Afterward, Orochimaru will keep making grand promises to everyone. For example, he'll say that the ultimate goal of this technique is to restore a ninja's physical condition to its peak, and so on.
In the ninja world, whether it's the Daimyō and other high-ranking officials of the Five Great Nations, or the Daimyō and leaders of smaller and mid-sized countries, they're all elderly folks.
In the Five Great Ninja Villages and the other small or medium ninja villages, whether it's the village's Kage or the senior officials, they're generally middle-aged or older.
All of these people are high-end consumers.
The prospects for this business are as vast as the sea of stars.
In Orochimaru's eyes, this business has many advantages—at least three.
First: No matter what, starting this business cannot possibly conflict with Senshi's missions.
Second: This business is sustainable. Apart from him, everyone else in the ninja world ages. All those big names who are growing old are his potential clients.
Third: His target customers are high-end consumers. He can make a fortune off these middle-aged and elderly folks!
This research achievement has already given Sarutobi Hiruzen and the other three members of "Konoha's F4" a huge shock.
Right now, the achievement is still lacking somewhat, but it clearly has immense potential!
If, in the future, this technique could truly make a ninja's body 20 or 30 years younger, that would really be incredible. Being old? Who'd worry about that anymore?
Take Sarutobi Hiruzen, for example—if he could regain the body he had 20 or 30 years ago, the ninja world would once again witness what it truly means to be a legendary shinobi!
At that moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen was very pleased, very gratified.
Although Orochimaru went astray in his youth, he's now truly turning over a new leaf and repenting his former ways!
Clearly, this research is being done with these old folks in mind.
Sarutobi Hiruzen could sense his disciple's good intentions.
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado now looked at Orochimaru with changed expressions as well.
The past is the past—now is now.
The current Orochimaru truly has become a ninja who's useful to the village!
His new research project is indeed excellent.
Once their physical conditions are improved, not only will they be happier in life, they'll also be able to do more for the village.
Unfortunately, since Konoha doesn't have Senshi's Anti-Fraud Center, the "money" in their pockets can only hope for the best.
The "Eternal Chakra Elixir" is Orochimaru's own development; there's nothing like it in the ninja world, so Orochimaru has absolute pricing power.
He'll simply say it has extremely high production costs, so it must be sold at a sky-high price. These high-end customers will have no choice but to obediently pay up.
After leaving four doses of the Eternal Chakra Elixir behind, Orochimaru was about to take off.
But Danzo spoke decisively, stopping him. "Orochimaru, you can't leave!"
This time, before Orochimaru could speak, Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke up.
"Danzo, what are you planning now? Shouldn't you properly explain what happened to the ten billion ryō stolen from the treasury?"
"As for your Wood Style research back in the day, I think it's necessary to investigate that all over again."
By the end, Sarutobi Hiruzen's disappointment in Danzo was unmistakable. "Danzo, you've really let me down. I never imagined you could be this heartless—this shameless and despicable!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's words left Danzo furious, with no way to defend himself.
All of them, including Danzo, had clearly been hoodwinked by Orochimaru.
Seeing Orochimaru about to leave, Danzo urgently cried, "Hiruzen, Koharu, Homura, we've all been swindled by Orochimaru!"
Konoha's remaining three elders: "So, was it you who took one billion ryō?"
Danzo: "Argh!!!"
While Danzo was being berated by the Konoha F3 and feeling utterly miserable, Karin—far away in Kumogakure—was extremely happy.
These past few days, Karin has been overjoyed.
She's not too sure what happened that made Hidan start calling Senshi the "Lord Jashin," and she herself got promoted to "Assistant to the Lord Jashin," but it's definitely been to her advantage.
Now, she can hand over missions selected by the Lord Jashin's assistant (herself) to Hidan for completion.
Hidan can carry out the tasks automatically. Whether it's accepting, carrying out, or turning in a mission, he can do it all on his own.
Moreover, thanks to Senshi's arrangement with Kumogakure, Senshi barely has to worry about missions anymore, creating a positive cycle.
At present, Hidan alone can use up all the mission slots Senshi can take on.
Because of that, Senshi and Karin rarely have any pressing matters; they just fool around happily every day.
"Hee hee hee hee!"
At the moment, Karin and Senshi are in a forest in Kumogakure.
