After the half-month vacation in which all the members of Team-11 were up and running, Sandaime-sama assigned a new task to Team-11.
And the task this time was to investigate the whereabouts of Hiruko.
The mission also included for Team-11 to record a copy of the Chimera Technique developed by Hiruko and then destroy all the records of its existence along with Hiruko so that no other Shinobi Village can ever get their hands on this Kinjutsu to misuse it.
As for why Konoha should have this Kinjutsu? Obviously, to record Chimera Technique in the scroll of Kinjutsu along with the likes of Edo Tensei and Artificial Bijuu Creation and all, the purpose is to use it at times of desperation as a trump card.
These words alone dictated that the village authorities are quite interested in the Chimera Technique developed by Hiruko. Although it is a forbidden one, everything has its use at different times.
In fact, it's not just Konoha, the secret information related to the existence of the Chimera Technique has become a piece of common knowledge among all the Shinobi Villages, great or small, curtesy to the spies planted in various villages.
And the high level of each village is very much aware that all other villages are using their own ways to acquire this miraculous technique so how could they be left behind and let their enemies get their hands on it?
Some are trying to buy it off from Akatsuki Organization, while others are trying to extort it out of the members of the Akatsuki Organization.
But all methods have yet to yield any substantial result.
So, overall, the Chimera Technique has become too valuable for each Shinobi Village and they are all trying to do whatever they can to obtain it in one way or another.
Kuroto once even thought of secretly selling the pirated version of the Chimera Technique in his hands through Black Market, but soon discarded this idea. Although it is an easy method to acquire a large number of funds, however, it will only lead to chaos, Moreover, the safety of the major Shinobi Clans will also be compromised. Which is not something Kuroto wants to see, not if he can help it.
It must be known that the reason Major Shinobi Clans are feared so much, and the reason why they enjoy the treatment of being noble shinobi clans that ordinary shinobi can only dream of is mostly because of their unique Kekkei Genkai or special and secretive Techniques that common shinobi can't ever hope to compare against.
But if these Kekkei Genkai rooted within their genes can be stolen by others so easily then everyone will eye those major shinobi clans. And now that a technique is successfully developed that can theoretically allow almost anyone to not only absorb not just one of those Kekkei Genkai from the major Shinobi Clans but in fact, quite many of them at the same time.
So no one can remain indifferent to it. Even the major Shinobi Clans are not indifferent to the Chimera technique.
Take Hyuga Clan as an example, despite the death of an elder and two branch members, the theft of a pair of Byakugan as well as few very important scrolls from the forbidden section, the Hyuga Clan still held many clan assemblies to discuss the countermeasures they must take in order to deal with the threat of Hiruko and from any source that potentially wants to steal Hyuga Kekkei Genkai using Chimera Technique.
Because no one can tell whether Bird Cage Juinjutsu can prevent the Byakugan to be stolen by the Chimera Technique.
After all, according to what people speculate, Hiruko did not just absorb the Sharingan of Uchiha Hiiragi, he absorbed Uchiha Hiiragi as a whole, therefore, acquiring the Uchiha Kekkei Genkai.
So, there's no telling if Cage Bird will protect Hyuga Clan in the face of Chimera Technique!
As such, suitable countermeasures have to be taken.
As for the investigation of the traitor responsible for the death of Elder Asahi and all? The Hyuga Clan again did its own investigation but there was no result.
Even when the entire Clan territory was searched all the members interrogated no result was obtained. Neither from the Branch Family nor from the Main Family.
Both secretive and open investigations amounted to no result.
In short, the month-long investigation resulted in nothing more than a failure.
With no clue at sight, the fingers again turned to the next most likely culprit, that being Orochimaru.
But when it comes down to Orochimaru, who is a Sannin and has the strength superior at the level higher than a normal Kage, the Hyuga Clan obviously can't do anything. Because the Patriarch and his younger brother––who are officially the strongest within the Hyuga Clan, even when fighting against Orochimaru together are unlikely to be able to catch Orochimaru. So the next target became the person most likely to be the next possible target who could have been in collusion with Orochimaru.
