Zombie Sage in Naruto

Chapter 123 Those who praise me will receive a resurrection spot.
Kakuzu's most hated type of person is someone who wants him to do things but won't pay him.

What a coincidence, this clueless guy in front of me is exactly that type.

"I originally thought that my attack on Sunagakure would boost my fame and attract the attention of richer people who would hire me. But it backfired, and someone as ignorant as you came knocking on my door."

Kakuzu sneered. He originally wouldn't bother with this kind of guy; killing him wouldn't get him any money. But now it seemed he had no choice but to kill him.

"go to hell."

Kakuzu raised his hand, and his fist, pulling countless black threads, flew out, instantly piercing through Hidan's chest and creating a large hole.

"It was over in an instant. You didn't even have the ability to dodge? You're so weak." Kakuzu glanced at Hidan's Konoha headband. "Konoha ninja, I hope you're on the bounty list too."

"Ouch... But you guessed right, you idiot, I am indeed on the bounty list, and worth 80 million taels. As a bounty hunter, you don't even know that?!"

Hidan looked down at his chest, spitting blood as he cursed loudly.

Kakuzu was taken aback, carefully examining Hidan opposite him, his eyes growing brighter and brighter: "You're still alive after being hit in a vital spot, such skill... Could you be Kaedeji's disciple, the second person in the world to master the Corpse Escape Technique? I remember now, those employers really wanted to capture you and interrogate you to find out the secret technique, I'm so lucky."

Killing this one would be more profitable than killing four Garudas! And with some hype later, it might sell for more than 80 million taels.

There's no way around it; Kaedeji is just too difficult to kill. He's currently recognized as the perfect ninja. Although a lot of information about him has been exposed and he's been thoroughly studied by various countries and villages, the more they study him, the more of a headache he becomes. For the time being, they haven't come up with a good way to counter Kaedeji.

Hidan is different. Although very little information about him has been leaked, and all that is known is that he seems to like using taijutsu and has a record of killing the Four-Tails, Hidan is undoubtedly easier to deal with than Kaede Tsukasa, who can fight in groups, clear out the field with Wood Release, and teleport in space and time.

To obtain the Corpse Escape Technique, it's best to start with Hidan.

Kakuzu got excited and immediately started taking off his clothes.

Hidan grabbed the black thread and yanked it outwards, pulling Kakuzu's hand out and slashing it with his scythe.

"Hahaha, you bastard, I don't know what kind of crappy secret technique you used, but even the strongest technique is dead once it gets close!"

Hidan immediately activated his Death Possession Blood and began a frenzied act of self-harm, destroying one of Kakuzu's hearts to Kakuzu's shocked expression.

"You're still alive, huh? To be chosen by Kaede Tsukasa, you must be the immortal type. I knew he wouldn't just send me out like that."

Hidan wasn't surprised at all. Staring at the several masks that flew off Kakuzu's body, he realized that self-harm was no longer effective in killing Kakuzu, so he immediately grabbed his scythe and charged forward.

"Hmph, your immortality is quite interesting. It seems to be something else entirely, unlike my type... This must be the result of corpse escape techniques. You really are that guy's disciple."

Kakuzu's expression became more serious.

At his level, very few people in the ninja world could kill him. Coupled with his rich combat experience, he certainly had the confidence to look down on these youngsters.

But Kaedeji is different; he's the kind of guy that even Kakuzu has to be cautious about.

Under Kakuzu's control, the masks opened their mouths and spewed out various escaping techniques, bombarding Hidan with a dense barrage, causing Hidan, who charged forward headlong, to suffer a great loss.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! These damned things can even use ninjutsu?" Hidan screamed, getting up from the ground covered in dust. He hadn't suffered like this in a long time.

Kakuzu sneered, "There are many things you don't know. My Earth Grudge Fear will surpass your nominal immortality!"

"Hmph, you're even more arrogant than me... Fine, it seems I'll have to use that guy's power. I originally wanted to kill you in a one-on-one fight."

Hidan muttered to himself, but the other side was equivalent to several combatants, so it wasn't too much to ask him to send some people over as well, was it?

Psychic art!

Coffins appeared around Hidan, from which emerged a group of meticulously preserved zombies.

Kakuzu frowned deeply: "Using zombies to fight..."

"You're in luck, you idiot! Someone like you doesn't even need to use those strongest corpses. I only need a group of Jonin and Chunin to take you down!" Hidan cursed.

Kakuzu sneered, "If I'm not mistaken, you don't have the ability to summon those famous guys at all."

Hidan immediately broke through the guard.

That's right, he really couldn't summon it because Kaedeji didn't give him the authority. The Corpse Escape Technique he was using now, if you had to put it in a nutshell, was actually transmitting the requirements to Kaedeji during the casting process. Only when Kaedeji nodded could Hidan successfully cast the technique.