After carefully reading a cookbook, Karin let out a series of triumphant giggles.
She's learned how to make her favorite pork cutlet rice dish.
Now it's time to officially cook pork cutlet rice.
"Ooh!"
First, Karin used Kamui to head to the market and buy ingredients for her dish.
Of course, Senshi knew exactly what that silly Karin was doing, but for now, he let her be.
Until the Jinchuriki returned, he had no missions to do for a while.
All his missions had been completed by Hidan.
When it comes to doing missions, Hidan's immortal body is a huge advantage.
Though Kakuzu has five hearts he can switch among, once one fails, he needs to find another suitable heart.
But Hidan's different—he's truly an inexhaustible mission machine; no matter how many he takes, it won't kill him.
A spiraling, transparent vortex ripple soon appeared not far away.
Senshi knew right away this meant Karin was back from grocery shopping.
Sure enough, Karin reappeared and pulled out most of the ingredients she'd bought from the Kamui dimension.
Everything was still normal up to that point, but it quickly took a weird turn.
"Susanoo!"
Without wasting time, Karin immediately activated her Mangekyō Sharingan, summoning a pink Susanoo.
Then, hands on her hips, she directed the Susanoo giant to start cooking.
Seeing this, Senshi could only raise a hand to cover his face—he couldn't bear to watch.
As Karin commanded the Susanoo giant to cook, she spoke to Senshi without even glancing back.
"Senshi, I'm handling lunch today. We're having super-delicious pork cutlet rice!"
"Ahem…" Senshi cleared his throat twice when he heard that. "Karin, please don't joke around. Even though us Uzumaki have robust constitutions, we can still be poisoned! If you want to cook for fun, that's fine, but don't casually try to eat what you make."
Karin: "Huh??"
Senshi's words got her riled up.
"Ugh, Senshi, how dare you underestimate my cooking! Don't look down on the bond between me and fine cuisine!"
If she weren't in the middle of a critical step, she'd have snorted at him, swung her little fists, and challenged him then and there!
While Karin continued preparing her pork cutlet rice, Senshi was deep in thought.
"This isn't good. I've actually gone several days with no missions at all. Something about that feels off."
Ever since he started dealing in the black market, Senshi had never been in a predicament of having no missions available.
Even Kakuzu knows that doing missions is practically a form of rest—whereas idling is as good as waiting to die in a coffin.
Yet this mission to capture Kumogakure's tailed beast was making Senshi question his life choices.
It was no longer just a question of whether he should "harm a flower" (i.e., whether to take down the jinchūriki).
The real problem was that Yugito Nii, the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, hadn't returned to Kumogakure yet and was missing.
That made Senshi wonder if he should find the A-B brothers and ask about Yugito's whereabouts.
Or maybe go back and negotiate more pay from Nagato, then grab Killer B instead—whatever worked.
As Senshi massaged his temples in vexation, a familiar figure appeared.
He was also wearing a black cloak with red clouds. He wasn't a stranger: it was Sasori.
When Sasori saw Senshi, he breathed a long sigh of relief—he'd finally found him.
He wanted to power up quickly with Senshi's help, just like Kakuzu and Orochimaru, to achieve his grand artistic breakthrough.
Approaching Senshi, Sasori got straight to the point.
"Senshi, I want to commission you for a job—help me quickly become stronger."
When Senshi first noticed Sasori, he hardly reacted and kept sitting on a rock, watching that silly Karin controlling Susanoo to stir-fry.
But once Sasori stated his intention, Senshi used the Body Flicker, appeared at Sasori's side, slung an arm around his shoulders, and started chatting with him like an old friend.
"Sasori-bro, you're being too polite, running all the way here just to give me a job!"
Senshi was delighted. Truly, fortune and misfortune come in unexpected turns.
He'd just been worried that he'd run out of commissions because Hidan had used them all up.
But there he was, just sitting in a forest, and a big-spending client arrived.
Sasori didn't bother with niceties. "Can you do it or not?"
Senshi lightly drummed his fingers and smiled, rubbing his hands together excitedly. "How could I not? Since you've come all this way, once you explain what kind of strength you're after, I'll make arrangements right away! The only question is how strong you want to be."
Senshi had plenty of resources at the moment. He even had a puppetmaster's holy relic—"String-String Fruit"—available for sale.
