Naruto: Talent Entry Perks

  "Izayoi-kun, Hinata, Shino-kun, thank you."

  Over two hours later, outside a damaged steel battleship, Temari bowed in thanks to Team Eight.

  Izayoi looked at the ape-man and the werewolf who had been sealed by the Sand Ninja and asked knowingly, "Is that everything?"

  "Yes, capturing these two will allow us to extract the location of their army's headquarters." Temari nodded with confidence. "These armored men aren't real ninjas. Even though these two cadres can transform into monsters and use techniques similar to ninjutsu, they're just ordinary people. They're no match for our Sand Village."

  "Since you don't need help anymore, we'll return and report to the Hokage." Izayoi said.

  "Izayoi-kun, why don't you return with us and let us properly host you in the Sand Village?" Temari sincerely invited.

  "No, maybe next time." Izayoi shook his head, giving a reason. "Konoha's first-half Chunin Exams are about to begin, and Shino needs to participate."

  Seeing his firm stance, Temari could only nod and smile. "Alright, if you ever visit Sand Village, have the guard contact me."

  "Sure. We'll go now, Kana~~"

  Izayoi smiled, formed a sword seal, and vanished with Hinata and Aburame Shino.

  ...

  Meanwhile, the battle on the other side had also concluded.

  The already damaged steel battleship was blown to pieces by the impact.

  Wreckage littered the desert.

  Remains of the steel ship, the Red Sand Scorpion's puppet army, and Izayoi's human puppets were scattered everywhere.

  "You two are hopeless. Why didn't you summon your boss earlier?"

  Among the dozen or so human puppets, only five embedded with black rods and connected to chakra from the main body remained functional.

  One puppet, dark-skinned and muscular—clearly made from a Cloud Ninja corpse—sat atop another puppet and teased Scorpion and Deidara, who lay immobilized by black rods piercing their limbs, unable to move or use chakra.

  "Hmph, a loss is a loss. I'm not as good as you." Scorpion said proudly. "My art wasn't as great as yours. Do as you please—kill me or chop me up."

  "Brother Toneri!" Deidara protested. "If you pull out these black rods, I have a self-destruction technique even more brilliant than C4 Garuda. Your Lightning Release won't see through it, and it's just as spectacular as your Meteor Shower."

  "Aren't you afraid of death?" the puppet asked curiously.

  "Don't underestimate me, Brother Toneri." Deidara said, face lighting up with fanaticism. "After I die, I become art! That explosion will leave a mark on this desert for a long time. You'll remember me forever! My art will be praised—even by you!"

  He closed his eyes in a blissful daze.

  "No doubt, I'll never forget you." the puppet replied calmly.

  "Yeah, this kind of idiot really is unforgettable," Scorpion muttered.

  "Still don't believe me? Let me go! I'll show you the ultimate beauty of a fleeting moment!" Deidara struggled, but to no avail.

  The puppet stood up. "This was fun. Try pulling out those rods if you want."

  "You're not going to kill us?" Scorpion and Deidara looked surprised.

  "If you'd summoned your boss, he'd be dead now." the puppet grinned. "But I admire your resolve. Think of this as a spar. Also—thanks for last year's gift."

  With that, the puppet vanished.

  Deidara exclaimed, "So cool! Brother Toneri, you're truly an artist that even I look up to!"

  "We're alive for now, but it might not be the same next time." Scorpion said coolly. "The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is with the leader. When the final battle comes, even if he doesn't kill us, we'll probably die in the aftermath."

  "Just thinking about that stage gets me excited." Deidara smiled. "I'll definitely blow myself up in advance, so the two strongest shinobi can witness my ultimate art."

  Scorpion facepalmed.

  ...

  The incident in the Land of Wind had begun and ended inexplicably.

  Thanks to the intervention of the two strongest men in the ninja world, it came to a swift conclusion.

  When the Sand's interrogation unit extracted the headquarters' location from Rank (the ape-man) and Fengwai (the werewolf), and led their army to the Land of Rivers…

  The mountain-embedded mobile fortress had already been taken by Nagato.

  The Sand Village assumed the enemy had relocated upon getting wind of their movements and continued searching.

  Until the end of Konoha's first-half Chunin Exam, the search was fruitless.

  However, since the enemy no longer attacked the Wind Country, Sand withdrew its troops and closed the case.

  Team 7 wasn't punished upon return.

  After all, their client had been kidnapped by none other than Otsutsuki Toneri, a visitor from the moon.

  And the mobile fortress's commander had been personally taken by Nagato.

  It was clear that when the two owners of the Sage's Eyes couldn't decide the winner through strength, they began playing a more secretive game.

