Sarutobi Hiruzen thought of Shimura Danzo immediately—and it wasn't an unjust suspicion.
After all, Danzo really had run Wood Release experiments, and one survivor existed: a boy named Yamato, now the Anbu operative Tenzo.
If there was one survivor, there could be a second.
Given Danzo's personality, he could absolutely do something like this—throw Tenzo out there as a decoy to throw Hiruzen off the scent, while hiding a second survivor.
Sharingan plus Wood Release—two major kekkei genkai in one body—Hiruzen didn't dare imagine how strong that would be.
All right then!
Shimura Danzo, you've kept me in the dark for far too long!
Right now Hiruzen wanted to storm into the Shimura compound, drag Danzo out, and put him to the question. But with Kitazawa and Hatake Kakashi standing before him, he forced the impulse down.
"Tell me the fight in detail."
He sat again.
"Yes."
Kakashi started from his sword bout with Kitazawa and ended with severing Uchiha Obito's arm and forcing him to flee.
"You did very well," Hiruzen said, genuinely impressed. "Especially you, Kitazawa—finding his weakness that quickly."
With an arm cut off and serious injuries on top, tracking him would be much easier. If he was in Konoha, no matter where Danzo tried to hide him, Hiruzen would find him.
"You've both done enough for today. Don't speak of this to anyone," Hiruzen said with a wave. "I'll dispatch people to investigate the masked man at once."
Right now he had no intel; there wasn't much he could say to Kakashi and Kitazawa.
"Hokage-sama, if you get results, I'd like to be informed," Kakashi said after a hesitation. "He felt familiar to me—maybe I've seen him before."
"You have? That's useful." Hiruzen nodded. "I'll let you know when we learn more."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama."
Kakashi gave a slight bow and left the office with Kitazawa.
"Haru."
Hiruzen called out at once.
"Hokage-sama."
An Anbu named Haru pushed the door open.
"Where's Danzo now?"
"Still at the Shimura compound," Haru replied.
"Bring the Anbu. We're going to the Shimura clan." Hiruzen stood, then paused. "Don't bring Itachi."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Haru turned to go.
A few minutes later, Hiruzen set out for the Shimura compound.
He arrived quickly.
"Hiruzen."
Danzo had heard he was coming and was already waiting at the gate.
Seeing Hiruzen, Danzo hurried forward. In his heart was only one thought: his old friend hadn't forgotten him—only a few days had passed, and Hiruzen already couldn't wait to bring him back.
Naturally, he assumed Hiruzen was here to reinstate him. He hadn't done anything wrong lately; surely this wasn't a trouble call.
"Everyone else, leave us," Hiruzen said, waving a hand. "I have something to discuss with Danzo alone."
The Shimura shinobi withdrew at once.
"What is it, Hiruzen?" Danzo asked lightly.
"Answer me this," Hiruzen said, face going solemn. "Besides Tenzo, was there any other survivor of the Wood Release experiments?"
"…?"
Danzo froze.
What was this about?
Why bring up the Wood Release experiments again?
Had Tsunade discovered something?
"As far as I know, only Tenzo survived," Danzo said firmly.
"Danzo!"
Hiruzen's voice cracked like a whip. "I'm not joking with you. Tell me the truth!"
Why are you yelling?
Danzo flinched, then felt his scalp prickle. He knew Hiruzen; he wouldn't ask this for no reason.
Which left only one explanation.
"Hiruzen… you've seen a second Wood Release user?" he asked.
"That's right," Hiruzen said.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Danzo blurted. "When I reached Orochimaru's lab back then, only Tenzo was alive!"
"Then did Orochimaru stash away a second survivor?" Hiruzen's face darkened.
"Very likely!" Danzo's eyes lit. "The experiments were led by Orochimaru. I mainly supplied materials and funding!"
Hiruzen's brows drew tight. He stood there thinking. Danzo's reaction looked genuine.
So it really was Orochimaru?
But if it was Orochimaru, why send a Wood Release user to attack Kakashi and Kitazawa?
A grudge against Kakashi?
"That bastard Orochimaru actually tricked me!" Danzo growled.
"It's too soon to say it's Orochimaru," Hiruzen said, looking at him. "But there are ways to uncover that second Wood Release user's identity."
"Hiruzen, what leads do you have?" Danzo offered quickly. "Let me handle it—just let me mobilize the former Root."
"No." Hiruzen refused without hesitation. "But there is something I do need your help with."
"What is it?" Danzo backed off a step. Reinstating Root all at once was unlikely; he'd just floated it. So long as Hiruzen needed him to act, someday he and Root would return.
