Chapter 75: Number 18
"An alliance?"
Ōnoki took the alliance proposal submitted by Sand Ninja Village from Huang Tu's hand and opened it.
It was personally written by the Fourth Kazekage, and its content was about Sand Ninja Village and Iwagakure jointly attacking Konoha, forming a strategic alliance.
"Haven't those Sand Ninja Village guys entered Konoha's territory yet?"
"Konoha's mobilized forces are only about a thousand, right?"
"The Third Hokage hasn't even come to the front line, and they've already stopped the troops led by the Fourth Kazekage?"
Huang Tu said with a solemn expression, "There's no other way.
Konoha occupies the best land and has the most entrusted missions.
In terms of the number of ninja, no other Great Nation, including us, can compare to Konoha."
"Drag out the Sand Ninja Village, let them fight those Konoha guys for a while first."
Ōnoki casually placed the alliance document on the table, adopting an attitude of neither agreeing nor refusing.
Although Sand Ninja Village's power is at the bottom among the Five Great Nations, if they get serious, they can still make Konoha pay some attention.
Moreover, Iwagakure doesn't need to drag it out for too long; the Sand Ninja Village's Jinchuriki is preparing to go to the front line.
Once they resolve the Cloud Ninja Village matter, they can announce the alliance with Sand Ninja Village.
Huang Tu confirmed again, "So, I'll reply to Sand Ninja Village like that for now?"
Ōnoki nodded and said, "That's right.
You can tell Sand Ninja Village about the actions of those scoundrels from Cloud Ninja Village.
Currently, Iwagakure and Cloud Ninja Village are fighting, so we temporarily cannot spare forces to deal with Konoha.
However, once we resolve Cloud Ninja Village, we will immediately form an alliance with Sand Ninja Village."
When he mentioned Cloud Ninja Village again, his expression was a bit sour.
The Third Raikage, that reckless man, personally led a team to raid many of their Iwagakure's mining strongholds.
He heard that the Third Raikage even personally led a team to invade Sand Ninja Village's Baosha Town, but was later repelled.
A village leader personally leading a team to act like bandits—only Cloud Ninja Village could do such a shameless thing.
After the Five Great Nations, Ōnoki disliked Konoha the most and looked down on Cloud Ninja Village the most.
He disliked Konoha because Ōnoki had once been left with a deep impression by someone from Konoha, an impression he still found hard to forget.
He looked down on Cloud Ninja Village because this ninja village had no great nation demeanor, excelling at acts of plunder and murder, almost like mountain bandits.
After Huang Tu left, Ōnoki began to deal with village affairs again, but he was constantly pondering, wanting to keep the Third Raikage in Iwagakure, otherwise, if they continued to sneak attack like this, Iwagakure's reputation would be repeatedly trampled underfoot by Cloud Ninja Village.
Sand Ninja Village was quite secretive about the One-Tail Jinchuriki going to the battlefield.
Aside from indirectly revealing it to Iwagakure, it was basically kept highly confidential.
Moreover, by the time Iwagakure knew about it, the One-Tail Jinchuriki had already arrived at Baosha Town.
It's just that Rasa was preparing to find an opportunity to give Konoha a hard blow, so he hadn't allowed the One-Tail Jinchuriki to appear.
Furthermore, the Monk Bunpuku was quite old, and it was estimated that after this battle, they would have to consider the next Jinchuriki.
Hyuga Mirai, who was engrossed in researching the 'antidote' at Kikyō Castle, was not very clear about the battle situation at the front-line camp.
Although Hyuga Kiyomi and Kurenai Yuhi would occasionally send him messages, outdated information had little reference value.
Coupled with the imminent creation of Hyuga Mirai's bio-mechanical assistant, his busy schedule left him with no interest in the struggle between Konoha and Sand Ninja Village.
In a desolate mountain hollow a dozen miles from Kikyō Castle, this place had been transformed by Hyuga Mirai into a rudimentary experimental manufacturing site.
