"Experimenting on villagers and having them express gratitude afterward... this guy is something else." Standing at the entrance of Mita Village, Daniel Davis watched with a sneer as the grateful villagers handed over what little money they had to Doctor Shennong, who adamantly refused their offerings. Shennong appeared to be a kind and humble old man, but Daniel knew the truth—that this "doctor" was spreading the plague himself, only to later swoop in as the savior.
Just looking at Shennong, with his unassuming attire and gentle demeanor, no one would guess that this renowned doctor was secretly working on his Zero-Tails plan, using the negative emotions of others to gather dark energy.
"You have to hand it to the guy. Harvesting negative emotions to collect dark power... not an easy feat." Emotions are a type of energy, known as the power of belief, though it's something most people can't access.
Artifacts like the Divine Mask tap into such power.
"Excuse me, are you Doctor Shennong?" About three kilometers from Mita Village, Daniel and Chino intercepted Shennong on a mountain path.
"And you are?" Shennong smiled warmly as he looked at the two of them.
"You don't need to know who we are. But it's interesting that someone renowned as a great doctor, praised for curing plagues, is actually the one spreading them. Imagine how the world would react if they knew the truth."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Despite Daniel's accusation, Shennong's expression remained unchanged.
"You don't? I think you know perfectly well. A remnant of the Hidden Sky Village... I wonder how Konoha would react to that piece of information."
At the mention of the Hidden Sky Village, Shennong's face immediately darkened. His warm smile vanished, replaced by a cold, cruel look.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"As I said, who we are isn't important. What matters is that I know exactly who you are. Truth be told, your actions don't concern me, but you shouldn't have taken the name 'Shennong'."
The name Shennong carried great significance for Daniel. In the Naruto world, it was just a name, but to Daniel, it represented something much more. If Shennong had truly been a benevolent doctor, it might have been forgivable. But using such a name while committing atrocities was unacceptable.
"Young man, I don't know how you learned all this, but unfortunately, you've made a fatal mistake." As he spoke, Shennong suddenly appeared in front of Daniel, throwing a powerful punch aimed at his head. The speed of his Body Flicker Technique was impressive, far beyond that of an average shinobi.
"You're the one who made a fatal mistake." With a casual movement, Daniel caught Shennong's punch with his left hand. Despite the strength behind the attack, Daniel didn't budge an inch.
"Hmph." Shennong's eyes widened as he grunted in pain, grabbing his twisted arm and retreating. His right arm had been contorted like a pretzel in the exchange.
"Quite a high pain tolerance. Must be because you're a medical ninja." Daniel was mildly impressed that Shennong only grunted in pain, despite his arm being twisted beyond recognition.
"No wonder you came after me alone. It's been a while since I've gone all out. Let me show you what I can really do." With a shout, Shennong's twisted arm began to rotate back into place, healing rapidly. A surge of chakra erupted from his body, causing the ground around him to crack and collapse, creating a five-meter-wide crater.
Shennong's appearance changed dramatically—his white hair turned black, his wrinkled skin smoothed, and his body appeared younger and more muscular. He now looked like a middle-aged man, completely different from his old, frail appearance moments earlier.
It was the result of his cell activation technique, which had temporarily restored his youth.
"This is your true strength? Not bad, but still not enough." Daniel slipped his hands into his pockets, watching Shennong with a cold smile.
"Hmph." Shennong vanished once again, using an even faster Body Flicker Technique than before. His current strength rivaled that of an elite jonin. But as he closed in on Daniel, he suddenly found himself staring at a footprint headed straight for his face.
With a loud impact, Shennong's body flew back several dozen meters, crashing into a nearby cliff and embedding itself in the rock.
"What's the matter? Already giving up?" Daniel appeared in front of the crater, hands still in his pockets, looking down at Shennong with a grin.
"Ahhh!" Shennong roared, unleashing another surge of chakra, causing the cliff to crack and tremble as he struggled to free himself. But just as he was about to break free, pain shot through his chest, and he coughed up blood. The chakra he had gathered instantly dispersed.
