This puppeteer is a bit... well...

Chapter 229 The Blood Pool Clan

The ninja world once again ushered in a long period of peace.

Despite Ryuji's repeated major actions in Konoha and Kirigakure, the other ninja villages have been restraining their impulses and trying to avoid conflict with Sunagakure.

Before the Sky City was built, they were helpless against the Sand Village, which possessed a floating continent. The only way was to bide their time, secretly accumulate strength, and wait for the Sky City to be completed before seeking revenge.

The city of government offices.

Round table meeting room in Sunagakure Village.

Ebizo, frowning, handed a report to Ryuji and said, "This is intelligence from the ANBU responsible for monitoring the Hidden Village; it's related to the Blood Clan."

"Blood Dragon Eye?" Long Er took the file from his hand, his mind filled with doubt.

This seems to be the plot after the original novel's ending?

He hadn't watched Boruto, but he'd heard plenty of memes like Uchiha slams, manual earth-release techniques, and XX being more exciting than Boruto, and he'd also watched some XX short videos, so he was quite familiar with the popular Blood Dragon Eye.

In the storyline following the original finale, this race occupies a significant portion of the plot.

This Blood Dragon Eyes family is a powerful illusionist clan, and one of their most troublesome abilities is to inject illusion chakra into a human body, creating a mobile human bomb.

"Our village also has records of this matter. The daughter of the Blood Pond clan married into the daimyo family of the Land of Lightning as a concubine. The girl was envied by the first wife, and died of illness not long after the daimyo married her. She was falsely accused by the first wife of being related to the daimyo's death, so the Blood Pond clan was exiled to Hell Valley."

Long Er nodded; he remembered this part of the plot.

Ebizo continued, "We discovered traces of weakened actors turned into human bombs near the border of the Land of Rivers, and their destination is the original location of our Sunagakure village."

Long Er gave a cold laugh.

It seems the people of Kumogakure are still up to their old tricks. After giving her a painful lesson last time, their hatred for Sunagakure has reached its peak.

These muscular men have always believed in revenge; they just do it.

Even though they are currently in the default phase of accumulating strength, they are still restless.

"The environment in Hell Valley is harsh, and the Blood Pond Clan and the Land of Lightning, along with the Daimyo's affairs, are ancient history. It seems that the people of Kumogakure made them some promises, and the price they paid was to attack our village?"

Long Er's general deduction of the matter was pretty accurate.

He also happened to be very envious of the illusions and other special skills of the Blood Pool Clan, which reminded him of this.

"Their actions have also caused us some losses. Our ninjas at the border post were not very vigilant, thinking they were just ordinary people infected with the disease. We never expected them to be human bombs. The initial contact resulted in some casualties."

"Looks like I didn't teach them a lesson enough last time; they didn't take it to heart." Long Er slowly stood up, a smile on his face. "I'm going to Hell Valley next to investigate who's behind this. As before, I'll leave the matters of Mechanized City to you for now."

"Haven't I been managing the Mechanical City all along?" Ebizo's eyes widened.

Looking at the serious-looking Ebizo, Ryuji couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark, and he couldn't help but laugh.

Indeed, since the construction of the Mechanical City began, Ebizo has been in charge of the construction, while Ryuji... aside from some technical issues that only he could solve, he was a hands-off manager.

"That's right, the builder of the Mechanical Castle was none other than Senior Ebizo!"

"No, no, no, I was just kidding."

"No, no, no, I'm serious. At most, both of our names will be left together."

Ryuji refers to a historical name.

The floating continent is nothing like the Sky City of the Sky Ninja Village, which is only the size of a fortress. It is the size of a real city and is absolutely unprecedented. It will definitely be written into the textbooks and materials of all the major ninja villages in the future.

Such a prestigious reputation is an irresistible temptation for most people.

However, Ryuji didn't care about these things, so it didn't bother him.

After a period of modesty, Ebizo stopped insisting.

Because that's the truth; he was basically in charge of building the entire city, so it's normal for his name to be listed on it.

"I have another matter to attend to during this trip."

Ryuji casually flipped through the documents in his hand... Ever since Sunagakure began to expand significantly and issued a recruitment order to recruit various ninja clans, quite a few clans have indeed come to join them.

However, none of the famous families that Ryuji remembered came. After all, pure profit could only attract a small number of people, and other families that had value to him still needed to come in person to show their sincerity.

The one that concerned him the most was the Wind Demon Clan.

This race possesses a very special secret technique, somewhat similar to Onoki's Dust Release. The difference is that Dust Release breaks matter down into tiny particles, while the Fuuma clan's ninjutsu grinds it down through compression.

This family is renowned in the ninja world, possessing considerable strength and potential. Most importantly, they have not yet joined any ninja village.

If they could join Sunagakure, it would be of great significance to the future development of the Kaminarimon Castle.

"It looks like it'll be a long time before we get back this time."

Ryuji picked up the documents from his hand and returned to his residence.

At this moment, Hong had already prepared a variety of exquisite dishes for him, which looked incredibly tempting.

Since he didn't know how long he would be gone, Long Er wasn't in a hurry and slowly savored Hong's cooking.

Yes, he's not planning to bring any red flowers with him this time.

The reason is that his strength is already great enough, and leaving Kurenai in Sunagakure can effectively prevent a sudden enemy attack... although it is unlikely to happen given the current situation.

