What a peaceful life.
After withdrawing from the frontlines of active missions and entering the Ninja School, Hakushi felt as if he had adopted the kind of retirement only elderly people enjoyed.
Other than reporting to work at the Ninja School promptly at three in the afternoon each day, the rest of his time was entirely at his own disposal.
Even though he sometimes worked at the hospital, every shift was short—one could say that Hakushi's current life was one that many Konoha Ninja envied but couldn't attain.
Research, walks, work, going NB home on time for rest.
Sometimes he'd go shopping with Ruri, but his chances of running into Ayane were few and far between.
After the three of them left Sakumo's squad, they each had their own obligations to fulfill.
Ruri needed to work in the Security Team, responsible for the village's security issues and resolving civilian disputes within the village.
As for Ayane, she'd already become a Jonin, and since being handpicked early on by the elders among the Hyuga high council for her potential, she now held an important position within the Hyuga Clan.
After all, serving Sop as the future Hyuga Clan Leader's guard wasn't something just any Hyuga Ninja from the Branch Family could do.
This showed that Ayane's current position in the Hyuga Clan was far above that of ordinary Branch Family Ninja.
Even among the Branch Families, there were severe hierarchy gaps.
Because of this situation, ever since leaving Sakumo's squad, Hakushi had only run into Ayane in public once, and their conversation didn't last more than five minutes.
In secret, of course, they kept in touch and exchanged intelligence covertly.
But... what Hakushi was most concerned about right now was undoubtedly the recent string of secret measures implemented by Konoha's upper echelon—
Wood Style research experiments!
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"Just what are those people at Utah at turn mab Konoha's upper levels plotting in secret?"
This was the thing that was giving Hakushi the biggest headache.
On the surface, Hakushi showed no anxiety, keeping the usual pace of life as a proper Konoha Ninja, but privately, he was extremely wary of the upper echelon's Wood Style research experiments.
Never having underestimated these high-ranking officials, Hakushi, in his mind, elevated their threat to a whole new level.
Hakushi hadn't witnessed the true power of Wood Style firsthand, but he had seen the terrifying force released during a Tailed Beast rampage.
And that was just the power released by the One-tailed; whether it was in its Complete Form or not was debatable, and among the Tailed Beasts, the strongest was the Nine-tailed.
It was once suppressed by the First Hokage's Wood Style—evidence enough of Wood Style's extraordinary prowess.
The sphere of chakra the One-tailed unleashed at that time, and the horrifying destructive power of its explosion, truly left Hakushi shocked.
It even made him doubt the Ninja profession for a moment.
The Wood Style that could suppress the strongest Tailed Beast shouldn't be underestimated, even if it didn't match the First Hokage's standard.
According to what Insect Man and the others said, that peculiar white creature possessed an extremely strong stealth ability, and without the ability to sense Natural Energy, it would be very hard to detect the traces of such strange beings.
If Konoha's high command really used Wood Style to develop such a special stealth unit, their intentions were obvious: not only for intelligence gathering on enemy ninja, but also for internal surveillance within the village. Their observation capability would be several levels above Anbu, leaving people defenseless.
Hakushi was not especially worried about his own research being discovered here; this kind of bizarre creature's stealth could be detected via Natural Energy sensing.
As long as you took the right countermeasures against known threats, nothing was truly terrifying.
The real problem was the unknown.
How many more of these stealth creatures did Konoha's upper ranks hold in their hands?
Where had they deployed these creatures?
What unseen plots were they scheming?
Had the Uchiha Clan already been infiltrated by them?
Everything was an unknown.
Hakushi's absolute confidence in his own safety was built on the foundation of Konoha's top brass having severely misjudged his intelligence—no matter what, he maintained the upper hand, and that was the key to victory.
But with unknowns, Konoha's higher-ups now also held this kind of trump card.
If unknown faces unknown, and conflict erupts suddenly, things would get really messy.
"What a headache..."
If he could break the deadlock, or at least discover what Konoha's high-ups were plotting, he wouldn't have to be at such a disadvantage.
To win back the initiative, he had to come up with a foolproof strategy.
Confronting such a massive military institution as a Ninja Village head-on meant absolutely zero chance of victory.
Just as Hakushi was distressed by all this, Ruri was already heading down the stairway into the underground laboratory.
"When did you get back?"
"Just now."
"Is it that late already?"
Hakushi hadn't noticed the passage of time at all.
Ruri's shift with the Security Team started at nine in the morning and finished at seven in the evening.
She had two days off each week, which she could use freely, to do whatever she liked.
"You weren't sitting here the whole time worrying about what the higher-ups are plotting, were you?"
"Yeah. It's connected to Wood Style, and there might even be something akin to Tailed Beast elements in the research. That's not something you can ignore... Wait, how come you don't seem worried at all?"
Only then did Hakushi notice that Ruri's face showed no sign of concern, making him slightly surprised.
He knew that some of the top officials had terrible relations with the Uchiha, especially the extremist Root Leader, Shimura Danzo.
If not for the Third Hokage balancing things out, Root would not have been this quiet and dormant these recent years.
"Why should I worry about this? As long as I have the strength to crush all conspiracies, it's a total waste of time and energy to come up with countermeasures. All that time and energy would be better spent on making myself stronger."