"Oh? Something like that happened?"
Inside the laboratory, Orochimaru, who had just destroyed a batch of failed products, raised his brows and spoke to Rei Kaguya, who had come to inspect the experimental progress, with a somewhat surprised expression.
"Repeatedly assassinating Kirigakure jonin near the Land of Wind is not something ordinary wandering shinobi or minor shinobi villages can do… No wonder you transferred Shisui away from me. He should count as the strongest shinobi under your command, shouldn't he, Rei-kun?"
"No. The current strongest should be Kisame Hoshigaki, who obtained Samehada."
Rei Kaguya picked up Orochimaru's experimental records and checked the entries related to Byakugan cloning while answering casually.
"Both of them use the Cursed Seal of Heaven quite well, but Kisame is older than Shisui. His chakra refinement and development of his physical qualities are also more mature. On top of that, he has the great blade Samehada, which suits his combat style extremely well. Even alone, he has the ability to suppress the rampaging Three-Tails."
"By comparison, Shisui lacks a suitable ninja blade, and his Sharingan has not yet developed to the Mangekyo stage. In terms of raw strength, he is temporarily slightly weaker than Kisame."
"But you are very optimistic about his potential, aren't you?"
Orochimaru, dressed in white, revealed a somewhat eerie smile.
"Aren't you also very optimistic about Shisui's potential, Orochimaru?"
Rei Kaguya waved the research records in his hand and spoke with a speechless expression.
"If I didn't transfer him away from your side, the progress of cloning the Sharingan would soon surpass the progress of cloning the Byakugan. Did you think I really wouldn't get angry because you used my research funds to conduct the experiments you wanted to do, Orochimaru?"
"There is no helping it, Rei-kun."
Orochimaru spread his hands, wearing an innocent expression as if this had nothing to do with him.
"Compared to Hashirama's cells, which are full of vitality and can accept any foreign cells as long as they are provided with chakra and nutritional supply, then grow together with them, your cells are simply too aggressive. Their activity must be weakened to the lowest possible level, or they will immediately kill any foreign cells. But after their activity is lowered, they become very difficult to grow…"
"If you do not mind first using a pair of Byakugan cultivated with Hashirama Senju's cells as the medium, then I can probably cultivate a pair of passable purity within a month. But the kind of perfectly compatible Byakugan you want, cultivated from your own cells, will likely require another year or two of technical breakthroughs before there is a chance."
"…Then cultivate one pair of Byakugan first and see how good they are."
Rei Kaguya also knew that using his current cells to cultivate Byakugan perfectly compatible with himself was a very difficult matter, so he did not make overly harsh demands of Orochimaru on that point.
Seeing that Rei Kaguya's attitude was not bad, Orochimaru also withdrew the relaxed expression on his face and asked very seriously, "But speaking of that… Rei-kun, are you truly comfortable letting Shisui Uchiha carry out this mission alone, one that may become even more troublesome than an S-rank mission? Or should I say, did the other shinobi of Kirigakure not protest against this?"
"They did. I denied them."
Rei Kaguya shrugged and narrowed his eyes.
"Shisui needs to complete a mission sufficiently closely connected to Kirigakure, and with enough weight behind it, before he can sit firmly in the position of the new Seven Ninja Swordsmen that I have given him and be thoroughly accepted by the village's other shinobi. This assassination incident, which seems like a provocation toward Kirigakure, is an excellent opportunity for him to prove himself."
"And it is not as if I have provided him with no reinforcements at all. It is just that those reinforcements are not within Kirigakure."
"Reinforcements not within Kirigakure?"
Orochimaru thought for a moment, then revealed a somewhat surprised expression.
"You mean… the people from that Akatsuki organization in the Land of Rain?"
"Akatsuki is a peace organization that takes maintaining peace in the shinobi world as its responsibility, and will even take the initiative to stop signs of war when necessary…"
Rei Kaguya casually tossed a test tube on the table and spoke meaningfully.
"Now that someone is assassinating Kirigakure jonin in and around the Land of Wind, trying to provoke a war between the Land of Wind and the Land of Water, how could they not act against such audacious behavior?"
"I did not provide them with start-up funds and technical assistance for nothing."
…
"So, that is how it is."
Inside the tallest building in Amegakure, Nagato spread his hands helplessly toward Yahiko, who was processing documents.
"Rei Kaguya just sent me all the relevant intelligence about someone assassinating Kirigakure jonin in the Land of Wind. He expressed his hope that I could cooperate with the member of the new Seven Ninja Swordsmen he sent out and find this group of unidentified shinobi secretly stirring up trouble…"
"Sigh. He really is quite good at causing trouble for others."
Compared to two years ago, Yahiko had lost much of his immaturity and gained a more mature bearing.
He raised his head from the piled documents in front of him and sighed miserably.
"After forcing Konan to take a vacation, all her work was already transferred over to me. If you also go outside to carry out justice, Nagato, won't I have to do the work of three people by myself?"
"There is no helping it. Who told us that Akatsuki is an organization with maintaining world peace as its core purpose?"
Nagato sympathetically pulled away a stack of urgently pending documents from Yahiko's desk and sighed.
"When someone is trying to drag the shinobi world back into an era of war and profit from it, bringing the pain of war to those reckless lunatics and letting them know that the peace of the shinobi world absolutely does not allow anyone to destroy it—that is originally the foundation and core of Akatsuki's existence."
"That's why I'm only complaining a little about my workload increasing again. I'm not telling you not to move out, Nagato."
Yahiko smiled bitterly and stretched.
Halfway through, he seemed to suddenly remember something and subconsciously reached out to search through the pile of documents on the desk.
But that movement caused his body, exhausted from sitting too long, to suddenly react as if it had reached its limit.
After a cry of pain, he fell to the ground together with his chair. His entire body twitched irregularly because his back had cramped.
"Yahiko!? Are you all right!?"
Nagato quickly pulled his fallen friend up and asked with concern.
Yahiko waved his hand with a twisted expression.
While sucking in cold air, he tremblingly pointed at an intelligence scroll hidden in the pile of documents on the desk, signaling for Nagato to open it and read through it.
Nagato did not understand why, but he followed Yahiko's instructions and opened the intelligence scroll, quickly browsing the words recorded on it.
As he read, his brows gradually furrowed, and his expression gained traces of thought and gravity.
What was recorded on the intelligence scroll was information about a Konoha jonin squad being killed near the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind.
It also mentioned that in a valley inside the Land of Rain, several corpses of Konoha shinobi had been discovered after being killed and moved there.
"It isn't only Kirigakure shinobi who have been attacked near the Land of Wind. Even shinobi from the Land of Fire were not spared?"
"Hiss… Right. And those Konoha shinobi also died recently. When I saw this earlier, I was still thinking about whether we should contact Konoha and see what their reaction was…"
Yahiko, who had recovered slightly, struggled to stretch his cramping body while speaking breathlessly to Nagato.
"But since Kirigakure has already sent an elite on the level of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen to handle this assassination incident, that means they do not think this is a minor matter… Perhaps this incident will involve a fairly troublesome enemy behind the scenes. You must act carefully, Nagato."
"Don't worry."
Nagato gave Yahiko a thumbs-up. His words carried powerful and reassuring confidence.
"The power of the Rinnegan has already fully become mine. Aside from Rei Kaguya, I will not lose to anyone again."
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