Chapter 276: Chapter 276: Pakura: I’m Already a Lonesome Ghost!
In Sunagakure, Rasa looked back at the village, and then at the few children and ninjas following behind him, before shouting.
"Let’s go!"
Among the few children behind him was Pakura’s disciple, Maki. Along the way, Rasa never let down his guard, constantly observing the movements around him. He felt that since Pakura had already returned to the village, she would definitely take a look at Maki. So, if he brought Maki along, who knows, Pakura might appear.
However, to his disappointment, he did not see Pakura’s figure even when they reached the border of the Land of Wind. Pakura... Rasa sighed inwardly, filled with incomparable regret and annoyance. If he could have thought of a better choice back then, the current Sunagakure might not be so desolate. At the very least, after he left, there would still be someone to step up. Not like now. In the whole of Sunagakure, he couldn’t find a second elite jonin who could temporarily take on an important position after he left.
As for the elders, Elder Naito did have some ability, but he wasn’t very strong, and his combat power was very poor...
"Do I have to hire ninjas from Konoha?"
An absurd thought flashed through Rasa’s mind.
Hire Konoha ninjas! In terms of strength, Konoha’s current strength was indeed very powerful, with jonin and elites emerging one after another. Besides Namikaze Minato and Ryoho Kyohiko... there was also the powerful ninja who had kicked half of Kusagakure’s ninjas to death back then. But the hiring fee for ninjas of this level was also very expensive. After hiring them, even if he went to the Land of Snow to complete the commission, he wouldn’t make much of a profit. In the end, he would still be working for Konoha.
Rasa sighed, speechless, and even more filled with confusion.
He walked back to this forest. The former desert was now more dense, lush and green at a glance, making it hard to imagine that this place was once the edge of the desert. He stood outside this forest, stopping for a long time. In this forest, many elites of Sunagakure were buried, causing a direct generational gap in Sunagakure, which had not yet recovered its vitality. The war that took place here also made Rasa have to face the reality that Sunagakure had to bow its head and surrender, and it also made him lose his biggest support—Ebizo. That wise and intelligent old man controlled a large number of intelligence ninjas. But with Ebizo’s death, less than half of this group of intelligence ninjas could be awakened.
Rasa stopped to pay his respects, and at the same time, hoped that Pakura would come. After waiting for several minutes, he finally said in a low voice.
"Let’s go. Ahead is the Land of Rivers."
He didn’t talk about the story of this place. Even though they had taken the initiative to invade Konoha and were beaten back in the end, but—if Sunagakure were strong enough, Rasa would certainly hope that the children would not forget Sunagakure’s past here, and remember their crushing defeat. But now they were too weak.
Rasa sighed, then stepped into the Land of Rivers. They had already greeted the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers before, so they were not afraid of causing disputes between the two countries. They followed the old road all the way to Kikyo Castle.
But just as they left the forest and arrived at the place where the Third Kazekage had died, Rasa sensed a fluctuation of chakra. His heart moved.
"Let’s rest here. I’ll go and contact Konoha to avoid any misunderstanding."
Rasa looked at Baki.
"I’ll leave a shadow clone here. You and Yura will be in charge of guarding the surroundings. Be careful."
Baki immediately volunteered.
"Kazekage-sama, how can you go personally? Let me go instead!"
"No need. This distance is nothing to me. You don’t have to argue."
Rasa shook his head.
"Yes, Kazekage-sama!"
Baki’s expression turned solemn.
He was now sixteen and had been promoted to jonin. Although he was not very comprehensive in some areas, in Sunagakure he was already a rare elite, the strongest among this group besides Rasa.
Rasa created a shadow clone, then disappeared with a body flicker. He followed the presence all the way to a mountain pass north of them. Just as he jumped into a pit, a voice came from the treetops above.
"What are you looking for me for?"
"Pakura!"
Upon hearing this, Rasa’s tone carried a trace of excitement, and at the same time, he let out a sigh of relief. He calmed his emotions.
Then, Rasa said.
"Pakura, come back. The past was a misunderstanding. Sunagakure needs you now!"
"Heh..."
A trace of mockery appeared on Pakura’s face.
Then, she took out her forehead protector, holding one end in her hand. The entire forehead protector hung down from the treetop.
"Look at my forehead protector."
Rasa looked up. On the forehead protector was a conspicuous scratch. That was the mark of a rogue-nin. Pakura had scratched her own forehead protector, meaning she would never return to Sunagakure?
Rasa was stunned for a long time. Then, he was a little bewildered.
"Then why did you..."
