Chapter 371: Tsunade: I've Given So Much, Half Isn't Too Much, Right?
The First and Second Hokage could naturally be revived through Living Corpse Reincarnation. Both possessed tremendous strength, and although doing so required sacrificing the soul of a ninja near Kage level, it would still be a worthwhile trade overall.
The real problem was their stance.
The First Hokage looked somewhat simple-minded, but treating him like a fool in a matter like this would be the truly foolish thing to do. Compared with Kenichi's rather unrealistic dream, Hashirama would naturally lean more toward Konoha.
After all, that was the ninja village he had built with his own hands. And with Tsunade still there, his feelings would obviously tilt toward Konoha even more.
The Second Hokage was even more so. His personality was also much harder to judge.
Only the Fourth Hokage was different.
Although Minato was also a man of Konoha, he was Naruto's father first and foremost. With Naruto in hand, persuading Minato to cooperate might not be impossible.
Kenichi even felt that if Minato learned how Hiruzen had treated his son all this time, what kind of life Naruto had lived in the village, then Minato would probably make the right choice.
"But then again, he was still the Fourth Hokage. With the way Hokage likes to handle things, what if he somehow chooses to forgive Hiruzen in the end?" Kenichi scratched his head.
Late-stage Naruto had a bad habit of whitewashing old villains.
That had always been one of the more frustrating parts. It was as though villains were not allowed to remain villains unless they had some tragic childhood or miserable past. At times, it felt less like a story and more like a competition to see who had suffered more.
And once that tragic backstory was established, they could be whitewashed. In the end, it almost became a bizarre script where everyone was secretly a good person and could all sit down together to drink tea.
Orochimaru had been whitewashed.
Kabuto had been whitewashed.
Even Obito had been whitewashed.
Fortunately, Obito at least died in the end. If he had survived and gone back to Konoha to live happily ever after with Naruto, people would probably have cursed it for hundreds of chapters.
Because of that, Kenichi decided to be cautious. After all, using Living Corpse Reincarnation to bring Minato back required sacrificing the soul of someone at roughly the same level of strength. That was not a trivial matter.
What level had Minato been at?
Kage level.
That meant reviving him would require the soul of another Kage-level powerhouse.
And there were no such people in the Land of Snow.
Perhaps one could create one after developing the Mangekyo Sharingan, but what exactly counted as Kage level in the first place was still hard to define.
"In that case, it's better to use Edo Tensei first. But before that, I still need Koyuki to find me a ninja with talent in sealing techniques." Kenichi rubbed his chin.
Using Edo Tensei first to gauge Minato's intentions was obviously the safest route.
The side effects of Living Corpse Reincarnation were too severe, and it could only revive one person at a time. The ideal method would be to win over a group of powerful figures first, then have Nagato use Rinne Rebirth, and finally use Living Corpse Reincarnation on Nagato.
But unfortunately, Kenichi could not gather that many high-level fighters under his banner.
The ninja world had been torn apart by war for too long. Hatred between villages and factions ran far too deep. During the future unification of the ninja world, Kenichi had already prepared himself for a massive purge.
The ship of a new era had no room for the leftovers of the old one.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, many remnants of those states were imprisoned or purged. Yet even then, those remnants still continued to stir up chaos, and after the First Emperor died, they triggered large-scale unrest.
Such people had to be cleaned out.
Still, just as Kenichi was about to notify Koyuki, the ring on his hand suddenly warmed.
He blinked in surprise.
Was Nagato looking for him?
"Do you think it's this place?" In the Hidden Rain Village, Tsunade and Jiraiya were crouched inside a cave on the outskirts, silently observing the village ahead.
Rain shrouded the place year-round. The entire settlement looked dark and oppressive under the endless curtain of water.
According to Jiraiya, this should be the Akatsuki's base.
"At the very least, it should be," Jiraiya murmured.
The two of them were hidden deep within the cave, while outside the entrance, rain pattered down in a steady drizzle.
