In Taki no Kuni, Minato and Uchiha Ling's group escorted these Cloud Genin to a port city on the coast of Taki no Kuni, intending to take a merchant ship to the Land of Lightning.
Takigakure Village is a very cautious Village. Although it has a Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, it keeps a low profile. The Village possesses treasures like hero water and Earth Grudge Fear.
It has produced strong individuals like Kakuzu, and logically, it should be a much stronger Village than Amegakure, but unfortunately, since the Village's establishment, its upper echelons have made continuous blunders.
Ultimately, it became a Village that relied solely on the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki as its public face, and was even invaded by Amegakure later, showing how incompetent it was.
Takigakure Village's policy was close to self-imposed isolation, coupled with a lack of new talent within the Village, leading to very low control over Taki no Kuni. Many Rogue Ninja liked to operate in Taki no Kuni.
These Rogue Ninja or renegade Ninja lacked foresight; they set up checkpoints everywhere, earning money by robbing or escorting merchant caravans. They also didn't shy away from assassination, intelligence gathering, and other dirty work.
Their characteristic was fearlessness; they even dared to intercept Konoha's mission teams. Their plan was surely to annihilate if they could win, and run if they couldn't.
Unfortunately, facing Uchiha Ling who was leading the way, they could only meet one fate: each of them would lose some body parts.
Ling's reputation for not killing people but only creating cripples somewhat frightened the Cloud Ninja being escorted. For a Ninja, death is nothing, but being crippled means that however arrogant one was in the past, one will be equally miserable in the future.
From southern Taki no Kuni, Ling cut her way to northern Taki no Kuni. Along the way, the entire Rogue Ninja community in Taki no Kuni learned of a Konoha Anbu Ninja who specialized in crippling people.
Moreover, this title was spreading to several surrounding countries, but Ling was still unaware that she had acquired the title of "Konoha Dwarf Ninja."
If she knew, she would definitely eliminate all the Rogue Ninja in Taki no Kuni, just to reverse this "Dwarf Ninja" title.
Logically, Ling should have gained a lot of stable emotional providers along her path of cutting, but the reality was somewhat different.
A small number of the crippled Rogue Ninja died directly from infection and fever because they had no Medical Ninja or even a physician to treat them.
Most of them were beaten to death by their enemies while they were down, so not many survived. However, along the way, she still accumulated forty to fifty of them.
Although not enough for a lottery draw, Ling earned a lot of money. Whenever Rogue Ninja dared to rob and were crippled, their money was also plundered by Ling.
These Rogue Ninja looked like they had outdated equipment and seemed to have no money to squeeze, but precisely because they lived by the sword and distrusted each other, they carried all their accumulated wealth with them.
Each Rogue Ninja carried several hundred thousand Ryo in cash. These Ninja had not deposited their money in banks, and now it all conveniently went to Ling.
Along this journey, Ling earned a total of over eighty million Ryo. It doesn't seem like much, but compared to a Jonin's S-rank mission amount of a few million Ryo, it's a lot.
She hadn't yet inventoried the items she took from Grass Ninja Village, mainly because she didn't have time. Her Ling was currently on a small island off the coast of Taki no Kuni.
The Ling came here mainly to get some animals for experiments, to test whether his Sealing Technique could completely restrain the erosion of White Zetsu Cells.
This island was originally a pirate den, formed by some Rogue Ninja who gathered to rob merchant ships.
Che gave them a disability package one by one, then sealed their Chakra, planning to conduct human experiments after the animal experiments were finished.
Furthermore, Whirlpool Reina's practice of Sealing Technique and Medical Ninjutsu still required test subjects, so this was a good opportunity for them to serve a purpose.
Whirlpool Reina's learning speed was quite fast. Shortly after mastering Chakra, she quickly learned tree climbing and water walking. Faced with the Ninjutsu scrolls, Taijutsu scrolls, Sealing Technique, and Medical Ninjutsu scrolls provided by Che, she chose to learn Sealing Technique and Medical Ninjutsu first.
This was mainly to leverage her racial talent. With the Kagura Mind's Eye, her speed in learning Sealing Technique and Medical Ninjutsu was very fast, but she primarily focused on Sealing Technique, as Medical Ninjutsu still required learning a lot of medical knowledge.
As for what Che was doing? At this moment, Che was by the sea. Che had some Rogue Ninja who were good at swimming and proficient in Water Release Ninjutsu go into the sea to catch fish.
Although he unsealed them, he had carved the Orochi Tongue Seal on them, which allowed him to take their lives in an instant.
Moreover, Che set a rule for them: whoever brought the biggest, most poisonous, and most ferocious animal would be given the opportunity to manage other Rogue Ninja.
The best performers could even have their severed limbs reattached by him and be given a chance to become stronger, becoming his subordinates.
So these Rogue Ninja enthusiastically signed up, each one rushing into the water, disregarding the disadvantage of severed limbs for swimming, yelling excitedly. In their hearts, they all wished to recover fully and gain stronger power and the right to control the lives and deaths of others.
Che's tactic of division and alienation was absolutely something they couldn't refuse. Humans spend their lives thinking about how to acquire more resources and power.
Che didn't have to wait long. A Rogue Ninja missing a hand was the first to surface. He was holding a crocodile's tail, and seeing no one else around Che, he grinned with joy, revealing his sharp teeth.
"Sir, this is a seven-meter-long saltwater crocodile, but it's still young. It has great potential and will definitely meet your requirements."
The Rogue Ninja smiled fawningly. The saltwater crocodile behind him was entangled in water ropes and already had a faint Chakra within its body, making it a good test subject.
"Very good, wait aside. If your test subject is the best, you will naturally receive a reward."
This Rogue Ninja was originally the strongest among this pirate group, possessing the strength of a Chunin, and indeed, he was the most efficient.
Not long after, other Rogue Ninja returned one after another, bringing captured experimental subjects including great white sharks, orcas, giant squid, blue-ringed octopuses, a large poisonous jellyfish, a five-meter-long highly venomous sea snake, and a four-meter-long poisonous giant seabed worm.
There were nine people when they left, but only eight returned. The last one must have died in the water, but it didn't matter; if they died, they died, and no one cared.
Che had already carved Sealing Technique runes on the ground. As Che formed hand signs, the Sealing Technique runes slowly crawled onto the bodies of the eight sea beasts.
The Sealing Technique runes on the eight beasts were all different. They were different versions designed by Che, and the difference between the versions was the size of the sieve.
He wanted to find the most suitable size that could both isolate White Zetsu Cells and provide nutrients to the White Zetsu Cells at maximum power, while also acquiring White Zetsu Chakra for his own use.
Che designed a gradient range from large to small, and these eight beasts perfectly met the requirements.
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