"I still care about Sunagakure, but I will not return to the village. Rasa, you will not understand my current situation and mood."
Pakura stood up, looking down at Rasa.
"Sunagakure’s Scorch Release Pakura is already dead. The current me is just a lonesome ghost wandering the shinobi world..."
After she finished speaking, she chuckled lightly.
"If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving first, Kazekage of the Sand."
"Wait!"
Rasa hurriedly shouted.
But Pakura had already disappeared without a trace.
***
In Konoha, inside the Anbu.
Hatake Kakashi held the tree bark in his hand and fell into a long silence. Before, it was at least paper or bamboo tubes. This time it had turned into tree bark. What kind of external intelligence agent has Ryoho Kyohiko found? Has his lurking life become so dire?
Shiranui Genma couldn’t help but say.
"Speaking of which, Kyohiko doesn’t seem to have ever mentioned this person..."
Hatake Kakashi looked up.
"Special intelligence personnel, the more secret the better. It’s a bad thing if too many people know. You should know the rules, right?"
"Understood."
Shiranui Genma’s face turned solemn.
The reason he knew about this person was because Kikyo Castle often used his channel to transport intelligence to Konoha via the Flying Thunder God Formation. Otherwise, the intelligence group was separate from them, and they would not have direct contact with each other.
"That guy Kyohiko... hmm, he might still be on Mount Myoboku. I’ll go and look for him. You help me handle the documents on the desk. I have to go to Mount Myoboku to notify him. It might be an emergency!"
"Huh?"
Shiranui Genma was stunned for a moment.
As Kakashi spoke, he suddenly disappeared in a body flicker, his speed outrageous. Vaguely, Shiranui Genma seemed to hear the sound of wind and thunder.
"Now I understand what ’fast as wind and thunder’ means, but..."
Shiranui Genma looked at the desk and fell into a long silence. He always felt—I’ve been tricked! But this was the position of the Anbu captain! Shiranui Genma hesitated for a moment, then still stepped forward and picked up a notebook. Intelligence from the Land of Earth.
"Onoki has mobilized ninjas, suspected of strengthening the surveillance on the border with the Land of Rain."
He picked up another one.
"The number of people from the Land of Earth to the Land of Rain has increased significantly, suspected of having ninjas infiltrating."
Iwagakure has increased its surveillance on Amegakure... because Amegakure is going to visit Konoha?
"It seems Onoki really hasn’t given up his ambitions!"
Shiranui Genma stacked the two pieces of intelligence together, then quickly looked through the documents, searching for various intelligence. He seemed to adapt to this job very quickly.
***
Outside the Anbu, Hatake Kakashi summoned a toad.
"Is Kyohiko still on Mount Myoboku?"
"Gribbit, he has already returned to the village."
The toad answered.
Kakashi was stunned for a long while, then said.
"When did he come back? Why didn’t I even know!"
"This morning?"
"Damn it! It’s already afternoon now!"
Kakashi said angrily.
Then, he took a deep breath. In front of him was a toad. It was innocent. He couldn’t get angry at a toad... He tried his best to maintain his composure.
"Thank you, I understand now."
Kakashi sent the toad away, then quickly headed for Orochimaru’s research base. After Kyohiko came back, if he didn’t go anywhere else, he must be there!
***
In the forest, Ryoho Kyohiko and Orochimaru gathered. Before them stood Yamato.
"You try again."
"This, will it be dangerous?"
"Follow our orders, and you won’t be in danger. In fact, I have already reduced its danger to the minimum. When it reaches its limit, there will be a clear reminder."
Orochimaru’s voice was hoarser than usual—these few days, he had been truly exhausted. To research this thing, Orochimaru had almost no rest. By now, he had made some achievements. However, whether it would be effective still depended on this experiment.
Orochimaru licked his dry lips.
"Let’s begin!"
"Yes!"
Yamato stretched out his hand and put on the special arm, which was only slightly larger than his own.
This arm was different from the previous one. Its interior was constructed of steel, and there were also special patterns inside. Just from the armor and the feel, it was very different from before. For a moment, Yamato didn’t know how to control it. He frowned.
Ryoho Kyohiko reminded him.
"Just use it like last time."
Yamato nodded, then formed hand seals with one hand to mobilize his chakra, using a relatively simple ninjutsu.
Wood Style: Silent Strangle Jutsu!
The next second, a tree branch quickly grew from the special mechanical arm he was wearing, and then wrapped around the tree in front. In just the blink of an eye. Crack! The tree was directly strangled and broke, collapsing.
