8-10 minutes 29.11.2020

Outskirts of Konohagakure

Caw caw caw caw caw caw

Accompanied by multiple cawing sounds, a murder of black crows flew from one side of the forest to the other.

The Konoha Shinobi who was responsible for the patrol duties looked at the murder of crows that soon disappeared into black dots and muttered to his companion with a doubtful expression, “Hey, Naito… don’t you think the number of crows in the nearby forest has increased several times in the past few days?”

The Konoha Shinobi named Naito thought a little, and nodded, “Now that I think about it, it seems to be true.”

Not only this patrol team, but many other people have noticed this sudden increase in the number of crows… and the Anbu even reported this issue to the Hokage, as such a sudden change is simply unreasonable and the members of the Konoha Anbu were worried that someone is trying to spy on the village using these crows.

However, Sandaime Hokage did not say anything and instructed them to consciously ignore this issue, so even if Anbu were a little worried because of Hokage-sama’s orders they did not say anything, chose to trust his judgment, and decided to consciously ignore the presence of these crows.

Of course, Sarutobi Hiruzen has not foolishly ignored this matter, and he has his own considerations for the sudden increase in the number of crows, as for what exactly that reason is. It is perhaps only known to him.

Whatever that may be, the real reason for the sudden increase in the number of crows is Hyuga Kuroto.

Three whole weeks have already passed since Itachi and Shisui’s original disappeared, and about a week ago even the Crow Clones the two of them left behind disappeared all of a sudden for seemingly no reason. Although Kuroto managed to cover up their disappearance somehow; it didn’t change the fact that he has lost all forms of contact with Shisui and Itachi.

The earlier disappearance of the original did worry Kuroto but the sudden disappearance of Crow Clones has started to make him feel a bit uneasy. But because there is no clue, so Kuroto can only spread-out thousands of ninja crows and snakes to conduct a carpet search.

Of course, he did not spread out too many snakes near Konoha, else it would definitely attract Orochimaru’s attention, which is something Kuroto doesn’t want.

Anyway, in addition to arranging crows and snakes to search for Shisui and Itachi, Kuroto has also been watching the Gokage conference in the past few days from the eyes of either of Yagura, at the same time, he is also cooperating with Orochimaru and Shimura Danzo as Fujin to improve the Chimera Jutsu.

Kuroto had to admit that his Sensei indeed has an unparalleled talent in the development of Kinjutsu, and Kuroto too because of his extraordinarily deep insight because of possessing the Tenseigan coupled with rich experience is no inferior to Hiruko in terms of knowledge of Chimera Jutsu.

So, when the two great minds of Kuroto and Orochimaru worked together for a few days with the objective of improving the Chimera Jutsu, coupled with the manpower and financial resources that the Root of Shimura Danzo displayed, many of the problems that were troubling before were solved in one fell swoop.

The speed of progress was so fast that even Kuroto was taken aback. The same degree of improvement of Chimera Jutsu which only took a little over a week would have actually taken at least six months if it were him alone, so he had to accept that this approach of using Shimura Danzo as a pawn was indeed a very good idea.

Today, Kuroto, who is controlling the Futen Clone and wearing the Fujin disguise is at one of the laboratories of Root and is currently testing the performance of one of the new colloidal materials to determine whether it is suitable for cultivating the Chimera Buds.

In terms of finding suitable materials, Danzo once again showed the depths of his pockets and the manpower he commands.

And within just two to three days, the Root that should have been disbanded by Sandaime-sama actually managed to collect more than 70 different types of new colloidal materials. Some of the colloidal materials are not only unknown to Fujin but even to Orochimaru.

Of course, whether any of the colloidal materials among these 70 different types will be suitable or not will depend purely on luck, and all Fujin can do is try the luck of the test subjects by using the process of elimination on the live subjects.

If the test subject is unlucky and the result is a failure, then the test subject will be overtaken by the Chimera Bud, writhe in agony and explode immediately into bloody gore but if the test subject is lucky and the result is not a failure, then the test subject will not be overtaken by the Chimera bud and die peacefully.

If the luck of the test subjects is good enough, and the material that Fujin picks up next is suitable, then many of the problems that have plagued him may be solved in an instant, however, if the test subject is unlucky then Fujin will have to keep spending more time and effort which will result in the agony and death of more test subjects due to exploding into bloody gore then those dying peacefully.

After excluding the ninth colloidal material due to failure, and signaling the Root ninja to clean up the bloody mess, Fujin walked out of the test room and thought to himself, ‘Before selecting the suitable material, these tests must have been carried out by Hiruko too… if Shinno had obtained that data then a lot of my workload would have been decreased… but alas…’

With a sigh of disappointment, Fujin turned to look at Orochimaru standing not far away from him.

Similar to Fujin, Orochimaru is also doing the performance test to select a new colloidal material. Fujin is always surprised by the change in Orochimaru while he is doing anything related to research. The insidious, wicked, and cunning snake completely turns into something else… his entire mind gets focused, and as a result, he becomes fully absorbed, and his attitude turns meticulous with no signs of superfluous expression.

This change in Orochimaru also reminds Fujin of his early genin days when he used to work as Orochimaru’s lab assistant in carrying out many types of research.

And now, Fujin is no longer just a lab assistant of Orochimaru, he has graduated from being a lab assistant to a qualified equal collaborator, who thinking so an unusual smile appeared on his emotional face under the mask, and he can’t help but think ‘Unexpectedly, I have come so far.’ But soon a determined look appeared on his face, and he thought, ‘But I still have a long road ahead, so I must not get ahead of myself.’

Fujin soon retracted his gaze, then his expression turned into a frowned one.

He is not exactly sure why, but for some reason, he is having a bad feeling today, it’s a gut feeling, it’s as if something is about to happen today, like an Ominous Foreboding.

Of course, Fujin did not ignore his gut feeling, because he understands very well that as long as the soul is strong enough, and the insight is high enough… it will have some miraculous effects… This is also how a few forms of future telling work. Therefore, Fujin’s gut feeling is telling him that something is about to happen, and Kuroto can only think of one thing that is big enough to even make him feel pressured, ‘Is today the day Akatsuki Organization attacks Konoha for revenge?’



Konohagakure.

Today, the streets are crowded with people and it is especially lively today, the reason is also very simple today is the day a new generation of students is enrolled in the academy.

Amidst the crowd, Hyuga Hizashi wearing regular clothing led his son, Hyuga Neji in the direction of the academy.

When Neji came to the academy, he did not misbehave, laugh or play unlike most of the other children, instead, he carefully observed and analyzed the contemporaries who were also here to be admitted to the academy.

After a while of observation, Neji’s serious face shook slightly and he sighed in disappointment.

Hizashi has been paying attention to Neji’s behavior and asked, “What happened?”

Neji replied with a somewhat regrettable expression, “Otou-sama, there doesn’t seem to be any good student who could prove to be a challenge.”

Hizashi smiled slightly and shook his head.

Hizashi is well aware that his son is a very rare genius even by the high standards of the Hyuga Clan, and even when looking at the entire Konoha village there have been very few shinobi who could match up to his talent, so Hizashi wasn’t much surprised that no one in this academic year interests Neji, after all, not everyone is a born genius.