Sitting in the dark-styled church, Hibari held a document containing various pieces of information that his Anbu subordinates had extracted from the high priest's mind. On the other side of the table were some books about the Jashin cult that had been stored in the church.
"So that's it. No wonder that animal loved performing human sacrifices everywhere. It was to use them as a medium to gain immortality?" Hibari murmured softly as he looked at the document.
That animalistic high priest's habit of holding human sacrifices wasn't just for his own amusement, or at least, that wasn't the original intention. Whether it later became a hobby, Hibari didn't know, nor did he care to find out, as it was pointless.
Based on the current intelligence and the books he had collected, the Jashin cult did have some 'substance.' The origins of the cult were very old, existing at least two or three hundred years ago. However, their doctrines were likely anti-human, so they naturally died out or were destroyed. These were all irrelevant details that Hibari was too lazy to research, as he wasn't an archaeologist.
Later, these 'legacies' of the Jashin cult were somehow acquired by that high priest when he was a pirate. The man was uncultured, a former hooligan, and naturally lacked a broad perspective. He was the type of person who could easily be fooled by strange things.
After obtaining these 'legacies' of the Jashin cult, he became a devout believer in the events recorded within them, firmly convinced that an ancient god, Jashin, existed. After constantly reading these cultic books and drifting on the monotonous sea, he naturally sought a faith to relieve the boredom in his heart.
It was for these reasons that he became a follower of the unknown evil god and vowed to rebuild the Jashin cult, spreading Jashin's glory throughout the world and receiving gifts like immortality.
His idea was wonderful, but reality was cruel. He had been targeted by Hibari, and now, let alone immortality, he was being tortured to the point of 'begging for death.'
As for the existence of Jashin and similar things recorded in the books, Hibari remained noncommittal. These things were quite uncanny. On one hand, you could say you don't believe in ghosts or gods, yet he inexplicably came to this world, which was a 'supernatural phenomenon.' If anyone could achieve this, it wouldn't be an exaggeration for Hibari to call them a 'god.'
But if you said Hibari believed in ghosts and gods, he would feel it was unnecessary. The saying 'rely on mountains, mountains fall; rely on gods, gods run' isn't a joke. Ultimately, Hibari believed that a person must rely on themselves. Believing in ghosts or gods was largely meaningless unless someone was interested in it and wanted to find a spiritual belief to rely on, which would be perfectly fine. But Hibari simply didn't have that interest.
So he had no desire to investigate whether Jashin existed or not. He even felt that if he did, he might just get himself into trouble. It was better not to muddy the waters.
The reason the Jashin cult had some 'substance' was that they did possess a ritual for achieving immortality through 'human sacrifice.' The high priest was trying to achieve this very goal.
However, the man was uncultured and couldn't produce any results from the sacrifices, so he ultimately failed to achieve his goal.
Hibari looked at the Jashin cult's human sacrifice and immortality jutsu, its curse jutsu, and the 'Curse Jutsu: Death Possession Blood' that Hidan later used frequently. He couldn't help but smile and shake his head helplessly.
"This whole Jashin cult really suffered from a lack of culture. No wonder their operations had no grandeur and they were constantly struggling. Even if I hadn't intervened, they would have been close to shutting down." Hibari said, mocking the Jashin cult with some disdain.
Regardless of whether Jashin truly existed, Hibari, having received an excellent education from the Senju clan and learning many advanced techniques from the 'Forbidden Jutsu Inventor' Tobirama, was a knowledgeable youth of the new ninja era.
He could tell at a glance that these chaotic 'curse jutsu' and 'human sacrifice' religious rituals were all just window dressing added by ambitious people for various reasons, whether to satisfy their own darkness, establish a Jashin cult, or gather followers.
The purpose was to fool people so that their followers, upon witnessing these 'divine miracles,' would become more devoted to Jashin and thus more obedient.
In the end, once you strip away the religious trappings of 'human sacrifice' and 'curse jutsu' and extract the essence, these things could be seen as dark secret jutsu created by certain ancient ninja geniuses. They were of a similar nature to the Shiryōjutsu secret techniques that Hibari had developed.
However, for some reason, these secret jutsu were lost and a Jashin cult gradually developed, which then caused trouble in the present era.
The reason that high priest failed to achieve immortality despite performing countless sacrifices was, to put it bluntly, his lack of culture. He never grasped the key points, only seeing them as religious rituals and completely failing to see that these things were within the scope of jutsu.
To achieve immortality, human sacrifice was completely unnecessary; he just needed to properly learn and master the jutsu.
