Chapter 377: Power Divisions in the Ninja World
"Big Brother Minato, I have a question." Amamiya Kenichi looked at Minato. This was something he cared about a great deal. Although he could verify it through experiments, the cost of those experiments would make even him feel the sting.
"Oh? What question?" Minato asked curiously.
During this period, he had come to understand more about Kenichi. The little ninja who used to play with Kakashi had now grown to an astonishing height. That made Minato rather curious about what kind of question Kenichi would ask him.
"It's like this. How are Kage-level powerhouses distinguished from ordinary jonin?" Kenichi asked.
This was the problem currently troubling him the most.
After all, if he wanted to revive Minato through One's Own Life Reincarnation, he needed a powerful ninja of roughly equivalent strength. That was the result Kenichi had reached after researching One's Own Life Reincarnation.
A genin could not be used to revive a jonin. Even a chūnin would struggle unless they were an abnormal case, like some of Konoha's so-called genin. Under normal circumstances, resurrecting a jonin required jonin-level material.
This was the greatest flaw of One's Own Life Reincarnation.
However, Kenichi had no experimental data regarding Kage-level powerhouses. After all, Kage-level figures were truly extraordinary. The only example he knew from the future was Chiyo sacrificing herself to resurrect Gaara after his death.
But Chiyo herself possessed terrifying strength far beyond an ordinary jonin. If not for her grief after the war and her lack of interest in becoming Kage, she would have been fully qualified to become Kazekage.
So, at its core, that was also a Kage-level powerhouse resurrecting a Kage-level Gaara.
"Hmm." Minato fell into thought.
He had never really considered that question. After all, a Kage was a Kage. Those who became the Kage of a village were usually the very best among jonin.
But if he truly had to define a standard...
Minato had never thought about it in detail.
"If I had to say, it would be that a Kage can easily kill ordinary jonin. Even when facing several jonin at once, they can resolve the battle without much difficulty." Minato scratched his head.
He also found it difficult to explain.
During the war, he could rely on the Flying Thunder God Technique to wipe out multiple ninja squads with ease. After that, he became Hokage.
The corner of Kenichi's mouth twitched.
That made some sense, but it also felt as if Minato had said nothing at all.
Still, this was probably a problem with the setting of the shinobi world itself.
In the earliest period, the gap between ninja ranks had been very obvious. Kakashi had not even considered fighting his teacher Orochimaru, and Gaara's sand had been casually scattered by Might Guy.
But in the later stages, the distinction between ninja ranks became far less clear. That was especially true for Naruto and Sasuke, those Konoha genin who did not look like genin at all.
Aside from those two, however, most background characters still followed the usual rules.
"Basically, Kage are selected from among jonin. You could say jonin are the reserve pool for Kage, and the strongest among jonin become Kage," Minato added.
"I think I understand." Kenichi sighed.
How wonderful would it be if the shinobi world divided ranks by chakra reserves? For example, over one hundred chakra meant genin, over one thousand meant chūnin, and so on.
But he also knew that was impossible.
Kage, to put it bluntly, were exactly as Minato described. The strongest took the position.
At present, there was basically no truly weak Kage. Even the Kazekage who had been killed by his teacher had possessed real strength.
He simply failed to withstand Orochimaru's sneak attack.
Minato looked a little confused, but he did not ask further. Instead, he returned home. He wanted to spend more time with his wife and child.
Kenichi did not mind. He returned to his laboratory, took out his research log marked [One's Own Life Reincarnation], and slowly flipped through it.
"It seems experimenting is the only way. But experimenting on Minato would cost one jonin-level consumable each time. That price is really..." Kenichi licked his lips.
One jonin per experiment.
What kind of loss rate was that?
If he followed his original idea and brought out the strongest jonin in the Land of Snow for the experiment, success would still depend on probability.
If he was lucky and succeeded, he could revive Minato. If he was unlucky, he would have to start all over again, wasting a jonin for nothing.
Even if Kenichi made that jonin work and earn money, it would be better than throwing him away like this.
But Kenichi had no other method.
One's Own Life Reincarnation had no proper experimental records as a ninjutsu. The only experiments available were the ones Kenichi had conducted himself.
"So, to summarize the current One's Own Life Reincarnation experiments, there is no problem with a stronger ninja resurrecting a weaker ninja, and there is no problem with a ninja of the same rank resurrecting another ninja of the same rank."
"What the hell is the difference between this and not researching at all?"
Kenichi threw the experiment log onto the table.
Reading this experiment log was practically no different from not reading it.
But Kenichi had no other option.
Among the few resurrection ninjutsu in the shinobi world, Kenichi only knew One's Own Life Reincarnation. As for Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, it was indeed useful, but it required Nagato's sacrifice.
So he could only choose One's Own Life Reincarnation.
"However, even if there are only a few resurrection ninjutsu in the shinobi world, do I really have no other options?" Kenichi pondered.
One's Own Life Reincarnation was useful, but its sacrifice was too great.
A life for a life. The most troublesome part was that the strength of the sacrificed soul had to be similar.
Was there a way to break that limitation?
If that limitation could be broken...
Kenichi felt his motivation return.
In any case, most things had been handled for now. The Mangekyō Sharingan had been awakened, the crops were still growing, and the materials for the uranium extraction and refinement device had not arrived yet.
He happened to be in a relatively free period.
With that thought, Kenichi rolled up his sleeves and began to perform One's Own Life Reincarnation.
Although this ninjutsu traded one life for another, there would be no problem as long as he did not set a clear target during activation. Kenichi could also take this chance to observe it.
"Hmm... After performing One's Own Life Reincarnation, there's a slight dizzy sensation. It seems to be coming from the prefrontal lobe." Kenichi frowned slightly.
