"Lord Danzo, Lord Orochimaru, the intelligence gathering has been completed."
In a dimly lit underground chamber, a masked Root member knelt on one knee and respectfully reported the results of his work to the two men who had been waiting in the room for some time.
After hearing his voice, Danzo Shimura, seated in his chair, slowly opened his eyes and uttered a short phrase in an icy tone.
"Present it."
"Yes."
The Root member handed over a scroll filled with dense written intelligence, then rose and retreated, melting into the shadows of the chamber like a ghost.
Danzo Shimura unfolded the scroll with one hand and, under the room's only flickering light, began examining its contents.
What he had sent Root to gather was information on the life of a Kirigakure shinobi who had recently built an astonishing reputation on the battlefield between Konoha and Kirigakure.
Through certain agents planted in Kirigakure long ago, as well as a few Kirigakure shinobi who maintained dealings with Root, Root had collected all kinds of information on this person from birth onward. After summarizing, organizing, and refining it, it became the scroll now in Danzo's hand.
"Rei… Kaguya."
After quietly repeating the name several times, Danzo Shimura handed the scroll to Orochimaru, who stood beside him.
He waited until Orochimaru had roughly skimmed through the contents before asking in a low voice, "What do you think, Orochimaru?"
"He is a valuable research subject… no, that is not quite right. I should say, extremely valuable."
Orochimaru, who gave others the cold impression of a massive venomous snake, stretched out his tongue and licked his lips.
On his originally calm face appeared a chilling expression, like that of a mad scientist who had just seen an experimental specimen that deeply interested him.
"Oh? You seem to value him quite highly, Orochimaru." A hint of surprise entered Danzo Shimura's voice. "Why?"
"Because he is a special individual who stands apart from the rest, Danzo."
Orochimaru lightly tapped the words on the intelligence scroll and let out a strange laugh.
"A descendant of a Kekkei Genkai clan with a long history. Talent and temperament far beyond his clansmen. And while undergoing high-intensity war, he gradually displays a brand-new power on a completely different level from the rest of his clan… Just hearing that description, who does it make you think of, Danzo?"
Danzo did not answer immediately.
But seeing the way his hand instinctively tightened around the armrest of his chair, Orochimaru knew Danzo had understood what he meant.
"Why did you make that judgment, Orochimaru?"
After closing his eyes and calming his breathing for a while, Danzo asked in an icy voice, "Do you understand what those words of yours truly imply?"
"Of course I do… But an obvious fact will not disappear simply because the person who sees it refuses to speak it aloud."
"I will be going back first. Those experimental subjects still need someone watching them… But if you collect any more interesting intelligence on him, remember to share a copy with me, Danzo."
Orochimaru returned the scroll to Danzo and turned to leave the chamber, where the temperature had seemingly plummeted.
Outside Danzo's sight, the golden vertical pupils in Orochimaru's eyes burned with vigorous and cruel curiosity.
"Rei Kaguya… If only I could obtain some fresh flesh and blood from you. If what I suspect is truly happening to your body, then witnessing that transformation process will surely bring unimaginable benefits to my research."
"Do not waste what I gave you, Minato Namikaze."
…
"Damn it, this just never ends, does it?"
Sensing the Konoha sensory squad that had appeared right on time at the edge of his sensory range early in the morning, monitoring Kannabeyama Stronghold as if clocking in for work, along with Kushina Uzumaki, who followed beside them as insurance against his surprise attacks, Rei Kaguya took a deep breath.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Smoke dispersed.
Rei Kaguya's figure leaped down from the outer wall of Kannabeyama Stronghold, wearing a teeth-gritting expression as he charged toward the area where Konoha's sensory squad was located like an arrow released from the bowstring.
On top of the outer wall, another Rei Kaguya stood with his arms crossed, tapping his sleeve with one finger in visible annoyance.
After sensing this scene, Kushina Uzumaki familiarly created a Shadow Clone to meet him while commanding Konoha's sensory squad to retreat, temporarily leaving the sensing range of Rei Kaguya's Hiding in Mist Technique.
