully stepped on the water surface to keep up with Kuroto.

Water-Walking isn't a difficult task for Haku, especially because of his Kekkei Genkai, but because he is still very young, and the fact that the lake water is still very chaotic, therefore, he has to be a bit careful not to fall over.

…

The upper reaches of the Naka River.

Uchiha Itachi was walking along the river bank with a small backpack on his back.

As he has been growing older, Itachi became more and more aware of the contradiction between the Clan and the Village, the situation after Uchiha Shinichi's defection has only become very restless and it seems that there is no room for peace between the two factions.

The only one still resolved to work between the two parties for peace is Uchiha Shisui, which has somehow maintained a short-term calm.

Perhaps it was because the information about Uchiha Shisui having awakened the Mangekyou was now known to both the faction that both parties are a bit cautious of the other and are hesitating to be the first to make any move, but everyone understands that Shisui wouldn't be able to bridge the rift for forever.

Sooner or later, the two sides will have to reach a conclusion.

Itachi was thinking and walking while waving the short wooden twig in his hand.

"It seems as if one side…" – Before Itachi could complete his sentence a crashing sound echoed from the distance that prompted him to put aside his thoughts for now and focus on the source.

Following the direction of the sound, a hazy mist appeared on the horizon in the distant sky and a beautiful rainbow caught his eye under the sunlight.

'It's beautiful… I wish Izumi could have seen this!' – Looking at the beautiful rainbow, the depressed Itachi had a rare smile on his face.

But now was not the time to think about it, because he soon realized that someone was using powerful ninjutsu in the distance and he quickened his pace to take a look.

Itachi had only taken a few steps and there was another loud noise from the same direction, and this time even the forest appeared somewhat restless as the fierce wind started blowing in the forest along with the birds and beast running away.

'Is anyone fighting by the lake?' – was Itachi's thought while he had almost reached the lake.

Immediately realizing that something was wrong, Itachi hurriedly jumped on the nearest tree.

Crash… Gurgling… sweep…

As soon as he landed and the tree, a huge wave violently came crashing and submerged a part of the surrounding forest in water.

Itachi was shocked, "Who can use such high-level Water Release in Konoha?"

Even though Itachi has always been at the top of his peers, it was still very difficult for him to imagine who could have used such high-level Water Release Jutsu in Konoha, which could almost submerge a part of the surrounding forest.

From what he knows, only Nidaime-Sama would have been capable of such extraordinary feats, other than Senju Tobirama, who has been dead for decades, it was hard to imagine anyone of the Konoha Shinobi having such mastery over Water Release.

…

At the center of the Lake.

Kuroto took a deep breath while thinking, 'Using Haku's cells has clearly made the Water affinity of this clone incredibly terrifying!'

Unlike Kuroto who was still very calm and analyzing the clone's attributes, Haku on the side had a look of horror as he tried not to keel over, barely supporting himself by clutching the end of Kuroto's robe.

He didn't expect that when Kuroto-Sama tried his best, the result would be so terrifying.

Pitter… Patter…

He didn't have much time to calm himself as it started raining heavily.

Looking up at the sky, Haku found that the increased moisture in the air condensed into thick clouds covering the previously sunny sky with a gloomy look and rained down heavily.

Even Kuroto was slightly embarrassed and scratched the side of his cheek awkwardly, "Uh, it seems I went a little overboard."

Whatever may have been the result, but Kuroto has confirmed that the Water affinity of this Clone is unparalleled, exactly as he intended.

So with the unparalleled Water Chakra affinity, additionally he had Ryuumyaku Gourd to provide continuous Chakra Support coupled with the presence of many water sources nearby, the power of ninjutsu used by the Water Clone-A was in full display and went to the extent that even Kuroto was a little surprised.

Now that the water level in the lake has increased so much, Kuroto also realized that it might have attracted some attention.

Such movements would obviously be noticed so without any more delay, Kuroto immediately picked up the dazed Haku and disappeared.

As soon as Kuroto's figure disappeared, Itachi appeared on the lake.

Seeing that the water surface of the lake has increased so much that has caused the surrounding forest to be submerged and the pitter-patter of rain that only hit this area while the other side still had the sun shining brightly changed Itachi's expression to a more serious one.

While looking around his surroundings to find some clue as to the cause of this commotion, four figures that were dressed in Anbu Black Cloak appeared by the lakeside.

Glancing at the young kid on the side, the captain of the squad asked, "Are you the one responsible for this?"

Itachi shook his head, "No, I just came here!"

The Anbu captain nodded, and before he could ask any further, Itachi hurriedly told him everything he knew.

After listening to Itachi's narration, the Anbu captain was also a little nervous.

Judging from the situation around, it does seem as if a fierce battle took place here not long ago, and the two sides fighting in the battle have to be extremely powerful ninjas, from what he can guess, both the sides would be around the level of a Jonin.

But the Anbu captain was also a little confused as to why are there no signs of use of any other element. It couldn't have been that both the side only fought using the Water Release techniques, right?

The situation is both weird and dangerous, so it would best be reported to Hokage-Sama as soon as possible.

The troubled times in Konoha haven't been solved yet, so such unusual movements could be quite disturbing, reporting it to Hokage-Sama as soon as possible is the best course of action.

After a light sigh, he spoke, "The opponent may have not gone too far, it is still dangerous here, you should go back to the village quickly!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 334 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

After dropping Haku back to the underground residence, Kuroto returned to his secret laboratory.

Although his actions went a little overboard in using the Water Ninjutsu and attracted some attention, Kuroto was still very satisfied with Clone-A's water chakra affinity.

While recording data, Kuroto planned the next step.

