Chapter 251: The Scientist of the Limited Tsukuyomi
[Kurotsuchi] being able to clearly call out Shiromo and Uchiha Hikari by name meant that intelligence had already been shared between them.
No wonder they had gathered together.
But what Uchiha Hikari cared about now wasn't whether the information had been shared. It was what nonsense [Kurotsuchi] was spouting.
What the hell did she mean by "mount"?
Even taking ten thousand steps back, you're in a wheelchair—what qualifications do you have to be someone's mount?
"Since you already know our objective, hand over the One-Tail. There's no need to add further bloodshed."
[Konan] stepped forward, facing the Allied Shinobi Forces without the slightest fear.
On the way here, [Konan] had asked whether they needed to summon members of the Akatsuki to assist.
She had even said that the Akatsuki loved teamwork and group battles the most.
Shiromo had refused.
For Shiromo, the Limited Tsukuyomi world was already nearing its end. There was no need to introduce meaningless variables.
"No need to add further bloodshed? Do you even know what you're saying? You personally destroyed Konoha and killed so many of our villagers…"
[Tsunade] raised her voice and began to argue.
"Wait. Villagers? Didn't your earlier intelligence say Konoha was almost completely wiped out? Why has it now become just villagers who died? What about the shinobi?"
[Temari] frowned and questioned Tsunade.
"Uh… slip of the tongue. Slip of the tongue."
"Slip of the tongue? Not a chance."
[Temari] stared at the awkward expression on [Tsunade]'s face. Right in front of the Allied Shinobi Forces, she began denouncing Konoha's atrocities, "My younger brother, Gaara, used to be an optimistic boy everyone loved, someone who enjoyed making friends wherever he went."
"But a few years ago, during the Chūnin Exams, he first came into contact with that perverted Nine-Tails jinchūriki from your Konoha. From that point on, Gaara chose to befriend the One-Tail, Shukaku, and stopped making friends with humans."
"Later, your Konoha's missing-nin Orochimaru insisted on launching some so-called 'Konoha Restoration Plan,' attempting to resurrect all of Konoha's past shinobi. The Third Hokage only managed to stop half of it, and Orochimaru still ended up reviving our father."
"After that bastard Rasa was brought back, he forced Gaara to transform into Shukaku every single day, just so he could vent his frustrations."
"Gaara began to hate everything. He wanted to join Shukaku in slaughtering every living creature, never believing in the existence of love again."
"That's tragic? Then how did you end up becoming Kazekage, little sister? Rasa should be dead now, right?"
[Terumi Mei] asked in astonishment.
"Sigh… Speaking of that, it's an even greater disgrace for the Sunagakure Village."
[Temari] let out a long breath, "And for that, we actually have to thank that Nine-Tails jinchūriki."
"During the Konoha Restoration Plan, Gaara initially rejected the Nine-Tails jinchūriki's brainwashing. He didn't want to form any bonds with a Tailed Beast, and even unleashed Shukaku's power for that reason."
"That Nine-Tails jinchūriki then used explosive tags in an extremely despicable way, combined with the Thousand Years of Death, completely shattering Gaara's sense of dignity."
"But who could have expected it? Of the explosive tags shoved in, only one detonated. The other one might have been defective, or perhaps too high quality, and instead got blasted deeper inside by the shockwave of the first explosion."
"Until our father Rasa, that beast worse than an animal, used Magnet Release: Gold Dust to extend it, accidentally triggering the explosive tag."
"After being caught completely off guard, he was blown into critical condition."
"Gaara, meanwhile, suffered yet another devastating physical and psychological blow."
"Taking advantage of Rasa's severe injuries, I used Kamaitachi to cut off his head, finally ending everything."
"Gaara's condition made it impossible for him to inherit the Kazekage position. As for Kankurō, that idiot spent all day fooling around with the inflatable puppet doll left behind by Sasori of the Red Sand, showing no ambition whatsoever."
"So only I remained. It could only be me who can take over as Kazekage."
[Temari] let out a long sigh, then pointed at [Tsunade] with resentment.
"And all of this happened because of your Konoha! We sincerely came to form an alliance with you, and this is what we got in return!"
"Looks like Orochimaru ended up cooperating with them."
Shiromo spoke to the two beside him.
"Hm? How do you know?"
Uchiha Hikari asked in surprise.
As the communications hub, Orochimaru hadn't passed any information to her.
That meant that from Orochimaru's perspective, everything should have appeared normal.
And besides Orochimaru, there was also Tsunade.
If there had been cooperation between the two sides, shouldn't she have been the first to know?
"Orochimaru is a missing-nin. No matter how much Temari wanted to vent her anger, she wouldn't be this righteously confident without reason."
"Even if she were, what about the others? Terumi Mei, Kurotsuchi, Karui, none of them said a word."
"That means they also understand Temari has the moral high ground."
"So what is that high ground? The only explanation is that Orochimaru has returned to Konoha."
Shiromo gave his analysis, then added, "The key now lies in that 'resurrection' from the 'Konoha Restoration Plan.' That's likely their real source of confidence."
"Resurrection? Other than Nagato's Rinnegan, who else can bring the dead back to life?"
[Konan] frowned deeply.
"Resurrection? If they come back to life, just kill them again. It's not like it's more troublesome than Impure World Reincarnation…"
Uchiha Hikari sounded utterly dismissive, but halfway through her sentence, she suddenly went blank for a moment.
Then Hikari opened her mouth slightly, wearing an expression that clearly wanted to curse someone out, yet somehow restrained herself.
"Tsunade said that after she discovered that her counterpart in the Limited Tsukuyomi world was planning to transplant someone else's… 'stuff,' she felt too disgusted to keep watching. So she stopped paying attention and instead kept recording our experiences with pen and paper, planning to write a novel."
So she has absolutely no idea what Tsunade in the Limited Tsukuyomi world did afterward."
"Orochimaru said that the ideas behind his 'Konoha Restoration Plan' in the Limited Tsukuyomi world were simply too exquisite. Although he appeared to be communicating with others, he was actually focused the entire time on observing everything his Limited Tsukuyomi self was doing."
"He couldn't bear to miss a single detail, so he never stopped to inform us… until just now…"
At this point, Uchiha Hikari stomped her foot in frustration.
"And they call themselves the Sannin? There is not a single reliable one among them. Every last one of them has something wrong with their brain!"
"So did Orochimaru say it yet? In the Limited Tsukuyomi world, what method is he using to resurrect people?"
Shiromo asked.
He understood Orochimaru's rigor when it came to researching ninjutsu.
Some inverted phenomena in the Limited Tsukuyomi world couldn't serve as references for reality.
For example, the Yin Maiden Water, when translated into reality, was nothing more than ordinary Hero Water.
The cultivation method for the Heavenly Transfer Technique, which allowed healing and amplification there, remained just the normal Heavenly Transfer Technique in reality.
Therefore, if Orochimaru was observing so intently, he must have genuinely gained something.
"He's explaining it now…"
"…Mm."
Uchiha Hikari nodded as if she were on a call, then relayed the information to Shiromo.
"He says that in this world, his research initially focused on cell cultivation and cloning technology."
"Impure World Reincarnation was only something he started studying recently."
"His earlier failures at resurrection were due to Impure World Reincarnation being insufficiently developed."
"And in this world, the method he uses to resurrect people is…"
Hikari paused slightly, then continued: "Using Impure World Reincarnation to summon a person's soul from the Pure Land into reality. Once they become an Impure World Reincarnation body, he gradually replaces the Impure World Reincarnation vessel step by step with living human cells produced through cell cultivation!"
(End of this chapter)