"However..."
Torune took out a piece of paper.
"A note was left behind in one of them."
Danzo took the folded piece of paper and his emotions fluctuated. The disdain-filled threat had bothered him back then. He wondered if the same would still happen today.
In the blink of an eye, Danzo unfolded the note.
[So... You tried and failed.]
It felt as if Danzo could hear laughter behind those words.
[Let's have fun, shall we?]
'Amaterasu!'
Just like before, Danzo burned the note with simply his gaze. His blood pressure rose when he thought about who had written such a note.
'A mere child who has not experienced the horrors of war...' Danzo clicked his tongue, 'Who does he think he is?'
Torune witnessed the silent rage that had begun brewing within Danzo. He took this moment to bow lower.
"What should we do, Danzo-sama?"
A glance fell upon his form. Danzo went silent, thinking about what actions Konoha could take.
"You're not a good match for the boy."
Danzo's words were simple.
"Assemble a team composed of the fastest ninja we have. Like Kirigakure's hunter-nin, it's time we have our version."
Letting Hiryu Suguru off just because of his little threats was not something Danzo was familiar with. For the sake of his plans, many variables had to be restricted.
Otherwise, a lot of things would become overwhelmingly difficult.
Danzo's gaze drifted towards a certain direction of the village.
***
"Old man! Why aren't you in your office? Skippin' work?" The mischievous voice of one Uzumaki Naruto was like the buzzing of a fly.
The fact that Hiruzen was being bothered by Naruto first thing in the morning was an ever-growing headache.
'Was it the right choice to keep Naruto close, now that Danzo is the Hokage?' Hiruzen sighed, legitimately doubting his choices.
Walking over to the door to his small residence, Hiruzen was greeted by the sight of Naruto letting himself in.
"...Oi, Naruto. Who told you to come in?"
Naruto froze. His cheeky laughter rattled Hiruzen's ears.
"...The door was unlocked, so I thought it would be fine, old man!" Naruto grinned, "Anyway, what's the plan for today?"
Hiruzen sighed again. For a moment, he doubted himself. He was pretty sure he locked the door...
No, there was a bigger issue at hand. The jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox was studying under the Professor. What would people think of this move?
It had been a few weeks already, yet there hadn't been any opposition.
'Indeed... the rest of the council don't mind me training Naruto if it's for the sake of deterring Danzo from doing anything.'
Fear was an amazing tool. For a moment, Hiruzen wondered why he hadn't made Danzo the Hokage much earlier.
Had he known that he could pass all the mountains of paperwork to his old friend without any visible repercussions, Hiruzen would have done so sooner. As long as he was a strong enough voice in the village, Danzo would be even more restricted than he was before.
It was the ironic reality of leaving the dark shadows and working in the light.
Looking at the excited Naruto, Hiruzen felt a small smile form on his lips. He took out a scroll.
"I heard that you've failed the graduation exam twice already."
Unfurling the scroll, Hiruzen looked for the specific jutsu he needed. Looking at its instructions, he felt nostalgic. The days when Senju Tobirama was still alive...
Hiruzen shook his head. Getting caught up in such emotions was not on his to-do list for the day.
Meanwhile, "...I promise to do better this time! Believe it!" Naruto cried out in defiance.
Hiruzen raised a brow.
"No,"
He then showed Naruto the jutsu on the scroll he held.
"It's about time you learn the jutsu I had long planned on giving to you." Hiruzen chuckled upon seeing Naruto's gaze gravitate towards the Scroll of Sealing.
"It's a forbidden jutsu called the Shadow Clone Jutsu."
***
The peddler known as Amai stood in Sunagakure's commercial district, advertising his wares and slowly whittling down his stock of items. His playful, unnerving smile had pressured many civilians and even some shinobi into making random purchases.
A lot of people walked away with items they did not expect to buy.
'...Human psychology is indeed a difficult field for me,' Suguru thought as he maintained his business-level smile.
His clones were likely knee-deep in research at the moment. Thousands of corpses were crammed into the dozens of scrolls he had. Oddly enough, he had a larger collection of corpses than shuriken.
'...Am I walking cemetery?' Suguru thought.
To have so many dead people stuck to his body — hidden only by the endless Storage Seals that he had to make by hand — was odd when reflected on more deeply.
Nevertheless, Suguru now had a large supply of basic resources. He could be more liberal in his research's expenditures. His research on growing a Kekkei Genkai Garden could progress faster.
However...
'I still haven't been able to get my hands on Hashirama's Cells and a proper DNA collection.'
This meant that Suguru would eventually hit a wall. His expected limit would be the growth of a short-lived human with some amount of chakra in their bodies.
Of course, with that limit as a goal, his research proceeded swiftly while he engaged in the merchant lifestyle.
'I'll deal with overcoming that wall when the time comes,' Suguru nodded to himself.
There were many other things he had to figure out, after all.
'I need to perfect my mobile sensory device and create a revival system to become worthy of being one of Orochimaru's students.'
***
The days passed.
Amai was packing up after a long day of peddling his wares when two young women approached him. They both had a head of beautiful brown hair that reached up to their waist.
"...Hey,"
Tsukamoto Kaori was the first one to speak, drawing Amai's attention. The latter glanced at her with an inquisitive gaze.
"Ah! Kaori-san~" Amai smiled, "How are you? I'm sorry, but I'm closing up for the day. If you need anything from me, perhaps we can do so on another day."
Kaori shook her head and pointed to the woman beside her. "I'm here with my sister."
"Hello, Amai-san. I'm Tsukamoto Nao. Can we talk?"
A sliver of killing intent leaked out of Nao's calm façade.
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