It is quite unclear as to why was the creation of Water Clone went unexpectedly smooth. Perhaps it could be related to the high fusion compatibility between his and Haku's cells or maybe somehow related to the stability of the Water Element.

As for why is the affinity of the Water Clone so high?

Kuroto does have a conjecture, and it's probably because of the active genes of his main body, but he can't be sure about it until more test results are obtained, but it is still the most logical explanation.

In short, whatever may be the reason, the experiment of Water Clone Creation went better than Kuroto's initial expectations.

'Now the next thing I have to focus on is the adaption of Soul with the clone-Body!'

After recording all the data, Kuroto thoughtfully closed the data scroll in his hand.

The process of achieving soul and body balance is a water milling work, simply put, it would require Kuroto to stay in the Clone body for a long time.

Only by spending time in the clone body will the fit be perfect.

According to Kuroto's estimation, as long as his soul just resides in the clone body for three years, then the clone would become a perfect fit.

Three years is obviously too long!

Based on the 'three years calculation,' it would take a total of eighteen years to obtain a perfect body soul fit with the six different clones of six different chakra natures.

Eighteen years doesn't seem too long to become the supreme God of the Shinobi World by achieving Kekkei Mora but considering that the Fourth Great Shinobi War broke out about fourteen to fifteen years later as per the original timeline, Kuroto obviously doesn't have eighteen years in his hand.

And taking the Butterfly effect into account, Kuroto thinks that he doesn't even have fourteen years in his hand.

So, speeding up the process is the only option.

Holding his chin, Kuroto thought about it a little.

In addition to simply spending time in the Clone body, participating in battles can also increase the adaption speed between the body and soul.

This is because, during a battle, the body and soul are under constant high-speed rotation; therefore, the speed of adaption increases several times.

And Kuroto knows that the shinobi world may lack anything but there would never be a shortage of battles!

Having made up his mind, Kuroto planned his further actions with this decision.

Since the fighting style of the Water Clone is completely different from the Yin Body, therefore, Kuroto can't continue to use the 'Yama' disguise while in this body.

Therefore, Kuroto spent a lot of time preparing another disguise for the Water Clone.

The base was kept similar to the 'Yama' disguise, a full-body Midnight Black cloak with the golden pattern over it, which was again complex sealing symbol Kuroto sewed with Gold Thread, then a symbol of Water element around the chest part, and five symbols of the basic chakra element printed in a circle around the Yin-Yang symbol at the center at the back.

Finally, a Blue Evil Spirit Mask to symbolize the Water Element, of course, the mask again had the complex sealing symbols on the inner side to interfere with the perception and search type ninjutsu.

Donning the Cloak and the mask over his vest, Kuroto looked at his image in the mirror and nodded in appreciation, and finally muttered, "Since this is Water Clone, then I will need another alias, hmm…, how about 'Suijin'? The Shinto God of Water! Yup, Suijin seems alright! Yosh, Suijin it is!"

With that decided, Kuroto left a Shadow Clone in the Village and secretly sneaked out of Konoha as 'Suijin'.

…

1 Week later.

Suijin kicked the corpse lying before him with a disappointed expression.

In order to increase the soul adaptation with the Clone body, Suijin took a bounty mission from the black market.

The bounty mission clearly stated that the target is a Jonin class missing-nin from Kusagakure, but the result highly disappointed Suijin.

"What Jonin, this guy is barely even a Chunin!"

It took only two small moves to solve the target.

Puff…

While Suijin was cleaning up the battlefield, the familiar figure of Kasai emerged with a puff of white smoke.

As soon as the orange cat emerged out of the white smoke, it stretched out its paw and demanded,

"Meow, One Thousand Ryo!"

Suijin immediately had an annoyed face, "Can't you change the opening sentence?"

Kasai hesitated a little and finally nodded with a determined expression as if it had put a great deal of effort to follow his request, "Aright, but you have to increase the money!

Suijin immediately denied, "Forget it, I suddenly found out that I like your opening line very much, you must never change it for the rest of your life!"

With that said, Suijin passed the money and took the communication scroll, and opened it.

"The mysterious person the organization has been looking for was never found!"

"Recently, the organization has been eying a bounty ninja with the name 'Yama'"

"That freak Kakazu said that this 'Yama' is very mysterious and very strong, and strangely enough, until now the organization hasn't found any leads on him even after so much investigation, there is simply no trace."

"Rather than questioning how strong the bounty ninja can be, I tend to think that how can a strong person become a bounty ninja? it's quite strange that this 'Yama' guy is working as a bounty ninja if his strength is as strong as Kakazu says, don't you think so boss!?"

Suijin nodded while reading the last sentence. Indeed, as Shinichi spoke, generally strong Shinobi wouldn't opt to work as black-market bounty hunters, this is very simple because either they don't need to due to being affiliated to some shinobi villages or they can just establish their own small villages or organization.

The reason why he is working as a bounty ninja because his Anbu identity doesn't allow him to take on simple missions, and he will also be under the Village's monitoring.

Anyway, after sending away the greedy cat, Suijin sealed the corpse in a storage scroll and went to the nearest black-market branch.

As usual, the branch was hidden with a cover of a bar, Suijin directly went inside, confirmed the password, and placed the corpse before the branch boss, and added, "Bring me the latest edition of your mission book!"

The branch boss passed over the mission book and got busy with the processing work.

After some time, the boss asked tentatively, "Suijin-Sama, what is your relationship with Yama-Sama?"

Because the dress code of both 'Yama' and 'Suijin' is very similar with only slight differences, therefore, the boss was a bit curious. After all, 'Yama' has gained a very high reputation in the black-market Circle.

