Tamura Zairo arrived at the bathhouse and entered a private bathing room. He paid extra for a scrubbing service, and before long, a bath attendant with an ordinary appearance came in.
Tamura Zairo naturally stepped out of the pool and lay face down on the wooden bench beside it, enjoying the scrubbing service.
"Danzō's people contacted you?"
Disguised as the bath attendant using a Transformation Technique, Tsuchidai asked in a low voice. This was their prearranged signal—whenever Tamura Zairo came here, it meant there had been movement on Danzō's side.
The two of them couldn't meet openly, so they had to communicate covertly like this, to avoid alerting the other side's spies.
"He wants intelligence on the village's plans for the coming war and on the progress of tailed-beast utilization. I demanded the Sword of the Thunder God," Tamura Zairo said simply.
There was no need for excessive explanation. With Tsuchidai's intellect, he would understand everything immediately.
Sure enough, Tsuchidai fell into thought.
He wasn't surprised by Shimura Danzō's intentions—he had even anticipated them. After all, he himself wanted to know Konoha's plans for the coming war. This was something all five great ninja villages wanted to learn about each other.
"Given your current status and Fukai's position, there's no way you can access anything too deep," Tsuchidai said after thinking for a moment.
"I'll give you some superficial, indirect information—enough for Danzō to analyze and infer certain things."
As he spoke, Tsuchidai provided some scattered intelligence that Tamura Zairo, given his current identity, could plausibly have discovered.
After that, Tsuchidai even began advising him.
"You can give them the war-planning information first. As for tailed-beast matters—especially plans concerning the Land of Whirlpools—you can keep that as a trump card to exchange for the Sword of the Thunder God.
However, as far as I know, the Sword of the Thunder God requires enormous chakra to use effectively. It won't be of much direct combat value to you."
He had heard of the Sword of the Thunder God before. When wielded by the Second Hokage in conjunction with the Flying Thunder God Technique, it was deadly to virtually any ninja. It was said that the Gold and Silver Brothers had only survived thanks to their tailed-beast cloaks—otherwise they would have been slain long ago.
"I want to use the Sword of the Thunder God to assist in training Lightning nature transformation, not for combat," Tamura Zairo replied.
"And once I'm done with it, I'll hand it over to the village. We can see if it can serve as a foundation for developing large-scale ninja tools that allow more people to use it to aid Lightning training. Wouldn't that be a significant contribution?"
Tamura Zairo had thought this through thoroughly.
The Sword of the Thunder God's light-blade form was extremely powerful, but it required immense chakra to sustain. Without sufficient chakra, its true power couldn't be brought out—it even ended up shattered in the original story.
What Tamura Zairo lacked most was chakra. For him, the sword was far more valuable as a training aid than as a weapon. In actual combat, his twin blades—Big Meow and Little Meow—were more than enough.
Since that was the case, keeping the Sword of the Thunder God was pointless. He might as well hand it over to the village in exchange for other resources.
"That's a good idea," Tsuchidai said, momentarily stunned, before thinking it over and nodding in agreement.
He immediately thought of the Six Paths ninja tools that the Gold and Silver Brothers had sealed away before their deaths—one of which was a fan capable of converting chakra into all five elements.
If that tool could be retrieved, it could assist in training all five elemental nature transformations.
In the past, everyone had only thought of these tools as weapons of war, completely overlooking their potential as training aids.
"No wonder they say young people think more flexibly," Tsuchidai sighed, feeling both impressed and excited.
If this plan succeeded, their village could rapidly produce a batch of jōnin.
After all, mastery of chakra nature transformation was one of the defining criteria for advancing to jōnin, and it brought a massive increase in strength. Unfortunately, nature transformation was far more difficult than shape transformation, and many shinobi were permanently stuck at that bottleneck.
"When you get the Sword of the Thunder God, I'll count it as one S-rank merit. Added to your previous two intelligence contributions, that makes three in total. Is there anything you want?"
Tsuchidai was generous—he was becoming more and more impressed with this child.
He truly was a stroke of fortune for Kumogakure.
"Does the village have any Sharingan?" Tamura Zairo asked.
"I've heard the Sharingan enhances dynamic vision. I plan to pursue a speed-based combat style, and I really need better dynamic vision to support high-speed movement.
Also, I need a way to increase my chakra reserves—my aptitude in that area is terrible, and it severely restricts my growth."
Tamura Zairo laid out his request.
He intended to walk the future path of Sasuke Uchiha's Chidori-style combat, which required extremely powerful dynamic vision. Purely relying on postnatal training was far from enough—he needed a cheat.
During his previous sparring match with Fukai, it had been painfully clear. No matter how tricky his blade techniques were, Fukai could easily block them. When Fukai unleashed lightning-fast strikes, Tamura Zairo couldn't even see them clearly, let alone respond.
And that hadn't even been Fukai's true strength. With Lightning Release Body Enhancement, Fukai's speed would be even greater.
Against opponents like that, Tamura Zairo wouldn't even get a chance to react.
Thus, improving dynamic vision was critical—and in the shinobi world, the Sharingan was unparalleled in this regard.
Given Kumogakure's style, they likely had confiscated Sharingan in storage. Unlike the Hyūga, the Uchiha didn't have a cursed seal to destroy their eyes upon death, so it should be possible to acquire one for study.
"There are Sharingan," Tsuchidai replied.
"In past battles with Uchiha ninja, we did seize some. The Sharingan, as a kekkei genkai, can indeed be transplanted. However, non-Uchiha cannot deactivate it after transplantation—it continuously consumes chakra. It's not suitable for you."
They had tried this before, and the results were poor.
Even the Third Raikage's chakra reserves couldn't withstand that constant drain, let alone a child whose chakra pool was… frankly pitiful.
"I'm not planning to transplant it," Tamura Zairo said.
"I just want to study the principle behind its dynamic vision enhancement and see if I can gain some inspiration from it."
He knew full well the problems with transplanting the Sharingan. Even someone like Kakashi—an elite jōnin at twelve—had been dragged down by it. His own body would never endure it.
Tsuchidai understood, thought for a moment, and then said,
"I'll report this to the Third Raikage. I'll arrange for you to visit the research division. They're studying certain kekkei genkai there, as well as Eight-Tails flesh. You might be able to offer some new ideas."
He had to admit—the way this child's mind worked was extraordinary. He always focused on points others overlooked. Perhaps letting him into the research department would spark valuable breakthroughs.
"Thank you, Lord Tsuchidai!"
Tamura Zairo was thrilled. He had been wanting to study tailed-beast flesh for some time.
Others couldn't refine tailed-beast power, but he had a golden finger. If he could erase even the residual imprints of those godlike beings from chakra, then tailed-beast chakra shouldn't be a problem.
If he could integrate tailed-beast power, his chakra reserves would skyrocket.
He had many ideas that required a solid foundation of resources to implement. Gaining access to Kumogakure's research department was perfect.
"The Third Raikage and I both think highly of you," Tsuchidai said.
"In the future, once the Third steps down, you can take my position and assist the Fourth."
Tsuchidai openly expressed his appreciation. Kumogakure lacked neither warriors nor strength—but it was short on true strategists.
This child was intelligent enough to become the future Fourth Raikage's right-hand man.
"I won't disappoint you or the Raikage, Lord Tsuchidai,"
Tamura Zairo replied immediately.
There could be no hesitation at a moment like this. And indeed, he urgently needed to raise his status within Kumogakure.
The higher his position, the less likely he would become expendable cannon fodder—and the more resources he would be able to access.
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