"Come and support me."
A snake slithered out from Akaba's sleeve—it was Orochimaru's Snake Clone, secretly placed ahead of time for communication or calling for help.
Don't be misled by the fact that Orochimaru has been locked away in his lab—he's still been honing his strength. Beneath all sorts of bizarre ninjutsu, his strength hadn't declined at all—in fact, it had improved significantly.
Ordinary enemies could be handled without needing to call for assistance.
But when it reached the point of sending a distress signal—
Akaba didn't have time to think further. He turned to Kozuke and said, "Senior, I'll go assist first. Please stay safe."
"Don't worry."
Kozuke gave a gentle nod.
He'd crossed swords with Yashin Cultists before—their strength was decent, but their moves were pretty basic and easy to predict. To any chunin-level ninja or higher, as long as they stayed cautious, there was no life-threatening danger.
Besides, he wasn't an ordinary ninja.
In the next instant, Flying Thunder God Technique activated. Akaba arrived beside Orochimaru.
"Hahahaha! Feel the power of Jashin-sama! Oh, and by the way, thank your village's Sakuma Akaba—without him, Jashin-sama wouldn't have granted us invincible power so soon!"
Not far away, a Yashin Cult follower was covered in sinister markings, standing atop a pattern drawn on the ground similar to Hidan's.
Behind him, another cultist remained hidden.
"One has immortality, the other is fast with healing abilities—we can't kill them."
Orochimaru quickly shared information.
Akaba nodded slightly, understanding immediately.
That kind of combo really wasn't something you could take down the normal way—not even Orochimaru or any skilled ninja relying on recon, ninjutsu, or taijutsu could handle them easily. To bring them down, you'd need to try a different approach.
Like genjutsu or sealing techniques.
Moreover, the enemy had already obtained blood from some Konoha ninja—the jutsu formula was about to activate.
Just then—
Goro Goro no Mi, activated; Shifting Body Technique, accelerating.
Heavenly Foot of Pain!
With a deafening boom, the explosive impact shattered the ritual formation completely.
Controlling Death with Blood, Release.
"So *that's* how you crack it?"
Orochimaru understood now. If he'd known this method earlier, he wouldn't have needed to summon Akaba—he could've completed the mission alone.
This was precisely the power of intelligence reports.
"Damn brat—you're a dead man!"
The immortal cultist roared furiously.
His outfit looked familiar. Akaba vaguely remembered seeing him before—at the counterfeit Devil Fruit Tournament—and his weapon was, once again, a replica of Hidan's scythe.
Visually speaking, he was practically Hidan's twin.
Yet the moment their eyes met, genjutsu had already taken effect.
"Akaba, leave him alive!" Orochimaru called out quickly.
Immortal and undying—who better could serve as a test subject?
Killing him off right now would be such a waste.
"Don't worry, he won't die."
Naraka View combined with the Sakuma clan's Kekkei Genkai overwhelmed the foe with sheer spiritual might, knocking them unconscious effortlessly.
[Materialize Illusions into Reality] resulted in the cultist being dismembered beyond reattachment—yet he still lived, each limb twitching and struggling.
Meanwhile, he continued shouting curses and spewing abuse.
As for the other one,
Unlike his companions, his fate was tragic. After aging dozens of times instantaneously and exhausting all the Evil God's chakra, his ability drew heavily from his own life force.
Therefore, immediately after breaking free from the genjutsu, he died from complete depletion of vitality.
"They've already begun researching and replicating abilities that have just appeared in Akaba's Manga. The Yashin Cult is indeed terrifying."
Traveling with Orochimaru was an Aburame clan member named Zhi Ping Aburame.
Normally speaking, the Parasitic Bugs of the Aburame clan could destroy enemy limbs and absorb chakra, thereby defeating opponents. However, the Evil God's chakra was too strange and corrupting—after consuming it, the bugs immediately went mad and turned on their own allies.
This made him unwilling to unleash his full strength at all.
"Did you only see the first part? Later chapters will show how to deal with this immortality. Unfortunately, your researchers didn't know that detail; otherwise, he wouldn't have been so careless."
Akaba kicked the severed head and glanced at Orochimaru's group.
Looking at the four of them, none appeared to have mastered sealing techniques.
Well, might as well be a good guy to the end.
He used a Sealing Scroll to isolate and seal each limb, then passed all the sealed scrolls to Orochimaru.
After all, within Konoha, it was probably only Orochimaru who had a practical need for them.
"So for this ability, if we dismember him completely, that should work?"
"More or less."
Akiba nodded.
From the Manga, one could see that when Hidan's head and body were separated, his body alone lacked movement capability, which was why Kakuzu needed to sew his limbs back on.
Since the Yashin Cult's ability imitated Hidan's power shown in the Manga, separating limbs was still an effective countermeasure.
The more Orochimaru listened, the brighter his eyes became.
