Mayuri Kurotsuchi Card Game, starting from Naruto

Chapter 99 Mission

Darkness, evil, power.

Even in death, one could feel unparalleled power emanating from his corpse!

It's practically another zero tail!

Another source of darkness that gathers the dark side of all living beings.

Even in Shennong's perception, the power remaining on the corpse before him was of higher quality than the dark chakra gathered by Zero-Tail!

Standing before this corpse, Shennong could feel his soul trembling. Even though the body lay there silently, it alone exerted an immense sense of oppression on him.

It was a sense of oppressive power emanating from the deepest recesses of one's heart, confronting the very soul. Standing before the corpse was like an ant gazing up at the carcass of a colossal beast.

What a pleasant surprise!

Shennong was extremely pleased with this unexpected surprise. He even considered temporarily abandoning his plans and taking the strange corpse back to his base camp.

After all, he had been out for quite some time, and his real plan and objectives had been largely achieved. It was time to leave with the group of people he had recruited.

Shennong began writing sealing runes one by one. Without taking any measures, some ninjas with keen senses would still be able to detect the abnormality of the corpse.

At the very least, we must first restrain and contain his overflowing power, and then seal it away along with his corpse.

After the room was filled with sealing runes, Shennong began to form hand seals, shrinking the runes and pressing them into the corpse.

Once the last sealing rune disappeared from the corpse, the strange sense of oppression vanished completely, and the oppressive and terrified feeling that had once made him shudder was gone.

Boom boom boom!

A knock sounded at the door, and an unfamiliar ninja wearing a black robe and a headband from the Rain Village stood respectfully outside. Behind him were several villagers with panicked expressions, as well as a familiar, robust white-haired ninja.

"Jiraiya?" Shennong was startled the moment he saw the white-haired ninja.

"Have we met before?" Ji Yelai was taken aback, staring blankly at Shennong's gentle and kind face.

At first glance, Shennong possesses a unique aura of a medical ninja, an aura that is present to varying degrees in Tsunade and the medical ninjas working in the Konoha Medical Department.

Shennong evokes a sense of compassion and gentleness. In short, the first impression of Shennong is not bad.

"I've heard Tsunade and Orochimaru mention you." Shennong opened the door, first calming the panicked villagers outside and telling them to go back inside, while letting Jiraiya and the ninja wearing the Rain Village headband into the house.

"So you've met Tsunade and Orochimaru before." Jiraiya nodded slowly. He sensed a familiar power rapidly spreading within the room, indicating that Shennong had been researching something before their arrival.

"I ran into Tsunade and discussed some medical ninjutsu with her. Orochimaru, on the other hand, discussed some issues related to body modification with me," Shennong replied calmly.

Before Jiraiya could ask another question, Shennong took the initiative and shifted the topic from himself to Jiraiya.

"You, one of the Three Legendary Ninja, have come here so late at night. What brings you here? You don't appear to be injured."

"It's not because of me. I'm here on behalf of the Akatsuki organization to extend this invitation to you." Jiraiya waved his hand, not revealing the prophecy, but instead offering a plausible excuse.

In fact, this excuse was genuine; Yahiko and his group did hope to recruit Shennong, even if only temporarily. Jiraiya, on the other hand, hoped to take this opportunity to get to know him better and see if he was the medical ninja connected to the prophecy.

"Was Akatsuki trained by Konoha?" Shennong looked at the Rain Ninja beside him, then at Jiraiya, a look of realization dawning on his face.

During his time in the Land of Rain, he had heard of the Akatsuki organization and knew that the Rain Ninja within the organization, besides wearing Rain Village protective gear, had one of the most distinctive features being their black robes.

Seeing Jiraiya's support for the Akatsuki organization, Shennong immediately made many connections.

"No, no, no! Akatsuki has nothing to do with Konoha! It's just that Konoha has a business deal with them." Jiraiya said, and seeing the still undisguised suspicion in Shennong's eyes, he sighed resignedly.

"I have some connection with the founder of Akatsuki. I used to teach three children here, and they grew up and then founded Akatsuki."

I only found out recently. But Konoha does have a business deal with them.

