[True Otogakure, Level 6 Subterranean Laboratories, Shimura Sanctuary]
Otogakure was a maze in itself, yet its greenish canals held one more truth. The True Otogakure lied elsewhere, below the Kamui Marecage. Since its creation, thousands of Shimura Engineers had worked tirelessly to refine its passage, pave its roads, strengthen its foundation.
However, the most advanced and exquisite architectural buildings lied at the lowest level of Otogakure, at level 6, in what Danzo called the 'Shimura Sanctuary'.
There, only a few individuals with overly restrictive seals could access the building. No outsider of the Shimura clan could even peek or imagine what was going inside. Otogakure's residents could only, at worst, assume that the prisoners that were going inside never returned and were experimented on.
*TAC*
*TIC*
*TAC*
An arrythmic pulse, like the heartbeat of an eerie creature, produced a strange sense of calmness to the residents of Otogakure. Green and translucid gas was sent through the pipelines of oxygen, distributing chemical waste to Otogakure residents, civilians and shinobi alike breathed in this odor-less gas continuously.
In the modern world, chemical waste was often depicted as nocive to one's health. However, Eiji's latest creation consisted in a series of filters and mechanical distribution network providing benefits to the population of Otogakure as a whole. After years of service, Danzo knew Eiji's ideal, a world of Otogakure supremacy. Eiji wanted to give civilians a chance to rise as shinobi too. Although Ether's powder was a failed product in which billions of Ryo of investments led to nothing but unsatisfactory prototypes, the wastes produced by chakra supplement injection did prove to increase the chakra pool of shinobi slightly, if breathed continuously.
For civilians, it could also help them awaken chakra, even if they lacked shinobi descent.
Unfortunately, this system could only extend to the 'True Otogakure', making the four noble clans (Shimura, Hebikaze, Kaonashi and Kinzoku) stronger, the gap widening compared to the rest of the clans of Pseudo-Otogakure, on Kamui Marecages (Engetsu, Hagamoro, Yashiro, Supaida, Sori, Fuma).
Flickering green luminescence spilled from glass-walled tanks, each containing a shinobi suspended in viscous, chartreuse amniotic fluid. Their bodies float, limp and ghostly, skin bleached to translucence by years of submersion.
Tubes snake into their mouths, nostrils, and veins, extracting from their blood a cocktail of chakra stimulants, syphoning their life essence. Their eyes, though closed, dart beneath lids—trapped in a nightmare of Danzo's design. Each one of those prisonner would only last a couple of days.
The extracted purple-coloured blood would then be funneled into humming centrifuges, where it's distilled into vials of Chakra Supplement Injections or Body Refinement Elixirs, enhancers that burned through the user's lifespan in exchange for permanent gain of power.
Hundreds of white lab-coated technicians scuttled like insects, logging efficiency rates. This dystopian sight was exactly the reason why the village had progressed so much in the past five years, both in terms of innovations and of military strength.
The Chakra Supplement Injections alone had been increased in quality, the effects increasing by a staggering 132%. The Body Refinement elixirs were discovered, improved and its side effects decreased by a factor of five. Though the Ether Powder ultimately ended up a failed product, Danzo giving up on the project, it did allow Otogakure to turn waste into chakra stimulants for the entire Otogakure population living in the True Otogakure compounds.
Ibuze's fog formation surrounding Kamui's marecage [S], the array of Sound Vibration Seals [C] accross its walls and inhabitations, the green chemical waste canals [C], the pipeline of chakra supplement waste [C], the fields of Royal Rice [A], the sound detection formation given by Sunagakure, adapted from their own desert wind formation, ranked as high as S-rank...
The number of treasures held into Otogakure was staggering, yet Danzo was never satisfied. He wanted more. He needed more.
In a sealed chamber, the Takikage's crystallised blood was spinning in a diamond crucible.
The blood reacted violently to heat, morphing into a shimmering reagent that destabilized molecular bonds. Danzo watched, motionless, his lone eye reflecting the crucible's glow. His gloved hand hovers over a scroll etched with sealing arrays, ready to bind the reagent's chaos into a weapon.
Behind him, a dozen scientists were watching with awe Danzo's delicate handling of the potent product, like students learning from a teacher. Similar to puppetry art, Danzo's chakra mantle handled dozens of tools simulatenously, adjusting temperature, rotation speed, light, humidity like a computer, his brain flashing on its eleventh consecutive hour of work.
Eleven hours.
After eleven long hours, Danzo smiled, as the product he had worked tirelessly for was refined.
Eiji could not believe his eyes. The other scientists, too, were speechless.
