The next day, after a good night's sleep, Jugo went to the library and began searching for information about the locations where the greatest battles in the ninja world had taken place, places that remain desolate to this day.
Sunlight purifies these places over time, so a location with low light would be ideal, or else the deaths would need to be recent.
Unfortunately, the last ninja war ended more than 10 years ago.
Searching for such places publicly wouldn't sit well with Jugo either, since it was something very unusual, so he could only search in general geographical archives under the guise of wanting to learn more about the world.
Even using some clones for this, the results were mediocre.
But on the other hand, Jugo found something else he was looking for.
The white-haired ninja's name is Hirota Ken, a Jonin from the Village Hidden in the Sound.
How did Jugo find him? He was sent on a mission by the Daimyo himself from the Land of Sound.
The mission? To find the cause of the anomaly in the corpses.
The man found one of Jugo's clones, knowing he only needed one more day to complete his potion. Jugo didn't care much where the clones were going. Ken found a clone of Jugo and went after it. Luckily, the clone's speed was much greater than Ken's, so he managed to escape without revealing that he was a clone.
Unfortunately, since Jugo used his ninja skills, it became clear that it was ninjas doing this, not a true resurrection of the dead event.
The reasons were unclear, but for Jugo, that didn't matter, in the early hours of the following day, he had finished his performance.
Ironically, he only personally participated three times while testing, the others were all clones.
Another interesting fact was that as the sequence progressed, his Bind ability continued to get stronger, he needed about 10% more clones on the second day and 30% more to complete the performance on the last day, which left Jugo somewhat pessimistic.
The second day wasn't very clear, because he had learned from the mistakes of the first day, and progress had actually increased, not decreased, but comparing all the days, the change was clear.
His ability was passive and he couldn't stop it from strengthening, so when he levels up to Wraith, Bind will likely become even stronger, plus its sequence will continue to increase. Until then, how many clones will he need to achieve the same effect?
Sighing, Jugo didn't care much, he didn't even know what it would be like to act as a Wraith. Perhaps it wasn't even possible to use clones to act from the start, in the end, the profit from the Zombie sequel had already been an unexpected event.
Once the potion was finished, Jugo's number of werewolves increased from 18 to 27 and zombies from 6 to 9, unfortunately, his total number of subordinates was still only the 3 dogs.
But Jugo didn't mind much, finishing the potion had helped him recover somewhat from his heavy head and now he only had a slight headache. This was a happy event because he needed to go out hunting!
Hirota Ken was probably on his way to Otogakure, he needed to hurry to find him before he reached the base. That moment was his best chance to turn him into a subordinate.
He only hoped that the man could withstand the Werewolf's power, judging by the fact that he already had Jugo's cursed mark, it was quite likely that he would succeed.
Jugo slipped out of the Sound Village without alerting any sentries, he had already familiarized himself with the patrols by sending out his clones, so leaving was easy.
Finding patterns in security is a basic skill for a Prisoner, even more so now that he was on sequence 6. He believes that in terms of escaping any place, he's on top of the world.
(A/N: I was thinking that the prisoner's path would also be fun in the world of One Piece, starting as a prisoner of Impel Down. If anyone writes about that, let me know.)
Separating a dozen clones, he let them go ahead to find out which route the man was taking to return.
He, on the other hand, went behind, following the general direction.
Two hours later, a clone dissipated, the memories clearly showed Hirota Ken returning at high speed, luckily he was alone, Jugo instantly changed his direction and accelerated greatly.
It took less than half an hour to find Ken, at that moment, Jugo didn't even need to hide, appearing right in front of him.
Ken's eyes narrowed as he stopped abruptly, he only refrained from attacking because he recognized Jugo.
-Jugo, what are you doing here?- The man asked, his voice jovial, he probably wasn't even an adult at that point. This guy's talent is evident.
Jugo didn't bother to answer, instead, he moved forward with a speed that Ken couldn't comprehend.
Ken's eyes widened as he tried to escape, but he could only clench his teeth, a deep claw cut being made on his arm, drawing blood.
The man finally managed to distance himself, looking at Jugo with fear and caution, only to see his wound emitting a faint dark aura.
Just as he was about to open his mouth and ask what the hell Jugo was doing, a tremendous pain made him fall, clutching his arm tightly.
The guy started fighting, using his chakra to stop the curse from spreading, but unfortunately, like a zombie having completed his digestion, Jugo's curse was far stronger than him.
Jugo approached as he watched the man writhe on the ground, his body almost completely hidden by the darkness of the night, even the moonlight couldn't illuminate it through the dense treetops.
Jugo's light footsteps approached calmly, but Ken heard nothing, screaming as he rolled on the ground. Soon his body began to transform, thick fur began to grow as his body rapidly increased in size.
The curse mark on her neck also rippled continuously, causing greater pain, but remained firm, without being fully active.
Hirota Ken's rationality continually crumbled, giving way to a ferocious bloodlust.
Dogs fared better in this aspect, they were accustomed to the primitive side, while humans, on the other hand, were not so lucky.
Moments later, Hirota Ken stood up, looking at Jugo with red eyes. Even though he felt the urge to go on a rampage, he still lowered his head and bowed deeply, his eyes quickly drifting to the ground.
-Say it after me.- Jugo ordered, as he began to speak in English, hoping the man could reproduce the phonetics. -Lord of the Abyss, Chained Curse, Father of Devils.
The werewolf, now with a deep voice, began to repeat slowly, but it still took a few minutes for the phonetics to come out close enough. Jugo felt the connection to the Tenebrous World send a signal, he quickly entered while watching the new star appear.
He touched her while connecting to Hirota Ken, the next moment, he sent a tiny fragment of energy from the Tenebrous World. His control after the Zombie potion was enough to leave only a trace, causing no harm to Hirota Ken's consciousness.
It was even smaller than the one that was trapped in Ino, but it was enough, when Orochimaru entered, he could corrupt him instantly.
Finally smiling, Jugo returned to his body while looking at the still submissive Hirota Ken in his wolf form.
-Return to human form.- Jugo urged, this was the moment of truth.
The next moment, Hirota began convulsing, rolling on the ground again, but unlike the dogs, his rationality helped him more at this point, it only took him ten minutes to fully return to human form.
With his clothes stretched by the transformation, most of them were destroyed, but Jugo was ready, pulling an extra set from a summoning scroll. Luckily, the Sound's clothes were fairly standard, most Jonin wore the same thing, so no one would notice a missing set.
-Master.- Ken said, now kneeling on one knee and looking at the ground.
-Continue as if you've never seen me before, never talk about what happened here.- Jugo explained calmly.
-Yes.- the man promised, Jugo left soon after.