Crack!
Suzaku pushed the door open, only to find Sarutobi Hiruzen standing alone by the window. His fingers rested on the scorching stone ledge as he gazed down at the village below, his aged face unreadable, shrouded in shadow.
No one else was in the room.
Where'd Miss Hikari go?
Suzaku had been stationed downstairs the whole time and hadn't seen her leave.
A flicker of confusion crossed his mind, but he maintained the disciplined restraint expected of an Anbu operative and didn't let his curiosity get the better of him.
"Lord Hokage, the offer from the Land of Waves is pretty generous, but Lord Shikaku thinks they're still holding back. Should we push them a bit harder?"
He kept his voice low, cautious.
These past few days, the Third Hokage had been in a foul mood because of the Chunin Exams. He'd been chain-smoking like crazy, filling the room with so much smoke it was like someone had cast the Hidden Mist Jutsu.
Sure, Sarutobi Hiruzen was usually warm and approachable, his eyes crinkling kindly when he smiled. But Suzaku had served him long enough to know better. He'd seen the man's ruthless side in his younger days, and he wasn't about to test him.
Funny thing, though.
Back in the day, Lord Danzo was the gentle, kind-hearted one—radiant and handsome. The Third, aside from his well-known fondness for women, was more like the Second Hokage: cold, stern, and not one for small talk. Somewhere along the line, their personalities flipped completely.
"The Land of Waves has had a tough time developing, and Hikari and her team already wrecked their port. Let's leave it at that. No need to kill the chicken for its eggs when we can let the stream flow steadily."
Sarutobi's voice was smooth, full of noble-sounding lies as he watched a middle-aged ninja below, shouldering a pack and escorting a client out of the village.
"Yes, sir!"
Suzaku bowed reluctantly and turned to leave the office.
The Land of Waves was in a unique position, one that could bring Konoha massive profits. If they played their cards right, they could squeeze a bit more out of them, maybe even loosen the Daimyo's chokehold on the village's growth.
What a shame.
The Third Hokage, post-transformation, was a great leader—kind to everyone, always approachable. Too kind, maybe. Hopefully, the Land of Waves would appreciate his generosity.
Tap, tap…
The sound of Suzaku's footsteps faded, leaving Sarutobi Hiruzen alone once more.
He stared down at the stooped figure of the middle-aged ninja disappearing into the distance, his cloudy eyes trembling slightly.
Sometimes, even he wasn't sure what he was doing.
---
The Land of Fire sat on vast plains with countless fields, boasting the most favorable geography among the Five Great Nations and a population nearing a hundred million.
Compared to the massive number of ordinary citizens, Konoha's ninja population totaled only about 20,000.
That meant roughly 5,000 civilians supported a single ninja.
Even accounting for the losses to nobles and officials, the wealth funneled into Konoha each year was more than enough to sustain its shinobi.
Truth was, Konoha wasn't short on cash.
The Daimyo's annual funding to the village was more than sufficient, and ninja didn't live lavish lives like the aristocracy. Kunai, shuriken, wire—standard ninja tools that didn't involve chakra—sat in warehouses gathering dust, enough to last twenty years.
Ninja fighting and dying for mission rewards? That was all by design.
First, they made sure ninja couldn't leave the village without permission. Defectors were branded traitors, ensuring the village retained its ninja resources while forcing them to spend their hard-earned mission payouts within Konoha.
Then, they jacked up property prices and taxes, making everything in the village ridiculously expensive. A single afternoon of fun in the bustling, casino-filled Tanzaku Street cost about the same as three bowls of Ichiraku Ramen in Konoha.
Finally, the village heavily invested in ninja tool shops, selling widely accessible ninjutsu and gear, while hiking up hospital treatment fees. This boosted ninja strength while draining the mission earnings they fought so hard for.
The result?
A thriving economy driven by circulating wealth, keeping ninja from slacking off by draining their savings, teaching ninjutsu to raise their skills, and sending them on missions to build combat experience and the village's influence. This was the development strategy laid out by the Second Hokage.
When Sarutobi explained all this to Hikari, she didn't react much. It was as if this secret, capable of upending the entire ninja village system, was just another trivial matter to her.
Once she confirmed he had nothing else to say, Hikari vanished in a puff of smoke.
