Chapter 199: Chapter 199: Sis, I’m Home!
Inside the control room of the Sky Ninja's fortress, Ancor Vantian—
After Yamanaka Shinno left a Flying Thunder God marker behind, Namikaze Minato, who had been waiting outside the tropical rainforest for a while, instantly activated his Mass Flying Thunder God teleportation technique.
In the blink of an eye, nearly a hundred members of the Hokage's personal ANBU unit, seventy-plus elite combat squads from the Foundation, the second squad of the Analysis Division, the first squad of the Interrogation Unit, over a dozen logistics and scientific personnel—and even Jiraiya, tagging along just for the fun of it—were all brought to the fortress.
In less than thirty minutes, every living thing in the entire stronghold had been taken down by Konoha's forces.
With the Analysis Division and Interrogation Unit working seamlessly together, the Logistics and Research Team quickly gathered enough intel to seize control of Ancor Vantian and set course for the Land of Fire.
As for the surviving Sky Ninja? They were repurposed into chakra batteries to power the entire flying fortress.
Using the information extracted by the Interrogation and Analysis teams, Minato wasted no time and led a squad toward the Sky Ninja's hidden fleet stationed somewhere on the sea.
After all, launching an assault on Kirigakure in the Land of Water would be impossible without large vessels capable of crossing the ocean.
Sure, Shinno could whip up massive wooden ships using Wood Release in a heartbeat—but no matter how large, they couldn't compare to armored warships or the airborne might of Ancor Vantian!
With a quick use of the Flying Thunder God technique, Shinno paid a visit to Research Base No. 7 and brought back the utterly obsessed scientist, Orochimaru.
After a quick tour of the core systems, Orochimaru ran her delicate fingers across the control panels, sensing every inch of the construction with satisfaction.
"Not a bad structural concept," she murmured. "But the chakra system's a bit too crude. Chakra efficiency is under fifty percent."
These days, Orochimaru's features had softened quite a bit, her figure rivaling Tsunade's, and every motion she made exuded an alluring mystique.
Jiraiya, who had been loafing around in Konoha and followed Minato here on a whim, was utterly stunned at the sight.
If it weren't for her familiar face, he might've assumed she was some dark, mysterious beauty that showed up out of nowhere.
This... this was...
"You can improve it?" Shinno asked, turning to the brains behind the operation.
"Give me three days. I can boost efficiency to around seventy percent. Anything beyond that will need some more delicate modifications, and we don't have that kind of time."
Orochimaru gave a slight nod, then turned to glare at Jiraiya, whose gaze had been lingering far too long. Her serpent-like eyes locked on him, and she casually made a slicing gesture with her hand.
Jiraiya immediately felt a chill shoot between his legs. He shuddered, quickly diverting his gaze to study the layout of the Sky Fortress.
"Alright, I'll leave it to you."
"Shinno-kun, if I may ask... how did you do it earlier? I didn't sense any chakra at all. It was just like... what happened with Danzo."
"Ahem... it wasn't chakra. It's a different, higher-level energy."
Seeing Orochimaru so focused on the research, Shinno casually made up an excuse.
He gathered spiritual energy at his fingertip, which glowed with a brilliant white light.
"A higher-level energy that isn't chakra? Mind if I give it a try?" Jiraiya leaned in curiously.
He was eager to butt into the conversation, hoping to sneak in a few questions—like what the hell happened to Orochimaru to make her like this.
Shinno glanced at Orochimaru, who clearly wasn't going to stop him.
He withdrew most of the energy, leaving only ten percent, and flicked it into Jiraiya's body.
Unlike Tsunade's method of reshaping cellular structures through Ryūchi Cave techniques, Shinno's spiritual energy was in its raw, gentle state. It didn't harm Jiraiya—it simply flowed through his chakra network, quietly circulating.
Given the normal rate of spiritual energy dispersion, it would probably take about two weeks to fully fade.
In the meantime, Jiraiya would likely just feel more alert and energetic.
Of course, whether he could do anything useful with this gift depended entirely on him.
Orochimaru grabbed Jiraiya's wrist and, with her eyes closed, channeled her chakra to examine the changes within him.
She quickly found the trace of spiritual energy—pure, dense, natural, teeming with life... and hiding a terrifying destructive potential.
After a long pause, Orochimaru finally opened her eyes.
By that point, Shinno and Tsunade had already vanished somewhere.
Jiraiya, however...
"Wipe your nosebleed. You're helping me with some experiments over the next few days."
Her raspy yet magnetic voice snapped him out of it as she let go of his wrist in mild disgust.
"Experiments? Just don't dissect me! Uh... Orochimaru, remember what I said back then?"
"What?"
"If you ever turned into a woman, I'd definitely—"
"Shut it!"
A Shadow Snake Hand whipped out and smacked him across the side of the head.
...