As for top-tier zombies like Old Purple and Sandstorm Araki, Hidan can't summon them, and Kaedeji would never entrust such powerful combat forces to a brain-dead guy like Hidan.

Who knows what outrageous moves Hidan might pull off given his thought process?
"Kill, kill, kill! I'll beat you until you're barely alive, then I can take you back. Anyway, you don't look like you have a normal body anymore, so I can just take your head back, right?"

This time, Hidan led a group of formidable zombies up the mountain, completely disregarding the casualties he and the zombies suffered.

Shortly after.

Hidan and Kakuzu appeared in Konoha Village, both looking extremely disheveled, covered in blood and their clothes torn in many places.

Kakuzu, for example, was completely shirtless, revealing the stitching marks made of black silk thread.

Few people paid attention to Kakuzu; instead, most people were focused on Hidan, recognizing him as Kaede Tsukasa's disciple.

"...This village is very prosperous. I never thought that the village that the First Hokage founded would grow to this size today." Kakuzu was disheveled, but his aura remained undiminished. He still habitually adopted the posture of a senior, subtly elevating his position through his comments.

Hidan wasn't buying it at all: "Stop with your boring seniority stuff. This village only recognizes strength! Besides, who doesn't know the art of immortality? Earth Grudge Feast is nothing special!"

Kakuzu snorted coldly. If anyone else had said that, he would have killed them long ago. But it was Hidan who said it... Very well, even if he couldn't kill them, he might not be able to beat them in a fight. That bunch of zombies was really disgusting. Some of them would even rush up and self-destruct. It was unbelievable.

After losing three hearts in the explosion, he had no choice but to reluctantly agree. He dug out the hearts of several zombies to replenish his strength and then followed Hidan to see Kaede Tsukasa.

The two walked through the streets of Konoha without any attempt to conceal their presence, mingling with numerous pedestrians.

People kept looking at Hidan and whispering among themselves, while only occasionally would someone glance at Kakuzu and guess the identity of this stranger.

"It's Lord Hidan. Judging from their appearance, they've probably just returned from their training."

"It must be him. He looks so disheveled. Only someone who has undergone the most arduous training would look like this... But speaking of which, who is that guy next to Lord Hidan? He has strange stitches on his body. He must be a powerful ninja who has mastered a special secret technique."

"Hidan is very ambitious; those who lack ability have no right to walk beside him."

"Sigh, the atmosphere in the village is getting more and more strange. No matter what, Lord Kaedeji is a hero of the village. Do some guys have the right to criticize him like this?"

"Hey, I wonder if Lord Hidan knows the Reincarnation Technique..."

Kakuzu listened silently to the villagers' conversation and roughly understood what had happened in the village. He almost burst out laughing.

"So that's what they were arguing about. The Reincarnation Technique. I almost managed to snatch this secret technique, but unfortunately, people from other organizations beat me to it."

Kakuzu found the argument incredibly boring and was puzzled as to why Kaedejima would let these small fry dare to talk nonsense—was it really that hard to kill whoever made a fuss?
Anyway, it's not like Kaede Tsukasa doesn't have the ability. In fact, he's theoretically quite keen on killing people. The more people he kills, the more zombies he'll have!

Hidan snorted twice: "This must be the reason I called you here."

"I see, I'm so surprised that something so interesting happened." Kakuzu understood. "But hiring me is very expensive."

He was no stranger to political struggles, or even coups; at worst, he could just defect. He was all too familiar with such things.

Back when he was still a ninja in Takigakure, he was ordered to assassinate the First Hokage. He dared to accept such an outrageous mission, and what's more, he actually did it.

Although it didn't work out in the end, it's okay. Kakuzu wasn't discouraged. If he couldn't solve the mission, he could solve the person who issued it.
If you kill someone, the mission will be automatically canceled, right? Then it won't count as a failure!
This is just repeating what he did back then, causing trouble in Konoha Village... He's already thinking about how much money he should ask Kaedeji for later. He won't do it if the money is too little; it's a matter of dignity.

Before they even saw Kaedeji, a commotion broke out in the crowd, followed by a burst of noise.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"It's Lord Kato Dan. He stood up and publicly refuted the claims of many of his comrades, and said... that he was actually resurrected by Lord Kaedeji, and he wants to prove that Lord Kaedeji had already resurrected his comrades!"

"What? There's such a thing?!" "It's the Battle of Hot Springs at the end of the Second Shinobi World War... That makes sense. It's said that in that battle, Lord Kato Dan, with the assistance of Lord Kaedama Tsukasa, severely injured the Four-Tails Jinchuriki! At the time, I was wondering, how could those two be strong enough to deal with an enemy of that level?"

