Chapter 196: How Can Squeezing Yourself Be Called Squeezing?

Thick mist obscured the vision, faint shadows of buildings barely visible through the haze.

Inside the Water Shadow Building, its outer walls stained with mottled bloodstains, a man and a woman stared solemnly at the intelligence laid on the table.

The man was an elderly figure, nearly at death's door, while the woman was a mature woman with long, wavy auburn hair.

The two were the current ruling Jonin of Kirigakure, and the next candidate for Water Shadow: Chōmei Mei.

Closing the report before her, Chōmei Mei couldn't help but sigh: "Aoi is dead."

She hadn't expected her longtime trusted aide to die so silently.

Unlike Chōmei Mei, the Jonin cared about something else: "Aoi's Byakugan was taken."

The intelligence recorded that the ninja who killed Aoi had performed the procedure of removing the Byakugan.

'Coincidence? Or was Aoi the original target?'

A shadow flickered in the old man's eyes—there were no such coincidences in the ninja world.

Moreover, according to the intelligence, Aoi and all other Kirigakure ninja involved in this mission were crushed without offering any meaningful resistance.

'Akatsuki'

The Jonin silently chewed over the name of the infamous underground mercenary organization.

'Was this a contract from the Hyūga clan?'

At this time, Akatsuki still had a decent reputation as a mercenary group.

You mean which kind of reputation?

They kill your entire family if you hire them!

Well, actually, it's about fulfilling contracts—after all, every member is a powerful ninja who defected from one of the hidden villages.

Thinking of this, the Jonin asked Chōmei Mei: "Have you identified the identity of the one who struck?"

The intelligence indicated that the Akatsuki member who killed Aoi called himself Ryū, codenamed Aoi.

"No. None of the other four hidden villages have recently seen powerful missing-nin emerge," Chōmei Mei shook her head slightly. "Though it's possible they've concealed the information."

Information among the major hidden villages is not shared; if one hides something, Kirigakure, isolated on its island, would never know.

Hearing Chōmei Mei's words, the Jonin fell silent.

After a long while, he spoke: "Seal all details of this mission. We can't be the only ones suffering this loss."

When Akatsuki completes contracts, they inevitably encounter ninja from the other major hidden villages.

Without intelligence, the old man could already foresee what would happen.

"Understood."

Chōmei Mei nodded and turned to leave the Water Shadow's office.

Both silently avoided mentioning revenge—casualties during contract operations were only natural.

If every death required revenge, the hidden villages wouldn't take any contracts at all.

Of course, this refers to actively seeking revenge; if one happens to cross paths with the enemy—

As long as it doesn't harm their own interests, the hidden villages wouldn't mind avenging their fallen tools.

Since Akatsuki seeks to capture the tailed beasts, they naturally monitor the movements of all jinchūriki.

The most unusual is the Three-Tails, the only tailed beast currently in a wild state.

Looking at the seemingly calm lake before him, Li Ang sat on a tree stump and said casually: "Is the leader worried Kirigakure will regain a jinchūriki?"

The previous jinchūriki of the Three-Tails was the Fourth Water Shadow, one of the few who achieved perfect control over a tailed beast.

Unfortunately, after being beaten by Pain, Konan, and Tobi, he was controlled by Tobi, only regaining his senses after Aoi dispelled the genjutsu—then he died in despair.

After that, the Three-Tails became wild.

Thus, Kirigakure certainly knows the Three-Tails' whereabouts, though perhaps due to limited capability, they've never managed to recapture it.

But it's also likely the Three-Tails prefers hiding beneath the lake—after all, in such an environment, not only is combat impossible, even reconnaissance is extremely difficult.

Fortunately, this isn't a problem for Li Ang.

Shishō can enter water, and Odin is no exception.

At his signal, the towering figure immediately submerged into the water.

Seeing this, the previously preparing Sasori halted his actions.

Moments later, Odin surfaced, then lay on the ground like a lifeless fish, motionless.

"The Three-Tails is sleeping below."

Li Ang explained, then saw Sasori turn away from the lake.

Wait, you really just came to check the situation?

But then again, according to his memory, the Three-Tails was captured after the One-Tail and Two-Tails, and before that, Akatsuki had already captured two other tailed beasts.

So it's likely Changmen sent Sasori with him to verify that Akatsuki's ultimate goal isn't a lie.

