However, between these two, Fūka Soyuki is the daimyo of a country, and Fūka Doto is also a royal of a country, and a rather ambitious one who is unwilling to settle down.
If I want to dig these two over to be research coolies, I'll have to use some tricks.
Shimizu didn't hide his gaze, and quickly attracted the attention of Fūka Doto.
"Who is that...?"
"That's Lord Shimizu. The one beside him is Jōnin Yekura. Prince Doto, the river you just saw was planned and dug through by Lord Shimizu. The chakra-powered vehicle was also invented by him and Sasori."
A Sand Village Chūnin in the group said to Fūka Doto with a smile.
"Sounds like a very powerful figure."
"He is indeed very powerful. He is publicly acknowledged in the village as a puppet master grandmaster on par with the founder of puppet mastery, Monzaemon. He is also the strongest contender to become the next Kazekage!"
Another Sand Village Chūnin said with pride.
Shimizu's prestige in the Sand Village is not low, and among the puppet masters, he has even shown signs of surpassing Chiyo.
After all, he has already been recognized by the puppet masters as a puppet master grandmaster who can establish his own school.
"Ahem, Chūnin Kawakui, you know, I'm just a noble from a small place after all, and I don't have much experience. Can you introduce me to how powerful this Lord Shimizu really is?"
Fūka Doto put his arm around the shoulder of the Chūnin Kawakui beside him and pretended to be humble.
His ambition is great, so as soon as he came out of the Snow Country, he couldn't wait to learn about the outside world.
In his opinion, Shimizu is a very good entry point.
Although he doesn't look very old, being considered the most likely candidate for Kazekage should represent the top combat power of the Five Great Nations, right?
The conversation on Shimizu's side was still continuing.
"Iwashi? An S-rank missing-nin from Iwagakure?"
Shimizu looked strangely at the scroll that Sasori was carrying on his back.
The body of that S-rank missing-nin was sealed by Sasori in the scroll.
"Yes, an Iwagakure elder who failed in the political struggle with Ōnoki. He was very strong, and I was no match for him, but fortunately, Sasori's new puppet, Silver Bull, was very strong. It used Steel Release to block him, and then we found an opportunity to poison him to death."
Yekura said to Shimizu, looking like she was still scared.
Shimizu took out a thick booklet from his pocket and turned to one of the pages.
【Name: Iwashi; Former Elder of Iwagakure, current S-rank missing-nin, bounty: 30 million ryō.】
Below is a photo of the old man's face.
This is, after all, a real world, and everyone is a living, real person.
Like Yekura, Shimizu thinks she looks better than she does in the anime.
And the photo of this old man, Iwashi, looks a little familiar at first glance, but it's hard to remember who it is.
But now that he is connected with Sasori, Shimizu knows who this person is.
Probably in the original timeline, this guy also died at the hands of Sasori and eventually became Hiruko.
Legend has it that Master Sasori usually hides in Hiruko and rides a tricycle to activate this puppet.
To be made into Sasori's main battle puppet when he has mastered puppet mastery in the future, it is foreseeable that his strength before his death was definitely not weak.
The bounty of 30 million ryō is only slightly lower than Asuma's in the original work, and is on par with Chiriku, the head of the Fire Temple.
Considering that the current timeline is more than 20 years away from when Chiriku died in the original timeline, and taking into account the impact of inflation, the evaluation may be slightly higher.
The fact that he could become an elder of Iwagakure, hold a high position, and escape alive from the Iwagakure controlled by Ōnoki, and even live for several years under Iwagakure's pursuit...
The strength of this S-rank missing-nin before his death was guaranteed to be at the level of an elite Jōnin, and the basic abilities of his body were definitely not bad.
And Shimizu is very clear about what level of strength Yekura is.
Two years ago, Yekura had already become a Jōnin. After two years, although her strength has improved, it is still limited.
"Iwagakure S-rank missing-nin, Iwashi..."
In the secret room, Ebizō stood with his hands behind his back, watching a fresh corpse lying on the bed in the glass compartment with Sasori and Yekura.
There were many penetrating wounds on this corpse, and a large circle of the area around the heart was filled with an ominous purple color, indicating severe poisoning.
Chiyo and Ebizō are siblings, and they are the elders in the Sand Village with the most power after the Third Kazekage, and they both hold multiple positions.
Chiyo is the head of the puppet unit and is also in charge of the sealing team and the medical department. Ebizō is the head of the Anbu and is also in charge of the intelligence department, responsible for intelligence gathering, espionage and counter-espionage, and some dark things that are not good to say to the outside world.
In the past few decades, he has always been the most trusted strategist of the Third Kazekage.
It's just that the person in the Sand Village who is best at interrogating information is not in the Intelligence Department now.
Brainwashing Technique, in addition to being too difficult, is almost as good as the Yamanaka clan's Mind Reading Technique in actual performance. In the past, when encountering truly difficult situations, where seals were set up in the enemy's mind, or the enemy was already dead, Chiyo would take action.
Now, Shimizu has to be added.
Sealing techniques, medical ninjutsu, puppet techniques, Wind Release, etc.
Most of what Chiyo can do, Shimizu can do.
Starting last year, Chiyo has intentionally handed over some of her affairs to Shimizu, intending to cultivate Shimizu's ability to handle affairs.
Including the puppet squad and medical team, Shimizu could almost be considered half the person in charge.
Fortunately, the incarnations in the other worlds all have their own forces and industries, and the scale is not small. Although they largely rely on artificial intelligence for management now, Shimizu's own management experience is not low.
After someone introduced Shimizu's basic situation, Shimizu was able to quickly get started and handle everything well.
Of course, most of the affairs are still handled by Chiyo.
