Akashō suddenly raised his eyebrows in surprise.
Because under his Kokushibo template, the reputation value had more than doubled, already breaking past twenty thousand.
"What's going on?"
Akashō frowned in confusion. If those two Sand Village ninjas had already returned to their base and spread the word about him, that would make some sense—but it had only been a few minutes since they left. That shouldn't be possible.
Wait.
Akashō suddenly looked toward the pool of flesh and blood on a nearby rock, a thought forming in his mind.
"Looks like I still haven't fully figured out how this damn system works… I'll run an experiment tonight."
He retracted the Blade of Living Flesh and stepped forward, continuing his search for Sand Village ninjas.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the two Sand Village jonin who had escaped under Pakura's cover finally returned to their camp after a desperate sprint for their lives.
"What?! Pakura is dead?!"
Rasa stared at the two panting jonin in disbelief, his eyes wide.
"No… Pakura-sama might not be dead yet. It's just that… that monster is far too strong. I'm afraid her chances are slim…"
A vein bulged on Rasa's forehead as his anger nearly boiled over.
Pakura was one of his top subordinates, yet now she had been pushed into a near-death situation just to cover the escape of these two useless jonin.
No matter how he calculated it, this was a massive loss.
More importantly, Pakura was his direct subordinate—completely different from the others.
If not for the disappearance of the Third Kazekage pushing Rasa to seize power early, if not for the recent death of Konoha's White Fang, if not for his urgent need for achievements and battle merits to elevate his position…
Now wasn't the time to think about that.
Rasa shook his head. The most important thing right now was to eliminate Kokushibo, this unstable factor. Otherwise, the advantage Sand Village currently held could very well be reversed.
"Damn Moon Sword Demon!!"
With a furious slap, Rasa shattered the wooden table in front of him.
"Gather the troops and head out immediately to assess the situation. If there's even the slightest chance, you must bring Pakura back alive."
His eyes burned with violent killing intent as he coldly stared at the two jonin.
"If you can't bring back a living Pakura, then bring me Kokushibo's corpse!"
Cold sweat covered the jonins' foreheads. They exchanged a glance, gritted their teeth, and nodded.
"Yes!"
Before long, over a hundred figures shot out from the Sand Village camp, heading straight toward the place where Akashō had previously slaughtered Pakura.
At the same time, in the Konoha camp, the two squads of Konoha ninjas who had escaped thanks to Akashō's intervention were reporting to a square-faced man.
"So, according to you, this Kokushibo is even stronger than Pakura of Scorch Release?"
Uchiha Fugaku stroked his chin, deep in thought.
As early as last night, he had already heard reports about Kokushibo from several Konoha squads. At the time, his only order had been to avoid conflict.
But now, it seemed the opponent's strength far exceeded his expectations—possibly even rivaling his own. That changed everything.
Konoha was currently surrounded by enemies on three sides. The other two fronts weren't fully engaged yet and had Kage-level fighters supporting them. Only the Sand Village battlefield relied on him—Uchiha Fugaku, a quasi-Kage-level fighter—along with some elite Uchiha ninja.
Even though the Kazekage was missing and the Hidden Mist had unexpectedly stepped in to restrain that old woman Chiyo, Sand Village still had Rasa and Karura—two formidable experts. He alone couldn't hold the line.
That damned Hiruzen Sarutobi—this was clearly making things difficult for him.
But now, Uchiha Fugaku saw a different kind of hope.
If they could recruit Kokushibo, the pressure on him would be greatly reduced.
"You said that before you left, you clearly saw half of Kokushibo's head destroyed by Pakura… yet it regenerated in the blink of an eye?"
"Even a Jinchūriki couldn't achieve that level of recovery."
"Captain Fugaku, I think the enemy of our enemy is our friend. With that kind of strength, it's worth trying to recruit him."
One of the Konoha jonin spoke cautiously.
"Hmm…"
Uchiha Fugaku thought for a moment.
"I understand the logic. But he calls himself Upper Rank One of the Twelve Demon Moons. If there's a One, there must be a Two. If there are Upper Ranks, there must also be Lower Ranks. He may belong to some unknown organization."
"However, we are indeed at a disadvantage on the Sand Village front. Go test his attitude. If possible, recruit him."
"If he's truly as strong as you say, Pakura may already have died at his hands. Rasa won't let him go—this is also an opportunity. I'll assign you several squads of elite Uchiha ninja. Take them and investigate the situation."
"Yes!"
Soon, dozens of black figures shot out from the Konoha camp as well, led by the jonin, heading swiftly toward Akashō's location.
...
On a stretch of plain, Akashō expressionlessly beheaded another Sand Village ninja, then watched as several others fled into the distance.
"This reputation value… something's off."
He pulled up the Kokushibo template, staring at the numbers below with confusion.
After killing Pakura, he had been closely monitoring the template, yet the reputation value hadn't changed at all.
Only when he found another squad of Sand ninjas did it increase slightly by a few dozen points. After killing two of them, it suddenly jumped by several hundred more.
From this, it seemed his earlier guess might have been correct.
"Different people provide different amounts of reputation—some high, some low."
"The reason Pakura gave over ten thousand reputation… is probably because she made up the majority of it."
"So that's how it works. Damn, I finally get it!"
When he had first transmigrated, Akashō had once transformed into Kokushibo to scare the children in his village. Back then, each child only contributed a tiny bit of reputation, which led him to believe everyone provided a fixed amount.
But now, just Pakura alone could give nearly ten thousand. If that's the case, what about the leaders of the ninja villages—the Kage?
Wouldn't each of them be worth tens of thousands?
And with all the ordinary ninja added in, harvesting over a hundred thousand reputation from a single village wouldn't be a problem. Visit three or four villages, and that fifty-thousand—no, fifty-thousand—target would be easily achieved.
The more Akashō thought about it, the more excited he became, his eyes practically glowing.
What a useless system—aside from the note about unlocking the next template at five hundred thousand reputation, it gave no hints at all. He had to figure everything out on his own.
"Searching squad by squad is way too slow…"
Akashō muttered in frustration. War between ninja wasn't what he had imagined.
He had thought it would be like in movies from his previous life—both sides gathering all their forces and clashing head-on in an open field, fighting until one side was wiped out or surrendered.
Instead, it was more like guerrilla warfare, broken into countless small squads operating independently.
"But since it's a war, there should be a camp for resting, right?"