Chapter 133: Selling Dreams, Conning the whole world!

Orochimaru's plan to sell an "Eternal Chakra Elixir" was something he had already discussed with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Once Hiruzen Sarutobi knew about it, naturally Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado were also informed.

According to Orochimaru, he would sell an older version publicly and a cutting-edge version internally, while also attracting investment to develop new upgrades.

That way, both he and Konoha would always have access to a chakra-elixir that stays far ahead, and there was no need to worry about other villages counterfeiting it because the production technology was highly advanced.

After learning this information, Hiruzen Sarutobi certainly did not intend to stop Orochimaru from seeking investors.

After all, Orochimaru's move was essentially using other villages' money to fund the development of Konoha's top-tier elixirs.

Konoha and Orochimaru stood to gain mutually—like a snake shedding its skin to grow stronger, both emerged with something new.

As more and more people's attention turned toward this matter, Orochimaru continued introducing the product:

"This Eternal Chakra Elixir can also stimulate the body and unlock potential, allowing ninja of any age to return to their prime condition."

"Some senior officials in Konoha have already tried this elixir, and after using it, the results were excellent."

When Orochimaru said this, Onoki, the Fourth Raikage, and many others around them suddenly understood.

They had been wondering why Hiruzen Sarutobi, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane looked so vigorous and energetic lately—why even some of their white hair had regained its color.

It turned out that Konoha was holding onto something this amazing!

Realizing just how powerful this item was, Onoki suggested, "After the first round of the final Chunin Exams, how about we take a few days off to rest and adjust before starting the second round? During that time, we can hold a Five Kage Summit, and the five Daimyo can send officials to attend as well. We can discuss the joint development of this Eternal Chakra Elixir."

"Such an epoch-making treasure surely requires more funding than Konoha alone can handle—otherwise, we wouldn't have heard about it, right?"

When Onoki said this, Orochimaru was secretly overjoyed.

Had Onoki not brought it up, Orochimaru would have had to raise the topic himself.

Coming from Onoki, however, it was far more convincing. Orochimaru even praised him unabashedly: "As expected of the Tsuchikage—so wise and insightful."

"The Eternal Chakra Elixir requires massive research costs and takes a long time to develop, but every phase of research can yield significant breakthroughs. We can iron out the specifics tonight."

Everyone around heard Orochimaru's exchange with Onoki.

Hiruzen Sarutobi soon stepped forward, saying, "I agree to the Five Kage Summit, and Konoha can provide the venue."

With Hiruzen stating his stance, Rasa also spoke: "Sunagakure is willing to participate in the joint development of the Eternal Chakra Elixir."

Neither Rasa nor Sunagakure wanted to miss out on such a valuable thing.

After the Hokage, Tsuchikage, and Kazekage had weighed in, the Mizukage Mei Terumi also nodded. "Kirigakure will join the joint development."

Once Mei had spoken, the other four Kage all looked at the Raikage.

Having once been burned by Orochimaru—"once bitten, twice shy"—the Fourth Raikage had originally been unwilling to get involved.

However, the lure of the Eternal Chakra Elixir was great.

This elixir could breathe new life into the village's seniors so they could continue contributing, and it could also draw out untapped potential, turning mediocre ninja into elite, and elite ninja into real prodigies.

If Kumogakure didn't take part, they would fall far behind the other four great villages.

After hesitating for a while, the Fourth Raikage decided to verify the elixir's effects carefully during the Five Kage Summit.

If Orochimaru wasn't pulling any tricks this time, then Kumogakure could also join.

He nodded slightly. "I'll take part in the Five Kage Summit."

After he spoke, Konoha also decided that the second round of the Chunin Exam Finals would resume seven days later.

So many major figures from all over the ninja world had gathered in Konoha for these exams—a beneficial thing for the village—so there was no hurry to wrap it up immediately.

Although the second round of the finals would be a series of fights between top contenders, the crowd's attention at that point was already more focused on the Eternal Chakra Elixir.

In one corner of the stands, Senshi, observing Orochimaru's maneuvering, grinned from ear to ear.

All of Orochimaru's earnings would ultimately flow into Senshi's pocket, so Orochimaru's hustle was essentially earning money for him.

And while reaping enormous wealth, he'd also gain a lot of "employment points." It was a beautiful arrangement!

As the first round of the final concluded, people gradually left the arena, and Konoha began preparations for the Five Kage Summit.

While the upper echelons of the five great villages were getting ready to meet, Senshi had no intention of staying idle.

He intended to act on an idea he'd had for a long time: capturing the One-Tail, Seven-Tails, and Nine-Tails and locking them all up in Karin's Kamui dimension.

