Konoha: Sage Body

Nara Suzaku had just left the room shortly after, the expression that was still full of vigor instantly collapsed and became sighing.

"Suzaku, don't be bitter, this time, what Lord Kirito has explained to us is a good test for us, if we mess up, the few of us will be in trouble in the future, we're surely going to be ostracized outside the core."

Seeing this, Akimichi Jidou advised.

After saying that, he took out a packet of limited edition wasabi flavored potato chips from his bosom that he hadn't bothered to eat in the last few days and handed it to Nara Suzaku.

His mouth was stupid and his brain wasn't very good, so he was only able to cheer up his best friend in this way.

They, InoShikaCho, were a trinity, and while Kirito was ostensibly giving the task to Nara Suzaku alone, he was essentially asking the three of them to get the job done together.

"The two of us will help as well, and if we really can't, we'll just ask the old guys for help."

Yamanaka Tenno scratched his head, similarly saying with a bit of a headache.

"Don't, don't ever, ask for help from the family, then the few of us will really become irrelevant tool people, what he is testing is our ability, he is not hoping that we will rely on the family's power to accomplish this.

Besides, once this matter reaches home, there's no guarantee that it won't be leaked, and once it's leaked, it's futile even if we do a good job."

Nara Suzaku took the chips, then shook his head.

"Then what to do, relying on the three of us alone is too difficult, right, those old-timers have more temper than others, it's not easy to get them to help, even if we have a large pie prepared by Lord Kirito in our hands, it's still not too good to use, they're all masters who don't see a rabbit without an eagle."

Yamanaka Tenno heard that they couldn't rely on the power of the clan to do things, their hearts panicked a little, and their headache grew.

The jōnin in the barracks were not people who were easy to talk to, perhaps these people would be coy and very honest in front of their current boss, Kirito Tosaka, but if they were to be replaced by a few of them, the outcome would be completely different.

Unless one possessed the strength to crush these old guys, it was very difficult to try to impress them by relying solely on words and drawing big cakes.

Something tangible had to be given.

In short, in order to get these old-timers to help, one must first give a bit of sincerity.

Unfortunately, for this bit of sincerity, the three of them couldn't really afford to give it if they didn't rely on their families.

And their boss just gave them an unattainable pie without giving a bit of starting capital.

It was all due to poverty.

"Right, why didn't I think of that."

Suddenly, Nara Suzaku blurted out, a look of realization dawning on him.

"What's wrong, Suzaku, did you think of a way?"

Seeing Nara Suzaku's expression, Akimichi Jidou said in surprise.

"That's right, I thought of a good method."

Nara Suzaku said with a smile.

"What good method?"

Yamanaka Tenno asked curiously.

Nara Suzaku sniffed and instantly chilled, following Chizuru's tone, "The weak should obey the words of the strong."

When Akimichi Jidou and Yamanaka Tenno saw this, the two of them looked at each other in disbelief, momentarily unable to figure out what was going on in the head of this little friend.

This kind of typical Uchiha speech didn't seem to have much of a market in the military, and was usually only recognized by those who had their eyes on the top of the Uchiha clan.

At that thought, both Akimichi Jidou and Yamanaka Tenno instantly thought of what Nara Suzaku had just been thinking.

"Looks like you all thought of it."

Nara Suzaku said with a smile when she saw the reaction of her two little friends.

That's right, this time, the plan that Kirito asked them to do, they should go to the Uchiha clan to do it, only these ninja who have a strong obedience to the strongest in their heart will be able to execute this plan effectively.

But the prerequisite was that they needed to be beaten into submission, the only way this group of proud Uchiha ninjas could obey and then happily eat the big pie prepared by their boss, Kirito Tosaka.

Also, the Uchiha clan was well versed in illusions, just the right thing to use to turn those Sunagakure hawk faction ninjas.

As a matter of fact, relying on a few of them alone, it's not realistic to turn back those Sunagakure hawk ninjas in a short period of time, and the only way to accomplish the task the fastest is to force ninjas with strong illusionist abilities to take control of them.

And Uchiha clan people in the military belong to the ostracized group, rarely contact with others, the possibility of leakage is very small.

"Thinking about it is thinking about it, but the Uchiha's people can't be easy to deal with, even if we have a strengthening curse mark that can temporarily increase our combat power, it's still very difficult to defeat them, defeating those Uchiha ninja at the middle jōnin level might not be difficult, but it's hard to say about the Uchiha ninja at the upper jōnin level."