Thinking of this, Li Ang followed Sasori's steps.

He'd already earned enough from this contract—leveling up the 【Ninja】 class to max and acquiring a Byakugan alone justified all the travel.

Thus, Li Ang and Sasori left the Land of Water without any incident revealing their whereabouts.

After all, when capturing tailed beasts, no amount of caution is excessive.

Soon, the two returned to Akatsuki's base and found Konan to submit their mission completion report.

Li Ang received the promised jutsu as agreed.

But just before leaving, Konan said: "Tomorrow, Sasori, take Ryū to that location for assembly."

"Understood," Sasori replied in a hoarse voice.

That location?

Li Ang paused in surprise, but seeing neither of them intended to explain, he suppressed his curiosity for now.

After returning to his quarters in the base, he began reviewing the secret techniques collected by the Akatsuki over the years.

Chakra Scalpel, Shadow Clone Technique

Most of them were useless to Li Ang, but fortunately, the technique he cared about most was recorded.

Then again, it made sense—Sasori and Itachi of the organization certainly knew this technique, and the one who taught Changmen and the others was Jiraiya; moreover, this technique wasn't as dangerous as the other forbidden jutsu created by the evil Senju elder, so its spread throughout the Ninja World wasn't surprising.

The Shadow Clone Technique was a B-rank jutsu, but not particularly difficult.

Thanks to the special bonuses from his 【Ninja】 profession, Li Ang quickly mastered this jutsu.

Boom—

As a puff of white smoke rose, two figures identical to him appeared instantly in the room.

The expressions of these figures were infinitely more agile than those of his previous clones.

Since he hadn't invested much energy, Li Ang had only created two shadow clones.

This energy was evenly divided into three portions: one for himself, one for each shadow clone.

'Not very suitable for combat.'

For Li Ang, his strength lay in the attributes and proficiencies granted by multiple professions, but unfortunately, the shadow clones didn't inherit these values—they possessed only the energy he had allocated.

Yet he never intended to use the Shadow Clone Technique for combat.

After commanding one clone to sew corpses and another to perform simple alchemical work, Li Ang waited silently.

But after a long while, the panel remained silent, making him wonder if he'd guessed wrong.

Yet soon Li Ang realized—in the original story, shadow clones only returned memories and experience after being dispelled; if that was the case…

Thinking this, he immediately dispelled both shadow clones.

【Sewing corpses, profession experience +21】.

【Performing alchemical work, profession experience +14】.

Seeing the notifications pop up on the panel, Li Ang couldn't help but smile.

'Then I won't have to worry about experience points for most of my professions from now on.'

Although the experience granted wasn't huge, he wasn't limited to just two shadow clones.

The reason I say 'most' professions is because each profession gains experience differently—professions like 【Dragon Vein Alchemist】 and 【Undertaker】 were fine, but ones like 【Qi Cultivator】, which require energy circulation, or others that gain experience through combat, wouldn't work well.

However, using shadow clones to gain experience wasn't without side effects—when dispelling them, not only experience but also accumulated fatigue was returned.

But Li Ang wasn't like the ninja of this world; the stats from his multiple professions were enough to make him immune to this side effect.

Overall, the Shadow Clone Technique had solved his immediate problem.

After summoning two more shadow clones, Li Ang stared at his own figures laboring away and fell into thought.

Currently, shadow clones couldn't stray far from him, so he could only use them during his free time to speed up experience gain.

But if he later learned spatial creation and could craft a personal pocket dimension, then…

'Wouldn't I essentially be carrying a harvest minigame plus a heartless assembly line factory?'

This was a truly heartless factory—no wages, no meals, work until you drop dead if you don't die first.

Shocking!

Am I the capitalist?!

No, exploiting myself doesn't count as exploitation!

Thinking of this, Li Ang burst out laughing.

Regardless, the Shadow Clone Technique was certainly one of his most valuable gains from this Naruto journey.

'Then next, I should study the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique.'

Recalling the original story's description of this technique, Li Ang immediately began experimenting.

The next day.

Li Ang yawned and followed Sasori to the place Xiao Nan had mentioned the day before.

He looked this way because he had spent the entire night researching the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique—but ultimately failed to produce it.

'I should get a chance to borrow the Scroll of Seals from Konoha; I'm also curious about the other jutsu inside.'

'Too bad the Akatsuki's secret techniques are few that I can actually use.'