In the end, Obito left behind the line, "Those who don't know how to cherish their comrades are worse than trash," and set off alone, following the trail left by that Hidden Stone Village ninja to rescue Rin. Kakashi remained behind, his expression dark as he looked at Akashō.
"What do you think?"
Akashō shrugged. "I don't really care."
He agreed with Obito's words—if someone couldn't even value their comrades, then they truly were worse than trash.
Unfortunately, Akashō would never have something like comrades.
"But speaking of which…"
Akashō pointed at Kakashi's arms.
"In this situation, wouldn't calling Minato over make things a lot easier?"
Kakashi fell silent for a moment before replying,
"Minato-sensei is holding the front lines right now. We can't add to his burden."
Akashō raised an eyebrow and said nothing more. The two continued forward.
However, they hadn't gone far before Kakashi suddenly stopped again.
Akashō glanced at his back and clicked his tongue.
"If you're that worried, then just go. Hesitating like this isn't what a ninja should look like."
Kakashi's body trembled, and he turned to look at Akashō. "I understand."
He then pulled out a pouch filled with Explosive Tags and stuffed it into Akashō's hands.
"I'll leave the bridge to you. I'm going to save them."
With that, Kakashi turned around and sprinted back the way he came, disappearing from Akashō's sight, leaving him completely dumbfounded.
"What the hell??"
After standing there in a daze for a moment, Akashō let out a chuckle, tucked the pouch into his clothes, and casually wandered off in a random direction.
Blow up the bridge? Blow up what bridge?
Why should he, Akashō, risk his life working for the Hidden Leaf Village?
Looking up at the sun that had already fully set, Akashō's lips curled slightly as he directly transformed into Kokushibo.
The sun had set unusually early today.
After not transforming into Kokushibo for quite some time, Akashō stretched a few times on the spot and sighed.
"Ah… having an immortal body really does feel reassuring."
After transforming, he casually activated the Transparent World as well, just in case some unlucky passerby happened to witness this scene—so he could eliminate them immediately.
"Tch, this isn't good. Getting used to an immortal body isn't a good habit… "
Akashō pulled up his personal interface. Compared to the beginning, his main body's skill list now included Moon Breathing, the Shadow Clone Technique, and the Transformation Technique.
Originally, Akashō's plan had simply been to use Shadow Clones combined with the Transformation Technique, using his transformed main body as the center to display all template characters at once.
This would serve two purposes: first, to eliminate the suspicion caused by those template characters never appearing in the same place at the same time; second, to test whether, after binding multiple template characters to a fabricated organization and acting personally, the Shadow Clone-transformed template characters could also gain reputation points.
However, this approach had many flaws.
For example, Shadow Clones combined with the Transformation Technique didn't fundamentally change anything—their combat power was almost negligible.
Another issue was that Shadow Clones would disperse after taking a certain amount of damage. If one happened to be defeated by a weak ninja, it would severely affect reputation farming.
Additionally, the Transformation Technique itself was easy to see through.
But when Akashō first used the Shadow Clone Technique, he discovered an unexpected surprise through the clones' feedback.
That was—Shadow Clones could also use templates.
More precisely, the Shadow Clones and Akashō's main body could share the same template pool. They could freely transform into Kokushibo, Bertholdt Hoover, or Neferpitou, and their abilities would function perfectly without issue. The only limitation was that since the templates were shared, duplicates couldn't exist.
For example, if one Shadow Clone transformed into Kokushibo, then Akashō himself couldn't take that form. Only after that clone exited the Kokushibo template could Akashō use it.
This was also one of the reasons why Akashō only created two Shadow Clones to send to the battlefield between the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire, leaving one template unused.
Because before the clones dispersed, Akashō's main body had no connection with them whatsoever. If all three templates were used up, he might end up in danger without being able to transform, leading to instant death.
However, this completely eliminated the issue of the Transformation Technique being easily exposed—after all, using templates to transform wasn't some cheap ninjutsu that could be seen through.
As for Shadow Clones being easy to disperse, that limitation was far less significant for Bertholdt Hoover and Neferpitou compared to Kokushibo.
After all, clones only disperse after taking a certain amount of damage.
For someone like Bertholdt Hoover, the real fighting force was the Colossal Titan he summoned, not the clone itself, making it unlikely to take damage.
As for Neferpitou, as a creature from the Dark Continent, its physical body was extraordinarily strong. Its reaction speed and agility far surpassed Kokushibo's, making it difficult to hit. And with flesh even tougher than Kokushibo's Demon Body, weaker attacks couldn't even break its defenses—no damage, and naturally, no dispersion.