As for Akaba, Danzo wasn't particularly worried.
Although Black Zetsu had strong stealth abilities, Akaba, being a Sensor, could detect him. With techniques like the Flying Thunder God and sealing techniques at his disposal, if Black Zetsu really showed up, he might end up getting trapped himself.
The only one truly worth worrying about was Madara.
Danzo didn't dwell on these thoughts. After finishing this matter, he returned to Anbu. Anbu received intelligence reports from many ninjas every day, all needing analysis and processing.
Though Anbu had its own intelligence analysts, everything still came back to him for final processing.
After seeing Teacher off, Akaba returned to his shop. After Danzo's departure, everyone resumed chatting and laughing quietly amongst themselves, though their voices were noticeably lower now.
Seeing Akaba return, some people whispered questions: "Akaba, did Lord Danzo leave?"
"I had a relapse of my old illness recently, so I stayed home to recover. Teacher just came to check on me today."
"Oh, I see."
Nobody doubted his explanation since it was common knowledge that members of the Sakuma clan often suffered from poor health. They just hadn't expected Lord Danzo to go so far as to pay a personal visit.
Thinking about it this way, Danzo seemed actually quite considerate—not holding any grudges last time or this time, and treating his disciples nicely too.
Now the question is—why does Akaba portray his teacher so negatively in the manga?
Everyone couldn't help but think of the mentor-apprentice relationship between Orochimaru and the Third Hokage from the manga. The situation seemed strangely familiar. They softly sighed, perhaps this was simply what being master and apprentice was all about.
It was strange, though.
Although Akaba was Danzo's disciple, he didn't give others that overwhelming pressure; instead, he appeared very approachable. Why was that?
Many people observed Akaba entering the shop, each falling into deep thought.
"Master, the last batch of figurines has already been transported by clan members to Kyoto for sale. For the profits, should we allocate seven-tenths to charity and decide how to distribute the remaining three-tenths?"
Sakuma Yunlang stepped in and began his report.
Seven-tenths of the carving revenue was donated to charity, while the remaining three-tenths was reserved for distribution among workers assisting with operations. However, currently there were no other workers involved besides Akaba alone.
This meant the remaining three-tenths belonged entirely to him.
However, Akaba didn't especially crave money. He paused before replying: "Distribute it among those in the clan helping with transportation and charity management. Whatever remains after distribution will be saved as funding to cultivate painting apprentices later."
Initially focused on quality works, once the market for woodcarving accessories expanded, they'd inevitably introduce cheaper mass-produced lines. Those wouldn't require his personal involvement at all.
Therefore cultivating dedicated staff was essential.
"Yes, sir."
After hearing this, Sakuma Yunlang nodded slightly and immediately formed an idea.
Since training new talent was necessary, why not also start cultivating skilled woodcarvers? And rather than waiting until later, why not begin nurturing them now?
As for finding experienced woodcarving masters, considering the vast size of the Land of Fire, surely there were suitable candidates out there.
Whatever plans Sakuma Yunlang had, Akaba was more than happy to let him take initiative. Most financial matters regarding woodcarving income in the Land of Fire were already under Sakuma Yunlang's management anyway.
As for Akaba himself—
He originally intended to continue drawing, but upon entering the room and taking inventory, he realized shadow clones had already completely handled the manga update task. His own additional effort didn't seem necessary at all.
With that handled, maybe it was time for something else instead.
The current plan involved earning points by painting and acquiring the Vampire Fruit.
Where was Jiraiya now?
Last time, he sent a shadow clone to check. Jiraiya and his group were still drifting at sea, surrounded by endless ocean with no islands within detection range.
He had no clue what had happened to them since then.
Akaba hesitated for a moment but decided against sending another shadow clone to investigate.
No matter what, he needed to complete the mission of obtaining the Vampire Fruit. Once he had it, combined with Mito Uzumaki's power, defeating Madara wouldn't be a big issue.
Putting other factors aside, just draining Madara's lifespan alone would cause him quite a bit of trouble.
As for Black Zetsu,
that wouldn't be much of a problem either. Not only did Mito Uzumaki have sealing techniques, but Akaba had his own as well. Dealing with Black Zetsu should be straightforward, right?
But how was Jiraiya's side doing anyway?
This mission to monitor Jiraiya's situation was left to his shadow clones.
Although thanks to his main body's attributes and abilities, even the shadow clones possessed considerable combat power, they remained inherently fragile. If one were accidentally destroyed, the Vampire Fruit might fall into the ocean, and that would be game over.
That was thirty thousand points—if he lost them, where else could he get that much value back?
Something felt unreliable about this plan.
After thinking for a while, Akaba couldn't think of a better plan. The safest option seemed to be going in person.
Therefore, reluctantly, he could only work hard to accumulate chakra.
With Akaba's natural chakra reserves combined with the Yin Seal's stored chakra, it would be absolutely fine for his main body to travel across the sea. However, after the last escort mission with Roshi, the chakra within the Yin Seal had already been completely exhausted.
It would take at least two days to fully recharge.
This assumed he actively extracted and injected chakra every day. If he relied on passive recovery like yesterday, it might take over a month.
Luckily, all his daily tasks were handled by shadow clones, so he only needed to sit quietly in meditation, extracting and restoring chakra.
Meanwhile.
After the Kage Summit, all villages except Sunagakure began their secret operations.