But as expected of the Patriarch, even though some members of the Clan proposed to carry out a full-fledged inquiry from Hyuga Kuroto while using the Cage Bird, Hyuga Hiashi unilaterally rejected the proposal using various reasons.
In the face of reasons given to them by Hyuga Hiashi, even the elders can't help but feel their nerves tighten when they fully summarize the deep background Hyuga Kuroto has developed for him.
Being one of the top executives of the Anbu department, Hyuga Kuroto already has a lot of authority within the Anbu.
Deep friendship with Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi. Two future leaders of the Uchiha Clan, with one being the Patriarch, while the other to most likely to become the leader of the Konoha Military Police Force.
A good friendship with Hatake Kakashi, Son of White Fang, and disciple of Yellow Flash, the shinobi most likely to be the future Hokage.
Finally, there is also the presence of the daughter of former Miko.
Just the interpersonal relationship of Hyuga Kuroto made them realize that they can no longer touch Hyuga Kuroto so casually as they thought they could, and they unanimously choose to follow the Patriarch's advice, making Kuroto laugh at them.
Anyway, all that aside, on the day Anbu Team-11 was assigned the mission, and coming out of the Hokage Office, Shisui walked next to Kuroto on their way home, and he had a bit of tangled expression.
Kuroto frowned, and asked, "What's the matter?"
Shisui hesitated a little and finally sighed, then continued, "Kuroto-san, I have thought about it for the past few days, and I think that we should report the location of Akatsuki's base to Hokage-sama!"
After the capture of Shinno, the trio of Homusubi extracted out all the information Shinno knew about the Akatsuki, of course, Akatsuki's base being in Amegakure was also part of that information.
Kuroto didn't care about this information, as he has known this for a very long time.
But that's not the case with Shisui, and now that they are assigned the mission to locate Hiruko, ambush him, kill him, and obtain Chimera Technique out of him, so Shisui felt that they should also use this opportunity to report the base location of Akatsuki Organization.
Asked by Shisui, Kuroto considered it a little.
Shisui continued, "Kuroto-san, I think that as long as we report the location of the base of Akatsuki and then use the combined might of the five great nations to launch a surprise attack on the base of Akatsuki in Amegakure, it should be possible to take down Akatsuki Organization in one shot."
Kuroto nodded if they do use this approach then it should actually work perfectly. If the five great Shinobi villages do gather all of their high-end combat personal for a united surprise attack on Amegakure it should work out. To make the situation better Kuroto would in fact be willing to use all his strength to take down Nagato and seize or destroy the pair of Rinnegan within his eye sockets.
Seeing Kuroto's nod, Shisui immediately asked, "It should work out perfectly, right?"
"Speaking ideally, your plan is of course perfect" – After taking a pause, Kuroto continued with a deep tone, "But this is only ideally speaking. Realistically speaking, Akatsuki wouldn't be destroyed with just this, so the success rate of this approach is not as high as we think it is."
The core part of Akatsuki is divided into two segments, and both the segments individually have two parts.
In the frontal segment is Madara, Nagato, and Obito, each of them is acting as per their beliefs and ideals to create a better world they think they are working for, and for this, each of them is manipulating and doing all sorts of things they can to achieve their ideals.
And in the dark segment, there is Black Zetsu, who is manipulating them all.
Madara may be dead, but as long as Black Zetsu exists, Kuroto counts Madara as a threat. And killing Zetsu is impossible. And there is no telling if Zetsu can even be sealed with anything below the Yin-Yang Seal.
And all four of them revolve around the pair of Rinnegan. As long as that pair of Rinnegan and Zetsu exists, Akatsuki too exists.
So, destroying Akatsuki would be impossible unless all these five keys are solved.
Moreover, a surprise attack on Amegakure? With "Rain Tiger at Will Technique!" working?! Are you kidding?! That's just impossible unless you are Yellow Flash or Uchiha Obito!
With Nagato's and Zetsu's ability, the so-called surprise attack will obviously be noticed, and as long as Nagato doesn't want to openly clash with the five great Shinobi Villages, Akatsuki can avoid it.
And as long as Akatsuki retreats, what can the combined might of five great shinobi villages do?
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