Fujin was satisfied with his scream. He thought, 'This is the main killing method of this jutsu. By suppressing and destroying the soul. The victim will fall dead without any signs of injury on his or her body. If that happens in the middle of the war, armies would be scared and demoralized to see their comrades dying mysteriously in such a manner.

Apart from this, there is another technique that makes one of my hard-earned jutsus kind of redundant'

Fujin placed his hand on the soul. In an instant, he began reading the memories of the prisoner's soul, seeing everything that he had done in his life.

He pulled his hand back while thinking, 'Hmm, memories of just this lifetime Does it mean that this is his first life, or does it mean that ordinarily, a soul can only have the memories of just one lifetime? Perhaps something along the lines of memories getting eradicated during the process of reincarnation. Or perhaps the memories of other lifetimes have been hidden somewhere inside the soul to such a degree that this technique can't access them.

Regardless, this method is far more efficient than the Yamanaka Mind Reading technique. The Yamanaka's technique targets the brain. The memories one can read are only the ones that are fresh in the target's brain. Reading older and suppressed memories or memories that the target has forgotten about is extremely difficult. In addition, damaging the brain could cause the memories to disappear as well.

By comparison, reading memories from the soul is extremely convenient. More importantly, it has another fearsome application. I understand why Tobirama developed the base version of this technique. It's to read the memories of the souls summoned with the Edo Tensei jutsu!'

Fujin's soul sighed as the amount of respect he had for Tobirama's research and inventing abilities increased once again. He had just found the perfect solution to a problem he would have to face in the future.

Having tested everything he wanted to, Fujin left the prisoner's body and returned to his own. He got up and dispelled his clones after they tied up the prisoner again. The prisoner gradually gained clarity as well. Suddenly, the prisoner felt an extreme pain coming right from his soul.

He shrieked and looked at Fujin, who was walking out of the cell, with terror and asked while breathing roughly, "What did you do?"

Fujin didn't turn around and disappeared from his line of sight. Only some words lingered in the air, "Just tried a new torture technique to keep you entertained. Enjoy your remaining life."

Since Fujin had read all his memories, he knew exactly the kind of scum the guy was and why Ibiki had asked Fujin to torture him even though he had already been tortured to such an extent. As Fujin shut the door, the screams of the prisoner filled the cell. It'd be several hours before someone would come to check on him and realize that he had been screaming continuously for hours!

Fujin analyzed, 'The pain he is experiencing is a little injury that I inflicted upon his soul. That said, souls are quite resilient. His injury will heal by itself in a couple of weeks. I suspect that even if I had destroyed his soul, only his physical body would die.

As for his soul, it should pass into the afterlife and reform. I guess this can be considered a form of immortality in itself. The only issue is being able to retain memories from one life to another. I should try this on someone after I go out of the village to get a better picture.'

Busy with his thoughts, Fujin reached Ibiki's office again and asked for a few ninja prisoners to test his jutsu on. Ibiki obliged and had his subordinate guide Fujin to the ninja prisoners. One of those unfortunate prisoners was Mizuki.

While Fujin was busy testing the Spirit Transformation jutsu, team 7 finally grew sick of the rank D missions! They had been quiet for some time as they barely had any energy left after Kakashi's brutal training regimen. However, after more than 2 months of such training, Naruto had begun getting used to it while Sasuke was managing to complete the training as well. Sakura improved rapidly too, though she still couldn't complete it.

Even so, all 3 Genins had grown sick of chasing cats and dogs, babysitting kids and pulling out weeds. The day Naruto's patience finally ended was the same day Tazuna was in Konoha. After Naruto's little outburst, Hiruzen decided to give them a rank C mission to protect Tazuna.

By the time Team 7 left Konoha, Fujin completed testing the Spirit Transformation jutsu on the ninjas as well. He didn't face any issue other than the fact that the ninjas had more willpower and he needed slightly more effort to suppress their souls. In addition, their suppressed souls tried taking back control of their bodies non-stop, so Fujin had to actively keep their souls suppressed.

Fujin also experimented by letting their souls 'overcome' the suppression to see whether it would have any adverse impact on him. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. At most, his soul felt a force pushing him outside their bodies, but Fujin could resist it with rather ease and suppress the soul once again.

Satisfied with his experiments, Fujin returned to his house. Sitting on his sofa, Fujin analyzed, 'The Spirit Transformation jutsu can be considered as mastered. I just need some live practice. Regardless, this is another top-tier jutsu mastered, along with Wind Domain, Eight Inner Gates and Flying Thunder God jutsu.

In the last couple of months, my teleporting range has increased significantly as well. I can now teleport up to a distance of 2.3 kilometers. And, it is improving at an extremely fast rate. By the time of the invasion, my range should increase to several dozen kilometers. Hopefully, it'll exceed a hundred kilometers! That would allow me to carry Karin all the way to Phantom Haven Base and return to Konoha within minutes.

In addition, I also had my clones work on improving the control over natural Lightning with the help of Kiba blades in Mount Muteki. The Fuin Battlefield seal has been created as well. While my clones worked on controlling Lightning, they also managed to infuse Lightning into the Rasengan, creating a jutsu just as destructive as Rasenshuriken.

With all this out of the way, I guess I can finally start studying Medical Ninjutsu and Poisons. Time to find Yoshi and Isamu. I'm sure they will be delighted to hear the news. I just wonder how long they will stay delighted, hehe.'

Fujin was about to leave his house once again when someone rang his bell. It was one of Hiruzen's Anbu Guards, calling Fujin to go to the Hokage's office immediately. Fujin immediately left while wondering what had happened.

The Anbu Guard stayed outside while only Fujin went inside. To his surprise, Shikaku and the two elders were in the room as well. He wondered, 'For these three to be here. Did something happen recently?'

Hiruzen pushed forward a scroll that was on his desk and said, "Fujin, read this and tell me your thoughts."

Puzzled, Fujin just nodded and picked up the scroll. The scroll was from Kusagakure, the hidden village in the Land of Grass. As he read the contents, Fujin understood why the four of them were together in the office.

In the scroll, Kusagakure stated that they are facing a grave crisis. They were facing a formidable group of rogue ninjas. Several of them were disgruntled Kusa ninjas themselves. And they were conducting attacks on Kusagakure ninjas and bases all over the Land of Grass.

As a result, the village was facing heavy losses. There was even a chance that the hidden village could be attacked. And the recent losses had made them very nervous.

As Fujin reached the end of the scroll, he squinted his eyes. A sly smile appeared on his face as he muttered, "Interesting."

His smile and the amusement in his voice were immediately noticed by everyone in the room. Koharu asked, "What did you find so amusing about the scroll?"

Fujin replied, "It's the demands they have put forth. They have asked us to eliminate the rogue group. However, they have also said that they don't have any money or resources to pay us. At the same time, they are saying that if we don't help them, they might have to take drastic actions to resolve the issue.

They are implying that it'll somehow negatively affect us. Considering their strength, the only thing they can do to negatively affect us is ally with Iwagakure. I didn't expect that a minor village would be so aggressive while negotiating with us."

Hiruzen nodded. Everyone in the room had realized the same. He said, "Kusagakure specializes in diplomacy. It is their greatest strength. So that threat isn't a baseless one. They do have the capability to ally with Iwa. Of course, there are obvious issues in doing so."

Hiruzen looked at Shikaku as finished speaking.