Konoha successfully delivered their sealing techniques. They immediately reinforced the seals on their Tailed Beast Jinchuriki. For most other ninja villages, there wasn't much difference—the Jinchuriki simply became safer. But for Kumogakure, this meant something significant.
Kumo had always struggled with controlling the Eight-Tails.
While following this model, once the Jinchuriki gained the Eight-Tails' recognition and received its immense power similar to Killer Bee, the beast's destructive power and danger level also became terrifying.
If you can make things safe, why keep a ticking bomb at home?
Thus, A immediately applied the Uzumaki clan's sealing technique on Burubi, adding another layer to the seal containing the Eight-Tails and making it more stable.
Just like Kumogakure, other ninja villages successively reinforced any weak spots in their Jinchuriki seals, making them more secure.
Only Sunagakure was different.
Ebizō was at his wit's end, unable to think of a way out. He wanted to consult Chiyo, but recently she had locked herself indoors and refused to meet anyone—not even her own younger brother.
Moreover,
he sensed imminent danger.
Madara and Black Zetsu might already be targeting him.
Ebizō was desperately calculating countermeasures in his mind. The outcome he feared most was that if Madara truly lost all restraint and took control of every high-ranking official within Sunagakure, then the entire Hidden Sand Village would be completely doomed.
He dared not reveal even a hint of suspicion and continued pretending to care about Chiyo. At the same time, however, he accelerated his attacks against Konoha, sacrificing several spies to obtain critical intelligence.
Konoha brought the bodies back to the village.
Ebizō didn't know whether Madara or Black Zetsu were aware of this information, but he had no choice but to bring it up himself, showing an extremely proactive desire to attack Konoha; otherwise, he risked being "replaced."
Black Zetsu observed quietly from the shadows.
So far, he hadn't detected anything unusual, and Ebizō's behavior after Chiyo's grief over Sasori's death seemed perfectly natural for someone related to her.
Actually, in Black Zetsu's opinion, Madara's approach wasn't necessary at all.
Whether Ebizō or Chiyo — controlling either one would secure full control over Sunagakure. Based on what he knew of Madara's personality, Madara would very likely have gone that route.
For some reason, Madara had chosen not to do so.
Black Zetsu felt a strange unease — Madara seemed unwilling to push Sunagakure into immediate action against Konoha, as though hesitating or holding back?
Unable to fully understand why, he dared not make rash decisions.
In his partnership with Madara, he was clearly the weaker party. For Madara, losing him would mean losing only a leg or an eye, but without Madara, he couldn't accomplish anything at all.
That alone wouldn't have made Black Zetsu so anxious. The real problem was Sakuma Akaba.
He had no idea how much Sakuma Akaba actually knew.
If somehow news of the Moon Eye Plan, the God Tree, or Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was exposed, then he would be utterly finished. So at this moment, both Ebizō and Black Zetsu were equally desperate and worried.
Time moved forward — the next day came.
Akaba had recovered nearly half his reserves through the Yin Seal, but that alone still wasn't enough to directly teleport across the open sea.
To ensure absolute safety, he needed to wait another full day.
Keeping up with daily updates was non-negotiable.
As his points accumulated, he could use them to upgrade his Spirit Points. With higher spirit power, his chakra reserves would naturally grow as well. Once his score reached over ten thousand points, he decisively chose to make the exchange.
+10 Spirit Points.
Both his chakra capacity and mental endurance saw significant improvement. He could now barely maintain five shadow clones simultaneously for long periods while drawing, allowing him to focus entirely on extracting chakra.
But since he was currently in a phase of building up chakra, he refrained from doing so. Instead, he reduced the number of Shadow Clones from four to two, increasing his personal chakra extraction efficiency.
As a result, manga updates inevitably slowed down — from ten chapters per day back to the original five.
With the peak arcs of both Naruto and One Piece already past, cutting production to five chapters a day wouldn't cause much ripple anymore.
Of course,
The ten chapters released today still packed a huge punch.
They covered the Kage Summit, Shisui's Kaleidoscope Sharingan, the Byakugan, details about various ninja from other villages, and mentions of old skeletons and buried dirt.
Though the printed copies hadn't officially circulated yet, one could easily imagine that once the manga reached Konoha, quite a few people might soon come knocking at Akaba's door — for something far from casual conversation.
The most pressing matter involved Hyuga Zuo, the Hyuga clan leader.
Last time, Hyuga Zuo allowed Akaba to add extra scenes for Neji. True to his word, Akaba delivered an episode featuring Neji's promotion, followed by the scene where Hinata fearlessly rushed to save Naruto.
Hinata's rescue attempt felt a bit ridiculous at first and nearly backfired on Naruto instead of helping him. But in the end, it did trigger Naruto's incredible power that defeated Pain.
In that light, Hinata actually ended up making a huge impact.
But what did that have to do with the [Byakugan]?
This time was different.
The [Byakugan] finally stepped into the spotlight. Even though the Sharingan was powerful, my [Byakugan] could still pierce right through your genjutsu!
It made a grand appearance, proving its worth in a big way.
Too bad it was wielded by an outsider who wasn't even part of the Hyuga — just some foreigner from Mist. Just imagine how Hyuga Zuo must've felt seeing that. And when drawing this chapter, Akaba had already steeled himself for what was coming.
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