Marching Toward Asura? (Please Follow)

Rain Country.

The downpour still raged on.

Sasori walked toward a village with a sour expression. He had never expected to be set up!

He was not afraid of those people from Sunagakure, but being forcibly besieged by a large group was more than he could handle.

With no other choice, he had abandoned his continued search for "materials" and come to the Rain Country.

"You seem rather bedraggled, Sasori."

Just then, a voice suddenly rang out. Sasori looked up to see Pain, the leader of their organization, standing on the eaves and watching him.

"I ran into some trouble, but don't worry. No tails followed me."

Sasori shook his head indifferently. He had not wanted to say much, but the thought of how badly he had been played made it impossible to hold back.

"Pain, do you know someone named Danzo?"

"Danzo?"

Pain froze for a moment, while Nagato, hidden within a tower, instantly changed expression.

"You encountered Danzo?"

"No, I encountered one of his subordinates. An extremely sinister fellow."

Sasori shook his head, his gaze brimming with fury.

"And he had a teammate who used a strange Chakra giant. They were difficult to deal with, so they got away, and they caused me quite a bit of trouble!"

"Danzo..."

Pain's expression could not be read, but he fell silent. Only after a long while did he speak.

"I know him. We will deal with that man properly in the future. He will not escape!"

As his words fell, Pain vanished from where he stood.

Sasori looked strangely at the spot where Pain had disappeared. He seemed to sense that Pain hated Danzo, but he could not be bothered to ask.

This time, he had lost quite a few puppets. He needed to calm down and recover properly.

"A Chakra giant, like a tailed beast made through Earth Release?"

In Kirigakure, Obito looked at the report in his hand and fell into deep thought.--

Hidezawa himself had not expected the reward this time to be so generous!

Eight Free Points was no small amount. It was enough to raise his physical attributes, with some left over!

Besides that, he seemed to have received something quite interesting.

"Shinobi World Professor?"

Hidezawa had not received many special rewards before, and this one clearly seemed to have dropped from Hiruzen Sarutobi.

After examining it for a while, Hidezawa's eyes immediately lit up!

Simply put, this reward was actually a one-time-use reward. It was modeled after Hiruzen Sarutobi, though the system seemed to have made some modifications to it.

As long as he used it, whenever Hidezawa learned a ninjutsu, he would definitely master it as long as it conformed to the theory. Besides that...

"Can be raised to the current maximum ability level, LV6!"

That was what tempted Hidezawa the most. It meant that if he learned a technique, it could save him twenty-one Free Points!

The only pity was that this ability was locked to his "factory settings"—in other words, his current stats.

Still, LV6 was not bad. It was at least Jonin level, and one step further would make him an Elite Jonin.

Besides, Hidezawa was a Numerical Monster. Combined with things like the Cursed Seal, his overall strength was definitely not weak!

"I never thought we would become 'heroes.'"

After leaving the Hokage Office, Yugao still seemed somewhat dazed. She felt like she had not done much, so how had she become a hero?

"It is rather unexpected."

Shisui's head was buzzing as well, and he also found it somewhat unreal.

But Hidezawa did not feel that way at all. He knew these two were probably suffering from the aftereffects of their sense of responsibility flaring up for no reason again.

In truth, Hidezawa felt that if one could slack off while steadily collecting a paycheck, was that not a wonderful thing?

But people with a strong sense of responsibility could not really accept that. Fortunately, Hidezawa knew how to deal with it.

"Alright, don't overthink it. Now that we're back, let's get ready and have a gathering tonight. We can treat it as celebrating the success of our first mission."

"Celebrate?"

Shisui tilted his head. After thinking briefly, he smiled and nodded.

"That's a good idea. We really should celebrate."

They were teammates to begin with, so Shisui trusted Hidezawa more than most.

After everything that had happened, his opinion of Hidezawa and his trust in him had both risen considerably.

During this operation, he had used a power he had always kept secret: the Mangekyō Sharingan!

He had never told anyone about these eyes, and for now, no one knew about them. He had no plans to reveal them yet.

But he had had no choice when faced with a powerful enemy. What surprised him was that Hidezawa did not seem to take the matter to heart.

Whether in the report or in his account to Lord Hokage, he had not mentioned it much.

Shisui thought perhaps Hidezawa simply did not recognize those eyes, but regardless, it greatly deepened his favorable impression.

Of course, he also needed to return and discuss this with the elders.

"No problem."

Seeing that Hidezawa was not dwelling on it at all, Yugao thought about it and stopped agonizing over it as well. However, she took the initiative to say,

"But I'll treat tonight. I barely contributed during this operation, so I'll handle the celebration now that we're back!"

Since someone was treating them, Hidezawa naturally had no objections.

As a shinobi who had come out of Root, Hidezawa had once suspected that Danzo had withheld his mission rewards.

That had kept his pockets rather "clean." By comparison, Yugao, a pure Anbu, seemed to be much better off than him.

Damn it, birds of a feather. The reward they promised last time was actually delayed and handed over together with this one?!

While cursing inwardly, Hidezawa still bade Shisui and Yugao farewell with a gentle smile.

He still had other matters to handle, such as dealing with that old bastard Danzo and Kabuto.

If nothing unexpected had happened, Kabuto should already be outside the village, and he should have delivered intelligence to Danzo.

The intelligence Kabuto gave Danzo would be far more detailed, not the stuff Hidezawa had used to fool Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Hm?"

As he walked, Hidezawa suddenly saw Kakashi approaching the Hokage Building at a rapid pace, his face grim.

He had wanted to greet him, but when he remembered that he still had not paid for the ramen last time, he decided to bring it up another time.

Who knows what's going on, but whatever.

Shaking his head, Hidezawa turned his attention to his system.

Including the one point left over from before, he now had nine Free Points. He had to make good use of them!

"System, help me increase my Body Comprehensive Quality."

Body Comprehensive Quality has been raised to LV7

Once Hidezawa dumped all his Free Points into it at once, he almost immediately sensed a change in his body!

"This is..."

Hidezawa was somewhat stunned. His LV6 Body Comprehensive Quality had already brought him unimaginable benefits.

For example, powerful bodily functions and Chakra recovery, as well as speed, strength, perception, and more.

But after rising to LV7, he found that all those abilities had received another significant boost!

Especially his perception and Chakra control. Moreover, he discovered something interesting...

"There seems to be a force I can control, and I seem to be able to use it to heal my own injuries?"

Hidezawa lightly clenched his fist, instantly feeling as though his body were filled with power. That strange force was surging through him!

At that moment, a new prompt suddenly appeared on his retina.

Body development has reached a certain threshold. Original limitations have been broken, and a new ability has been obtained.

Yang Release LV1

Hidezawa stared at the prompt in a daze for a long while. He suddenly had an absurd thought.

"Breaking through the body's original limitations, comprehensive enhancement, and now Yang Release..."

"Am I heading toward becoming Asura?"

But just as he pondered this, he suddenly spotted Aburame Ryūma standing in a shadowy corner not far away.

This newbie humbly begs you to keep following. Following now determines everything for a book; letting it sit too long can easily kill it.

Thank you, everyone! Onz