Chapter 139: The Tailless Zero Tails and What Is the Teacher Doing?
"So her village got attacked, her daughter died, and she ran to her savior and became his woman?" Kenichi shook his head as he looked at Mio, lying motionless on the ground.
She had already said everything she could. From her confession, Kenichi finally understood who she was.
A woman who survived by sheer luck, then chose revenge.
Her village had been attacked and wiped out by shinobi. She was saved on the brink of death by a so called divine doctor named Shinno. Later, she gained another identity, a shinobi of the Sky Village. Shinno praised her potential, brought her here, and accepted her as his disciple.
He also told her that her daughter had died at the hands of Konoha shinobi.
That single lie ignited her.
Her daughter had the same name as her, but she liked calling her Himari. Such a lovable child, gone just like that. The thought made her rage even hotter.
Following Shinno, she learned many things, and she was assigned to guard this base. At the same time, she was responsible for nurturing a strange creature.
Zero Tails.
A tailed beast without a tail.
Zero Tails could turn someone into its jinchuriki and grant them the ability to use dark chakra, which was exactly what Mio had used earlier. The price, however, was brutal. Her lifespan would drop sharply. It was a desperate, self destructive power.
No wonder she had been able to hold Sasori back for a while.
Even so, she was still an unqualified jinchuriki. The fact that she could even use Zero Tails' abilities at all was already impressive.
"She was even thinking about merging with this Zero Tails thing and forcing out even more power," Kenichi said with a shrug. He casually picked up the egg like embryo from the ground.
The moment it touched his hand, he felt it tugging at his chakra.
It tried to absorb it.
But maybe it was too weak, still too young. It could not take anything meaningful. Instead, it sent out a restless, anxious emotion, like a kitten that could barely speak but could still sense the mood of the person holding it.
"Zero Tails?" Sasori stepped closer. He knew what tailed beasts were. Sunagakure had the One Tail, and it was violent enough to make grown men regret being born.
"Yeah. I've never actually heard of something like this before." Kenichi weighed the embryo in his palm, then shrugged again.
The name sounded impressive, Zero Tails. But Kenichi knew the origin of tailed beasts.
The Sage of Six Paths created the tailed beasts, and in doing so, the Ten Tails became the Gedo Mazo, waiting for a chance to be revived. The strength gap between tailed beasts could be massive with even one extra tail.
And Kenichi had never once heard of a Zero Tails.
Akatsuki in the future never talked about capturing Zero Tails either. That alone was enough to confirm it. This thing carried the name of a tailed beast, but it was not a real tailed beast.
"It looks pretty weak," Sasori said, staring at the embryo with obvious disgust.
Kenichi almost laughed.
Sasori's tone was not sincere at all. Mio's earlier outburst had sent Sasori's puppets flying more times than Kenichi could count.
"It's still in its early stage," Kenichi said, scratching his head. "If it keeps growing, it might become stronger."
Still, the idea of dark chakra caught his interest. He had never heard of it before. And that strange ability Mio used, the one that looked like Shinra Tensei, had been fueled by dark chakra.
Which made this whole base even more suspicious.
Now Kenichi was sure of one thing.
This was not a ruin.
This was almost certainly the old site of the Land of the Sky, and the massive structure beneath their feet was likely their aerial base.
"Sasori, I'm keeping this Zero Tails for now. I want to study it. Also, should we consider moving our experimental base here?" Kenichi's thoughts shifted as he looked around.
If this place could really fly, then it would be perfect.
High enough, and it would be the safest research platform imaginable. Big enough to withstand natural disasters. Earthquakes would not matter if you were not touching the earth.
Sasori frowned, then tapped the wall beside him. Cold, solid stone.
"This can fly?" he asked, clearly unconvinced. "It doesn't look like anything that could leave the ground. Even a hot air balloon couldn't lift something like this."
"I don't know," Kenichi admitted. "So we explore first. Find whoever's in charge and ask."
Zero Tails was here, guarded, and being raised. Shinno clearly valued it. That meant this base mattered.
Sasori nodded. "Then we split up. We'll meet back here later."
