"Oh right, weren't you supposed to be at the job fair today?"
Orochimaru felt somewhat puzzled. Maki's Site — wodeshucheng.com
Such an important event as a job fair… And yet he still had time to run around delivering manga?
Slacking off again, were we?
"There's a Multiple Shadow Clone there; everything will be absolutely safe. Besides, I mainly came out midway to discuss with The Third about reemploying disabled jonin in the village."
Akaba quickly explained himself.
After listening, Orochimaru thought for a moment and soon understood.
Planning to let those jonin join the Preparatory Division?
That actually wasn't a bad idea.
Jonin are a village's most precious assets—redeploying them would bring nothing but benefits with no real downside.
"Lately, I've been thinking whether we can adopt Sand ninja techniques by using puppet components as replacements for lost limbs. If that could be achieved—"
He picked up his notebook and flipped through the record pages inside.
But just then—
A snake appeared once again.
"What do you want this time?"
Orochimaru hadn't even met Manda face-to-face, yet he'd already coughed up plenty in 'protection fees.' And now, after taking the manga, it was back just like that.
"Manda-sama asks which one is Sakuma Akaba."
"Sakuma Akaba? Never heard of him."
Orochimaru was clever—he figured these snakes probably had ill intentions toward Akaba, so better keep quiet about it.
The little snake seemed unconvinced after hearing that.
Because Manda insisted Akaba must be from Konoha.
It flicked its tail and continued, "Sakuma Akaba's manga is pretty good. Several great masters are quite interested in him. If you're interested, feel free to visit our Ryuchi Cave."
Ryuchi Cave?
Orochimaru inwardly froze, momentarily speechless.
His summoned snake clan actually originated from Ryuchi Cave—one of the Three Sacred Lands. Only now did he discover this fact.
However,
Akaba remained indifferent, acting as if nothing happened.
No one in Ryuchi Cave was easy to deal with. He had no intention of going there to become snake feed.
"So you all live in Ryuchi Cave."
"Indeed, our snake clan resides within the Ryuchi Hidden Village. That's correct. Then I'll take my leave first. wodeshucheng"
After finishing its words, the small snake coiled itself up, activating a technique to vanish from here, clearly returning to Ryuchi Cave.
Orochimaru gradually calmed down after the initial shock.
He felt astonished, yet upon reflection, regardless of whether Manda truly possessed Sage Art secrets or not, judging from its behavior alone, it didn't seem like someone willing to negotiate nicely.
Realizing this, he couldn't help but envy Jiraiya slightly.
Merely utilizing the Summoning Technique granted him access to Mount Myoboku and obtaining a toad clan summoning scroll—an opportunity only the so-called chosen ones could receive.
"Ahhh—"
Orochimaru sighed helplessly. Divine power cannot rival destiny. What else could he do?
In contrast, Akaba had absolutely zero intention of visiting Ryuchi Cave.
Was that place even suitable for human visits?
Filling with vicious bloodthirsty snakes where failure meant becoming snake feed. Although Sage Mode indeed sounded powerful, the trial process seemed overly harsh.
As for Boruto's method? It was so dumbed down it wasn't worth copying anymore.
Akaba already had the Yumekuma clan. He wasn't entirely sure about their actual strength yet, but judging by how notorious they were, they must have possessed considerable power.
Of course.
Don't expect them to be useful in direct combat though. Even Danzo's Summoning Beasts had physical bodies as fragile as paper.
Akaba had a complete plan on how to utilize the Yumekuma clan.
"By the way, you mentioned imitating Sunagakure Village?"
"Yes. Puppet-making can also be applied toward body modification. I noted this topic previously while reading your manga, but just never had time to work on it. If we manage to develop this technology, I believe certain jonin within the village could regain battlefield capability."
Orochimaru opened a Record Page and showed it to Akaba.
Diagrams showing prosthetic limb designs.
At the end of his theoretical notes, Orochimaru had written down the idea of using puppets to replace missing limbs, which could potentially reduce disability rates.
Noticing Akaba's gaze, Orochimaru explained, "Tsunade's Medical Jutsu is quite excellent. I thought there was no need for this approach. However, modifying current jonin who have lost limbs shouldn't be too difficult."
"We can give it a try first — start with testing on large wild beasts."
Prosthetic limb technology!
Success rate? Zero doubts there. It wasn't dangerous at all since it didn't involve cutting into the body — that part was already missing anyway.
The only real question was — if someone lost an arm, how would they do hand seals with a prosthetic limb?
This was a tough subject.
Orochimaru clearly considered this too. After pondering momentarily, he said, "For now, let's focus on creating puppet limbs before thinking about the issue of ninjutsu."
"Then I'll leave this to you."
Curiosity satisfied and noticing the other man was ready to get back to work, Akaba decided to take his leave politely.
Next door, Tsunade wasn't in the laboratory.
Everyone was busy.
Compared to them, he felt like a total couch potato. Today was supposed to be recruitment day, but he left it to a Shadow Clone and snuck away.
I really feel guilty!
Oh well, better go back to drawing.
Chances were high that the Anbu had gone to the Land of Whirlpools. His Points had been increasing slowly recently — after a day or two of accumulation, he barely managed to gather around a thousand points.
If he stopped updating for even longer, his point gains would decrease further.
Inside Ryuchi Cave.
Michishima Himei held onto a comic book, flipping through pages enthusiastically.