Now it makes sense. If Kato Dan died once and was resurrected by Kaede Tsukasa, he could use the unpredictable nature of the Spirit Transformation Technique to fight the Four-Tails Jinchuriki with two lives...

That makes sense, absolutely makes sense!
Battles between ninjas are often intelligence battles. If you can use one life to test the enemy's strength, then fight to the death, and then revive on the spot to calmly finish off the wounded enemy... it makes perfect sense. This tactic is practically unbeatable. After all, Kato Dan is no weakling. He just needs an opportunity!
This sparked a lot of excitement among many people. If they could actually fight with an extra life, the advantage would be enormous.

And the fact that this terrifying... let's call it a "tactic" has caused Kaede Tsukasa's popularity to soar once again.

Because Kato Dan was the first beneficiary and resurrected person of the Reanimation Jutsu to be known to everyone, and he became famous in the ninja world by stepping on an enemy of the level of the Four-Tails Jinchuriki.

The value of Kaedeji's Reincarnation Technique has been further enhanced.

This also put Kato Dan in the spotlight, and everyone was indeed surprised. Even the village's higher-ups were unaware of this secret, let alone Kato Dan himself stepping forward to speak out for Kaede Tsukasa based on his own experience.

This behavior, how should I put it, is rather... naive.

This will only make those mediocre people even more greedy for Kaedeji's power, and even more hope that Kaedeji can stand up and resurrect them or their dead relatives and friends.

Public opinion in Konoha became increasingly chaotic and intense, with arguments erupting everywhere, to the point that the village had to step in to quell the unrest.

When information about Kakuzu and Hidan's return to the village reached the hands of the village's higher-ups, they were in a panic and simply issued an order to find out Kakuzu's identity.

There was nothing they could do; they hadn't expected things to turn out this way.

"Go and call Kato Dan and Tsunade over here! Why didn't you report something this important sooner!"

"Kato Dan has actually come back to life once! This is simply unbelievable... Do they even deserve to call themselves ninjas of the village?!"

The two consultants were furious when they realized things were out of control and had gone awry.

Their original intention was actually very simple: to put pressure on Kaedeji Tsukasa. At most, they would just put some pressure on him and punish him, and that would be it. But now things have turned out like this!

Although it may seem that Kaede Tsukasa is being condemned by everyone, a closer look reveals that Kato Dan's initiative to stand up actually enhances the prestige of Kaede Tsukasa's name and indirectly increases his prestige!
This won't do! If it were Minato Namikaze with that kind of prestige, they would be happy to see it happen, but Kaede Tsukasa? No, absolutely not! Konoha Village will not allow such a non-Hokage lineage ninja!
But it's too late to act now.

Soon after, Kato Dan arrived, and Tsunade barged in rudely, staring at the two advisors with an unfriendly expression.

"Well, it seems you've botched things. Are you trying to force Kaedeji to defect?"

"Shut up! Is this how you talk?"

"What kind of attitude is this? You self-righteous fools, what kind of attitude do you deserve?"

Tsunade was indeed furious. Kato Dan, out of his sense of justice and morality, took the initiative to stand up and draw the fire. This may have been a bit naive, but it was definitely not wrong. Kato Dan is just that kind of person.

Moreover, it's not excessive to respond in this way to a life-saving favor. Tsunade can't vent her anger on Dan Kato and Tsukasa Kaede, so she can only target the two advisors who started it all.

What? The Third Hokage? Tsunade knows her teacher too well. In this kind of mess, the Third Hokage would at most be the one tacitly approving it; he wouldn't actively step forward and lead such a thing.

The Third Hokage listened to the argument and silently puffed on his pipe.

Things are getting more and more complicated. If he had stopped this trend decisively from the beginning, it probably wouldn't have turned out like this. Hopefully, Kaedeji can understand things. But he also has the Will of Fire, so he should be able to understand the village's good intentions... right?

……

Kakuzu sized up the person in front of him.

"So you're the legendary Kaede Tsukasa? Let's get this straight, whatever mission you want me to do, I'm very expensive. As long as the money's right, I can take on any mission," Kakuzu said.

"Money? To me, it's just a number."

Kaede glanced at Minami.

"..."

Xiao Nan gritted her teeth and had no choice but to demonstrate her paper magic on the spot, with a large number of papers flying around.

Kakuzu was initially confused. It was just a secret technique of fighting with paper; what did it have to do with money? But soon, his expression completely changed. His eyes lit up as he stared at the white paper, where numerous spell patterns appeared, eventually transforming into... explosive tags!
"hiss!"

