Chapter 216 If you are afraid of getting your hands dirty, let me do it.
When Nagato saw the candlelight, he was already prepared, waiting for the unknown murderous intent the moment he stepped into it.
However, the moment he took a step forward and "saw" the scene in front of him, his body froze in place.
For him, bloody scenes generally would not shock him, and he would only show such astonishment when there was a violent conflict between imagination and reality.
And now, what he saw was indeed completely different from what he expected.
There were no enemy traps, no murderous intent, and not even any terrifying bloody wind.
There were only black shadows hanging upside down quietly in the air, swaying naturally and making strange crackling sounds.
It's a feeling that's hard to explain.
It's like standing in a dim room filled with dolls. Even though he knows they are dead objects without any breath of life, he still feels like countless eyes are focused on him.
There was no trace of life in them, telling Nagato that they were all dead, but that inexplicable intuition made him feel that they were alive.
It was the first time he encountered such a strange situation.
Forcing down the doubts in his heart, Nagato took another step forward and walked into the dark shadows.
Yahiko, whose mind was in a mess, followed subconsciously, and only came to his senses when he passed through the middle and bumped into a black shadow.
Click…Click…
The robes rustled as they brushed against the shadows, and the shadows swayed slightly, making crisp collision sounds.
Yahiko finally remembered why these voices were so familiar.
He seemed to have returned to the time when he risked his life to pick up the corpse, and heard the strange noise of the puppet in the heavy rain and thunder.
"That's Uncle Eda, that's Nakao, and that, that's Granny Iwaya..."
Passing through a forest of black shadows, Yahiko opened his eyes wide and scanned the faces of those shadows. He actually saw many familiar faces.
Some are big, some are small, some are old, some are young.
Yahiko likes to travel around the Land of Rain, on the one hand to understand the real situation of the people, and on the other hand to search for people with various talents.
These people were all civilians that Yahiko had seen and had impressions of. They were all within the naturalization area of the City of Dawn plan. When the war is over, they will be brought under the jurisdiction of the City of Dawn and be protected by the City of Dawn.
Now, without their knowledge, there is only one possibility for them to appear here...
The civilians in the settlements where these people lived were taken away without their knowledge, and no one was even able to cross the river that divided the north and the south alive to file a complaint.
"..."
Unconsciously, the amplitude of Yahiko's chest rising and falling gradually increased, and his breathing became suppressed and deep, like a broken exhaust fan.
He swore that even when he was practicing breathing techniques, he had never felt such a tightness in his chest, as if his stomach was being squeezed out of his mouth.
As if he was afraid that a disgusting scene would really happen, Yahiko covered his mouth as he looked at the black shadows whose internal organs had been removed.
But the temples on both sides that bulged with his breathing revealed his uncontrollable anger and ferocity at the moment.
"Sunagakure Village is actually turning living civilians from the Land of Rain into puppets?!"
"How dare they? How dare they?!"
Listening to Yahiko's deep and suppressed voice behind him, Nagato's slightly lowered face looked a little gloomy.
But the more this happened, the more he had to remind himself to stay calm. If both of them lost their rationality, they would most likely make the wrong judgment.
If they guessed correctly, this base that they originally thought was a place to hide troops or supplies was actually a base used by those bastards in Sunagakure to conduct human experiments.
After all, no matter how crazy the Third Kazekage was, he would never use civilians from the Land of Wind for his experiments. Using civilians from the enemy country was obviously a better choice, and it was a very "reasonable" choice...
Although he doesn't know what experiments Sunagakure is doing, judging from the incomplete appearance of those puppets, they are probably just failed experiments.
While thinking, Nagato suddenly smelled a familiar scent. He stopped without hesitation, stretched out his hand without looking back, and gestured to Yahiko behind him to stop and be quiet.
——The smell of blood, an extremely strong smell of blood.
Nagato looked at the door in front of him, and his perception extended to the other side.
Just like that, he suddenly felt all the hairs on his body stand up.
Through the door, he could feel countless figures pacing slowly, as if countless lost people were wandering there.
