Chapter 189: The Land of Demons' Bizarre Secret Technique
"?"
"Is that thing really hot?"
Seeing Kurotsuchi's strange expression, as if she were holding a burning potato, Shiromo couldn't help feeling confused.
"No, I was just wondering… how do you use this thing again?"
Kurotsuchi shook her head, forcefully clearing those weird thoughts from her mind.
"Resonate with the stone, grasp and use the natural energy inside it to enhance yourself."
"Oh, so that's how it works."
Kurotsuchi let out a sigh of relief.
She figured it, if it were some kind of pearl-pulling thing, how could there be only one? One could only be used as a (mouth) something ball anyway.
Wait, what the hell was she thinking?!
Why did her mind become filthy the moment she saw Shiromo?
"Why is even the Tsuchikage here?"
Tsunade asked in confusion.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking that? Why is the new Hokage here too?"
"I'm the Tsuchikage, aside from being closer to the Land of Demons, back when my grandfather was in office he often helped the Land of Demons clear out bandits and thieves."
"Isn't it perfectly reasonable for me to act as a middleman?"
Kurotsuchi immediately sounded displeased after hearing Tsunade's words.
Back then, before Iwagakure had lost ten thousand ninja to the Third Raikage's rampage, they were ridiculously powerful.
Helping a small country like the Land of Demons, one that didn't even have ninja, just a few ordinary guards, with some minor problems in exchange for money was effortless.
Unfortunately, later that wasn't possible anymore.
If not for Shiromo's appearance and the reforms in the Land of Earth and Iwagakure, whenever the Land of Demons had missions it would've been just like in the original story, crossing mountains and wastelands to reach the Land of Fire and hire Konoha.
Iwagakure next door couldn't afford manpower, and Sunagakure in the Land of Wind was broke too.
But now, just as Kurotsuchi said, the Land of Demons and the Land of Earth still had a decent relationship.
"..."
Tsunade had no real argument and could only pout before returning to her intel.
With Kurotsuchi joining them, they continued toward the "royal city" of the Land of Demons.
"So Mōryō has appeared recently? I thought it was some ancient demon god or something."
After finishing the last part of the intel, Tsunade handed it to the curious Kurotsuchi beside her.
"Yeah, I didn't expect that either."
Shiromo had also glanced through it while Tsunade was reading.
After all, some parts of the movie's plot were already a bit fuzzy in his memory.
The early movies were all basically the same.
A tsundere female lead, a villain related by blood or friendship, then the girl finds herself and becomes gentle, and finally they form a glowing Rasengan-colored ball and end it.
The intel included details about a key figure, [Yomi].
The name Yomi sounded intimidating, like someone powerful, but in reality he might as well have been called [Yellow (Yomi) Chapter], at least that one would probably get censored.
Yomi possessed dark medical ninjutsu and was one of the survivors from Mōryō's last failed war.
His goal was to unseal Mōryō, merge its body and soul into one, and control the stone army to destroy the Five Great Nations.
At first, Shiromo had overlooked the former shrine maiden's age, as well as Yomi's age and background.
But in short, Mōryō's last uprising was much more recent than Shiromo had imagined.
No need to reason things like "since it uses chakra, it must be after Kaguya."
At most, it was only about thirty years ago.
And it hadn't triggered any ninja world war at all.
That made Shiromo uneasy.
He wasn't afraid of enemies being too strong.
He was afraid of them being too weak.
If Mōryō was too weak and didn't have much chakra to squeeze out, that would be bad.
"What is it? Is the enemy too strong?"
Seeing Shiromo's expression, Kurotsuchi grew nervous.
She hadn't finished the intel yet and didn't know the enemy's level.
"No, it's that the enemy might be too weak. And since we're the good guys, it wouldn't be right to drain the shrine maiden dry too."
Shiromo suddenly thought about how Shion seemed to have a massive amount of power stored within her.
Kurotsuchi: ?
Kurotsuchi was completely confused.
What did he mean by "not right to drain the shrine maiden dry"?
Was she bringing them in as guides, or as accomplices?
She instantly stopped walking.
"What's with that look? I already said we're the good guys."
Shiromo said helplessly.
"You really won't drain the shrine maiden?"
Kurotsuchi looked doubtful.
"I won't drain her… wait, that sounds weird. You're making it sound like I'm about to do something perverted. Even if someone were draining, it wouldn't be me."
Shiromo glanced at Uchiha Hikari beside him.
It was Hikari's Yachihoko that absorbed chakra.
"Besides, if I really wanted to drain someone, wouldn't I start with you? Drain all you Kage first, then drain the whole ninja world, might as well stick to the original plan and activate Infinite Tsukuyomi."
Shiromo rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Sorry about that."
Kurotsuchi scratched the back of her head and laughed awkwardly.
Tsunade watched the exchange and couldn't help feeling emotional.
Kurotsuchi's kind of assumption didn't come out of nowhere, it was shaped by the ninja world itself.
There were simply too many people who had fallen because of power.
She herself had once misjudged Shiromo because of that mindset.
And speaking of [misjudging], it reminded her of, [Maybe someone misjudged Shiromo today, and maybe someone will misjudge him again tomorrow, but Shiromo is Shiromo. He never fears being misjudged.]
That felt good.
Shiromo and the others arrived at the royal city of the Land of Demons.
Calling it a royal city was generous, it was really just the shrine maiden's "big villa."
The guards inside used bows and long blades to stand watch.
It was like stepping back a thousand years, to the era before chakra even existed.
After Kurotsuchi spoke a few words to one of the guards, he led Shiromo's group inside.
The current shrine maiden, Shion, was about the same age as Konoha's young generation, only twelve or thirteen.
At her age, she naturally didn't know about the Land of Demons' past friendship with the Land of Earth, so everything had to be relayed by the guards before she agreed to receive them.
Before Shiromo's group entered, Shion had already prepared formal ritual clothing and etiquette.
But her eyes clearly showed resistance.
Though only twelve or thirteen, ever since inheriting the shrine maiden's power she had constantly predicted the deaths of people around her, which had filled her with fear and avoidance.
Now she only intended to go through the formalities.
No matter what conditions, requests, or proposals the Tsuchikage made afterward, she would refuse without thinking and then send them away.
"What's with that guard?"
Uchiha Hikari noticed Shiromo glancing several times at the guard who had led them in and was now standing outside the door.
She couldn't help asking.
"That guard knows a secret technique that's extremely… perverted. Well, maybe not perverted exactly, just kind of twisted."
"What secret technique?"
Hikari asked curiously.
"(Shadow Mirror Body Changing Method) Shadow Mirror Body Transfer Technique. It can completely change a person's appearance, even their clothes, into someone else's form."
"But the inside can't be altered at all. Even the voice stays the same."
Shiromo kept looking at the guard because he remembered that the Land of Demons had such a bizarre secret technique.
(End of this chapter)