Suijin didn't look up, just replied casually, "'Yama' is our leader!"

As soon as he heard this, the black-market boss immediately became more diligent, even a Shinobi Village doesn't dare to take a group of organized and powerful Ninjas lightly, let alone him, who is just a small man with not much power.

What's more, it is believed that Yama's strength is very high, so this Suijin must also be extremely strong if he belongs to the same organization. Therefore, the other party is definitely not someone, the black-market boss could afford to offend.

While the Black-market boss intended to immediately process the bounty, Suijin, who was flipping through the pages of the mission booklet suddenly stopped as he perceived a strong chakra signature approaching him.

Byakugan…

Turning his head to look in the direction after activating his Byakugan, he observed the two people dressed in the iconic black cloak with red cloud prints over it; slowly walking towards the black-market branch…

...

Read up to Chapter - 336 on * Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

"Akatsuki?"

Suijin was slightly surprised when he noticed who the other party was, he didn't expect that not long ago Uchiha Shinichi passed him the information about the Akatsuki searching for his Yin-body disguise, 'Yama' and now he has run into two of Akatsuki members

After thinking a little while the two of the Akatsuki members were calmly coming towards the Black-market branch, Suijin decided to walk out and quietly stand on the street.

As soon as Suijin walked out of the gate, the two members of the Akatsuki noticed Suijin wearing the black cloak and an evil spirit mask, they immediately stopped and faced off the other party.

The pedestrians passing by also noticed the strangeness of the two parties.

Whether it was the two members of the Akatsuki, wearing a matching black cloak with red cloud prints, coupled with Kasa with two bells, or Suijin wearing a black cloak with golden sewing, water symbol print around the chest along with an evil spirit mask, don't look the kind of people you would wanna mess around with, so the pedestrians quickly ran away from here as soon as possible.

In just a few moments the bustling and noisy street became silent.

At this time, the two members of the Akatsuki took off their hats and asked, "Are you the bounty-nin 'Yama'?"

After a short silence of observing the two, Suijin spoke with a light chuckle, "Unfortunately, you have found the wrong person, I am Suijin."

Of the two members of the Akatsuki, Suijin is only familiar with one, the other looked like some ordinary middle-aged dude that can't recognize even after searching his memories for a long time, therefore, Suijin reached the conclusion that this unknown middle-aged member must have died before the beginning of the plot in the original story.

Kakaku frowned, and spoke in a deep voice, "Suijin!? Huh, are you trying to fool me?"

When he heard Kakazu say so, Suijin immediately understood that Kakazu must have memorized the details of his 'Yama' disguise and became confused with the current one, therefore, Kakazu thought that he was 'Yama', so pointing at his mask, Suijin spoke, "You can clearly see this thing here, I am Suijin, not Yama! But if you have some entrustment for him, you can tell me about it, I'll pass on the message to him!"

After noticing the small detail, the second Akatsuki member murmured in Kakazu's ear, "His mask is different from the one 'Yama' wears, and look at that Cloak too, the symbol around the chest is that of Water, not Yin, so he shouldn't be Yama, but I think that they both should be members of the same organization."

Kakazu's attitude remained calm and he questioned in a condescending tone, "Tell me where I can find 'Yama' along with all the information about your organization!"

Kakazu knew just how many freaks are part of the Akatsuki, so he didn't really put any other organization or a Shinobi Village in his eyes.

Can the Kage of any village defeat PAIN?

NO!

Is Kakazu himself afraid of any Kage?

NO!

So does he fear them?

Obviously NO!

Hearing Kakazu's question, Suijin just shrugged, "Come on, catch me and you'll know everything!"

Kakazu said coldly, "You want to die that badly?"

Without any more nonsense, Suijin turned to the side and dashed away from the town.

There are many civilians in this town, and if Suijin fights the Akatsuki duo here, the town would most certainly be destroyed along with the death of many civilians, even if he tries to restrain himself.

Now it's not that Suijin cares about the civilians or anything, but involving ignorant people in a serious mess is not something he wants to do unless he has no other choice, therefore, leading the Akatsuki duo out of the town is the best course of action.

It seems as if Kakazu also understood Suijin's approach, and being the leading figure in the Black-market Circle, he didn't want the branch to be destroyed because of his fighting so he immediately chased out of the town.

Seeing that the three people went out of the town to resolve their issues, the Black-Market Bounty Exchange Master Zengei, breathed a long sigh of relief, "Fortunately, the three of them didn't fight here…"

…

In the forest outside the town.

Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…

Accompanied by the sound of breaking wind, the three figures appeared in the forest, one-after-another.

Suijin kept one hand on his waist, he was sort of excited to fight Kakazu.

Although the ranking of the various Akatsuki members based on their strength is actually very controversial as different people believed one to be stronger than the other, putting all that aside, Kakazu's personal strength is unquestionable.

Being the oldest shinobi alive, the mere wealth of his experience of going through thousands of battles alone makes him a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention he and Hidan captured the Nibi and Nanabi.

Even if it was Team-10 together with Kakashi, they couldn't suppress Kakazu and would have surely died if not for Team-7 to arrive as reinforcement at the right time.

In fact, Kakashi's heart would have also become Kakazu's if not for Naruto!

At that time, Kakashi was the most elite ninja of Konoha excluding the two Sannin.

From these feats alone one can imagine just how strong Kakazu actually is, after all, being able to catch two Tailed beasts is not a joke!

And since the soul is currently in Suijin-body, so he can't use the Tenseigan, therefore facing Kakazu is a very difficult challenge for him.

But that's good because the challenges are exactly what he needs now!

