20demayo Chapter 119 Bounty Hunter, Investigation
Chapter 119 Bounty Hunter, Investigation
Chapter 110 Bounty Hunter, Investigation
Nighttime, the Thousand Hands Mansion.
Xingyuan Qianshuo originally wanted to ask Minato for advice on sensory techniques and the Flying Thunder God Technique, but he learned that Minato had been sent on a mission by the Third Hokage again.
During dinner, Kushina once again fell into a state of "longing," muttering "old man" under her breath as she ate her rice.
Tsunade listened with great interest, occasionally chiming in with a few words of agreement.
Hoshino's lips curled up slightly as he thought to himself, "Kushina shouldn't let her negative emotions build up. It's good for her to vent by swearing a few times."
Since his spirit entered Kushina's body last time, he has not tried to see Kurama again.
Firstly, he had no way to deal with the Nine-Tails' "irritability"; secondly, the Nine-Tails had been much quieter lately and no longer tempted Kushina so easily.
Xingyuan Qianshuo was unsure whether the Nine-Tails was moved by his "Tailed Beast Mission Theory" or was deliberately trying to lull Kushina into a false sense of security, waiting for an opportunity to break free.
At least, the malice of "hatred" in the Nine-Tails' chakra has weakened considerably in its effect on Kushina.
When Minato bid farewell to Kushina before leaving, he mentioned the purpose of his mission: to be sent as an envoy to Kusagakure.
After hearing Kushina's account, Hoshigen Chisaku had a general idea of the purpose of his trip.
When Iwagakure invaded the Land of Fire, Kusagakure played the role of "sitting on the sidelines and watching the tigers fight," allowing Iwagakure to set up camp and pass through the Land of Grass.
Now that the war is over, it is necessary for Konoha to go and issue a warning.
Xingyuan Qianshuo suddenly remembered that there was a Uzumaki clan member named Ichika's mother in Kusagakure.
"I wonder if Minato will be able to run into her this time," he thought to himself. "It's probably unlikely. For a mission that's so public, the other side will definitely make preparations in advance."
"This character, who was eventually repeatedly bitten and had her chakra drained, died a tragic death, making her one of the most tragic female characters in the original work."
If the opportunity arises in the future, we can rescue her and train her carefully; she could become an excellent medical ninja.
Thinking of this, he looked at Kushina, who was eating heartily and muttering curses at the Third Hokage as she ate.
In contrast, Kushina, despite becoming the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, hasn't really suffered much—at least not so far.
After dinner, he and Tsunade spent a little more time with Kushina before returning to their rooms to rest.
The next morning.
After breakfast, Tsunade decided to stay home and continue to keep Kushina company.
When Chisaku went to the front line on a mission last time, she was worried and had all sorts of wild thoughts. It was Kushina who accompanied her and comforted her.
Xingyuan Qianshuo had no objection to this, so he went to the hospital alone.
Before long, the four members of the silent group arrived at the consultation room one after another.
The four were inevitably excited about their first mission.
However, you don't need to go to the Chunin Exam site in the morning; you can go directly to the Fourth Training Ground at noon.
Xingyuan Qianshuo glanced at their casual clothes, pondered for a moment, and then led them to find Sheci.
"Hello, Teacher Sheci." The four greeted him respectfully.
"Hello, hello—hello everyone."
Being addressed as "teacher" in the hospital stirred a strange excitement in Sheci, whereas in the past she had only ever shown respect to others.
"Sheci, does the hospital still have smaller sizes of medical gowns?" Xingyuan Qianshuo asked.
"Hmm, there should be." Sheci looked at the four students who were shorter than her, thought for a moment, and said, "I'll take them to try."
"Thank you for your help."
"You're too kind, senior," Sheci laughed. "You've treated me to meals several times already."
"By the way, our team is responsible for medical support during the Chunin Exams today. We're having a barbecue dinner tonight, why don't you come along?" Hoshino Chisaku invited.
"Haha, I'm so sorry." Sheci laughed even harder. "Then I'll really go!"
After exchanging a few jokes, Sheci led the four of them to change into medical gowns.
Xingyuan Qianshuo then returned to the consultation room.
It wasn't time to see patients yet, so he closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment before opening the system interface.
Now his Wind Release and Water Release ninjutsu can be used openly.
Fire Release, Lightning Release, and Earth Release can actually be used, but they are ultimately not very convenient.
He planned to wait a few months before demonstrating his mastery of these changes.
