Chapter 184: The Legend of the Eyes: A Brawl Across Five Villages

The pattering rain fell without end, casting an inexplicable gloom over one's mood.

Li Ang looked at the architectural style around him, which he had never seen before, and could not help but furrow his brow slightly.

'Where is it this time?'

Unlike the previous two transmigrations, no fixed NPC had appeared for him to interrogate.

'Better to proceed cautiously for now.'

With that thought, Li Ang stepped out of the alley.

There were few people on the street, and from their clothing one could tell that ordinary folk in this world were not doing well—or perhaps it was only the people in his current location who were not doing well.

But before long, Li Ang spotted a rather peculiar shop.

"Ninja Tool Shop"

Li Ang stared at the kunai displayed inside the shop and fell silent for a moment.

At that moment, the shop owner noticed his presence and stepped forward to greet him: "What would the ninja my lord like to buy? There's no better ninja tool shop in all of Rain Country than ours."

Ninja, Rain Country.

Li Ang instantly caught the key information.

'Naruto? Wait—!'

As if some crucial detail had occurred to him, his expression instantly turned grave.

Meanwhile, the shop owner was feeling a little uneasy, after all that ninja my lord at the shop entrance looked like someone not to be trifled with, and moreover behind him trailed a tall figure who had remained silent the whole time.

'He's not planning to rob me, is he...'

The owner could not help but mutter to himself.

Unaware of the owner's thoughts, Li Ang has already gotten his emotions under control and quickly walked to a nearby eave to take shelter from the rain.

The reason he did this was that in the original work there was someone who could sense the presence of outsiders through the rain, and that person's location happened to be Rain Country.

Watching the raindrops drifting down outside the eave, Li Ang thought to himself:

'Rain Tiger at Will Technique—no, that jutsu only seems to sense chakra. Luckily I don't have chakra, so I must be overthinking.'

Thinking this, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then began to ponder One's own situation.

How to put it, the Naruto world in the early-to-mid stages is basically high attack, low defense.

But by the late stages—

Some cheaters can tank an attack that sliced the moon and walk away without a scratch.

'Hopefully it's not the Fourth Great Ninja War arc.'

For Li Ang, if it was the early-to-mid stage of the plot, then the Gungnir that Old Tang had forged for him could genuinely ambush most ninja to death.

'But if this is Naruto...'

Ninjutsu, dojutsu, natural energy.

Without a doubt, this world could greatly enrich Li Ang's means, and the most important thing for him was to obtain the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

After all, if his guess was correct, it could drastically boost the efficiency of gaining experience.

'It's just that this world is a bit too dangerous.'

If one only looked at Naruto Shippuden it might not be so bad, but if you add Boruto—

Ōtsutsuki Shibai, an alien who constantly devours planets to nurture chakra fruit, thereby ultimately completing the great feat of transcendence.

Would you dare imagine such a character appearing in a manga where releasing attacks in the early stages required several seconds of hand seals?

'Looking at it this way, I need to obtain the relevant profession of this world as soon as possible.'

After briefly considering his current situation, Li Ang had made up his mind.

He definitely could not stay in Rain Country any longer—first, there was Changmen lurking in the shadows here; second, there were plenty of good things in the Naruto world, so there was no need for him to linger here.

Thinking this, Li Ang immediately took Odin and headed out of the village.

But just after leaving the village and entering the woods, he sensed something off.

It was far too quiet around him; the only sound reaching his ears was the rain hitting the ground.

'Have I been spotted...'

Li Ang lowered his eyelids slightly.

Perhaps the Rain Tiger at Will Technique had detected him, or perhaps the ninja tool shop owner had reported him—in any case, someone had followed.

Whoosh—!

Accompanied by a sharp sound cutting through the air, a pitch-black kunai suddenly shot out from the dense woods toward Li Ang's position.

But before it could get close, it had already been blocked by Odin.

At that moment, Li Ang said out of the blue: "Akatsuki?"

"It seems you've come prepared."

As the words fell, a bloated, hunched figure slowly emerged from the woods, and beside him was a man with an extremely ordinary appearance.