Coming all the way here, Kakazu said impatiently, "I really don't like myself to get involved with anyone when I don't gain something from them, sigh, I'll give you one last chance, either you hand over all the information about 'Yama' and I spare your life, or you can die here; your choice!"

Suijin didn't bother answering and directly printed hand seals:

"Water Release: Water Severing Slash!"

Whish…

A high-pressure thin jet of water immediately spouted out of Suijin's mouth and directly went towards the Akatsuki duo with an extremely fast pace.

Both Kakazu and another member jumped away, avoiding the Severing Water Slash.

Slash… Slash… Slash…

The thin jet of water was extremely sharp and immediately cut off the trees in the path.

After dodging the first attack very closely both Kakazu and the second guy got ready for battle with a serious expression

The Water Severing Slash that Suijin used is the weakened version of the Nidaime Hokage's Water Severing Wave, and the power displayed by this Water Severing Slash was not any inferior to a Class-A ninjutsu, Chidori!

From the first tentative attack itself, Kakazu understands that the opponent could be a bit tricky and unbuttoned the Akatsuki cloak, revealing his rag-doll-like stitched body held together by hundreds of thick black threads, and four animal masks that were sewn onto his back.

'Taking out the big guns so soon?' – thought Kuroto, and murmured in a low voice, "Heh, should I be proud of myself or curse myself?"

Roar…

With a roar, the four white masks with threads separated from Kakazu's back and scattered around.

'Earth Grudge Fear, the Secret Forbidden Technique of Takigakure!' – As soon as the four masks came out, Suijin observed them with his Byakugan.

In the Byakugan Vision, he could see that these Masks gave off a Bad Chakra, and somehow, each of them possessed independent Chakra sources, which was rather strange and not so at the same time.

While Suijin was observing the masks, the other nameless Akatsuki member armed with a long sword rushed forward.

Not bothering to turn aside, Suijin just printed hand seals and tapped his foot:

Tiger – Snake – Rat – Snake – Tiger –

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"

In an instant, a wall of water rises from the ground and blocked the nameless individual's Kenjutsu attack.

At the same moment, a hand passed through the water wall and clutched the nameless kenjutsu user's throat, and traps him in the Water Prison Technique!

The whole process just took a single breath and the nameless member was already captured, in fact, the process went too smoothly that even Suijin couldn't believe it!

However, while Suijin was dazed, the surrounding light dimmed, and a dazzling electric current rushed towards him.

'Lightning Release: False Darkness!'

Suijin subconsciously shielded against the attack by putting the trapped Akatsuki member before him to block the attack.

Zizi…

However, the sheer force of the False darkness was extremely destructive, so even though, Suijin somehow blocked the attack, he was still paralyzed by it because the lightning was conducted through the water!

Dropping the corpse of the nameless Akatsuki member, Suijin immediately leaped back and landed on the nearby tree while gritting his teeth to resist the paralysis effect.

Looking at the Akatsuki member who had fallen to the ground and died, Suijin couldn't help but snort, "Huh, aren't you a bit cruel to your partner, well what do I know, it only makes things easier for me!"

Kakazu was not affected by Suijin's words and just flashed a Glasgow smile, "With the obstruction removed, you will be the next!"

...

Read up to Chapter - 338 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Listening to Kakazu's cold words, Suijin was reminded that throughout his time at Akatsuki, Kakazu did indeed changed several of his partners by killing them in fits of rage, and it wasn't until he was teamed up with Hidan did the duo lasted together for a long while; simply because Kakazu couldn't get rid of, or kill off Hidan due to the dude being sort of immortal, thus their the two became famous as the Zombie Combo.

'This shows that the weak will never be safe, even if one joins the Akatsuki, he/she wouldn't be able to survive if he/she is weak!' – Sighing deeply, Suijin no longer cared about the nameless Akatsuki member who lied on the ground in cold, instead focused his attention on Kakazu.

The full brunt of the Lightning ninjutsu was bored by the Akatsuki member, but Suijin was also affected by the paralyzing effect of the lightning attack so body movement was a bit difficult.

Kakazu obviously understood Suijin's current situation, so without wasting any time to let the other party recover, he directly closed the distance between the two.

At the same time, the four mask monsters also surrounded Suijin from the four sides.

Suijin immediately printed hand seals,

Tiger – Ox – Monkey – Rabbit – Ram – Boar – Ox – Horse – Monkey – Tiger – Dog – Tiger – Snake – Tiger – Ox – Monkey – Rabbit – Bird –

"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

With the launch of Suijin's ninjutsu attack, a huge amount of water was expelled high into the air from his mouth, and after reaching high enough, it cascaded down towards Kakazu, in the form of a giant waterfall.

Kakazu's expression shrank and for the first time in a long while he showed a surprised expression.

The power of this Great Waterfall Technique was far beyond what he expected from the other party.

Even in a place with no water source nearby, the opponent could perform such a largescale Water Style Jutsu, in Kakazu's experience of over 70 years, not many people can do such a thing.

Although Kakazu was surprised, that didn't delay his reaction. He tapped his foot on the ground as a result a high mud wall rose to defend against the Great Waterfall technique

At this time, the thread monster with the red pattern mask opened its mouth and spewed out a countless barrage of fireballs.

Seeing the incoming fireballs, Suijin immediately printed hand seals and shouted,

"Water Release: Multiple-Water Dragon Technique!"

Instantly; multiple small water dragons appeared around Suijin and directly faced off against the Fireballs barrage.

Boom… Boom… Boom…

The fireballs and the multi-water dragons collided against each other with booming sounds and producing high-pressure steam that covered the forest in a thick mist.

