Azu

Then, Shiro ignored his pleas and killed him directly. Afterwards, he separated his head and body and sealed them away. He kept the body for research and processed the head to hand in the mission. Perfect!

Well, before sealing it, Shiro searched the corpses and was lucky enough to find several unredeemed mission vouchers. Shiro calculated that they amounted to approximately 50 million taels.

Sure enough, robbery is the fastest way!

However, Shiro also knew that such things only happened occasionally, and most of the time they would get nothing. Most ninjas would earn money and spend it as they went, and rarely would they accumulate enough to exchange or spend it all at once.

Unless there's something he needs to save up to buy, he usually just spends it directly.

Therefore, Shiro only thought about making a fortune through robbery and had no intention of actually doing it.

After that, Shiro donned the No Face May King and sneaked back. He needed to organize the information Orochimaru had given him at the inn first; the sooner the intelligence network was established, the better.

Back at the inn, Shiro, who had returned quietly, sat at the table looking at the scroll laid out on it.

Azu, 7 years old, was born in the Land of Birds. He was born with the ability to communicate with birds and even seems to be able to ignore spatial location!

For reasons unknown, they were born with the ability to communicate with birds.

Note: "Summoning" is a general term. The person who uses it has not learned Ninjutsu, does not have Chakra, and does not need to Hand Seals. When using it, their eyes will change, which has some research value.

Upon seeing this annotation, Shiro frowned. He felt that this ability was familiar, but he was certain that it was not Dōjutsu. Dōjutsu was still within the scope of Ninjutsu because it required Chakra to activate.

According to the information Orochimaru provided, this Azu was not needed, which is similar to something that Shiro had previously researched for a period of time out of interest.

Shiro even suspected it was that one, but this was information provided by Orochimaru, Shiro planned to go and see for himself before making a conclusion.

Moreover, if what Shiro thinks is true, then this system might not have died unjustly.

After making his decision, Shiro got up and left the town, taking Flying Bird through the forest to the Land of Birds. As for the remaining inn bill? Great men don't concern themselves with trifles; such things are best left unattended.

A day later, with the rapid flight of the Flying Bird, Shiro passed directly through the Land of Rain and arrived at the Land of Birds.

After that came an extremely arduous search. Shiro first flew to the vicinity of the village where Azu was located, as Orochimaru had reported, and then landed under the cloak of the No Face May King.

He had no choice but to be cautious; that brat could gather intelligence through birds, and if he didn't hide, he would easily expose himself.

Furthermore, ninjas don't have a good reputation in such a small country. If he deliberately hides, things will only get more complicated. Therefore, Shiro would rather put in more effort.

After landing, Shiro went straight into the village, found a house with people in it, and then appeared to cast Genjutsu and ask questions, all in a smooth and effortless manner!

Shiro's barely passable Genjutsu was quite effective against ordinary people like this. Unfortunately, after some questioning, Shiro found that he had never even seen anyone like Azu, let alone the name Azu.

Upon receiving this answer, Shiro frowned. Shiro hadn't expected to receive any information at all. Logically, Orochimaru shouldn't have any reason to trick him now, especially not over something so trivial.

Afterwards, Shiro, still not believing in such superstitions, asked several other people using the same method, but they didn't see anyone suspicious at all.

It wasn't until Shiro, in a desperate attempt to find a cure, used Genjutsu technique on a boy that he finally learned that Azu had appeared in the woods south of the village.

When Shiro arrived at the forest, besides the traces left by a child, he also saw the undisguised traces of snakes.

Upon seeing this, Shiro understood that Orochimaru probably didn't take him too seriously, and therefore only made a casual note of it without paying much attention to it.

In other words, what Shiro has is probably outdated intelligence.

Thinking of this, Shiro sighed and decided to stop thinking about it. At least he had found some clues, even though they were from a long time ago, but with a little effort, he could still find them.

Furthermore, from another perspective, this at least proves that this Azu is not influenced by Orochimaru and has some potential for development.

Immediately, Shiro followed the trail to several villages, but found nothing until the last one, where he learned an important piece of information.

Azu wasn't the only one with abnormalities; he had a younger sister who was even more abnormal than him, whose body would occasionally and suddenly rot without any apparent reason.

At the same time, Azu and the others were originally from the village where Shiro lived, located on the very edge of the Land of Birds, close to the Land of Earth. However, due to their innate abnormal abilities, they were separated from their original family.

They were disliked by the villagers, including their parents. At first, their abilities were not very obvious, and people were just curious. But as their abilities became more and more apparent, fear followed.

They originally intended to kill the two siblings, but their mother stopped them. After all, she had raised them for so many years and had developed some affection for them.

Unfortunately, in this ignorant world, her feelings weren't enough for her to accept these two outcasts. In the end, under her protection, they left the village.

Furthermore, that little bit of affection dissipated with the birth of their new family member, and after the birth of this normal child, the village's ostracism towards them lessened.

Therefore, after a while, they also joined in fighting and killing Azu, who would occasionally come in to steal food. However, since their village fought the most fiercely, they haven't seen him much lately.

After learning what had happened, Shiro could only say that they were unlucky to be born in such a small village. If they were in one of the other four great countries besides Kirigakure, he would definitely have been cultivated as a talent.

His sister will also receive some treatment, and she will be in much better condition than she is now.

However, this situation is also advantageous to Shiro, because it increases his chances of successfully recruiting them.

From the information he received, Shiro also learned that although he had driven them out a year ago, he was still stealing roughly enough for two people.

Therefore, the smaller baby should still be alive, which is also why these villagers are still ostracizing them, because a normal person would have died long ago.

However, Shiro didn't have their ignorant prejudices, so what he saw was a brother's concern for his sister, which made it easy to win her over.

Putting everything else aside, meals and accommodation are included. Are you coming?

Such conditions were extremely tempting for someone like him who spent most of his life wandering and sometimes didn't have enough to eat!

Thanks to Chen Bing and Danxiao* for the monthly ticket!