After my meeting with Danzo, I headed straight home and locked myself in the lab. I urgently needed to at least finish the experiment with Senju cells today. I really didn't like the situation that had been developing over the past few years. And something told me that the abduction of an Uzumaki by those Suna bastards would be the final straw before the outbreak of the Second Shinobi World War.
No—it already was.
It didn't matter how the kidnapping situation would be resolved. What mattered was that word of it had already reached Uzushiogakure. The Uzumaki would never forgive an attempt on their children. They had only survived this long because they always responded harshly to any aggression against them. Even Konoha's support wouldn't save them if the great nations seriously decided to deal with the island state. Uzushio was like Israel—small, but resilient, and never shy about the methods it used to solve its problems.
In short, now that the conflict between the redheads and Suna had become public knowledge, for Konoha and every other interested party, this unknown kidnapped Uzumaki would become their own Archduke Ferdinand. So, for all intents and purposes, the war had already begun.
Which meant I needed to hurry with my experiments.
The idea of facing another shinobi war at my current level did not appeal to me in the slightest. I'd had more than enough of the First Shinobi World War. I needed to bulk up—at least to Orochimaru's level by the end of the Third Shinobi War in canon. As I am now, I'm nowhere near ready to face someone like Hanzō. I wouldn't survive that encounter.
So I spent the entire night surrounded by test tubes and Petri dishes. And if my work with the Uzumaki genome had only just begun, the experiment with Senju cells, on the other hand, delighted me beyond measure. After I returned from the mission, I could transplant new organs into myself. I could do it now—but after such a transplant, I'd have to avoid using my Body Replacement Technique for a week, or all my work would be wasted. And missions had a tendency to go sideways. Better not risk it.
Still, despite my success with Senju tissue, the Uzumaki samples made me sweat. I spent the whole night hunched over test tubes. Assembling a thousand different samples at once—on the fly, and under a tight deadline—was no easy task. It would be a shame if not a single one produced the desired result. It's bad enough not having a genetic analyzer—worse still, not having a proper genome database.
Maybe it's time to start thinking about privatizing Root?
…Nah. Not yet. And it's far too naive to think I could just storm in and take Root like that. That would take work... Long, painstaking work.
With such cheerful thoughts, I greeted the morning. A wonderful morning. It began with meditation instead of sleep and an energy drink instead of breakfast. Reiko watched me in silence, disapproval clear in her gaze as she studied the dark circles under my eyes.
"I'm heading out," I rasped.
"Good luck."
"Yeah," I muttered gloomily in response.
Early that morning, Hiruzen had summoned me. So I had to drag myself over. Lucky Nawaki caught me yesterday—today I would've told him to get lost.
As expected, the Hokage assigned me a mission. A fairly standard C-rank. Reconnaissance in Roran, a vassal city-state of the Land of Wind.
Officially, I was to gather information about the Source of the Ryumyaku. But it seemed that Suna intended to hide the kidnapped Uzumaki there, since people with red hair were fairly common among the locals. Sensors—of which Uzushiogakure had more than enough—could track chakra signatures, of course, but finding the right one in a large city wasn't easy. Especially since Roran itself emitted a rather peculiar chakra field.
I need to be in the city in two weeks. That's cutting it way too close!My teacher really didn't go easy on me, damn it. And what am I supposed to get done in the time I have left? Practically nothing.
As expected.
Good thing I'd already planned to leave immediately. So, without wasting time, I set out on the mission.
What? I'd already said my goodbyes to everyone I needed to—namely Reiko. That was enough.
***
I reached Roran without incident, blending in with a caravan traveling from the Land of Rivers. I didn't trust the Henge, so I used some weak missing-nin from Kumo I'd captured along the way and applied the Vanishing Facial Copy Technique. Officially, it's more complex and rated B-rank, but for some reason it came easier to me.
A disgusting technique, at its core—but convenient.
No need for constant control, no need to maintain the disguise with chakra. And the fact that you're essentially wearing someone else's skin? Well… that's just a minor detail. Just one of those things. I just hoped that missing-nin hadn't left too much of a trail. After being "depersonalized," he'd better quietly go on fertilizing the forest rather than causing me problems.
The journey took exactly thirteen days. Perfect! Tearing myself apart to arrive a day early wasn't exactly pleasant, but what wouldn't you do to personally scout the situation before an operation? I had no idea when Uzushio's ANBU would show up, so it was better to prepare for the worst.
Maybe they were already here.
The next day, I met with Konoha's agents.
They didn't provide much useful information either—just reassured me that if there was an Uzumaki in the city, there was only one for now. The one I was supposed to abduct. By the way, he was a year and a half old. Seems Danzo has taken a turn for the worse… although, no—he's been walking that crooked path for years. Now, if anything, he's merely found a straight road. One that leads directly to Hell.
Whatever. For now, I'd have to keep playing the obedient dog. It was too early for me to stand out. I've got a mom, after all—and I'd like to keep it that way.I feel sorry for her, that girl… it'd be a damn shame if her life, just as it's finally settling down, got ruined. So I'll go ahead and kidnap the red-haired kid after all.
Under Danzo, he'll be well taken care of—living like a king until he's seven. Then the order will come: to kill his own friends. I've already familiarized myself with Shimura's "training program," behind my superiors' backs.
And I sincerely hoped I'd be able to clean up Konoha before the first graduation from Root's little boarding school.
At the very least, I allowed myself to hope.