It didn't take even a few seconds and a wind release Jutsu was fired off by another mask:

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

The attack was strong enough to blow away most of the steam covering the area, damaging the leftover Water Dragons, and also throwing away Suijin by the resultant pressure.

The Water Dragons collapsed and fell to the ground with water crashing sound while Suijin crashed on a tree branch and held himself by the support of his legs.

But he didn't have the time to recollect himself as at this moment Kakazu jumped to the adjacent tree branch and punched Suijin right in the face.

While still hanging on the tree upside down, Suijin hurriedly took out a Kunai to meet the incoming punch.

Ding…

The metal Kunai couldn't cut through Kakazu's hand and produced a harsh collision sound.

Obviously, Kakazu has used the Earth Spear technique in this attack that Suijin could judge based on the dark color of Kakazu's arm, giving it a diamond hardness.

Using this opportunity while Kakazu retracted his arm, Suijin leaped back using the offset momentum while thinking, 'This guy is really so strong!'

This time Kakazu didn't immediately pursue but pointed towards Suijin who was still in mid-air and stretched his arm that separated from the joint and extended towards the leaping Suijin.

The black threads extended and quickly shot Kakazu's arm towards Suijin in midair.

Being in midair Suijin couldn't avoid it, so he attempted to spew out a jet stream from his mouth to dodge the incoming hand, however, the enemy was faster than him, as a result, Suijin was caught by the two arms that clutched his neck tightly.

With the other party caught, Kakazu slowly retracted his arm and brought Suijin before him.

When his arms were again back to joint, he held Suijin by the neck and said indifferently, "Boy, your strength is definitely not weak, but it's about time we finish this game, now tell me all you know about Yama and I can still let you live!"

While desperately waving his legs in a struggle, Suijin suddenly stopped putting any resistance and said with a grinning tone, "G-guess, wi-will I… I spare y-your life?"

As soon as he comprehended what the other party meant, Kakazu's expression shrank, "You ar-… SHIT!"

Boom… Boom… Boom…

Before Kakazu's words fell, a series of violent explosions occurred centered around Suijin who was held by Kakazu.

Flying out of the range of the explosion with some burns and injuries, Kakazu coughed violently while looking for the bastard's figure.

At this moment, another Suijin came out from behind a tree and said thoughtfully, "Hooh, even such a close-range explosion couldn't hurt you, you really are, as they say, The Immortal Kakazu!"

"I have to say, you aren't half bad either, using an exploding clone to deal with me, huh, it seems that I was underestimating you!" – The unusual green irides with no pupil or sclerae stared at the masked individual and spoke, "It was when the steam covered the battlefield that you substituted yourself with a Clone!"

Suijin smiled and tilted his head sideways as he in a comical tone, "As expected of someone with your vast experience, you figured it out in an instant!"

"Very well, I want to see to what extent can you keep up!" – With this sentence, Kakazu's eyes became sharper.

At this moment Kakazu understood that from the beginning the other party never got serious, and the act of using the multiple water dragons to face off the fireball barrage was not just to defend but also to obscure his field of vision with the resultant mist and create a clone, to obtain a recovery time.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that Kakazu was playing exactly in the hands of his opponent, it is only thankful that he didn't actually deactivate the Earth Spear Technique that Kakazu was able to withstand the exploding clone without any damage, but playing into the others hand is very embarrassing for him.

…

Somewhere near the Land of Fire.

Uchiha Shinichi and Biwa Juzo were sitting in front of a bonfire.

While stretching his waist, Shinichi complained in annoyance, "Pain wants us to find some mysterious person all over the world, but we don't even know what the mysterious person looks like, tell me, isn't this a bit ridiculous!? For all you know, Yama could be anyone, in fact, some neighbor, and we wouldn't know, coz' the guy wears a freaking mask, how are we supposed to recognize him when he appears before us without the mask?"

Biwa Juzo, sitting on the side leaned against a rock boulder, unperturbed by Shinichi's ranting.

He didn't react to Shinichi's complaining at all, and it seemed as if he was already accustomed to Uchiha Shinichi's daily grumpiness.

While the two were sitting, suddenly a thought wave was transmitted to the two people's minds.

Immediately Shinichi curled his lips and said, "Now what does the leader want!?"

Biwa Juzo didn't say much, just made a few hand seals and muttered, "The Magic Lantern Body Technique, Connect!"

As soon as the two used the Magic Lantern Body technique, their thought waves were converted into illusionary projection and appeared inside a cave.

The cave looked gloomy and dark with the face of a wooden statue that looked very strange with nine closed eyes and an open mouth that contained a large scroll between its teeth.

The illusionary projection appeared on one of the fingers of the statue.

Coming back to the familiar site, Uchiha Shinichi looked around and discovered that in addition to him and Biwa Juzo, the leader of the Organization has also brought two other Akatsuki members.

Pain who stood on the thumb of the right hand said, "Kakazu's team has encountered a powerful enemy in the territory of the Land of fire, from the report, Zetsu has delivered, the other person is somehow related to 'Yama', Orochimaru, Sasori, Uchiha Shinichi, and Biwa Juzo, the four of you are nearest to Kakazu's location. I want the four of you to go after him and immediately capture the other party alive!"

Shinichi said, "Huh, from the looks of it, Kakazu appears to be a strong guy, I didn't expect that the ragdoll couldn't even handle another Bounty ninja!"

Orochimaru's gaze stayed on Shinichi for quite a while before he turned towards Pain and asked, "Is the other person 'Yama'?"

Pain shook his head, "There is no detailed information about the other party, only that he is related to 'Yama', therefore, you are to go after him!"

