"Lord Danzo, Kaede Tsukasa and his team have already departed for the Land of Hot Water."
"Hmph, that damned Hiruzen… he must have discovered some connection between me and Orochimaru, and deliberately sent Kaede Tsukasa to a separate battlefield," Danzo snorted coldly, his teeth clenched with rage.
There was nothing he could do; the Hokage held absolute power, and Danzo could not override the Hokage's orders openly.
"Ensure Kaede Tsukasa survives. As for how the battle in the Land of Hot Water unfolds, it's of no concern." Danzo signed a document, sealed it, and handed it to a Root ninja.
The ninja received it and immediately set off, gathering his squad to head to the northern front.
Danzo sat quietly, his increasingly aged body showing obvious decline. His stamina and energy were far from what they once were, and his chakra reserves diminished year by year, all of it weighing on him like a rope, making each breath a struggle.
His heart was filled with frustration, desperate to effect change.
"Once the war ends, I must persuade Hiruzen to begin experiments transplanting Hashirama's cells, and ideally encourage many of the Senju clan to participate!"
Only with enough samples could Danzo obtain reliable data and eventually transplant Hashirama cells into himself.
By then, combined with the Sharingan, the powers of both Senju and Uchiha would reside in him alone. Add Kaede Tsukasa sustaining his vitality, and Danzo could scarcely imagine how powerful he would become.
Human experimentation—truly a wonderful phrase.
"Iwagakure wouldn't make such a strategic move without reason. There must be a plot. Kaede Tsukasa, don't die on the battlefield, or I'll have to find another way to obtain your jutsu."
…
At the Konoha gates, the guard squad once again saw Kaede Tsukasa leading his team out, but this time, no one spoke of him.
Many renowned Konoha ninja had been dispatched recently. After retreating from the Sunagakure front and spending months recuperating, they were now being sent to the Iwagakure battlefield.
Severely injured ninja, as well as corpses, were constantly being returned to Konoha, and the guards had long since grown desensitized.
"The atmosphere feels far heavier than in previous months. Iwagakure's madness weighs on everyone's spirits."
Kaede Tsukasa keenly sensed the shift in people's hearts—from the joy after repelling Sunagakure forces, to the mixed shock and anger, and now… numbness.
This was still manageable; in a few years, when the Third Great Ninja War broke out, Konoha's ninja would witness true devastation, with the Five Great Nations and a host of smaller villages descending into chaos.
The team moved swiftly through Konoha's forests. Kaede Tsukasa glanced at Might Duy, who was leading at the front, and said nothing. Among those present, aside from Kaede Tsukasa, Might Duy's physical abilities were the most astonishing.
"We need to scout the frontlines; we can't just blindly charge into the Land of Hot Water."
Kaede Tsukasa quietly formed hand signs, drawing the attention of Iroha and Shibi, both naturally gifted with Byakugan and insect control, making them highly perceptive.
After a few seconds, Kaede Tsukasa released the signs, and nothing happened.
Iroha and Shibi exchanged confused glances.
"Kaede Tsukasa-sama, did you detect something unusual? Could there be enemy infiltrators from Kumogakure in this direction?"
As he spoke, Iroha activated his Byakugan, extending his vision far ahead, and his expression froze. Within several dozen kilometers around them, zombies occasionally appeared, moving alongside the team.
But after traveling a short distance, they would stop, only for new zombies to appear and do the same—each corpse seemingly had its own "territory."
Is this also Kaede Tsukasa-sama's jutsu? When did he summon so many zombies? Or had he already deployed them in Konoha's forest before the mission even began?
Iroha was truly astonished. Silently, Kaede Tsukasa had already taken care of so many things. If they encountered enemies, these zombies would be the first to detect and engage them, effectively creating a highly secure mobile zone for the team!
The terrifying part was that, over such a long distance, Kaede Tsukasa could precisely control so many zombies and coordinate them at such an organizational level.
"Everything seems to be part of the captain's plan,"
Shibi, the calmest of them, noticed some insects crawling across his face, clearly realizing that zombies were actively moving around the team.
Kaede Tsukasa didn't even look back. "Don't worry; this has nothing to do with Kumogakure. I just sent some servants to scout the Land of Hot Water, so that once we enter, we won't be completely unaware. We need to understand the battlefield before meeting Kato Dan."
Scout the Land of Hot Water from here? That was at least two hundred kilometers away! The team was shocked.
They weren't surprised that Kaede Tsukasa could use zombies to gather intelligence—after all, the zombies around them were already impressive.
But Kaede Tsukasa wasn't controlling the nearby zombies—he was probing the situation hundreds of kilometers away in the Land of Hot Water?
Manipulating zombies to infiltrate a location hundreds of kilometers away? That was just insane!
"Not sure what you all discovered, but it looks like I don't need to worry. I just follow orders—this feels amazing," Akimichi Fujiki said with a broad smile.
Kaede Tsukasa didn't explain the full details to his subordinates—controlling zombies to infiltrate hundreds of kilometers away wasn't impossible, but it was unnecessary. It consumed too much chakra, and he didn't want to repeatedly replenish his vitality before the battle even began.
He clearly had better tools, so there was no reason to dispatch zombies over such a distance.
About a hundred kilometers away from the squad, beyond the range of Byakugan and insect detection, beneath a giant tree…
A zombie formed hand signs and struck the ground.
Soon after, a pitcher plant sprouted.
"Really?! It's just a corpse, he never shows himself. Black Zetsu, can't you at least talk to him and make him create a shadow clone to communicate with us? Every time I see a corpse, I remember Araki from the Sand Village devouring my clones."
White Zetsu immediately complained to the zombie.
Black Zetsu replied coldly, "Haven't you eaten plenty of ninja corpses yourself? No complaints. Focus on the task. Also, as far as I know, Kaede Tsukasa-sama doesn't use Shadow Clone Jutsu, nor does he need to."
"Hey, come on! He can't? The zombies he controls can't? It shouldn't take long for the caster to learn the jutsu of the corpses!"
White Zetsu grumbled while reporting on the situation in the Land of Hot Water.
"If nothing unexpected happens, Kato Dan will be dead soon. The Four-Tails Jinchūriki triggered a magma eruption beneath the Land of Hot Water!"