The Horse Talisman

Konoha, Ninja Academy.

Listening to the sound of the Chunin teacher's chalk scraping across the blackboard, Qian Yu found it unbearably noisy. He might as well focus on the system panel...

Back in the Land of Fire's capital, the entire court had already been replaced with efficient, capable, and incorruptible Shadow Ninjas. There was no doubt this had upended the whole country, earning Qian Yu a huge haul of Dimensional Points.

"Then it's time to bring out the next Talisman..."

The "next Talisman" Qian Yu meant was naturally the Horse Talisman he still had in hand.

Although the Horse Talisman possessed the divine power to repair and heal anything, making it no exaggeration to call it a life-saving treasure, Qian Yu was only a Ninja Academy student. It didn't seem like he was under enough pressure to need it.

Armament Haki alone would probably be enough to sweep through the school and become its top dog, wouldn't it?

As he sent out the Horse Talisman, Qian Yu made another decision: he would use all the Dimensional Points he had earned, as well as all the ones he earned from then on, to draw the Twelve Talismans.

Only by completing the story would more people be influenced.

Although he had spent all the Dimensional Points he'd earned and only gotten the Snake Talisman and Dog Talisman... at least he hadn't been standing still...

The Snake Talisman wasn't much use to Qian Yu, but the Dog Talisman was incredible. Its divine power symbolized eternal life... If Orochimaru found out about it, he'd probably pay any price to get his hands on it!

This time, Qian Yu decided not to send the Talisman to Konoha again. He needed to spread the benefits around and let the entire Ninja World experience the power of another world.

"Qian Yu!"

Just as Qian Yu finished editing the script, the Chunin teacher at the front of the classroom finally lost patience with him spacing out. He pulled a piece of chalk from the box and sent it flying toward Qian Yu.

—Crack!

The chalk hit Qian Yu squarely on the forehead. The Chunin teacher's booming voice followed right after—

"Get out and stand in the hallway!"

While Qian Yu felt the morning breeze on his face, Uncle, with help from Konoha's Anbu, quickly developed a spell to locate the next Talisman.

"The next Talisman is the Horse, which can eliminate all external forces..."

A green light lifted the map before Uncle. At last, the horseshoe, acting as a medium, pointed to a spot on the map.

"Heh... just as I thought. No chakra fluctuations... Qi Magic... it certainly makes you curious..."

Watching Uncle demonstrate his Qi Magic, Orochimaru didn't even blink. His snake-like tongue unconsciously flicked across his lips. He was always most interested in things he didn't know.

"Heh... Hanzo's territory, is it? Looks like we'll have to travel abroad."

Orochimaru immediately recognized the place where the horseshoe had landed on the map: the small Land of Rain, wedged between the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind.

Konoha Forest, on the road toward the Land of Fire's border.

As Orochimaru moved ahead like a ghost, leaping from branch to branch, he shifted his gaze to Chixing, who was carrying Uncle on his back.

"Chixing, your appearance is quite unusual~"

Even in the Ninja World, where creatures like human-sized centipedes and spiders existed in abundance, Orochimaru had never seen anyone like Chixing. How could the "mad scientist" not be interested? From the moment he'd laid eyes on Chixing, he'd wanted to dissect him, draw his blood, and run experiments on him.

"Ah, that's because I'm from Bikini Bottom..."

"Bikini Bottom? Is that a place?" He'd never heard of it. Orochimaru was about to ask Chixing more about where he came from when Uncle cut him off. "Chixing! There's no time to chat. We have to get the Talisman before the Shadowkhan!"

"Heh... are you wary of me?"

Chixing sped up, while Orochimaru learned the two of their personalities from their brief conversation.

Uncle was the cautious, difficult-to-deal-with type. As for Chixing... he was a bit of a blockhead. He looked easy to fool.

"Looks like I'll have to find a way to get Chixing alone..."

The Land of Rain.