Jiraiya revealed the existence of the healing talisman in its entirety. This wasn't exactly confidential information, so Jiraiya felt no qualms about sharing it.

Shennong took the healing talisman handed to him by Jiraiya, examined it carefully, and tried it out. He nodded in admiration.

As a medical ninja, Shennong was well aware of the value of healing talismans. He never expected to have such good luck today. First, there was a powerful and peculiar corpse with extremely high research value, and then a healing talisman was delivered to his door.

He planned to accept Jiraiya's invitation to teach Konan medical ninjutsu for a period of time. During this time, he should have many opportunities to learn the secrets of making healing talismans.

Even a fraction of it would be enough for him to reverse-engineer some things and improve upon them to create medical talismans with similar effects. After all, what limits most people is only creativity and ideas. Once a certain idea or concept is successfully realized, similar competing products will inevitably appear over time.

His subsequent research and plans will also require a large investment of money and resources! And the healing talisman can obviously help him accumulate wealth quickly.

Shennong was as confident in stealing intelligence and how to get what he wanted as he was in his medical ninjutsu.

After all, he had already obtained two S-rank forbidden techniques while only in Konoha.

Zero-Tail Technique and Eight Gates!

After discussing medical ninjutsu with Tsunade, Shennong began researching his own forbidden medical techniques.

……

Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village)

Technology Development Department.

"The test subject has disappeared?"

After realizing that the Third Raikage's presence had completely disappeared after being etherealized, Lu Nie speculated that either the Third Raikage had entered some other dimension, similar to Obito's Kamui dimension in the future, or the one in the Three Sacred Lands.

Either the Third Raikage fell into the hands of a ninja or ninja organization and was sealed away using a sealing technique.

He now somewhat understands why Orochimaru went around recruiting talented children all over the ninja world.

They can serve as a backup for those who cannot be reincarnated, or as subordinates to carry out tasks.

Currently, it seems that only Kakuzu and half of Tensei Jugo are truly capable of doing dirty work and are of value under Rokuno's command.

Kakuzu was sent out to manage the accounts and collect debts, while Libra Jugo's constitution was not very controllable, so he could only be considered half of it.

Do you want to create one or more clones of a helper?

Lu Nie's thoughts were growing stronger. When he wasn't on a mission, his main body needed to conduct various experiments, but he also occasionally needed to leave the village to do things that were not easy for others to know about.

If there are reliable people outside, they can obviously bring back a rare subject like the Third Raikage in no time.

After all, this is currently the only Cursed Seal Void experimental subject that has not been completely devoured by the mask and is still undergoing a deep transformation.

The Third Raikage's strength, will, soul, and body clearly withstood the corruption of the Cursed Seal Hollow and achieved a certain balance with it.

As long as this balance remains intact, the battle and devouring of souls within the mask will eventually end over time. The ultimate victor will re-merge with the body corrupted by the Cursed Seal Void, coexisting as a completely new individual.

What Lu Nie is worried about is that someone will disrupt this evolution and bring it to an end.

Although the Cursed Seal Void has now begun to upgrade, and the original Cursed Seal method is on the verge of being phased out, it is still a promising product.

Its status data is still very valuable to Lu Nie!

Is it the land of rain?

Thinking of the direction sensed on the Cursed Seal Mask, which was similar to the location he had placed on Kakuzu, Lu Nie used this to make a judgment.

……

The Akatsuki's headquarters were located in a mountain outside Amegakure (the Hidden Rain Village). They used ninjutsu to hollow out the mountainside to serve as a dwelling for the Akatsuki members and their families.

Inside Kakuzu's room, a small black snake crawled out from a dark corner, its little head swaying back and forth in front of Kakuzu as he was calculating accounts. Only after attracting Kakuzu's attention did it open its mouth, its upper and lower jaws splitting wide, and a scroll was spat out from its slender belly.

After doing all this, it curled up and sat quietly on the table, watching Kakuzu silently.

asshole!

Seeing the little snake's lively eyes, and annoyed that it had interrupted his money-counting, Kakuzu cursed under his breath.

Since his arrival, Yahiko and the others almost liberated themselves and handed over all financial power to Kakuzu. The eagerness of meeting him sooner or later made Kakuzu feel a little dazed for a moment.

