It was now time for him to acquire the thing he had initially come here for. As such, he ventured toward the one place he knew he would find it: the Kazekage's manor.
Almost every village had forbidden scrolls that were said to hold secret techniques. Most villages, like the Leaf, had their own secrets, but the Kazekage's manor was particularly intriguing, housing valuable scrolls rarely seen by the eyes of common shinobi.
As he approached the manor, he secretly transformed himself into smoke again and glided through the cracks in the manor's façade, slipping past the guards who stood watch, unaware.
Once inside, he made his way down their grand hallway and navigated through the corridors until he found a room marked by an ornate door that was slightly ajar.
As he snuck inside, he could already smell dust and neglect. Nobody had been here for what looked like years—evidenced by the thick layer of dust covering the shelves.
This was good, as it would help him continue his infiltration; fewer eyes meant fewer risks.
Careful not to disturb the layers of dust, he reverted to his physical form and scanned the room. Various scrolls and books were neatly arranged, but the years had weathered them poorly.
A quick glance showed that the contents had likely remained unstudied for too long. Using his Tamashii, he read the information contained within the scrolls without physically handling them. Most of what he saw was either useless or not jutsu-related. If they were, they mainly dealt with how to create puppets.
Things like that wouldn't serve Arthur well in the long run. The art of puppetry was easy to learn and also easy to defeat.
He sifted through topics ranging from the acquisition of the One-Tails, Shukaku, to techniques once wielded by past Kazekages. Gold dust manipulation, magnetic jutsu—there were myriad skills detailed in those dusty scrolls.
Some were tantalizingly close to the power he sought, but to even gain such abilities would take years, even decades, of training.
Arthur narrowed his eyes after being unable to locate what he needed. He had come here searching for one thing and one thing only: a technique known as "One's Own Life Reincarnation."
This technique was created by a character named Chiyo, who was still around today. She was often referred to as "Honoured Grandmother Chiyo" and was written to have been a revered figure in this village. That was primarily due to her perfection of puppetry and poison.
As a retired counselor of the village, she led the Puppet Brigade and was renowned not only for her combat abilities but also for her medical knowledge. She had modified puppets for enhanced battle capabilities and was instrumental in the creation of the legendary "Secret White Move: Chikamatsu's 10 Puppets."
Her expertise made her a vital asset during the Second Shinobi World War, where her skills in manipulating poison clashed against the medical prowess of her rival, Tsunade.
Alongside her brother Ebizō, they were known as the Honoured Siblings and each played a significant role in the village's past. Her most notable achievement was during Gaara's birth when she sealed the One-Tailed Shukaku into the infant to protect the village's interests.
This act, however, haunted her and was a source of deep regret in her later years. She hoped to atone for this by saving Gaara when he died, a desire that ultimately led to her death for using that aforementioned technique.
Her story wouldn't end there, as she was reanimated by Kabuto during the Fourth Ninja War—something that essentially contradicted her emotional passing.
But Arthur could care less about that character; he desired to know the fundamentals of said character's forbidden technique.
Among the techniques she developed was the one he was searching for, One's Own Life Reincarnation, a powerful yet forbidden technique that allowed the user to transfer their life force to another, effectively sacrificing themselves to save someone else.
Something like that was actual heresy from a Christian's perspective, as it mocked the meaning of life and death.
The mechanics of the technique illustrate its complexity; it requires all of the user's chakra as a conduit during the process. When used on someone who wasn't dead, it could restore them from fatal injuries, but it drained the user extensively.
Chiyo's intentions in creating this technique were deeply rooted in her familial bonds. Her wish was not merely to extend life but specifically aimed at giving souls to her grandson Sasori's puppets, particularly those resembling his deceased parents.
However, the deployment of such a technique reflects the broader themes of sacrifice and the moral ambiguities inherent to the shinobi way.
This technique was pertinent to Arthur's plans. Because with it, he could do the one thing no one ever dreamed of, that no one has ever done or could do in all of the Naruto universe: bringing back shinobi from the dead!
It wouldn't be simple reanimations, but those who've died before, returning whole and intact. And who was Arthur's first test subject? Rin Nohara.
Why wouldn't he revive the one character that made the poor villain weep and neglect the world? She was, after all, one of the prime reasons that same character, Obito, changed.
Arthur had also seen how the players and the characters of this world fancied themselves as heroes ready to rewrite fate, and it disgusted him.
This entire franchise mocked and stole from many truths, disguising them in the form of chakra manipulation and fantasy. It was a mockery of Jesus Christ, our lord, for they attempted to play God.
Arthur's ideology had been shaped by a profound understanding of the metaphysical realms; he learned that it was impossible to fully raise the dead on earth. Those who attempted, relying on magic or voodoo, were simply puppets of the devil.