Kage-level Chakra Supplement Injection[S]
The potency of the regent could not be evaluated as B-rank anymore. In fact, calling it A-rank would be under-evaluating its effects. Danzo could fill it. He had used hero water, and seperated the life-consuming elements to create a chakra supplement injection exceeding anything produced so far.
[A disgusting shortcut to strength...You never change, Danzo, but your madness is perhaps your greatest asset...], the four-tails groaned in Danzo's soul.
"This is a marvelous product...", Eiji exclaimed as he talked through the sound transmission seal.
Danzo merely nodded, before asking: "I have concocted three vials of the product. Two are to be consumed by my wife and I"
Eiji nodded: "Of course...Do you have someone in mind for the third?"
Danzo laughed: "How do you think humans build a legacy, Eiji?"
"A legacy?"
"Yes...something that would still exist after we are gone. Empires of the past attempted to do so, but the most marvelous dynasties fell eventually, replaced by other power structures"
Eiji frowned: "My area of expertise, Otokage-sama, lies in sciences rather than social history"
Danzo smiled: "Oh but...science without resources is meaningless. No. Building a legacy can only be done through immortality. Only with absolute power constant in time, can a legacy last, and continue to progress. We have invested five years in Otogakure, and look how much we achieved, how much we have grown. Yet, the village is overly reliant on its elites. Youths are supposed to surpass elders, yet we have been so focused on building, that we forgot to teach"
"The academy in Pseudo-Otogakure has shown tremendous results, increasing the growth rate of genins by 350% roughly!", Eiji noted
"Yet, how many kage-level powerhouse were produced? In spite of the chakra supplements. In spite of the body elixirs. In spite of the royal rice"
"There are limitations...Those who reach kage-level usually come from descent of-"
"I did not. Harumi did not. The third mizukage did not. Hiruzen did not. Surely, bloodline do count, but the Shimura is not so weak to prevent stepping into the kage realm. Yukiko is perhaps the only elder who truly understood this fact, and the closest to become one. Eiji, you are too short-sighted on science. I am too focused on Otogakure. It is time for you to take in disciples. I will do the same"
Tobirama taught Hiruzen, who taught the sannins, each teaching protagonists and so on.
Danzo had hit a wall in his growth. His stats were already at the pinnacle of what elites could reach. Few in this continent could even attempt to rival him. He could go around, searching for treasures that might not exist, or further strengthen his legacy, so that it would become able to look in his stead.
Hiramekarei, an S-rank treasure, had been easily found and stolen by his most trusted subordinates.
If he could spawn a group of kage-level students, then he would not have to worry about his sons having a great teacher. He could divide and conquer.
Currently, Otogakure was suffering from its own success, its own imbalance. It was time to change that.
Danzo continued: "Don't worry, Eiji. War will come to us soon enough. Now is not the time to relax. The third sample will be given to whoever reaches kage-level in the coming years. Will it be you, Eiji, who will reach this realm? Will it be Toru Hebikaze? Hiroto Kinzoku? Yukiko Shimura? Byakuro or Itoru? Will science prevail, or the unyielding spirit of shinobi who did not lose their ways, as you did?"
Eiji gasped, but stayed silent. Danzo had touched a soft spot. In his youth, Eiji had been a proud jonin who had completed over a thousand missions in Konohagakure. Yet, a shift occured when Danzo ascended his position as patriarch. The new thought pattern Danzo unlocked in him brought him obsessed by power, to the point that Eiji stopped training as much as he used to. He still committed to the mandatory Kenjutsu Corps training, but stopped researching ninjutsu, focusing on regents, chemistry and chakra studies.
What if...What if he could become as proficient as Danzo? Won't he be able to replicate the proficiency at handling scientific tools Danzo just displayed? Will he, too, become an innovator, an indomptable spirit of genius and progress?
A spark lightened in Eiji's heart, an obsession that had died down.
A tear fell onto his cheeks.
A flurry of emotions entered his heart.
Awe at Danzo's scientific mind.
Hope regarding the potential of becoming stronger
Greed upon looking at the condensed blood of the Takikage, a vial of kage-level chakra supplement injection that could provide years, if not decades' worth of training in a single moment.
The news spread like fire accross the high circles of Otogakure, both the subterranean world and the surface level village.
Clan leaders hoping to increase their standing in their new sanctuary hoped to prove their determination and bloodline's potential. Shimura elders aimed at showing their worth to the patriarch who elevated their clan to the summit of the shinobi world. A lover stricken with grief at an impossible love story aimed at claiming something that was not claimable. A scientist aimed at unlocking new opportunities for his laboratory...
A race had begun.