Sound Ninja Village and Jugo

"Who would’ve thought the Sound Ninja Village had already begun to be established?"

In the Land of Rice Fields, Yota followed Orochimaru to his ninja village and spoke in surprise.

Hearing this, Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly, but he did not ask where Yota had gotten his information.

"In fact, I only established the Sound Ninja Village three years ago. It was mainly to accommodate some of my followers, while also obtaining a certain amount of funding for experiments."

Orochimaru gave the introduction casually. In reality, however, it had only been four or five years since he defected from Konoha. In other words, barely one or two years after fleeing Konoha, he had already established the Sound Ninja Village in the Land of Rice Fields.

Moreover, in the original story, in little more than a decade, he had built the Sound Ninja Village into something quite presentable. It had even been able to participate in Konoha’s Chunin Exams, standing out rather prominently among the smaller ninja villages.

Sure enough, if he had not been so obsessed with pursuing immortality, becoming Hokage probably would not have been difficult for him at all.

The current Sound Ninja Village had only just taken shape. Most of its ninja were merely Orochimaru’s test subjects, while there were also a few people he had put some effort into training. However, they were all still young and had yet to truly become a fighting force.

As they followed Orochimaru into the Sound Ninja Village, its many ninja all turned their gazes toward the group.

Besides Yota, Hizashi Hyuga and his son, along with Sara, Tsunade, Shizune, and the others, were following behind him.

The others were one thing, but Hizashi Hyuga and his son’s Byakugan were openly displayed before the Sound Ninja Village’s ninja. The Byakugan was known as one of the three great bloodlines of the ninja world; any ninja with even a little common sense knew quite a bit about it.

Seeing that Orochimaru had actually brought back Byakugan users, the Sound Ninja Village’s ninja were secretly shocked.

Of course, that was also because the current Sound Ninja Village ninja were not yet absolutely loyal to Orochimaru, while the batch of ninja he had personally cultivated were still young. Otherwise, there would have been plenty of ninja worrying that someone had come to compete for Orochimaru’s favor.

Following Orochimaru into the underground laboratory he had set up beneath the Sound Ninja Village, Sara looked around and could not help complaining, "Another underground laboratory! Why do all ninja use this routine?"

Though he was far ahead, Orochimaru still heard Sara’s words. "For ninja, it is the simplest, most effective, and least costly method of concealment."

Sara had not expected Orochimaru to hear her from so far away and could not help sticking out her tongue.

At the deepest part of the underground base, they found a sturdy prison cell. Inside was a tall man covered in all kinds of seals.

On closer inspection, his face still looked rather young. He was probably no more than ten years old; he was simply unusually large.

Hearing the footsteps, the young boy opened his eyes and politely said, "Mr. Orochimaru, have you come?"

"This time, I have brought someone who can truly solve your problem." Orochimaru lightly licked his lips, a smile that was not quite a smile appearing on his face. "It was not easy to get Mr. Yota to come here even once. I put in a great deal of effort to bring him here."

"What effort? The effort of getting beaten up?" Tsunade, standing in the middle of the group, snorted and rolled her eyes as she mocked him directly. "You were obviously beaten flat and subdued by him."

Orochimaru’s expression stiffened. Even if he had given up many things in pursuit of immortality, he still cared about his pride, all right?

In the end, though, he merely gave Tsunade a sinister look and said nothing.

No matter what, he still had some history with Tsunade. Besides, he had been choked speechless by this woman’s blunt words more times than he could count in the past. He was more or less used to it by now.

Hearing that, Jugo looked at Yota in surprise. He had not expected even someone like Orochimaru to be subdued by another person.

However, Jugo did not care much. He was not loyal to Orochimaru. The main reason he allowed Orochimaru to lock him up and experiment on him was to treat his manic condition.

Jugo’s near split-personality-like mania was actually caused by his body naturally attracting Natural Energy. Yet he had no corresponding method of using Natural Energy and could not enter Sage Mode. Instead, the interference of Natural Energy drove him mad.

In a sense, Jugo could be considered to possess an innate Dao body. Of course, his innate Dao body was only half-complete. Only if it were combined with Hashirama Senju’s Sage Body could it be considered a true innate Dao body.

Jugo could naturally draw in Natural Energy, while Hashirama Senju’s Sage Body could make nearly complete use of Natural Energy. Combining the two might allow someone to remain in Sage Mode forever.

Yota looked at Jugo and said, "Solving your problem would not be troublesome for me. I only want to ask: after your mental problems are resolved, do you still want to retain your power?"

"If you still want to possess power, then the method will involve some risk. But if you only want to remain rational at all times, then it will be very easy."

Without hesitation, Jugo replied, "I choose the second option. As long as I can remain rational, that is enough."

Hearing that, Yota nodded. Without saying anything else, black mist spread from his hand and directly absorbed Jugo into the Dark Space.

In truth, Yota had wanted Jugo to choose the first option: modifying him with Hashirama Senju’s cells. That way, Jugo could test the path for him first and see whether his idea was correct.

But since Jugo had not chosen it, then so be it. In any case, with the Munch-Munch Fruit’s modification ability, even if the alteration did not turn out ideally, Yota could completely start over.

The biggest reason Jugo possessed such a strange physique was that his clan had often lived in a place rich in Natural Energy. Over time, they had been steeped in Natural Energy, causing their bodies to develop an enzyme capable of absorbing Natural Energy.

Orochimaru had long since told Yota all this. For ordinary people, completely extracting those enzymes from the body was an almost impossible task. But for Yota, the user of the Munch-Munch Fruit, it was effortless.

"All right." The Dark Space spat Jugo back out, while Yota casually picked up a test tube containing the enzymes extracted from Jugo’s body.