After quite a while, Orochimaru had filled both rows of test tubes with blood.
Under Akashō's strange gaze, he carefully sealed each tube with a stopper and stored them back into a scroll.
"Want more? If not, I can grab a basin and keep collecting."
Akashō asked casually.
Orochimaru shook his head. "This is a battlefield. Without proper storage containers, taking more wouldn't be useful."
"Oh."
Akashō nodded, controlling his Demon Body to heal the wound on his wrist.
Orochimaru chuckled as he tucked the storage scroll into his clothes, then looked at Akashō with a friendly expression.
"I really didn't expect you to be so easy to talk to in private. I thought the moment you heard I wanted your blood, you'd just cut me down."
Akashō glanced at him indifferently. The reason Orochimaru thought that way was simple—his impression had already been fixed, something like a predefined persona.
Violence at the slightest disagreement, killing without reason, cruel and cold-blooded—that was the image Akashō had shown Orochimaru.
But in reality, Akashō only acted that way when it benefited him. When there were no interests involved and his mental state was relatively stable, he actually leaned more toward a laid-back, do-nothing attitude.
Like now—there was no reputation to gain from entangling himself with Orochimaru, and no enjoyment either. Why bother?
If letting a bit of blood avoided the trouble, why not? Besides, in his Kokushibo state, he didn't lack blood at all.
Still, even though the two of them appeared calm and capable of peaceful coexistence, Akashō knew very well that the moment anything crossed their bottom lines, they would immediately launch deadly attacks at each other.
"By the way, could you let Bertholdt Hoover give me some blood too?"
Orochimaru suddenly asked with a shameless grin.
Akashō's face darkened. This guy was getting greedy.
"No. I'm not close with him."
"I see."
Orochimaru nodded, somewhat disappointed. Then he pulled out several scrolls from his pocket and handed them to Akashō.
"I won't take your blood for free. Consider these an exchange."
Akashō looked at him in surprise. This guy actually had principles?
"What are these?"
"Some scrolls about the ninja system," Orochimaru explained. "You monsters have powerful bodies, yet you don't know how to use chakra. That's a huge waste."
"They contain some basic theoretical knowledge about ninja techniques. Study them—I guarantee they'll benefit you."
Akashō narrowed his eyes, staring at the smiling Orochimaru for a while before finally accepting the scrolls.
"To be honest, what I want is more than just your blood. I'd really like to dissect you thoroughly."
The moment he heard that, killing intent surged in Akashō's heart.
As expected, this guy was a complete lunatic—just… focused in a slightly different direction.
"But unfortunately, your strength isn't much weaker than mine. At our level, unless one of us is willing to fight to the death, even killing each other is difficult—let alone capturing someone alive."
"So, I sincerely want to be your friend. Hopefully, we can cooperate and benefit each other in the future. Of course, you don't have to give me an answer right now."
"In your eyes, I probably don't have anything that can tempt you yet. But that's fine—time will prove that we're quite suited to be friends."
Orochimaru let out a hoarse chuckle, then slowly backed out of the tent.
"I've already withdrawn the patrols for tonight. You can leave safely. If you ever need anything, come find me anytime."
"As a friend, as long as it's not too unreasonable, I won't refuse."
With that, he lowered the curtain and left Akashō standing there, deep in thought.
"Oh, right."
Orochimaru suddenly poked his head back in.
"A reminder—the identity of someone called Uzumaki Akashō isn't simple. Jiraiya aside, his clanswoman Kushina Uzumaki is the Nine-Tails jinchūriki. And the person close to him… is also very strong."
"I won't harm him."
"Heh, that's none of my business. Just giving you a reminder."
With that, Orochimaru withdrew his head again. Listening to the fading footsteps, it seemed he had truly left this time.
Akashō glanced at the scrolls Orochimaru had given him, thought for a moment, then stuffed them into his pack and slung it over his shoulder.
Stepping out of the tent, he looked around. Just as Orochimaru had said, the patrol squads had been withdrawn.
Akashō quickly left the Konoha camp, determined his direction, and headed toward the battlefield between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire.
He sprinted all the way until near dawn before finally slowing down and settling into a cave.
Returning to his original form, then transforming into Bertholdt Hoover, Akashō took out the scrolls Orochimaru had given him and began reading.
But the moment he opened the first scroll, he frowned.
It wasn't that the contents were hard to understand—it was that this seemed to be… an intelligence report?
"Iwagakure has dispatched a large number of ninja from the village. At the border of the Land of Earth, they've gathered with approximately eight thousand ninja wearing Iwagakure headbands. A total force of ten thousand ninja is advancing toward the Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning. It is suspected they intend to exploit the fact that many Cloud Village ninja are fighting on the frontlines and launch a rear assault on their main base."
"Ten thousand ninja!?"
Akashō couldn't help widening his eyes. What was going on? Logically, even if a hidden village mobilized everyone, it should only have around five to six thousand ninja in total. Where did Iwagakure get ten thousand from?
Reading further, it seemed to be someone's analysis of the situation.
"Of the ten thousand, fewer than two thousand are likely actual Iwagakure ninja, and most of them are lower-level cannon fodder. The rest are probably rogue ninja hired by Iwagakure, along with members of various smaller ninja factions."
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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