That's when he realized: the one who'd left the village for two weeks, killed Kurozume Raiga and some unknown enemy, was just one of Hikari's shadow clones!
Shock, relief, and unease washed over him.
Sarutobi couldn't tell if Hikari would end up like Tsunade or Jiraiya—disillusioned with him, with the Hokage title, with the ninja system itself, leaving Konoha for good.
---
Meanwhile, at the Root's hive-like research facility…
In a cold, cavernous room, four Hikaris in white lab coats surrounded an operating table, meticulously dissecting a cursing Hidan into pieces.
A Yang Release Hikari, dressed in Root's uniform, had her Byakugan glowing beneath her blindfold. Her chakra probed Hidan's body, searching for something.
Behind her, the real Hikari held a heart covered in black tendrils, studying its chakra fluctuations closely, trying to unravel the secrets of the Earth Grudge Fear.
Just moments ago, when Root ninja carried a wooden coffin into the lab, she thought one of her genin clones had brought in a captured Zetsu. She'd even dropped her Wood Release research to check out the structure of Ice Release bloodline limits.
But when they opened the coffin?
A heart, crawling with the tendrils of the Earth Grudge Fear, writhed inside like a blood-red spider laced with veins. Hidan, dismembered into pieces, was still cursing up a storm the moment he saw her, filling the room with his vile tirade.
It was… bizarre, to say the least.
Then, a flood of memories hit her—Kakuzu, Hidan, Zabuza, the joint Chunin Exams, Konoha, and the Hokage…
The jumbled mess of memories overwhelmed her mind, like her brain had been tossed into a blender. By the time she sorted through the information, her headache only got worse.
The Five Kage gathering?
A super-sized joint Chunin Exam?
I'm an exam proctor?
Will Orochimaru still show up?
What about my Ice Release?
A torrent of questions swirled in her head, tangled with flickering memory fragments.
Rubbing her temples with two fingers, she felt the plot had completely spiraled out of control. She couldn't even guess what the future held.
She couldn't even figure out what she'd done to make the three major ninja villages agree to a joint Chunin Exam.
Unable to make sense of it, she gave up trying.
Whatever comes, I'll deal with it.
The four major ninja villages, which kept Sarutobi up at night, weren't invincible enemies to her.
This was actually a perfect opportunity. She needed research material to dive into the mysteries of bloodline limits. Onoki's Dust Release and Bloodline Elimination techniques were critical to her work.
And Terumi Mei's dual bloodline limits practically walking right up to her? Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.
Hikari flashed a grin, her little tiger teeth showing, and suddenly her headache didn't seem so bad.
As for the conversation her clone had with Sarutobi in his office? She couldn't care less.
Rulers and the ruled always had their conflicts—it was the same in every world. If you didn't like it, tear it all down and rebuild. Though, chances were, you'd just end up in a new cycle.
Pushing the chaotic memories to the back of her mind, Hikari noted there was still at least a month before the Chunin Exams began. She'd use that time to process her gains from the Land of Waves and prepare for any potential crises.
Hidan's nonstop chatter could be handled by her clones. She'd focus on studying Kakuzu's heart.
Slither, slither!
Black tendrils crawled up her pale wrist. With her Byakugan active, Hikari magnified the tendrils, their internal structure laid bare. Just as she'd suspected, they were a type of specialized, mutated human tissue.
And not just one kind.
The tendrils were incredibly fine, pitch-black, and glossy, with a flat, scale-like outer cell structure resembling some creature's hair. The middle layer had fibrous, fascia-like tissue, and inside were channels for transporting chakra.
Over the past five years, using the accelerated training effects of shadow clones, she'd fully absorbed all the knowledge in Konoha and Root's libraries on Yin and Yang Release. She was now a master in both, rivaling even the Second Hokage or Orochimaru in a discussion.
So, just by looking at the tendrils' structure, she could guess their nature.
No doubt about it—a product of Yin and Yang Release.
Yin Release creates form from nothing, Yang Release breathes life into form, and Yin-Yang Release brings forth all creation.
The first two weren't that rare; all secret techniques stemmed from Yin or Yang Release. But true Yin-Yang Release? Even the Second Hokage's records were vague about it, describing it as a legendary technique only the Sage of the Six Paths could wield.