At this time, Sasori in his Hiruko puppet questioned, "Location?"

After telling the four people the location of Kakazu, Pain said, "Disband!"

Immediately the spiritual projection disappeared from the cave…

...

Read up to Chapter - 340 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

The ninjas in the traditional Akatsuki Cloak were running fast towards the Land of Fire. Their movement speed was so fast that they left a trail of afterimages behind, the ordinary civilians who saw them couldn't help but be dazed for a while thinking that what they saw was probably some sort of hallucination.

While running, Uchiha Shinichi said to his partner next to him, "Do you think that the lead this time would be worth making us rush all the way!?"

The members of the Akatsuki have been searching all over the world to find any useful information about the mysterious hunter-nin named 'Yama' for a while now, Uchiha Shinichi and Biwa Juzo have already been searching through the Land of Fire with no leads whatsoever till now.

Therefore, this pointless task has been annoying the hell out of Shinichi for quite some time now.

Biwa Juzo just shook his head helplessly while stating, "Who knows…?"

In Juzo's eyes, finding that mysterious person is not necessarily a pointless thing.

After all, someone who could make the leader a bit interested must be extraordinary, and this is clearly reflected with the fact that there has been no information about him anywhere whatsoever.

Therefore, Akatsuki should have some information about this mysterious person.

After passing through a forest, Shinichi looked towards the distance and asked, "That should be the town that Pain mentioned, right?"

Juzo looked forward and nodded, "Hmm, that's the one!"

After entering the town, the two immediately went towards the direction of the Black-market branch to find the Bounty Exchange Officer and asked, "Which direction did Kakuzu go?"

Zengei didn't dare to conceal anything so after giving out the information he quickly pointed in the direction where Suijin and Kakuzu had left, "Kakuzu-Sama and Suijin-Sama have left in that direction!"

"Suijin!?" – Shinichi frowned but doesn't the information states that it should be 'Yama'?

Zengei explained with a wry smile, "It is indeed Suijin-Sama, who is fighting against Kakuzu-Sama, and according to Suijin-sama, 'Yama' is their leader!"

Zengei understands that whether it is the organization that Kakuzu is part of or the organization that Suijin is part of, both doesn't seem easy to provoke, so he only hopes to not get involved any further in the personal issues of these two organizations because his heart wouldn't be able to take it!

Listening to Zengei mention the other organization, Shinichi chuckled in intrigue, "Hooh, the other party is also a part of some organization!?"

Juzo said with a serious face, "Come on, let's go!"

After leaving the town, the two of them went in the direction pointed by the bounty exchange officer and soon found the distant sky covered in black clouds with occasional Lightning and Thunder sounds.

"Hm? That's strange, why are the clouds only in that area?" - Shinichi muttered curiously

"The clouds do seem strange, the altitude is also very low, my guess is that they are the result of unnatural phenomenon, possibly produced due to someone fighting in that area, so Kakuzu should be there!" – A shinobi with a wealth of experience who has survived even the encounter with the Gate of Death was quick to judge.

At this time, Shinichi turned his gaze to the side and said, "Someone is coming!"

Juzo was immediately alert, "Is it the enemy?"

After feeling a bit, Shinichi added, "Don't worry, the two are Orochimaru and Sasori."

Without making them wait much, Orochimaru and Sasori's figure appeared before the two.

Orochimaru glanced at Shinichi and said with a hoarse voice, "Aren't you two a bit slow?"

Ignoring Orochimaru's sentence Juzo pointed towards the rain cloud in the distance and said, "It seems that Kakuzu and this 'Suijin' guy are fighting there…"

The young figure of Sasori who was standing atop of a tree turned over and said with a chiseled grin, "The movement there is really big, the other party seems to be a good puppet material."

Shinichi was disgusted by Sasori's antics and snorted coldly, "Baka, Pain ordered us to capture the other person alive, I am afraid that you can't have your fun here!"

…

On the Battlefield.

The steam produced by the continuous collision of Water and Fire filled the entire surrounding forest in a thick cover of mist and the light drizzle from the rain clouds… giving a hazy look to the battlefield.

At this time, Suijin crouched on the ground looking around carefully.

Several of the mud spikes immediately rose from the ground, but before they could reach high enough, a severing slash of water cut through all the spikes around a three-sixty degree with Suijin at the center.

Kakuzu was surprised, the battle between the two has been going on for quite a while now and yet neither side has been able to gain the upper hand, the more he fights the other party the more he has realized that the other party has an amazing degree of Water Nature Release mastery.

From start to finish, the opposite party hasn't used any Chakra Nature other than Water Release.

This made Kakuzu conclude that Suijin as the name suggests has Water Chakra as his only Nature, but even if he lacks any other element, the degree of Water Release alone is amazing.

While Kakuzu was thinking this, Suijin was also analyzing his situation.

After this short confrontation with Kakuzu, Suijin found out that dealing with Kakuzu isn't as easy as he initially thought, this guy is way too cautious and isn't leaving any opportunity for him to destroy those masks.

With the combination of the four masked thread monsters, Kakuzu can use all five basic Chakra Release with various combinations, that adding with Kakuzu's undead ragdoll body and unpredictable Taijutsu style combined with his experience and cautious plus cunning nature makes him a fierce enemy to deal with.

The most troublesome thing is that the black thread monsters can fly in the air and their cooperation is very tacit making it more difficult for Suijin to destroy them.

Even with all that trouble, Suijin has still managed to keep the battle to equal grounds which is a big thing considering that he only uses the Water Release.

