With his right eye closed, the face of Yondaime Kazekage was as dry as the surrounding desert while he observed the surroundings with a gloomy look.

Elder Chiyo who was pacing back and forth behind him came over and asked, "Are there any clues?" ​​

Kazekage Rasa shook his head negatively.

Just now Rasa was scanning the surroundings using the Third Eye of Gold Sand, even after searching around several miles, he found no useful clues.

Listening Kazekage-Sama's response Chiyo sighed lightly… she wasn't much surprised by it as this wasn't beyond her expectation, because the desert is like this!

Over time, the wind and the surrounding sand naturally cover everything in the desert. So, even if the mysterious person did leave any traces, it would be almost impossible to find them as they would have gradually been covered in the sand.

After deactivating the Eye of Golden Sand, Rasa walked to the edge of the solid divide and looked at its depth with a frowning expression.

The kilometers-long thin divide is still the same as it was when Kuroto created it using the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion. Only because of the deposit of the blood and other colloidal body fluids, the edges were solidified, and the fact that the divide stretch for several kilometers, it was still very clearly visible.

Crouching at the edge of the divide, Kazekage lightly pressed his hand on the solidified surface and transferred Chakra into it.

While charging Chakra into the nearby sand he closed his eyes and sensed the situation at the depth, "The sandworm below is dead, and there are no other traces of any life left!"

Ebizo, another elder of the Sand village wrinkled his face upon hearing this, "Even if the King Sandworm was cut in half, it shouldn't have died, right?"

Sandworms by nature are the type of beasts with high self-healing ability. So, even if the body was cut in half, as long as the vital organs are fine, it should have survived.

What's more, the sandworms when hidden inside the desert sand are nearly invincible, so even with his rich experience, Ebizo finds it hard to believe that a Giant King Sandworm that was hidden hundreds of meters underground actually died, and what's more difficult to imagine is just how strong would have been the attack to cause such a creature's death?

Chiyo also asked Rasa with some doubt, "If I didn't guess wrong, only you are capable of doing such a thing in the village, right?"

After groaning a little Kazekage shook his head, "This sandworm died at a depth of several hundred meters, sure I can trap it at such a depth, but killing it would be difficult even for me, not to mention this one died with a single attack!"

The Honored Siblings were left speechless upon hearing Kazekage's reasoning.

In just a few words, they have already understood just what degree of strength does this mysterious person has!

After a long silence between the three, Ebizo asked with a thinking expression, "Who could it be?"

In the eyes of the three, the mysterious person who stole the Ryuumyaku definitely has strength higher than the Kage level, so, such a person shouldn't be unknown in the shinobi world!

Chiyo was still insistent on her judgment, "Only Konoha is capable of unlocking the seal used by Yellow Flash, so it has to be a Konoha Shinobi!"

While the three were discussing, a Sand Anbu ninja arrived in front of the three and reported, "Kazekage-Sama, Elder Chiyo, Elder Ebizo, we have followed the tracks left by them all the way and found that the survivors of Roran have crossed the border and entered into the territory of the Land of Rain!"

Rasa's eyes sharpened as soon as he heard Anbu ninja's report and muttered to himself, "Could it be the Demi-God, Hanzo's handiwork!?"

"Although it's hard to believe, the matter would still get troublesome if it was him!" – Ebizo said with a frown.

Under Pain's closed policy, all the external transmission of the Land of Rain was cut off, therefore, all the villages still believe that the demi-god Hanzo of the Salamander is still the leader of the Rain Village.

Even in the original story, the news of Hanzo's death was always covered by the Akatsuki, and it wasn't until Jiraiya personally sneaked into the Rain Village that he found a piece of shocking news that the demi-god had long been dead at Pain's hands.

"Kazekage-Sama, do we have to sneak into the territory of the Land of Rain to hunt down the Roran Survivors?" – asked the Sand Anbu ninja respectfully.

Kazekage shook his head after a little thinking.

Even if Kazekage Rasa is the leader of one of the five great shinobi Village, he wouldn't dare to underestimate the man known as the demi-god, so taking any action that might offend Hanzo of the Salamander without any solid proof is not possible!

After groaning a little while, Yondaime Kazekage said to the two advisors around him, "Inform Konoha's Hokage of the fact that the Ryuumyaku was stolen and see their reaction to this new!"

