“Of course, I don’t need you to investigate too deeply.” Aoba continued, giving Karin some careful instructions.
“Just gather information from a distance.
Ask ordinary people about any clues you can find.
Most importantly, avoid contact with unfamiliar shinobi.” “Otogakure?
The small village that participated in the Chunin Exams?” Karin asked curiously.
Aoba nodded.
“That’s right.
Otogakure is located in the Land of Rice Fields.
On the surface, it was established by the daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields, but in reality, it was founded by Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Three Ninja and an S-rank missing-nin from Konoha.” Hearing this, Karin suddenly realized that her new boss was far from ordinary.
At the very least, during all her time in Kusagakure and Konoha, she’d never heard anything about Otogakure’s true origins.
If Konoha discovered the truth, they probably wouldn’t tolerate Otogakure participating in the Chunin Exams.
Someone who knew about such a deeply hidden secret couldn’t possibly be an ordinary shinobi, could he?
As for the Flying Thunder God Technique Aoba used, Karin had also learned that it was the technique once wielded by Konoha’s Fourth Hokage, the legendary Yellow Flash.
Everything she had seen told her that Aoba was anything but simple.
However, Karin had no interest in uncovering Aoba’s secrets.
She felt as though she’d finally found a purpose in life.
All she wanted was to complete whatever missions the young man entrusted to her.
“Okay.
I’ll gather information on Otogakure as quickly as I can.” Karin accepted the mission without hesitation.
“And there’s one final task.” Aoba took two scrolls from inside his clothes and handed them to her.
“You need to learn the techniques recorded on these scrolls.
They’ll be a huge help in improving your strength.” With Karin’s current ability, she would have been treated as dead weight if she’d participated in the Chunin Exams again and been teamed up with those mediocre Kusa shinobi.
That alone showed just how weak she was.
Gathering intelligence wasn’t an easy job, and Aoba couldn’t guarantee that he would always be able to arrive in time if she ran into trouble.
Improving her own strength was the most effective way to stay alive.
After all, the shinobi world had always been a place where strength spoke for itself.
Karin opened one of the scrolls and immediately saw three large characters written across it.
Rasengan**.** “This is…” Karin was slightly surprised.
One look was enough to tell her that this was no ordinary technique.
“Rasengan is an A-rank, hand-seal-less ninjutsu invented by the Fourth Hokage.
It’s particularly well suited to members of the Uzumaki clan.” At the same time, Aoba silently grumbled to himself.
Of course it is.
Naruto practically turned the thing into an art form.
As for Rasengan, Aoba himself actually hadn’t learned it yet.
Don’t ask.
His ninjutsu talent simply wasn’t quite good enough.
But he’d watched the original series and knew how Rasengan was trained.
First, you practiced with a water balloon.
Once you could control your chakra well enough to rotate it and burst the balloon, you moved on to a water-filled rubber ball.
After you could burst that, you progressed to a regular rubber ball.
With enough practice, there was a chance you’d eventually master Rasengan.
“Thank you, Aoba-sama.
I’ll work hard to master it!” Karin carefully put away the Rasengan scroll before opening the other one.
The technique recorded inside was none other than Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Aoba explained, “The one thing your Uzumaki clan never lacks is chakra.
You can take advantage of that by using large numbers of Shadow Clones to assist with training.
I guarantee the results will be extraordinary.” “Once you master Shadow Clone Jutsu, learning Rasengan afterward will be twice as effective.” Karin nodded solemnly.
She hadn’t expected her new boss to place so much trust in her.
For so long, she’d been the invisible girl everyone overlooked.
Now she’d suddenly been entrusted with such important responsibilities, and she was filled with motivation.
Deep down, she secretly swore that she would give her life in loyal service to Aoba-sama before carefully putting away both technique scrolls.
“Good.
Your missions are all arranged.
Rest for a few days before you start working.” Before leaving, Aoba made sure to give her one final warning.
“If you encounter an enemy you can’t defeat, run.
Or activate the Flying Thunder God mark and summon me.
“Failing a few missions doesn’t matter.
Your safety comes first.” With that, Aoba transformed into a streak of light and disappeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Back in his room in Konoha, Aoba’s days once again returned to their usual leisurely pace.
There was still a month before the third stage of the Chunin Exams, so he planned to take on a few more D-rank missions during this period.