'I guess I have had my fun for now and it's about time I retreat!' – thought Suijin, as the amount of refined Ryuumyaku Chakra he has access to without the Tenseigan purifying it is reaching the limit, if he uses too much of Ryuumyaku chakra, there are chances that the petrification effect will start to appear.

What's more, his purpose was only to fight a fierce battle for faster soul and body adaptation, as for whether he could kill Kakuzu, it was totally unimportant to him for now, in fact, Suijin himself isn't very confident in killing Kakuzu at this point because he knows that the moment two or more of Kakuzu's hearts are destroyed, he would become extremely cautious and choose to retreat immediately, thus the fact that Suijin knows the effective method to break his immortality will be known to Kakuzu, which isn't something Suijin wants the other party to be aware of until Suijin is sure to kill the guy.

While Suijin was planning to retreat, the thread monster with blue lines on the mask found Suijin's trail and immediately opened its mouth to release a lightning ball.

"Hmm?" – Suijin jumped up and avoided the attack.

Earth release had obvious restraints on water, as water breaks when facing the earth, whether it is Earth Wall or Body Hardening, these ninjutsu's have a natural restraint, even though Suijin's Water Release is extremely overbearing because of high-intensity Water Nature Chakra, but the proficiency is still far from reaching Senju Tobirama's level.

But in the face of Kakuzu who can use all five chakra natures with equal proficiency, more and more faults and lack of experience in using Water release are starting to come to light as the battle continues.

After landing behind a tree, Suijin observed the four-thread monsters with the Byakugan as finding their position is an easy task for him, and turning his head downwards, he also spotted Kakuzu hiding within the Earth.

Now, this was the perfect opportunity for him to retreat while Kakuzu hid inside the Earth, however, the moment he was about to flicker away, he noticed the arrival of several chakra sources coming straight towards them with an explosive speed.

Moreover, Suijin knows who these Chakra sources belong to, at least, he recognizes the three of them.

And without making him wait for long, the four figures appeared on the four sides one after another.

And seeing those familiar faces, Suijin couldn't help but smile bitterly while thinking to himself, "Is it possible that my good luck days are finishing? How come the Akatsuki teams have come here together!?

...

Read up to Chapter - 342 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments

Standing atop a tree, Uchiha Shinichi stood with hands folded around his chest and snorted, "Yare-yare, Kakuzu, you can't even clean up such a low-level guy?"

At this moment Kakuzu appeared out of the ground as if he wasn't exhausted in the slightest and said with an irritated tone of voice, "You think this guy is that easy to deal with, then why don't you try?"

Biwa Juzo, carrying his loyal Kobikiribocho on his shoulder commented after observing the battlefield, "I would say that not even many Shinobi of Kirigakure would have such high-level mastery of Water Release!"

Listening to Kakuzu and Juzu's words, Sasori said eagerly, "You think? In that case, I will deal with him, I am very interested in him, I want to examine if he a good puppet material!"

While the last person, Orochimaru lazily leaned against a tree, observed Suijin for a while then lost his interest, and his gaze shifted towards Uchiha Shinichi, as he licked his lips in fascination!

Ordinary ninjas, even if they are a bit stronger don't interest Orochimaru anymore, what he cares more about are those precious Mangekyou Sharingan inside Uchiha Shinichi's eye sockets.

'As I thought, it's Orochimaru, Shinichi, Sasori, and finally Biwa Juzo…' – thought Suijin. Aside from Biwa Juzo, Suijin was already aware of Orochimaru, Shinichi, and Sasori because he recognized their Chakra signature.

And Suijin standing in the center being surrounded by five Akatsuki members felt a little helpless.

All of them were looking down on him, which was something he didn't like, so he jumped on a tree and stood at the same height, still being surrounded by the five sides.

Looking at each of them one-by-one, he finally spoke, "I have to say, you have a lot of people in your organization!"

Shinichi said at this time, "It would be best that you don't resist and come with us willingly so as not to die accidentally."

Glaring daggers at him, Suijin cursed Shinichi under his breath, 'This IDIOT!'

Juzo pointed his Kobikiribocho towards Suijin and questioned, "What organization are you in, and who is 'Yama'?"

Suijin pondered a little and said, "You tell me the name of your organization and I will tell you the name of the organization I am in!"

Suijin needs some time to refine some Ryuumyaku chakra, therefore he decided to humor the Gokatsuki.

Otherwise, he is sure that escaping from here is an almost impossible task, that is only unless he chooses to blow his cover…

Hearing Suijin's response, Juzo nodded as he seemed to have the idea of recruiting the other party in the Akatsuki, so he said, "Our organization is called Akatsuki, and our goal is to bring peace to the Shinobi World, for that reason we are collecting individuals with good strength to help us achieve it, I see that your strength is good, join us, we could use someone like you!"

"Akatsuki! That's such a Cliché name don't you think?" – with a pause, Suijin continued, "Ah, but I am not the one to judge, and although I am honored to be invited to join such a high-level organization that seems to hide such monsters from so many villages at once, which makes me wonder the identity of your leader who could rein in you guys? But you'll have to forgive me as I have already sworn my loyalty to the organization I am part of, it's called 'Amatsukami,' and I too think that some of you have good strength and potential, why not join the organization that I am part of?"

"Amatsukami!?" – Sasori muttered while taking out a scroll from his ninja bag, "And you say that Akatsuki is a cliché name!?"

At this time, even Orochimaru was slightly intrigued and paid some attention to Suijin and the clothing that Suijin wore.

It wasn't difficult for him to judge the various seals sewn all around that cloak with the golden thread.

But what surprised him more was the unfazed temperament the other party displayed when put in such a situation, in Orochimaru's eyes, even those powerful ninjas bearing the title of Kage of the five great shinobi villages would sweat heavily and panic when surrounded by the five sides, even Orochimaru dare not say that he would be any different from those Kages.

