Chapter 105: Medium

Chapter 105: Chapter 105: Medium

Pressing two fingers against his right eye, the Fourth Kazekage’s expression was much like the surrounding landscape—dark and gloomy, carrying an indescribable air of brooding unease.

At that moment, Sunagakure’s advisor elder Chiyo slowly walked over.

"Did you find any clues?"

The Fourth Kazekage shook his head.

Using his Eye of Sand, he had scanned the desert for dozens of miles around them, yet he hadn’t discovered a single useful clue.

Chiyo wasn’t particularly surprised by this.

That was simply how the desert was.

As time passed, the endless wind and sand would naturally bury everything. Even if the mysterious man really had left behind some traces, they would gradually disappear beneath the shifting sands, becoming increasingly difficult to find.

After dispelling the Eye of Sand, the Fourth Kazekage walked over to the narrow fissure with a grim expression.

This was the very fissure Hyuga Kagami had left behind when he killed the giant sandworm with Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.

Because a large amount of the giant sandworm’s blood and gelatinous bodily fluids had sprayed out and hardened along the edges, the fissure was still clearly visible and had yet to be buried by the windblown sand.

Crouching beside the fissure, the Fourth Kazekage gently pressed a hand against the sand and closed his eyes to sense beneath the ground.

"The sandworm died right below us. It’s completely dead!"

Ebizo, the other Sunagakure advisor standing nearby, scrunched his entire face into a frown.

"Even if a sandworm were cut clean in half, that wouldn’t necessarily kill it, would it?"

Sandworms were a rather unique type of ninja beast. Their regenerative abilities were exceptionally powerful; even if they lost nearly half their bodies, there was still a chance they could survive.

More importantly, once a sandworm burrowed beneath the dunes, it was practically invincible.

Even with Ebizo’s wealth of experience, he found it difficult to imagine what kind of attack could possibly kill a giant sandworm buried deep underground—one that possessed such extraordinary vitality at that.

Chiyo turned to the Fourth Kazekage and asked somewhat uncertainly, "In the entire village, you’re probably the only one capable of something like this, aren’t you?"

The Fourth Kazekage pondered for a moment before shaking his head.

"The sandworm died more than ten meters underground. At that depth, I’m confident I could trap it, but killing it would be extremely difficult!"

Hearing this, the two Sunagakure advisors fell silent at the same time.

With just a few exchanges, the three of them had already managed to roughly gauge the mysterious man’s strength.

After a long silence, Ebizo asked, "Who could it be?"

In the eyes of Sunagakure’s upper echelon, the mysterious man who had stolen the Dragon Vein had unquestionably reached Kage-level strength.

There was no way someone that powerful could be completely unknown in the shinobi world.

Chiyo, however, still stood by her previous judgment.

"Someone capable of undoing the Fourth Hokage’s seal on the Dragon Vein could only be someone from Konoha."

Just then, a Sunagakure ANBU landed before them and reported,

"Lord Kazekage, Advisors! We followed the tracks and discovered that the caravan of Roran survivors has entered the Land of Rain."

The Fourth Kazekage’s gaze instantly sharpened as he muttered to himself,

"Could it be that legendary ’Demigod’... Hanzo of the Salamander from Amegakure?"

Ebizo said, "If it’s him, then things are going to get troublesome."

Under Pain’s isolationist policies, all communication between the Land of Rain and the outside world had been completely cut off. As a result, everyone in the current shinobi world still believed that the leader of Amegakure was Hanzo of the Salamander.

In the original timeline, the news of Hanzo’s death had remained concealed by the Akatsuki. It wasn’t until more than a decade later, when Jiraiya personally infiltrated the Land of Rain to investigate the Akatsuki, that he was shocked to discover that Hanzo of the Salamander had long since been killed by Pain.

At that moment, the Sunagakure ANBU asked,

"Lord Kazekage, should we infiltrate the Land of Rain and pursue the Roran survivors?"

