"Lord Kazekage? Lord Kazekage!"
Baki shouted hastily when he noticed Rasa walking toward the blood pool completely out of his own control.
Under this intense shouting, Rasa's eyes finally recovered their clarity.
He pointed at the blood pool and said, "Baki, send a ninja into the blood pool to investigate. There must be a highly important secret inside here!"
Rasa spoke with absolute certainty, but Baki fell into hesitation.
After all, this was the Jashin Temple, and no one knew what kind of dangers lay inside the blood pool in the center of this temple, so if they rashly sent someone down, how would it be any different from sending them to their death?
Standing to the side, Ebizo took a deep look at Rasa, and immediately said to Baki, "Let me do it, I will have a puppet go down to take a look."
With that, he flicked open a scroll to summon a humanoid puppet, condensing chakra threads in his hands as he manipulated the puppet to plunge headfirst into the pool.
Only after five or six minutes did the puppet slowly surface.
Ebizo shook his head: "I didn't discover any special items inside."
Rasa's brow furrowed slightly: "If there are no special items, how could the Jashin Religion place it right in the center?"
With that, he completely disregarded Ebizo's reaction and directly called over an Anbu ninja beside him.
"Blue Scorpion, go down and take a look."
The Anbu ninja called upon, whose codename was Blue Scorpion, was Rasa's trusted confidant, so the moment he heard the command, he jumped into the blood pool with almost no hesitation whatsoever.
"Rasa!"
Ebizo raised his hand, but it was already too late to stop him.
After Blue Scorpion entered the blood pool, a massive amount of black incantations surfaced, frantically boring into his body like a swarm of insects!
"Ah!!!"
A loud, piercing shriek rang out, and the agonizing scream echoed in everyone's ears.
"Quick, pull him out!"
Ebizo flicked his fingers to shoot out chakra threads, preparing to drag Blue Scorpion out, but he was stopped by Rasa raising a hand.
"Wait, Elder Ebizo, observe Blue Scorpion's condition carefully."
Hearing Rasa say this, Ebizo finally began to examine Blue Scorpion's appearance seriously.
As a massive amount of cursed seals entered his body, a terrifying aura suddenly erupted from him, the chakra within his body multiplied, and his physical form grew robust bit by bit.
"This is..."
Ebizo opened his mouth slightly, for even though he had lived for so many years, he had never witnessed such a bizarre phenomenon.
Merely by stepping into the blood pool, one could obtain such a horrifying power?
"This is... evolution!"
Rasa watched this scene, his eyes completely filled with light.
As for the term evolution, he had learned it from Kawanishi.
According to Kawanishi's explanation, the creatures in the desert were currently undergoing an unprecedented evolution, and the Hidden Sand Village was the same.
Only after ten minutes did Blue Scorpion reopen his eyes.
The surging chakra within his body directly shattered the mask on his face, and the Scorpion Jade transplanted onto his body had currently grown out uncontrollably, its sharp scorpion blades looking as if they could easily slice through steel.
"How do you feel?"
Rasa asked Blue Scorpion eagerly.
The latter clenched his fists, feeling the surging power within them as he said, "My entire body is filled with power, and the chakra inside me right now is probably three times what it originally was!"
These words instantly caused everyone's eyes to widen.
One had to know that Blue Scorpion had only entered for a brief ten minutes, yet his chakra had already tripled, so what if he stayed inside longer? Would he obtain an even greater enhancement?
If that were the case, wouldn't they be able to soak in the pool every day to continuously obtain power upgrades?
Thinking up to this point, Rasa's breathing grew a bit heavier once more.
"Yuko, investigate Blue Scorpion's physical condition."
Ebizo remained relatively calm, and although he felt the sense of pressure emanating from Blue Scorpion, he still called over a sensory ninja to conduct an investigation.
This female sensory ninja named Yuko rapidly executed the command, and the final answer she provided was affirmative.
"His chakra has indeed increased by two times in a short period! Reaching three times his original amount!"
Yuko's voice trembled slightly when she said these words because it was truly too inconceivable.
A ninja's chakra capacity was almost entirely innate, increasing continuously with growth, but it would stabilize once the body was fully formed, making it very difficult to have a large-scale increase after that.
Otherwise, Kakashi would have used various methods to increase his chakra long ago...
Yet now, this blood pool before them only required a few minutes of taking a bath to achieve this?
"Interesting."
Rasa stared at the blood pool before his eyes, his gaze brilliant.
Quickly turning around, he instructed once more, "Pass down the order, no one is permitted to spread word of this matter, it is designated as a Hidden Sand Village S-rank secret!"
"Yes."
With such a momentous matter, once word leaked out, there was no telling how many ninja villages would fight to contest it.