All the Yin and Yang-related techniques in the ninja world were just combinations of the two, not the true Yin-Yang Release that could create all things.
That said, overusing any of the Five Nature Transformations could harm a ninja's body, let alone Yin and Yang, which delved into the essence of life itself.
Plenty of ninja ended up as freaks from overstudying Yin-Yang Release, their genes or chakra seeds mutating. Sakon and Ukon were prime examples.
If Hikari's guess was right, the Earth Grudge Fear was created by capturing someone with a mutated body, harvesting their hair, blood vessels, fascia, meridians, and neurons, and refining them with Yin and Yang Release into this black-tendriled monstrosity. Takigakure named it the Earth Grudge Fear, and Kakuzu stole it to achieve his immortality.
Thump! Thump!
The crimson heart pulsed in Hikari's hand, brimming with vibrant life force.
The heart was the organ most tied to human vitality, the final source of life. The Eighth Gate of the Eight Gates Technique—the Gate of Death—unlocked the life essence within the heart, forming the Eight Gates Formation.
This heart still held plenty of vitality. Its chakra seed glowed blue-purple, its veins and meridians already transformed by the black tendrils, constantly drawing chakra from the seed.
Interesting.
As the Earth Grudge Fear absorbed chakra, the tendrils stretched, creeping up her arm toward her sleeve. Hikari's eyes gleamed with fascination for the creature.
The Earth Grudge Fear was similar to her Reverse Eight Gates technique—both manipulated the body's life force.
It plundered the life essence of others, using the tendrils to hijack the heart's nerves and veins, turning it into a pure chakra-refining core.
Then, it could absorb chakra to grow indefinitely. Its fibrous structure hardened when contracted, generating immense strength. This thing was practically a perfect biological material!
Her mind raced, and she suddenly thought of Venom from the movies.
Maybe I should turn this into a battle suit?
Slither, slither!
The black tendrils kept climbing, nearing her shoulder, brushing against her clothes. Hikari silently scrapped the idea.
Activating her Wind and Lightning mode, her body wrapped entirely in tendrils? Yeah, that image felt… off.
"How's the research on the Earth Grudge Fear going?" her Yang Release clone asked, turning from her work on Hidan.
"I've got a handle on its origins and materials, but I'm still figuring out how it was made and how to use it."
"Wait, is that okay?" the clone interrupted, pointing at the tendrils crawling into Hikari's clothes, her expression uneasy.
They looked identical, so seeing those black tendrils wriggling under her real body's clothes made the clone seriously uncomfortable.
"I've got a barrier up," Hikari said casually, letting the tendrils move. A red chakra barrier shimmered on her skin, keeping the tendrils from actually touching her—they were just crawling over the barrier.
"Oh, right, forgot about that," the Yang Release clone said, smacking her forehead. Still, she walked over, yanked the tendrils out along with the heart, and tossed them aside.
"I'm pretty much done with Hidan's immortality," she added.
"What? Already?" Hikari blinked. It hadn't even been a few hours, and she'd cracked Hidan's immortal body?
"No leads whatsoever," the clone said grimly, shaking her head.
After mastering ninjutsu, chakra, seals, and bloodline limits, the clone could break down any technique with ease, seeing through its essence in a glance. Even something as bizarre as the Earth Grudge Fear was transparent to her after a quick look.
But Hidan's immortality? She couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"What's the issue?" Hikari frowned. When it came to studying chakra, she was confident she was among the top in the ninja world.
All ninjutsu boiled down to combinations of the seven chakra natures—Yin, Yang, Wind, Lightning, Water, Fire, and Earth. Even if she couldn't replicate a technique, there shouldn't be one she couldn't understand.
"No clue what the problem is, but everything's a problem," the clone said, frustrated, pointing at the operating table.
Two other clones stood there, holding a bowl of brain matter and a lump of minced flesh, their faces horrified. On the table, Hidan—reduced to just a mouth—was still yelling.
"Useless! Useless! You evil woman! The Evil God is with me!"
"I've taken out his heart and brain, ground them to paste, and completely destroyed his chakra core, but he's still not dead. Sew his mouth and tongue back together, and he'll talk like nothing happened.
It's got nothing to do with chakra, ninjutsu, or seals. He's genuinely immortal."
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