The Fourth Kazekage shook his head.

Even Sunagakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, did not dare underestimate Hanzo of the Salamander, the man hailed as the "Demigod."

After weighing the situation for a while longer, the Fourth Kazekage said to the two advisor elders beside him,

"Inform Konoha that the Dragon Vein has been stolen. Let’s see how they react!"

The two advisor elders nodded simultaneously.

With no way to confirm the identity of the person who had stolen the Dragon Vein, all Sunagakure could do for now was probe around for information.

Meanwhile, on Hyuga Kagami’s side...

Sitting cross-legged atop the back of the Third Kazekage human puppet, he hurried toward the village while reviewing the gains and losses from his previous battle.

"The Truth-Seeking Balls have extremely powerful defensive capabilities, but when they’re subjected to intense attacks, my chakra consumption also skyrockets. I can’t get into the habit of relying entirely on the Truth-Seeking Balls for defense."

"Their attack speed is also a little too slow. They’re fine for sneak attacks, but in a frontal assault, the enemy can easily dodge them. The efficiency is too low."

"Maintaining five Truth-Seeking Balls is too taxing. Three is just right. Besides, whether it’s Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion or Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, at my current level, both techniques already have excessive destructive power. There’s no need to invest too many Truth-Seeking Balls into them."

After summarizing what he had learned, Hyuga Kagami glanced at his right arm again.

There was no doubt about it.

After becoming the Dragon Vein’s jinchuriki and gaining an abundance of chakra, he had gotten somewhat carried away. His state of mind had been affected by the sudden surge in power, causing him to underestimate his enemies and make a mistake during his final attack.

"This is the shinobi world. Underestimating your enemy can get you killed!"

Kagami silently warned himself.

There were countless examples of this throughout the shinobi world.

Orochimaru had been instantly defeated by Itachi twice. Obito and Madara, despite both becoming the Ten-Tails’ jinchuriki, had ultimately fallen victim to surprise attacks one after another. Even someone as overwhelmingly powerful as Kaguya Otsutsuki had slipped up and fallen prey to Naruto’s Reverse Harem Technique.

In the shinobi world, no matter how powerful someone became, a moment of carelessness could still leave them vulnerable to being taken down through underhanded means.

However, this mistake wasn’t entirely a bad thing for Kagami.

Because he had suddenly realized that the Dragon Vein’s chakra could serve as a medium for perceiving natural energy.

Senjutsu was not some singular, unique technique.

Any method that allowed someone to utilize natural energy without suffering adverse effects could essentially be classified as senjutsu.

Therefore, among the various forms of senjutsu, there was Mount Myoboku’s Toad Sage Art and Ryuchi Cave’s Snake Sage Art. And at Shikkotsu Forest, the sacred land that stood alongside the other two, there was very likely a Slug Sage Art as well.

Even Jugo—and the Cursed Seals developed from studying Jugo—could be considered forms of senjutsu.

Yet no matter how varied the different forms of senjutsu were, cultivating them required some kind of medium.

For example, cultivating Mount Myoboku’s Toad Sage Art required the unique toad oil found only on Mount Myoboku.

Naruto had been able to absorb the natural energy dispersed throughout the air by applying toad oil to his body and using the oil as a medium.

The Dragon Vein’s chakra itself contained an enormous amount of natural energy.

Therefore, directly absorbing the Dragon Vein’s chakra was, to a certain extent, equivalent to applying Mount Myoboku’s toad oil.

Rubbing his chin, Hyuga Kagami continued pondering the matter.

Cultivating Mount Myoboku’s Sage Art caused the user’s Sage Mode to display obvious toad-like characteristics.

Likewise, using Ryuchi Cave’s Snake Sage Art caused the user’s Sage Mode to exhibit distinct serpentine characteristics.

This undoubtedly pointed to one particular conclusion—

These Sage Arts were fundamentally most compatible with the species that had originally developed them...

Not humans.