Orochimaru and Sasori's Happy Gig Life

Outside Konoha.

Orochimaru's secret base.

Ever since arriving here a day ago.

Orochimaru and his associates had begun their research without a moment's delay.

Through preliminary study, they discovered that a specific type of energy consistently existed at the junction where Danzo's head met the pig's body.

The group unanimously agreed that it was this very energy preventing the rejection reaction that should have occurred, allowing Danzo to remain in perfect health.

Orochimaru himself had conducted many limb transplantation experiments.

Aside from the few cases involving blood relatives, all others had failed.

There was only one exception: Hashirama cells. The arm grafted onto Danzo had been installed by his own hand using Hashirama cells.

Beyond the fact that Hashirama cells could be compatible with any host.

There were no other exceptions.

This led the group to sigh in admiration once more.

"Kimura Takuya is truly a genius. Without figuring out what this energy is, no one here could have achieved this but him."

If Kimura Takuya were here, he would likely humbly point out that there was also Hiruko.

After their sighs of admiration, the group continued their research.

Little did they know, they were all working for free for Kimura Takuya.

And Kimura Takuya was about to come and mess with their heads.

Konoha village gate.

Everyone had arranged their affairs at home, packed their luggage, and gathered together.

"Yosh! Everyone is ready, let's set off!"

"Uh, Guy-sensei, where are we going? This mission doesn't have a direction at all?"

"Tenten, that is not a problem at all. When you have no direction, you only have two choices: one is to retreat, and the other is to charge forward! A ninja of Konoha does not retreat easily, so our direction is very clear—we charge forward!"

"That makes so much sense, I can't even argue with it! But why am I suddenly feeling a bit fired up?"

Tenten muttered, speechless. She pulled her backpack to her front and began rummaging through it; the bag was filled mostly with Summoning Jutsu scrolls.

Ever since listening to Kimura Takuya, Tenten had developed a Konoha-Style Nintaijutsu that infused chakra into long-range weapons.

But for the past half-month, she had been researching Summoning Jutsu and Sealing Jutsu.

Because she discovered that maintaining chakra infusion on melee weapons was difficult enough.

To maintain chakra on a long-range weapon after it had left her hand, she had to use chakra metal.

However, chakra metal was incredibly precious; even the Hokage's son could only produce a pair of blade gauntlets.

Given her family's wealth, they could certainly provide her with some, but thinking of throwing them around like ordinary long-range weapons was wishful thinking.

At first, Tenten had considered using the special wood used to make chakra test paper as a weapon.

After all, this special wood was cultivated with chakra from the very beginning of its growth, and once fully grown, it possessed chakra conductivity no less than that of chakra metal.

It could be made into chakra test paper, which was extremely sensitive to chakra attributes.

But after testing it, she found that while the wood did have good chakra conductivity, once chakra was infused into it, it remained just wood.

Its power was not even as great as ordinary metal weapons.

A troubled Tenten sought out Kimura Takuya.

Kimura Takuya pointed her in a new direction, telling the troubled girl:

"Simply infusing chakra into wood doesn't increase its power much, but what if you added Sealing Jutsu?"

"Ah! Like an Explosive Tag?"

The clever girl understood instantly.

Wasn't an Explosive Tag just a Fire Release jutsu sealed onto chakra paper, allowing a single sheet to unleash the effect of a high-level Fire Release?

Many jonin proficient in Fire Release and Sealing Jutsu had cooperative orders for Explosive Tags with her family.

Ordinary chakra paper lacked the sensitivity to chakra attributes that chakra test paper had.

It simply had a higher tolerance for chakra, making it an excellent material for making sealing scrolls and Explosive Tags.

And unprocessed special wood was actually more stable than ordinary chakra paper.

Generally, for semi-permanent seals, special wood was used to directly carve the sealing formula to achieve better results.

To get even better results, one would have to use chakra metal, but the cost of that was obviously too high.

So, in the end, Tenten still chose long-range weapons made of special wood.

However, she would engrave them all with Sealing Jutsu formulas and then ask someone to seal various high-level ninjutsu inside.

During battle, she only needed to apply a chakra shape transformation similar to the Sound-Damping Technique onto her ninja tools.

This allowed the tools to strike the enemy rapidly and silently, while also enabling her to control the detonation of the sealed ninjutsu via chakra threads.

It could be said that the current Tenten, given sufficient preparation, possessed combat power no less than one Kakashi!

Perhaps even with greater lethality!

Because her lethality depended entirely on how many ninja tools she could carry.

After all, the consumption required to trigger the seals on the tools and throw them was negligible.

"Finally found it!"

After rummaging through her backpack for a long time, Tenten gripped the item she had found in her palm.

It was an exquisite little box containing something that rattled like small stones inside.

There was also a pair of fingerless gloves, which she handed to Kimura Takuya with both hands.

"Takuya, I've found the gemstones you asked me to look for, and here are the gloves woven from special wood fibers."

"Oh, did you find them all?"

Kimura Takuya had been thinking about how to lure the team toward Orochimaru's laboratory.

Seeing Tenten hand over the items, he snapped back to reality and took the gloves and gemstones.

The gloves were nothing special; this type of tactical glove, woven from special wood fibers, was standard.

Although a bit pricey, they possessed excellent chakra conductivity.

They also prevented weapons from slipping during close-quarters combat, and the metal plates embedded on the back of the hands provided decent protection.

They were essentially a must-have for elite ninja.

They were the exact kind that Kakashi often wore.

Light, thin, and breathable—even Kakashi swore by them.

"Ha! Tenten, you're actually secretly preparing gifts for Takuya? Why have Neji and I never received any? You like Takuya, don't you? Admit it!"

"N-no! This isn't a specially prepared gift; it's just stuff Takuya asked me to find!"

Kimura Takuya looked at the gloves in his hand and felt they weren't the standard size sold in shops.

Instead, they were custom-sized, and the dimensions seemed to match his hands perfectly.

Well then, this little girl seemed to have misunderstood something; could it be that she even knitted them herself?

"Still saying it's not a special gift? I clearly saw you with a half-knitted project in your backpack last time—mph!"

"I'll kill you!"

Tenten instantly mastered a famous move from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu—the Rear Naked Choke!

Kimura Takuya shook his head with a smile, crouched on the ground, and performed hand seals to cast a ninjutsu.

"Ninja Art: True Transformation Technique."

With a poof, the gloves and gemstones on the ground merged into one, and the cut of the gloves was modified into a more slender, feminine style.

The True Transformation Technique wasn't often used on objects, so it was rare for Kimura Takuya to perform the seals for it again.

Yet, everyone was left with their jaws on the floor by this maneuver.

He had actually used the Transformation Technique to physically alter the shape of the gloves; a genius was truly a creature beyond the understanding of ordinary people!

Neji was almost so shocked he activated his Byakugan, beginning to doubt his own life.

"Try them on, Tenten."