Amegakure Village. Kirito manipulates the White Zetsu clone and sneaks inside.
This place is said to be a ninja village, but it is actually not an exaggeration to say that it is a small industrial city. There are tall buildings made of steel and concrete everywhere. Since there was no detailed planning during construction, the various buildings are quite disorderly, and there are a lot of illegal buildings.
A large number of huge steel pipes are connected side by side, winding and turning in between, leading to who knows where. It looks extremely chaotic and disorderly.
If you're not someone who has lived here for a long time, you'll definitely have no idea where all these steel pipes lead to. If you accidentally walk into one of them, you might never be able to get out again, and end up falling down some unknown drain with the rainwater.
Kirito was currently hiding in the village of Amegakure under an inconspicuous raincoat, and then made his way to Hanzo's location with ease.
The atmosphere of Amegakure at this time was quite different from the last time he was here.
Last time he came, the atmosphere in Amegakure was heavy, but there was also the joy of finally ushering in peace. The people in the village still had more or less smiles on their faces, but now there was only a heavy oppression left. The expressions on the faces of the people in the village were very frightened, and they looked fearfully at the Ame-Nin in black robes.
The steel tower in the center of Amegakure symbolizes supreme power in the village, and naturally, this is where Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure, usually stays.
As usual, a large amount of rain was falling from the sky, causing the entire tower to be enveloped in the cold sound of rain hitting steel. Only recently, however, there had been a faint bloody smell around the tower.
Although the smell of blood had already faded due to the continuous washing of the rain, Kirito still smelled it.
Kirito wasn't surprised by this at all, because he knew the source of the bloody smell: it was the dozens of corpses hanging from the tower.
The internal cleansing of Amegakure has already begun.
Hanzo did not disappoint him. Since the end of their last conversation, he has begun to deal with the problem of spies within the village, using slightly radical and crude methods.
When it comes to dealing with spies, a ninja of Hanzo's level can do a very good job if he wants to, even if he does not have excellent ninjutsu for torture at his disposal, because ancient torture techniques are still passed down in Amegakure.
Although these ancient torture techniques are inefficient, they are useful.
Those Ame-Nin who have defected are obviously not tough nuts, and as long as they are tortured severely, there are always a few who will choose to confess.
In recent days, Hanzo has personally uncovered many spies and traitors.
Naturally, Hanzo will not show mercy to these people who have caused the internal sabotage of Amegakure and led to its defeat. He has hanged all of them from the central tower as a warning to potential traitors.
"The process is heavy and painful, but the result will be bright and new,
" Kirito said expressionlessly as he looked at the dozens of bodies on the tower.
He didn't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for those who were hanged. Traitors were inherently shameful, and from the moment they betrayed their countrymen for their own interests, they deserved such a fate.
"Hmm, the rain has stopped,"
Suddenly, Kirito noticed that the rain falling from the sky was rapidly decreasing.
Before long, the rare sunny weather that Amegakure had not seen in a long time appeared, and a ray of sunset shone into Amegakure.
Kirito quickly jumped onto the tower and looked at the setting sun slowly falling in the west.
"Isn't it beautiful? You returned today at the right time. This kind of beautiful scenery is not common in Amegakure."
The next moment, a voice with a hint of coldness appeared from behind him.
The person was Hanzo. Kirito had discovered him long ago through spiritual perception. Relying on the power of Byakugan, he had discovered as soon as he arrived in Amegakure that the rain falling from the sky contained chakra, covering an area of almost half of Amegakure.
This was Amegakure's powerful reconnaissance jutsu, Rain Tiger at Will Technique.
It is no accident that the only person in Amegakure capable of unleashing a technique with such a huge range is Hanzo.
So, he decisively revealed his identity in the rain, letting Hanzo know of his arrival.
Sure enough, Hanzo came over quickly.
"Ah, it's quite beautiful, it's just that these things around the tower are a bit of a spoiler,"
Kirito nodded, then turned to look at Hanzo.
"This is already considered a favor to these traitors. You are absolutely right. Amegakure really needs a thorough purge right now. These people are detestable. As long as they continue to exist, Amegakure will sooner or later be divided up by the major countries."
