Time flies swiftly.
Jiraiya continued to train with Akihara Kagura while searching for Orochimaru's whereabouts and making efforts to investigate the traces of the prophesied child.
Unfortunately, Jiraiya only found two of Orochimaru's experimental bases, rescuing the living beings kept as experimental materials inside the bases and destroying the laboratories without catching sight of Orochimaru himself.
This was quite fortunate for Jiraiya, as it was only by hearing news of disappearances in a small town that he managed to find Orochimaru's laboratory.
As for Akihara Kagura,
Akihara Kagura has been diligently practicing.
Besides practicing rough shuriken throwing techniques, learning the basics of ninja knowledge, he also continued to refine his chakra as per Jiraiya's request, learning to enhance the amount of chakra within his body.
It must be said,
Jiraiya is an excellent teacher.
Akihara Kagura's learning was quite impressive; his progress in ninjutsu and taijutsu was rapid, and he even made efforts to reduce the number of hand seals needed for techniques!
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
Akihara Kagura formed the Tiger seal with his hand, and a tiny flame flew out of his mouth, flying towards the distance like a fire dragon, turning into a vast blaze when it landed!
"Well done."
Jiraiya couldn't help but praise his disciple.
Even knowing Akihara Kagura's astonishing talent, Jiraiya was amazed to see the speed at which Akihara Kagura learned ninjutsu.
This kid...
His learning speed is even more astonishing than Nagato's!
Jiraiya only needed to teach him how to form the seals for a technique and how to circulate chakra within his body when using the technique, and this kid could use it perfectly!
Over these few months, Jiraiya fully experienced the joy of teaching a genius disciple, as well as the troubles of teaching a genius disciple.
He could teach so little.
The disciple learned too quickly.
Jiraiya recalled a technique developed by a former disciple and suddenly had an idea: "Kagura, you seem to like techniques that require fewer hand seals. I have a technique here with infinite possibilities, developed by the Fourth Hokage..."
"Rasengan!"
At this point, Jiraiya raised his palm, and a spiraling chakra appeared in his hand!
"This is a seal-less ninjutsu."
While controlling the Rasengan, Jiraiya introduced the technique: "Similarly, this ninjutsu doesn't require a specific chakra nature, which means it can also incorporate other chakra natures, causing a change in properties. This is a very difficult thing, something the Fourth had not developed before his death..."
"Rasengan, huh?"
Akihara Kagura raised his palm.
A Rasengan instantly appeared in the palm of his hand.
[System Prompt]: [Ninja Professor] trait activated, the host possesses Chakra with a quantity reaching above level A. The [Rasengan] being studied is in accordance with the theory of ninjutsu; [Rasengan] successfully learned!
[Rasengan (Inspired by the Tailed Beast Bomb, gathers Chakra in the hand, constantly flowing in an irregular direction, and compresses it to form a Chakra sphere about the size of a palm. When attacking, it can cause Chakra disturbance. The host can control the size of the Rasengan by adjusting the amount of Chakra injected and can also inject different types of Chakra to cause changes in the Rasengan's nature.)]
"Alright, take your time to practice."
Jiraiya waved to his disciple and went down the mountain on his own: "Work hard, I'm going to the town to check if there's any news on Orochimaru."
Orochimaru seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.
Jiraiya destroyed many laboratories but still couldn't find Orochimaru's whereabouts, as if Orochimaru didn't care about such matters.
Of course.
Jiraiya always thought he was one step behind.
In fact, Jiraiya was often one step ahead of Orochimaru.
Most of the time, Orochimaru hadn't managed to reach the laboratory before Jiraiya had already received the news through other channels.
The Land of Rain.
In a dark cave.
This cave is the base of the Akatsuki organization.
The base is secretive and spacious, even containing a laboratory where two people are busy, one of whom is Orochimaru, who recently joined Akatsuki, and the other is his teammate assigned by the organization.
Sasori.
Sasori of the Red Sand.
Sasori's appearance is that of an ugly Hiruko, wearing a cloud-patterned black robe of the Akatsuki, moving around the laboratory as if crawling on the ground.
Orochimaru and Sasori are each busy in the laboratory, seemingly not interfering with each other, with each of their experiment tables holding a corpse.
However, the experiment table of Sasori of the Red Sand holds a corpse turned into a puppet without emitting any foul smell; Orochimaru's table holds a fresh corpse, making the entire laboratory reek of blood.
Bang!
The laboratory door was opened.
A woman with light blue hair walked in, speaking in a cool tone: "Sasori, Orochimaru, there is a mission in the Land of Rivers that requires your attention."