The same was true for Hidan later on. Although he was a shinobi from the Land of Hot Water's village... to put it bluntly, for a broken, rundown little place like the Land of Hot Water, for it to produce a powerful shinobi would be a miracle. So, the shinobis from the Land of Hot Water were just the best of a bad bunch, with no real skill.
Otherwise, Hidan would have made a name for himself much earlier and wouldn't have needed to join the Jashin cult. So, theoretically, Hidan was also a person of little culture. If he had been a little more educated, he wouldn't have been brainwashed into a fanatic.
The reason he was the only one in the Jashin cult to gain immortality was likely due to a freak talent. During a human sacrifice, he got lucky, stumbled into the right conditions by chance, and received this 'gift.'
Due to his lack of education and the fact that he truly did gain this so-called 'immortality,' Hidan became even more devoted to Jashin, turning him into a genuine cultist.
After carefully extracting the hidden jutsu information, Hibari finally understood the 'true nature' of this immortality.
It was indeed a form of immortality, theoretically. The effect of the jutsu was to 'zombify' the body. However, it wasn't as obvious as it was with Kinkaku and Ginkaku. The exterior could still be considered a living body, with life signs like blood and a heartbeat. It also required constant nourishment through eating to maintain the 'vitality' of the body's surface; otherwise, it would slowly rot.
However, in essence, the side effects of this jutsu were also very severe. Since it 'zombified' the body, it basically lost its most fundamental 'life force' and 'vitality.' Anyone who gained this kind of immortality, while able to survive having their head and limbs cut off, would also have their chakra suppressed to the extreme.
In other words, a person who used this jutsu to gain immortality would basically have to give up on ninjutsu. At most, they could use the derivative jutsu of this technique, like Hidan, and use curses or something, then just go around with a scythe or learn some taijutsu.
This caused Hibari, who was originally very interested in the Jashin cult's 'immortality,' to completely lose interest in learning the jutsu.
If he were to learn this jutsu for the sake of immortality, it would be like 'dropping the watermelon to pick up the sesame seeds.' All his powerful abilities would be rendered useless. He would have to be insane to learn this jutsu.
However, even though he couldn't learn the jutsu himself, it wasn't a total loss. He had still obtained some very secretive secret jutsu, and the knowledge they contained was very valuable to Hibari. It would also be a great help for his goal of further developing Shiryōjutsu and researching more jutsu of a similar nature. He could learn a lot from the knowledge within them.
Even more importantly, this jutsu was perfect for cultivating a group of people who might not have much potential or power as shinobi but were extremely loyal. He could teach them this immortality, and they could become his personal 'zombie army'... The thought of it gave him a little thrill!
"So it wasn't a wasted trip after all. I did gain something, even if it was a little disappointing..." Hibari said with a self-deprecating smile.
He then placed the books on the table, stood up to stretch his body a little, and looked out at the scenery through the gloomy, frosted glass.
The Land of Hot Water was now in a state of ruin, and this was a painful thing for the Land of Hot Water but a great 'testing ground' for Hibari to make his mark!
Through economics, he could gain control of the entire Land of Hot Water, grasping its lifelines in his hands. But due to his status as a renowned family member of the Land of Fire and a shinobi of Konohagakure, it was impossible for Hibari to seize the top power of the Land of Hot Water.
However, he couldn't just kill the Daimyo, and even if he did, they would just elect a new one, and there was a zero percent chance they would choose him.
So Hibari had to take a different route to truly gain complete control of the Land of Hot Water. He already had a rough idea: to seize 'secular power' through 'religious theocracy'!
If he could develop the new 'Necro Cult' to the point where the entire country was filled with their followers, the Land of Hot Water would transform from a secular country into a religious theocracy.
Wouldn't he, as the 'high priest,' be the Daimyo in another sense?
And if he could even manage to convince the Daimyo of the Land of Hot Water to become a devout follower, that would be amazing...
Once this experiment of religious authority overtaking secular power succeeded in the Land of Hot Water, Hibari could begin to step out of this testing ground. He didn't need to start with the great nations; he could first infiltrate other small countries.
Leaving aside whether he could eventually seize the 'power' of the Land of Fire to become a pope or something, those were complicated matters, and unless necessary, Hibari, being a person who hated trouble, had no interest in them.
However, the Necro Cult could become the core force in Hibari's hands, enabling him to change the world. This was the ultimate goal that Hibari wanted to achieve!
"Maybe the Land of Hot Water will become a center of religious authority like the Vatican one day... Hehehehe..." Hibari said to himself with a soft laugh.
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