At present, his strength has reached the Kage level, making him one of the strongest in Konoha.
The five elemental ninjutsu in Tobirama's ninjutsu library can enhance his combat power at the Kage level, but what can truly bring about a qualitative change are the Flying Thunder God Technique, Sage Mode, or Wood Release and Eight Gates.
He has already begun practicing the Flying Thunder God Technique; however, the Sage Mode is exceptionally difficult, and he plans to accumulate experience for a period of time before attempting it.
He didn't have much hope of mastering Sage Mode on his own—he was the type who thought a lot and had a hard time calming his mind, making it difficult for him to enter a deep meditative state like Naruto.
However, we still have to give it a try.
If all else fails, we'll have to rely on the system to keep trying.
With the power of Wood Release, Star Source Chisaku would naturally not go against Tsunade's wishes and participate in Orochimaru's Hashirama cell transplantation experiment.
Similarly, the only way he can obtain this powerful bloodline limit is through the system.
Currently, he is considering two paths:
First, by using the scrolls rewarded by the system, one can further refine the training of Water Release and Earth Release, especially the Origin Scroll that traces back to the source. Based on this, one can try to integrate and comprehend Wood Release on one's own.
Secondly, wait for the right opportunity and try to obtain relevant rewards from characters like Yamato, Obito, and Danzo, who used Wood Release in the original work.
However, "Yamato" was still Orochimaru's experimental subject at this time, and his "birth" was relatively late.
It's hard to say whether we can obtain the kind of "grafted" Wood Release that Obito or Danzo possessed, and besides, the chances of healing them are also slim.
In comparison, the first approach is more feasible.
As for the Eight Gates Formation, with the power of Yang and various life-saving items, it's perfectly acceptable to master it first. At that point, it would be like having an extra, solid trump card in your combat power.
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly looked up at the door.
Not long after, there was a knock on the door.
"Please come in."
The door opened, and an ANBU ninja wearing an ape-face mask walked in.
Upon seeing the newcomer, Hoshino Senju immediately stood up with a smile: "Good morning, Shinnosuke."
Good morning, Chisaku-kun.
The newcomer was none other than Sarutobi Shinnosuke. He greeted them, then removed his mask, revealing a young face that bore a striking resemblance to the Hokage.
Then, he took out a scroll and handed it over: "This is a list of underground bounty hunters compiled by the Dark Division. The Third Hokage asked me to give it to you."
"Thank you for your help."
You're welcome.
"Oh, by the way, Chisaku-kun, I just wanted to let you know that I'm currently practicing your Rasengan."
"Haha, don't be so polite. Since the Rasengan has been handed over to the village, it's for everyone to learn and use," Hoshino Sensaku said with a smile. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime."
His expression remained unchanged, but inwardly he couldn't help but sigh, "Tsk, being the Hokage's son is so convenient; he can learn any ninjutsu he wants. Unlike me—"
In the end, he still ended up "living off a woman."
"The information you provided is already very detailed, so I have no further questions for now," Shinnosuke replied. "I won't bother you any longer; please continue with your work."
"You're leaving already?"
"Yes, I still have a mission to complete."
Hoshino Senju saw Shinnosuke to the door, and seeing that he had put the ape-face mask back on, he did not see him off any further.
After the Jonin meeting that day, the Third Hokage did mention that he would send information on underground bounty hunters.
He was also a little curious, so he sat back in his chair and unrolled the scroll to browse through it.
After leaving the hospital, Shinnosuke did not return to the Hokage Building. Instead, he met up with his Anbu teammates who were waiting outside and together they headed to the orphanage on the west side of Konoha.
His mission was to investigate Yakushi Nono, whom Hoshino Sensaku had met the day before.
Last night, his mother, Biwako, mentioned Yakushi Nonou to his father, and his father casually assigned the task to him.
He had already conducted some searches in the secret service and the archives, but only found records of Nonou before she joined "Root".
Yakushi Nonou is a member of "Root". If she wants to enter "Root" to investigate, her father, as Hokage, must handle it personally.
His father's decision to entrust this task to him implies that he will not put direct pressure on "the root".
Shinnosuke frowned inwardly as he pictured the sinister face of Danzo Shimura, the leader of Root.
Even after studying under his father for many years, he still couldn't understand why his father, as the Hokage, would trust and rely on such a person—this was completely inconsistent with his father's "Will of Fire."
Hoshino Senju was unaware of Shinnosuke's mission after he left.