Tsunade glanced at him in surprise.
No wonder Jiraiya had dragged her into this cave the instant he noticed the rain picking up. So that was why. The rain itself had become the village's eyes and ears, a surveillance method to detect outsiders entering the area.
"You still haven't given up on writing that novel about Orochimaru?" Tsunade asked.
She knew exactly what Jiraiya had been writing. Shizune was one of his most devoted readers, but she only cared about The Story of Me and Orochimaru Hime. As for Icha Icha Paradise, she never touched it.
Because of Shizune, Tsunade knew exactly what Jiraiya had been up to, and even she had to admit the man had guts. He really dared to write anything.
"Do you know how much money that book earned me?" Jiraiya said proudly, patting his pouch.
Tsunade's eyelids twitched.
This idiot...
"No, I don't," Tsunade said truthfully.
She really had no idea how much that ridiculous book had made.
"It brought in more than one hundred million ryo in a single year." Jiraiya looked thoroughly pleased with himself.
The moment he said it, Tsunade's eyes turned red.
Only then did Jiraiya realize what he had just done.
How could he forget Tsunade's personality?
Tsunade loved gambling.
She had learned it from Hashirama.
And the problem was, she lost every single time.
Before he left Konoha, Hiruzen had repeatedly warned him not to let Tsunade gamble under any circumstances. Konoha's finances could not endure it. Jiraiya had agreed, especially after seeing the mountain of debt Tsunade had piled up recently.
Although Tsunade could pay back some of it with the money she earned through her medical work, Konoha had still ended up quietly covering a portion behind the scenes.
After all, Tsunade was the future Fifth Hokage. It would look terrible if the next Hokage was infamous for never paying her gambling debts.
"That much?!" Tsunade stared at him in shock.
She had read that book. And she had to admit, Orochimaru Hime had been written absurdly well. It had even made her briefly question whether Orochimaru might really have been a woman.
Thinking back on it carefully, Orochimaru really had always carried a slightly feminine air at times...
Then Tsunade's eyes lit up.
Over one hundred million ryo.
That was no small amount.
If she had even part of that money, she could gamble for days without worry.
"By the way, Jiraiya," Tsunade said, her eyes shifting suspiciously, "who exactly is that blonde princess in your book?"
Then she casually slung an arm around Jiraiya's neck, her tone suddenly intimate.
Jiraiya swallowed.
He knew exactly who she meant.
And he knew exactly why this was dangerous.
"I... I can give you ten million ryo..." Jiraiya said with a strained smile.
He had no desire to do so, but at this point there was little choice. Tsunade already had her arm around his neck. With her monstrous strength, she could probably tear his head off directly if she felt like it.
Jiraiya had no illusions that his skull was harder than stone.
He knew Tsunade's strength better than anyone. If she wanted to, she could shatter a mountain with her fists. She really was that terrifying.
"Fifty million." Tsunade named a shocking price without hesitation.
She felt the number was perfectly fair.
She had paid a great deal, after all. Becoming the heroine in Jiraiya's filthy little story was already more than enough justification.
And that idiot had even written far too many explicit scenes. She had personally seen passages where the blonde princess did all sorts of things beneath the white-haired male lead, with nearly half the book dedicated to that nonsense.
So in Tsunade's eyes, demanding fifty million ryo was entirely reasonable.
"No, no, I need that money for other things. Twenty million at most!" Jiraiya refused desperately, shaking his head.
In truth, he knew the biggest reason the book had sold so well was Orochimaru Hime. Orochimaru deserved all the blame for that.
In the end, after a fierce and shameless negotiation, the two reached an agreement at thirty million ryo.
As for the bruises on Jiraiya's face, those were naturally from accidentally bumping into rocks. Tsunade herself said that ninjas often developed strange little injuries, so there was nothing unusual about it.
"Speaking of which, before we left, I saw you go to the old man's office," Jiraiya said, rubbing his face.