Upon hearing this, Hanzo's tone instantly turned cold. He said coldly, and his eyes could not help but become fierce.
These days, he has been cleaning up the traitors, and then getting intelligence from these traitors makes him feel extremely sad. Many of these traitors were personally promoted by him and given great trust, but the result was merciless betrayal.
Not only did these bastards collaborate with the enemy, they also took advantage of their positions to line their own pockets. They were a bunch of rats in Amegakure.
What's even more ridiculous is that after getting rid of these rats, the money he received from the homes of these traitors was actually comparable to the total financial resources of Amegakure over the past two years. This shows just how much these traitors had benefited from Amegakure and the enemy over the years.
Nowadays, apart from Kirito's character Hattori Masanari, Hanzo sees everyone as a traitor and wishes he could arrest them all and torture them.
The pain is just too much. These people's betrayal is like stabbing him in the chest over and over again with a knife, making him feel so much pain that he can hardly breathe.
After the pain comes endless anger.
Hanzo decides to execute these traitors in the most cruel way he knows, and strip them of their honor as well.
"Alas, your methods are still a bit rough. Clean up these eyesores. The villagers are very uneasy now. It would be better to handle this kind of thing in private, to minimize the bad influence as much as possible. And by doing so, you will make the traitors hide even deeper."
Kirito noticed that Hanzo's emotions were now a bit out of control, and advised him kindly.
Hanzo still listened to what Kirito played as Hattori Masanari said. Hearing what Kirito said, his anger-dominated brain finally calmed down a little. After a moment of silence, he replied, "I know. I will send someone to clean up later, and the cleaning will be done as secretly as possible."
"Here, with this, our cleaning work in Amegakure should be a lot faster. We can't let our guard down when it comes to spies and traitors, but we can be more relaxed on the outside while being more vigilant on the inside. Those guys are definitely panicking right now, and if we let up just a little, they might reveal their true colors on their own."
Kirito took out a scroll from his body and handed it to Hanzo, smiling slightly.
Hanzo did not suspect that the scroll was a trick. He quickly opened the scroll and found that it actually contained a relatively complete legacy of torture techniques. A long-lost smile appeared on his face.
Amegakure was currently lacking these torture techniques to root out the traitor. It was simply too difficult to make those professionally trained spies talk using just ancient torture techniques.
He was also afraid of arresting the wrong person and causing panic within Amegakure, so the scope of the investigation had always been small.
But with this legacy of interrogation jutsu, everything will be fine.
As long as the person under investigation has nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear from the investigation. Interrogation jutsu does not cause any harm to the person under investigation. On the contrary, those with something to hide will definitely be worried about being found out and forced to come forward.
"Great, did you get this from Konoha?"
Hanzo repeatedly confirmed that there were no problems with this legacy of interrogation jutsu before asking Kirito.
"It's only part of it. I gave Konoha a gift earlier to give them an advantage in the battle against Sunagakure. This is their small token of appreciation. The main part is still to come."
Kirito nodded.
A few days ago, he met Jiraiya again at the agreed location, and then successfully handed over some of the information on the Sunagakure battlefield to Jiraiya in exchange for the relatively complete torture jutsu inheritance in his hands and a large sum of resources.
"That's great, this legacy of torture jutsu really helped a lot. You came back this time to make a deal with Iwagakure, right?"
Hanzo said happily after receiving confirmation from Kirito.
These days, he finally heard some good news. Hattori Masanari really did have a change of heart and was willing to give the precious legacy of torture jutsu to the village for free.
Indeed, he was willing to let go of his pride and invite Hattori Masanari to return to the village. This was an incredibly correct choice.
"Not bad, my deal with Iwagakure didn't go very well. These Iwagakure's concealment abilities are much worse than Konoha's. When I went to find them, I found traces of Konoha and Sunagakure, and even many mysterious forces. And I also found that old woman Chiyo.
With this old woman around, I'm afraid that my deal with Iwagakure is quite dangerous. With no choice, I had to come back to you for help.
The item I'm trading with Iwagakure this time is a large number of Earth Release jutsu, including one S-rank jutsu. These are the key to our future rise of Amegakure, and there is absolutely no room for error."