Five Shadow Clones continuously operated the instruments, preparing to complete the final step of the bio-mechanical assistant.
"Has it succeeded?"
Hyuga Mirai's voice rang out from the communicator; his main body was not here.
"The final step hasn't started yet.
If the energy reactor fails, you might lose over 300 million in funds, and you'll also have to explain to Konoha why the experimental equipment was destroyed."
The Shadow Clone replied, saying that although many simulations showed success, if it failed even once, the resulting explosion would be enough to make the entire Kikyō Castle disappear.
The lack of many materials prevented Hyuga Mirai from creating a perfect multi-purpose bio-mechanical assistant as he remembered.
Many functions could not be realized; currently, it only possessed functions such as flight, energy conversion beam attacks, electromagnetic pulse cannons, intelligent data analysis, and weapon combat.
Simply put, it was equivalent to an intelligent bio-robot with an eight-year-old's understanding level.
When Hyuga Mirai created this bio-mechanical assistant, he considered the dangers of the Ninja World, focusing more on weapon equipment and combat.
The five Shadow Clones continuously debugged the instruments.
Once everything was ready, one of the Shadow Clones operated the instrument, installing the prepared star stone energy reactor into the bio-mechanical assistant's chest.
With a soft hiss, the data on the instrument began to change dramatically.
The energy reactor in the bio-mechanical assistant's chest instantly emitted energy, flowing throughout its body along the electromagnetic meridians, subsequently activating all component functions.
The next second, the bio-mechanical assistant suddenly opened its eyes, countless data streams flashing in its mechanical eyes, and the power thrusters on its back released energy, making it stand up from the experimental platform in an instant.
The bio-mechanical assistant surveyed its surroundings, then turned its gaze to Hyuga Mirai's Shadow Clone, greeting Hyuga Mirai's Shadow Clone with a very mechanical voice, "Mr. Future!"
"It succeeded, Main Body, you'd best come and see for yourself."
One Shadow Clone finished speaking to the communication device, then voluntarily dispelled the Ninjutsu.
A Chakra carrying memories returned to Hyuga Mirai's main body, allowing him to re-watch the experiment just now as if it were a video.
Hyuga Mirai eagerly arrived at the experimental site in the hollow.
He was in a very good mood now; the success of the bio-mechanical assistant was like him personally creating a child.
When Hyuga Mirai arrived, he saw the bio-mechanical assistant sitting on the experimental platform receiving data transmission, and he couldn't help but step forward to observe it closely.
"Mr. Future."
The bio-mechanical assistant spoke a greeting when it saw another Hyuga Mirai approaching it.
Common sense such as addressing others was a command Hyuga Mirai had set in advance.
Due to time constraints, it was impossible to input all common sense into the bio-mechanical assistant's core; he could only set a command for it to learn actively, allowing the bio-mechanical assistant to learn slowly.
After completing the basic test, one Shadow Clone immediately dispelled the Ninjutsu, allowing the memory to return to Hyuga Mirai's mind.
"The star stone energy reactor is operating perfectly.
Using the Shadow Clone's Chakra amount as a unit, the bio-mechanical assistant's instantaneous maximum energy can reach 4.27 times, and its daily sustained duration can reach 1456 days.
Combat mode is not set, so the specific combat consumption cannot be calculated."
Hyuga Mirai quickly reviewed the data about the bio-mechanical assistant in his mind, then observed it with his Byakugan.
"Indeed, the combination of the sealing barrier Ninjutsu and the covering of biological tissue can block the Byakugan's penetrating ability."
"Next is the testing of weapons and the collection of combat data, and a name also needs to be chosen."
Hyuga Mirai thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a good name.
He was terrible at naming, feeling that every name was both suitable and unsuitable.
So, after thinking about the date, he spoke:
"Number 18, your name will be Number 18 from now on!"
Number 18, based on its judgment, nodded in response after receiving Hyuga Mirai's command: "Understood, Mr. Future, my name will be Number 18 from now on."
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