Unlike the silent leaps from buildings shown in movies.
Real jumps usually came with a deafening crash!
Especially from the height of a twenty-story building.
Mud and water flew everywhere.
Mingren struck the ground, his skin splitting open and his limbs twisting grotesquely.
White bones protruded through the flesh.
Blood gushed out like a fountain.
Wounds that would have killed an ordinary person instantly only left Mingren enduring unbearable agony while remaining completely conscious, thanks to his exceptional physical constitution.
It was an uninhabited area.
And it was nighttime.
So... no one noticed the "jump" over here.
Like a broken doll, Mingren lay in a deep, water-filled crater...
Thump!
His heart stubbornly continued beating.
Whoosh! Sizzle...
His muscles began to writhe and reform.
Under the effects of the Body Activation Technique and the Dark Chakra it generated.
Mingren's body began repairing itself.
The next moment.
Mingren, his gaze unfocused, suddenly widened his eyes and looked toward the sky.
A figure came splashing through the water. It was Shennong.
He stood before his disciple, staring at his miserable state.
Five years and three thousand inhuman experiments.
Combined with this extreme training that constantly skirted the edge of life and death.
Had indeed forged terrifying willpower within him.
Whoosh... sizzle...
The skin on his body surface and the flesh beneath it continually writhed and regenerated.
After several minutes.
Mingren had recovered completely...
But there was still a problem.
Some of his bones did not seem to have returned to their proper positions.
Mingren rose to his feet, stretched out both hands, and forcefully snapped those bones back into place.
The medical skills he had learned from Shennong over the past five years came in handy once again.
The hellish pain did not extinguish the black flames in his pupils. Instead, they burned even more fiercely.
Shennong asked, "Just how persistent is your determination to oppose the Bloodline Theory...?"
To be honest, even he sometimes did not understand.
Why his disciple was so vehemently opposed to the Bloodline Theory.
"I just want to give the self who was once deceived an explanation."
Mingren said in a low voice.
After saying that, he stood up and headed back toward the rooftop.
Shennong raised an eyebrow. "You nearly died just now, and you still want to keep training?"
"Die? Aren't I still alive and kicking?"
Mingren said, turning back.
"Now that I have strength, I naturally need a mindset worthy of it. I... am already a strong person..."
If he were weak.
Then there would be no possibility of overturning the Bloodline Theory.
Only by standing from the perspective of the strong could he defeat all those villains obsessed with bloodlines.
Of course.
Mingren always remembered what he wanted to prove.
Even an ordinary person could climb to the summit of the Six Paths.
Even without any Kekkei Genkai, one could still become strong in this world!
Whoosh.
As the last trace of injury within his body healed.
Mingren's strength rose to a new height.
[Strength... 8.2!]
Akatsuki Organization, Yahiko's Invitation
Two days later...
At a border town somewhere in the Land of Rain.
Mingren arrived there.
Besides having reached a bottleneck in his training and needing actual combat to continue improving his strength.
An appointment to meet someone from a certain organization was also one of the reasons he had come...
Dark clouds filled the sky.
A light rain fell.
As he walked along the muddy streets, vendors calling out their wares could be seen everywhere.
From Ninja Tools such as Kunai and Shuriken to food, clothing, lodging, and transport, everything was available.
It was worth mentioning.
The official novel Akatsuki Secret Chronicle had once described this.
During the war, many merchants in the Land of Rain sold weapons and other strategic supplies to foreign ninja from Konoha and elsewhere.
Then the foreign ninja from Konoha, Sunagakure, and other places used the weapons sold by Land of Rain merchants to slaughter the residents and ninja of the Land of Rain.
It had to be said, it was an immense irony.
And the scene before Mingren was precisely that.
Konoha ninja could be seen coming and going along the street, selecting goods they liked in the shops.
In terms of its role, this town resembled a rest stop and logistics supply point.
It was close to the border.
And since the war had dragged on for a long time and the front lines had shifted, it was considered far from the battlefield and relatively peaceful.
Seeing this scene.
Mingren's gaze turned icy, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
Shennong glanced at his disciple and chuckled.
Then.
Several groups of people passed by.
The Konoha ninja who sensed the situation immediately hid themselves.
They concealed themselves in the shadows and watched the Amegakure ninja pass through.
After a long while...
They emerged from the darkness again.
They looked at one another, unsure what major move Amegakure was making this time.
After discussing it, their figures quickly vanished as they prepared to report what they had discovered.
Mingren naturally noticed the movements of those groups of Amegakure ninja as well.
After watching for a moment, he continued forward toward an inn.
Inside the inn.
Asuka, Ryu, and two other companions used the Transformation Technique to disguise themselves as passersby before entering.
Seated in the lobby, they soon noticed the uninvited guests who had removed their raincoats.
As the group lowered their hoods, Amegakure Headbands and youthful faces were revealed.
However.
The instant Asuka saw their faces, an imperceptible frown crossed her eyes.
Ryu and the others immediately turned hostile as well.
There was no doubt.
These people were not Amegakure ninja.
They had an exceptionally well-known name... Akatsuki!
Though they wore Amegakure ninja headbands, they had nothing whatsoever to do with Amegakure.
The orange-haired young man stood up... or perhaps he was still a teenager. Cruel reality had forced everyone to grow up quickly.
He rose and looked around for a moment.
Soon, a smile appeared at the corner of the mouth.
Because two figures had entered through the doorway. They were precisely the people he had been waiting for.
"Yahiko, it has been a while," Shennong said with a faint smile as he stepped forward to greet him.
"..."
Ryu and the other three silently watched everything, guessing at the relationship between the two groups.
Asuka's attention, meanwhile, was entirely fixed on Mingren beside Shennong.
Perhaps... this was fate.
They had met again.
"Young Lady..."
Ryu spoke softly.
How they should deal with the people of the Akatsuki Organization had always been something that gave Hanzo a headache.
On territory under his control.
An organization had suddenly emerged.
This organization possessed armed forces, yet it was not under Amegakure's command.
That alone would have been one thing.
But they even wore Amegakure Headbands on their foreheads... what kind of mess was that?!
A trace of anger flashed in Ryu and the other two's eyes.
Before you continue