---
Weeks bled into one another.
By day, Kirito's shadow clones handled the village's worthless errands—painting, cleaning, carrying groceries—earning him the steady record of a diligent genin.
By night, the real Kirito disappeared into the forest, searching.
He had no interest in building a laboratory from scratch; such equipment required decades of resources, knowledge, and funds. What he needed was something already standing. Something abandoned, hidden, yet intact.
For weeks, his feet carried him through the Forest of Death, down into old caverns, beneath rotting roots and overgrown ruins. His chakra sense was his compass, probing the earth for distortions, the faint whisper of seals long dormant.
And then, one night, he found it.
A narrow cliffside, half swallowed by vines. To the untrained eye, nothing but rock and moss. But as his palm pressed against it, he felt the faint tingle of chakra woven into stone. A sealing barrier—old, but functional.
Kirito smirked. This is it.
Hands moved quickly through seals.
"Earth Style: Subterranean Passage."
The ground swallowed him whole, carrying him beneath the barrier and into a chamber of silence.
---
The air was thick with dust. Cobwebs clung to broken lamps. Rusted surgical tools lay scattered across iron tables. Jars lined the walls, cloudy with age, some still holding preserved organs and the withered remains of small animals.
The lab was abandoned, yes—but it was real.
Kirito stepped forward slowly, fingers tracing the edge of a scalpel, his eyes scanning the shelves stacked with medical tomes eaten at the corners by time. The place stank of forgotten ambition, a dream left to rot.
With a breath, he pressed his palms together.
"Wind Style: Gale Burst."
The air howled through the chamber, blasting away dust without shattering a single tool. Cobwebs tore free, light filtered through, and for the first time in years, the laboratory breathed again.
Kirito stood in the cleared room, the corners of his mouth curving slightly. Perfect.
---
The next day, clones filled the lab.
Ten shadow doubles, each assigned with tasks:
Two to study preserved tissue and organ degradation.
Two to begin examining chakra pathways in captured test animals.
Two to research cellular mutations, bloodline traits, and DNA.
Two to document results and cross-reference with stolen notes.
Two to secure and catalog every piece of equipment.
While they worked tirelessly, the original Kirito continued his public cover. Accepting a D-rank mission daily, handing in reports, maintaining his image. No one questioned him—why would they? He was just another genin.
But in the hidden lab, something else was being born.
A future where knowledge was his weapon, and power was dissected, studied, and rebuilt.
---
One problem lingered in his mind, though.
The Hyūga clan. Their cursed eyes could see through flesh, trace chakra flow, and worse—they might glimpse the unnatural core pulsing inside him.
The solution lay in fuinjutsu, advanced sealing arts he barely scratched the surface of. He knew where such knowledge must exist—the Hokage's private scroll vault, or perhaps hidden remnants of the Uzumaki legacy. But those paths were closed to him, guarded by men like Hiruzen and Danzo.
For now, the thought would remain unfinished.
Kirito clenched his fists, watching his clones scribble results across parchment.
"Step by step," he murmured. "The Leaf won't even realize what's growing beneath their feet."
And with that, his secret life as a scientist of shadows began.
---patreon.com/Shadow079