Kakuzu gasped, realizing what was happening. He understood everything; such a technique actually existed!

"It's practically printing money! No, explosive tags are worth far more than money. They're hard currency anywhere, and no one can refuse them." Kakuzu reached out and grabbed an explosive tag that had just been created in the air, his gaze towards Konan becoming incredibly fervent.

Whoever can control this woman will have endless money to spend, which is really... Unfortunately, Kaede Tsukasa has already taken control of this woman, so he will hardly have a chance.

"Do you understand now? Money is not a problem," Kaede Tsukasa said calmly. "Join my team, and you will have lots and lots of money."

"I see. So you really are planning to do what I suspected. When do you plan to make your move? I need to pick out a valuable guy to kill beforehand, so I can sell him to the bounty agency for money later..."

Kakuzu quickly realized: "Of course, you probably won't agree. If you want to pay, just come to me directly, no problem."

“No rush, I have another helper who is pursuing immortality. His secret technique is almost complete,” Kaede Tsukasa said.

The current Konoha Village is at its peak of strength, but Kaede Tsukasa's side is not weak either. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is also on his side. If a real battle breaks out, there is no need to worry about the Hokage lineage in terms of high-end combat power.

Kakuzu sneered, "Who would have thought that the internal conflicts in Konoha Village would escalate to this point, to the point of almost breaking out into civil war? This kind of information must be extremely valuable. The thought of taking action in the number one ninja village in the ninja world excites me. The First Hokage probably never imagined that the village he painstakingly built would turn out like this. Where exactly did things go wrong?"

"Problems can arise anywhere. In the eyes of the village's higher-ups, my uncontrollable power is the biggest problem. But I won't submit to their orders and suffer their humiliation for no reason."

Kaede Tsukasa roughly understood the Uchiha clan's mentality in launching a coup, and also understood how passive and helpless Fugaku felt in the face of the village infiltrating his clan.

However, this method was useless against Kaede Tsukasa. Apart from a few limited helpers like Hidan, all his other combat forces were zombies he controlled, so there was no possibility of internal rebellion.

If we disregard all objective factors and Kaedeji were to act recklessly now, the war he provokes would be absolutely devastating, far exceeding the losses caused by the successful Uchiha clan rebellion.

It's simply that Kaedeji doesn't need to make a move right now.

"The village's leaders must still be clinging to a sliver of hope, perhaps even comforting themselves by thinking they can appease me later and let this matter drop. But some things, if you don't do them, everyone's willing to play dumb; once you do them, even if it's just the beginning, no amount of making up for it will make up for it... Politics is such a troublesome thing."

Kaede Tsukasa snorted coldly.

He is not Sakumo Hatake. In the original timeline, Sakumo Hatake committed suicide. He had no sense of belonging to Konoha Village or this world, so he would never do such a thing.

From a political perspective, it's not important whether Kaede Tsukasa harbors rebellious intentions; what matters is that he has the power to do so. Furthermore, the unique characteristics of his Corpse Release technique allow him to instantly transform countless Konoha ninjas and villagers into zombies, triggering a terrifying zombie horde, as long as he is in Konoha and unleashes his full power.

Unfortunately, the village couldn't stop Kaede Tsukasa from returning. Corpses were buried everywhere in the village, and no matter how much they searched and marked, they couldn't possibly miss anything. This meant that Kaede Tsukasa could freely enter and leave using the Void Realm Technique.

Even if the village set up a super-large barrier for the entire Hidden Leaf Village, it would be useless. The barrier cannot block space-time transfer, and it is not a time of war. Setting up a barrier of this scale would require a huge number of people, not to mention the sheer number of outsiders coming and going. This alone makes it impossible for the Hidden Leaf Village to do such a thing.

The threat level of the Void Realm Technique continues to rise.

"You'll stay here during this time, behave yourselves, don't go out and cause trouble, and follow my orders," Kaede Tsukasa said calmly.

Immediately afterwards, Kaedeji made his move.

However, the problem is not solved by violence, but by public opinion.

Soon, a message swept through the entire Hidden Leaf Village like a storm and spread to other countries.

This news was so extraordinary that everyone had to pay attention to it. Even the village's leaders hadn't expected that Kaedeji would make a decision on his own, bypassing them.

"Anyone who serves the village can exchange their merits for a resurrection spot once they have accumulated enough merits."

A simple sentence, and everyone was shocked and stunned.

If Kaedeji had claimed to be working for him, that would have been one thing, but he didn't say that. Instead, he took a higher perspective and promoted the news from the village's point of view!
Even the most discerning person couldn't find fault with it at first glance, and those who didn't understand might have thought it was a policy issued by the village. But those who truly understood what was going on felt a chill run down their spines.

(End of this chapter)