Naruto: Help Madara rejuvenate and launch a counterattack on Konoha

Blackball pleaded with the snow leopard, "Brother Leopard, you can have your thoughts, but could you please not use my head as a claw sharpener?"

"What are you barking like a dog? What are you barking like a dog?"

The snow leopard smacked Blackie twice with its claws, and Blackie immediately stopped barking.

The snow leopard released its senses to detect the aura of the Root. It had been puzzled by a certain aura within the Root, an aura that resembled a snake.

The snow leopard had never encountered Orochimaru. If it had sensed Orochimaru's aura, it would have been able to distinguish that the aura within Root was very similar to Orochimaru's.

"That serpentine aura? It shouldn't be underestimated. Let's go check it out!"

The snow leopard led Black Ball to the location of the aura it sensed.

Kabuto lived next to the Root's prison where ninjas were held.

Because the Impure World Reincarnation requires the consumption of living human sacrifices imbued with chakra, Kabuto needed to practice it in real-world scenarios when learning the Impure World Reincarnation.

Therefore, the ninjas in Root prison were all sacrifices to Kabuto.

Root is now pouring all its resources into Kabuto, hoping he can learn the Impure World Reincarnation technique as soon as possible.

After all, he was the only one who could accommodate Orochimaru's White Snake cells.

Kabuto diligently studied the Impure World Reincarnation technique in his room, glancing at the calendar on the wall whenever he got tired.

A very conspicuous red circle was drawn around one of the dates in the middle, as if it were the day of execution.

This is not the day Dou is beheaded, but the day the children in the orphanage are beheaded.

Danzo gave Kabuto seven days.

Kabuto can use the ninjas in the prison as sacrifices every day, but if he still cannot summon the dead from the Pure Land after seven days...

Then the new offerings were replaced by Kabuto's companions, who were the physically disabled people in the orphanage.

The offering for the Impure World Reincarnation does not necessarily have to be a ninja; any living person can be used to activate the Impure World Reincarnation.

Those who possess chakra are better able to bear the power of the dead.

In the original manga, the sacrifices for Orochimaru's reanimated Hashirama and Tobirama were his subordinates Zaku and Koto, who were merely genin (low-ranking ninja).

They weren't particularly elite ninjas, but they were still able to summon the Senju brothers.

This proves that the core mechanism of Edo Tensei is a life-for-life exchange.

Kabuto didn't want to see his comrades become his sacrifices, so he studied the Impure World Reincarnation technique as quickly as possible.

However, the Impure World Reincarnation is a forbidden technique. Although Kabuto has mastered advanced medical ninjutsu, his medical ninjutsu is still only a very basic form of Healing Palm Technique.

His level is still that of a genin who has just graduated from the ninja academy, and he wants newly graduated genin to learn forbidden techniques in the ninjutsu system.

It's a forbidden technique among forbidden techniques—the Impure World Reincarnation.

This is a bit difficult for Dou!

But no matter how difficult it is, we must overcome it.

Because there was a jinx right outside the door—a Root ninja wearing a tengu mask was staring at Kabuto.

The tengu's gaze towards Kabuto was devoid of any human warmth, its eyes cold and rigid, like a demon sizing up its prey, making Kabuto's scalp tingle.

Under such double pressure, Dou's hair turned white with fright!

Suddenly, a noise came from outside.

It sounded like a loud thud, then fell silent again.

Dou looked a little puzzled, twitched his nose, and flicked the forked tongue of the snake out of his mouth.

Dou smelled a mix of cat and dog odors.

Because Kabuto incorporated Orochimaru's white snake cells, snakes have a highly developed sense of smell, although not as extreme as dogs.

But snakes' sense of smell is 3D imaging.

Snakes have a three-dimensional sense of smell. The rapid flicking of their tongues isn't about showing how high the frequency of their tongues is or how much pleasure it gives you.

Instead, it collects odor molecules from the air, and the odor forms a three-dimensional image in the snake's brain.

This is the sensory ability brought about by Orochimaru's white snake cells.

Kabuto, sensing the scent, saw a tabby cat reach out its paw, grab the tengu's foot, and pull it under the floor.

The tabby cat absorbed the tengu's chakra, turning him into a dried-up corpse, and killed him with a single stroke of its claws.

Then the tabby cat transformed into the appearance of the tengu.

Kabuto was terrified; if it weren't for the three-dimensional sense of smell granted to him by the white snake cells, he wouldn't have been able to detect all of this.

He probably couldn't tell that the tengu had been possessed by this tabby cat.

It's a demon cat, absolutely a demon cat.

If the world of ninjas still holds a modicum of science, then this demon cat would belong to the legendary demons and monsters.

Kabuto was terrified. Even though he had fused with Orochimaru's cells, he was still just a newcomer to the ninja world, living a precarious life.

The snow leopard, disguised as a tengu, pushed open the door and entered, only to see Kabuto, who was feigning composure.

The snow leopard found Dou's appearance strange, feeling that it resembled a human.

Dou has short, silver-gray hair, snake-scale-like markings on her cheeks, purplish-black eyeshadow around her eyes, and a pair of golden vertical pupils.

Wearing round-framed black-rimmed glasses, she looked very well-behaved, but gave off a cold and eerie aura.

Snow Leopard remembered, Kabuto looks a lot like Orochimaru.

Although Snow Leopard had never met Orochimaru, he had seen his picture because Liao Wu and Orochimaru were once classmates.

His graduation photo includes a picture of Orochimaru as a child.

I've seen snow leopards.

Seeing Kabuto at this moment, I felt that he was very similar to Orochimaru, except that he wore glasses and was somewhat refined, with an intellectual feel to him.

But Kabuto is different. The picture of Kabuto that Nonou had was on the snow leopard. The Kabuto it saw did not look like this black mamba (cobra).

What's going on?

The snow leopard absorbed the chakra of the tengu ninja using the spores of Liaowu and transformed into the other's appearance, but it only absorbed the chakra, not ate the other's brain.

Snow Leopard wanted to ask questions, but he was currently playing the role of a Root ninja and couldn't have such doubts.

But what should I say?

"..."

Snow Leopard and Kabuto were silent for a moment.

One knows the other's name is Kabuto, and he is the adopted son of the orphanage director, Nonou; the other knows the other is the evil cat who killed the tengu and transformed into his appearance.

Both the human and the cat are thinking about how to impersonate each other.

After a long silence, Kabuto broke it: "My lord, does Lord Danzo have any orders for me?"

The snow leopard tested Kabuto: "Kabuto, do you still remember your foster mother, Nonou Yakushi?"

Upon hearing the name Nono, Kabuto's feigned expression shattered instantly, his brows furrowing sharply with a barely perceptible tension.

He stepped forward excitedly: "Sir, is there any news about the Dean? Didn't Lord Danzo say that the Dean was killed by Uchiha Ryou?"

"..."

The snow leopard was taken aback, then decided to drop the pretense: "Your dean isn't dead, but she's practically dead now, because she's been taken control of by my master!"

As the snow leopard spoke, it used the spores of the fire spores to extend a vine and pull the black ball up from under the floor.

"Blackie, guard the door. If anyone breaks in, I'll chop off your head!"

"Woof!"