"Your Void Technique… it's not a Kekkei Genkai, is it?" Akasuna no Sasori suddenly asked.
"No, it's definitely a secret technique. In theory, anyone can train it."
Kaede Tsukasa emphasized "in theory."
Akasuna no Sasori caught the implication—he, at least, didn't doubt that he could learn Kaede Tsukasa's secret technique.
So, if it wasn't the threshold of training that posed a problem, then it must be the training conditions?
He also placed a scroll on the ground. "That old woman hasn't perfected this technique yet. Hmph. A forbidden jutsu that transfers one's own life force… I roughly understand what she wants to do. How boring. Does she really think using this method could change my mind?"
"I'm not interested in the conflict between you and your grandmother," Kaede Tsukasa replied.
He slowly stepped back and immediately summoned a zombie, retrieving the scroll of his one's own life reincarnation Jutsu. Akasuna no Sasori did the same.
No ambush, no poison—after carefully confirming everything was fine, both of them exhaled in relief.
Kaede Tsukasa directed the zombie to open the scroll. Scanning the dense text, he nodded with satisfaction.
Akasuna no Sasori's clone directly manipulated a puppet to leave, and after several twists and turns, met with the original at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.
"Unexpectedly smooth… my opinion of that guy has improved a bit. Maybe he really is a genuine peer," Akasuna no Sasori thought.
Still, he remained tense. He hadn't yet reached his peak, and taking such a risk in this transaction could be troublesome if exposed.
Conflicts with Kaede Tsukasa or other Konoha ninja would be equally troublesome.
Swish!
Akasuna no Sasori opened the scroll, reading the Void Technique carefully from beginning to end before closing it expressionlessly.
"To master Zombie Release: Void, I first have to master the prerequisite secret of Zombie Release: Corpse Transformation?"
Akasuna no Sasori snorted coldly, unwilling to accept that. The Void Technique essentially uses space ninjutsu through corpses.
If a corpse can be used to perform the technique, then why can't I use a puppet?
A corpse and a human puppet… aren't they essentially the same? Besides, the spatial modification of a corpse is far inferior to that of a human puppet!
"Just wait. It won't take me long to master this."
Akasuna no Sasori put away the scroll and turned, stepping into the wind and sand. But soon he had to stop, expressionless, staring ahead.
"I thought you would focus mainly on negotiations with Konoha or the war with Iwagakure," Akasuna no Sasori observed Chiyo.
"The war is over. The village suffered too many losses—continuing would have been meaningless. We've also ceased hostilities with Iwagakure. The Kazekage is negotiating with the Tsuchikage," Chiyo explained.
"The Third Kazekage ultimately chose compromise. He claimed to be the strongest Kazekage, yet gained nothing from this war? But that has nothing to do with me," Akasuna no Sasori said coldly.
Chiyo's expression was complex. "Sasori, what have you done?"
"As you can see, I struck a favorable deal with that guy. I exchanged your almost useless one's own life reincarnation for his Space-Time Technique," Akasuna no Sasori said.
"You should be glad. His jutsu is far more useful than yours. Our village will now command a Space-Time ninjutsu like never before."
Chiyo let out a sigh. "I noticed new traces in the secret chamber and immediately felt something was off. Of course it was you… this behavior… how did Kaede Tsukasa even know I was developing the one's own life reincarnation?"
She truly didn't know what to do. Arrest Akasuna no Sasori for betraying the village? Don't be ridiculous. She valued Sasori's life more than her own—otherwise she wouldn't have developed a forbidden jutsu that transfers life force.
"Who knows? Probably that priestess did it. It just shows our village has already been infiltrated by Konoha like a sieve. If I were you, I wouldn't waste time tracking someone like me," Sasori replied.
Chiyo felt that was absurd. She had never told anyone about secretly developing the one's own life reincarnation. Only Sasori had the ability to enter her secret chamber, so it had to be him who leaked it to Kaede Tsukasa.
She spoke in a low voice, "You're still too young to understand how cunning those Konoha people are! Giving you the Space-Time Technique means he has gained something far more valuable than the Space-Time Technique itself from you!"
Using the one's own life reincarnation to revive zombies? No… Chiyo immediately guessed Kaede Tsukasa's plan, feeling even more disappointed and helpless.
No wonder… no wonder he targeted the one's own life reincarnation. From now on, Kaede Tsukasa would break free of restraints and truly become a strong ninja.
"The village is going to gain a powerful enemy, maybe even harder to deal with than Hatake Sakumo! Sakumo doesn't have Space-Time ninjutsu!" Chiyo sighed deeply, feeling an unprecedented exhaustion.
She had risked everything to capture Kaede Tsukasa. Not only had she failed, but the one's own life reincarnation she painstakingly developed had fallen into his hands, becoming the greatest aid on Kaede Tsukasa's path to strength.
Yes, the greatest aid—without comparison.
Chiyo could hardly imagine how formidable he would be if Kaede Tsukasa mastered the method to have corpses transfer life force for him, bypassing physical limitations, using corpses on the battlefield at will, and moving through space-time.
"He will eventually follow the human puppet path. I originally intended to teach him the human puppet technique. This is just the beginning. Your one's own life reincarnation Jutsu is still imperfect, with many flaws in execution and extremely high difficulty. In the future, he will come to me for a more complete version of the one's own life reincarnation. By then, we can still obtain the full Dead Soul secret jutsu from him."
Akasuna no Sasori slowly walked past Chiyo, heading toward Sunagakure. "I've thought of the same thing you have. Whatever he wants to do, he has to achieve one thing—control corpses with completely different talents and make them perform this S-rank forbidden jutsu. Is that even possible?"
By Chiyo and Sasori's estimation, even if Kaede Tsukasa exhausted every possibility, he could at most teach one or two zombies learn the one's own life reincarnation. He would never think to teach all the zombies such difficult jutsu.
Corpses are ultimately not puppets. While the Dead Soul technique holds many unknown secrets, logically, it shouldn't be this extreme. It's not possible that once Kaede Tsukasa learned it, all the corpses under his control would automatically know it. The principle of the one's own life reincarnation Jutsu is completely different from the Void.
Watching Sasori's back, Chiyo felt that her grandson had become so unfamiliar—he had completely changed.
"It's all that damn Hatake Sakumo's fault. If it weren't for you… this is not the end, it's just the beginning!!"
Chiyo gritted her teeth. The war was over, but there would be new wars in the future. She would eventually have a chance to kill Hatake Sakumo.
Perhaps Sasori trading with Kaede Tsukasa wasn't a bad thing—using the technique obtained from Konoha to perfect human puppets, to eventually kill Hatake Sakumo.
As for Kaede Tsukasa becoming stronger… she couldn't worry about that now.
…
Kaede Tsukasa returned to the camp as if nothing had happened, greeting both familiar and unfamiliar ninja along the way. Everyone was relatively relaxed now.
Once he was away from the crowd, he took a deep breath and opened the scroll.
"Finally… the crucial first step is complete. This is the most important—and hardest to obtain—piece of the puzzle in all the plans to come. Surprisingly, it went more smoothly than expected."
Kaede Tsukasa began to carefully study this forbidden jutsu. It was no easy task. The one's own life reincarnation Jutsu had truly reached S-rank ninjutsu level, fully deserving a place in the Book of Seals. Its learning difficulty was off the charts.
Fortunately, Kaede Tsukasa's chakra, though not abundant, was paired with an exceptionally strong learning ability.