"Seems I went a little overboard earlier..."
Umino Yoru winced as he examined the shattered puppets salvaged from the floodwaters.
This was all money—gone.
He hadn't expected the combination of Nine Water Dragon Bullets and the dam's collapse to wreak such devastation. And this was just from half a day's worth of water accumulation, courtesy of Iwagakure's earth-style barrier team.
Given more time, the natural force of the flood alone could have obliterated the Thousand-Face Puppet Formation—no need for Hard Vortex Water Blade or the dragons.
The sheer destructive power dwarfed even the Great Waterfall Technique, carrying an almost sage-like magnitude in its fury.
But that same power had turned most of the loot into scrap. Barely a single intact puppet remained—a massive financial loss that made Yoru's stomach churn.
Even the corpses had depreciated in value.
Shinobi bodies were lucrative on the black market—tens of thousands of ryō for a chūnin, hundreds of thousands for a jōnin. And that wasn't even counting the intelligence value of their brains. A well-preserved head could fetch millions, depending on the secrets it held.
Thankfully, the Umino Unit was stacked with talent.
Yamashiro Aoba, a specialist in mind-reading techniques (though not quite on par with the Yamanaka clan), led the intelligence team in extracting intel from the dead.
While high-level secrets were often sealed, lower-ranked shinobi yielded plenty—mid-to-low-rank jutsu, supply routes, even snippets of daily life that hinted at deeper conspiracies.
Under Yoru's direction, the team cross-referenced these fragments, building a database that revealed startling connections:
- Updated maps of Wind and River Country.
- Supply lines and hidden Sand outposts.
- Economic intel—resource prices, trade fluctuations.
- Even long-term sleeper agents—like childhood friends who'd "disappeared," only to resurface years later in foreign villages.
The real goldmine, though? Jutsu.
Yoru outright violated Konoha regulations, distributing the stolen techniques as mission rewards to his troops.
Most were C and D-rank, with a handful of B-rank wind-style gems—but for the average chūnin, this was a treasure trove.
"Lucky bastards."
Yoru couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy. Back in his day, he'd bled just to learn the C-rank Water Prison Technique. Now? His men could pick and choose from hundreds.
For the grunts, this was a career-making windfall. Survive this mission, and promotion to chūnin was guaranteed. The elite might even touch special jōnin-level strength.
The Umino Unit was shedding its cannon-fodder status—evolving into something far deadlier.
---
"Shun, Tōyama—this is the Vacuum Series. Master it. Fast."
Yoru handed a scroll to Shirakumo Tōyama.
As Uchiha Shun's Sharingan scanned the contents, his eyes widened.
"Vacuum Great Bullet... Vacuum Rapid Waves...?"
These weren't ordinary techniques. Even in Konoha, access was restricted.
Despite being B-rank, their power rivaled A-rank or even forbidden jutsu—with far lower chakra costs.
Neither man asked where Yoru had obtained them. They simply swore secrecy and began training.
Of course, these hadn't come from Aoba's mind-reading.
They were part of Yoru's deal with Ruriyo—traded for Sasori's severed arm.
The Sand princess had refused to part with high-level sealing techniques, but as compensation? She'd handed over entire wind-style lineages—Vacuum, Scythe Weasel, Dust Storm—everything short of the Kazekage's secrets.
When you bargained with a kunoichi obsessed with her brother's remains, you walked away very, very satisfied.
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