For Sasori, that item was like the Yamata no Orochi Fruit was for Orochimaru: it would give him an enormous boost.
But selling the Orochi Fruit to Orochimaru for only a hundred million ryō really had been far too cheap.
From then on, all such deals would require proper pricing.
"Sigh!"
At that, Sasori unfurled a scroll, which burst in a cloud of white smoke.
Then one hundred million ryō in cash spilled out like a mountain before Senshi.
Seeing that, Senshi immediately grew serious—no surprise that a rogue ninja of the Akatsuki deals in hundreds of millions at a time.
Placing the money in front of Senshi, Sasori said bluntly, "Here's a hundred million ryō. That should at least get me to Orochimaru's level, right?"
Senshi gaped and then stifled a laugh. Even though Sasori respected his capabilities, he clearly had no idea about the going rates.
Putting on a look of shock, Senshi replied, "What? You mean you have no idea who Orochimaru really is?"
Sasori felt a stab of annoyance. "So you're saying you can't do it?"
Senshi waved his hand. "You misunderstand, Sasori-bro. Orochimaru is a major spender—he's dropped several hundred million so far. If you want to match him…"
He rubbed his fingers meaningfully. "…you'll need to show a bit more sincerity!"
Sasori: "(O_O)???"
He was dumbfounded. He wasn't a mission maniac like Kakuzu; he'd never been that invested in making money through missions.
The hundred million he brought was already all his savings. He hadn't realized how expensive powering up through Senshi could be.
By his reckoning, one hundred million should have sufficed, yet it was evidently nowhere near enough if he wanted Orochimaru-level strength.
Had he known, he would've spent all those earlier years churning through paid missions.
But now that he was short on funds, he had no solutions left.
When Senshi saw Sasori's reaction, he immediately understood that being a puppetmaster truly wasn't lucrative—and that Sasori, the pinnacle of puppetmasters, still wasn't wealthy enough.
If Sasori didn't have enough money, it was impossible to elevate him to Orochimaru's level.
Orochimaru was on another tier altogether, not only engaging in multiple business transactions totaling around five hundred million ryō with Senshi but also holding as much as one or two billion in capital. Possibly even more by now—who knew if all the Daimyōs in the Five Great Nations wanted to "revitalize" themselves and add more children to their lineages?
After a brief silence, Sasori had a sudden idea. He turned to Senshi and said earnestly, "You took Hidan on as a partner before. I can become your partner, too. When we do missions, you can have my share of the commission directly. Once I've accumulated enough, you can help me grow stronger. How about it?"
Senshi's immediate reaction was astonishment—Sasori was trying to get in on his wealth. Not only would he get a cut of the mission payouts, he'd then use that money to buy items from Senshi!
Also, Senshi wasn't keen on the idea of another partner. Did he even need one right now? Hidan was basically on "auto-pilot" and too good to replace.
Yet, just as Senshi was about to refuse, he had a sudden flash of insight.
Wait, that might not be so bad…
Hidan, fully automated as he was, could go off solo to grind missions. In these past few days, that's exactly what could have happened—Hidan didn't need to stay at Senshi's side.
In that sense, maybe he did need a new partner after all.
He could let Hidan do missions elsewhere, so they wouldn't step on each other's toes or mission quotas. That would let Senshi keep grinding missions without interruption.
Karin, by contrast, though she had the robust Uzumaki physique, still didn't compare to someone like Kakuzu with multiple hearts or the immortal Hidan. She'd nearly collapsed from exhaustion during five straight days and nights of mission-grinding in the Land of Lightning's black market. At best, she could only be a helper.
Sasori, though—he didn't have five hearts or immortality, but he had his own advantage: aside from his heart, his body was entirely puppetized, so he wasn't even fully human. As the "cybernetic pioneer" of the ninja world, he could presumably handle a high volume of missions.
While Senshi eyed Sasori thoughtfully, Sasori felt uneasy, knowing that puppetmasters have significant drawbacks in earning potential. Even at the top of his field, he wasn't rich.
Then Senshi started interviewing him.
"Sasori, I need you to answer some questions truthfully before deciding whether to make you my partner."
Sasori nodded calmly. "Ask away."
Senshi began by verifying the intel Orochimaru had given him long ago. Orochimaru was notorious now—his information always needed double-checking so as not to be fooled.
"Sasori, you only need a small amount of rest each day, right?"