I initially thought the Akatsuki had a lot of money to manage, but after taking over their finances, I discovered that the organization was incredibly poor.

Kakuzu not only had no money, but he also had to rack his brains every day to think about how to save money for the organization and purchase the most needed supplies with the least amount of money.

To put it bluntly, the fact that this organization hasn't disbanded due to a lack of funds is already quite astonishing to Kakuzu.

In particular, the founder Yahiko's behavior of bleeding himself dry to provide food for the people of the surrounding Land of Rain when he himself was almost starving made Kakuzu experience the feeling of his blood pressure rising.

Yahiko and the Akatsuki members acknowledged Kakuzu's accounting abilities, but they found it painful to squeeze money out of him.

Kakuzu did not approve of their actions and believed that it was a waste to squander money and food on these people who were destined to die and were of no value.

Because of this expenditure, Kakuzu, Yahiko, and the other two had more than one argument, but in the end, it was Yahiko who was determined to go all in and stick to his own opinion.

I can't abandon them! If the Akatsuki can't even protect those around them and let them live in peace, then their ideal of peace in the ninja world is just a joke!

Faced with Yahiko's resolute words, Kakuzu could only reply: "I'm just a temporary accountant. You're the leader. Since you've made up your mind, then so be it."

Of course, it's hard to say how much of the credit Jiraiya, who stood behind Yahiko and the other two with a look of approval and a silly grin, actually contributed to Kakuzu's concession.

Rather than racking his brains to figure out how to buy more supplies with a penny and how to spend money more cost-effectively—a mentally exhausting task—Kakuzu would rather resume his identity as a bounty hunter, ruthlessly reaping the benefits of a few unlucky targets, and then taking their heads to the black market to exchange for money.

He has absolutely no desire to have any contact with Yahiko now, because Yahiko's existence creates a huge conflict with his own philosophy of life.

"Where is the body of the Third Raikage?"

After reading the information on the scroll, Kakuzu casually destroyed it.

"I need money to do things!" Kakuzu finished cleaning the scrolls and his eyes fell on the small black snake coiled on the table.

The black snake seemed to understand Kakuzu's words. Its tail swung rapidly, and it used chakra to write a number on the table. After writing it, it flicked its tail again, drawing a horizontal line from the middle of the number.

"Deduct 3000 million taels of debt? I'll take this task!"

Kakuzu skillfully deciphered the message the black snake was trying to convey from its behavior: Thirty million taels was indeed worth the effort.

The search is simply for the whereabouts of the Third Raikage's body. Furthermore, according to the information revealed on the scroll, the Third Raikage's body is likely in the possession of a ninja or ninja organization in the Land of Rain who knows sealing techniques.

What ninja organizations are there in the Land of Rain?

Amegakure, the Akatsuki organization, and the rogue ninja who wandered here or left their village.

"What kind of help does he mention on the scroll?" Kakuzu asked after indicating that he had accepted the mission.

The small black snake slithered across the table, its mouth splitting open once more, this time its upper and lower jaws nearly tearing apart to the size of half its body.

A white bone mask was spat out from the snake's split mouth and landed on the table.

A strange power spread around after the mask appeared, and Kakuzu felt his mind become inexplicably heavy. But soon, this effect disappeared so quickly that it made him doubt whether the previous feeling was an illusion.

"Can this mask lead me to the Third Raikage's corpse?" Kakuzu asked, suppressing the unease in his soul as he examined the mask in his hand.

Under Kakuzu's watchful gaze, the little snake nodded repeatedly, its tiny head almost leaving a blur in the air.

Kakuzu suppressed a certain palpitation and, following the instructions on the scroll, channeled his spiritual chakra into the mask, closing his eyes to intently perceive it.

Got nothing.

It seems to be out of the vicinity.

Kakuzu opened his eyes, thought for a moment, and then the tentacles formed by the Earth Grudge burst out from his shoulder, binding the mask and pulling it into his skin. A faint face appeared on Kakuzu's right arm.

It will automatically alert the wearer as long as they are close enough to the target.

(End of this chapter)