Chapter 159: Stealing Is Faster
Before Yasushi even entered the Land of Rice Fields, Orochimaru came out to find him personally.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
The moment they met, Orochimaru's face was sour, his expression accusatory.
"Hmm? Lord Orochimaru, what do you mean?" Yasushi spread his hands, looking innocent.
"You came straight toward Otogakure the whole way—clearly trying to expose my secret base's location to Konoha so they'd come cause trouble for me, right?"
"How could that be!" Yasushi immediately cried out in protest. "Konoha can barely protect itself right now. Where would they find the time or manpower to cause trouble for you, Lord Orochimaru?"
"Heh, under normal circumstances they wouldn't, of course. But with you constantly stirring up chaos for Konoha, nothing's certain anymore." Orochimaru smiled without warmth.
"Ah, you really are wronging me!" Yasushi refused to admit anything no matter what. Orochimaru had no recourse.
"Hmph!" Orochimaru snorted coldly, no longer dwelling on the matter. He raised his head and began carefully examining Shukaku. "What excellent experimental material!"
Orochimaru's long serpentine tongue slithered out again, licking back and forth around his lips, his eyes full of greedy desire.
He looked at Shukaku the way a snake eyes a frog. The scrutiny made Shukaku's fur stand on end. It immediately curled into a ball, baring its fangs and roaring at Orochimaru:
"What are you staring at?"
"Never seen a tailed beast before?"
"Keep staring and I'll eat you!"
"Hehe..." Orochimaru didn't care about the threat at all. Instead, his interest intensified.
"Hey, stop eyeing Shukaku. This is what I brought for you!"
Yasushi raised his hand. A spatial ripple occurred, and a massive energy tail dropped from midair, landing heavily on the ground. It still twitched and jumped randomly, scattering the surrounding flowers, grass, and trees.
"Hey, that's my tail!" Shukaku couldn't help crying out.
"Oh well, whatever. You're basically a gecko anyway—your tail grows back after breaking off. Don't be so petty!"
Yasushi waved dismissively, casually brushing off Shukaku's concern.
Simple-minded Shukaku's attention was immediately diverted. Its eyes widened as it roared angrily:
"I'm a tanuki, not a gecko!"
"Same thing, same thing. Cats and lizards are all family!" Yasushi waved carelessly.
"Not the same thing! Tanuki aren't cats, and geckos aren't tigers!" Shukaku thrust its large head right in front of Yasushi, emphasizing loudly.
"What?" Now Yasushi was genuinely surprised. "I know geckos aren't tigers, but tanuki aren't cats?"
"Of course not! Tanuki are canids—they're related to wolves and dogs!"
Shukaku had clearly been misunderstood many times, so it was very familiar with this knowledge. It immediately began educating this illiterate person about biological classification.
"Wait. I've known you all this time, and only today I learn you're actually a dog?"
"You're the dog!!!" Shukaku flew into a rage and lunged with its mouth open. "I'll bite you to death!"
Yasushi ran ahead while Shukaku chased behind. The earth rumbled and shook. Dust clouds rose into the sky as if a battle was occurring.
"Hehe, you two really have a good relationship!"
Orochimaru smiled as he pulled out a scroll, sealed away Shukaku's tail, then looked meaningfully at Yasushi.
"You never do anything without benefit."
"So tell me—what do you want from me this time?"
"Snake Sage Mode?"
"Though I believe you already paid for that."
Yasushi ran two more laps and spent considerable effort finally calming Shukaku down. Then he ran over to Orochimaru with a grin and asked directly:
"Let me ask you—what's most important for a shinobi?"
Without waiting for Orochimaru's answer, Yasushi continued:
"Without question, it's chakra quality and quantity—these two aspects."
"Chakra quality directly determines a jutsu's power and effectiveness. Chakra quantity determines a shinobi's endurance."
"As for ninjutsu, forbidden techniques, and such—those are things that can be improved through later effort and study. They're not that important."
"But improving chakra quality and quantity is far more difficult."
"Let's set aside the quantity issue and just talk about quality."
"Blood inheritance limits, various forbidden techniques—essentially, they all work through merging chakra nature transformations, causing chakra to undergo qualitative change and evolve into a higher grade of energy, thereby producing stronger effects."
"You've seen Shukaku's chakra quality—it far surpasses humans!"
"Even your and my chakra quality doesn't match a tailed beast's."
"This is an innate quality difference that can't be easily compensated for later."
"But look—back then, Kinkaku and Ginkaku merely ate a few bites of Nine-Tails' flesh and gained Nine-Tails chakra in their bodies."
"What does that mean?"
"It clearly means their internal chakra quality jumped up significantly!"
"Don't you want that kind of effect?"
"However, the problem now is that when Kinkaku and Ginkaku ate Nine-Tails' flesh back then, they only survived by chance."
"What I want you to solve is making that chance occurrence into certainty."
"So? Can you do it?"
"Turn myself into a little tailed beast?" After Orochimaru licked his lips again, his eyes clearly showed some temptation.
But he quickly frowned.
"I'm currently busy cloning Byakugan to prepare for synthesizing the Tenseigan. I don't have time to research this."
"Besides, isn't your evolution path toward the Rinnegan? Why are you pursuing these things?"
Yasushi ignored Orochimaru's counter-question, merely smiling:
"Speaking of the Tenseigan, I happen to have some intelligence to share with Lord Orochimaru as a bonus."
"Due to excessive war pressure, the Hyuga main family in Konoha has already begun synthesizing the Tenseigan."
Yasushi shared the intelligence obtained from Neji with Orochimaru, then smiled meaningfully:
"They have numerous branch family members contributing. Their synthesis efficiency must far exceed yours, Lord Orochimaru."
"Rather than slowly synthesizing it yourself, Lord Orochimaru, you might as well just steal it. That Hyuga girl probably isn't your match anyway."
"Hmph!" Orochimaru laughed coldly, his gaze unfriendly as he looked at Yasushi. "That's your real purpose for sharing intelligence with me, isn't it?"
"I said before—you'd never pass up an opportunity to cause trouble for Konoha."
Yasushi didn't answer Orochimaru's question, merely smiling faintly.
"Hehe, so will Lord Orochimaru go visit Konoha or not?"
"Go! Of course I'll go!" Orochimaru answered without a moment's hesitation, his tone resolute.