This also caused Rasa to lament once again: betraying the Hidden Leaf was indeed an excellent choice!
Although they had failed to successfully recapture the Tailed Beast, the value of these secret techniques and this blood pool before him was absolutely not inferior to a single Shukaku!
On a small hill outside the capital city, two figures silently emerged.
One of them was precisely Simu, who was originally supposed to have been sealed away by Ebizo.
The other individual had short orange hair, and his pale purple eyes were completely covered in ripple-like patterns.
It was precisely the leader of the Akatsuki organization, Pain.
"I am quite curious, how did you deceive Ebizo?"
Pain gazed at the distant temple, calmly questioning Simu beside him.
He was not doubting Simu's capabilities; if it were a matter of simply evading a sealing jutsu, Pain believed Simu would have many methods.
However, pretending to be sealed right in front of a veteran ninja who had survived a hundred battles was by no means a simple feat.
At least, Pain felt that he could not achieve it himself.
He could evade the seal, or even use the Rinnegan to forcibly break it, but he could not act as Simu did now, pretending that he had been successfully sealed.
Simu shrugged his shoulders and opened his left eye.
The eye socket that was originally supposed to be embedded with a Sharingan had already become empty.
"There is nothing much to say, merely a forbidden jutsu of the Uchiha Clan."
Exactly, Simu had used Izanagi to alter reality, causing Ebizo to mistakenly believe that he had successfully sealed him, when in fact, the one sealed was nothing more than another ordinary clone.
After all, this body of Simu's was embedded with Shisui's Mangekyo, which was not some ordinary goods to be thrown away at whim.
Having received the answer, Pain, or rather Nagato, still could not help but lament, "Why do I feel that you look even more like an Uchiha than the Uchiha themselves?"
Nagato knew that Simu had seized a massive amount of Sharingan when he attacked the Hidden Leaf, but he truly never expected that Simu's understanding of the Sharingan would be so profound, using various secret and forbidden jutsus whenever he pleased...
Simu shrugged: "I have just conducted a relatively deep study on the Uchiha."
It was indeed relatively deep; after all, the genetic code of the Uchiha Clan had almost been completely analyzed by him.
This was the benefit of having a sufficient number of samples, making the speed of analysis quite a bit faster.
"What do you plan to do next?"
Seeing that Simu did not wish to speak further regarding the Uchiha matters, Pain simply shifted the topic.
At this moment, Simu was utilizing his blood pool clone inside the temple to observe the performance of the Sand Ninjas, and after confirming that they had all taken the bait, he smiled faintly, "Rest assured, the Fourth Shinobi World War is about to begin."
Every movement of the Hidden Sand Village was within his calculations.
Next, he would use this blood pool clone to help the Hidden Sand Village rapidly elevate their combat power, and guide Rasa step by bit to ignite the flames of war across the Shinobi World!
"Let the Jashin Religion deliver a grand gift to the Land of Wind, I hope they will not disappoint me."
The Sharingan in Simu's eye flashed with a crimson light, looking quite expectant.
Sensing the emotions within Simu, Nagato, who was hidden behind the scenes, shook his head.
The pathetic Hidden Sand was being played in the palm of his hand from beginning to end.
Immediately after, he felt a wave of chilliness.
This fellow Simu had been setting up his chess pieces for far too long...
He slowly shifted his gaze toward the man beside him, only to find that this guy had, at some unknown point, turned to fix his gaze on him with a faint smile and narrowed eyes.
That gaze seemed to pierce through space, looking directly at Nagato's true body.
Next, the Hidden Sand Village did not disappoint Simu's expectations, directly mobilizing over a thousand ninjas from the Land of Wind to officially take over the Land of Rivers.
Of course, their primary combat force was still centered around the capital of the Land of Rivers, since their most vital objective was to protect this Jashin Religion temple and the contents within it.
This was the key to whether the Hidden Sand Village could achieve a resurgence!
Meanwhile, the news that the Allied Wind-Fire Forces had wiped out the Jashin Religion, and that the Hidden Sand Village had backstabbed the Hidden Leaf, causing the Hidden Leaf to suffer disastrous losses, also rapidly spread into the ears of all factions across the Shinobi World.
Aside from the Hidden Mist, which remained secluded away from the world, both the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Stone Village immediately dispatched ninja forces to enter the small countries bordering the Land of Fire.
The Land of Earth entered the Land of Grass.
The Land of Lightning entered the Land of Fields.
Due to Danzo's previous policy of appeasement, they did not encounter much resistance when occupying these two small nations.
They marched smoothly all the way, and it was only at the borders of the Land of Fire that fierce conflicts finally erupted. As for why they did not attack the Land of Wind?