"Do you have any Sharingan?" Hiruzen asked slowly.
"What do you mean by that?" Danzo jolted.
"You know exactly what I mean," Hiruzen snorted. "I'm not spelling it out—that's me saving you face."
"I may dislike the Uchiha, but I would never target them to steal their Sharingan!" Danzo declared righteously.
There was no way he would hand those over. He didn't have many to begin with; they'd taken years to collect. In the original timeline he had a whole arm of Sharingan—those were gathered the night of the Uchiha massacre.
"Not going to talk?" Hiruzen's face sank.
"Hiruzen, must you push me this far?" Danzo asked, shaken and aggrieved.
"Suit yourself," Hiruzen said after two seconds of silence. He turned and left.
In the end, he couldn't bring himself to crush a comrade of decades. He'd intended to trace the Sharingan's movements to identify the second Wood Release user. Hiruzen was assuming the man's Sharingan was transplanted, not innate—given Danzo's relations with the Uchiha, cooperation seemed impossible.
But without Danzo's cooperation, it would be hard to pursue that line. For now, the plan was to scour Konoha and nearby areas and see if they could pick up the Wood Release user's trail.
"You'll regret this, Hiruzen!" Danzo shook with rage where he stood.
He felt the bond between them snap—their long friendship finally break.
"Looks like I'll have to use Kotoamatsukami," he thought, a vicious light flashing in his eyes. He'd originally considered using it on Hiruzen, but he was afraid Hiruzen was too strong and might resist. So his target had become Tsunade instead.
But not yet. To avoid the Uchiha noticing, he would wait until the day the Fifth Hokage was formally decided.
…
Ninja Academy.
"Kitazawa, thanks for today," Kakashi exhaled.
"What's there to thank?" Kitazawa said casually. "We're all Konoha shinobi; standing together against the enemy is how it should be."
"Not just for that masked man—also for the blade you gave me," Kakashi added.
Re-forged from the Thunder Swords: Kiba, and able to draw lightning, it was worth no less than a chakra-metal blade. He owed Kitazawa a big favor. Strictly speaking, he shouldn't have accepted it—but he truly liked this sword. Since he had, he wouldn't be pretentious about it. He'd pay Kitazawa back when he had the chance.
"Don't mention it," Kitazawa waved it off. "It was basically a free pickup anyway."
Maybe because he'd gotten the Kiba so easily, he didn't care about it. Besides, in front of a true powerhouse, fancy blades didn't mean much. However precious, they were still just tools.
"…"
Kakashi was speechless. The way you say that, it's like Kurosuki Raiga just tossed the Kiba away for fun. He wanted to quip but didn't know where to start.
"One more thing," Kakashi said after a few steps, as if remembering. "I plan to take Tuesday off."
"Heading out on a mission?" Kitazawa asked, curious.
"No." Kakashi shook his head. "I'm going to the Memorial Stone."
Kitazawa's heart gave a jolt. The Memorial Stone—the village cemetery where fallen shinobi are honored. If Kakashi was going, he was almost certainly paying respects to Rin Nohara.
No doubt, under normal circumstances, Uchiha Obito would go too.
Suddenly, Kitazawa understood why the Kirigakure delegation had been so slow to arrive. It wasn't that they didn't care about Raiga and the Kiba—Obito wanted to use the chance to visit Rin's grave. But now that he was badly wounded, he definitely wouldn't make it.
"The Advanced Class training is on track. Missing a day won't matter," Kitazawa said.
"Mm." Kakashi paused. "Thanks."
"That masked man's hurt, but once he heals he may come back to Konoha for revenge. Be careful," Kitazawa warned.
"I understand," Kakashi said soberly. If the masked man returned, he'd come for Kakashi first. Not only had Kakashi cut off his arm, he'd driven a Chidori straight through his heart.
"Can he even survive wounds that bad?" Kakashi wondered aloud.
"Hard to say," Kitazawa said meaningfully. "Sharingan and Wood Release… he may have special ways to cheat death."
"Mm." Kakashi nodded.
They returned to the training field and took their respective students to class. Kitazawa stood at a short distance, watching Hinata Hyuga, Ino Yamanaka, and the others train. Everyone's progress was different. After nearly a month, three were ready for the next phase: Inuzuka Hana, Inuzuka Kiba, and Akimichi Choji.
Choji had been working on Partial Multi-Size and had it mostly down. For his next phase, there wasn't much to stress over—just keep advancing the Akimichi clan arts, like Human Boulder.
