"?????"
"What are you talking about?"
Makoto saw Kurotsuchi's strange expression, as if she were holding a radioactive potato and felt somewhat puzzled.
"Nothing... I just want to ask how to use this thing."
Kurotsuchi shook her head violently, dispelling the cursed images in her mind.
"Resonate with the stone. Master and use the Natural Energy inside to amplify yourself."
"Oh. So that's how it is."
Kurotsuchi breathed a sigh of relief.
'Thank god.'
'I thought if it were some kind of anal bead, how could there only be one? A single one could only be used as a gag ball or something.'
'Wait! What am I thinking?! Why do my thoughts become so dirty the moment I see Makoto?'
"Why has even the Tsuchikage come?" Tsunade asked, puzzled by the extra party member.
"I should be the one asking that! Why has even the new Hokage come?"
"Not only am I closer to the Land of Demons as the Tsuchikage, but my grandfather also often assisted the Land of Demons in clearing out bandits during his tenure. Isn't it appropriate for me to act as a mediator?"
Kurotsuchi wasn't pleased upon hearing Tsunade's words.
Back in the day, before the Hidden Stone Village lost ten thousand ninjas to the Third Raikage, they were incredibly formidable and took jobs everywhere.
Helping the Land of Demons—a country without any ninja with only a few ordinary samurai guards—was effortless money.
Unfortunately, that became impossible later on due to manpower shortages.
If not for Makoto's appearance leading to reforms in the Stone Village, the Land of Demons would have had to travel across treacherous mountains—just like in the original movie—to commission missions from Konoha.
But now, as Kurotsuchi said, the relationship between the Land of Demons and the Land of Earth is still quite good.
"..."
Tsunade had no reason to refute and could only purse her lips before continuing to review the intelligence scroll.
After Kurotsuchi added her input, they continued walking toward the "Royal Capital" of the Land of Demons.
"So this Moryo has only appeared recently? I thought it was some ancient demon god."
After finishing the last part of the intelligence, Tsunade handed the documents to the curious Kurotsuchi beside her.
"Yeah. Unexpected."
Makoto had glanced over it while Tsunade was reading.
After all, his memory of the movie plot had become somewhat hazy in places.
The earlier Naruto movies were all too similar in their plot.
A tsundere female character (Princess/Priestess).
A villain with connections to her relatives.
Naruto uses Talk-no-Jutsu.
The female character rediscovers herself and becomes gentle.
Naruto forms a special color-changing Rasengan with her to kill the boss.
(Now that i think about it, how many color changing rasengan naruto perform in movies 😂)
Yomi, a dark medical ninja, is one of the survivors from Moryo's previous failed war attempt.
His goal is to unseal Moryo's spirit, reunite it with its body, and control the Army to destroy the Five Great Nations.
Makoto initially overlooked the timeline.
The time of Moryo's last rebellion was much more recent than Makoto had imagined.
There's no need to think about deep lore like "Because it uses chakra, it must be after Kaguya."
At most, it was only about thirty years ago.
And there were no signs of it triggering any Great Ninja War.
This made Makoto somewhat worried.
He wasn't afraid of enemies being too strong, but rather of them being too weak.
If Moryo was too weak and didn't have much chakra to extract, that wouldn't be good for Hikari's collection.
"What's wrong? Is the enemy too strong?"
Kurotsuchi grew nervous upon seeing Makoto's frown.
She hadn't finished reading the intelligence yet and assumed the worst.
"No, the enemy might be too weak. And since we're the 'Good Guys,' we can't exactly drain the Shrine Maiden dry either."
Makoto recalled that the Priestess Shion possessed a tremendous power within her bell.
"?"
Kurotsuchi was full of question marks.
What did he mean by "can't drain the Shrine Maiden dry"?
Did she bring Makoto and the Hokage into the Land of Demons just to be accomplices to a crime?
Kurotsuchi immediately stopped walking.
"What's with that expression? I already said we're the Good Guys." Makoto said helplessly.
"You really won't drain the Shrine Maiden?" Kurotsuchi asked, half-believing, half-doubting.
"I won't... Wait, why does that sound weird? Like I'm planning something perverted?"
"Even if someone does the draining, it wouldn't be me."
Makoto glanced at Uchiha Hikari beside him.
'It's Hikari's Eight Thousand Spears that does the sucking.'
"Besides, if I really wanted to drain someone, wouldn't I start with you Kage's? First drain you, then Tsunade, then the entire ninja world. Might as well stick to the original plan and initiate the Infinite Tsukuyomi so i can drain you dry all days."
Makoto rolled his eyes.
"Oh, right. Sorry about that."
Kurotsuchi rubbed the back of her head and laughed awkwardly.
Tsunade watched this scene, feeling somewhat emotional inside.
Kurotsuchi's suspicion didn't come from nowhere—it was shaped by the brutal environment of the ninja world.
Too many people had fallen because of the pursuit of power.
Like herself before, she had misjudged Makoto because of this same mindset.
...
Makoto's group arrived at the capital of the Land of Demons.
Though called a "Royal Capital," it was essentially just the Shrine Maiden's "Large Villa" surrounded by a small town.
The guards inside used bows and swords for protection.
It was like traveling back a thousand years to the Samurai Era before ninjutsu dominated warfare.
After Kurotsuchi spoke with one of the guards, they led Makoto's group inside.
The current Priestess, Shion, was about the same age as the Konoha rookies—only twelve or thirteen years old.
At her age, she naturally wouldn't know about the previous friendly relations between the Land of Demons and the Land of Earth, so the guards had to relay the information before introducing them.
Before Makoto's group entered the room, Shion had already prepared with proper etiquette and formal attire.
But from her eyes, it was clear she was very resistant to this meeting.
Though young, ever since inheriting the power of the Priestess, she had been constantly predicting the death dates of those around her.
This cursed gift had instilled fear and avoidance in her psyche.
People died to protect her, and she saw it happen before it did.
Now she only waited for the basic procedures to conclude.
No matter what requests the Tsuchikage proposed, she wouldn't even consider them—she would refuse outright and then see the guests out.
"What's with the guard?"
Uchiha Hikari noticed Makoto glancing a couple of times at the guard named Taruho who had brought them in and was now standing outside the door.
"That guard has an extremely perverted Secret Technique... Well, maybe not perverted, but definitely a bit strange."
"What Secret Technique?" Hikari asked curiously.
"The Shadow Mirror Body Transfer Technique."
"It can completely transform a person's appearance, even their clothes, into someone else's perfectly. But it can't change anything internal—not even the voice."
Makoto had glanced at the guard because he remembered that the Land of Demons had such an absurd technique.
In the movie, Taruho used it to act as a body double for Shion and died in her place.
But if you think about it... a technique that lets you perfectly look like a specific girl but keep your man voice?
That's just high-level cross-dressing with extra steps!
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