Chapter 127: Unsolved Mysteries of the Ninja World: Can the Byakugan Really See Through Obito's Mask?
"Kenichi, what do you think is the best way to arm those drones you mentioned?" Sasori asked as they traveled, his tone carrying genuine trouble.
Following the logic of ninjutsu, using drones to release techniques sounded reasonable, but it came with a hard limit. It still relied on chakra control. Sasori could only handle around a hundred puppets at most. If the number got too high, it would collapse.
"In theory, the best option is something that does not require ninjutsu at all," Kenichi said, frowning as he thought it through.
The problem was obvious. The ninja world did not have machine guns. If they wanted drones to function like a true swarm weapon, then what exactly were they supposed to carry?
"I'll think about it when I get back." Kenichi shook his head. He could not pull a perfect solution out of thin air on the road. Developing a new weapon was never simple.
Still, an idea lingered in his mind.
White phosphorus bombs might work.
White phosphorus was vicious. Once it stuck to skin, it was difficult to remove, and it burned at terrifying temperatures. It was also not especially complex in concept, which made it tempting. The only question was how well it would perform in the shinobi world.
Then another thought followed, fast enough to make his eyes narrow.
"If that's the case… could I develop a white phosphorus Fire Release?" Kenichi muttered. "Mix it into a fire technique, and it becomes a cheap version of Amaterasu's effect."
The idea felt uncomfortably feasible.
Jiraiya's Sage Art Goemon used oil to feed combustion. White phosphorus burned far more fiercely than oil. If it could be integrated, the lethality would jump sharply. Whether the enemy liked it was not Kenichi's concern.
The real issue was storage.
White phosphorus ignited easily. Exposure to air could make it combust on its own. So how was he supposed to combine it with chakra and launch it safely? That was the problem he could not ignore.
The Land of Rain bordered the Land of Earth. This small nation had been allowed to exist as a buffer between the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire, a neutral zone meant to keep the two great powers from sharing a direct border.
That way, even if conflict erupted, the flames of war would not easily spread into the heartlands.
This time, however, the war between Iwagakure and Konoha was not being fought in the Land of Rain.
It was happening in the Land of Grass, right next to it.
A small, unfortunate country.
When Kenichi and Sasori reached the border of the Land of Earth, they slipped inside together.
Even though they were there by the Tsuchikage's request, entering openly would only invite trouble. Too many eyes, too many questions, too many opportunities for things to go wrong.
Kenichi's plan was simple. Get close to Iwagakure first, then inform the Tsuchikage.
He had no intention of meeting the Tsuchikage inside the village itself. A meeting outside was safer, cleaner, and far less annoying.
"Sasori, how high can Unit 01 fly now?" Kenichi asked. The road was dull, so he might as well talk.
"It can reach about twenty meters," Sasori answered honestly. "But only for thirty minutes at a time. After that, it needs to refuel."
Kenichi shook his head.
Twenty meters. Thirty minutes.
That was not an air force. That was a target that had to pray nobody felt like poking a stick out of the grass.
"The altitude is still too low," Kenichi said. "After we finish with the Tsuchikage, I want to visit the old site of the Land of Sky. Do you want to come?"
His purpose for leaving this time was to handle two matters at once.
First was the negotiation. If the price was right, Kenichi did not mind throwing a thermobaric bomb at Konoha.
Second was the Land of the Sky.
"Land of the Sky?" Sasori hesitated.
To be honest, he was skeptical of rumors like that. But his research had been stuck for a while, and an unknown variable was sometimes exactly what a craftsman needed.
In the end, Sasori nodded.
"The Land of the Sky should be real," Kenichi said. "If we find survivors, we will make them talk. If they have flight technology, we take it."
Kenichi had stumbled onto the thought during experiments. Then he remembered something a friend once mocked, saying it was ridiculous that Konoha could win against an airborne mothership.
It had been sarcasm, but the friend was a loyal Naruto fan. That meant the detail likely came from somewhere real.
So the odds that the Land of the Sky had some kind of secret weapon felt high.
"Yes," Sasori said calmly. "I learned some interrogation techniques back in the village."
Kenichi gave him a strange look.
Interrogation techniques?
For a split second, Kenichi's mind flashed to the kind of "torturer" characters from certain anime, and his eyelid twitched. Thankfully, Sasori looked normal. At least for now, Sasori was still very much a human being.
The Land of Earth was vast, but finding Iwagakure was not as difficult as it sounded.
The village sat among towering mountains, surrounded by stone ridges that formed a natural fortress.
That environment made it hard for outsiders to break in, but it also meant it was not easy for their ninjas to travel freely either.
"There are people up ahead," Sasori said, his gaze fixing on a point near the mountain's base.
Kenichi's interest rose immediately.
He had been traveling for two or three days since entering the Land of Earth, bored out of his mind, and still had not located Iwagakure.
Following Sasori's line of sight, Kenichi spotted a figure.
A small blond kid.
He was doing something at the foot of the mountain, apparently playing with mud.
"Let's go," Kenichi said.
He changed into Akatsuki clothing and pulled on a mask.
Masks were a magical thing in the shinobi world.
There were plenty of terrifying eyes, but even those eyes did not always see the truth under a mask. Later, when Obito wore one, even Kakashi failed to confirm his identity until the mask was shattered.
Kakashi had doubts, especially with how similar the eyes felt, but he was never certain.
That used to make Kenichi curious when he first watched it.
Was Obito's mask truly something the eyes could not see through, or did nobody ever think to use a literal X ray style gaze and check?
And then there was the Byakugan.
Kenichi remembered it had an X ray like vision. Hyuga clan members were even said to use it to peek during card games.
Yet the original story never clarified it.
So it remained one of those unsolved mysteries.
Of course, now that Kenichi was wearing a mask himself, he sincerely hoped the Byakugan could not see through it. It would make causing trouble later much easier.
As Kenichi and Sasori stepped forward, four ninjas appeared and surrounded them.
Kenichi's mind flicked to another memory.
There was that scene where a corrupted version of Neji used the Byakugan to see details through clothing, even down to an underwear brand. The anime also mentioned the Byakugan being able to read brand names.
If it could do that, then seeing through cloth should not be impossible.
Which meant the real question was simple.
Could it see through Obito's mask, or not?
<><><><><>
[Check Out My Patreon For +40 Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]