Chapter 188: Everyone Likes Being Terracotta Soldiers
Before leaving the Amegakure Village, Shiromo gave Hanabi and Fū some instructions about their training.
Both Hanabi and Fū were now wearing one of Shiromo's stones as well.
Shiromo's stones weren't fixed buffs. How much strength they actually increased depended on the user's own mastery and their original power.
Just like the Eight Gates.
They were said to grant power beyond the Hokage level.
If it was Genin Might Duy, maybe he'd reach the level of an elderly Third Hokage.
If it was Jōnin Might Guy, then he'd surpass Senju Hashirama.
"For the next while, train together the way I just explained."
Shiromo said to the two of them.
"Train together… it's basically just me getting beaten up."
Fū puffed out her cheeks and pouted.
As mentioned before, Fū and Hanabi weren't that far apart in age, but their current strength gap was like heaven and earth.
After all, one of them had a Tailed Beast inside her, had made peace with it, and fully mastered its power.
But the way Shiromo wanted them to train wasn't the usual kind.
After using Shiromo's stone, both Fū and the Seven-Tails gained partial extensions to their abilities.
And it was precisely because of this newly emerged power that Shiromo once again became certain of the truth that [Different worlds can't be lumped together.]
The Seven-Tails, Chōmei, looked like a rhinoceros beetle (Kabutomushi), and its juvenile form even resembled a beetle larva.
Its attack style did include something similar to a beetle's horn charge.
Aside from the "Spear Attack Shining Horn" it once used on Madara during the Fourth War, though, its other attacks had nothing to do with beetles at all.
The [Secret Technique: Hiding in Scale Powder Technique] that Fū used, and the [Scale Powder Blasting] where she released massive amounts of powder and detonated it in full Tailed Beast form, Scale Powder attacks weren't those more typical of poisonous moths?
So you couldn't generalize.
After all, in real life no small animal fired Tailed Beast Bombs either.
And after Fū used Shiromo's stone, the extra ability she gained could be called "Insect Perception."
Or, using a more familiar term, "Spider Sense," or "Fū suddenly gets a chill."
Originally, after mastering the Seven-Tails' power, Fū's speed had already reached an impressive level.
Even faster than the databook's description, [She strikes down prey with wind-like speed, so fast that ordinary ninja struggle to even see her movements.]
But speed alone wasn't enough.
Take Namikaze Minato, teleportation was fast enough, right?
But what truly made him terrifying was his ability to teleport away from attacks in time, and then instantly read the surrounding environment and battlefield after arriving.
In short, once speed reaches a certain point, reaction time becomes the real key.
And the ability Fū had now obtained was precisely that, reaction beyond conscious thought.
Don't ask why a rhinoceros beetle could have "spider sense."
It already used moth-style Scale Powder attacks and fired Tailed Beast Bombs, why are you nitpicking now?
Anyway, Hanabi's Byakugan lock-on of [Absolute Hit] meeting Fū's instinctive dodge of [Absolute Evasion] was perfect for mutual improvement.
If Hanabi landed a hit, it meant Absolute Evasion wasn't good enough yet.
If she missed, it meant Absolute Hit still needed work.
The stronger Fū could only dodge and wasn't allowed to counterattack, hence her complaint about "just getting beaten up."
After giving their instructions, Shiromo and his group set off toward the Land of Demons.
"Wasn't a highly anticipated movie from the Land of Snow filmed in the Land of Demons not long ago?"
Along the way, Tsunade flipped through a stack of intel notes in her hands.
"Yeah. I wrote the script."
Shiromo spoke with a hint of emotion.
The movie filmed in the Land of Demons was called "Hero".
Everyone thought it would be the usual formula, just like Fujikaze Yukie's past films, where a heroic protagonist defeats the Demon King.
But the story inside hit everyone like a slap in the face.
The 'villain' the protagonist was supposed to assassinate wanted to wipe out the other six nations.
Six nations?
That was one more than the ninja world's Five Great Nations, but everyone understood what it implied.
Those who knew, knew.
In the end, the protagonist gave up on the assassination.
Because he realized the importance of unification.
As long as the nations remained divided and fought year after year, war would continue endlessly, that was the true, never-ending suffering.
The ninja world, which had only abandoned clan warfare and embraced the concept of villages a few decades ago, was now seeing another possible path for the first time.
Shiromo worked with the Land of Snow's film industry precisely to influence the ninja world subtly through stories like this.
What troubled him was that while people grasped his message, no one knew where these stories actually came from.
The reason for filming in the Land of Demons was because it had "terracotta soldiers."
If Mōryō awakened, under its control these terracotta warriors could come to life and launch attacks.
They were pure villain material.
But what no one knew was that everyone should actually like being terracotta soldiers.
Because guarding Qin Shi Huang was awesome.
At the border of the Land of Demons.
A figure floated in midair, half-reclining, holding a small book and reading.
Hearing movement, she descended to the ground with a complaining look.
"I've been waiting forever. You finally showed up."
The one waiting was Kurotsuchi.
The Land of Earth bordered the Land of Demons, but that didn't mean Iwagakure was close.
She had flown for quite a while to get here.
"Helping us out won't be for nothing. You'll get to enjoy yourself later too."
What Shiromo meant, naturally, was the same primal reversion that Terumi Mei had gone through.
With Mei's case as precedent, making a second custom stone was no trouble at all.
It still needed to continuously absorb the earth's energy, though.
"Huh? We're allies now, you're not planning anything weird, are you?!"
The moment Shiromo said that, Kurotsuchi panicked.
She misunderstood, but not in the obvious way.
Kurotsuchi had never gotten over what Shiromo once said about using Hidan to 'deter the ninja world.'
Especially after learning that Shiromo was the one who proposed the plan and had already collected her "blood."
Back then, she had run through every horrifying possibility in her head.
Hidan could reflect any damage done to himself onto his enemy.
Pain could be reflected, so what about other sensations?
If Hidan shoved a stick into his own asshole, then the enemy would feel the exact same thing…
That was terrifying.
Now Shiromo suddenly said, "You'll feel great later."
It instantly dragged Kurotsuchi back into those thoughts.
Terrifying.
"What are you thinking about?"
Shiromo rolled his eyes and tossed a red crystal to her.
He couldn't guess exactly what she was thinking, but it was definitely something dirty.
"This is a Divine Duck!"
Kurotsuchi caught the stone and squeezed it in her hand, it was round, and even warm.
Could this be the legendary pearl pulling?
Kurotsuchi stared at Shiromo in horror.
(End of this chapter)