Chapter 78: This Might Have Been Useful in the Middle Ages, but in the Ninja World it is Useless: The Call of the Dead
"This idea actually worked." Kenichi stared at the undead surrounding him, scratching his head. He genuinely had not expected the technique to succeed.
It just looked… wrong.
Normally, Impure World Reincarnation rebuilt a body into something close to its original form, with those familiar cracks and dusty seams across the skin. What stood in front of him now was mostly bare bone. Some had been buried recently and still wore strips of rotting flesh, but they were no different from the skeletons. They simply stood there, motionless until ordered.
Even stranger, each corpse was wrapped in clumps of soil and broken stone, as if the graves themselves had climbed out with them. Kenichi could not decide whether that was a feature or the technique mocking him.
"Is this a new jutsu you created?" Sasori asked, leaning in with curiosity. He even reached out and tapped a ribcage. The thing did not react. It looked like an ordinary skeleton, yet it was standing and breathing in an unnatural rhythm.
"I would call it… an inspiration that happened to cooperate," Kenichi said, rubbing his chin. He had only wanted to test a hypothesis, but he had stumbled into an unexpected result.
Still, a result did not automatically mean usefulness.
An undead swarm would have been a nightmare in some medieval village. For normal people, the fear alone would break a crowd. But this was the ninja world. Outrageous ninjutsu existed everywhere, and terror was a weak currency when people carried fireballs in their sleeves.
Kenichi raised his hand and formed a powerful fireball jutsu, using it as a blunt test.
The flames blasted forward.
A large number of skeletons were thrown back instantly. Bone and ash scattered across the ground. There was no regeneration, no rebuilding, no reforming into anything recognizable.
Kenichi's expression fell. The jutsu looked frightening, but it was not very practical. Even if someone was surrounded, a genin could probably break out with a little effort.
"It seems these things are not very strong," Sasori said, his interest fading. The initial shock of corpses crawling out of graves had been real, but once he confirmed they had no special abilities, the spectacle lost its shine.
"Yeah." Kenichi sighed. "That mud and those stone slabs are only good for blocking a kunai or two."
He had assumed the crude armor might offer protection. It did not. At most, it made them look more intimidating.
This kind of thing might bully civilians.
No, it might not even bully civilians for long. Explosive tags were expensive, but not impossible to buy if someone was desperate. Even without explosive tags, people could smash bones with whatever they had, pots, pans, farm tools. Unless the skeletons were paired with another jutsu, they were more noise than threat.
Kenichi's mind immediately wandered into darker territory.
What if he spread a plague and used these skeletons as carriers? If the infected died and he raised them again, the casualties could multiply quickly.
It would also guarantee that the five great villages would unite and place a kill on sight order on his head.
After all, the shinobi system was built on civilians. If civilians died in massive numbers, shinobi would have to go back to farming and hauling water like everyone else.
Sasori watched the skeletons with a craftsman's eye. "Do they have any thinking left? Any awareness from when they were alive?"
"If they did, that would be impressive," Kenichi said. He tried it anyway, ordering one of the undead to write something.
It failed immediately.
The undead had no awareness. They were like puppets without a puppeteer. They could execute simple instructions like walking, slashing, turning, kneeling. Anything that required independent thought was impossible. If Kenichi stopped issuing commands, they could kneel forever.
"So that will not work," Kenichi muttered, shaking his head. The lack of soul consciousness puzzled him.
Logically, Impure World Reincarnation should involve a soul. He had followed the framework, at least the parts he had thought were essential, yet the result was an empty shell.
Was a living sacrifice still required?
But living sacrifices needed preparation. Unprocessed bodies could not be used properly. And without a clear target, who was he even supposed to bring back? Would the technique grab random souls and force them into whatever bodies were nearby?
Kenichi's eyes narrowed.
A new idea clicked into place, sharp and dangerous.
"Huh… that does not sound entirely stupid," he said under his breath, then slapped his palm lightly as if confirming it. "If it actually worked, it would be a terrifying instant kill jutsu."
If Impure World Reincarnation summoned the dead and then released them back to the Pure Land, then using that mechanism on the living might cause the Pure Land itself to register them as dead.
Instant death, followed by an attempt to yank them back.
Death, revival, death again, all in a blink.
It was ridiculous.
It was also the kind of ridiculous that made him want to test it immediately.
Of course, Kenichi also understood the obvious problem. If it were that easy, Tobirama would have created it long ago.
Still, he planned to study it when he had time.
For example, right now.
A short while later, deep in a dim forest, Kenichi stood in Sage Mode before a bound man and smiled.
"Do not be afraid," he said calmly. "It will not hurt at all."
He moved without hesitation, pouring Sage Chakra directly into the man's body and attempting to apply the core of Impure World Reincarnation without the usual setup.
He skipped the necessary steps.
Sasori watched from the side, fascinated. He had never seen Kenichi attempt this kind of jutsu before. The hand seals were unfamiliar, the logic strange.
A massive surge of chakra flooded the prisoner.
The man convulsed violently, then went limp.
There was no sign of revival.
"It failed," Kenichi said with a sigh. Even Sage Chakra did not force it through. If anything, the target died faster, with no hint of returning.
It seemed those steps were not optional. They were the foundation.
Sasori was silent for a moment, then asked a question that made Kenichi pause.
"Kenichi, do you think I could extract the souls of shinobi and use them as the artificial intelligence you mentioned?"
Kenichi blinked, caught off guard.
"It is not impossible," he said slowly, then shrugged. "But that is not really artificial anymore. The bigger problem is this. How do you guarantee a soul will follow your orders perfectly?"
Even with programmed machines, people feared hidden flaws.
A human soul was far more complex.
And far more likely to bite back.
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