Clang—
The two Shadow Clones met in the thick mist without the slightest deviation.
Rei Kaguya's clone swung his sharp bone blade, while Kushina's clone gripped two kunai. Just like that, the two began clashing fiercely in the fog.
The sound of weapons colliding at high speed erupted again and again, almost merging into one long, uninterrupted metallic note.
"It has been so long, yet the man who can let you feel at ease launching an attack still has not returned?"
While ignoring defense and freely slashing at Kushina's clone to vent the mental pressure he had accumulated recently from the constant bad news sent by his allies, Rei Kaguya spoke in an icy voice, trying to disturb her state of mind.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
Kushina borrowed the force of Rei's heavy slash and flew backward. At the same time, she formed hand seals and shouted in a low voice.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
"Dance of the Seedling Fern."
Adamantine chains condensed from chakra emerged from behind her, spreading like an inescapable net as they bound toward Rei Kaguya's clone.
Rei calmly threw the bone blade in his hand at Kushina, then stomped hard with one foot.
In an instant, countless pale bone spikes burst out from the surroundings, blocking all of the chain attacks from Adamantine Sealing Chains.
"Ah, sure enough, that move no longer works against you, does it?"
Seeing her attack fail, Kushina did not seem particularly regretful.
She used the kunai in her hand to deflect the bone blade Rei had thrown, then sighed.
"With your strength alone, it is impossible for you to defeat me. I should have made you realize that long ago, shouldn't I, survivor of the Uzumaki clan?"
Rei Kaguya stepped hard on the ground and continued chasing after Kushina, speaking as he pursued her.
"Show me your true ability. I do not care whether you call that guy Minato Namikaze over or release the fox inside you… Let us have a proper fight and settle the dispute over Kannabeyama's ownership once and for all. Would that not be better?"
"Tch. You Kirigakure people really did bury a lot of disgusting spies in Konoha." Kushina's movements paused slightly as she spoke in an extremely displeased tone.
"Likewise. Konoha must not have planted any fewer nails in Kirigakure either… After this war ends, I will properly clean them out of my village."
"Your… village?"
Kushina took a deep breath and stopped retreating.
Contrary to her previous behavior, she took the initiative to charge toward Rei Kaguya.
"You really are just as Minato said. You are an extremely dangerous man, Rei Kaguya!"
"So?"
Rei Kaguya used two bone blades to block Kushina Uzumaki's fist, which was wrapped in a massive amount of chakra, and asked calmly.
"If Kirigakure truly becomes a village ruled by you, then the shinobi world will never see the day peace arrives."
Staring into Rei Kaguya's eyes, Kushina Uzumaki declared firmly, "For the sake of protecting the peace we finally took back from Iwagakure and Kumogakure… I will defeat you here, Rei Kaguya!"
Pffft.
Rei Kaguya's bone blade pierced Kushina Uzumaki's body faster than her words could finish.
But Kushina Uzumaki's clone did not vanish completely after taking a heavy blow like an ordinary Shadow Clone.
Instead, while dispersing, it dropped a specially shaped kunai.
A yellow figure jumped through the sky like lightning.
After leaving only a fleeting afterimage in Rei Kaguya's clone's eyes, he disappeared from sight just as abruptly as he had arrived.
"Oh? You used this opportunity to close the distance to my real body, reducing the cost of the Flying Thunder God Technique and increasing the odds of a successful surprise attack?"
"The idea is decent… but my real body already guessed you would do this."
"Can a surprise attack whose method has already been foreseen still be called a surprise attack?"
Rei Kaguya's Shadow Clone shook his head, then continued chasing after the Konoha sensory squad that had retreated earlier without the slightest psychological burden.
If his prediction was correct, then Kushina Uzumaki herself should have already joined Minato Namikaze and engaged his real body on the battlefield prepared in advance.
In that case, did that not mean he now had a chance to kill off all those disgusting bastards who came to clock in every morning?