"Can you obtain Jugo's chakra?"
Rengoku glanced at Jugo and his bond, he did have a two-star bond.
"No problem, only 10%. But my body is about to overflow now."
Orochimaru pondered, "You don't need to worry about that. Your body is growing rapidly and the cap is gradually widening. Let's do an experiment now."
"There happens to be some cellular tissue taken from Jugo here."
"I'll temporarily transplant it onto your body. You'll obtain Jugo's chakra, store half of it inside this tissue and keep half in your body."
Orochimaru was a person of great execution; he immediately began the experiment.
"No problem."
After Rengoku agreed, Orochimaru quickly led him to a nearby room and hooked him up to various testing instruments.
Orochimaru put his hand on Rengoku's and a large amount of senjutsu chakra surged into Rengoku's body.
Rengoku only felt a chill in his hand, then a flash like a blade, a palm-sized patch of flesh was removed from his arm.
In the next moment, Orochimaru stuck Jugo's cellular tissue onto it like a rice ball.
He gave a signal.
Rengoku opened the Bond Star and found Jugo's bond.
["Ding, Jugo level-2 bond unlocked."]
["Congratulations, host obtained: 10% chakra"]
Rengoku felt a pulse of chakra appear in his body.
He controlled that chunk of chakra, putting half into the spherical patch on his arm; the other half he left alone for the moment.
Orochimaru stared intently at the monitoring instruments, one hand still on Rengoku's body.
As the chakra flowed, the chakra inside Rengoku's body was quickly converted into his own.
But the cellular tissue on Rengoku's arm showed no reaction.
Orochimaru's surgical blade flashed and the tissue on Rengoku's arm was removed.
After testing it, he reconnected it to Rengoku's arm.
After several repetitions, Orochimaru looked at various data on the screen; a strange expression spread across his face.
Seeing his increasingly excited eyes made Rengoku uneasy.
"Orochimaru, is there a way?"
Orochimaru closed his eyes, seeming to calculate rapidly in his mind, recalling the previous blood comparison between Karin and Rengoku, "There is a way, but it requires several steps."
———
[Uchiha Conference Room]
After Rengoku finished discussing things with Orochimaru, he called everyone into the conference room.
"How exactly did Black Zetsu wound you? Kurama said the thing that wounded you was a higher-order energy."
"If Black Zetsu is that threatening, should we start looking for Black Zetsu's trail?"
Minato's questions were everyone's questions.
Everyone cared about how Rengoku had been injured, that was the most important matter.
Rengoku wasn't too worried, "Don't worry, Zetsu only had one strike's worth of power."
"One strike's worth of power?", Minato asked, puzzled.
Rengoku nodded. Of course, that was Zetsu's heart-extracting power.
He meant, even Madara with the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki and having absorbed the God Tree could be gutted by Black Zetsu in one blow.
So apparently Zetsu carried power left by Kaguya.
After Rengoku was injured, he immediately hid in the Infinite Tsukuyomi space and saw Minato's fight with Zetsu.
After Zetsu gouged a hole in him, Zetsu's power had already declined.
"This is power Otsutsuki Kaguya left with Zetsu, it should only be enough for that one strike."
If Black Zetsu had managed a second strike, Minato wouldn't have held up.
"Madara's Rinnegan is gone, and Zetsu obtained Obito's Kamui."
"With Kamui, his traceability is basically nil. Rather than wasting time searching, it's better to proceed steadily."
"Let's first push forward our plans."
"Is the village still stable?"
Rengoku asked Fugaku and Shikaku, both of them now elders of Konoha. They were well informed about many village matters.
After the Uchiha secured the Fifth Hokage position, elder Shikaku had seemed rejuvenated and full of vigor.
He answered promptly, "Right now the village is dealing with trivial matters; the villagers don't know about the three great villages' movements. It's still relatively stable."
Fugaku added, "However, we pulled back many border guards; they should be returning to the village soon."
"They've withdrawn, and other ninja villages haven't set foot in our Land of Fire, probably frightened off by Pain."
"How's the situation outside?"
Everything in the shinobi world changes fast; as Hokage he needed to know the external situation immediately.
"Someone spread news on the black market that the Akatsuki leader is dead, but the three great villages are still afraid to move on the borders."
"However, the Demon Legion has already stepped onto the Land of Earth's border."
"The banner they raised is to attack our Konoha. Those villages want to use the phantoms as their vanguard."
"The Land of Earth granted them passage."
Minato quickly explained the shinobi world's situation.
"The news that Pain is dead could only have been spread by Zetsu, the three villages wouldn't believe it easily, but we do have ways to make them believe."
Minato asked curiously, "Why must we let them know Pain is dead?"
Rengoku spread his hands, "If Pain is so powerful, what if they don't dare attack our Land of Fire?"
"Now they have so few strong forces, even if we wiped them out, they wouldn't hurt us much."
"Minato, do you know how important your role on the battlefield is now?"
"If you reveal yourself, no ninja village would dare to come."
Minato fell into thought. It seemed Rengoku planned to eliminate, in one go, the living forces of several other countries.
"If the other villages don't invade, it will be harder to find an excuse to invade them later," Rengoku was now executing a hatred plan and a provocation plan.
"As for the Demon Legion, let them march. We'll act from elsewhere."
———
[Iwagakure]
[Tsuchikage Office]
Onoki was looking at the situation on a sand table.
Intelligence on what was actually happening in Konoha was still uncertain.
But the Akatsuki leader was too powerful; Iwagakure wouldn't act rashly.
At this time an ANBU entered, "Tsuchikage-sama, Deidara is suspected to have joined the Akatsuki."
Onoki raised his head in surprise, "He joined Akatsuki?"
"Yes. Deidara shook off our people."
"The Akatsuki announced on the black market that the ones who killed Sarutobi Hiruzen were them."
"We found his trace on the black market."
"He later went with Kakuzu, and is now heading to Amegakure."
If this had happened with other Iwagakure nin, it would have been a clear betrayal.
But Onoki's tolerance for Deidara was high.
After living together for a time, Onoki had come to understand Deidara's character somewhat.
Recently, with revelations of Akatsuki's strong combat strength, everyone wanted inside information on the organization.
Deidara's suspected joining was good news.
"Contact Deidara and have him gather intelligence on the Akatsuki leader."
"Yes!"
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.