In just six days, over seventy thousand shinobi from Konoha, Kumogakure, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure had gathered along the eastern coastline of the Land of Fire.
They say a force of ten thousand is overwhelming—but the sight of seventy thousand was enough to make even Shinno's heart stir when he first laid eyes on it.
Even with some distance between their camps, tensions were inevitable.
If not for the Kage maintaining strict discipline—and punishing a few troublemakers—it might've turned into an all-out brawl before Shinno even arrived.
He wasn't a speechmaster like Gaara, who had learned the power of "Talk no Jutsu" from Naruto.
He couldn't eliminate hatred or unite hearts with mere words.
What he could do... was summon two colossal True Several Thousand Hands: Buddha statues standing over a kilometer tall, along with four enhanced wooden titans, each hundreds of meters high.
Faced with overwhelming, tangible power they couldn't resist, only a fool would choose to stir trouble.
With all opposition forcefully suppressed for now, the Third Raikage, A, leapt up onto the lowered sky fortress with the Six Paths tool—the Amber Purification Jar—in one hand, and the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, Yugito Nii, in the other.
Onoki, Kitsuchi, Pakura, and the One-Tail Jinchūriki Fū soon followed—whether by flight, particle-style propulsion, or surfing in on sand.
In just a few days, the grotesque face carved into Ancor Vantian's hull had been completely flattened, replaced by two bold characters: "Expedition."
Vines and roots that had overgrown the exterior had all been cleared.
It now looked like a proper war fortress.
Two days ago, Tsunade had suggested renaming the fortress to "Five Spirits Light" to honor the five elemental natures: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Lightning.
Shinno rejected it without a second thought.
Not giving up, Tsunade later proposed "Piercer of Clouds."
But Nara Shikaku pointed out that Kumogakure might take issue with the name.
Hearing that, Shinno quietly sighed in relief.
Sure, "a single arrow through the clouds summons ten thousand troops" sounded cool.
But he really didn't want to associate this fortress with the firecracker gag from Stephen Chow's comedy films.
Finally, after some long deliberation, Tsunade reluctantly named it "Expedition."
Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, Kumogakure's Dodai, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure led groups of sensory and communication ninjas to board the fortress.
Together, they formed the strategy unit and began announcing the deployment of each Allied Shinobi Force squad.
The surprise attack unit, led by Namikaze Minato and A's son—the younger A—gathered five thousand shinobi and departed first, using captured Sky Ninja warships to head toward the Land of Water.
The second unit, led by Jiraiya, Killer B, and Han, took a northern route with ten thousand soldiers.
Orochimaru, Roshi, and Toroi led the third unit, flanking from the south.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Kitsuchi, and Might Duy led the remaining 45,000 on giant turtle ships and various vessels from Kumogakure, advancing from the front toward Kirigakure.
The Expedition Fortress itself hovered in the sky, serving as the central command.
Onboard the sky fortress, top-tier warriors from all villages coordinated movements via the strategy, sensory, and communications teams.
After retracting his giant Buddha statues and enhanced wood soldiers, Shinno returned to the fortress.
As he landed, Yugito's eyes lit up the moment she saw him—her mood instantly lifted.
The man moved faster than she had imagined.
"We've secured chakra from the One-Tail, Two-Tail, Four-Tail, Five-Tail, Seven-Tail, and Eight-Tail," the Third Raikage said, setting down the giant jar-shaped Amber Purification Jar. "We had to take the whole Seven-Tails from Takigakure since they weren't exactly cooperative."
"Appreciate it," Shinno nodded, internally sighing. Kumogakure was as domineering as ever.
Takigakure didn't cooperate? So they just stole the entire Seven-Tails.
Then again, Konoha had literally stolen the Sky Ninja fortress and their war fleet, so... pot, meet kettle.
"What about the First Hokage and Madara?" Pakura asked, eyeing Shinno and Tsunade.
With the Three-Tails and Nine-Tails in Konoha's hands, they were only one step away from reviving the Ten-Tails.
But she hadn't seen those legendary powerhouses yet, which made her a little anxious.
Tsunade turned to Shinno too. She'd been running nonstop these past few days and hadn't seen her grandfather or granduncle at all.
"Was someone just talking about me and Madara?" a familiar voice called from a nearby tower.
Senju Hashirama leaned halfway out the window of the tower, dressed casually in a beige robe.
Right beside him were Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Izuna, and the ever-cold Senju Tobirama—all turning their heads toward the group.
"Clothes... their faces... That's not Edo Tensei?!" Tsunade's pupils shrank. She looked at Shinno in disbelief.
The Raikage, Pakura, Onoki, and the others were all stunned into silence.
"Big sis! I'm back!"
A cheerful, youthful voice rang out from the window.
Nawaki leapt onto the windowsill, beaming brightly at a frozen Tsunade.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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