"..."
That's typical power-centric thinking.
Thinking about it this way, Hakushi felt like he'd worried about Ruri for nothing.
"You're way too obsessed with so-called truth. You've always been like this—when it comes to truth, you have to get to the bottom of it."
"Seeking the truth is my job."
Hakushi replied.
"That's just your lack of a sense of security, honestly."
Ruri had a 'don't try to fool me' kind of look; her eyes almost seemed to see through the very essence of everything.
"Since you understand that, why say it out loud? That really hurts, you know."
Hakushi forced a helpless smile.
Just as he understood everything about Ruri, she also understood everything about him.
Tricks like that were impossible to hide from each other.
"Because I rarely see you troubled like this. It's pretty amusing."
Ruri said with a smile.
"You… You're not Ayane using Transformation Jutsu, are you?"
Hakushi hesitated for a moment, then asked this rather rude question.
Sure enough, as soon as Ruri heard Hakushi's words, her pitch-black pupils locked onto him, gave no reply, and the cold, tense air around them began to slowly shift.
Looks like she's the real deal.
Ayane never had such an intense, intimidating aura.
"How's the progress on the Immortal Technique?"
Ruri asked the question she cared about most.
"The latest experiment—success rate for synthesizing Sage Art Chakra has stabilized above eighty percent. If you give me another half a year to a year, it'll be ready for full use."
Hakushi gave a rather cautious estimate.
Ruri nodded. Six months to a year—she could definitely wait that long.
Anyway, she's got heaps of free time now. As one of the sub-captains in the Security Team, most of the time she could hand her work off to subordinates; only when something difficult came up would she step in to solve it personally.
After Ruri left, Hakushi fell into deep thought.
Indeed, just as Ruri said, rather than sitting here guessing what Konoha's leadership is plotting, boosting his own strength is always the smart move.
"But no matter how much I improve in combat, I can never surpass Ruri. Her growth rate is freakishly fast. My 'strength' doesn't show up in battle…"
If he gave up all training time, and devoted every spare moment—besides work and rest—to research, that was the only solution Hakushi could come up with.
Not only Ruri—even Ayane's power was growing just as fast, if not faster than his.
His talent for training wasn't bad, and compared to Ruri and Ayane, the gap was really negligible.
But the two of them had bloodline abilities—the Sharingan and Byakugan—top-tier Kekkeigenkai in the Ninja Realm.
That was an advantage Hakushi didn't have.
And the power of Kekkeigenkai only became more terrifying as their owners kept unlocking its potential.
Not to mention, both of them were natural geniuses.
He'd given up training time, putting everything he had into research—this was another path to increase 'strength'.
Creating 'weapons' was his job; wielding those 'weapons' in battle belonged to Ruri and Ayane.
Hakushi suddenly felt as if the fog had lifted, revealing the truth.
No one in this world is perfect.
That's why people need others to make up for their shortcomings, moving forward together.
Compared to fighting, he was more skilled at research, with knowledge and ideas beyond the ninja era; that was what made him stronger than Ruri or Ayane.
So, right now, there was no need to be obsessive about improving in combat—it wasn't the path he should follow.
Thinking this way, Konoha's leadership and their secret plotting didn't seem all that important anymore.
What mattered was self-improvement.
◎
The weather in May was already pretty warm.
A creature called 'White Zetsu' had quietly infiltrated Konoha.
Compared to other villages, Konoha was the hardest to slip into out of all the Ninja Villages.
The sensory barrier surrounding the whole village, and the Byakugan that could see through objects, forced White Zetsu to be extremely careful in everything he did.
A total of three had slipped inside, while two more White Zetsu remained outside Konoha Village to keep watch.
The three White Zetsu infiltrating the village's interior had clear objectives—to investigate what happened to the missing White Zetsu from before (and whether it had anything to do with Konoha's higher-ups) and to gather intelligence in the Uchiha Clan Land, looking for their so-called 'representative.'
As for what kind of personality or talent this 'representative' needed—White Zetsu didn't know for sure; all decisions would be made by 'Lord Madara.'
But the 'representative's' age definitely couldn't be too old; ideally somewhere between a few years and their teens—easier to control that way.
So, most of the Uchiha Clan members under close watch were young ninja in their teens, or children who studied at the Ninja School.
One person handled the high-level investigation; one covered Ninja School; one infiltrated the Uchiha Clan Land. White Zetsu's division of labor inside Konoha was extremely precise.
Intelligence gathering was second nature—the hardest Ninja Village to infiltrate was still workable; give them enough time, and the information channels would be up and running.
The White Zetsu assigned to the Uchiha Clan Land moved through the underground, brazen as ever.
Like a ghost that didn't really exist, not a single soul had noticed his actions so far.
Even the Uchiha Clan itself couldn't find any trace of him.
This White Zetsu felt smug.
Though weak in combat—that was a common flaw for most White Zetsu—their stealth was exceptional. Only a handful of special Perception Ninja could sense their presence.