This woman with light blue hair seemed to know they were engrossed in their experiments and reminded them: "The funds gathered by other members of Akatsuki are not meant for you two to conduct experiments indefinitely. If you want more funding for experiments, hurry up and undertake the mission…"
"I understand, Konan."
Sasori was more obedient.
As an experienced member of Akatsuki, Sasori had witnessed Konan's strength and was familiar with Akatsuki's procedures, silently packing up his tools.
"I'll be right there."
Orochimaru glanced at Konan, his eyes slightly narrowing.
This child was also someone I had seen before, one of those taken in by Jiraiya as a disciple and cared for. Later, news came out during the Great Ninja War that she and two others had already died...
Konan, upon seeing Orochimaru leaving, suddenly took the initiative to ask one more question: "Orochimaru, I heard that many of your laboratories have been destroyed recently?"
"Is that something to be concerned about?"
A sinister smile appeared on the corner of Orochimaru's mouth as he looked towards Sasori of the Red Sand beside him, with no need for guessing, it was definitely Sasori's doing.
Since joining the Akatsuki, Sasori has been the one monitoring me. Every time I went out on a mission, Orochimaru would go to some of the experimental bases planned to be abandoned, to gather some experimental materials in advance.
As a result...
I came back empty-handed twice.
Both experimental bases were destroyed by Fire Release.
Judging from the chakra left at the scene, it was definitely my old friend Jiraiya, that guy has never given up on tracking my whereabouts.
"Don't let anyone track you."
Konan looked at Orochimaru, her eyes revealing dissatisfaction: "To avoid bringing trouble to the Akatsuki, once it's discovered that your existence is traced back to the Akatsuki, I will kill you."
"Hehehe..."
Orochimaru's mouth curled into a smile, continuing: "Doesn't the leader of the Akatsuki plan to solve this problem for me? Can't he get rid of the one who always destroys my laboratories and tracks my whereabouts?"
When Orochimaru said this, he added: "If he finds out about the Akatsuki, I guess that guy will definitely bring a lot of trouble to the Akatsuki..."
"Who is it?"
Konan frowned.
"Jiraiya."
Orochimaru uttered a familiar name.
"..."
Konan fell silent immediately.
The woman with pale blue hair looked deeply at Orochimaru and said: "I will mention this to Pain. If he is willing to help you solve this problem..."
"That would be perfect."
Orochimaru smiled and nodded.
However, when Orochimaru turned around, his face turned gloomy.
Are these guys really the children Jiraiya took in back then? Treating Jiraiya as if they had no feelings, could I have been mistaken? How could the disciples taught by Jiraiya be so cold?
Orochimaru remembered that he had finally received a message.
Jiraiya had taken on a new disciple named Akihara Kagura.
Currently, Jiraiya was training with that disciple in the ninja world.
"I must find a way to meet Kagura..."
Orochimaru felt somewhat distressed in his heart, as Jiraiya had always been destroying his laboratories.
Akihara Kagura, this little fellow, was right by Jiraiya's side. Even though Orochimaru could have influenced Jiraiya through the youngster, it was inconvenient due to the rules of mutual surveillance among the members of the Akatsuki organization.
In the forest of a small town.
Akihara Kagura was still diligently practicing the Rasengan.
A Wind Release chakra was infused into the Rasengan, instantly distorting it and forming an outer ring like a blade of wind!
Boom!
The Wind Release Rasengan exploded instantly!
The Wind Release chakra immediately cut Akihara Kagura's palm!
Akihara Kagura lowered his head, feeling the cells inside his body rapidly dissolving and dividing, quickly healing the wound on his palm.
"Developing a jutsu is not easy..."
White Zetzu Awei's body slowly emerged from the ground.
This was White Zetzu's unique ability, the Mayfly Technique, which allowed him to penetrate into the earth or water like a mayfly, moving quickly with the help of the underground water network.
"Indeed, it's not easy."
Akihara Kagura nodded in agreement, highly recognizing White Zetzu Awei's statement.
"Let's continue to develop tomorrow. Go and attend to the important matters today!"
White Zetzu Awei spread his palms, smiling cheekily: "I've stolen a corpse from the Kaguya clan, now we have a sample for our Kekkei Genkai experiment..."
"Good."
Akihara Kagura grabbed his clothes and put them on, asking: "Have you found the closest laboratory of Lord Orochimaru to this place?"
"We've found one."
White Zetzu Awei nodded.
"Okay."
Akihara Kagura glanced at the intelligent White Zetzu: "Let's first modify your body, so that in the future, you can do more things."