"Come on, keep going," Daniel said, grinning as he kicked Shennong back into place. The overwhelming difference in power was too much for Shennong, no matter how hard he tried to fight back. Each time he gathered chakra, Daniel would knock him back down.
"Your regenerative ability is impressive. But keep going, I could use a punching bag." Despite his resistance, Shennong was unable to break free from the cliff. His body was simply too outclassed. Daniel's relentless strikes eventually forced Shennong's body to reach its limits, and his youthful appearance began to fade as he rapidly aged again.
"Ah, finally experiencing the backlash, huh?" After kicking Shennong a few more times, Daniel noticed that the rapid aging was a result of his cell activation technique exceeding its limits.
The cell activation technique could restore youth, but it came at the cost of the user's lifespan. Human cells can only divide a limited number of times, and excessive division shortens one's life.
Tsunade's Creation Rebirth technique had a similar drawback.
Though such damage could be temporarily offset by external resources, true recovery was difficult. For instance, while medical materials or special treatments could slow the aging process, they couldn't restore the lost lifespan—this was merely a temporary fix.
However, certain rare items, such as the longevity rice that Daniel possessed, could completely restore lost vitality and even extend one's life. The longevity rice, blood orchids, and heart-shaped herb were all such resources, with even more powerful substances available from the Dark Continent in the Hunter x Hunter world, like the various types of honey that far surpassed the effects of blood orchids and heart-shaped herbs.
Thanks to the vast resources from the Dark Continent, Daniel had access to many life-extending items. Yet, despite his extensive efforts to cultivate Sasuke, Daniel hadn't used any of these rare materials on him. Instead, they were reserved for people like Ada, Robin, and Akame.
"Let's see what secrets you're hiding." Pressing his left hand against Shennong's head, Daniel began using Ope Ope no Mi's ability to probe Shennong's memories.
"Looks like I got lucky this time, no memory seals." Daniel soon uncovered Shennong's true origins. As one of the surviving jonin from the Hidden Sky Village, Shennong had harbored a long-standing desire for revenge against Konoha.
Despite the destruction of the Hidden Sky Village, many of its inhabitants had survived. However, most of them eventually gave up on revenge, with only Shennong remaining driven by his goal. But Shennong wasn't acting out of blind rage—he had a trump card, the Angkor Fortress, the Sky Village's war fortress.
Though the fortress had been damaged during Konoha's assault, it had escaped total destruction and had been hidden underground by the survivors. While much of the fortress's weaponry was damaged, the primary cannon remained intact. Shennong's plan was to use this fortress to destroy Konoha.
However, the fortress ran on chakra, and with the Hidden Sky Village long gone, Shennong couldn't gather enough chakra to power the fortress. That's when he turned his attention to the tailed beasts, planning to use one of them to fuel the fortress's cannon. But obtaining a tailed beast was nearly impossible for someone like Shennong, given how closely the Five Great Shinobi Villages guarded their jinchuriki.
In his desperation, Shennong stumbled upon secret documents from the Land of Demons, which led him to the idea of creating his own tailed beast using dark chakra—this became Zero-Tails.
Shennong's reputation as a benevolent doctor was carefully crafted to give him access to the Five Great Villages without raising suspicion. His ultimate goal was to create Zero-Tails, and his plagues were part of this grand plan, boosting his fame while gathering the negative energy needed for the project.
"The Land of Demons... the priestess, huh?" Shennong's work with dark chakra reminded Daniel of the Land of Demons and its priestess.
"Let's go." Hoisting the unconscious Shennong onto his shoulder, Daniel led Chino toward the location of the Angkor Fortress, as detailed in Shennong's memories. To save time, he carried Chino and moved at a speed far beyond that of an ordinary shinobi.
"Amaru, the Zero-Tails host, and jinchuriki... She was fond of Naruto, if I recall correctly. This time, it looks like she'll be spared some tragedy." As they approached the village near the Angkor Fortress, Daniel spotted the girl from Shennong's memories—Amaru, Shennong's
apprentice and intended Zero-Tails jinchuriki. Normally, this village would be slaughtered by Shennong to make Amaru despair, but that wouldn't happen today.