"You're actually interested in things made by humans?"
"Well, although it depicts humans' boring conflicts, it's actually quite interesting. That kid Orochimaru's up to no good again — I should drag him to Ryuchi Cave next time and give him a proper scare!"
She stuck out her tongue, her face suddenly twisting into a monstrous serpentine form — hideous and terrifying.
Tama Miko spoke indifferently, "Even Manda hasn't completely mastered Sage Art powers. As for that boy, unless he finds it himself, he doesn't even qualify to come to Ryuchi Cave."
"Don't say that. Manda wouldn't choose such an idiotic partner."
Michishima Himei flipped through the air holding her manga books.
Manda was also invaded by the Yumekuma's dream. But given his nature, he found these comics utterly uninteresting. Had it not been for Michishima Himei and the others, he wouldn't bother giving Orochimaru such humiliating orders at all.
"Who can tell for sure? Manda must be grasping at straws when picking allies."
Michishima Himei curled her lips.
The snakes in Ryuchi Cave had varying ranks and strengths, with the White Snake Sage at the highest level. The three Hebihimes were in charge of their duties; having cultivated the Power of the Sage, they had transformed into human form and ranked only below the White Snake Sage.
As for Manda,
its power was indeed extraordinary among ordinary snake clans.
Appearing as a little girl, Michishima Himei flipped through the pages. She had no interest in the Sharingan, Zabuza, or Haku—just casually flipping through until the "Orochimaru" from the manga appeared.
"Huh, this Orochimaru looks really similar to our snake clan."
Michishima instantly moved next to Tama Miko, showing her the manga.
Tama Miko glanced at it briefly.
Judging by appearance alone, he actually matched the snake clan's aesthetic preferences. Too bad he was just a human.
She turned away with a scoff, "Pathetic to waste time on human trash."
"I've heard there are more manga in Konoha. Next time, we could have Orochimaru offer some more—but it'll be troublesome, needing to go through Manda again."
"Why isn't that guy named Akaba my Summoning Blood Pact partner? That way I could summon him straight to Ryuchi Cave to keep drawing manga for me all day long without going through all these hassles."
Michishima sighed regretfully.
Once a Summoning Blood Pact is formed, it's difficult to change unless the current contract partner is killed.
However,
although Yumekuma weren't strong in direct combat, their hit-and-run tactics were endless, and their hideouts were extremely hard to locate. Even the White Snake Sage hadn't yet managed to find the Yumekuma clan's location.
So she gave up.
Looking at the remaining half of the manga volume, she hesitated—reluctant to finish it all, knowing afterward she would return to her boring dormant lifestyle.
After finishing one volume, she glanced around and realized Tama Miko had already left.
"Tsk! Acting like she's the only one who enjoys reading it—talking so disdainfully, yet still took the manga with her."
Michishima secretly grumbled inwardly.
Out of five sets of manga volumes, four had been brought here. Although the others claimed verbally that they didn't enjoy them, the other three sets still disappeared anyway.
Could it be they'd simply taken them without reading and eaten them directly?
Don't be silly!
Licking her tongue like a snake, she continued flipping through the comics. This small entertainment was truly great for killing time.
Unfortunately,
not long after, the dozens of comic volumes were finished.
The plot hadn't particularly touched her. Her only thought was—it just wasn't enough. It ended too soon after such a short while.
She lay down listlessly.
In the past, she'd simply fall asleep without caring about anything else; after all, dormancy and sleeping were equally enjoyable for a snake.
But now things were different.
Having experienced the earthly form of entertainment, the centuries-long sleeping habit could no longer satisfy her.
"Ask Manda to fetch some more; this wasn't nearly enough."
Not long after,
Orochimaru received another summons-message from Manda.
More manga?
He was about to lose his marbles. What happened to his once proud snake clan suddenly becoming like this.
How was a giant handless serpent supposed to read those tiny books? Were they licking the pages one by one?
Besides, needing new ones two or three times daily was just too much.
Who could possibly keep up with that?!
No choice.
He had no option but to personally make the trip and visit the Manga Shop.
This time, it didn't matter which manga—it was enough that if it existed in Akaba's shop, he bought a copy of every one. Using the Summoning Technique, he called forth the snake who served as their messenger, entrusting it with the bundle to deliver to Manda.
This time, there was no response for a very long while.
Orochimaru's temper had settled down; his earlier agitation faded as he prepared to return and continue his research.
Akaba felt deeply guilty and even hesitated to come out and offer comfort.
After all, ultimately, this mess had started with him—because he allowed Yumekuma to run that dream advertisement. Although he still didn't know who had fallen for the manga, those who dared to get Manda to speak were surely among a select few.
Better not provoke them. Definitely better not.
He only felt relieved that back then, he hadn't been foolish enough to accept Orochimaru's absurd offer and sign his Summoning Contract. Otherwise, right now he'd likely already be forcibly reverse-summoned to Ryuchi Cave, becoming a complete and utter comic sidekick.
That ending would have been too tragic—wishing neither to live nor to die.
"Sorry, Orochimaru. I'll think up more ideas for you later. Sorry about this," Akaba silently apologized from within.
He had just drawn three updated chapters of One Piece and was preparing to take a breather when Jiraiya showed up in equal haste.
"Big Bro. Yunlang, give me ten copies of the Chronicles of the Hokage comics."
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