Only one man had ever ascended from the grave, and that man was and is Jesus Christ. All who thought to defy death without Christ had forsaken the divine. For he knew that those who are dead in Christ shall also rise with him (Romans 6:8).
As Arthur searched diligently around the room, he found nothing related to the technique he sought. Why wasn't anything related to it here?
He had traversed through the desert for days and infiltrated one of the poorer parts of the world. Yet he still couldn't find what he was looking for.
Now was not the time to panic.
He racked his mind, trying to remember who Chiyo was.
'If a scroll containing the technique isn't here,' he thought, 'it could only be in one place: the Puppet Brigade.'
The Puppet Brigade was an organization within the Sand Village, active during at least the Second Shinobi World War. Known for their elite puppeteers, they were quite feared.
Chiyo had been at the forefront of many of their advancements, including the very technique he sought. Arthur's understanding deepened when he remembered that during wartime, the brigade wished to create a technique that would bring puppets to life, enhancing their effectiveness in combat.
It was Chiyo who had eventually succeeded in developing what would be called One's Own Life Reincarnation. However, the price of such power—the user's life force in exchange—was deemed too high, and thus the technique was labeled forbidden, effectively halting any further research.
Disbanded but not completely erased, the remnants of the Puppet Brigade's written philosophies could still linger in the village.
Did that mean these treasures—these secrets—were now tarnished over the years? Arthur could never believe that.
He needed to find out. But in order to do this, he had to search every nook and cranny of the entire Sand Village itself.
Shifting his form into smoke, he began traversing the village, looking for signs that hinted at the existence of the Puppet Brigade.
Time slipped by, and after hours of futile searching, he found nothing but the mundane.
Street vendors closed their stalls, and villagers locked their doors, while his frustration mounted.
Then the thought dawned on him—perhaps he was being too careful. The village had known conflict, so it wouldn't be unusual to find references to the Brigade's history scattered throughout.
As another half-hour passed, he still couldn't find anything.
He considered the possibility of placing Chiyo in a genjutsu and compelling her to tell him where the secrets lay. However, that option seemed far too risky.
Chiyo was an Elder—no ordinary ninja—and she still knew how to utilize chakra effectively herself. To capture her within a genjutsu would require complex preparations, much more than he was willing to invest in.
On top of that, she had never once entered his sensing range, which only heightened the challenge.
Finally, just as Arthur was ready to give up, he stumbled upon a quaint structure with the distinct signs of a library just outside of the village. The peculiar, cracked stone that bordered its entrance piqued his interest.
Libraries weren't typically built this way. Curious, he flew in its direction and eventually reformed himself to step inside.
The air reeked of old paper and wax.
He wandered the dusty aisles, skimming the titles of various works, yet none seemed to hold what he sought.
As he made his way deeper into the library, he stumbled upon an underground passageway obscured by a thick curtain. There was no sign that anyone had come this way for many years, which only drove his intrigue further.
'How odd,' he thought. 'This library has an underground section without any visible books…'
Arthur reached what would lead him to the basement and found the door to be locked. He turned into smoke and slipped through with ease, reforming in the darkness.
As he traversed the cobblestone path, he relied on his Tamashii to illuminate the way ahead.
To his astonishment, when he reached the end of the passageway, he found a clandestine vault stocked with scrolls and remnants of broken-down puppets. And what was more evident was the many scratched-off symbols of the Puppet Brigade.
Arthur wasted no time examining the scrolls.
It was then, as he carefully unfurled one particular scroll, that his search came to an end. Inside were the details concerning the performance of the One's Own Life Reincarnation technique!
Reading through the scroll, he learned that the technique was simple to execute, requiring advanced chakra control.
It was akin to performing a high-level healing technique. The user had to tap into their own chakra network and use it as an exchange to revive another body, their own vitality sacrificed to recover another.
The notation made it clear: a certain degree of skill was necessary to pull it off; without it, the consequences could be disastrous.
Was he going to perform it himself? No, heavens no!
If he did, that would undoubtedly be the end of his time in this world. His longing for power and influence did not extend to foolishness.
Instead, he envisioned something far more innovative—he had other plans brewing in the depths of his mind, plans that required precision and exact science rather than vain sacrifice.
Arthur pulled out a blank scroll of his own, quickly entering a careful state of transference. With focus, he began copying down the transcriptions from the scroll.
After an entire hour of immersion, he completed his task.
As such, he rolled up his scroll and tucked it securely beneath his cloak. Inside that scroll lay the destiny that was truly set to reshape this world.
Yet it wasn't the scroll itself; it was the idea of the scroll, something that would allow him to break through his ambition and put him at the center of transformative events within the ninja world.
After leaving the abandoned library, he stood against the backdrop of the moonlit village.
Gaining the reanimation technique was one thing, but because of what he acquired today, he had truly become the only one in this world who now possessed the power to defy death!
And it would all begin with Rin Nohara.