Sasori wasn't sure why Senshi was asking, since even if they became partners, how he rested outside missions was up to him. Nevertheless, he replied, "Yes, I only need a little time to rest each day—three to four hours, typically three."
Hearing that, Senshi relaxed. Sasori wasn't quite on Kakuzu or Hidan's level, but he was far better than someone like Uchiha Itachi, who was a "mission novice."
If Sasori joined him, Senshi could split mission profits with him so Sasori could pay him for power-ups. All that money would eventually circle back around, netting Senshi a ton of contract points—an internal cycle.
The more he thought about it, the brighter his eyes grew, because this approach had multiple benefits:
1. Hidan the "fully automated grinder" could be sent off elsewhere to do missions on his own, freeing up Senshi.
2. Hidan wouldn't be competing for missions or using up Senshi's quota, letting Senshi keep grinding missions at will.
3. He'd gain a new partner to bring into his mercenary group. Sasori would continuously generate more contract points for him.
4. Letting Sasori partner with him for mission-grinding would also effectively guarantee a huge commission from Sasori down the line.
One arrangement, four gains. A textbook example! Even Senshi was impressed by his own cleverness.
And once Sasori got a taste of the benefits, he would certainly follow Orochimaru's path of earning more and more money to pay Senshi for repeated power-ups.
After sorting everything out, Senshi grinned and slung an arm around Sasori's shoulder. "Aren't we all brothers here? Sasori-bro wants to get stronger? You just have to say the word!"
Sasori: "(O_O)???"
He seriously suspected Senshi of messing with him. A moment ago, it seemed a hundred million ryō couldn't solve the problem, and now it apparently only took a word?
He didn't believe it, but achieving his main objective was enough: Senshi had agreed to let him become a partner. He could follow Senshi to earn money through missions. Then, once he saved up enough, he could reach Orochimaru-level strength.
But Senshi wasn't just joking around; he had a special reason. An idea popped into his head to "scam" money from Sasori—er, no, to help him power up with the perfect plan!
He intended to play a little trick and teach Sasori a lesson on how "free things can often be the most expensive."
Once everything was clear in his mind, Senshi looked at Sasori with even greater enthusiasm. If he executed this correctly, Sasori could bring him a 1.6 billion ryō boost to his bottom line!
With that, Senshi rubbed his palms together and spoke up. "Sasori-bro, the reason your strength hasn't reached the level you want is because you're still too conservative in your pursuit of art!"
Sasori: "(O_O)???"
That remark made Sasori bristle. Senshi could question his strength but not his art! His art, as far as he was concerned, was perfect.
Before Sasori could get angry, Senshi went on, "Your art is impressive, but it's not perfect yet. Precisely because there's a final tiny defect, your power hasn't reached where it should be."
Sasori forcefully retorted, "Impossible! My art is flawless! I grasped its true essence a long time ago and have embodied it deeply in my creations!"
In other words, Sasori believes the essence of art is eternal. For eternal's sake, he turned himself into a puppet. Apart from his regenerative core, the rest of his body is fully puppetized. Through his research, even his regenerative core is infinitely close to eternal. Therefore, his art is utterly perfect.
But Senshi still questioned it. With a serious look, he said, "Sasori-bro, you haven't gone far enough! Flesh is weak—true art ascends as a puppet. You've indeed transformed yourself inside and out, but your regenerative core is still made primarily of flesh."
"That won't do. Such art can't be called truly perfect!"
Sasori: "(O_O)???"
Senshi's words shocked him. His regenerative core was his most closely guarded secret; nobody else should've known.
Yet Senshi had casually spilled this highly confidential information. Even so, Sasori was certain Senshi didn't actually understand the underlying technology.
He let out a cold laugh. "If you abandon flesh completely, how can you refine chakra, or host consciousness?"
Hearing Sasori's laugh, Senshi only smiled. This guy wanted to lecture him?
After all, hard work and determination can surpass any technology.
When Sasori sneered, Senshi took out the Hextech Core he'd drawn in an earlier lottery. He said to Sasori, "Sasori-bro, who said that giving up flesh entirely means you can't refine chakra or host consciousness?"
"For instance, tailed beasts are life forms made purely of chakra. They don't rely on physical bodies to refine chakra, and their consciousness persists indefinitely. You're aware of that, right?"
~~~
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