Yamanaka Tenno laughed bitterly.

In Konoha, Uchiha clan ninjas had always been the top of the line among ninjas of the same level, and only a very few elite ninjas could possibly defeat Uchiha ninjas of the same level.

After the three of them obtained the strengthening curse mark, their strength was to reach the level of jōnin, but in fact, there was still some gap with the real jōnin, and they still needed a little bit of time to transform the temporarily acquired power into a power that truly belonged to them.

"What are you afraid of, the three of us are one, single combat is not something we are good at, besides, didn't Kirito-sama say that we can mobilize all the resources he has at hand, and those lazy guys can be used just fine, and when the time comes, it might not even be necessary for us to personally go into battle."

Nara Suzaku immediately gave Yamanaka Tenno a piece of advice, then remembered Iguchi Takeshi and the others who had just left and sneered.

When Akimichi Jidou and Yamanaka Tenno heard Nara Suzaku say that, smiles gradually appeared on their faces, and the three of them looked at each other as their smiles gradually perverted.

With a goal in mind, the three of them, Nara Suzaku, began to work feverishly, the three of them first combined their efforts, and then they first found Uchiha Feng, and then used him to quickly start their work, getting in touch with the other Uchiha ninjas in the barracks.

Soon, within two days, most of the Uchiha ninjas in the barracks had secretly initiated contact with Nara Suzaku and the others.

However, even though Nara Suzaku and the others were secretly making contact with the Uchiha clan in a low-profile manner, they still attracted the attention of certain well-intentioned people in the military camp.

In a certain room where many biological instruments were placed in the underground building of the Oasis Barracks, Orochimaru was looking at an experimental subject whose body was covered with spells with a face of fascination.

The subject was a Sunagakure shinobi, who was screaming in pain because of the erosion of the curse marks on his body, and his whole body was trembling, and he kept struggling violently, making the chains that bound him clang.

Unfortunately, no matter how loudly he cried out and struggled, no one would come to his rescue, much less escape from Orochimaru's eyes.

After a few minutes, the experimental subject's cries faded until they disappeared.

The experimental body was dead.

"Failed again, but this time the experimental body lasted an extra 12 seconds, so it seems that my research is going in the right direction."

Orochimaru ignored the death of the experimental body, he looked at the timer in his hand and said with some excitement.

Ever since he discovered the existence of the Strengthening Curse Mark on Hyuga Hanare and found out that the curse mark involved natural energy as well as the more advanced energy Sage Chakra, he began to secretly conduct research on the Strengthening Curse Mark.

By secretly collecting the residual chakra after Hanare opened the enhancement curse mark every time, and combining it with his own mastery of the curse mark art, he finally created an enhancement curse mark that belonged to him after many failures.

But the Strengthening Curse Mark he had developed was only a defective item so far.

Once opened, there is no way to stop, and the danger is extremely great, will seriously overdraw the life force of the experimental body, although it is true that a short period of time to let the experimental body to obtain extremely strong power, but this kind of immature enhancement curse mark art can not be put into use at all.

In this regard, Orochimaru was not discouraged, because he had vaguely grasped the core of this strengthening curse mark.

The reason why his Strengthening Curse Mark was so different from Kirito's Strengthening Curse Mark was probably because it lacked some kind of crucial medium, and it was precisely because of this medium that the natural energy and chakra were able to merge together smoothly.

"I wish I could dissect a ninja with a reinforcement curse mark to see what's inside that reinforcement curse mark."

Orochimaru couldn't help but feel restless at the thought that the Strengthening Curse Mark hid the key that would allow him to peek into the Senjutsu.

If he wanted to completely analyze Kirito's Strengthening Curse Mark, the best way to do so would of course be to start with the people who possessed the Strengthening Curse Mark, and he was confident that as long as he was given a bit of time to research on these people who possessed the Strengthening Curse Mark, even if he was not able to perfectly replicate Kirito's Strengthening Curse Mark, he would still make a major breakthrough.

Unfortunately, this kind of thought can only be thought about for the time being, because he found that every person who has a strengthened curse mark has Kirito's soul power hidden inside the curse mark, once he lay his hands on the curse marks on these people, he will immediately alert Kirito.

Orochimaru didn't want to split with Kirito yet, much less be hunted down by Kirito, so for the time being, he could only retreat and patiently conduct his research as he was doing now.

In fact, there was another, better way for him to obtain Kirito's enhanced curse marks, and that was to unashamedly ask Kirito for advice.