In Chiyo's view, Shimizu is still in the golden age of ninja strength improvement. Although he is already very strong, he still has the opportunity to go further, so he must have enough time for Shimizu to cultivate.
Of course, Chiyo and Ebizo also occasionally let Shimizu show his face in important departments such as the intelligence department and medical department, to increase his presence and interact with the ninjas in these departments to build up his reputation.
Inside the secret chamber, Shimizu dressed neatly, took out a few long needles from the box beside him that looked thinner than a strand of hair. Without looking closely with the naked eye, it would be easy to ignore them from a distance.
These long needles, accompanied by Shimizu's slow and powerful movements, were inserted into Iwabi's head little by little.
These long needles were all made of chakra metal, so thin that they felt weightless in the hand, weighing only less than one gram.
This was Shimizu's recreation after melting down the few needles that Chiyo used in the past, using more advanced puppet instruments, and with his own perception. They were much thinner than before.
Yin Release chakra quickly spread along the long needles into Iwabi's brain, skillfully cracking the seal set within it and infiltrating every cell.
Prefrontal cortex, diencephalon, amygdala, hippocampus…
Nothing was missed!
The remaining mental fluctuations synchronized with the Yin Release chakra, quickly reading the nerve signals in the neural network.
Every area related to memory was carefully searched by Shimizu.
"Iwagakure thirty-seventh year, eastern border of Minecloud City, specific deployment is as follows…"
"Four secret strongholds located in the Land of Grass…"
"Iwagakure's wartime transportation and supply preset line…"
Shimizu quickly spat out sentence after sentence. Several intelligence ninjas who had been prepared for this were taking notes quickly with paper and pens on the opposite side.
"Iwagakure's fourth operational plan against Sunagakure and Amegakure is… List of known external spies…"
"Before his death, the deceased still had secret channels within Iwagakure, and had a hold on the following middle and high-level figures…"
"Land of Iron… Land of Snow…"
Shimizu stood there and spoke for more than two hours before he finished speaking about those relatively valuable pieces of intelligence.
People who are already dead, no matter what, the amount of memories in their minds will be partially lost, and even the order of the memories will be disordered.
Even if the corpse is preserved well after death, this is unavoidable.
However, the more important the information, the deeper the memory in the brain. This is why Shimizu was able to retell all the important information in more than two hours.
Otherwise, the memories in the mind of such an old man would be massive. How could he finish speaking so quickly? It would take Shimizu decades to browse all of them.
Shimizu stopped reading Iwabi's memories when he encountered Sasori and Miyo in the Land of Snow.
There was no need to read the rest.
Shimizu's hands left the chakra metal needles, shook his hands, and rubbed his head, which felt a little swollen.
On the other side, several intelligence ninjas sitting at the table stopped the pens in their hands.
At their feet, several stacks of thick recording paper had already been piled up.
Sasori naturally walked in and put Iwabi's body back into the sealing scroll.
The quality of this guy made into a human puppet would not be much worse than Silver Ox. It would be enough for him to use for a long time. Even if he grows to the Kage level in the future, these two puppets can still become excellent combat power in his hands.
"After reorganizing this information, I will screen it and submit it to the Kazekage, and then classify it into the library."
Ebizo, with his hands behind his back, instructed the intelligence ninjas who had been writing for more than two hours.
"Yes!"
But Shimizu stood there motionless, recalling a part of Iwabi's memory that he had just seen.
"Shimizu, is there any other information you want to explain? If it is inconvenient, you can let others who are not of sufficient level go out first."
Ebizo looked at Shimizu's thoughtful expression and said.
"There is still a piece of information, but there is nothing inconvenient about it."
Shimizu shook his head and said.
"This is a message that secretly leaked from the underground bounty exchange, but it has not yet been confirmed. It is also the reason that attracted Iwabi to the Land of Snow."
"Oh?"
Ebizo tilted his head slightly.
"With the village's intelligence capabilities, this news should be received in a few days. Iwabi went to the Land of Snow just to pass through. His destination is the Land of Iron, because there is news that the legendary Kusanagi Sword has appeared in the Land of Iron, and there may be more than one."
"The Kusanagi Sword…"
Ebizo twitched his long eyebrows, knowing that Shimizu wanted the Kusanagi Sword.
Before Shimizu brought the Breathing Technique and rebuilt the Sunagakure's swordsmanship system, Sunagakure was not known for its swordsmanship. Although there were many well-made ninja tools, except for the Three-Star Fan, which was built by the First Kazekage at a great price and effort, the other ninja tools were not considered top-notch.
Now that there is a chance to obtain more than one Kusanagi Sword, Shimizu, a top swordsman in the ninja world, cannot be unmoved.
The Kusanagi Sword is rarely circulated in the ninja world. The quantity is unknown, but it is definitely possible to count them on one hand. It has occasionally appeared in the past thousand years and has chakra conductivity no less than weapons made of pure chakra metal.
Legend has it that it is a divine weapon that existed before the era of the Sage of Six Paths and is almost indestructible.
At least, there has been no record of the Kusanagi Sword being damaged in the ninja world in the past.
The value of each Kusanagi Sword is immeasurable, and it is faintly above the Seven Ninja Swords of Kirigakure, the White Fang Short Sword of Konoha, and the Sword of the Thunder God.
"The intelligence department has indeed noticed that a group of people have been gathering towards the Land of Iron in the recent underground world, and people have already been sent there to investigate the situation, but the Land of Iron is relatively far away from us, and the information has not yet been sent back."
Ebizo said.
"Sasori, how long did it take you to come back?"
Shimizu turned his head and asked Sasori.
"Even though the seal has been applied, in order to ensure that the information in his brain is preserved as much as possible, we started rushing back at full speed after the mission was completed. It has been five and a half days since then."