Yamato was stunned for a long time, an expression of disbelief on his face. This... what a powerful ninjutsu effect! Although his own Wood Style could achieve a similar ability, it was definitely not something the Silent Strangle Jutsu could do, and the chakra consumption would probably be much more. Unbelievable!
"How’s the effect? Compared to last time, is this one better? How much chakra do you feel you’ve saved?"
Orochimaru quickly took out a pen and a notebook and began to record data. This was important experimental data.
Yamato answered.
"The chakra I output didn’t change, but the power is stronger than last time. About... a third stronger?"
"A third?"
Orochimaru frowned slightly, not very satisfied. This was not the effect he had expected. But, it would do! Orochimaru continued to record, while asking.
"Try using other ninjutsu, or directly release Wood Style without hand seals."
"Without hand seals?"
Yamato was puzzled.
Ryoho Kyohiko coughed lightly.
"When you use your chakra, just use a method similar to Wood Style, and then think about how you want it to act."
"Is it that simple?"
Yamato was half-believing, half-doubting.
The next second, he tried to press that hand on the ground.
Wood Style: Wood Locking Wall!
This was a very common defensive ninjutsu in Wood Style. The hand seals were a bit more than the Silent Strangle Jutsu.
The next second, the moment his palm touched the ground. Thump! The ground cracked, and one by one, trees grew out, quickly protecting him within. Incredibly, Yamato could sense the situation outside through the trees, as if they had become his own eyes. This was a situation he had never encountered before.
Yamato stood up, looked up, and was instantly stunned. His Wood Locking Wall was mostly made of wood structures, with no vitality to speak of. But the one he used now was composed of growing trees. They were living things! His "feeling" just now must have come from these trees.
Yamato reported quickly.
"My chakra, I used the usual amount, but the effect is obviously stronger. And I can sense the outside through it..."
Orochimaru’s eyes lit up, and he quickly recorded it down. Sensing! The previous Silent Strangle was just an increase in power, which could only be considered a quantitative change. But this Wood Locking Wall was a qualitative change—the extra sensing ability could allow the ninja inside the defensive ninjutsu to observe the outside more easily and safely.
"Kyohiko, can you do that?"
"Of course. My Grass and Wood Barrier is extracted through this characteristic."
Ryoho Kyohiko nodded.
Orochimaru licked his lips.
"That is to say, this puppet arm has raised his Wood Style ability by a level!"
"For now, yes. Yamato, use some random ninjutsu, consume as much chakra as possible, and see the limit of this puppet arm."
Ryoho Kyohiko looked at Yamato.
"Yes!"
Yamato thought for a moment and tried to form hand seals with both hands. The puppet hand was difficult to use, but it wasn’t impossible to use both hands together to form seals.
After a moment, he pressed his hand on the ground. Then—in this not-so-large open space, one tree after another quickly shot up from the ground, in the blink of an eye forming a wooden tower four or five stories high.
Yamato looked up, his face full of shock.
"I just wanted to build a small wooden house!"
Upon hearing this, Orochimaru quickly recorded the data. Unstable control!
Yamato looked up, then flickered forward and used a jutsu to generate trees. After generating trees in a patch of empty land, he felt the arm was extremely hot.
"Sir, it’s so hot!"
"Take it off, take it off."
Orochimaru said quickly.
Yamato did as he was told and took off the arm armor. Then, he saw the special white flesh inside the arm twisting and drilling out from the gaps, looking exceptionally terrifying. After cutting off the chakra, Orochimaru and Kyohiko walked over.
"Will it recover automatically?"
"Not for now, but by absorbing chakra, its chakra can be made to disappear."
As Orochimaru spoke, he formed hand seals, then pressed one hand on this arm.
After a long while, this arm slowly cooled down. Ryoho Kyohiko glanced at Orochimaru. The jutsu just now seemed similar to the chakra absorption jutsu of the Roka clan, but also somewhat different. After a good while, the arm returned to its original state.
Orochimaru looked at Yamato.
"As you release ninjutsu, this arm will reach a charged state. Once the chakra is too high, its interior will remind you to remove the armor. Understood?"
"Yes, Orochimaru-sama!"
Upon hearing this, Yamato nodded repeatedly, his face unable to hide his excitement. This setting could allow him to use this puppet arm more safely, without having to fear the side effects of being devoured and assimilated!
"After each use, you are not allowed to use it a second time in a short period. It’s best to bring it back to the village for inspection..."
"Before it’s truly applied, have your shadow clone test its load limit."
Orochimaru spoke of the next step. If the load limit could be determined, it could be used with more confidence within a certain number of times. Otherwise, it would be too useless.