Chapter 121: Zero-tails’ Intelligence
Several minutes later, by a small flower bed on Konoha Commercial Street.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows. Naruto, sitting by the flower bed, held an ice cream in his hands and eagerly took a big bite, oblivious to the cream smeared on his mouth.
Menma and Hinata sat side by side, savoring their ice creams in small bites.
Shinno watched the children with a loving smile and handed the last ice cream to his disciple Uryu.
“Alright, consider this my apology to everyone. I hope Uryu can make friends with you all in the future too.” Shinno stroked Uryu’s head, his eye wrinkles filled with gentleness.
If Menma didn’t know that this guy was actually the leader of Sky Village, wandering the various ninja countries as a wandering ninja to gather intelligence, accumulate power, and seek a path to restoration, he might have been fooled by his simple appearance too.
“By the way, Uncle, where are you from? Your skin looks a bit dark.” Menma licked his ice cream and asked deliberately.
Shinno didn’t suspect a four- or five-year-old child who didn’t even seem to know ninjutsu yet. He smiled warmly and replied enthusiastically: “Oh, Uryu and I are both commoners from the Land of Rivers, but since her village of birth is in the rainforest near the coast, their clan’s skin is all a bit dark.”
With that, Shinno began recounting how he met Uryu and the interesting stories they experienced along the way, his voice carrying the infectious tone of a storyteller.
Naruto and Hinata had never left Konoha and listened intently to Shinno’s tales.
Menma thoughtfully pictured a map of the ninja world in his mind.
The Land of Rivers, also known as the Land of River, is sandwiched between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, bordering the Land of Rain to the north and facing the Sea across from the Land of Tea to the south.
As the name implies, this country has many, many rivers, and the rainforest is full of venomous snakes and fierce beasts.
As Shinno told his travel stories, Menma recalled some deeper memories.
He remembered Uryu’s village being deep in the rainforest, right next to the “King’s Fortress” at the former Sky Village site.
After saving Uryu, Shinno taught her for a while as a kind elder, helping her learn some basic medical ninjutsu, and Uryu developed feelings of admiration for him.
But in reality, Shinno was just using Uryu. When the time was ripe, Shinno sent Sky Ninja to attack Uryu’s village and captured the villagers to provide nutrients for the Zero-Tails.
Shinno used the Body Regeneration Technique to fake his death and escape, took control of the Zero-Tails, and engaged Naruto in a great battle.
Later, Sasuke arrived and used Lightning Release Senbon to seal his acupoints, causing Shinno’s Body Regeneration Technique to fail and turning him into an old man.
The old man Shinno used mechanisms in the fortress to escape pursuit by Naruto and Sasuke, merged with the Zero-Tails to become its jinchūriki, activated the giant cannon of the “King’s Fortress,” and destroyed a mountain range in one strike.
In the end, Naruto used Nine-Tails Chakra to burst the Zero-Tails and destroyed it with Shadow Clone Jutsu and Persistent Rasengan.
‘By the way, I remember the Zero-Tails seal scroll was also stolen from Konoha by Shinno?’ As memories gradually surfaced, Menma’s frown deepened.
‘And the Body Regeneration Technique and Body Activation Technique seem to have been stolen from Konoha by Shinno too.’
‘Shinno seems to have had some deal with Orochimaru. I remember in the movie, Orochimaru sent Sasuke to find and capture Shinno.’
‘So, is Shinno here in Konoha now to steal ninjutsu and the Zero-Tails sealing scroll?’
Menma ate the ice cream Shinno had bought while pondering how to swindle the Sky Village stronghold location from this old guy.
He remembered that Sky Village consisted of exiled ninja living on ships like warships, drifting on the Sea year-round, accumulating power for revenge. So after being wiped out in the Second Great Ninja War, Sky Village didn’t reappear for over twenty years.
And when they did, they directly air-raided Konoha, catching it off guard.
‘Sky Village’s warships, flying ninja tools, and kunai firing guns are all good stuff, not to mention that King’s Fortress.’
Especially the kunai firing gun—though bulky like a light machine gun, it used magazines and was fully automatic, operable even by ordinary people.
The flying ninja tools could probably be modified into something like airplanes.
As for the energy supply, they could look for Grerl ore, which contained vast amounts of chakra and could even be mass-produced.
The former site of Sky Village, the “King’s Fortress,” now had a lead.
Knowing Uryu was born in the primitive rainforest in the southern Land of Rivers near the border of the Land of Fire, he just needed to send shadow clones with Kagura Shingan for a wide-area search.
Half an hour later.
Shinno stood up, brushed the leaf fragments off his knees, and said to Menma and the other two: “Alright, it was great meeting you today. I need to go to the hospital to catch up with some old friends.”
Though Shinno was a wandering doctor, he often came to Konoha, and due to his mastery of medical ninjutsu, he had some connections with the medical ninja at Konoha Hospital.
In the plot, when Sky Ninja air-raided Konoha and caused massive civilian casualties, Shinno was lurking in Konoha.
The medical ninja at Konoha Hospital were somewhat familiar with him.
“Uncle! Uryu! Take care!” Naruto had a very good feeling about this uncle—after all, he was one of the rare people without malice toward him.
Shinno smiled and waved goodbye to Naruto.
Uryu stuck her tongue out at Naruto.
Menma and Hinata also stood up to bid farewell to Shinno and his disciple Uryu, while secretly marking their chakra signatures.
In the future, as long as they were within range of Kagura Shingan, he could sense their movements.
——————
In the forest on the southwestern border of the Land of Rivers, bordering the Land of Wind.
The campfire illuminated Uchiha Hikari’s absentminded profile. The half-charred roasted fish in her hand gave off a burnt smell, far from the aroma she remembered Menma grilling.
“Lord Nameless!” Five Star Ninja landed by the campfire and knelt on one knee.
Seeing Natsuhi and Hotaru return, Uchiha Hikari set down the roasted fish and looked at them: “How was the scouting?”
“Oxalis Gold Mountain has definitely been taken over by the Kurotsuchi Clan. To avoid alerting them, our people didn’t approach Oxalis Gold Mountain and only gathered intelligence from surrounding villages,” Natsuhi reported, slightly raising her head.
For this mission, Uchiha Hikari was the leader, with Natsuhi and Hotaru each leading three chunin who excelled in training to form two squads.
The mission objective was to take away the Kurotsuchi Clan, led by Kurotsuchi Raiga, who were entrenched at Oxalis Gold Mountain.
If they really couldn’t take Kurotsuchi Raiga, they were allowed to kill him, but only take the Lightning Blade Fang and some clan members of the Kurotsuchi Clan.
