Chapter 183: The Situation of the Five Great Nations
"Gaara's corpse (without the One-Tail)."
In the system's storage space, Gaara's corpse counted as an item and belonged entirely to Li Jie Xuan. In other words, if Li Jie Xuan revived Gaara, Gaara would automatically become his follower—with one hundred percent loyalty.
As for the Samsara: Heavenly Life Technique: a jutsu that revives the dead. The longer the target has been dead and the greater the number of people revived, the more chakra it consumes—sometimes even requiring the user to pay with their life!
That meant Li Jie Xuan might be able to use the Samsara: Heavenly Life Technique to completely revive characters from the Naruto storyline into this world—and they would all become his followers.
Just imagining it was amusing: Uzumaki Naruto teaching Minato how to form a Rasengan, and Uchiha Sasuke teaching Uchiha Fugaku how to spit out a Great Fireball. The scene would certainly be hilarious…
However, the prerequisite for achieving all of this was…
"The Rinnegan!"
Li Jie Xuan summoned the lone Truth-Seeking Orb and shook his head helplessly. His Six Paths Sage Body was still far too weak. Not to mention the Rinnegan—even the Sharingan hadn't manifested yet!
But even if he couldn't accomplish that right now, Li Jie Xuan could still cultivate his army of followers in another way.
"Sasori of the Red Sand's puppet heart (life force)."
Li Jie Xuan took out Sasori's heart and casually retrieved one of the puppets from the Hundred Puppet Performance. When he placed the heart inside it—
A miracle happened!
Sasori of the Red Sand actually came back to life, resurrected in this alternate timeline—Konoha Year 13. Although puppet techniques weren't considered overwhelmingly powerful, they still had their own unique advantages that could dominate a region.
"What exactly is going on here?"
Sasori frowned in confusion, then instinctively knelt before Li Jie Xuan.
"Although I don't know what happened, I seem to feel an instinctive urge to follow you!"
This was the power of the system!
The system's binding force was far stronger than any curse mark. However, it only worked on followers who possessed one hundred percent eternal loyalty.
Li Jie Xuan took out all the puppets from his storage space.
"Take these puppets and head to Xuanlord town on the border of the Land of Water. There's a ninja there named Orochimaru. Go help him."
"Yes!"
Sasori bowed respectfully and left, heading toward the outskirts of Konoha. Even though several decades separated this timeline from his own, the overall layout of the Five Great Nations hadn't changed much, so he knew the way.
"Looks like I'll soon have a truly powerful ninja army!"
Watching Sasori leave, Li Jie Xuan couldn't help but grin. Although the Snake Curse Mark had already occupied one-tenth of the Land of Water's territory, without truly powerful fighters, it would ultimately be impossible to seize the entire country.
But now that Sasori had joined, things were completely different!
Perhaps he would become the first ninja to change the five-way balance among the Five Great Nations.
And when that time came, he would become the daimyo of the Land of Water—and Tsunade would be the daimyo's wife!
Just thinking about Tsunade made Li Jie Xuan start heading toward the Senju clan. He hadn't seen her for many days and missed her quite a bit.
However, the moment he stepped outside, a piece of news that shocked the entire village slapped him in the face:
The Konoha allied forces had broken the Sand Village's defenses and forced all the Sand ninjas back into Sunagakure, where they didn't even dare to show their heads!
The balance among the Five Great Nations had already begun to shift. In a one-on-one confrontation, the Sand Village ultimately couldn't compete with Konoha.
Not to mention—Tobirama Senju was still very much alive…
"That old man Tobirama must be proud as hell now!"
Li Jie Xuan scratched his head and unconsciously changed direction, heading toward a nearby barbecue restaurant. He had changed his mind. Rather than going to the Senju clan only to be mocked by the old man, he might as well call Akimichi Pangzhi and enjoy a good meal at the barbecue place.
But before he could even take a step, Tobirama Senju's voice suddenly rang out behind him…
"Jie Xuan, where are you going? Come to the house and have a chat!"