Time quickly rolled into evening, and the Five Kage Summit officially began.

Besides the five Kage, each of the five great nations' Daimyo had sent their own representatives.

In a spacious conference room at the Hokage Building, the Five Kage Summit was in session.

The Five Kage and the five Daimyo representatives sat around a circular table.

Orochimaru and Kabuto had brought various product samples for demonstration.

With a smile, Orochimaru said to the ten people present, "You've already heard the basic effect of the Eternal Chakra Elixir earlier today. Before I go into the details, why don't you give this product a try yourselves?"

As Orochimaru spoke, Kabuto began distributing "T3 Eternal Chakra Elixir" to everyone.

Expressions varied as people took the vials.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had long used the T3 version, swallowed it right away.

Others were more cautious, letting their bodyguards be the first testers.

The Daimyo representatives did the same.

This version of the elixir already had remarkably immediate effects.

Shortly after consumption, it took effect.

Onoki personally witnessed the Tsuchikage's bodyguard from the Land of Earth, an elderly man with white hair, having some of that white hair slowly darken at the roots.

Over time, more hair changed from white to black.

Not only that, the old man's overall energy visibly improved.

Onoki was astounded—he hadn't expected Konoha to really have developed something so potent.

He immediately turned to his own guard, Akatsuchi, and asked, "How do you feel?"

Akatsuchi, who had taken the elixir meant for Onoki, carefully sensed his condition and then answered, "I do feel more energetic, and there's no discomfort. The improvement is minor in my case, though—definitely nothing like a complete transformation."

The bodyguards of the other Kage said more or less the same thing.

Even so, this was enough to deeply intrigue all the big shots present.

Once the elixir had been confirmed safe, Kabuto handed it out again so that the Kage and the Daimyo's representatives could try it themselves.

Everyone got to experience the T3 version's remarkable effects—especially Onoki, whose white hair was already beginning to revert to black. His chronic back pain was also somewhat eased, which delighted him greatly.

He couldn't say if it would be just as effective for younger ninja, but for an elderly person like him, the Eternal Chakra Elixir certainly worked.

So he turned to Orochimaru: "Tell us more about this elixir."

Smiling, Orochimaru responded, "Not a problem."

All eyes fell on Orochimaru.

He was a pro at product presentations and got right to the point.

"You've just sampled the Tier-3 Eternal Chakra Elixir," he said. "Compared to the first- and second versions, its effects are noticeably enhanced."

"And the Tier-3 elixir isn't far from completion. It will be even stronger."

"As for the ultimate version of the Eternal Chakra Elixir, its function will be to allow every elderly ninja—anyone weakened by age—to return to peak form until their natural life ends!"

After Orochimaru said this, the conference room went dead silent. The potential of such an elixir was too staggering.

Once a ninja reached a certain age, unless they were like Lady Tsunade, with special techniques to maintain their peak condition, most would see their bodies deteriorate.

A truly old ninja was effectively out of commission, incapable of returning to the battlefield.

If Orochimaru's Eternal Chakra Elixir could be completed, the impact on the Five Great Villages and the entire ninja world would be massive.

While Orochimaru was spinning his tale for the summit audience, Senshi took Karin and set off on his own plan.

In this Chunin Exam, Temari and Kankuro had already been eliminated and were not in the finals' second round, but they hadn't gone back to Suna. Both of them and Gaara were staying in a Konoha inn designated for Suna ninjas.

Behind Gaara, a dark red, swirling vortex appeared out of nowhere.

Gaara was still trying to figure out what was happening when Senshi knocked him out with a single chop.

Then Senshi turned to look at Karin.

Karin instantly understood, and brought Senshi and Gaara into the Kamui dimension.

Whenever Karin appeared there, the Two-Tails and the Six-Tails would both cower. Now that Senshi was also present, they were even more terrified.

The Two-Tails muttered quietly, "Hey, Number Six, we're done for. That meal we had before was our last meal, wasn't it?"

The Six-Tails paused and then sank into despair.

The Two-Tails was equally at a loss, and the two of them slumped in utter gloom.

Two-Tails: "o(╥﹏╥)o"

Six-Tails: "o(╥﹏╥)o"

But Senshi ignored them. He expertly pulled the One-Tail (Shukaku) out of Gaara's body.

When Gaara had been knocked unconscious, Shukaku had wondered why his Jinchuriki had suddenly blacked out. It had wanted to emerge and investigate.

Before Shukaku could do so of its own accord, though, someone on the outside grabbed hold of it.

Furious, Shukaku bellowed, "Well, well, well—daring to yank Lord Shukaku out of his Jinchuriki? See how I'll thrash you once I'm out!"

