In the Tenebrous World, Jugo sat on his throne while Yoru and Yami each stood beside it. Getsu was being petted in his lap and Jugo's face seemed thoughtful as he gazed beyond his connection to the Sephirah.
In the room, his body lay on the bed with the three dogs lying around him, he watched the full moon through the window with mixed feelings.
Who would have thought that such a beautiful moon could be such a great weakness? For a moment he wished he could go out and take a look for himself, both for the moon's beauty and to test if he really couldn't handle it, but looking at the pendulum in his hand spinning rapidly counter-clockwise, he knew that was a terrible decision.
A werewolf should already be difficult to control, but with its curse working in tandem...
He even imagined he would need powerful sedatives to deal with it, his regeneration was ridiculously fast, the mixture of healing caused by the curse power and the werewolf sequence was ridiculously strong, he would need an extremely strong painkiller to get through the night.
He even imagined that if this weren't a world with attacks like the Dust Release and Tailed Beast Bombs, he could act however he wanted with this level of regeneration, unfortunately...
He had prepared a potent sedative, which was currently being held by the hand of his body, but this was for emergencies, he knew he would develop a resistance to them, and using them only in severe cases was the best solution he could think of.
In those few days as a werewolf, he felt for the first time the difficulty of increasing his sequence, besides the fact that each time a sequence increased it took longer to activate, but the biggest reason was that, unlike the first two sequences, he had no way to cheat.
The first time, he was already a prisoner, the second time, he could go mad at will.
Now he had to go out hunting with his dogs every day, just to bond with them, for a moment he wished he could follow his former instincts and become a wolf that swallows the meat without even spitting out the bones.
This should have sped up his performance, right? But again, he still chose to take the slower route.
He still had enough time, at the very least, he should have been a Sequence 5 during the war, right? Of course, he would still prefer to be a Sequence 4, maybe that way even if everything goes wrong and the Infinite Tsukuyomi is activated, he won't be affected.
He closed his eyes and thought of a question. - Will I be affected by the Infinite Tsukuyomi in sequence 4? - x7
The next moment, he opened his eyes and saw the pendulum spinning counter-clockwise, which was clearly a no, and this made him sigh with relief.
Then he tried the same thing, but with sequence 5, the next moment, he saw the pendulum rotate clockwise and pursed his lips.
Yes, he needed to become a demigod.
Jugo leaned back and let out a long sigh, still monitoring his body, he would spend the night awake, he couldn't risk being attacked.
Meanwhile, he looked at the dogs with some thoughts, the truth is that, as werewolves, they are strong and useful, but is that all that's needed?
He sought out Hana to ask if dogs could learn jutsus, he was informed that yes, they could, but it involved connecting the chakra of the dogs and their owner to help them perform hand seals.
This required control, confidence, and a lot of training.
Besides, it's an Inuzuka skill, they don't teach it.
But Jugo didn't want that, he wanted those guys to be able to use jutsus on their own.
This led him to believe that the dogs were already able to use their ability to extract natural chakra, until now, only the copies created by Orochimaru could do the same, but not for long.
Perhaps they possessed other abilities of their own? So Jugo tried to teach them shapeshifting.
If they could assume a more human posture, at least by having flexible fingers, they could make hand signs.
At that point, they would be much stronger than they are now.
Their werewolf speeds were already at the level of a high chunin, they would become even better when they fully grew up. At that point, if they could use jutsus, they would be truly useful.
Jugo initially viewed them as an experiment, but he realized that after spending so many days hunting with them, the bond he was forging wasn't just an act.
He knew that the acting should remain just that, acting, but to synchronize with other living beings, acting as a pack, he had to truly believe that they were part of a whole.
This led him to become increasingly attached to them, to the point that sometimes he knew what they were thinking or feeling just from simple gestures, they were the same, sometimes just by their posture they could tell when something was a trap or not.
It was a strange feeling, but the more it happened, the faster her performance progressed.
It was still slow, yes, but it was steadily improving.
In any case, none of them had actually managed to assume more humanoid forms so far, but Jugo wasn't in a hurry, they had time to test them. After all, Jugo hadn't taken them to fight for him, but to help advance his sequence.
Jugo was also thinking about something else, it was common to transmit knowledge as a form of attack in the world of LotM. Well, it wasn't that common, but in that world, even confronting a powerful being could transmit knowledge and most of the time this drove low and mid-tier Beyonders insane.
The Demon of Knowledge Pathway might even allow you to use this as a real weapon.
But that's not the point, the point is that in the world of LotM, your sequence determines what knowledge is useful. If you receive a set of information about mysticism, a Prisoner might not be able to do anything with that knowledge, but a Mystery Pryer can complete their act directly without ever having acted before.
Of course, that is, if he doesn't go crazy.
Not all sequences benefit because each one has its own unique set of abilities and can hardly utilize something unrelated.
But what about in the Ninja world?
Is it possible to transmit knowledge about ninjutsu directly?
Is it possible to transmit your understanding of the nature of fire? To transform a ninja who has never trained in nature transformation into an expert with a simple "donation"?
Jugo hadn't tried yet, because he had no idea how to do it.
Aside from the dangers, he didn't know how to send specific information, he could send enough to blow someone's mind just by thinking it was insignificant.
So, he was still stuck on that thought, but if it were possible...
Conditions such as chakra quantity can be met if he can transmit his curse himself, Jutsus can be transmitted directly. Of course, he doesn't think he can transfer chakra control, but if he can transmit his understanding of it, he can greatly accelerate progress.
Like someone who hasn't ridden a bicycle since childhood, even if he fails a few times, he'll soon be riding normally.
In the end, couldn't he create thousands of ninjas with the strength of at least a Jonin in a short amount of time?
As for control? Please, after they become believers, Jugo can completely decide whether they live or die, once contaminated by the Tenebrous World, it's game over, you either follow him or you die.
Sefirot are so meaningless.
Even though he has almost no control over the Tenebrous World so far, he can simply drag the target's soul and destroy it here.
This piqued Jugo's interest for a moment and also made him sigh because the Pathway of the abyss is full of Rituals and allows full use of the Tenebrous World, whereas the Pathway of the chained only taught him to blow things up and escape from prisons.
Jugo shrugged, one couldn't have everything. He would still choose the prisoner's Pathway if he could choose again, even if it hadn't ended in Jugo's body. He had self-awareness, he knew he couldn't withstand the corruption of that Pathway. In the end, he had a 99.9% chance of becoming a cold-blooded demon.
He didn't want that.
He wasn't the best person, he knew that, but to become a demon who kills, rapes and tortures just for fun? Jugo wished he never had to come to that and that made his will to continue acting through the bind, not the curse.
Looking at Getsu lying in his lap and Yoru and Yami sleeping comfortably beside him, his eyes became more focused.
He would reach the top, that was a fact, but he would reach the top aware that he was still himself.