Chapter 11: Killing a Salamander
His first mission was executed perfectly.
Uehara Naraku was extremely arrogant, which is exactly what Pain wanted.
The Akatsuki’s revenge was to be fair and honest, and he would use the power of a G.o.d to destroy the rule and will of Hanzo the Salamander.
As life and death enemies with Hanzo the Salamander, Konan and Pain knew all about the ninja demiG.o.d’s cautious and suspicious personality and that he would surely gather all his cronies to protect his own safety.
No matter what he thought, Hanzo the Salamander would not have thought that, after Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara in the First Shin.o.bi World War, that someone could destroy a Ninja Village with their individual strength.
…….
The rain was continuously falling.
Konan took Uehara and hid in a cave to shelter them from the rain.
There was a fire in front of them, with two grilled fish baking next to it, neither of them knew how to cook quickly using fire ninjutsu.
Konan stretched out her hand to stir the grilled fish rack, and then carefully put out the fire, and whispered, “It’s about to start…”
“It’s okay, I’m not too hungry yet.”
Uehara didn’t care, just watching her attentively, and asked in a low voice, “Konan-sensei, do you like grilled fish?”
“… …”
The woman fell silent.
After a long time, Konan nodded, opened her mouth, and said, “In the beginning, when Yahiko, Nagato and I were training under Jiraiya-sensei since the war between the land of rain and the land of wind had not ended yet, food was scarce so we often filled our stomachs with grilled fish…”
“One of Konoha’s Sannin Jiraiya?”
Uehara Naraku saw that she was very interested in mentioning the past and pursued the topic, “He’s a very famous ninja, I have heard his name before…”
‘In fact, I heard more than his name.’
Even in his past life, Uehara knew Jiraiya well. Of course, he was more interested in the well-known masterpieces of Jiraiya.
Unfortunately, most bookstore owners in the Ninja world were upright and resolutely refused to sell the book “Icha Icha Paradise” to a twelve-year-old boy. In fact, they were often out of stock.
However, the bookstore owners didn’t mind selling the other book, “The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shin.o.bi,” by the same author Jiraiya.
As we all know, it was a less exciting book.
Uehara bought his book out of curiosity.
After reading a few pages, Uehara discovered that this book was actually chicken soup in Ninja World. His original intention was to soothe those who had experienced the wounds of war.
Unfortunately, ninjas didn’t like Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Compared to “The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shin.o.bi”, “Icha Icha Paradise” which had colours was more popular with ninjas who licked blood off the tips of kunais.
A generation of great writers embarked on the road of no return after reading this intimate series.
Of course, Jiraiya’s t.i.tle was more well known than his intimate series, one of Konoha’s Sannin, the toad sage from Mount Myōboku, dísciple of the Third Hokage, teacher of the Fourth Hokage, etc…
The gray-haired old man had too much influence on the Shin.o.bi world.
“Teacher Jiraiya is indeed very famous.”
Konan took off a grilled fish, handed it to Uehara, and whispered, “He is not as arrogant and cruel as Orochimaru. We heard of his deeds so we went to find his traces and became his dísciple.”
“What happened later?”
“Later…”
Konan frowned, recalling the past bit by bit, and said in a low voice, “Then we spent three years together until teacher Jiraiya left. Every day we had a lot of fun. .”
“It seems like teacher Konan misses those days!”
After Uehara finished speaking, he lowered his head and took a bite of the grilled fish.
Konan’s face was very serious, and she said, “Because it is indeed worthy of nostalgia.”
If possible, Konan would rather Nagato be the leader of a powerful force like the Akatsuki. She also wished to continue living out those ordinary days.
“If I have the opportunity, I would also like to meet Jiraiya-sama.”
Uehara chuckled lightly and added, “I hope he won’t be like Orochimaru in our organization, he is just too difficult to get along with.”
That gray-haired hero was worth seeing.
And in his side missions, there were many topics relating to Jiraiya.
Although it was difficult to find Jiraiya’s trace now, in a few years, when Konoha held the Chunin Exams, Jiraiya would appear in Konoha.
As long as he went to Konoha, he would be able to complete a lot of missions!
“Well, stay away from Orochimaru in the future. He is not a good person.”
Konan patted Uehara’s shoulder, looking directly into his eyes, and telling him seriously, “Except for me and Pain, everyone else absolutely can not be trusted.”
“…”
Uehara blinked, murmured a few words in his heart, looked at Konan, nodded, and said, “Well, I know now, teacher.”
“Good, after eating, rest early.”
Konan rubbed his hair and whispered, “Tomorrow we will go to attack another stronghold. We might encounter a few trickier enemies.”
Uehara was a little surprised. Considering the battle strengths of the Amegakure ninjas he encountered, how could it become tricky?
Even if there were a few Jonins, could they beat Konan?
Uehara’s perspective was too biased.
Amegakure, up to now, was among the best among the many small ninja villages of the ninja world, second only to the five big countries. It even dared to declare war on the surrounding big countries when it was at its strongest. Now it had basically been pressed on the ground and rubbed back and forth, but its strength was still not to be underestimated.
The second Amegakure’s stronghold that Konan and Uehara would attack was deep in the mountains and along a ridge. The terrain was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there were many ninjas, and their alertness was far higher than that of an ordinary ninja stronghold.
……
As Uehara and Konan climbed the mountain, they gazed at the barren mountain. Confusion appeared on Uehara’s face, “Teacher, why did they build a ninja stronghold here, is there any point?”
“There’s a salamander being raised here.”
Konan raised her finger, and a paper b.u.t.terfly landed on her fingertips, turned into a piece of white paper, and merged into her body.
“Salamander?”
Uehara raised his head in surprise and scanned the unremarkable barren mountain, “Isn’t that Hanzo’s summoned beast, the Amegakure’s leader’s mount?”
The ninja beast lurking deep in the mountains of the land of rain, the salamander had become a nightmare on the battlefield with its powerful physique and highly poisonous body.
Salamander was a kind of ninja beast that did not belong to Ninja World’s Three-Great Sage Regions but could compete with them in strength. Many ninjas were killed by the salamander’s poison, even Konoha’s Sannin was also suppressed by it and Hanzo.
“Yes.”
Konan nodded, took out a scroll, and whispered, “The salamander is very poisonous. During the Second Shin.o.bi World War, if a ninja did not have a gas mask, he would not be able to survive on the battlefield…”
“Sealing Technique, release!”
After speaking, Konan took out two ugly-looking gas masks from the sealing scroll and handed them to Uehara, “Put it on, neither of us is a medical-nin. We must ensure that we will not get hurt.”
“…Okay.”
Uehara took it with a weird expression.