He quickly flipped through the scroll, which contained information on more than a dozen underground bounty hunters and their organizations. One of them was an Undying Hunter: a long-time active member of the underworld with an extremely high mission completion rate. He wore a mask, had stitches on his body, and wore a headband from Takigakure, suggesting he might be a rogue ninja from Takigakure, but his strength was questionable.
Xuanyuan Clan: A long-established bounty hunter organization known as "Ninja Hunters". They are usually composed of five people, who are suspected to be descendants of the Xuanyuan clan. They are characterized by each person wearing a tail-like ornament. They are skilled in advanced teleportation techniques and have mastered secret techniques that can cause people to explode. They are very mysterious and should not be confronted directly.
Twin Shadows: A duo with complementary abilities. One excels in sensory ninjutsu and genjutsu, while the other specializes in swordsmanship and taijutsu, and has a record of killing elite Jonin.
Wolf Pack: A group consisting of a dozen to several dozen ninjas and samurai, skilled in group combat and large-scale encirclement and suppression. Members change frequently, suggesting that there is a mastermind behind it.
Curse Master: Puppet Master, suspected to be a rogue ninja from Sunagakure —
"The information is very rough; there's not much useful detail," he thought to himself. "It's probably something the secret service interrogated from the toilet attendants at the underground gold exchange's hideout."
In the original story, Kakuzu carried Jiraiya's corpse to a secret room in a public restroom to deliver it and collect the bounty.
Many underground money exchange offices have morgue lockers, perhaps to mask the stench of corpses with the smell of toilets.
The information available to the service personnel stationed at these locations is nothing more than rumors circulating underground.
"Konoha really doesn't care much about the underworld," Hoshino Senju thought to himself. "It's possible that Danzo has all that information."
The first character on this scroll is clearly Kakuzu, who possesses the secret technique "Earth Grudge Fear," has five hearts implanted in his body, is proficient in the five elemental techniques, and is definitely a Kage-level expert. In the original work, he died in a joint attack by Kakashi, Naruto, and others.
The second Xuanyuan Clan member possesses the "Exploding Insects," which can fill the air with invisible larvae by releasing flashes of light. Once inhaled, these larvae rapidly absorb chakra and grow until the host explodes and dies.
In the original story, when the Raikage led his team to Sugi Ninja Village to steal the secret technique, the villagers hired the Xuanyuan Clan to try to take it back.
Many members of the Raikage's team were infected, and even the Raikage himself was not spared.
If they hadn't happened to run into Tsunade and Shizune, who were on the run from their debts, they probably would have been wiped out long ago.
Xingyuan Qianshuo puts away the scroll.
Although this information was of limited use, it served as a warning to him that a ninja should never let his guard down.
Recently, his strength has greatly increased due to mastering the Wind Release: Rasengan, and his mindset has indeed relaxed a lot.
We should reflect on ourselves and examine our actions.
The reflection lasted only a moment before a series of light, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.
Soon, the four members of the silent group knocked on the door and came in.
The four little "doctors," dressed in white medical uniforms, looked adorable, almost like they were playing house.
Xingyuan Qianshuo smiled inwardly and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Master~" Shizune called out in a coquettish tone.
"Okay, very cute." Hoshino Senju quickly corrected himself, "Ahem, very much like a medical ninja."
Of the four, Shizune and Rin appeared relatively natural, while Hanfang and Hyuga Tetsuya, who are usually calm and composed, seemed somewhat awkward.
After a while of joking around, Xingyuan Qianshuo arranged for two people to observe and learn in the clinic, while the other two went to Tsunade's office to train, and they would take turns after an hour.
at the same time.
Shinnosuke, wearing an ape-face mask, and his teammate "Zou," wearing a dog-face mask, arrive at the Konoha Orphanage.
The morning light spilled onto the dilapidated wooden houses and spacious courtyard of the orphanage, spreading a warm golden hue.
The shadows cast by the house on the ground stretched long and wide, extending into the nearby woods and covering the simple swing that stood empty between two large trees.
Shinnosuke and Enoshiro walked up the creaking wooden steps to the door and knocked on the old wooden door.
In a typical covert investigation, they would usually sneak in through the roof or windows. But here, the two of them chose the main entrance without prior arrangement.
Soon, the wooden door creaked open with a jarring sound, revealing a handsome face wearing round-framed glasses.
Nono was dressed in a simple long robe with a white hood, resembling a nun's habit, simple yet dignified.
