Chapter 49: My Dream is
Naruto was once again buried in work at the Hokage's office, as usual.
Truth be told, Naruto did regret it. I really shouldn't have beaten Sasuke back then. Who ever said being Hokage was easy? Wouldn't it have been much nicer just marrying Sakura?
Now, it was too late to say anything. With the mountain of heavy duties and a wife with an insatiable appetite, Naruto felt he might just become the first Hokage in history to die from overwork.
He sighed. Ever since becoming Hokage, Naruto had been sighing a lot. Just then, there was a knock at the door. He shook himself awake and said, "Come in."
"Naruto, bad news." Shikamaru walked in with a panicked look on his face, followed closely by Yamato, Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Jūgo.
"Is it about Orochimaru?" Naruto's expression turned serious.
He was already aware of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attack on Orochimaru's lab—and had even dispatched Sasuke for that very reason.
If the mission had gone smoothly, Sasuke should've been the only one returning to the village. But seeing Yamato—who had originally been assigned to monitor Orochimaru—and Suigetsu and Jūgo, who had been with Orochimaru, all returning with Sasuke, Naruto immediately guessed that whatever had caused Shikamaru's panic, it had to do with Orochimaru, who hadn't returned.
"Yeah. Captain Yamato, please explain everything to Naruto," Shikamaru said with a nod, glancing at Yamato behind him.
Although Suigetsu and Jūgo weren't from the Leaf, now that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been exposed to them, there was no longer any need to keep them out of conversations involving the organization.
Yamato nodded and gave a full, detailed report of everything that had happened at Orochimaru's research facility.
"...The Umbrella Corporation... Got it. Yamato, please take Suigetsu and Jūgo to rest for now," Naruto said, nodding. He watched as Yamato left with Suigetsu and Jūgo and shut the Hokage office door behind them. Then Naruto turned to Shikamaru and Sasuke. "What are your thoughts on this?"
"In other words, Orochimaru has likely become a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. We just don't know whether it was by force or of his own free will," Shikamaru said, stroking his stylish little goatee.
While Orochimaru currently seemed to have a good relationship with the Hidden Leaf—he'd even sent his son to school there—this fragile truce was held together by the sheer power of Naruto and Sasuke.
Moreover, the Leaf had placed a lot of restrictions on Orochimaru. If a mysterious organization stronger than the Leaf appeared and offered Orochimaru a perfect environment for his research, he might very well abandon his ties with the village.
As for Mitsuki—setting aside whether the village would stoop to using a child's life to threaten Orochimaru—Orochimaru probably wouldn't even care. Mitsuki was just a synthetic human to him, after all.
Shikamaru had never truly trusted Orochimaru.
"As for S.H.I.E.L.D., we've underestimated them. They're definitely not some simple organization. Their subordinate alone—the Umbrella Corporation—is enough of a headache. I suspect S.H.I.E.L.D. has other branches besides Umbrella. That's why I propose reassembling Team Taka to investigate the other world and S.H.I.E.L.D.," Sasuke said.
After the Fourth Great Ninja War, Team Taka had disbanded. Sasuke had returned to the village, while Suigetsu and Jūgo went to Orochimaru's lab. Karin had gone to one of Orochimaru's other labs on her own...
No wonder Sasuke is always so eager to leave the village. So this was the reason!
Naruto thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. I'm counting on you, Sasuke."
Everyone was feeling the pressure when it came to S.H.I.E.L.D.—no one even knew where their headquarters were. Even if they wanted to take action, it felt like they were swinging at shadows.
"The real issue is the Hulk. This creature is even more powerful than White Zetsu. If S.H.I.E.L.D. really has the technology to create Hulks, then they're definitely plotting something extremely dangerous," Shikamaru continued.
"In fact, there's something else. Shikamaru, have you heard of Resident Evil?" Naruto asked. As the smartest mind in the Leaf, Shikamaru deserved to be informed about more of what they knew regarding S.H.I.E.L.D.
After all, even the smartest person couldn't develop a strategy that could turn the tide of war without solid intel as a foundation.
"Resident Evil? What's that?" Shikamaru didn't understand the unfamiliar term, but he had a feeling it didn't mean anything good.
"The Hulk is actually one of the outcomes of Umbrella's 'Bio-Ghost Project.' During the early stages of the project, an accident caused a virus leak."
"That incident turned an entire village into monsters—tenacious, flesh-eating creatures. What's worse is that the virus is contagious."
"In the end, S.H.I.E.L.D. quietly took care of the incident before the virus could spread throughout the ninja world," Naruto explained.
Listening to Naruto's calm recounting, Shikamaru instinctively furrowed his brow. "How do you guys even know about this?"
"Actually, we have moles inside S.H.I.E.L.D.—Flaming Cloud Evil God, SpongeBob, and Patrick are all undercover agents of ours. But it seems S.H.I.E.L.D. has some way of temporarily controlling them."
"So, all they can do is pass information to us. They can't fight S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside us. In fact, in the future, S.H.I.E.L.D. might even use them to fight against us," Naruto said.
Naruto and Sasuke had never heard of any Resident Evil–type incident in the ninja world before. Not even a trace of it existed.
That left only two possibilities: either S.H.I.E.L.D. had already been strong enough at that time to handle everything in complete secrecy without anyone noticing...
Or the whole thing was fabricated.
But Naruto trusted Sasuke, Sasuke trusted Itachi, and Itachi believed his own deductions—that S.H.I.E.L.D. was indeed capable of such things.
"If Resident Evil is real, then we must locate Umbrella as soon as possible and completely destroy the Bio-Ghost Project," Shikamaru declared.
The scariest part about a Resident Evil–style event wasn't the flesh-eating monsters—it was the contagion. If such a crisis broke out, the entire ninja world could fall into chaos. Everyone might end up becoming a flesh-eating monster.
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