But Senshi was already pulling from the outside; Shukaku was pushing from the inside, so it took almost no effort to extract Shukaku.

"One Finger Nukite!"

Before Shukaku could roar, Senshi struck first. He cleaved it neatly into a large part and a small part.

Shukaku: (O_O)???

It was utterly stunned—and enraged. It couldn't make sense of what had just happened.

But it soon gave up on anger when it saw Karin smiling sweetly.

Shukaku had been sliced by Karin's Kamui Shuriken in the Forest of Death earlier, and that alone was enough to rattle it. Now it faced the "bigger" red-haired fiend. One move, and Shukaku was in two pieces.

Senshi had initially thought that Shukaku would put up a fight, but apparently, after being terrorized by Karin, the beast was petrified. It looked at Senshi and Karin with clear dread in its eyes.

Still, Senshi felt it best to go through the "procedure," lest Shukaku cause trouble in the future.

"Lightning!"

A giant pillar of lightning struck Shukaku, knocking it out cold.

Shukaku: "Argh!凸(艹皿艹)"

The Two-Tails and Six-Tails had told it that they'd fought hard and only got beat after resisting, but Shukaku had barely resisted at all—yet it still got hammered.

Seeing Shukaku formally "processed" made the Two-Tails and Six-Tails feel much better; they'd worried that Shukaku might get off easy by giving up so fast.

Boom!

Once Shukaku was out cold, Senshi summoned another huge pillar of lightning and zapped it back to consciousness.

Regaining its senses, Shukaku was furious but didn't dare show its teeth.

From what Shukaku had learned—both from its own brief encounter and from the Two-Tails' and Six-Tails' earlier accounts—the red-haired duo was far too strong, leaving Shukaku completely outmatched.

So it not only refrained from snarling at them but even lay itself down, trying to appear meek, as though rolling over with its belly exposed.

Senshi was satisfied with this attitude. That made things easier.

He looked down at Shukaku. "You're not to breathe a word of what happened tonight. Understand?"

Shukaku nodded vigorously, like a pecking chick.

After capturing Shukaku and locking it in the Kamui dimension, Senshi carried the unconscious Gaara out. Then he returned to his lodgings with Karin, having achieved his objective for the night.

Back at the inn, Karin went into the Kamui space alone to "talk sense" into the three smaller Tailed Beasts.

Shukaku took the hint and shrank itself down to a small size. When Karin appeared, the three of them lined up to hear her lecture.

"Matatabi and Saiken already know the rules here. Shukaku, these apply to you now too," Karin said.

"There are three main rules. One: do not go near the forbidden area of the kitchen. Two: do not waste food. Three: no fighting or destructive behavior!"

"Got it, Shukaku?"

Deep down, Shukaku scoffed—got it, my foot. It was plotting its escape the moment it found an opening!

But outwardly, it nodded obediently.

With that settled, Karin didn't go straight to her kitchen to cook. She planned to look through a few newly bought recipe books, to refine her skills.

Once Karin left, Shukaku, Matatabi, and Saiken all let out a long breath. They could finally relax a bit.

Matatabi then patted Shukaku on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Life here isn't so bad. I'll share my tips for surviving in this place, and soon you'll be living comfortably."

Shukaku ignored Matatabi and began to inspect the dimension full of large stone blocks, trying to figure out a way to escape.

Matatabi, oblivious to Shukaku's real thoughts, went on, "Actually, once you're captured here, there's only one real threat: every so often, that little red-haired devil forces us to eat her…uh…dark cuisine."

Those words came straight from experience, but Shukaku clearly didn't care.

"Matatabi, Saiken, you cowards! Afraid of a mere human's cooking!" it sneered.

"Wait and see—when that day comes, Lord Shukaku will face her food head on, slowly savoring each bite, no flinching!"

Matatabi: "(O_O)???"

Saiken: "(O_O)???"

Shukaku's response stunned both of them. Matatabi had thought that Saiken's willingness to gulp down Karin's dark cooking in one go had been unbeatable.

Yet here was someone even bolder!

…

Meanwhile, at the inn where Suna Shinobi were staying, Temari and Kankuro rushed into Gaara's room, very tense.

Just a few minutes earlier, Temari had come looking for Gaara but got no response. Worried, she barged in and found Gaara unconscious on the floor.

Panicking, she called Kankuro, who was now equally worried and frightened. "What happened to Gaara? What do we do?"

Temari examined Gaara closely. "He seems just knocked out. Let's see if we can wake him. If not, we'll go tell Father!"

Kankuro nodded gravely, and together they tried to rouse Gaara.

Because Gaara was always afraid of Shukaku taking over if he fell asleep, both siblings were quite anxious.