Hana and Kiba were learning Kitazawa's modified secret techniques: Quadruple Fang Over Fang for Hana, and Three-Headed Hellhound for Kiba. Hana had her own ninken and could pursue classic clan techniques like Choji. Kiba was the tricky one. Add a fourth head? Pointless—more heads didn't equal more power.
Kitazawa rubbed his chin. As things stood, Kiba lacked finishing moves—especially after transforming into the three-headed hellhound, his attacks were still too primitive. When he'd tested chakra natures, he remembered Kiba's was Earth.
Teach him Earth Release?
But the Earth jutsu Kitazawa knew weren't great fits for Kiba—once he transformed, he couldn't form hand seals.
"An Earth technique that needs no seals?" Kitazawa thought it over and came up empty—then remembered the Heavenly Foot of Pain. With the hellhound's huge body, a double foreleg stomp could crack ground and spray rocks like that.
But Kiba was young, and the hellhound was bipedal in this version; learning the Heavenly Foot would be too hard. Besides, that move was an application of monstrous strength—Kiba probably couldn't master it.
That left one option: modify it. Start from the Heavenly Foot and slash the difficulty—strip most of the finesse, keep the brute-force ground smash, and just dump chakra into it.
"Feels like I'm walking Tobirama's path," Kitazawa chuckled. Not a bad thing. He'd get new jutsu, swap them with Hiruzen for jutsu of the same rank, and sometimes clear system quests on top. Overall, great returns.
With monthly exams approaching, he didn't rush Hana, Kiba, and Choji into the next phase. After the exams, he'd finish creating the hellhound version of the Heavenly Foot.
After watching a while, he split off two shadow clones to keep coaching on the field, then headed to a secluded corner of the school.
[Current Mission: Drive off Uchiha Obito.]
[Reward: Three-Tomoe Sharingan.]
[Mission Completed. Reward Granted.]
Seeing no one around, Kitazawa activated the three-tomoe Sharingan at once.
Immediately, he felt his ocular power—his chakra—surge. Everything grew sharper in his sight. That was the three-tomoe's superb perception. It was most useful in combat—he could clearly read an enemy's movements and even copy jutsu on the spot.
The three-tomoe could also cast and dispel genjutsu. In other words, no seals—one glare, and the enemy fell into illusion. Simple and terrifying. No exaggeration: that glare was the endpoint for an ordinary genjutsu user.
After testing, Kitazawa walked to the school's man-made lake. Obito wouldn't be back soon, but the pressure remained. He was still a step short. With Senju Chakra Mode, he could suppress Obito briefly—but Kamui's phasing lasted five minutes, while his mode lasted three.
He already had an idea for extending it: add more chakra, buy roughly another minute per increment.
In short, he needed to learn more jutsu and clear more system quests. Earth Release: Earth Substitution was almost done; today he'd work on Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation. It let the user slip underground for ambushes or to evade attacks—solid utility, both offense and escape.
…
A cave somewhere in the Land of Fire.
"Kakashi!"
Obito's eyes snapped open as he let out a ragged, furious roar—only for waves of pain to crash over him from every part of his body, twisting his face.
"These injuries are on par with the Kannabi Bridge," came a familiar voice.
Obito turned automatically and saw Zetsu—half white, half black, a pitcher-plant hood crowning its head. The speaker was Black Zetsu, the ultimate mastermind of the original tale. The white half was the true body of all White Zetsu.
"If not for the Hashirama cells, you'd have died on the spot," Black Zetsu said, shaking its head. "Don't go back to Konoha before the Eye of the Moon Plan begins. Heal."
It was genuinely spooked by Obito—he'd gone to Konoha twice and come back critically injured both times. It just wanted to complete the plan in peace and resurrect its "mother," Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
"I won't die," Obito said, frowning. He had Hashirama cells for monstrous recovery—and Izanagi for a literal do-over.
"Don't forget why Madara went to such lengths to save and teach you," Black Zetsu reminded him. "Once the Eye of the Moon succeeds, Konoha can be snuffed out with a flick."
"But I…" Obito's face twisted with unwillingness. With Mangekyō awakened and Hashirama cells granting him Wood Release, he'd thought Kakashi would be easy pickings. Who knew he'd end up like Rin—with a hole through his chest.
"When you're healed, join the Akatsuki and get the Eye of the Moon moving," Black Zetsu said.
"That reminds me," Obito murmured, then bared his teeth in hate. "I'll have Kirigakure deliver Konoha a grand 'gift'!"
Since he'd be joining Akatsuki, there was no longer any need to control the Kiri. But before he let it go, he'd use Kirigakure to stoke the flames of his rage—and make them burn hotter.