But he didn't choose to do so, because he felt that it wasn't interesting enough, compared to directly reaching out to Kirito to take it, he preferred to rely on his own power to copy it from Kirito's hands, and then improve it to be more powerful.

That was the only way he found it interesting.

He, Orochimaru, wouldn't waste his time doing anything that wasn't challenging.

Orochimaru quickly came back to his senses, and he lightly used his Fire Release to dispose of the body, then carefully cleaned up all of his experimental tools.

As he was about to leave, he suddenly realized that someone had intruded into his lab, and he immediately stared into one of the shadows of the lab with his golden vertical pupils that lit up slightly red in the dim environment.

The next moment, a konoha ANBU wearing a monkey mask slowly stepped out of the shadows.

"I should have said before, no one can come in here without my permission."

Orochimaru stared at the Konoha's ANBU in front of him and said in a cold voice.

As soon as the words fell, several long snakes shot out from his left hand clothes, trapping the Konoha dark part heavily, and several snake heads stared at the ANBU ninja with deep malice.

As soon as the ANBU ninja dared to make a slight move, they immediately pierced their opponent's skin with their poisonous stingers and injected deadly venom into their bodies.

"I'm very sorry, Orochimaru-sama, please forgive me for my recklessness, but the matter is urgent, and as you have been late coming out of the lab for the past two days, I had to come out with this, there's a disturbance in Kirito Tosaka's men."

The ANBU ninja ignored the several hideous snake heads in front of him and explained in an icy tone.

Orochimaru's heart stirred when he heard the other party say that and inquired, "And where is he?"

"Kirito Tosaka has been focusing on his training and has not made any movements of his own, but his gang of underlings have been secretly making contact with the Uchiha ninjas here lately, and my subordinate suspects that they are preparing a plan to sabotage the peace talks."

The ANBU ninja replied truthfully.

"The Uchiha clan? Other than them, those men of his didn't look for anyone else? Also, do you know what they said?"

Orochimaru said unexpectedly.

"Nara Suzaku and the others have only been secretly meeting with the Uchiha clan for the past two days, as for the content of their conversations, we are still unclear, we merely know that they are having a contest off the beaten path, and that there is a winner and a loser on both sides."

The ANBU ninja continued to give additional explanations.

"You are only looking for people from the Uchiha clan, and you are putting it on a big shelf. It seems that there is something very important for these Uchiha clan members to do. So, you want to ask these Uchiha ninjas to apply to carry out the mission next, right?"

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed slightly as he received the explanation, licking his lips with his long tongue in some excitement as he sneered.

"Orochimaru-sama is absolutely right, these Uchiha ninjas who have been in private contact with Nara Suzaku and the others have all recently taken up missions and gone out one after another, our people tried to follow them covertly, but most of them lost them, and some of them even lost contact."

The ANBU ninja's heart shook at his words, and he said with slight respect.

"As expected, this kid just isn't a quiet Lord, go and inform the people on Sunagakure's side so that they can make early preparations."

Orochimaru continued.

With that, he retracted the long snake that was bound to the ANBU ninja.

When the ANBU ninja heard Orochimaru say that, he didn't move immediately, but continued to look at Orochimaru.

"What? Do you have a problem with my orders, or do you want to do something else?"

Orochimaru saw that the ANBU ninja did not immediately follow the order, his eyes quickly turned cold here, and this time revealed an icy killing intent.

He had already heard about the matter of the ANBU from Sandaime, so he knew that this ANBU ninja in front of him was still obeying Sandaime's orders on the surface, but in essence, the object of his allegiance was in fact that good son of his sensei.

Obviously, this ANBU ninja was unhappy with the order he had just given.

To be precise, it was ANBU Takashi who was behind this dark ninja who was unhappy with his orders.

But what kind of person was he, Orochimaru, how could he be willing to be counted and used by a weak person.

Letting him personally step in to deal with Kirito?

Don't even think about it.

For the sake of the old man, the most he could do was warn Sunagakure.

"Ha~"

Seeing that Orochimaru's attitude was so strong that he wasn't going to say any more orders, the ANBU ninja had no choice but to obey from the heart, and then used his shunshin technique to disappear from the spot.

"A bunch of weaklings trying to change the will of the strong, and trying to treat the strong as fools, what a clown-like fellow, out of his depth."

Orochimaru stared at the place where the ANBU ninjas had just disappeared and laughed coldly.