Aftermath

"Chixing, I happen to have some things I'd like to ask you. Would you be interested?"

The battle for the Talisman had settled, and seeing that only he and Chixing remained, Orochimaru immediately began to scheme.

With Uncle, who was wary of him, nowhere to be found, this was the perfect moment to gather intelligence.

"But... I need to meet up with Uncle..."

Chixing scratched his head, and just as he was about to continue, Orochimaru cut him off: "I don't believe Uncle specified a meeting time for you, did he?"

"Besides... after fighting for so long, you must be hungry, Chixing?"

"I once performed a mission in Amegakure and know of a very good restaurant there."

Chixing was fierce in battle, but whenever Uncle wasn't around, his Patrick Star-like simple-minded instincts took over. As soon as he heard about food, he immediately wore a childish expression, drool even beginning to leak out.

In a private room of a restaurant in Amegakure, Chixing's eyes lit up at the spread of dishes on the table. Ignoring the "dining etiquette" Uncle had taught him, he buried his face in the food!

"Hehe... eat slowly, Chixing. No one is going to take it from you."

As Chixing gorged himself, looking completely defenseless, Orochimaru knew his chance had arrived and immediately asked:

"You mentioned before that you are from Bikini Bottom, right?"

Orochimaru was very curious about this "Bikini Bottom." He had lived for decades, traveled the Ninja World, and read countless books; he even knew a bit about the minor nations on the fringes of the Ninja World, yet he had never even heard of this so-called "Bikini Bottom."

"Bikini Bottom is my hometown, located twenty thousand meters below the sea... the scenery there is beautiful, and the climate is pleasant..."

Halfway through, Chixing suddenly seemed to stall, a little steam rising from his pointed head. "SpongeBob seems to have taught me to say it like that..."

"No need to rush, Chixing. If you can't remember, it's fine. I wouldn't want to make things difficult for you. Why don't we change the subject and talk about that friend named 'SpongeBob'?"

Though Orochimaru showed no emotional fluctuation on the surface, he was laughing maniacally inside. To think it can survive in the deep sea?! No wonder Chixing's physical strength is so astonishing! I really want to dissect it and see what its body is made of!

"SpongeBob?! No, no! The Marshal of Crab Kingdom said I should call him by his codename, 'Yellow Sponge'!"

"He is my best friend! He is also one of the Three Admirals of Bikini Bottom, possessing the power to turn his body into light. He is the fastest among us!"

Once "Yellow Sponge" was mentioned, Chixing talked tirelessly about their past, completely losing his previous dazed look. By the time he was full and intended to meet up with Uncle, the intelligence regarding "Bikini Bottom" had been completely leaked.

"Chixing, you go ahead and meet up with Uncle. I have some things to attend to..."

"Oh, okay!"

Watching Chixing's pink body swagger out of the private room, Orochimaru took out a scroll and a pen to begin recording the intelligence he had leaked.

Bikini Bottom was a town located in the deep sea, possessing a structure similar to Konoha, known as the "Bikini Bottom Navy." As the name implied, they were the "soldiers" protecting the waters of Bikini Bottom.

The Three Admirals of Bikini Bottom were the three most powerful existences among them, referring to each other by codenames: "Chixing," "Yellow Sponge," and "Blue Octopus." All three Admirals possessed special abilities representing different elements and were extremely powerful.

Above the three Admirals was a "Marshal of Crab Kingdom," the leader of the Bikini Bottom Navy who governed every resident of Bikini Bottom...

"Hehe, Bikini Bottom... what a fascinating place..."

Orochimaru put away the scroll, looking at the fantastical claims written on it. Honestly, if it hadn't come from the mouth of a "creature" whose physiology and abilities were completely inconsistent with the Ninja World, he would never have believed a single word, likely dismissing it as a child's whimsical fantasy.

"What?! The Talisman you obtained was snatched away by people from Konoha?!"

"And it was Sarutobi Hiruzen's disciple, Orochimaru?!"

In the capital of the Land of Fire, Yuan Shixiu dug at his ear to confirm once more.

Seeing the Twelve Guardian Ninja and the Shadowkhan looking like they had "returned in defeat," and the extra corpse in the garden outside, he finally believed his ears hadn't deceived him.

"Good, I see that Sarutobi Hiruzen of Konoha is getting senile! He actually dares to step on my head!"

Although the Daimyo and the Hokage held equal status, the Daimyo clearly held the advantage in power, and the Daimyo also controlled the "lifeline" of Konoha.

In the Hokage movie The Will of Fire, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire once demanded that the Hokage at the time, the Fifth Hokage "Tsunade," capture the rogue ninja "Himiko," or he would destroy Konoha and replace it with a new ninja village.

But this destruction clearly wasn't military; it was financial.

As everyone knew, being a ninja was an incredibly expensive profession. The money needed to support Konoha's ninjas could not be covered by the taxes of the countless civilians in the village, nor by the tens of thousands of mission bounties earned daily.

Most of the time, the village relied on financial aid from the Daimyo to ensure its normal operation.

If the Daimyo cut off Konoha's financial appropriations, it would undoubtedly cut off Konoha's lifeline.

However... it wasn't time to burn bridges yet. Although he had the Shadowkhan, his own forces weren't strong enough to ignore Konoha. "I should just give them a warning for now..."

While he couldn't sever ties yet, he could certainly cut some funding, and he would make sure that Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen saw exactly what his precious disciple had done!

Meanwhile, in Konoha—

"Hmm... so this is the Talisman?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen held the Horse Talisman, examining it for a long while without seeing anything special. It didn't seem any different from an ordinary stone.

"Uncle said the Horse Talisman isn't just simple healing, but rather it expels all external forces from an object, returning it to its most perfect and flawless state..."

"Hiruzen, why don't we test it?"

Mitokado Homura adjusted his glasses and suggested.

"Let's use this Kunai for the test, shall we?"

Utatane Koharu pulled out a slightly rusted Kunai. As the director of Konoha Hospital and a logistics officer, she rarely had to engage in combat, so her ninja tools were naturally neglected, eventually rusting away inside her pouch.

--Swish!

As a green light washed over the entire office, the rusted Kunai became as good as new once the glow faded, looking as if it had just come off the production line.

"It's practically brand new!"

The three of them made no effort to hide the astonishment in their eyes. One had to realize that the ninja tools consumed by Konoha ninjas every year amounted to tens, if not hundreds, of millions, not to mention the constant maintenance and renovation of various buildings. This Horse Talisman would undoubtedly save Konoha an astonishing amount of fiscal expenditure.

Moreover... if it were wartime... the power of the Horse Talisman could be pushed to its absolute limit. At that point, Konoha would have no wounded, becoming truly invincible.

"By the way, where is Danzo?"

Just as the group was rejoicing over the boost to Konoha's strength, Sarutobi Hiruzen noticed that his old friend, who was usually prone to endless nagging, was missing from his side.

Wasn't he always the most interested in things that could enhance the village's combat power?

"Ever since he returned from Amegakure, he seems to have been hiding away in Root?"

"Forget it! Never mind him. Let's take a look at this top-secret intelligence from Orochimaru first!"