"Yes. Anko Mitarashi, one of Orochimaru's disciples, came back to Konoha," Tsunade said calmly.
She had no intention of hiding it from him. In her heart, Jiraiya was fully qualified to become one of Konoha's elders.
Even if he never accepted such a title, he still needed to stand among Konoha's leadership. The village was in chaos right now. Though it still looked like the strongest ninja village in the world, losing the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki meant it had already lost one of its core foundations.
Jiraiya frowned.
Back when the Sannin still worked together, he had met Orochimaru's students before. Anko had been a well-behaved little girl, sharp and talented, though clearly not as favored by Orochimaru as Kenichi had been.
Jiraiya had seen it plainly back then. Orochimaru truly regarded Kenichi as a real disciple and had every intention of passing everything on to him.
Anko, on the other hand, had later been taken out of Konoha and ended up branded as a missing-nin. So why had she suddenly returned now?
"What happened?" Jiraiya asked.
"I don't know. The old man looked very serious and kept questioning her. After that, I came straight out to meet you," Tsunade said with a shake of her head.
Even though she was the chosen successor, she was not Hokage yet.
Jiraiya fell silent for a moment.
Anko was connected to Orochimaru. He could only hope Hiruzen would not do anything foolish. Provoking Orochimaru was already troublesome enough.
Provoking Orochimaru now meant provoking Orochimaru's disciple too.
Master and disciple were both monsters.
And judging from what Tsunade had described earlier, Kenichi had grown to a frightening level. At the very least, Tsunade believed that if the fight had been to the death, she might not have been able to beat him.
Wood Release. The Sharingan. Talent on par with Hashirama.
Put together, that combination was terrifying.
Jiraiya even felt that Kenichi no longer resembled an ordinary human.
Just as he was about to ask more, he suddenly noticed the rain over the Hidden Rain Village beginning to lighten. In the distance, several figures appeared to be entering the village.
"That's..." Jiraiya narrowed his eyes.
He could not see clearly through the rain and distance.
But he caught sight of a flash of yellow among them.
That instantly made him think of Yahiko.
Then the figures vanished into the Hidden Rain Village, and the rain came to a halt. The air was filled with that unique scent that only appeared after rainfall.
Jiraiya stood up at once.
This was the moment.
The time had come to enter the Hidden Rain Village and investigate.
But before that...
"Tsunade, wait a moment. I need to enter Sage Mode first," Jiraiya said as he closed his eyes.
He had already heard Tsunade describe Yahiko's attack on Konoha. The strange eyes, the bizarre abilities, the sense that the enemy had still been holding back... all of it left Jiraiya uneasy.
If he was going in, then he needed to go in at full strength.
Gathering intelligence had always been dangerous work.
Tsunade said nothing.
She folded her arms and watched him, and for some reason she found herself thinking of Kenichi. That boy's ninjutsu was just as outrageous. He seemed able to enter Sage Mode almost instantly, just like her grandfather.
Soon, Jiraiya completed Sage Mode.
Together, he and Tsunade slipped out of the cave and quietly made their way toward the Hidden Rain Village.
They needed intelligence on the Akatsuki.
And they needed clues about Naruto.
"...Interesting. So Konoha has noticed this place already?" In a dim cave elsewhere, Obito rested his chin on one hand as he looked at Black Zetsu.
"Yes. Amamiya Kenichi took away a brat named Naruto Uzumaki. If nothing else, that brat should now be the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki," Black Zetsu said with a strange laugh.
Then he cast a glance to the side.
There, standing upright in the darkness, was a coffin.
"The plan is progressing smoothly. But ever since that guy got involved, I've had a bad feeling," Obito said, narrowing his eyes as his hand slowly clenched into a fist.
"Your plan is perfect. And with his help, there should be no issues with how it advances," Black Zetsu said with a crooked smile.
Konoha's level of alertness had indeed risen, but it would not stop the plan from moving forward.
Sooner or later, the entire ninja world would slide into the abyss.
.....
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