For the next two days, Kuroto continued trying to contact Shisui and Itachi, but he, as well as the Crow Clones of both Shisui and Itachi, found no news.

“Even the Summons are unable to deliver the message… what kind of trial are those two undergoing? Or is it possible that those two really had an accident?” muttered Kuroto with a slightly worried look.

Although Kuroto believes in the strength of Shisui and Itachi and knows that the two of them would remain safe… it has already been more than a week, yet there is no sign of those two, so he can’t help but be worried a little.

But no matter how much worried Kuroto is, the two Crow Clones of Itachi and Shisui are still present in Konoha, which means that those two are not dead, so all he can do is have faith in them, and continue with the matters on his end.

With this thought, Kuroto created a Shadow Clone, gave him the Gourd of Toyotama/Ryuumyaku, then transferred his soul into the Futen Clone, wore his Fujin disguise, and made his way toward Shimura Danzo’s secret base of operation.

Because of his last visit, the Root Kunoichi with whom Fujin had a small scuffle previously recognized him quickly, of course, this time she did not attack him directly… instead she greeted Fujin politely and led him to the Root Base.

Soon, Fujin met up with Shimura Danzo at his new base of operation, who was waiting for Fujin, which wasn’t surprising considering Fujin’s arrival was already known to Shimura Danzo. However, this time too, there was an additional person with Danzo, and much to Fujin’s surprise, it was none other than Orochimaru against whom Fujin had fought before.

As soon as Fujin Danzo noticed Fujin’s arrival, he signaled the Root Kunoichi to leave, then spoke to Fujin, “Orochimaru here was specially invited by me to help me complete the Kekkei Genkai Absorption Ritual.”

Although, Shimura Danzo appreciates Amatsukami, and more specifically Fujin, however, Danzo does not trust Amatsukami, at the same time he does not trust Orochimaru either, so he hopes that Orochimaru and Fujin of the Amatsukami will restrain each other and be used by him at the same time.

Following Danzo’s words, Orochimaru nodded lightly, “A pleasure to be able to work with Fujin of Amatsukami.”

Orochimaru’s expression may be at ease, but his heart was thumping violently and his mind wasn’t at ease either. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that as soon as he saw Fujin, Orochimaru was extremely vigilant and ready to run away at a moment’s notice should the situation escalate, but he didn’t mention anything about the battle he had with Fujin a few days ago.

The sideliners will feel as if Orochimaru had never ever fought against Fujin, and is on friendly terms with Fujin… But Shimura Danzo didn’t think so, he clearly knew about the fact that Yuhi Kurenai, an Anbu of the elite Team-Ro was kidnapped by Orochimaru a few days ago, and when Orochimaru was taking her somewhere, the two ‘coincidentally’ encountered Fujin. Orochimaru and Fujin ended up having a fight which gave Yuhi Kurenai the opportunity to escape from Orochimaru’s hands.

When Danzo showed Orochimaru the report Yuhi Kurenai submitted to the Hokage, Orochimaru just smiled a little but did not specifically say that it was incorrect, which means that it was more than likely to be correct.

Although, Danzo doesn’t know what Orochimaru wanted to use Yuhi Kurenai for, he, however, believes that it must be quite important… but because of Fujin’s interruption, Orochimaru was unable to use Yuhi Kurenai to fulfill whatever purpose he had, therefore, there must be deep hostility between Orochimaru and Fujin.

This hostility also gives between the two also gives Shimura Danzo the confidence to be able to make use of both Orochimaru and Fujin, which the two of them restrain each other.

Of course, Yuhi Kurenai’s uncertain relationship with Fujin must also be confirmed, so Shimura Danzo has already assigned Uchiha Itachi a mission to keep a watch over Yuhi Kurenai too in addition to Hyuga Kuroto as he always does.

After all, Uchiha Itachi is his double agent in the Anbu and the Uchiha Clan, Danzo has specifically observed the child since his academy days and understands the child’s precociousness and mature thinking, therefore, he has been indirectly training Uchiha Itachi for years to be a perfect nail buried within the Uchiha Clan, and personally recommended Uchiha Itachi to be recruited into the Anbu.

And that’s not all, Shimura Danzo has also dispatched his subordinates to investigate the area marked in the map submitted by Yuhi Kurenai, the purpose is to find and analyze the true extent of Fujin and Orochimaru’s strength…

‘As they say, today’s friend could be tomorrow’s enemy.’ So, Shimura Danzo would obviously be cautious against the likes of Fujin and Orochimaru.

Futen was obviously unaware of Shimura Danzo’s thoughts, he just nodded towards Orochimaru in a casual tone, “A pleasure indeed Orochimaru… this one sincerely hopes that when working together we can make great progress.” similar to Orochimaru he too didn’t mention anything about the battle a few days ago.

Of course, internally, Fujin had other thoughts, ‘Tch, I didn’t expect that Orochimaru would also appear here… does he have the same idea as me? Using Shimura Danzo as a pawn to further study the Chimera Jutsu? But why does Orochimaru has a sudden interest in the Chimera Jutsu?’

