Arima remained in place, patiently awaiting the results of the three squads' operations.
By now, the damaged railway had been repaired by accompanying engineers, and the train was ready to depart again at any time.
Just then, Arima noticed that Tsunade and Iwa's squad were the first to return, followed closely by Dodai and Kata's team. Orochimaru and Jiraiya's squad, however, arrived much later.
When Jiraiya finally returned, his once-luxurious white hair was charred and frizzed in places, with patches of red, scalded scalp peeking through.
Everyone looked at his disheveled state with curiosity. Overall, the missing-nin encountered had been average in strength and shouldn't have posed much threat to him or Orochimaru.
Kata asked in confusion, "Jiraiya… what happened to… to your hair?"
Seeing him stammering, Tsunade couldn't help her impatience. She cut him off and blurted, "What happened to your hair?"
Seeing that everyone else had returned unscathed while he alone looked like a mess, Jiraiya scratched his head sheepishly. "I let my guard down, heh!"
Arima turned to look at Orochimaru, prompting him to take over the explanation.
He recounted their earlier encounter. Jiraiya and Orochimaru had been tracking a group of five rogue shinobi. The group had poor coordination and was quickly dispatched by the two.
However, just as they were preparing to escort the bodies back, one of the corpses suddenly stood up. Black tendrils burst out of its body, and four masked creatures split off from it.
While Jiraiya stood momentarily stunned, two of the masks launched a combined wind and fire jutsu, hurtling toward him in a deadly fusion.
With no time to dodge, Jiraiya had been forced to use Needle Jizo to protect himself. Orochimaru assisted him, pulling him out of the sea of flames just in time.
Once they used a combined Water Style jutsu to extinguish the fire, they found that their attacker had completely vanished.
Even the four masked beasts had disappeared without a trace. The remaining four prisoners had all been reduced to charred husks in the blaze.
With no leads left, the two could only return empty-handed.
Arima seemed intrigued by the mystery assailant's identity. Looking at the two, he said, "It's fine, just be more careful next time. Wait here a moment. I'm going to see who that was."
With that, Arima vanished from sight.
Kata jumped up, stammering, "Th-th-that was, !"
Jiraiya's eyes lit up. "Kata, my man! That's the Flying Thunder God Technique, the specialty of our Third Hokage! Bet that's your first time seeing it, huh?"
Iwa also looked slightly awed.
She murmured, "Even if a Tailed Beast Bomb came flying at him, the Third Hokage could instantly warp it away with that jutsu…
The spatial transfer barrier between the two villages was based on this and the Heavenly Transfer Technique. The Third is honestly like a walking enigma."
Tsunade was more than familiar with that technique, after all, her "Arima-nii" used to bring her to school with it every day.
Jiraiya shrugged helplessly.
"That jutsu really demands an innate spatial affinity! I tried learning it once… but I just don't have the gift. I wonder if I'll ever find a student with the genius needed to master it…"
Orochimaru gave Jiraiya a meaningful glance and smirked.
"Only those who have worked hard understand how crucial talent really is. Seems even a blockhead like you puts in effort sometimes."
Jiraiya shot him a speechless look. Orochimaru had been his childhood friend for years, but somehow, even his compliments never quite sounded right.
Thanks to him, Jiraiya's skin had grown pretty thick, he honestly wasn't sure whether to thank the guy or punch him.
The group chatted casually for a while before Arima returned unscathed, dragging a ninja bound tightly in pitch-black tendrils.
Everyone gathered around, curious to see the shinobi who had caught Jiraiya off guard. He had rare green irises that gleamed eerily against the faintly reddish hue of his skin.
Two stitched scars ran from the corners of his mouth back toward his ears, giving him a menacing, almost demonic look.
Jiraiya crouched beside him, staring with interest.
"I remember Orochimaru impaled your heart with a kunai. How the hell are you alive?"
Only now did the others realize just how close Jiraiya had come to dying in that ambush.
Tsunade scoffed. "That's what you get for never reading! This technique is fully detailed in Arima-nii's Secret Techniques of the Ninja World. Orochimaru even gave you a copy!"
Jiraiya finally came to his senses, he really had grown too reliant on Orochimaru, neglecting the most basic intel gathering. He didn't argue. He simply accepted Tsunade's scolding.
Seeing Jiraiya genuinely reflect for once, Arima felt a bit gratified. It wasn't too late for him to grow.
Turning to the puzzled Dodai and the others, Arima explained, "Back when the First Hokage delivered the Seven-Tails to Takigakure, he saw this forbidden jutsu there.
It's called Earth Grudge Fear. It uses tendrils to steal hearts from other people, along with their chakra nature, and grafts them into the user's own body.
This allows the practitioner to use all five basic chakra natures at an advanced level. By continuously replacing old hearts, they can achieve something close to immortality."
"The black tendrils can also stitch flesh together. Even when separated from the body, they can move freely like living creatures.
The tendrils' length and shape are fully controllable, making the jutsu adaptable to almost any situation. Users of Earth Grudge Fear have virtually no blind spots."
Seeing everyone intrigued by the idea of immortality, Arima continued, "But immortality is only relative. First, the caster must transform themselves into something grotesque like this man.
Second, the success rate is low. And finally, and this is what I hate most, they must regularly harvest fresh hearts from others to stay alive. It's a cruel way to survive, parasitizing on others' lives."
Dodai and the others now understood why the Third Hokage himself had gone to capture this man, it all made sense.
Even Orochimaru, deeply obsessed with the secrets of life, found the Earth Grudge Fear technique too crude and unsophisticated for his taste.
Arima crouched down and locked eyes with the captured rogue, activating his Sharingan. He began interrogating him on the spot.
Through the extracted intel, they learned that the strange shinobi's name was Kakuzu, formerly an elite Jonin of Takigakure.
After defecting, he had roamed the ninja world, taking assassination jobs through bounty platforms.
It turned out the movements of their seven-person squad had been posted on one such platform well in advance. A bounty was offered for killing any of them, with especially large payouts.
Though many feared the Third Hokage's reputation, the lure of money was stronger.
Since they only needed to collect the heads of the others to claim the reward, they believed they could succeed without directly confronting the Third himself.
Nearly a hundred missing-nin had thus temporarily banded together, hoping to bring down a tiger through a wolf pack assault.
The result, however, was exactly as expected, a complete disaster. Not a single attacker escaped. All were captured.
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