Kenichi agreed. Splitting up was always the moment people died in horror movies, but this place did not feel like it had anything stronger lurking in the shadows. The strongest threat had probably been Zero Tails, and Kenichi already had it.
What happened next proved him right.
There were no real threats inside the base.
Kenichi dealt with every shinobi he encountered with ease, and as he moved, he learned more from them.
The base's name was unclear, but it was still under construction. Materials were being transported through a cave connected to the outside, then assembled here. Their goal was simple.
Build a weapon.
Revenge against Konoha.
"What a ridiculous world." Kenichi stared at the device in his hand.
It was a flight tool used by the Sky Village shinobi. After injecting chakra, it allowed the user to fly.
A personal, single soldier flight device.
If the huge structure under his feet was the flying fortress his friend had once mentioned, then Kenichi could only say one thing.
This level of technology was hard to comprehend.
His teacher would probably love it.
"I wonder what the teacher is doing right now," Kenichi muttered, glancing at the Sky Village shinobi kneeling in front of him. The man was drenched in sweat, shaking like a leaf.
Kenichi had not seen his teacher in quite a while.
He genuinely wondered what he was up to.
Meanwhile.
On a lively street in the Land of Rice Fields, a white haired man squatted by the roadside, rubbing his chin as he stared at the women passing by with a shameless grin.
The woman he was staring at did not get angry. She winked at him instead.
Across the street, a shop with a bold sign read: Teacher's Guide to Private Courses.
A voluptuous woman stepped out and blew Jiraiya a sweet kiss.
Jiraiya curled his lip.
He had seen countless beauties. A flying kiss alone was not enough to shake him.
Seeing that it did not work, the woman twisted her waist, then slowly began to pull down her skirt.
Jiraiya swallowed hard.
For a moment, he thought he had seen a tattoo so outrageous it deserved its own mission report.
He was suddenly very interested. He even wanted to walk over and seriously discuss whether tattoos could increase attack speed.
Then his instincts screamed.
Something was wrong.
Jiraiya sprang onto the roof beside him in one leap. Looking down, he saw a white snake staring up at him from the street.
"Jiraiya," a familiar voice called out. "It's been a long time."
Jiraiya broke out in cold sweat on the spot.
"Orochimaru," he said stiffly, turning around. "Long time no see."
Orochimaru stood there with his arms crossed, smiling.
"Yeah. And I just found out something else." Orochimaru's smile widened as he lifted a stack of books in his hand. "You've released three new ones, no less."
Jiraiya did not even need to see the titles.
The covers alone told him they were his.
He took a slow breath.
He had stopped chasing Orochimaru for some time now, partly because he felt guilty. He knew exactly what kind of nonsense he wrote.
And he knew Orochimaru's personality. If Orochimaru truly read those books, he would absolutely lose it.
That was why Jiraiya had wisely gone on a field trip to small countries.
He never expected that even in a place like the Land of Rice Fields, he would still run into Orochimaru.
"I know you're in a hurry," Jiraiya said quickly, raising a hand like the famous pose, "but don't rush. Let me explain!"
"Oh?" Orochimaru kept his arms crossed, neither agreeing nor refusing.
This man was getting more and more arrogant. He actually used Orochimaru as a female supporting character, some black haired ice cold beauty. Did Jiraiya really think Orochimaru was that kind of person?
Jiraiya rattled off a few lines of explanation, but Orochimaru's smile only deepened.
Did you really think I wouldn't notice?
Jiraiya, it's been too long. Have you fallen this far? How are you still one of the Legendary Sannin?
Later, at the exit of the hot spring town, Orochimaru stared at Jiraiya with what looked like a friendly smile.
Then Jiraiya suddenly stomped his foot and sprinted.
Orochimaru snapped his sword forward.
Shockingly, it hit its target.
But the next instant, Orochimaru realized what happened.
He had been tricked.
Jiraiya left a body behind and escaped with Shadow Clones, using them to distract him while the real one fled.
"Manda!" Orochimaru snarled, summoning his partner in fury.
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