He didn’t really think that it is because Orochimaru mistook that Fujin has also used the Chimera Jutsu to acquire multiple Kekkei Genkai just like Hiruko, and seeing the unbelievable strength of Hiruko and Fujin, Orochimaru re-evaluated the Chimera Jutsu and decided to research it in more depth to better understand it and its true potential…

And since he didn’t think so, therefore, Fujin could only wonder in confusion and attribute it to the ‘Butterfly Effect.’

“With greetings out of the way, let’s proceed to the main laboratory… follow me, you two.” Said Danzo and led the two to the laboratory of his base.

The underground laboratory is extremely large, fully equipped, and highly advanced. There are many types of new types of equipment that Fujin hasn’t even seen before in his life so when saw the scene before him he was literally baffled.

If Danzo and Orochimaru had any means to look past Fujin’s mask, they would have noticed his eyes shining and saliva overflowing from his mouth, in greed but unfortunately, they couldn’t, so Fujin could still maintain his dignity.

‘Calm down yourself, and for now, focus on the objective at hand, after Shimura Danzo is dealt with… everything in here will be yours.’ Thinking so, Fujin controlled his greed and calmly followed Shimura Danzo.

After walking for a while, the three reached the cell culture site and looking at a petri dish in front of him, Danzo said, “My subordinates have analyzed the characteristics and features of the Chimera Buds, and the result surprised me, controlling the Chimera Buds is really much more difficult than I had expected previously.”

‘Obviously! Otherwise, why do you think I am here using you as a pawn?’ thought Fujin internally, but externally, he nodded with a calm tone, “Yes, this one warned Shimura-san at the beginning.” After a pause, Fujin took out a scroll from the inner part of his Fujin cloak, passed it to Shimura Danzo, and said, “Our organization seized this scroll from Shinno before killing him, it records the data of the Chimera Buds used by Hiruko along with many other details… this one think that it will prove to be helpful for Shimura-san.”

Danzo nodded, took the scroll from Fujin’s hands, read it once, then immediately handed it to Orochimaru who was standing on the side.

Orochimaru wasn’t surprised when Danzo handed him the scroll, and in fact, he had expected Danzo to give the scroll to him, after all, science is not the field that Shimura Danzo specializes in… so obviously, Danzo can’t understand what such complicated data entails.

Orochimaru looked at the scroll with an extremely serious expression, and after analyzing and postulating for a while, he said in a hoarse tone, “These reading and analysis will be very useful for the experimentation.”

Fujin nodded towards Orochimaru, then turned towards Shimura Danzo and asked, “Shimura-san, tell this about your plan to restrain the Chimera Buds.”

Fujin wasn’t too worried about the ‘Ritual’ because Hiruko has already completed it once. So, as long as the accurate steps are followed, the probability of success is very high… Fujin cares more about the development and restriction methods of the Chimera Buds, and the most important part is how to effectively control the Chimera Buds to make sure that Chimera Buds don’t take control… This is the key factor of his cooperation with Shimura Danzo.

Tap Tap

Danzo lightly struck his crutch to the ground, following which, one of the researchers in a white coat came towards the three. He pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said, “We plan to use Fuinjutsu. After engraving seals on the Chimera Buds before implanting them, we plan to control the Chimera Buds using those seals during the ritual.”

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‘Using Fuinjutsu, huh?’ thought Fujin to himself.

Using Fuinjutsu was also the first method Fujin thought of back when he was studying the Chimera Buds. However, the nature of Chimera Buds is quite special… it has no fixed shape or form as it continues to change. Most of the Fuinjutsu Fujin knew and used didn’t match the basic requirements while the ones that did match the basic requirement weren’t effective enough in restraining the Chimera Buds.

In Fujin’s understanding, this is because the shape and form of the Chimera Buds keep changing and distorting so the seal will instantly collapse.

And pondering for a while, Fujin decided not to conceal this problem and expressed it clearly.

Further improvement and development of the Chimera Buds is the real key to achieving Kekkei Mora, therefore, even if Fujin regards Shimura Danzo as a ‘good pawn’ he still intends to completely devote himself to the research and development of the Chimera Buds, therefore, Fujin is not leaving behind any information that would prove to be effective in further improvement of the Chimera Buds.

After listening to Fujin’s reasoning, Orochimaru thought a little and suggested, “If I am not incorrect, Uzumaki Clan did have a few Fuinjutsu that can continuously alter the shape of the seal as per the command of the user, such as the Adamantine Sealing Chains, perhaps we can try using it.”

Undoubtedly, Orochimaru has the same intentions as Fujin, therefore, he too did not hide any information that can improve the stability and controllability of the Chimera Buds.

……………………………………………………….

Translator’s Note: To better understand Chimera Buds, think of them as something similar to Venom from Spiderman comics, they can slowly affect the subconscious of the user and then steadily take over.