After all, there are five near Kage tier ninjas that are surrounding Suijin from the five sides, there is no possible escape route, and still, the other party has the gall to be so casual?

This shows that either he is plain stupid, maybe over extremely cunning or that he just has enough confidence to make it out alive!

If it's the first and second possibility then it wouldn't be too troublesome, but Orochimaru is unwilling to believe that it's the third option, because he doesn't believe that anyone other than the God of Shinobi or his rival could have such strength.

And now there is the mention of 'Amatsukami,' it seems there are more of such guys!

His guess is that 'Yama' is also part of the 'Amatsukami.'

If this doesn't make Orochimaru interested then what will?

The term 'Amatsukami' itself implies something!

Therefore, his attention was now focused on Suijin as his tongue hung out.

Suijin observed the five Akatsuki members and their different reactions and finally figured out the countermeasure he is going to use.

As for the reason he didn't panic?

It was simple, the Suijin body is just a Clone body, although of extremely good quality, but still a clone body, so even if the clone is destroyed, it wouldn't have any effect on Suijin himself, in the worst-case scenario he will lose the clone, but that's not something to be very worried about as there is still another Clone body in the secret laboratory.

The only thing that would have been normally troublesome is the cyan gourd carrying the Ryuumyaku, but Suijin was still not much worried as he has already engraved a Summoning Seal on it so that he can summon it anywhere.

And since his life wasn't in any danger, therefore he wanted to see if he could retreat by still managing to keep the Clone body.

Even though he can discard this body if need be, but if it is possible where he doesn't have to discard it, then he would rather not, after all, his soul already has a certain degree of resonance with the clone body after the battle with Kakuzu.

And that resonance between soul and body is the direct sign of soul-body adaptation.

This is why he would try to escape with the clone body if possible.

With that decided, Suijin's eyes fixed on Uchiha Shinichi and he decided to carry out his plan of escape.

If this plan works then the percentage of a successful retreat would increase.

While Suijin was beginning to start his escape plan, Sasori on the opposite tree unrolled the scroll in his hand with the term 'Ice' written on it,

Poof…

And out came a corpse puppet before everyone with a burst of white smoke.

Suijin observed the puppet dressed in the Kirigakure's shinobi vest and forehead protector, implying that the poor ninja belonged to Kirigakure before Sasori laid his hands on the other's body.

Moreover, what surprised Suijin was the cold Chakra that he could sense from the Kiri puppet, and he thought to himself, 'Could it be that the puppet was a user of Ice Release Kekkei Genkai?'

Ice Release has a natural restrain on Water Release, so without delaying anymore, Suijin took a deep breath to initiate his plan, 'Escape from Gokatsuki' and shouted after printing a series of hand signs, "Water Release: Water Colliding Wave!"

Instantly, a large amount of water rose up like a massive tornado forming a giant waterspout, the moment this waterspout reached its extreme point, it burst explosively and the water rushed in all directions like a high wave with Suijin as the center.

In the face of such a huge wave, the five Akatsuki members didn't resist from the front as that would only waste their Chakra but dispersed in different directions.

The moment siege was broken and when no one expected it, Suijin took advantage of the cover provided by the water wave and rushed towards Orochimaru.

Tiger – Rat – Horse – Snake – Dragon – Hand Clap – "Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"

The Chakra kneaded in his stomach was released as a high-pressure water jet from Suijin's mouth, which slashed towards Orochimaru cutting everything in its path.

Orochimaru squinted slightly and avoided the Water Severing Wave by twisting his head strangely, and while still in the air, he stretched out his right hand towards Suijin. At the moment the Snake Hand was close to the other party, he used Several Shadow Snake Hand to fire poisonous snakes towards him with the added Lightning Chakra that further increased the final speed by several folds!

Suijin has long expected this attack and dodged them one after another with short body flickers, and used a Rising Water Slash to cut off the Lightning Shadow Snake Hand.

The lightning imbued snakes were cut off and squirted hot blood that soon evaporated.

With that out of the way, Suijin stepped over the Water wave and leaped towards Orochimaru as he spoke, "Rule - 1 of a battle, Take out the weakest guy first!"

"Weakest!?"

"The weakest?"

"THE weakest?"

"The WEAKEST?"

"THE WEAKEST!?"

Orochimaru smiled lightly as the sound of 'The Weakest' was again and again heard throughout the battlefield and in his mind like an echo!

Anyone familiar with Orochimaru's character can realize that although there is a slight smile on his face, those golden and vicious snake pupils were clearly reflecting the murderous intent in his heart, and since Suijin was familiar with Orochimaru, he knew that the first step of his plan was a success!

The other four saw that Orochimaru and Suijin have started a fight, so Sasori didn't rush to use the Ice Puppet, but stood aside and watched the show.

Kakuzu, Juzo, and Shinichi also listened to Suijin mocking Orochimaru but didn't rush to intervene and watched the two of them fight each other.

After having a short bout with Orochimaru, Suijin suddenly turned around and ran in Uchiha Shinichi's direction.

Orochimaru naturally wouldn't let him go so easily and followed after him.

Shinichi saw that Suijin was running in his direction and his smirk widened as he said, "Hey, are you trying to run away? Hahaha… if that's what you are trying to do, then coming towards me was the wrong decision you made!"

Orochimaru who was chasing Suijin noticed that Shinichi's entire attention was focused on Suijin coming towards him, and seeing that Orochimaru suddenly had an extremely crazy idea…

...

Read up to Chapter - 344 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

Report chapter Comments