"Annoying. I'm not here to listen to your long-winded speeches."
Faced with Ruri's tough attitude, Hakushi didn't say much, just spread his hands innocently, expressing his helplessness.
"Alright, let's drop this topic. Let's talk about something else, I need your help with a few things."
Hakushi was already very adept at asking Ruri for favors, his face free of any embarrassment.
"What is it?"
"I want to collect data on Tailed Beasts. There should be more resources on this in the Uchiha Clan, right?"
"Yeah, there is, but you want this..."
Ruri paused here, glancing at the glass cylinder in the detection instrument beside her, inside which was sealed a mass of physical chakra emitting a faint purple glow.
"Shukaku's chakra, is it?"
Ruri understood Hakushi's intention.
"Yeah, that's right. Don't you think the power that guy showed that day was just mind-blowing? And I feel like Tailed Beasts and my research are actually leading to the same destination; there are probably some commonalities. If I can get more data about Tailed Beasts, or some chakra..."
Hakushi chattered on, clearly letting Ruri know how valuable Tailed Beast Chakra was for research.
As for whether it was really related to his own work, only he knew for sure.
"I can get you the resources, but forget about Tailed Beast Chakra. Jinchuriki are the village's top confidential assets; outsiders have zero access."
"That's true."
Hakushi wasn't disappointed either; just getting more Tailed Beast data made him content.
Still, he hadn't lied to Ruri about what he'd just said.
Tailed Beast Chakra and his experimental research really did have a lot in common.
Especially Natural Energy.
"Besides that, I also need detailed data on Yin Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation. I'm counting on you for this, too."
After making his request for the Tailed Beast info, Hakushi brought up a second demand.
Tailed Beast Chakra contains Yin-Yang Attribute Chakra Nature Transformations. If you really want to grasp the secrets of Tailed Beasts, mastering Yin-Yang Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation first is the logical step.
Ruri suddenly felt like stomping on that smiling face of his a few times.
What did he take her for? Some kind of cash-withdrawal tool?
"By the way."
Hakushi seemed to think of something and suddenly piped up.
Ruri couldn't help but furrow her brows.
"What else?"
"When you reported to Orochimaru the other day as a Jonin, did you mention anything about the Tailed Beast?"
Hidden Sand was secretly preparing to deploy their Tailed Beast Weapon. That was not a trivial matter.
"No need. If we hadn't already known Shukaku was sealed there, the Root Ninja wouldn't have misled us into going. The Konoha Ninja at the front lines were already informed. Besides, whether the Hidden Sand would even use Shukaku after seeing our pursuit team fail is still unknown."
Ruri thought it over and answered Hakushi's question.
"I see... All clear then."
"After this mess, the village will probably freeze us out for a long while. You've got plenty of time for your research, so don't waste this break."
"Of course, speaking of which, I really ought to thank those guys from Root."
Hakushi said with a smile on his face.
He silently added in his heart, I'll send them a super special gift soon.
◎
Just like Ruri said, except for Captain Hatake Sakumo carrying on as usual, the other three members of Sakumo's squad all received notice of vacation.
Because the Anbu bungled the mission and caused unexpected issues, Hakushi and the other two were specially granted a two-month vacation to help them recover.
This was an official notice from the Hokage's office, and that was basically what it meant.
Hakushi took one look at it and didn't bother with the matter any more.
Which gave him exactly enough time to deal with his research projects.
He really had way too much to research.
Yin Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation training, Immortal Technique, Spirit Transformation Jutsu, testing whether loss of chakra equals death, Tailed Beast Chakra... and so on.
A mountain of tasks at hand; for Hakushi, two months seemed way too short.
Luckily a lot of experiments could be conducted in parallel, so nothing would be delayed.
For example, Immortal Technique experiments and testing whether losing chakra equals death could be run at the same time.
He could also practice Yin Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation techniques while mastering Spirit Transformation Jutsu as quickly as possible.
The consequence was that, except for eating and sleeping, he was basically holed up in the lab all day doing research and training.
Mastering Yin Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation wasn't difficult for Hakushi at all.
It hadn't taken him long to learn Yang Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation before, so the same-level Yin Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation was naturally no different for him.
It took him less than a week to master Yin Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation.
After mastering it, Hakushi even got Ruri to teach him a simple basic illusion technique—Naraku Observation Jutsu.
It's an illusion that lets the enemy see the most terrifying thing in their heart.
You could call this an introductory-level illusion technique.
Learning this illusion had nothing to do with fighting enemies, but was simply a warm-up for learning Spirit Transformation Jutsu later on.
Compared to Naraku Observation Jutsu, which is a basic illusion, Spirit Transformation Jutsu—touching upon the level of the soul—was exponentially more difficult to learn.
So from the start, Hakushi hadn't planned on doing it in one go. In fact, he didn't have the kind of talent to learn an S-Class Secret Ninjutsu just from seeing it once.