Soon, the 60 seconds were up, and Coulson had gathered the information he needed.
To his surprise, one of the legendary Sannin, Orochimaru, had become an S-rank rogue ninja of Konoha.
The reason for his defection was that he had been discovered conducting human experiments and other forbidden techniques.
This revelation left Coulson momentarily stunned.
He couldn't help but notice a troubling pattern: Konoha seemed to have a fondness for producing rogue ninjas.
First, there was Uchiha Itachi, who had defected and attacked S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside Hidan, and now Orochimaru had followed suit.
If not for the intel from Sand Village suggesting that Orochimaru might have secretly supported the establishment of the Sound Village, Coulson might have suspected Charles of orchestrating a charade.
Every time S.H.I.E.L.D. was attacked by ninjas, a Konoha rogue ninja conveniently showed up to rescue the attackers.
It was hard to believe these events were mere coincidences. Besides, was human experimentation really such a severe offense?
However, with Konoha issuing a bounty and planning to send out a pursuit team, Coulson couldn't voice his suspicions openly.
He also learned that after Kabuto Yakushi betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D., he had once again betrayed Konoha and joined forces with Orochimaru.
Coulson was puzzled by the path Kabuto, his former partner, had chosen.
…
As Coulson left the Sand Village Puppet Shop with the information he sought, Charles received a visitor—Tony Stark.
Tony stepped out of his armor, leaving it outside.
"Hey, I heard there was some big action today."
Charles poured Tony a glass of bourbon and replied, "I heard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Triskelion headquarters was destroyed."
Tony took a sip of the bourbon, nodding as he spoke. "Yeah, S.H.I.E.L.D. took a heavy hit."
"Over three hundred elite agents stationed at the headquarters were killed, and the financial losses are in the billions."
"But I also heard that Orochimaru and Kabuto rescued the Sound Village ninjas. You weren't involved in that, were you?"
Charles paused for a few seconds before slowly responding, "Orochimaru has defected from Konoha, taking Kabuto with him."
"Orochimaru has been declared an S-rank rogue ninja by Konoha, and it turns out that the Sound Village was secretly established by him."
Tony was surprised.
"You don't think he's joined the Akatsuki, do you?"
Charles shook his head.
"I don't know."
"But since Orochimaru was only recently labeled an S-rank rogue ninja, it's unlikely he's joined Akatsuki yet."
"And he has his own organization—the Sound Village."
"But I heard S.H.I.E.L.D. bombed it early on, using Tomahawk missiles in the city. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s authority seems to be greater than I imagined."
Now it was Tony's turn to fall silent. He finished his bourbon in one gulp, placed the glass down, and said, "I'll keep an eye on them."
"I've got a new idea. If I can make it work, it'll prevent a lot of issues."
Hearing about Tony's new idea, though he didn't elaborate, Charles knew it must be related to the Ultron program.
However, without the Mind Stone, Vision wouldn't be created. So who would handle the information lock that Vision was supposed to manage?
"Good luck," Charles said.
In this universe, Charles couldn't be sure whether they would face a malevolent Ultron army or a benevolent robotic force dedicated to protecting humanity. In the multiverse, anything was possible.
"Thanks, I'll make it work," Tony replied with determination. After speaking, Tony stood up and, without lingering, left Charles's base, flying off in his Mark armor.
During his flight, Tony forwarded all the intelligence he had gathered to Nick Fury, warning him that he wouldn't be cleaning up their messes—he wasn't one of Fury's subordinates.
Charles watched Tony leave, smiling as he shook his head.
He hadn't exactly lied; he simply informed Tony of Orochimaru's current status without revealing whether Orochimaru was acting under his orders.
Nick Fury, who had received intel from both Tony and Coulson, looked at the information, unsure whether to feel relieved or more anxious.
The Sound Village was revealed to be Orochimaru's creation, and now Orochimaru had severed ties with Konoha.
On the plus side, Konoha wasn't involved in this situation, but on the downside, they had now antagonized the S-rank rogue ninja, Orochimaru.
With Orochimaru's base destroyed, the Sound Village had gone underground, making it much more difficult to deal with him.
It seemed that the Sound Village issue would have to be set aside for the time being. Nick could only hope that Coulson might somehow establish contact with Kabuto Yakushi to gather more information.
…
Three days later-
Charles, using the Transformation Jutsu to appear as Ao, accompanied Mei Terumi to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
Hill greeted Mei Terumi and Ao upon their arrival, saying, "Thank you both for your assistance last time. It saved the lives of our remaining personnel."
Mei Terumi smiled and replied, "No need to mention it. After all, we accepted the mission."
"Of course, if you're willing to throw in a couple more 084 items as a token of appreciation, I wouldn't mind."
Hill smiled slightly but didn't respond to Mei Terumi's suggestion. Instead, she said, "Follow me, please."
"I'll take you to select the 084 items."
Hill led Mei Terumi and Charles (disguised as Ao) to a warehouse, which was heavily guarded.
After passing through multiple checks and security doors, they finally entered the warehouse.
Inside, rows of crates with combination locks were neatly arranged, each labeled with the number 084.
Hill spoke, "As agreed, you can choose ten 084 items."
"The passcode for each crate is XX-XXXX-XX, and you can open the crates to make your selections."
Looking at the neatly arranged crates, Mei Terumi asked, "Are these all the 084 items S.H.I.E.L.D. has?"
Hill shook her head. "Many of the more dangerous and unstable 084 items have already been destroyed."
Mei Terumi sighed, "That's a bit of a shame."
She then turned to Charles and said, "Ao, go ahead and select ten items to take with us."
Charles nodded, "Yes, Mizukage-sama."
Charles stepped forward and entered the code to open the nearest crate. However, upon opening it, he didn't receive any notification from his system.
Inside was an alien weapon from the Battle of New York, stored here for safekeeping.
Charles shook his head and closed the crate. "Agent Hill, if these are just alien weapons from the Battle of New York, there's no need to continue selecting."
Hill clarified, "The thirty crates to your left contain weapons left behind by aliens from the Battle of New York. The other crates contain different items."
Charles avoided the thirty crates and began looking through the others. Using his system's prompts, he selected a total of ten items, carefully packing them into a storage scroll.