"Gaara, wake up."

"Gaara, what's going on? Are you all right?"

Gaara, groggy, heard his siblings' voices. When he opened his eyes, confusion filled his gaze.

He got up slowly and looked at Temari and Kankuro. "What happened?" he asked.

Temari could only answer truthfully, "I came to see you and found you out cold on the floor. You don't remember anything?"

Gaara shook his head. He glanced around the room in puzzlement.

He was particularly surprised that, during his loss of consciousness, the monster inside him hadn't seized control and run amok. Normally, Shukaku would have used the chance to break free and wreak havoc.

Unsure why that hadn't happened, Gaara shifted his consciousness inward to the Tailed Beast space.

He saw that Shukaku had shrunk drastically.

Gaara asked, "What's with you? Why are you so tiny?"

Shukaku snorted, "What do you know? Being small can still be fierce!"

Gaara didn't pay attention to its nonsense. He sensed that Shukaku had gotten much weaker—which, to him, was good news.

Previously, with Shukaku at full power, Gaara had never been able to fully wield its strength because he was too busy fighting for control. Fearing that Shukaku would erode his consciousness and run rampant, he never dared to sleep. Sunagakure's sealing jutsu couldn't compare to Konoha's.

But now, for reasons unknown to him, Shukaku no longer had the power to erode his mind, and Gaara could freely access the One-Tail's power.

For Shukaku, this was awful. But for Gaara, it was a huge stroke of luck.

He wouldn't have to live in constant fear of Shukaku taking over while he slept.

Withdrawing his consciousness, Gaara turned to Temari and Kankuro and said casually, "I can completely control the Tailed Beast now. The One-Tail won't go on a rampage anymore."

He said nothing more, mostly because even he himself wasn't sure what had happened.

Temari and Kankuro, who understood their little brother's personality well, trusted his words. If Gaara said it was fine, then it was truly fine. Both felt relieved and happy for him.

…

Elsewhere, the Five Kage Summit continued.

Having given a straightforward introduction, Orochimaru was about to unveil the main event.

He knew these seasoned veterans wouldn't invest without being promised something huge. But that was fine—he could sell a dream as easily as a bard spins a legendary tale.

With a sly smile, he said, "We've advanced the Eternal Chakra Elixir to Tier-3. You've all just experienced its effects. Next, I'll develop Tier-4, which will be even more potent."

"Before long, we'll achieve our ultimate goal: letting every ninja suffering from age-related decline return to their prime."

If Orochimaru had started with that, few would have believed him. But now, having personally experienced T3, they were more inclined to believe the possibility of a perfected elixir.

Especially Onoki, who desperately wanted it. "What do we need to do to secure that perfect Eternal Chakra Elixir?"

Orochimaru replied with a smile, "It's not so simple. It requires extended research and huge funding to yield results. My plan is to proceed step by step, making each generation of the elixir stronger than the last, until we reach perfection."

"If every party invests in each phase of development, I'll share each interim breakthrough with you. Provided there's enough funding, I'll soon be able to finish Tier-4."

Having heard this, everyone in the conference room fell silent.

After a moment, Onoki was the first to speak again: "All right, how about each of the Five Great Villages and the Five Great Nations contributes ten million ryō per development phase, so you have a total of one hundred million ryō each time?"

Both the other Kage—Raikage, Mizukage, Kazekage—and the five nations' representatives found this acceptable.

But Orochimaru, upon hearing the figure, turned and headed straight for the door.

When he reached the threshold, he paused and spoke one last sentence: "You aren't disrespecting me—you're disrespecting technology! If each development phase only needed a hundred million ryō total, would Konoha really have had to share such a monumental invention?"

With that, Orochimaru angrily opened the conference room door to leave.

"Wait!" the Fourth Raikage quickly called out.

Such a miraculous technology couldn't be allowed to remain Konoha's exclusive property.

Though Kumogakure had previously been swindled by Orochimaru, this time was different. Orochimaru had already shown them something tangible. Unless Orochimaru wanted to become an enemy to all the ninja world, he wouldn't dare dupe them all at once.

Within this project, old grudges could be temporarily set aside. Once they obtained the perfected Eternal Chakra Elixir, they could always settle their score with Orochimaru afterward. Plus, with the elixir in hand, Kumogakure's own researchers might be able to reverse-engineer the formula.

The Fourth Raikage said, "How much does each party need to pay per development phase for you to proceed, and how many vials of the latest Eternal Chakra Elixir will we get in return?"

Orochimaru smiled, having waited for precisely that question. "Each development phase requires each party to invest one hundred million ryō, with which you will receive thirty vials of the latest Eternal Chakra Elixir."

~~~

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