Kirito saw that Hanzo already understood the reason for his visit, so he explained it very simply, and highlighted the risks and importance of this transaction.
"That old woman is indeed a huge problem, but don't worry, as long as I'm here, she definitely won't be able to stir up any trouble. It's just that how are you going to trade these things with Iwagakure? Earth Release jutsu is not something we Amegakure are good at, and Iwagakure definitely won't be so kind as to trade precious S-rank jutsu with us. Most likely, it's an S-rank jutsu that they themselves have difficulty mastering."
Hanzo said with a puzzled expression on his face.
Their Amegakure is good at Water Release jutsu, and basically all their ninja are naturally close to the Water element. They don't lack the other five elements, they just rarely use them. Coupled with the lack of training resources in their Amegakure, they really can't afford to be distracted from learning the five element jutsu other than Water Release.
There's also the matter of S-class jutsu. It looks precious, but the difficulty of training is incredibly harsh, and basically no one can succeed in training it. Generally, it can only be used as a foundation and looked at.
Therefore, in his heart, Kirito's trading with Iwagakure for their Earth Release jutsu, which is not highly valued on their side, is really not a good choice. It is more cost-effective to ask for more resources to train ninjas.
"Hanzo, what do you think are the difficulties that hinder the development of our Amegakure?"
Kirito suddenly asked, seeing that Hanzo was not very optimistic about what he had traded with Iwagakure.
Hanzo was stunned by Kirito's question and began to rack his brains.
To be honest, he wasn't really sure what the biggest obstacle to Amegakure's development was. Deep down, he felt that it was the suppression of Amegakure by the three surrounding countries.
So he spoke the answer in his heart: "It should be the suppression of the three surrounding countries against us."
"What you said is actually correct, but that is not the fundamental reason. It's this."
Kirito heard this and sighed, then pointed his finger at the sky above his head.
At this time, the clearing of the sky above Amegakure had ended, and the sky was once again covered in thick dark clouds. It was estimated that it would start raining again soon.
"The weather?"
Hanzo said doubtfully.
"That's right, the biggest problem restricting the development of our Land of Rain is this terrible weather. Because of this terrible weather, the agriculture in our Land of Rain simply cannot develop, and our country's food can only be imported in large quantities from the surrounding countries.
A country with a weak agricultural foundation cannot be self-sufficient in food, and its population will certainly not be able to develop. And if other countries block the export of food from our Land of Rain, many people in our country will starve to death.
In fact, other major powers don't even need to declare war on us; they only need to block the export of food from our country, and our Land of Rain will likely perish. Without the Land of Rain, our Amegakure will cease to exist."
Kirito nodded and expressed his opinion.
Hearing Kirito's explanation, Hanzo's happy mood suddenly disappeared, and he became extremely heavy again. He deeply felt that the future of the Land of Rain and the Amegakure village was really too difficult.
Then, he continued to ask doubtfully, "So what does these Earth Release jutsu have to do with the climate? Can these Earth Release jutsu change the climate of our Land of Rain?"
"You're right, Hanzo. These Earth Release jutsu do have the potential to change the climate of our Land of Rain. The reason why the climate in our Land of Rain is so bad is because the terrain in the west of our country is too high, blocking the moisture from the sea in the east.
If we can use Earth Release jutsu in the future to slightly change the terrain in the west, creating an opening so that the moisture from the sea in the east is no longer blocked by the terrain, then the terrible climate in our Land of Rain will definitely improve significantly."
Kirito said with conviction.
Hanzo was a roughneck who was good at killing and arson, but he didn't really understand this more advanced geographical knowledge. However, seeing Kirito speak with conviction, he suddenly felt that Kirito was onto something, and that it might just work.
"Can it really work?"
Hanzo was not a fool who would trust his gut feeling 100%, after all. He asked doubtfully.
"Of course. I have consulted some geography experts. It may take a long time, perhaps more than ten years, but it is ultimately a feasible method. Changing the climate of the Land of Rain is definitely an important condition for the development and growth of the Land of Rain.
And the combination of our Earth Release jutsu and Amegakure's Water Release jutsu is also very powerful. You should have seen Iwagakure's collective Earth Release jutsu, right? With these Earth Release jutsu, we from Amegakure might be able to replicate them in the future, and we might even be able to form a unit that can collectively perform Water Release.