As a small country caught between three great nations, life wasn't easy for its people. Things had become even worse after their leader, Hanzo, grew old and lost his way.

The Land of Rain, in a valley near one of the Akatsuki's bases.

"Yahiko, Nagato! Come quick! There's a child here!"

Konan called to her companions, paying no heed to the rain soaking her blue hair and robe. She lifted a little white-haired girl out of a muddy puddle and held her in her arms.

"Konan, how is she?"

"She just seems tired... Let's take her back and have someone check her over."

"Hm? What's this..."

As Konan stood up, she suddenly noticed that the little girl seemed to be clutching something in her hand... But now wasn't the time to worry about that. The child's life came first.

Akatsuki base.

After cleaning the white-haired girl and changing her clothes, Konan laid her on a soft bed and tucked her in. She stroked the girl's white hair, intending to let her rest, when she suddenly noticed a scar on her baby-soft cheek. It looked like it had been there for quite a while.

"Looks like she's another poor child..."

That's right! The white-haired girl with a scar on her face was Jack!

She'd been following Qian Yu's orders to send the Horse Talisman to a spot in the Land of Rain, setting the stage for the story to come. On the way, she happened to run into the three members of Akatsuki, who were still wearing their old robes—the black robes with red trim, without the red cloud pattern.

So Qian Yu had a sudden inspiration and told Jack to disguise herself as a child in distress and lie in the puddle. Sure enough, Jack's thin, adorable appearance brought out Konan's protective instincts, and she took Jack straight back to the Akatsuki base.

Why bring the Horse Talisman to Akatsuki? Because the more chaotic things got and the more people involved, the more Dimensional Points he could earn!

Then there was the Snake Talisman... Qian Yu had found it a decent new home, too...

As for the Dog Talisman? It had a special purpose! To stop Nagato from summoning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path too early and causing an old man with one foot in the grave to die ahead of schedule, the Dog Talisman had to be placed at a specific location.

He'd earn a haul from Konoha, another from Amegakure, then one more from Akatsuki. A win for everyone! (Meaning Qian Yu won three times.) What was there not to like?

Amegakure Tower.

This was the tallest building in Amegakure, as well as the office of Hanzo, leader of the Land of Rain.

Hanzo was so cautious that he rotated his guards every twenty-four hours. Yet at that moment, there were no guards in his office—only two figures facing each other in the dim room, discussing something.

"Lord Danzo, don't tell me you came all this way to see me just for fun!"

Standing before Hanzo, backlit and wearing a gas mask, was a man whose sinister expression seemed visible even through it—Shimura Danzō!

Seeing that Hanzo was getting impatient, Danzō rose unhurriedly, leaning on his cane. "Then I'll get straight to the point..."

"I'm sure you're familiar with Akatsuki, Lord Hanzo?"

It wasn't yet time for Danzō to manipulate Hanzo into eliminating Akatsuki as he did in the original story. But Root had intercepted word that Uncle and his group were heading toward Amegakure. Coveting the Talismans, Danzō needed leverage—a way to get his people onto Hanzo's territory "legally."

That was why he'd decided to move against Akatsuki early.

"Akatsuki?"

Hanzo was puzzled. Akatsuki had grown quite a bit, but in his eyes, they were nothing more than a circus put together by a bunch of brats. What was there to care about?

But in the next moment, Danzō's words stirred the cautious, power-hungry Hanzo's murderous intent.

"Lord Hanzo, Akatsuki has grown more than tenfold in just a few short months. Their membership must be almost as large as Amegakure's shinobi force by now, wouldn't you say?"

"On my way here, I even heard many of your villagers calling Akatsuki their saviors. They don't seem to have any regard for you, their leader."

—Smack!

Danzō's words had clearly struck a nerve. Hanzo slammed his palm down, smashing the table. His pupils contracted, his gaze turning vicious.

"You mean... they want to 'set themselves up as rulers'?!"

Before Danzō could reply, a series of sharp knocks suddenly sounded at the office door—