What meaning would there be in successfully taking over that vast expanse of desert?
It was far better to take advantage of this opportunity to rip a heavy piece of flesh off the Land of Fire!
In just a short span of a few days, a new round of the Shinobi World War was poised to break out!
At this time, Jiraiya, with the assistance of the toads from Mount Myoboku, had just been delivered to the Hidden Leaf along with Kakashi, Might Guy, and the others.
At the very first moment, he was carried into the Leaf Hospital, with Tsunade acting as the primary surgeon to unleash medical treatment at the fastest speed possible.
Looking at her old friend on the operating table, Tsunade's face was deathly pale, and her hand holding the scalpel could not stop trembling.
Her assistant Shizune stood by her side, her face completely filled with worry.
This was because Tsunade, one of the three world-renowned Sannin, had actually suffered from a highly severe illness ever since the Third Shinobi World War.
An illness that was almost ruinous for a doctor.
Hemophobia.
Precisely because of this, she had not picked up a scalpel to perform surgery on anyone for a very long time.
Yet the person lying on the operating table at this moment was her old friend of several decades, and the virus Jiraiya had been infected with was exceptionally bizarre, leaving even Mount Myoboku completely helpless.
Therefore, they could only pin their hopes on Tsunade, the foremost expert in medical ninjutsu in the Shinobi World; if she did not act, then Jiraiya would likely face a dead end.
Logically speaking, Jiraiya's symptoms should not have been this severe.
However, in order to successfully defeat the Jashin Religion, he had engaged in a fierce battle with Simu after being infected by the virus, and furthermore, he had consumed a massive amount of chakra and precious emergency rescue time to take Kakashi and the others away, which allowed the virus to spread through his entire body.
Shizune looked at the dying Jiraiya on the operating table, and then looked at the thoroughly pale Tsunade, finally unable to restrain herself from reminding, "Lady Tsunade, if we don't start now, Lord Jiraiya might..."
Just as her voice fell, Jiraiya, who was lying on the operating table, suddenly opened his eyes.
The bright lights illuminated his deathly pale face, and his disheveled hair lacked any of his past heroism, fully displaying the posture of a hero in his twilight years.
He seemed to want to raise his hand, but his arm merely trembled once, ultimately failing to lift up after all.
Therefore, he could only fix his gaze upon Tsunade, his lips gently moving: "I believe in you... Tsunade."
Hearing these words, Tsunade forcefully closed her eyes.
Her clenched fist directly bent the scalpel, and suddenly, Tsunade made up her mind, a flash like lightning passing through her opened eyes.
"Shizune, let's begin!"
"Ah? Yes!"
Although Shizune was caught somewhat off guard, she still hurriedly handed over a new scalpel.
Tsunade received the scalpel, chakra rapidly wrapping around it, and then she used a precise incision to cut open Jiraiya's afflicted area.
This elicited a sudden cry of surprise from the latter.
Only then did Shizune say weakly, "Lady Tsunade, we seem to have forgotten the anesthesia..."
Tsunade's face turned slightly red as she barked angrily at Jiraiya on the operating table, "Stop talking nonsense, bear with it!"
The surgery proceeded for two hours.
Two hours later, Tsunade walked out of the operating room completely drenched in sweat.
"How is the situation?"
Shimura Danzo, acting as the Fifth Hokage, had already been waiting here.
Although Jiraiya was usually unruly and frequently clashed with him as the Hokage, at this critical juncture of life and death, Danzo did not wish for anything more to happen to Jiraiya.
Otherwise, the Hidden Leaf would find it highly difficult to cope with the surrounding attacks from the other three great nations.
Only before Tsunade could open her mouth to reply, a wave of dizziness assaulted her mind, and her entire person collapsed directly onto the ground.
Danzo's expression changed as he questioned Shizune next to her, "What is going on here?"
It was bad enough that Jiraiya was heavily injured, could it be that even Tsunade was not going to make it?
Shizune supported Tsunade on one side while replying, "It should just be that the surgery consumed too much of her energy, rest assured, Lord Hokage, Lord Jiraiya's surgery was highly successful."
Hearing this, Danzo finally breathed a sigh of relief; if they lost the two powerful combat forces of Tsunade and Jiraiya, then the upcoming war would not even need to be fought.
"Since that is the case, take Tsunade down to rest quickly."
Danzo spoke in as amiable a voice as possible.
"Yes!"
Shizune hurriedly left the area while carrying Tsunade.
After Shizune left with Tsunade, an Anbu ninja reported an exceptionally grave piece of news to Danzo: the Hidden Leaf's ninja forces had suffered a massive defeat at the border, and the Fourth Raikage, Ay, had already led the Cloud Ninja forces into the territory of the Land of Fire!