One's Own Life Reincarnation was indeed quite interesting.
His Mangekyō Sharingan quietly opened.
He wanted to observe whether he could perceive anything in this state, but after a while, he gave up. He could not see anything.
It was similar to the sensation when he performed the Reaper Death Seal. After performing the Reaper Death Seal, Kenichi had not been able to see anything either. According to Mr. Sanzu's inference, this should be related to the Shinigami existing in another dimension.
Kenichi could only abandon the ninjutsu for the moment.
However, his recent activation of the Mangekyō Sharingan was not entirely without gain.
At the very least, he had seen how his chakra moved, and how it formed the prototype of a ninjutsu when he performed hand seals.
[During analysis, I made an unexpected discovery. Analyzing chakra allowed me to observe the structure of ninjutsu. It is complex, but also somewhat similar to programming.]
Kenichi recorded what he had just seen in his experiment log.
The chakra energy points had formed rows of strange shapes, which gave Kenichi a strong urge to study them. If he did not urgently need to solve the problem of One's Own Life Reincarnation, he would definitely begin researching it right away.
For now, he could only write it down and leave it for later.
Kenichi felt this might be a method for constructing ninjutsu, or perhaps a method for combining them.
"The use of One's Own Life Reincarnation still requires samples."
Kenichi had a bold idea.
He summoned two chūnin who had received the blessing, then had both of them learn One's Own Life Reincarnation.
Fortunately, these two chūnin were medical ninja from the Land of Snow's hospital. They had a decent grasp of medical ninjutsu, so they had some talent for learning One's Own Life Reincarnation.
After they finished learning it, Kenichi rubbed his hands.
It was time to begin the experiment.
—-
"Is your student really that strong?" Tsunade asked in puzzlement as she wiped the blood from Jiraiya's face.
She truly could not understand why Jiraiya's student was so powerful.
If she had not come with him this time, Jiraiya might have died in Amegakure. That guy had shown no mercy when attacking.
"Cough, cough... I didn't know about any of this back then..." Jiraiya coughed weakly, feeling intense pain throughout his body.
He was helpless, and also confused.
He did not understand how things had developed to this point.
Tsunade sighed as she looked at his miserable state.
Jiraiya had seven holes pierced through his body by his student. Those strange black rods had terrifying destructive and penetrative power, and the enemy's abilities were extremely troublesome.
Tsunade had wanted to intervene, but before she could reach him, she was stopped by a woman.
That woman threw explosive tags as if they cost nothing, forcing Tsunade to fight while feeling pained.
So many explosive tags. How wonderful would it be if they were hers?
"Those eyes are truly terrifying." Tsunade narrowed her eyes, then slapped Jiraiya's wound, making him howl. His restless hands immediately became much more obedient.
"The legendary eyes of a Sage. And I have a feeling that what we saw wasn't the full extent of their power." Jiraiya coughed awkwardly, then tried to change the subject.
"At least you're still alive. Let's return to Konoha first. The Akatsuki matter will probably need to be discussed at length." Tsunade glanced at Jiraiya and shook her head.
Jiraiya's wounds had at least been staunched now. It was about time to return to Konoha.
Only with Konoha's professional equipment could Jiraiya's injuries heal faster.
Otherwise, it would be troublesome if he suffered hidden injuries. After all, Jiraiya was no longer young.
"Mm." Jiraiya coughed weakly.
Whenever he thought about what had happened earlier, he felt deeply uncomfortable.
After arriving in Amegakure, Jiraiya and Tsunade had been gathering intelligence when they discovered a hidden entrance.
The moment they entered, they were attacked.
The attacker was none other than Yahiko. Or rather, a puppet made from Yahiko's corpse.
At the same time, several other puppets appeared.
With Jiraiya and Tsunade working together, they could hold them off while collecting more information. The intelligence Konoha had provided earlier also helped Jiraiya greatly.
However, no matter what he said, the other party showed no intention of speaking.
That made Jiraiya, who suspected Nagato and Konan were behind everything, grow increasingly unable to control his emotions.
Then the enemy suddenly attacked, nearby explosive tags detonated, and a familiar figure flew out.
Jiraiya recognized that person immediately.
Konan.
His own student.
She clearly recognized him too, but she had no intention of talking. She simply began attacking.
And she did not hold back at all.
Jiraiya's injuries were caused by the pincer attack from Konan and Yahiko. Looking at the faces of his former students, Jiraiya's movements faltered for a moment, and in that instant, he was pierced through the shoulder by black rods that sealed his chakra points.
After that, he fell into a disadvantage.
If Tsunade had not helped him, Jiraiya felt he probably would have died there.
So why?
Why would his former students try to kill him?
Jiraiya could not understand.
That confusion remained with him until he returned to Konoha and saw the village's devastation. Only then did the sight pull him out of his thoughts.
"What happened to the village?"
Jiraiya and Tsunade stared in shock at Konoha before them.
A large section of Konoha's outer wall was gone, as though the village had been attacked.
Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged glances, then rushed inside.
However, after seeing that the inside of Konoha was peaceful, both of them were a little confused.
After confirming there were no major problems, Tsunade sent Jiraiya to the hospital, while she hurried to the newly built Hokage Building and found the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Old..." Tsunade had only just entered when she saw a group of Konoha elders sitting inside.
She coughed.
Hiruzen waved his hand helplessly, signaling the others to leave. Then he looked at Tsunade.
"Orochimaru attacked the village and took Anko Mitarashi," Hiruzen said directly, knowing what his student wanted to ask.
Tsunade froze.
"Orochimaru? Anko Mitarashi?" Tsunade frowned.
She knew both of them, but...
"Look at this. This is a confidential piece of intelligence from a mission the Fourth Hokage once carried out…"
.....
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