"Her body must be special if she's compatible with the Zero-Tails," Daniel mused as they entered the hidden area of the Angkor Fortress. Orochimaru would have been eager to experiment on Amaru's unique physique, but Daniel had no intention of disturbing her life, as he didn't want to see Zero-Tails come to fruition.
"What is this place?" Chino was shocked by the massive structure hidden underground, its scale far exceeding anything she had imagined.
"This was once a war fortress of the Hidden Sky Village," Daniel explained as they walked toward the chamber where Zero-Tails was contained. The room was a stark white, with symbols carved into the walls and floor, all designed to absorb the dark chakra produced by Zero-Tails.
"Hey, wake up." Daniel revived Shennong, who quickly realized where he was and panicked.
"What are you planning to do?" Shennong shouted, his face pale as he looked around.
"What do you think? I'm going to destroy it." Daniel raised his hand, preparing to annihilate Zero-Tails.
"Stop! Do you have any idea what you're doing? This is Zero-Tails, a power comparable to a tailed beast! I was so close to completing it! Don't you want its power? With Zero-Tails, you could rival the Five Great Shinobi Villages, maybe even unify the shinobi world!"
"Rival the Five Great Villages? With Zero-Tails? You're delusional. Any one of the Five Villages could handle this thing." Daniel didn't bother listening further. With a single punch, he shattered the containment pillar, reducing Zero-Tails to fragments before it could fully form.
"You... you..." Shennong pointed at Daniel, trembling as blood gushed from his mouth. His life's work was destroyed before his eyes. His body, already weakened from overusing his cell activation technique, collapsed as he breathed his last.
"These guys are a hassle to deal with. I'll have to wait a while before releasing them." Daniel glanced at the civilians imprisoned within the fortress. Shennong had been using these people—many of whom were low-level shinobi from the Five Villages—to generate dark chakra for Zero-Tails.
Daniel had no qualms about releasing them, but doing so would immediately expose the Angkor Fortress to the Five Great Villages. Although these people might not know the full details, once they returned home, their villages would send investigation teams.
To avoid this, Daniel decided to delay their release until he had fully modified the fortress. While the Five Villages needed chakra to operate the fortress, Daniel could power it with alternative energy sources.
After inspecting the energy systems within the fortress, Daniel began his modifications, installing a large Arc Reactor as the new power source. As long as the fortress didn't use its primary cannon, the reactor would provide enough energy to keep it airborne for years.
Thanks to the materials Daniel carried with him and the combined power of the Ope Ope no Mi and Shadow Clone Jutsu, the modifications proceeded swiftly. The combination of those abilities made large-scale construction projects incredibly efficient.
Normally, rewiring the fortress would require breaking through walls and painstaking repairs. But with the Ope Ope no Mi, Daniel could bypass all of that.
What should have been a massive engineering project was completed in just one day thanks to the power of his clones and the Ope Ope no Mi.
"Concealment Charm." Before launching the fortress from underground, Daniel used a spell to create a thick fog over several kilometers, ensuring no one saw the Angkor Fortress as it ascended.
"Lift-off." With Earth Release, Daniel removed the soil covering the fortress. The entire structure slowly began to rise, causing minor tremors in the nearby villages as it broke free from the earth.
"Now we can release the prisoners." Once the fortress was safely airborne, Daniel freed all the civilians and shinobi who had been imprisoned within. Even if the Five Great Villages came to investigate, the fortress would be long gone by the time they arrived.
"This thing is way too slow. No wonder the Hidden Sky Village was wiped out by Konoha." Although the fortress had taken off, its flight speed was painfully slow. After all, it was a floating city, not designed for rapid movement.
"Forget it, I'll handle it." Frustrated by the slow pace, Daniel enveloped the entire fortress in chakra and used the Flying Thunder God Jutsu to teleport it to an island near the southern base, where he had previously placed a Flying Thunder God seal.
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