Even the smallest bit of money was still money.
He couldn’t let becoming stronger go to his head.
Over the course of nearly a month, Aoba earned 5,000 ryo from D-rank missions after covering his expenses.
D-rank missions weren’t available every day.
Being able to save that much was already the result of considerable effort.
Besides his missions, Aoba had also used Karin to help him kill two targets with bounties from the underground black market.
One was around Chunin level, while the other was roughly at the level of a Special Jonin.
The two bounties totaled around 500,000 ryo.
He gave Karin 100,000 ryo as her wages and repaid the 300,000 ryo he owed Hinata.
In the end, Aoba painfully discovered that after all that running around, he had only a little over 100,000 ryo left.
He deposited 100,000 ryo into the system and kept the rest for living expenses.
A month had passed, and it was time for Aoba to draw from the gacha again.
The translucent gacha interface appeared, and Aoba discovered that the ordinary prize pool had been refreshed.
The S-rank ninjutsu listed on it had become the Reaper Death Seal, while the two powerful A-rank ninjutsu were now Chidori and the Mystical Palm Technique.
Of course, that didn’t mean he could only draw the A-rank techniques displayed in the prize pool.
But any other A-rank ninjutsu he drew would probably be pretty worthless, like the Evil Sealing Method he’d gotten last time.
Without hesitation, Aoba issued the command in his mind.
System, 10 pull!
The gacha interface spun rapidly before the results finally appeared.
[Obtained: Summoning Jutsu, 2 Shuriken, 1 Medical Kit, 4 Soldier Pills] [Congratulations, Host!
Your luck is overflowing!] ][You obtained Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!
(B-rank)] [Congratulations, Host!
Your wish has come true!] [You obtained the Seven Ninja Swordsmen’s greatsword, Samehada] Not bad.
Aside from the guaranteed reward, he’d also gotten a powerful weapon.
Aoba took Samehada out of the system inventory, and his eyes immediately lit up.
He’d only just sold his Chakra Blade, and now he’d somehow drawn an even better ninja sword.
More importantly, Samehada’s special ability was extremely useful.
It could absorb an enemy’s chakra during battle.
Chakra capacity happened to be Aoba’s current weakness.
With Samehada, his endurance in battle would improve considerably.
The only problem was that Samehada’s appearance was far too distinctive.
He couldn’t casually take it out and use it for the time being.
Samehada was an exceptionally unusual ninja sword because it was alive.
Rather than calling it a ninja sword, it would be more accurate to call it a living creature.
At that moment, the Samehada in Aoba’s hand moved.
It rotated its body and affectionately rubbed itself against Aoba’s arm.
Seeing this, Aoba suddenly felt like he was raising a pet.
After swinging it a few times to get a feel for its weight, he put Samehada back into the system inventory.
After experimenting for some time, Aoba had gained a basic understanding of how the system inventory worked.
Items produced by the system could be taken out of the inventory at any time and returned just as easily.
However, items originating from the shinobi world itself couldn’t be placed inside the system inventory.
That result was within his expectations, so he wasn’t particularly surprised.
The guaranteed B-rank ninjutsu he’d drawn was also very useful to Aoba.
Combined with the Sharingan, this genjutsu could display an incredibly powerful effect.
It was practically Orochimaru’s natural counter.
In his pursuit of immortality, Orochimaru had developed Living Corpse Reincarnation, allowing him to devour another person’s soul and take over their body.
The consequence was that his soul became weaker with every reincarnation.
Aoba remembered that back when Orochimaru was in the Akatsuki, Itachi had merely looked at him before instantly defeating him with a genjutsu.
Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death was a B-rank genjutsu, so its power should be greater than that technique.
Of course, the power of a genjutsu depended primarily on the strength of its caster.
Aoba’s ocular prowess was nowhere near Itachi’s.
One merely possessed an ordinary Three-Tomoe Sharingan, while the other possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Instantly killing Orochimaru was impossible, but if Orochimaru was weakened, Aoba had a good chance of restraining him for several seconds.
He spent 20 skill points to raise Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death to Proficient, then another 200 skill points to raise it to Mastery.
Only then was Aoba satisfied and closed the interface.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Time flew by.
On the night before the Chunin Exams, Karin finally sent Aoba the intelligence she’d gathered on Otogakure.