However, nothing in probability is absolute, so it's always good to be cautious.

……

Hell Valley... This place truly lives up to its name as a forbidden zone.

Although there is a water source underground, the water is extremely hot, so it is impossible for any vegetation to grow there.

The barren environment, coupled with the orders from the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, deterred many from traveling there.

This resulted in the Blood Pool clan members having to rely on various desert creatures and birds that occasionally wandered in to make a living, leading a life that could be described as hellish.

After the mechanical bird flew around in the air a few times, a clanging sound came from its abdomen, which made Long Er chuckle.

The mechanical bird's design led the Blood Pool Clan to believe it was a giant bird of prey flying overhead, and they wanted to shoot it down for a meal.

"It seems that the Raikage's promise to them did not include relocating them from Hell Valley. But thinking about it, it makes sense. Right now, they desperately need money, and it would be unwise to do something against the Daimyo's will under these circumstances."

Not every daimyo is like the daimyo of the Land of Fire, who spares no effort in supporting the development of their country's ninja village.

It's more of a relationship of mutual exploitation.

Although the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning trusted Kumogakure very much and was never stingy with military funds for the village, this was because the Yotsuki clan had exchanged their clan land for the Daimyo's support and subsequently performed a series of acts of loyalty.

It's not that the daimyo is indifferent to everything in Kumogakure.

The Blood Pond Clan was forbidden from going to Hell Valley... Although this happened decades ago, before Konoha Village was even established, these daimyo have always liked to stick to the old ways, and the older the tradition, the less willing they are to change it.

However, this also gave Ryuji an opportunity.

If the Raikage's side really dares to offend the daimyo of the Land of Lightning and forcibly take them away from Hell Valley, then Ryuji is destined to return empty-handed this time.

After spinning a few times in the air, the mechanical bird slowly landed. Several people dressed in old clothes, with bloodshot eyes as if they had conjunctivitis, quickly rushed over to its side.

They saw the hidden sand on Long Er's forehead and immediately formed a hand seal.

The hidden turbulence in the air, like the bursting of a lake, rushed towards the second brother.

"Illusion, huh..." Ryuji glanced at the person who cast the spell, chuckled softly, and made no reaction, letting the chakra seep into his brain.

But in the end, Long Er was completely unharmed, while the Blood Pool Clan member who cast the spell instantly began to suffer.

He closed his eyes tightly, covered his eyes, and rolled around on the ground, with traces of blood flowing from between his fingers.

The existence of the spiritual ocean is the absolute nemesis of illusions; even the Blood Dragon Eye illusion, which had already established its illustrious reputation in the Warring States period, is useless against it.

"I know where your hostility comes from. If I'm not mistaken, it's because Kumogakure (Hidden Cloud Village) agreed to some conditions that allowed you to come and deal with Sunagakure (Hidden Sand Village)!"

The leader had lost the ability to resist and was groaning on the ground. The others looked at each other, none of them daring to answer Long Er's question.

Or rather, having been confined within Hell Valley for so long, many of them have lost the ability to communicate with the outside world.

"Take me to your leader, or I'll kill you all!"

They looked at each other and saw hesitation in each other's eyes.

But after Ryuji released his powerful aura, he could only nod in resignation.

As a genjutsu clan that was once comparable to the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan, they have extraordinary confidence in their genjutsu. This person in front of them easily broke their genjutsu without making any move, which shows their strength!

It's not worth risking your life for some promises made by the Hidden Cloud Village.

Several members of the Blood Pool led Ryuji to the entrance of a cave, gestured for him to go inside, and then stopped outside.

Long Er nodded and went inside alone.

The inside of the cave was still unbearably hot, but compared to the outside, there was less direct ultraviolet radiation.

"Who goes there?"

A weak old man's voice came from inside the cave.

Ryuji looked over at the sound and was surprised to find a little girl with short yellow hair.

This person is Chino from the future. Although she is known to still look like a little girl after the Fourth Shinobi World War, she is actually a few years older than Sasuke. It is hard to say exactly how old she is now.

"I am a ninja from Sunagakure, here to invite you to join us. Once you join Sunagakure, we will provide you with protection. As for the prohibitions imposed by the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, you need not worry about them at all."

Upon hearing his words, a strange light flashed in the old man's eyes, and he scrutinized the other man with some suspicion.

At this time, more and more members of the Blood Pool came out of the cave. Ryuji counted them and there were about 30 people.

The old man glanced at the group of members, a hint of resentment flashing in his eyes.

When he was young, the Blood Pool Clan had just been driven to Hell Valley, and he personally witnessed the Blood Pool Clan's numbers dwindle from several hundred to what they were now.

To him, anyone who dares to step into Hell Valley is the hope for the rise of the Blood Pool clan.

But he had been deceived countless times, and he would never agree unless the young man in front of him made some substantial promise.

"Excuse my bluntness, but Kumogakure has made the same promise. Why should I believe you?"

Long Er smiled and said, "It's very simple. If you're willing, I can take you away right now."

At this moment, a thin man, who was indeed a member of the group, whispered a few words to the old man. The old man stared at Long Er and said, "When you came, there was only one mechanical bird, which was not enough to seat all the members of our Blood Pool clan."

Long Er didn't offer any further explanation. Instead, he clasped his hands together, and his personal space slowly opened in front of the group of people.

(End of this chapter)