However, there were so many people there, but it was silent and dead silent. Only a slight clicking sound could be heard, which was creepy...
Snap!
Nagato held his breath and frowned, then gently pushed the door open a crack.
Sure enough, looking through the gap, there should be a laboratory behind the door. Under the dim blue light, one figure after another appeared and disappeared on the intricate criss crossing roads.
Unlike those failed test subjects, although these figures staggered and walked stiffly, Nagato still felt a faint sense of vitality in them.
Living people? Dead people?
It feels more like an unconscious living dead.
"What is that..." Yahiko asked in a low voice behind him.
Before he could finish, Nagato raised his index finger to his lips to signal for silence, and a scarlet thorn slowly extended from behind him.
Yahiko immediately understood what he meant, but did not stop him. He just slowly held his breath, and his eyes gradually became silent...
Squeak! !
The thorns behind Nagato suddenly shot out from the crack in the door and stabbed the black shadow closest to the door.
Almost without hesitation, he aimed at the eyes, which is one of the most vulnerable points in the human body. The eye sockets are directly connected to the brain nerves, and one blow can directly solve the problem.
With a short and sharp scream, the thorns shot towards the black shadow's eyes with huge kinetic energy. One could almost see the bloody scene of the thorns piercing the brain and blood splattering everywhere.
But in the next moment, the dark shadow with its back to the gate suddenly raised its arms to protect its head, as if it had eyes on its back.
clang!!
Sparks of broken stars flew in the air, and the sound was like being stabbed on a piece of iron. The hard feeling made Nagato's face change.
The thorns were actually blocked? !
The blooming sparks also briefly illuminated the shadow's face, a very ordinary and even somewhat weathered face of a man, except that his eyes were dull and numb, and his face was pale and bloodless.
Without any hesitation or delay, several thorns were instantly thrown out from behind Nagato, this time directly binding the black shadow's body and pulling it in front of Nagato through the open door.
Crack! Crack!
The thorns gripped the black shadow's neck and lifted it up in front of Nagato. The pair of hands that had been transformed into ironwood were still struggling to scratch the thorns that bound its neck.
Veins bulged on his pale face, and he seemed to still feel the pain.
At the same time, he noticed that this guy was actually wearing some remnants of clothes, which seemed to be the standard uniform of the Rain Ninja.
"...Rain Ninja? You can feel pain? Aren't you a puppet?"
Nagato narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling a little annoyed.
The thorns locked it tightly, and the sharp spikes pierced its neck and vocal cords, making it unable to make any sound.
Bang!
Nagato punched its jaw, and the "person" in front of him was hit hard by the punch. Although his jaw was directly dislocated, his hands like iron clamps continued to scratch the thorns.
"Without the original autonomous consciousness, only the body's instincts are left."
Quickly memorizing the information obtained in his mind, Nagato crushed its limbs with thorns. As expected, the touch was different from that of flesh and blood. He frowned and said, "Transforming a human into a puppet that can move independently and has a certain degree of aggressiveness?"
The thorn pierced into the heart area on the left side of his chest. This time, Nagato clearly felt something similar to his heart, but after it was pierced, it was still twisting and struggling slightly.
"What on earth is this?" Nagato's brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
Just as Nagato was observing carefully and trying to figure out what this thing was, a crisp crackling sound suddenly came from the body of the thing in front of him.
Bang! Bang!
As he watched, a rotating sharp circular saw actually pierced out of the abdominal cavity, shining with a cold black light under the dim light.
Just at this moment, Yahiko behind Nagato drew the sword from his waist.
The scorching blade passed in front of him, as if to set his eyebrows on fire, and instantly cut off the puppet's head, which hit the ground with a dull sound.
"..."
Looking at the body that finally stopped moving, Yahiko gritted his teeth with a complicated expression.
Nagato turned his head slightly, seemed to glance at him, then squatted down, looked at the falling head, pried open the skull with a short sword, and indeed saw traces of the curse seal.
Curse seal is a branch of sealing technique. It is a technique with binding effect. It is usually set through contact. The person who is set will be bound by the caster. The binding effect can be strong or weak. It can make a person immobile or control the other party.