Both Chiyo and Ebizo nodded at the same time.

What can Sand Village do without having solid proof of who the actual culprit is?

Nothing!

All they can do for now is to inquire from other villages and judge the identity of the culprit from their reactions.

…

On Kuroto's side.

While sitting cross-legged at the back of the Sandaime-Kazekage puppet, he hurried towards the village while summing up the whole experience from the previous battle.

"Truth-Seeking Balls have very strong defensive power, but as always the chakra consumption is too high, although I have Ryuumyaku at my disposal, it still doesn't give me an excuse to waste chakra needlessly, so it wouldn't be wise to solely rely on Black-Orbs for defensive purpose.

Moreover, the attack speed of the black-orbs is also not optimal, at least for now, it isn't. Using Black-balls for a sneak attack is fine, but for frontal combat, it is still not the best choice; as the enemy can avoid it if he/she is fast enough, not to mention, there is only a 70-meter range up to which the black-orbs are controllable. So, although extremely deadly, Black-Orbs are still not the most efficient!

It is also hard for me to maintain 5 Black-Balls for now, so three would just be fine, anyway, there are already techniques like Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion and Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion with excess power, there is hardly anyone in the current Shinobi world who can survive in the face of such attacks, so consuming too much chakra only to increase the intensity and degree of attack damage is not necessary for now."

While summarizing these short details, Kuroto glanced at his right hand again.

Undoubtedly his mentality was a little affected after becoming Ryuumyaku's Jinchuriki.

Lack of Chakra has always been his major limitation, lack of chakra is what has always held him back, after becoming the Ryuumyaku's Jinchuriki Kuroto got a little emotional by the sudden gain of power, and didn't pay enough attention to the enemy, and made some mistakes.

"Even a moment of carelessness will get you killed in the Shinobi World!" – Kuroto warned himself silently.

There are countless examples of such people that Kuroto knows.

Orochimaru was defeated twice by Itachi, even Madara, and Obito with Jubi's power suffered a similar fate, not to mention even Kaguya also suffered at the hands of Naruto's Reverse Harem Jutsu!

This teaches Kuroto that, no matter how strong a person becomes, he/she will face the same ending as these people if he/she becomes careless.

It's just Kuroto's luck that the mistake this time gave him some deeper insight into the chakra nature of Ryuumyaku. So, this incident could actually become an intermediary for him to develop an understanding of Natural Energy through Ryuumyaku!

Although Senjutsu users are rare, it is still not too unknown. As long as someone can use the Natural Energy present in nature without any negative effects upon them, they can more or less be classified as Senjutsu users.

And as known, there are various methods of learning Senjutsu including the Toad practitioner method of Mount Myoboku, the Snake practitioner method of Ryuchi Cave, and the Slug practitioner method of the Shikkotsu Forest.

Even the people of Jugo's clan can have direct contact with Natural Energy, although it affects their psychology, it is true nonetheless.

And the Cursed Seals developed by Orochimaru using the enzyme he collected from Jugo, is actually a method to attain Senjutsu, even if only by a percentage, it is Senjutsu nonetheless.

Regardless of the variety of methods to learn Senjustu, there is a common requirement of a 'Medium'.

For practicing Mount Myoboku's Toad Sage Mode, you need the Toad Oil to sense the Natural Energy.

Naruto was able to sense and absorb the Natural Energy present in the atmosphere with the help of the unique Toad Oil.

Kuroto has access to Ryuumyaku and since the Ryummyaku's chakra contains a very high amount of Natural Energy, and coupled with his Tenseigan's perception, Kuroto can sense this Natural Energy, so direct absorption of Ryuumyaku's chakra is akin to using Mount Myoboku's unique toad oil for him.

Tapping his chin Kuroto continued to ponder.

Learning Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode will make the user have the obvious characteristics of a Toad, and similarly using Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode will make the user have obvious Snake characteristics.

These two points obviously illustrate a problem, and that is their suitability, these Senjutsu methods are devised for their own species and not actually for humans. Although Humans can learn and practice them, it doesn't mean that they were devised for humans.

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Read up to Chapter - 229 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : p-atreon.com/Milta_translations