So the Yashin Cult truly was fascinating.
Unable to contain himself, he let out a laugh that sent chills down his teammates' spines.
"If there's nothing else, I'll go assist elsewhere."
Since he'd come out anyway, and there happened to be enemies within his sensing range, Akaba didn't mind offering some casual support.
After all, short-range teleportation didn't consume much chakra, and with his current reserves, instantly relocating to nearby ally markers was practically effortless.
Before long, every enemy detected within this region had been eliminated—an efficiency so high it was frightening.
At this pace, they'd be able to clear out all Yashin Cult members from this area within a single day. While some credit certainly belonged to the Scouting Unit, Akiba's contribution also stood out significantly.
Throughout the night, everyone continued working—the ninja world, after all, favored nighttime operations.
Akiba was no different.
Of course, his motivation for such hard work was simply wanting to return early.
Putting things off feels awesome for a bit, but staying here any longer meant he couldn't fully focus on drawing. He needed to wrap up the mission as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, in Sunagakure Village.
By the time they received news about the Yashin Cult's invasion into the Land of Fire, it was already late that evening.
The upper echelons held an emergency meeting.
Of course,
To reduce unnecessary debate, this leadership gathering excluded the Daimyo's mansion entirely, consisting solely of the Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and Ebizō.
"Chiyo, Ebizō—this is the information just directly transmitted to us by the Yashin Cult through our Hawk Messenger."
Sankai unfolded the Intelligence Report before them.
They managed to locate our Hawk Messenger, which sufficiently proves the Yashin Cult's capability. On the other hand, this information here is extremely important.
"The Yashin Cult attacked the eastern part of the Land of Fire?"
Chiyo took one look and her eyes immediately lit up. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"The Yashin Cult cannot be trusted."
Ebizō paused briefly before sharing some intel on the Yashin Cult he'd personally gathered. As Sunagakure's Anbu leader, many documents never reached Sankai first due to his relative youth.
Sankai listened carefully, then fell silent for a moment before asking, "So you're saying the Yashin Cult's goal is to provoke conflict between us and Konoha. Could it be the ones who plotted against Teacher were actually the Yashin Cult?"
"It's unlikely. I believe those responsible might be around the Land of River or Amegakure region. The Yashin Cult doesn't have agents there, so they simply want us to create carnage to please their Evil God."
Ebizō analyzed.
Sunagakure lay in the west, where the land was barren and intelligence relatively scarce.
Although numerous Anbu operated undercover outside the village, truthfully, much of what they knew about the Yashin Cult came from Akaba's manga.
Calling manga "factual" perfectly summed up their situation.
But Ebizō had thoroughly analyzed these details before concluding that Akaba wasn't fabricating stories—otherwise he wouldn't dare mention such things in front of Sankai.
After pondering briefly, Sankai said, "Opportunity knocks but once. We'll stage an attack on the Land of River and observe Konoha's reaction. If a third party appears, cooperating against whoever's behind this isn't out of the question."
Since becoming Kazekage, he finally understood Shamon's policies to some extent.
There are no absolute enemies in this world.
Sunagakure and Konoha might harbor grudges, but when facing a common enemy, hatred can dissolve, allowing united efforts against external threats.
"Good, I'll give orders right away. I'll have Jonin lead teams toward the Land of River."
Ebizō didn't hesitate.
That's precisely why the Land of River has stayed poor.
Whenever tensions arise between Sunagakure and Konoha, both sides always test each other by skirmishing in this neutral zone sandwiched between them.
Black Zetsu had already fled the Land of River, though Shamon's corpse indeed remained there. Shamon had been turned into a half-puppet, leaving him nearly powerless against Black Zetsu's possession attack.
His goal was simple—he wanted to make sure Madara was exposed.
Initially, Black Zetsu pinned all hopes on Madara, but upon realizing Madara couldn't be controlled, he changed his mind.
Rather than pinning hopes on Madara, better to let Madara die early and obtain his Rinnegan instead.
After all, Indra and Asura would continue reincarnating anyway.
Black Zetsu thought things through with a calculating mind, though unfortunately he didn't know Madara had found another partner—Kakuzu.
Compared with Madara, Kakuzu possessed significantly less power.
In reality, however, Kakuzu now possessed at least Kage-level strength. With five hearts, very few could kill him, making him a formidable partner indeed.
But for Kakuzu, being someone's subordinate wasn't desirable.
If he pledged allegiance to Madara, all his achievements and income would go to Madara too. Wouldn't everything he built in the Land of River then be wasted?
Currently, Kakuzu was even more anxious than Akaba.
"Leader, the new manga has arrived. Should I send it out like usual?"
"Yeah, handle it yourselves this time. Hold off on sending anything to the Land of Wind — it's too risky right now."
Kakuzu was growing impatient.
What good is money if you don't have your life?
Where's Akaba? If that guy doesn't check in soon, he might just take the money and disappear.
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