Naruto: The Abstract Strategist of the Akatsuki

Chapter 96 Temari: What do you want to do?

Rain-Hidden Village.

After leaving Orochimaru's side, Bai Mo took the scroll containing the Eight-Tails' cells and went to find Nagato.

"Here, try some of this and see if it works."

boom.

Bai Mo opened the scroll.

"The power of the Tailed Beasts?"

Nagato looked slightly surprised, then shook her head. "Thank you for your kindness, but please leave this power to someone else. I don't need it right now..."

Nagato was indeed a person who transcended base desires for his ideals and could endure suffering.

In the original story, he was so weak that even after capturing so many tailed beasts, he didn't mention absorbing any of them to recover.

"Actually, I wanted you to summon the Gedo Mazo, and then see if the Gedo Mazo's attacks could grant me any new abilities."

"We're helping you recover because we're afraid you'll be drained dry."

"……Oh well."

Upon hearing that it was Bai Mo seeking help, Nagato no longer refused and raised his hand towards the Eight-Tailed Ox Horn: "Preta Path!"

Crimson tailed beast chakra surged from the Eight-Tails' horns and was continuously absorbed into Nagato's body.

"How was it? Did it work?"

Bai Mo asked.

"It's effective, but a bit slow..."

Nagato raised his hand, maintaining the pose, and frowned slightly.

"That's alright, as long as it works, that's fine. I'll recover slowly, I'm not in a hurry, I have a lot of other things to do anyway."

Bai Mo didn't say anything more and left the command tower where Nagato was after he knew it had worked.

It is effective, but the effect is slow, which is not surprising.

In the original story, Nagato absorbed Killer Bee's chakra and instantly recovered from his withered white-haired state, mainly because he was a body resurrected through Edo Tensei.

Although chakra is linked to life, Kakashi died instantly when his chakra was exhausted. Clans with a large amount of chakra generally have strong vitality.

But these two things are not the same.

The body resurrected through the Impure World Reincarnation technique is very special. It is said to have "infinite chakra," but in reality, it carries a "blue buff."

The maximum chakra limit is fixed.

This is why the Second Tsuchikage Muzai couldn't use Dust Release due to insufficient chakra after splitting into two.

Secondly, absorbing the chakra of the tailed beasts was something Sasuke also did in the final battle, but he didn't seem to recover from his injuries along the way.

Absorbing the tailed beast's chakra is simply replenishing chakra.

To restore vitality, transformation is naturally necessary.

As for how the transformation occurred, just like how the Gedo Mazo extended Madara's life for so many years, only they themselves know.

On the small training ground outside the village.

Hanabi, dressed in a gray robe, was sparring with Fu, while Karin sat beside her, resting her chin on her hand and watching the two fight.

Fu was overjoyed; her decision to leave the village and go out to see the world was definitely the right one.

This achievement allowed him to make friends with both the Uzumaki and Hyuga clans.

The battle is over. Even if Fu doesn't use the power of the tailed beast and holds back in her main body, Hanabi is no match for her now.

Despite the defeat, Hanabi was not discouraged and happily turned around to run back to Karin's side to rest for a while.

Upon seeing Bai Mo, Hanabi's expression immediately became conflicted.

After hesitating for a moment, Hanabi slowly walked up to Shiramo: "Um..."

"What's wrong? Are you asking about the balance of strength and gentleness? You'll have to figure that out for yourself."

"No... uh, no, no, I wanted to know this, but I have another question."

Hanabi shook her head.

"Hmm? Just say what you want to say."

Bai Mo found it strange that Hua Huo seemed hesitant to speak.

"Okay."

Hanabi took a breath, mustered her courage, and spoke.

"It suddenly occurred to me that you said you came from twenty years in the future. Twenty years from now, you'll be this age, and I'll be twenty-seven. So you should call me 'older sister'..."

Fireworks' voice grew softer and softer until, in the end, she shrank back down.

"Um?"

What does this mean?

Hanabi made her nephew Boruto call her "older sister" in the future, and now she's asking her to call her "older sister" again.

Could it be that Hanabi's fondness for her older sister since childhood has led her to develop a strange quirk of wanting others to call her "older sister"?

"Um, I was just kidding. Let's get back to the serious matter of cultivation!"

Before Bai Mo could speak, Hua Huo quickly changed her mind.

She certainly doesn't like being called "sister" by others; rather, she enjoys protecting others and the feeling of being needed by her family.

This was also reflected in Hanabi's drunken remarks as an adult.

Even though it's just a small firework now, it has big ambitions.

However, if she wants to be able to protect the people she cares about, strength is essential.

So after only mentioning it briefly, Hanabi immediately changed her mind.

"Alright, sit down then. I'll just give you a brief explanation, but you'll have to figure out the specifics yourself."

Bai Mo didn't delve into it further. After sitting down, he began to tell Huahuo about the Tai Chi knowledge he knew.

What Tai Chi energy, what progressive blocking and striking techniques—these are all just basic descriptions and concepts.

If Konohamaru could learn the Rasengan from "Puzzle," then if Hanabi has enough comprehension, she will definitely be able to learn something new from this knowledge as well.

At least the knowledge and concepts that Bai Mo mentioned were much more detailed and accurate than Naruto's "poof".

After chatting with Hanabi for a while, Bai Mo was told that someone had come to Amegakure looking for him. He encouraged Hanabi to try to comprehend it on her own and then left.

At the entrance of Yuyin Village.

Here, that's for you!

Temari tossed an envelope to Bai Mo and turned to leave immediately.

"Wait a moment!"

After Bai Mo caught the envelope, he called out to Temari.

If Bai Mo wasn't mistaken, the contents of the envelope were the swimsuit photo of Granny Chiyo that they had agreed upon back then.

It's quite remarkable that Granny Chiyo is so generous, and so quick at that.

However, Bai Mo thought again and realized that Granny Chiyo might have had a deeper meaning in doing so.

First of all, as long as Temari hasn't forgotten to deliver the message, then Granny Chiyo now knows that Sasori is in the Akatsuki organization.

But she was unaware that Scorpion had already transformed herself into a human puppet.

So even though she didn't understand what Bai Mo wanted to do, she was still satisfied.

He thought that if Bai Mo showed the photo to Xie, Xie would feel that Bai Mo was insulting him and break off their relationship, and maybe he could go back to the village.

"What is it? Speak quickly if you have something to say. There are still many things to do in the village. My personal delivery of this message has already caused a lot of delays..."

Temari stopped and urged Bai Mo on.

Sunagakure had just experienced a failed attack on Konoha and the death of the Fourth Kazekage, so there were indeed many things to deal with.

"Wait here for a bit, I'll go process this photo, and then we'll go back together."

Bai Mo shook the envelope in his hand.

"Huh? What do you want to do?"

Temari looked bewildered.

"think……"

Bai Mo naturally wanted to find the dragon vein and, incidentally, go to Uchiha Hikaru's sealed location to break the seal.

However, as soon as he opened his mouth, he thought of the current situation of Sunagakure.

This is a good opportunity.

This provides an opportunity for Sunagakure to completely break free from the control of the daimyo.

He can try to do it.

So he paused for a moment while he was thinking.

"……abnormal!"

While Bai Mo paused, Temari, lost in thought again, suddenly cursed.