Orochimaru has many laboratories in the ninja world.
This small town, located in the Land of Rivers, is undoubtedly the most suitable place for Orochimaru to hide his laboratory, where no ninja from the major countries would come to investigate. Orochimaru would definitely set up a den here.
When Akihara Kagura arrived here, he found the facilities of this research base to be very comprehensive, even including several ninjas responsible for management.
"Let's go."
Akihara Kagura commanded.
White Zetzu Awei emerged from the ground, his body gradually transforming into the appearance of Orochimaru, even the chakra was indistinguishable. This was their unique transformation technique.
White Zetzu's transformation technique was the best in the entire ninja world, even capable of mimicking chakra, unless it was Sage Mode, otherwise it was impossible to distinguish the real from the fake.
When White Zetzu Awei transformed into the appearance of Orochimaru, carrying the corpse of a member of the Kaguya clan, and walked into the laboratory of this base on his own, Akihara Kagura's figure instantly appeared beside him, having sneaked in using the Flying Thunder God Technique.
"It seems the facilities are quite comprehensive…"
Akihara Kagura looked around the laboratory with satisfaction.
"Can it really make me powerful?"
White Zetzu Awei was somewhat nervous, he had always believed in Akihara Kagura.
However, experiments seemed to require more than just willpower, needing real science and technology, and Akihara Kagura seemed a bit unreliable.
"Trust me, the experiment will definitely be successful."
Akihara Kagura had great faith in White Zetzu Awei's constitution.
Creatures like White Zetzu were natural chakra compatibles, capable of integrating any bloodline limit in the ninja world, as if born to store chakra.
Akihara Kagura possessed [Genetic Modification Technique], able to transplant the genes of Kekkei Genkai into White Zetzu, allowing White Zetzu to also possess Kekkei Genkai.
As expected.
The experiment was quite successful.
After Akihara Kagura implanted strange things into White Zetzu Awei, White Zetzu Awei felt an itch inside his body, as if bones were about to grow out!
Crack!
A sharp bone spike instantly broke through his body!
This meant that the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai had successfully manifested inside him!
White Zetzu Awei lay on the experimental table, looking at the bone spikes growing inside his body with some surprise: "Young man, you actually understand these things…"
"Of course."
Akihara Kagura, wearing a mask, was wrapped up tightly: "While your body has been dissected, let's transplant some Hashirama cells…"
This seemingly hasty experiment turned out to be quite successful, White Zetzu Awei's body acquired the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai, and even awakened an even more powerful Kekkei Genkai, Wood Release.
Although the power of this wood release is not yet comparable to that of Akihara Kagura, it has at least surpassed the wood release of Tenzo, and is more than enough to build a house.
White Zetzu Awei looked at the bone spur grown from his left hand and the wood spur from his right hand with satisfaction, reminding, "There are many traces left here, should we destroy them?"
"Of course."
"Let's just have Teacher Jiraiya take care of this."
Akihara Kagura had already made his own plan, continuing, "Lord Orochimaru is extremely meticulous. Once he discovers this, it will reveal a flaw. By alerting Teacher Jiraiya to the presence of Lord Orochimaru's laboratory here, he will surely come to clean it up."
Such tasks...
They have become very proficient at them.
After all, the information Jiraiya has been able to find all this time originated from the arrangements of Akihara Kagura and White Zetzu Awei, even the timing was under their control.
After leaving the experimental base in the guise of Orochimaru, in the eyes of the guards, White Zetzu Awei then reverted back to the appearance of an ordinary town resident.
"I'll go spread some news about people going missing."
Exactly.
Every time Jiraiya destroys one of Orochimaru's experimental bases, he gets the news from the guards of the base that Orochimaru had just left not long ago.
Akihara Kagura, using the "Ninja in the Shadows," discovered the intelligence that Orochimaru and Sasori of the Red Sand were rushing to the Land of Rivers, and instructed with a word.
"This time, the speed of spreading the news must be fast."
"Okay."
White Zetzu Awei was already skilled in such matters.
As Akihara Kagura watched White Zetzu Awei leave, he sighed, "Finally, there's a chance to see Lord Orochimaru again…"
Orochimaru was Akihara Kagura's first boss.
As the currently known strongest scientist in the ninja world, Orochimaru's body was rich in minerals, which could be mined for a long time, and he was continuously improving more forbidden jutsus and more scientific techniques.
In order to have the opportunity to meet Orochimaru, Akihara Kagura went through quite some trouble to get the task of spying beside Jiraiya from Orochimaru's mouth.