A month had passed since Jugo became a Wraith, now all the werewolves.
The three dogs, Kimimaro, Orochimaru, Kabuto and the Sound Four are their current Werewolves, no Zombies have yet been accepted.
Orochimaru had already reincarnated in Hirota Ken's body, regaining the use of his hands, but it wouldn't last long and his control wasn't very good, so it was a average result.
The Sound Four already bore the mark of Jugo's curse, so adding the werewolf curse was simple. Jugo was particularly interested in Ukon and Sakon, he asked them to use their ability on him.
Jugo then learned from them how to manipulate his body to merge with someone at a cellular level. As a result, after learning Orochimaru's curse mark, he could now create his own marks and fuse them perfectly to the target's body, without causing degradation like Orochimaru's and with a particularly high success rate.
If Orochimaru's cursed mark kills 9 out of 10 people, his kills 1 out of 10 people, plus his cursed mark starts directly at level 2.
After learning this, he offered the new mark to Kin and Dosu, they accepted, both survived and can now use the power of the curse, the chakra problem was greatly reduced, Dosu could go toe-to-toe with a Jonin and Kin could already be considered a special Jonin.
Guren and Suigetsu only received the cursed mark, Jugo didn't want to give the Werewolf curse as a reward, except for more undisciplined characters, as he wanted to avoid turning them into mobs.
Besides, the more werewolf curses he casts, the fewer zombies he can create.
Speaking of zombies...
Orochimaru didn't have the bodies of Hashirama and Tobirama, but he did have the bodies of Rasa, Mu and Gengetsu.
Needless to say, Jugo was very happy to turn the three of them into zombies.
Although they couldn't speak, they could still use their jutsus, even though their fighting abilities were somewhat impaired due to their low intelligence. Jugo could still control them remotely and they gained zombie-like physiques, with increased resistance and regeneration, greatly enhancing their power.
Unfortunately, doing so binds their souls to their bodies and it's not possible to use the Impure World Reincarnation. However, because they are connected to Jugo, he can share his chakra with them, so as long as Jugo doesn't run out of chakra, they won't run out of chakra either.
There are advantages and disadvantages.
Werewolves also had accelerated chakra regeneration, although Jugo hadn't discovered how, his previous experiment showed that uncontrollable wild werewolves didn't have the same benefit, but those connected to him did.
They were different from zombies, zombies seemed less connected and these were more like puppets rather than real bonds.
The werewolves, on the other hand, had a strong bond with him, more like a true curse, that's why Jugo sensed that this limitless chakra came from the Tenebrous World.
Another point that illustrated the werewolf connection was when he considered using the curse on Sasuke, at that moment, he felt things would get out of control and the pair of Rinnegan he saw immediately afterward illustrated this.
Leaving aside the werewolf problems, his acting progress has been slow, after a month he had barely acted for one tenth of the potion. Jugo believes that perhaps the reason is that he hasn't really found the perfect way to act as the Wraith, he just acts like a ghost, that helps, but not much.
Karin is also working hard, learning from Orochimaru as her teacher. She was already able to use the adamant sealing chains, in fact, Jugo managed to learn this jutsu and must say that the power of his sealing is extreme.
He believes that even Kyubi would be completely immobilized by that.
Jugo created numerous clones to train in all sorts of things during this month, so his strength has truly grown a lot and he believes that even the best Kages can't defeat him now, even a Super Kage will have a very difficult time dealing with him.
Yesterday Orochimaru had received a message, Sasuke seemed increasingly frustrated in Konoha, it was time to act.
Why continue acting against Sasuke? Nothing, he truly had no more interest in the boy, a pair of Rinnegans didn't appeal to him in the slightest knowing what awaited his future, but he had no idea what would happen if he let that go.
Would Sasuke be abducted by Danzo when he unlocked the three tomoe? Would Sasuke leave the village feeling he couldn't get what he wanted there? Or would he be convinced by Naruto's miraculous mouth and everything would turn out alright?
This variable was too great and he didn't yet have Madara's body in his hands, one wrong move and the Fourth Shinobi World War could begin the next day.
Jugo wasn't ready, before becoming a Puppet, he wouldn't have moved the plot so drastically.
This time he sent the Sound Four and Kimimaro directly, but he kept Kimimaro in the shadows and gave specific orders to the four Sound ninjas to go easy on him.
It's no joke, with the Werewolf's enhanced form, even ordinary Jonin can't handle it individually, let alone a group of Genin.
Jugo asked them to feign defeat and leave when things got serious, the most important part was delaying the rest of the group and letting Naruto and Sasuke face off in the Valley of the End.
That moment was the key to the whole event.
The group soon left the village and had to infiltrate the Land of Fire. After the Chunin Exams, relations between the two villages were... tense.
Konoha demanded compensation, but Orochimaru knew enough about Konoha to know they wouldn't declare war, so he tricked the Daimyo into ignoring everything and saying it was all Konoha's nonsense.
Basically, it turned into a game of "You're guilty", "Where's the proof?", "Look at your dead ninjas, are you going to say they're not from the Sound Village?", "These? I've never even seen them before, they were just some Sand ninjas pretending to be Sound ninjas."
In the end, Konoha could only pretend not to see, but relations between the two countries remained strained for a while.
Orochimaru's plan was to wait for the dust to settle, negotiate with the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, pay some compensation and make an empty statement.
Okay, now everything would go back to normal, only Konoha would remain unhappy.