Technology Acquired

The next day, Kyosuke woke up early. After a simple tidy-up, he first went to the Second Elder's house.

Despite his caution yesterday, Nagisa had still fallen ill.

After the previous ordeal, her body was already weak, and on top of that, she had been overcome with grief and rained on all day.

With all these factors combined, it wasn't strange that she fell sick.

After spending some time with her, playing with the little girl for a bit, Kyosuke then prepared to head to Orochimaru's laboratory.

Judging by his demeanor yesterday, Orochimaru clearly had something to say.

As for what that matter was, Kyosuke already had a vague guess.

It was probably related to Danzo.

"Starting today, I will teach you two new techniques," Orochimaru said directly upon seeing Kyosuke arrive.

Without waiting for Kyosuke's response, Orochimaru continued, "You need to master these two techniques as quickly as possible, as I will have a mission for you afterward."

While Kyosuke found it strange, he nodded and agreed. After all, learning new techniques was a good thing.

However, Kyosuke then felt his heart pounding.

Because these two techniques were the "Cloning Technique" and "Cell Transplantation Technique" that he had long desired.

At the same time, he understood that Orochimaru had likely secretly colluded with Danzo by now.

The purpose was to conduct that crucial experiment.

"Hashirama Cell Transplantation Project."

"After all this effort, I've finally gotten close to you." A smile inevitably crept onto Kyosuke's lips.

Soon, three months passed.

Little Kyosuke also finally turned one year older.

At the same time, he carefully recalled the events of the 40th year of the Leaf.

He realized that apart from Kakashi being promoted to Chunin at the age of six, there didn't seem to be any other major events.

Therefore, Kyosuke was completely immersed in his own experiments, ignoring everything else.

The final results were gratifying. He had spent a total of three months and finally succeeded in converting these two key techniques into his own skills.

"Cloning Technique LV1 (0/100)"

"Cell Transplantation Technique LV1 (0/100)"

Just like the other two top-tier techniques, these two skills require a hefty 100 experience points to level up at level 1.

However, Kyosuke was already quite satisfied with being able to convert them into his own skills.

No matter how much experience they needed to level up, they would eventually be maxed out.

Kyosuke was still quite confident about this, even though he still had no way to acquire experience.

But it wouldn't be long before the "method" would come to him.

Just as Kyosuke successfully mastered these two techniques, Orochimaru, who had been absent for a long time, appeared.

After inspecting his results, Orochimaru smiled with satisfaction.

At the same time, Orochimaru finally revealed his mission.

Through his explanation, Kyosuke learned that Orochimaru had indeed begun cooperating with Danzo.

But because Orochimaru was busy with official duties, the work of cultivating "cells" and observing experimental results would have to be handed over to Kyosuke.

Furthermore, due to the secrecy of this experiment, Kyosuke needed to continue his experiments at "Root."

Orochimaru had specifically come to seek his opinion on this matter.

Kyosuke pretended to consider it for a moment before readily accepting, but he proposed his own conditions.

First, his activities at Root were not to be monitored by anyone. Even if Danzo wanted to enter the laboratory, he would have to seek Kyosuke's permission.

Orochimaru nodded and immediately agreed to this request.

Seeing that he agreed, Kyosuke had a rough idea of what was going on and then proposed his second request.

Second, he needed the identity of a "Root" Anbu as a cover. In other words, he needed to officially join the Anbu system.

After all, this experiment was the kind of research that would "die in the light." For the sake of caution, Kyosuke had to leave himself a fallback.

If things went south later, he could use his Anbu identity to successfully withdraw.

Because, on the surface, he was just at Root for training. What did "Hashirama Cells" research have to do with him, Kyosuke?

Of course, this was just what Kyosuke told Orochimaru. His real goal was actually to obtain the "Anbu" identity.

Don't forget, for the previous "patrol" mission, it was because he had an "official" identity that he was recognized by the System and corresponding tasks were generated.

Therefore, Kyosuke believed that as long as he became an Anbu, he would definitely be able to get "missions" again.

After all, there were no enemy ninja for him to kill right now.

In fact, with his current status, he probably couldn't even leave the village, let alone lead a team on missions.

After much thought, Kyosuke finally decided to temporarily seek refuge with Danzo.

Although this was risky, he had no other choice.

Was he supposed to join the Hokage faction's Anbu?

Don't be ridiculous. While the Third Hokage treated him well on the surface, he was actually deeply wary of the Uchiha.

How could he possibly allow the Uchiha to extend their influence into his own Anbu?

Danzo, however, was different. Setting aside his feelings for Kyosuke, the mere prospect of cultivating "Hashirama Cells" would make the old man abandon all his principles.

Besides, for Danzo, who was driven by profit, what were principles but bullshit?

As long as it was for the good of "Konoha," he would do anything, let alone grant Kyosuke a minor Anbu position.

Kyosuke understood all of this clearly.

Even if Orochimaru hadn't proposed this mission, he would have found an opportunity to "contact" Danzo and then find a way to join Root.

Now, with Orochimaru's, or rather Danzo's, initiative, he had avoided some trouble.

After all, if he had approached them himself, he would definitely have been noticed by "those with intentions."

Especially now, with the Uchiha Clan in turmoil.

Why did Kyosuke say this?

The answer was simple: Fugaku's awakening of the Mangekyo had been exposed.

And he himself had leaked the information.

Kyosuke learned this intelligence from the Second Elder.

The Second Elder strictly forbade Kyosuke from telling anyone about this, or face clan punishment.

At the same time, Kyosuke could also sense that since the elders learned of this, their attention towards him had significantly decreased.

No matter how strong his talent was, it was uncertain whether he could awaken the Mangekyo in the future, and even if he could, it would be many years from now. They couldn't wait that long.

Fugaku, on the other hand, was someone they could see and touch, so their actions were understandable.

While Kyosuke sneered inwardly, he also felt a genuine sense of joy.

He wished the Uchiha would completely forget about him.

Relying on his relationship with Orochimaru, he had grown stronger and no longer depended so much on the Uchiha.

However, the Uchiha Clan held a very important position in his plans, so in the future, he had to control it.

He originally hoped Fugaku could play a certain role in this.

But now it seemed Fugaku was truly incompetent.

Even if it was to facilitate seizing power after ascending, exposing his Mangekyō Sharingan without reason was too foolish.

He probably naively believed that once a few Elders knew about it, they would gradually hand over power to him after he took the throne.

But he hadn't considered the consequences if this matter were to be exposed.

After all, there were no secrets in this world.

Otherwise, after the Nine-Tails incident, why would the Leaf's higher-ups point fingers at the Uchiha Clan?

It was because they all knew clearly that only the Mangekyō Sharingan could control Tailed Beasts.

And Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan had likely already been exposed back then.

There was another point: besides being excessively oppressed, the reason the Uchiha launched a coup was largely because Fugaku gave them confidence.

In summary, although exposing the Mangekyō Sharingan brought Fugaku temporary convenience, it also sowed the seeds of endless future trouble.

These matters would likely all need to be handled by Kyosuke in the future.

That was why he felt a trace of resentment towards Fugaku.

But fortunately, there was still plenty of time; he had time to scheme and grow.

Otherwise, he would have been furious with Fugaku.