"I'm back. Here's Hattori Ichirō's head."
In the dim, oppressive depths of Root headquarters, Shimura Danzō wore the same cold, emotionless expression as always. When Feiyu handed over the severed head, Danzō merely nodded slightly.
Behind him, a Yamanaka clan shinobi stepped forward respectfully, took hold of the head, and began performing a mental extraction technique—digging through the remnants of Hattori's brain for information.
Fortunately, shinobi chakra slowed decay considerably, and Feiyu had treated the head before transport. The brain tissue hadn't yet turned to mush, leaving plenty of secrets to be mined.
A moment later, the Yamanaka raised his head and gave Danzō a confirming nod.
Danzō's expression loosened slightly as he spoke:
"Well done. Root still has many pending missions. As long as you're willing to take them, you won't lack for jutsu or payment."
As he spoke, Danzō produced a scroll and handed it to Feiyu.
Feiyu opened it—and the corner of his mouth twitched.
At the top of the list:
Assassinate the Third Raikage
Assassinate the Third Tsuchikage
Assassinate the Fourth Mizukage
Assassinate the Jinchūriki of the hostile villages
Right alongside missions like:
Steal Dust Release
Steal Lightning Release Chakra Mode
Steal Magnet Release
Steal Ice Release
Tasks that were no easier than killing a Kage.
Skipping past the utterly unrealistic ones, the rest consisted of bounties on nearly every famous jōnin in the other Hidden Villages, along with:
hunting traitors,
stealing intelligence,
assassinating minor village leaders,
seizing clan secret techniques
Some of the targets… were Konoha shinobi.
Feiyu wasn't even surprised. If Danzō didn't target Konoha shinobi, that would've been shocking. Root might not be incompetent externally, but when it came to internal conflict, they were absolute professionals.
Still, Danzō's brazenness exceeded Feiyu's expectations. He had openly written the names of Leaf shinobi on a mission list and handed it to him without concern for being reported.
"Hey hey hey, Danzō-sama, are you sure I'm supposed to be seeing these?"
"Just some hidden threats to the village. Clearing away dead branches and rotting roots benefits Konoha's growth."
Danzō spoke as casually as if discussing gardening.
Feiyu silently rolled his eyes.
Pretty sure you are the rotten root that needs removing for the village's health…
Of course, whether Konoha exploded or burned down was irrelevant to Feiyu—as long as the blood didn't splash onto him. So he limited himself to that single sarcastic remark.
"Fine. As long as you pay in jutsu or rewards, I'll handle the normal missions. The insane ones—forget it."
Feiyu pocketed the scroll. In truth, Root's jutsu didn't interest him much anymore. Now that he possessed Magnet Release, he looked down on small payouts.
But the corpses and souls of mission targets? That he found useful.
Danzō's reputation was already black enough. Adding a few more crimes on his ledger wasn't going to bother the "Shadow of the Shinobi World."
After reporting in, Feiyu immediately headed for his cheap teacher—Orochimaru.
A month had already passed. The "materials" should be fully collected by now, and Feiyu was eager to experience the effects of the blood pool.
He found Orochimaru in a Root laboratory, elbows-deep in another human experiment. Upon hearing Feiyu's request, Orochimaru casually summoned a massive scroll and handed it over.
"I won't ask what you plan to do with so many low-grade human specimens. Whatever it is, don't do it in Konoha. The old Third still has some lingering taboo about large-scale human experimentation."
"Teacher, could you at least stop dissecting someone while you say that?"
"And you're telling me Konoha dislikes human experimentation while standing in Root? Are you trying to make me die laughing?"
"Heh. Even at my most ambitious, I've never used even one percent of the amount listed in that scroll. Two thousand shinobi corpses—there's no way to hide that inside Konoha."
"…also true."
Feiyu muttered, frowning as he considered where to build the blood pool.
If he were the only Ryūchi Cave contract holder, he could simply build it there. But with Orochimaru lurking in that sacred ground like a deranged mad scientist, if Feiyu dared build a blood pool there, Orochimaru would dissect it by morning.
Titles aside, neither of them had any illusions about their "teacher-student" relationship. If there was profit, betrayal was expected.
Which meant—
The only safe option was to go underground.
Deep enough, with enough earth shielding, no sensory technique could detect it.
And with Magnet Release, Feiyu could excavate faster than Earth Release users, digging deeper and more precisely. If he found a remote location and burrowed deep enough, constructing the blood pool would be possible.
"All right. I've given you what you asked for. Now—the rest of that technique?"
Orochimaru, seeing Feiyu's expression relax as if he'd reached a decision, smiled and held out his hand, expecting payment.
"I've already prepared it for you, teacher. Here's the remaining half of the ritual. Please, take a look."
Feiyu didn't hesitate. He pulled out the other half of the Lich Transformation Ritual scroll and passed it over.
He genuinely wanted to see what Orochimaru would create by combining Lich transformation with Living Corpse Reincarnation. Maybe someday Orochimaru would become a full-fledged Lich King and bring an undead apocalypse to the shinobi world.
The moment Orochimaru received the scroll, he ignored Feiyu entirely, unrolling it and reading voraciously. His expression shifted rapidly—shock, greed, exhilaration—until barely suppressed madness flickered in his eyes.
Feiyu waited a moment, but seeing Orochimaru completely absorbed, he simply shrugged and slipped out of the lab on his own.
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