As far as Nagato knows, every member of the Konoha Hyuga clan Branch Family will be engraved with a curse called "Caged Bird" when she/he reaches the age of three.
The main family can use this curse to destroy the brain nerves and seal the Byakugan of the branch family members, thereby controlling the branch family. This curse will accompany the branch family members throughout their lives and will only be released when they die.
The Hyuga clan's "Caged Bird" curse seal is very advanced. In addition, there is also the "Self-Binding Seal" curse seal that restricts the body's movements, as well as the curse seal that is used openly or secretly by various ninja villages to prevent information leaks.
Although there are few spells that can control consciousness and actions, it does not surprise Nagato. What really surprised him was that the Sunagakure Village would actually use spells in this way.
First, transform the person into a puppet with a certain degree of lethality, and then use chakra to control his remaining brain.
"It's a bit like the Yamanaka clan's 'Mind Puppet Switch Cursed Seal Technique'." Nagato frowned.
The Mind Puppet Switch Cursed Seal Technique is a secret technique used by the Yamanaka Clan. It is a kind of technique that can be used to bind the spirit of others in the body of this little puppet.
The Sunagakure Village replaced the little dolls with puppets that were truly transformed from humans. The real difficulty lies in how to transform humans into puppets.
"If this wasn't Domu's own action...it seems that the Third Kazekage might have used all of Sunagakure's most hidden forbidden techniques in order to win the war."
Not all ninjutsu and secret techniques are known to the world. In fact, there have been many extremely dangerous techniques in history, but for various reasons, they have been hidden secretly by the major ninja villages.
Those things are the true "foundation" of a ninja village. The cost of sacrifice may be great, but the power gained in the end will also be great.
Realizing this, Nagato suddenly felt a headache.
Unknown things are the most troublesome. If someone doesn't know how to activate the technique, or even the effect of the technique. They will be completely in the dark and it will be easy to be caught off guard. It will also be difficult to formulate targeted tactics.
"So what you mean is that we have figured out Sunagakure's bottom line?"
Compared to Nagato, Yahiko's ideas are much more optimistic.
Looking at the numerous black shadows on the other side, his eyes flickered slightly and he said, "Fortunately we discovered it early, otherwise when Sunagakure creates enough of these puppets, it will be really troublesome."
Although he doesn't know whether Sunagakure has any ideas, this kind of puppet that does not require one person to control it is simply the perfect nemesis of "demons".
Both are of the same kind who can only die if their heads are chopped off. Except for their weaker IQ and recovery ability than "demons", these puppets are even stronger in terms of fearlessness and execution.
"...you're right."
Nagato was silent for a moment, and very rarely acknowledged what Yahiko said, and said in a cold tone: "Neither these puppets nor the people who made them can be released!"
"The question is how do we find the people who made them?"
Yahiko glanced at the shadowy figures inside the door, but quickly realized what Nagato meant and his expression suddenly stiffened.
No matter what kind of spell it is, even an extremely sophisticated and advanced spell like "Cage Bird", although it can allow one person to control a group of people at the same time, there is still a distance limit between the caster and the recipient.
In other words, the people who manufactured and controlled them should be in this base.
"So, why not just kill all the puppets?" Nagato's calm voice sounded, and Yahiko couldn't help but shudder.
He opened and closed his mouth slightly, hesitated for a moment, and finally whispered: "These puppets, these people, if the curse is lifted..."
"If the curse is lifted, the situation will only get worse."
Before Yahiko could finish his words, Nagato interrupted him and said in a cold tone: "Except for their brains and skins, they have nothing left. They can't eat, drink, laugh, or cry..."
"What's the point of continuing to live, other than being used as a weapon?"
"Besides, even if I sympathize with them, will they just stand there and watch me run off to kill the caster and then come back to find a way to save them?"
After that, Nagato no longer paid attention to the speechless Yahiko, turned his head to look at the door, and said coldly, "If you are afraid of dirtying your hands, then I will bear this blood debt."
After that, nine thorns stretched out from behind him, and a snake-like shadow was reflected on the ground.
(End of this chapter)