With these two units working together, combined with the geographical advantages of our Land of Rain, we will definitely be able to pose a huge threat to our enemies."
Kirito continued to brag to Hanzo about the benefits of trading with Iwagakure for Earth Release jutsu.
"Fine, you captured those two elite puppet masters from Sunagakure, so you can trade them for those. I'll help you out then."
Hanzo saw that Kirito was not going to change the terms of the deal with Iwagakure, so he had to give up on continuing to argue with Kirito about it. Anyway, no matter what, the things that Kirito had traded with Iwagakure for this time were all beneficial to Amegakure, and it was worth his help.
However, in his heart, he still preferred Kirito trading with Iwagakure to obtain a batch of resources that could quickly train a large number of ninjas, so that the current Amegakure could quickly get out of the doldrums.
But since it had come to this, he could only accept the facts.
"I've been waiting to hear you say that. However, this transaction is of great importance, so you must keep this support a secret and not let even a hint of it get out."
Kirito smiled when he heard that Hanzo had finally agreed to his request in person.
In the Land of Rain, with Hanzo, a demigod, backing him up, his safety will definitely be greatly enhanced. Even if Chiyo and Kakuzu join forces against him this time, as long as Hanzo steps in, these risks will be nothing.
Maybe he won't even have to step in; the two of them might be taken care of by Hanzo, and then he can just lie back and receive the Enhancement Points.
"Don't worry, I know what to do, and I will definitely not leak any information this time."
Hanzo promised with a serious expression, and a deep murderous intent was revealed in his voice.
"See you then."
Kirito decisively took his leave upon seeing this.
As soon as he finished speaking, he formed an imprint and his entire body turned into a puddle of water.
Then, a wooden plaque fell.
Hanzo caught the plaque with lightning speed. When he saw the characters engraved on it, he immediately threw the plaque into the air.
The next moment, he quickly drew his chain scythe from his waist.
With a flash of light, the wooden sign was cut into pieces, scattering like snowflakes in the rain, and all disappeared when washed away by the water.
"The future of the Land of Rain? I hope it will be as beautiful as you said, Masanari."
Hanzo looked up at the sky, which had started raining again, and sighed.
If it really can make the sky of Amegakure village have some sunny days, and make the Land of Rain cry less, then this deal with Iwagakure is very good.
...
Three days later, in the border town, at night, Kitsuchi and the twelve Iwagakure were ready. After repeated careful reconnaissance, they confirmed that they were not being followed, so they all used the Shadow Clone Technique, leaving a shadow clone in place to cover their tracks.
Then, they used the Hiding Like A Mole Technique one after the other, diving underground and quietly leaving the border town.
On the other side, in an izakaya, a man with sunglasses and a very low presence suddenly got up when he saw a bug on his fingernail fly up, and quietly left the izakaya.
In the sky, a small eye noticed the man in sunglasses coming out of the izakaya and quietly followed him.
A stray dog, drenched to the bone, also noticed the man in sunglasses, and a strange expression flashed in its eyes.
In a certain homestay, the man in the angle looked at the direction pointed by the tentacle in his hand, and a horrible smile suddenly appeared on his face. Then he quickly formed a hand seal with both hands and instantly disappeared in place.
Time passed by minute by minute.
Kitsuchi and the others, hidden in the darkness, quietly advanced, constantly drawing closer to the place of the transaction set by Kirito.
At dawn, they finally saw their destination.
It was a village dozens of kilometers from the border town, now abandoned due to the fighting.
As they approached their destination, Kitsuchi motioned for the others to stop, then looked at the Perception-type ninja in the group responsible for reconnaissance and asked, "Kuroiwa, do you see anything amiss?"
"Lord Kitsuchi, everything is normal. There is only one person in the village right now,"
Hearing this, the perceptive ninja named Kuroiwa immediately quietly activated a perceptive ninjutsu by pushing a finger into the ground, and replied with a serious expression.
"It seems that he doesn't intend to play any tricks, which is for the best. However, it is a bit strange that there is only one person. But since we are here, we cannot return empty-handed, let's go meet him."
