A win-win

"Boss, the Wind Demon Ape has been dealt with."

Luo Yu walked out of the Cave, looking calm.

"That fast!" Disbelief was written all over Xu Ying's face.

She had expected a grueling battle lasting half an hour. After all, it was the strongest Mutant Beast on Silverwood Peak.

Instead, it felt as though Luo Yu had finished less than three minutes after going in.

Could Luo Yu be as strong as a Chunin?

It looked like I still underestimated him.

At that thought, Xu Ying studied Luo Yu closely. Apart from being a teensy bit ridiculously handsome, he seemed perfectly ordinary.

Seeing this, Luo Yu waved a hand in front of her eyes. "Stop spacing out. Go check my work."

Only then did Xu Ying snap out of her daze, looking adorably confused.

Watching her reaction, Luo Yu silently wondered.

This masked girl seemed pretty capable when we first met. How come she's acting so adorably clueless now?

Soon, the two reached the depths of the Cave.

Xu Ying first collected the two Kamatari Summoning Item shards.

Then she noticed the enormous, charred carcass.

"Even the Wind Demon Ape's defenses couldn't withstand it? So the Great Fireball really can be even more powerful."

Xu Ying murmured to herself in amazement.

Suddenly, a white light flashed from a gap in the carcass.

Curious, the two leaned closer to investigate.

Deep inside the gap lay a large fan.

Three purple circles adorned its surface.

Luo Yu recognized it at a glance. It was the weapon of Temari, who had contracted with Kamatari in the original story.

"It's a complete Kamatari Summoning Item! Luo Yu, you're so lucky!"

Xu Ying couldn't help exclaiming.

Collecting ten summoning item shards allowed someone to combine them into a Summoning Token for calling a Summoning Beast.

With enough luck, a complete Summoning Token could drop directly from a Mutant Beast.

At the sight, the corner of Luo Yu's mouth twitched.

No wonder nearly every gacha pull in my mobile game over the past few days went all the way to pity.

All my luck went into this instead.

After prying the large fan out of the carcass, Xu Ying reluctantly held it out to Luo Yu.

"You're the one who defeated the Wind Demon Ape. I didn't help at all."

"So this should go to you."

Luo Yu didn't take the fan. He shook his head. "Keep Kamatari. I don't really need him."

Xu Ying froze at his words. "How could you not? Kamatari's Wind Release would make your Fire Release twice as effective."

Luo Yu looked speechless.

Good grief, she really thinks I'm some mysterious fireball guy!

He had only focused on leveling Great Fireball to get through the early stages.

Once he unlocked other Obito templates, he would have plenty of good skills. There wouldn't even be a slot left for Great Fireball.

Granted, having a Summoning Beast early on was effectively like gaining another combat unit.

And Kamatari specialized in Wind Release, making him stronger than many Ninja of the same rank during the early stages.

But Summoning Beasts needed resources to develop, just like Ninja.

Summoning Beasts weren't born knowing all those Ninjutsu.

They needed training to learn other Ninjutsu, step by step.

Wouldn't those training resources be better spent on myself?

Besides, he still had little Tobi to raise.

Little Tobi's Wood Release Mastery required little investment and offered substantial improvements.

He really had no resources to spare for other Summoning Beasts.

He might as well let Xu Ying have Kamatari and get her to give him a larger share of the resources.

"You need a Summoning Beast more than I do."

"Keep those two Kamatari Shards, too."

Duplicate Summoning Beast shards could be saved until there were ten, then absorbed by a Summoning Beast of the same species to unlock an additional racial talent.

Luo Yu looked utterly sincere. "If you really feel bad about it, just give me a teensy bit more Divine Pupil Stone."

"And if you have any spare White Zetsu shards, give me some of those, too."

"I have a Summoning Beast at home waiting to use them."

Xu Ying let out a soft laugh. "So you already have a Summoning Beast. No wonder you'd rather have training resources than Kamatari."

Another mouth meant another person to feed.

The same went for Summoning Beasts.

That was why, in the resource-starved early stages, being able to contract with even one Summoning Beast was already a privilege reserved for the children of Ninja.

Even among the filthy rich, few people contracted with multiple Summoning Beasts early in their careers as Ninja.

Summoning Beasts would always need resources, so concentrating those resources on a single beast was the right approach to raising one.

"I have twenty White Zetsu Legacy Shards in total. You can have them all."

"And I can split the Divine Pupil Stone fifty-fifty with you."

Xu Ying made her promise solemnly.

Her allocation was extremely generous.

Part of it was because Luo Yu had let her have Kamatari, but the bigger reason was what had happened during the mission.

Luo Yu had done all the hard work, making things easy for her. Every Mutant Beast had been dealt with before she even had a chance to act.

From her perspective, she had obtained Kamatari and several Divine Pupil Stones for just twenty-five White Zetsu Legacy Shards.

It was an incredible bargain.

"Deal!" Luo Yu also felt he had made a killing.

His Wood Release needed white zetsu legacy to level up.

Tobi likewise needed white zetsu legacy to upgrade his Wood Release Mastery.

Twenty White Zetsu Legacy Shards might not seem like much, but farming them would take Luo Yu a long time.

And the growth they offered would be a qualitative leap.

At the same time, he could spend the time and dimensional aura he would have used farming White Zetsu Legacy Shards on farming Rock Lee's legacy instead.

That would also let him upgrade his Eight Gates along the way.

Luo Yu approved the resource split.

Seeing this, Xu Ying immediately put the Summoning Token into her Storage Scroll, then took out twenty White Zetsu Legacy Shards and handed them to Luo Yu.

"Next, let's find that Byakugan Ninja's body."

After accepting the White Zetsu shards, Luo Yu looked deeper into the Cave.

As they ventured farther inside, they soon discovered a human corpse sprawled beside the path.

But the corpse's eyes weren't Byakugan.

"No Byakugan! Looks like this isn't the one." Luo Yu shook his head.

Xu Ying said firmly, "It's definitely this person."

"He's wearing a headband over his forehead. It's probably meant to hide the Byakugan clan's Cursed Seal, the Caged Bird Seal."

"The Caged Bird Seal?" Luo Yu sounded puzzled.

As someone from another world, he naturally knew that the Caged Bird Seal was a sealing technique the Hyuga Clan's Main Family used to control the Branch Family.

Once the technique had been placed on a Branch Family member, the Main Family could use the Cursed Seal to damage and control their cranial nerves.

To prevent outsiders from obtaining the Byakugan, when a member of the Hyuga Branch Family died, the Caged Bird Seal would seal their Byakugan as it was released.

So once the Byakugan is sealed, it turns back into ordinary eyes.

He didn't remember that detail.

Was that part of the original story?

Unfortunately, there was no Naruto to watch in this timeline, or he would definitely have checked.

Shaking his head and setting those miscellaneous details aside, Luo Yu looked pleased with himself.

"I know! It's the Cursed Seal the Byakugan clan's Main Family places on Branch Family members to restrict them and protect the Byakugan, right?"

"When a Branch Family member dies, the Caged Bird Seal seals their Byakugan."

Hell yeah! Watching Naruto in my previous life finally came in handy in this world.