  Even Minato Namikaze and Sakumo Hatake were allowed to abandon missions if they crossed paths—how much more so for Nagato and Toneri?

  Tsunade was just relieved everyone returned alive—there was no question of blaming them.

  As Tsunade had guessed, the real game between Izayoi and Nagato continued across the Land of Wind and Land of Rivers.

  Nagato took the mobile fortress and all remaining Gray Stones Hyde had.

  He also imprisoned Timsi in Hidden Rain.

  Though unsure what Timsi's "key" was, he knew from Hyde's soul that Timsi could absorb the Gray Stone's power without turning into a monster.

  Izayoi, who had taken the old man and the snow ferret, learned that Timsi's blood was needed to activate a time-space spiritual array, summoning a spatial cave that could absorb the continent-destroying Gray Stone vein into the void.

  It was the empire's outrageous failsafe.

  Thus began their competition—

  To survive.

  Izayoi found the vein's location in the old man's memory.

  It had been sealed under the mountains of the Land of Rivers by the old empire using highly advanced sealing techniques.

  Even with the Rinnegan's farsight and X-ray vision, Izayoi couldn't see the ore.

  Kagura's Heart Eye couldn't sense the energy either.

  Naturally, neither could Black and White Zetsu's Mayfly technique.

  After all, if such energy could be sensed, Rain—adjacent to River—would've found it long ago.

  Still, Izayoi stayed cautious.

  He had wooden clones monitoring the area in shifts.

  Meanwhile, Nagato ordered White Zetsu clones to scour Wind and River's undergrounds, searching for blue-glowing, life-filled natural-energy stones.

  He also scattered Wood clones disguised as civilians, scanning for high-level chakra or signs of Toneri's movement.

  But after a month, nothing.

  Nagato questioned himself: "Did I guess wrong? Or is the vein sealed and hidden even from Zetsu and me? Is Toneri waiting too?"

  Unwilling to give up, Nagato instructed Zetsu to keep monitoring chakra movements.

  Unbeknownst to him, this gave Izayoi his opening.

  Izayoi's wood clone and Ranmaru, using Flying Thunder God to survey the area, noticed no more Zetsu activity.

  Which meant—Nagato didn't know the location either.

  Still cautious, Izayoi tested the waters.

  He had a regular person carry Ranmaru nearby.

  With no hostile presence detected, Ranmaru guided them into the underground ruins hiding the Gray Stone vein.

  Inside was a room with spells describing the Gray Stone's powers and history.

  At the center—a spiritual array requiring Timsi's blood to activate a space-time cave.

  Ranmaru etched a Flying Thunder God seal, then sealed the room from outside perception.

  Removing a piece of the floor using the old man's instructions, they exposed soil covering the vein.

  Even now, not even the Rinnegan or Heart Eye could detect the stones.

  Ranmaru liquefied the earth—

  And whoosh—

  Heavenly Transfer Technique.

  A chunk of Gray Stone vanished.

  The floor resealed with a green flash.

  Ranmaru and the ordinary person vanished via Flying Thunder God.

  "We won!"

  In a traditional-style underground base, Izayoi looked at the chunk of Gray Stone and smiled triumphantly.

  Information was the true weapon.

  Nagato couldn't imagine Izayoi's spirit orb could both read thoughts and control actions.

  And Ranmaru's trump card was imperceptible to even the finest chakra sensors.

  Compared to Izayoi, Nagato was just a transplant user.

  Even without an advantage in the script, Izayoi could still win.

  "So this is the Gray Stone?"

  Izayoi picked up a ping-pong-ball-sized blue crystal.

  It looked like a glowing spirit orb.

  Few would expect such a stone to house immense natural energy and life force.

  Handled incorrectly, it could turn users into rampaging beasts.

  Handled well—it could empower others, create perpetual wells, rapid-growth livestock, even prevent aging.

  "Let's see how magical this untraceable natural energy really is."

  Izayoi didn't immediately absorb it. Instead—

  His right arm morphed, producing a wooden clone.

  The clone picked up a larger, basketball-sized stone and used the Rinnegan's chakra absorption.

  Green chakra enveloped the blue stone like radiant light.

  Then it returned to the clone's body.

  The stone turned into a transparent crystal.

  The wood clone briefly monsterized—but recovered quickly.

  Red eye shadow appeared. His pupils turned gold as the Rinnegan deactivated.

  Sage Mode, activated instantly.

  "Senjutsu Chakra..."

  Izayoi touched the clone's shoulder and absorbed the chakra. Red markings appeared at the corners of his eyes.

  Feeling the changes, he smirked.

  "Heh… nothing special. No difficulty at all."