Kitsuchi received an accurate reply and nodded.
After saying this, he took the lead and continued to move forward, quickly rushing towards the abandoned village in the distance.
The other rock ninjas followed suit.
Soon, Kitsuchi and the others found Hattori Masanari, the role Kirito was playing, in the village.
"Hattori Masanari, where are the two elite puppet masters from Sunagakure? You haven't forgotten the terms of the deal, have you?"
Kitsuchi said coldly, seeing that Kirito had come alone to make the deal.
Upon hearing this, the Iwagakure behind him all looked at Kirito with ill intent and took up combat stances, ready to strike at the slightest sign of trouble.
"Don't worry, you Iwagakure have the numbers, how would I dare to trick you? Besides, I, Hattori Masanari, always keep my word. As long as you Iwagakure are sincere about this transaction, I definitely won't be the first to break the deal."
Kirito said with a smile.
While he was speaking, he quickly completed the seal with his hands.
This was the seal for summoning.
The next moment, two coffins slowly drilled out of the ground behind him, and then opened, revealing the two elite puppet masters of Sunagakure, Chisa and Sara.
"Lord Kitsuchi, those two are indeed still alive,"
said Kuroiwa, a perception-type ninja, quietly to Kitsuchi.
"Very well, then let us begin the transaction now,"
Kitsuchi received the confirmation and nodded to Kirito.
"No problem, but before that, shouldn't you tell those people behind you to move a distance away? It doesn't need to be too far, a kilometer is enough. I didn't think you would bring so many people, you should understand what I mean,"
Kirito shook his head and said with a wary expression on his face.
Of the twelve Iwagakure ninja brought by Kitsuchi this time, three are jōnin, and the remaining nine are all elite chūnin. There is no doubt that they are all ninja proficient in group Earth Release techniques.
Kirito is now all alone. Although he is not afraid of the other party suddenly attacking him, it is better to be cautious just to be safe.
"What do you mean? Do you think we from Iwagakure won't keep our word?"
Kirito's words immediately caused the displeasure of a burly Iwagakure jōnin, who shouted at him.
Kirito just smiled.
This Iwagakure jōnin saw this and his dissatisfaction grew even more.
But before he could speak again, Kitsuchi stopped him with a hand signal, and then he heard Kitsuchi say, "You guys take a step back for now."
"Kitsuchi-sama, this person is not easy to deal with, so be careful,"
Kuroiwa quickly said.
The other Iwagakure ninjas also echoed him, expressing their unwillingness to leave Kitsuchi.
Their mission this time was to protect Kitsuchi, so how could they stay away from the target of their protection?
If something happened to Kitsuchi, they would all be in big trouble.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Don't you trust my abilities?"
Kitsuchi said with a stern face when he saw that his subordinates were not listening to orders.
He naturally had absolute confidence in his own safety, and this confidence did not come from these Iwagakure ninjas around him, but from an even more powerful protective force.
He was not worried at all about Hattori Masanari's tricks. If the opponent really dared to play tricks, the only one who would suffer would be the opponent.
When Kuroiwa and the other Iwagakure ninja saw that Kitsuchi was determined to do this, they could not continue to disobey his orders. However, they ultimately did not choose to retreat completely, and still left one jōnin and three elite chūnin in place to protect Kitsuchi. No matter how Kitsuchi scolded them, they would not leave.
When Kirito saw this, although he was a little unhappy in his heart at the domineering and stubbornness of these Iwagakure, he endured it and acquiesced to their actions in order to ensure the smooth completion of the transaction.
The transaction officially began.
Kirito first handed over Sara, an elite Sunagakure puppet master who was not the most important, and in return, Kitsuchi handed over a scroll containing a part of the Earth Release jutsu to Kirito.
After completing their first transaction, both parties quickly verified the authenticity of the items they had traded.
Soon, a smile appeared on both faces, and the way they looked at each other softened considerably.
With the basic trust brought about by the success of the first transaction, Kirito and Kitsuchi quickly began the second round of transactions.
But at the same time, in the forest seven or eight kilometers away, Chiyo, who was covering one of her eyes with her hand, revealed a cruel smile on her face, and then the five fingers of her other hand moved, pulling five thin lines of chakra that stretched for seven or eight kilometers.