Seeing the arrivals, Li Ang narrowed his eyes slightly: "Sasori of the Red Sand?"

The bloated figure did not speak; instead, the ordinary-looking man beside him said: "Aren't you being a bit too arrogant, sir?"

Hearing this, Li Ang gave him a puzzled glance.

A character he had never seen.

Neither Orochimaru nor Deidara.

With doubt, he asked: "Is this a human puppet you made?"

"..." A hint of annoyance immediately appeared on the man's face. "You bastard!"

As his words fell, his hands began forming seals.

Boar-Monkey-Rat-Rat-Boar-Rat-Boar.

Pfft—

A long spear gleaming with a cold, hard luster pierced straight through his chest. The man lowered his head to look at the gaping hole in his own chest, then cast an incredulous glance at the bloated man beside him, and his head lolled to one side.

Dead.

Seeing this, Li Ang raised an eyebrow.

He hadn't expected the man opposite to be this weak—Odin had barely spent any effort finishing him off.

Still, Sasori of the Red Sand's attitude was rather intriguing—he had simply stood by and watched as Li Ang killed his companion.

And what era is this? How can anyone still be slowly forming hand seals? Doesn't everyone just clap their hands and shout for whatever they want?

At this moment, the bloated man asked in a raspy voice, "What technique is that?"

Li Ang was momentarily stunned, then realized why the other hadn't stopped him. He hadn't expected the puppet master opposite to be able to tell that Odin wasn't a living person.

Thinking of this, he said with an amused smile, "My own secret art. If you want to know, bring something to trade."

"."

Sasori fell silent.

After a while, a small booklet flew out from his abdomen and landed in front of Li Ang.

"Fundamentals of Sand Concealment Puppet Art."

Odin picked up the booklet from the ground and handed it to Li Ang.

It was at this moment that a notification popped up on his class panel.

【Contact with key class information】.

【Detect the world special class change: Puppeteer】.

——

【Class: Puppeteer】

【Class change requirements:

1. Prerequisite class 【Mortician】 max level (x)

2. Prerequisite class 【Doctor】 max level (x)

3. Learned one puppet technique (x)

4. Possesses an energy manipulation skill (√)】

【After class change:

1. Stat growth

2. Gain class skill — Puppet Manipulation

3. Gain class specialty — Novice Puppet Crafting Mastery

4. Gain special bonus:

Learning speed for puppet techniques will receive a slight boost.】

——

Ignoring the panel's information, Li Ang shrugged and said, "Not enough. But I can give you some prerequisite content first, and then you can decide whether to keep trading."

A mere copy of "Fundamentals of Sand Concealment Puppet Art" was clearly not enough to trade for the Corpse Guardian Synthesis technique, although he also didn't know whether these ninja could learn alchemy.

After a moment of silence, the bloated man named Sasori of the Red Sand turned and said, "Follow me."

With that, he walked back in the direction he had come from.

Seeing this, Li Ang thought briefly, then followed.

Based on what he knew so far, the plot shouldn't be at any particularly dangerous point.

Moreover, with Reverse Birth: Three Layers and Odin as his fallback, there weren't many existences within the Akatsuki that could pose a lethal threat to him.

Not to mention there was also the Gungnir that Old Tang had replicated.

Besides, this mercenary organization should currently be the fastest way for him to get access to ninjutsu.

As he passed by a plain-looking man, Li Ang noticed that the ring on his right index finger bore the character "Blue."

'Sasori's partner after Orochimaru defected from the Akatsuki?'

Li Ang suppressed the doubt in his heart, slipped the ring off the man's hand, then caught up with Sasori of the Red Sand.

……

Within a vast cavern, two bound hands stretched out from before a massive, ferocious-looking statue.

And on the fingertips of those hands stood figures of varying builds, though some of the fingers were empty.

At this moment, the figure in the middle—whose face could not be seen, only a pair of eyes filled with purple rings—spoke: "Have you found out his identity? Kakuzu."

"No," the other figure called Kakuzu replied. "I checked. Recently, no powerful defectors have appeared in any of those ninja villages."

"I see." The middle figure's tone was cold. "Then find a chance to deal with him."