Upon seeing the two masked ninjas, she trembled slightly, and the gentle smile on her face froze for a moment.
She quickly composed herself, opened the wooden door, and stepped aside.
"Is this Yakushi Nonou? We're from the Konoha Anbu, here to ask you some questions," Shinnosuke said. "I'm Sarutobi, and this is Elephant."
Hearing that the other party referred to themselves as an Anbu instead of "Root," and that their tone wasn't as cold as "Root's," Nonou immediately relaxed, her smile becoming even gentler: "Welcome, please come in."
The two entered the wooden house.
There are two rows of large shoe racks in the entryway, neatly arranged with cloth shoes and sandals of different sizes, some of which are badly worn, while others are carefully patched.
Although the corridor was old, it was very clean, and at the end of the corridor, one could faintly hear children's hushed laughter and the soft clatter of bowls and chopsticks.
From the other end of the corridor, caregiver Noriko looked worriedly at Nono and the two masked ninjas.
Nono smiled and shook her head at her, then led the two into a small lounge.
Before long, the orphanage director, Ryoji Sugimoto, also walked in—this was originally the room he and his caregiver, Noriko Matsu, used as their office.
Approaching fifty, Ryoji Sugimoto's temples were graying, and his face was covered in wrinkles. He asked with a grave expression, "Are you two members of the Anbu, or 'Root'?"
"We are from the Anbu, and we've come to find out some information from Nonou," Shinnosuke replied.
"Dean, it's nothing, you can go ahead and do your work. The children still need to be looked after." Nonou noticed the dean's worry and didn't want him to get involved.
Ryoji Sugimoto took a deep breath, stared intently at Yu for a moment, and finally nodded before turning and leaving.
"Let's begin, gentlemen," Nono said softly as she closed the door.
"Okay. Nonou, when did you join 'Root'?"
"When I was ten years old, it had been seven years and four months since then."
What are the tasks for "You at the Root"?
"Infiltrate enemy ninja villages to gather intelligence."
Shinnosuke and Sho kept asking questions, and Nonou answered them one by one in a calm tone.
Fragments of the past occasionally flashed through her mind, only to be quickly suppressed.
As a spy infiltrating an enemy country, she was not subjected to the "Seal of the Extinction of the Tongue" by Danzo.
She had limited knowledge of the inner workings of Root, especially Danzo, and could only access peripheral affairs; she had never even set foot in Root's headquarters.
When she was in an enemy country, she was only responsible for collecting intelligence and never participated in assassinations, defection missions, or other similar tasks.
Even so, her resume still inspired admiration in the two young members of the secret service.
After leaving the orphanage, Shinnosuke and Eiji exchanged a glance and simultaneously let out a long sigh of relief.
"Zheng's" real name is Murakami Kawano. He and Shinnosuke were classmates since the Ninja Academy and later became teammates in a squad and then in the Anbu.
The two had experienced various missions, big and small, in the Dark Division, but Nono's experience still impressed them greatly.
Konoha is perhaps supported by many such unsung heroes.
After calming themselves down, the two returned to the Hokage Building to report to the Third Hokage.
-
After listening to the story, Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe, pondered for a moment, and said, "Zou, go and invite Koharu over here."
"Yes, Third Generation Lord." Xiang accepted the order and left.
Hiruzen Sarutobi continued to ponder: "The funds we secured from the daimyo this time are substantial, enough to rebuild the orphanage. With over two hundred casualties in the war, there may be even more orphans to be born."
"Post-war relief is a matter of course and should not be publicized, but rebuilding orphanages can be a way to unite people's hearts."
At this moment, Shinnosuke hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "Father, could Nonou—"
"Shinnosuke, go tell your mother that Nono can work at the hospital now," Hiruzen Sarutobi interrupted him and gave the order directly.
"Yes, Third Generation." Shinnosuke ultimately said no more and withdrew.
After Shinnosuke left, Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed softly.
He knew exactly what Shinnosuke was trying to say—that the boy wanted to fight for so-called freedom for Nonou.
It would be unwise to confront Danzo directly over this matter.
"Root" is responsible for matters in the shadows, and cultivating and utilizing spies is also Danzo's duty.
As the Hokage, I should not cross this line and break this tacitly accepted rule for the sake of individual ninjas.
Moreover, Konoha truly needs eyes and ears like Nono.
Just like a towering tree, if it wants to grow lush and stand tall, it needs both branches and leaves to bask in the sunlight and branches buried deep in the ground.
The roots that meander and draw strength in the darkness.