The next moment, five puppets of different shapes suddenly fell from the sky above Kirito and Kitsuchi. Three of the puppets surrounded Kirito and Kitsuchi, who were trading, in a triangular formation, while the other two attacked the two Iwa nin who were guarding Sara.
"Finally unable to hold back, are you?"
Kirito sneered in his heart when he saw the appearance of these puppets.
With his Byakugan, how could he not have noticed the existence of these puppets?
It had to be said that the ninja of the Sunagakure, Chiyo, was indeed very powerful. She was able to manipulate the puppets from a distance of seven or eight kilometers, levitate them in the air, and then track down Kitsuchi and the others here using the secret technique of the Third Eye.
Now, when he brought her son for trade, she finally could no longer hold back.
Even though they were seven or eight kilometers away, Chiyo's ability to control the puppets had not diminished much. The three puppets surrounding Kitsuchi and Kirito were as agile as real people, and they were even rapidly forming seals with their hands.
The puppet with the three eyes completed the seal formation the fastest, and a large amount of sealing techniques were released from it and fell to the ground.
Seeing this, Kitsuchi and Kirito decisively used their own special shunshin techniques to leave the spot and avoid being attacked by the sealing techniques of this puppet that could use them.
"Awesome, using sealing techniques with a puppet, that's truly amazing,"
Kirito used the water shunshin technique to appear more than ten meters away, and then a seal formation appeared on the ground in front of him, and he marveled in his heart.
By using Byakugan, he could see that there was only one chakra line connected to the puppet that used the seal technique, but even so, Chiyo could still use one finger to manipulate the puppet to release the seal technique with great dexterity from a distance of seven or eight kilometers.
This strength in puppet techniques was truly amazing.
However, he now had the leisure to admire Chiyo's puppet technique. He saw that the remaining two puppets had already completed their seals. One spat out a huge wind pressure bomb from its mouth, while the other released a blinding flash of lightning from its mouth, pinning him down from the left and right at the same time.
Kirito immediately released Water Release: Water Formation Wall without a seal to defend himself. Two thick water walls appeared in front of him.
The water wall successfully blocked the wind pressure bomb, but it could not stop the extremely penetrating lightning.
Kirito was suddenly attacked by the lightning and let out a painful scream.
The next second, there was a "bang" sound, and the attacked Kirito instantly turned into a white smoke.
"It's actually a shadow clone!"
At this time, Chiyo, who saw this scene with her third eye, suddenly changed countenance.
At the same time, the face of a Root Division ninja with a fox mask in a hidden place five or six kilometers away from the trading location also changed.
He was a member of the Yamanaka clan and a member of the Skull Squad, codenamed Chaos. He had just used the Yamanaka clan's secret technique, the Mind Body Switch Technique, to control a bird and watch everything that happened in the abandoned village.
When he realized that Hattori Masanari, who had come to trade with Iwagakure, was just a shadow clone, he immediately released the Mind Body Switch Technique and said to his four companions, "The target is just a shadow clone, the real body is not here."
Then, his face changed again, and he pointed in a certain direction with his finger, shouting, "Who's there?"
The other four members of the Skull Squad all had a change of expression when they heard Chaos's words, and without saying a word, they scattered apart, then looked in the direction Chaos was pointing with grave expressions on their faces.
Anyone who could sneak up on five of their elite jōnin like this could not be underestimated.
"The Yamanaka clan's ninja have really good senses."
The next moment, a cold voice appeared.
Then, a samurai wearing a demon-faced mask slowly walked out from behind a large tree, holding a katana.
"A samurai?"
Chaos said doubtfully as he took a closer look at the person's appearance.
But his actions did not stop; he quickly completed the hand seals and used the Mind Body Disturbance Technique against his enemy.
An invisible Yin Release Chakra shot quietly and quickly towards the samurai.
However, to his shock, the samurai in front of him simply picked up the katana covered in chakra in his hands and thrust it forward, breaking his technique of chaotic body.
To be precise, the opponent had actually seen through the flaw in his jutsu and stabbed it with a single blow, thereby breaking it.
But was this possible?
Was this something a samurai could do?