"Naruto: Ice God"Chapter 186: Deputy Director of the Konoha Research Bureau
"I never thought I'd live to see Princess Tsunade's summoning slug again."
Watching the slug disappear before his eyes, Maruboshi Gosuke spoke with considerable sentiment.
"Huh? Uncle Gosuke, you've actually seen Lady Tsunade's summoning beast before? But wait, isn't Captain Feng Bai the Third Hokage's disciple? How can he summon Lady Tsunade's summoning beast?"
"Indeed, back in the day I once carried out missions alongside the Legendary Sannin."
Maruboshi Gosuke spoke with a cheerful laugh, his face showing a nostalgic expression.
"Really? Uncle Gosuke, you're an eternal genin and yet—no wait, how could an eternal genin use such powerful Water Release!"
Shikokan instinctively used the title "eternal genin" to address Maruboshi Gosuke, but immediately remembered the incredibly powerful Water Release the man had just demonstrated, causing his worldview to crack slightly.
"Hahaha, don't worry about those details."
Maruboshi Gosuke let out his signature laugh, put his hands behind his back, and leisurely began cleaning up the battlefield.
"Speaking of which, why didn't Captain Feng Bai just eliminate that intruder directly? Since he used Water Release, he's definitely a Hidden Mist Village ninja."
Seeing that both Maruboshi Gosuke and Feng Bai were ignoring him, Shikokan muttered quietly while collecting the spoils of war.
Hyūga Tokuma stopped what he was doing after hearing those words, looking somewhat surprised at this eighteen-year-old genin.
This guy's highest achievement in life would probably be chūnin.
"If using Water Release makes someone a Mist ninja, wouldn't Uncle Gosuke be our enemy?"
Dispelling the Ice Release he had cast earlier and looking at the various puddle-shaped remains of enemies inside, Feng Bai couldn't be bothered to search through them. He gestured for Shikokan to come over while countering with his own question.
"This..."
"That's right. The enemy might very well be impersonating Mist ninja to attack us. That way, even if they fail, they can pin the blame on Hidden Mist Village. Moreover, we're already in a state of war with Hidden Mist."
Maruboshi Gosuke patted Shikokan's shoulder, thoughtfully explaining to him.
The group continued executing their mission.
In Konoha Village.
Various patrol squads out on missions sent back scattered reports.
Except for a few squads with exceptional luck who encountered no attacks, most other squads had faced enemies to varying degrees.
"It seems the news of Konoha being attacked has reached every country. This proves there are indeed enemy ninja lurking around Konoha's periphery."
Sakumo stacked the reports in his hand and passed them to Jiraiya nearby.
"There's no choice. Even now, ANBU still has four vacant positions."
Jiraiya naturally understood the village's situation, but they simply didn't have sufficient manpower to search for spies hiding who-knows-where.
"Sigh."
Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a long sigh, stroking his pipe.
He did know of someone who could turn the tide in this situation, but Hiruzen wasn't confident whether Sakumo could control that person.
After much hesitation, he still couldn't bring himself to speak that name.
"How about entrusting this matter to the Military Police Force? Maintaining village security is the Military Police Force's responsibility anyway, and counter-espionage is also a means of maintaining security."
Sakumo suddenly had an idea.
"That's certainly a solution, but the Uchiha clan doesn't have experience capturing spies, does it?"
Hiruzen said in a muffled voice, while shifting his gaze to Jiraiya: "What the Uchiha clan most commonly deals with should be catching peeping toms and other petty criminals..."
"Old man, you can say what you want, but why are you looking at me?!"
Jiraiya immediately noticed Hiruzen's gaze and jumped up from the sofa in agitation.
"Hmph, you know very well why."
Hiruzen snorted coldly and withdrew his gaze.
"Damn it, if you're going to be like this, don't blame me for reporting to the old lady about your crystal ball—"
Jiraiya's threat wasn't finished before Hiruzen quickly covered his mouth.
"Shut up, you rebellious disciple!"
"Let go—did you wash your hands after using the bathroom?!"
"Of course I washed them!"
"Impossible! If you washed them, how come they still—"
Watching Sarutobi Hiruzen, who seemed to have completely let himself go after stepping down, Sakumo twitched the corner of his mouth, forcing an awkward smile.
Indeed, the position of Hokage wasn't as easy as one might imagine.
He should also cultivate a successor and strive to retire within a few years to go home and help Kakashi with childcare.
Just as Hiruzen was about to summon Enma to give Jiraiya a proper lesson, the Hokage office door was gently knocked.
"Please come in."
Sakumo had just spoken when Hiruzen and Jiraiya had already straightened their clothes and returned to their seats, sitting properly.
The door was pushed open, and a white-haired young man in a lab coat walked slowly into the room.
"Third Hokage-sama, Fourth Hokage-sama."
After respectfully greeting the two Hokage, the young man finally turned his gaze to Jiraiya: "Jiraiya-sama."
"Oh, it's Hiruko. No need to be so formal."
Jiraiya smiled and waved at him after recognizing who it was.
"Hiruko, weren't you supposed to be assisting Orochimaru in supervising the Research Bureau's reconstruction work? How do you have time to come here?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't have a particularly good impression of Hiruko. The man had secretly conducted human experiments, though since Hiruko hadn't targeted Konoha ninja, Sarutobi Hiruzen had only assigned people to secretly strengthen surveillance on him.
When Orochimaru proposed transferring Hiruko to the Research Bureau to assist with his work, Sarutobi Hiruzen went with the flow and handed this somewhat unstable factor over to Orochimaru to manage.
"Yes, actually, Director Orochimaru and I used ANBU facilities to examine the corpses that had previously fought against Fourth Hokage-sama, and we made some discoveries."
Hiruko answered Sarutobi Hiruzen's question with his head lowered, while taking out the folder in his hand.
Jiraiya reached out to take it, casually flipped through it, but got a headache from the dense technical terminology and quickly tossed it to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Sarutobi Hiruzen also couldn't understand the content, so he directly flipped to the last page to read the conclusion before handing it to Sakumo.
After Sakumo took it, he only glanced at the first page's content, then directly asked Hiruko for the conclusion: "So, what did you discover?"
"We can understand the method of controlling corpses as a type of genjutsu, but this is genjutsu applied to corpses, and there are certain requirements for the corpses' condition."
Jiraiya was somewhat curious: "What requirements?"
"The corpses must be fresh, because only recently deceased bodies still contain chakra. Additionally, Lord Orochimaru has already developed countermeasures against this technique."
Hiruko continued his explanation.
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