Chapter 338: Shooting Birds with a Slingshot
In Orochimaru's cursed seal experiment, out of eighteen children, only five survived.
Of course, this was what Masahiko saw with his own eyes. Before these children, there should have been several or even over a dozen batches of test subjects. If it were the first experiment, it would be impossible to have such a high success rate; the power of senjutsu wasn't so easily obtained.
Compared to the original story, the types of cursed seals had changed, but the five children remained the same. It was still that small squad: Jirobo, Tayuya, Kidomaru, and Sakon and Ukon. Only Kimimaro was missing.
Masahiko also saw the first state of the cursed seal, which was different from the original story—it looked even more disgusting. Originally, after activation, the face should be covered in dense black tomoe, but now it turned into snake scales... white ones.
Although they indeed gained power, Masahiko really couldn't accept it; he was a man who valued appearances... Originally, Jirobo, the chubby Three Hairs, was quite cute, and Tayuya could barely be considered a pretty girl. However, now, whenever Masahiko thought of that snake-scaled face, he lost all mood to tease them.
As for Kidomaru and Sakon and Ukon, they were born ugly...
Therefore, Masahiko quietly took on the role of a pharmacist, concocting the Mind Awakening Pill for Orochimaru. The difficulty of configuring this medicine was quite high, and the materials were very precious. With the same materials, an ordinary medical ninja would be doing well to produce three or four pills, but Masahiko produced nearly twenty, which could be considered repaying the favor he owed Orochimaru earlier.
Brewing the medicine didn't take too long. For the next few days, Masahiko concentrated on teaching the three children his originally created taijutsu, and the results were 'gratifying'.
The lack of lethality was not a problem for Kimimaro. Those 'caressing' moves became fatal killer strikes once Kimimaro thrust a bone spike from the palm of his hand.
And Haku's speed in learning this taijutsu was even thirty percent faster than Kimimaro's. 'He' originally wouldn't strike heavily against enemies, preferring to stall and maneuver, which naturally harmonized with this taijutsu.
As for Karin...
"Karin, this movement is wrong again! Your punch is so fierce; if you miss, it's very easy for the opponent to seize an opening!"
"Still wrong, can you hold back a little, a girl should..."
A week passed. Kimimaro and Haku successfully grasped the basics, while Karin was given up on by Masahiko...
Masahiko felt that with Karin's personality, learning to 'stall' was too difficult. She couldn't soften up where she needed to, maintaining an 'I'll fight you to the death' state from beginning to end.
He still couldn't see the specific effects of the taijutsu right now. It was already very good that they could grasp the basics of the 'Stalling Divine Skill', which Masahiko developed by fusing multiple taijutsu, in just a week.
Masahiko could only patiently wait for the three children to grow and decide whether to 'promote and carry forward' this taijutsu based on the results.
As for now, they were going to leave the Sound Village.
"Go back and pack up, get ready to depart!"
Karin's face showed unconcealed joy: "Great Elder, are we finally leaving this place?"
She had a bit of persecution paranoia. After quietly calling Orochimaru disgusting and being overheard earlier, she always felt that gloomy guy would secretly kidnap her. She had wanted to leave the Sound Village for a long time.
Masahiko nodded: "Mm, it's been almost two months since we came to the Sound Village; it's time to leave. Have you decided where our next stop will be?"
Kimimaro and Haku both remained silent. Karin looked around, her eyes shifting: "Great Elder, all three of us want to go to the Land of Wind to see the desert!"
"All want to?" Masahiko repeated with a smile.
"All want to!" Karin replied decisively.
"Alright, since you all want to go to the Land of Wind, then let's go to the Land of Earth."
"Oh!" Karin cheered subconsciously, but then felt something was wrong. "The Land, the Land of Earth?"
Masahiko smiled and said: "Kimimaro, do you want to go to the Land of Earth?"
"If God wants to go, then I want to go."
"Haku, what about you?" Masahiko hinted with his eyes.
Haku hesitated, glanced at Karin, and whispered: "I want to go."
Masahiko nodded in satisfaction, "That's good, get ready to set off."
Karin's small face flushed red: "Great Elder, didn't we agree on democracy, listening to our opinions?"
"That is natural. I have always been a person who insists on democracy, didn't I listen just now? Kimimaro and Haku want to go to the Land of Earth, and you want to go to the Land of Wind. Two to one, so we are going to the Land of Earth."
"Damn it..."
...
Bidding farewell to Orochimaru, Masahiko took the three children and embarked on their journey again.
The Land of Rice Fields was located in the southwest corner of the ninja world, while the Land of Earth was in the northwest corner. The distance between the two was indeed not short. Even with a ninja's travel speed, it would take five or six days.
Masahiko didn't use the spaceship, nor did he fly with the three children. They just traveled like this, enjoying the scenery along the way to the Land of Earth, which took nearly half a month.
Many minor incidents occurred along the way—punishing evil, promoting good, turning ill luck into good fortune, and so on. The ninja world had never been very peaceful.
Masahiko just watched quietly from the side, treating these as experiential training for the three children. They didn't disappoint Masahiko, growing up rapidly.
During their journey, they also passed by the ninja village of an acquaintance—the Hidden Waterfall Village. Unfortunately, Kakuzu had gone who knows where to make money; Masahiko had wanted to catch up with him.
After entering the borders of the Land of Earth, the group's travel speed slowed down even more. Masahiko took the three children to learn about the local specialties of the Land of Earth... although most of the items sold in the stores were shipped over from the Land of Whirlpools.
It wasn't until the end of June, Konoha Year 54, that the group of four finally arrived in a mountain forest near the Hidden Stone Village.
"We'll be at the Hidden Stone Village soon. I'll take you to see this village that caused massive losses to Konoha not long ago," Masahiko said with a smile.
There was some excitement in the eyes of the three children, a feeling of having gone wild with fun. If it weren't for Masahiko, at their age, they would never have had such an opportunity to cross the ninja world and broaden their horizons.
"It's about five or six kilometers away, we..." Masahiko said halfway before suddenly revealing a slightly surprised expression.
"Great Elder, what's wrong?" Haku was the best at reading expressions.
Masahiko didn't need to explain. Not far away, the sound of explosions rang out one after another.
"This seems to be..."
Masahiko sensed carefully for a moment, then smiled. He fumbled in his coat and pulled out a... slingshot.
Karin's mouth twitched. "Great Elder, why do you have something like this!"
Masahiko laughed: "This is what I confiscated from Naruto when he was breaking my windows."
"Then why have you been carrying it around?"
Masahiko's smile stiffened, and he chuckled dryly: "Don't mind the details. It's almost noon, I'll shoot a bird for you guys to eat."
Masahiko bent down to pick up a pebble and, under the surprised gazes of the three children, aimed at the sky.
A giant white bird happened to fly by. Masahiko released the slingshot, and the giant bird's head instantly exploded.
There was also a blonde boy around ten years old riding on the giant bird. As he spun and plummeted downwards, he was cursing loudly: "Which bastard did this? Un!"
Masahiko spread his hands and smiled: "Oh my, seems like I accidentally hit someone."
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