Technology Acquired

The next day, Kyosuke got up early. After quickly tidying himself up, he first paid a visit to the Second Elder's home.

Despite his repeated care yesterday, Nagisa ultimately fell ill.

After everything she had gone through before, her body had already been frail beyond measure. On top of that, she had been overwhelmed by grief and soaked in the rain all day.

With all those factors combined, it was hardly surprising that she fell sick.

After keeping her company for a while and teasing the little girl for a bit, Kyosuke finally prepared to head to Orochimaru's laboratory.

Judging by how he had acted yesterday, he clearly had something to say.

As for what it was, Kyosuke already had a faint suspicion.

It was probably related to Danzo.

"Starting today, I'll teach you two new techniques," Orochimaru said bluntly upon seeing Kyosuke arrive.

Without waiting for Kyosuke to respond, Orochimaru continued, "You need to master these two techniques as quickly as possible. After that, I'll have a mission for you."

Though puzzled, Kyosuke nodded in agreement. Being able to learn new techniques was a good thing, after all.

But soon afterward, Kyosuke felt his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

Because these two techniques were the Cloning Technique and Cell Transplantation Technique, which he had long coveted.

At the same time, he understood that Orochimaru had likely already begun secretly working with Danzo.

All for the sake of carrying out that crucial experiment.

"Hashirama Cell Transplantation Project."

"After putting in so much effort, I've finally reached you." A smile inevitably curved Kyosuke's lips.

Soon, three months passed.

Little Kyosuke had finally grown another year older.

At the same time, he carefully recalled the events of Konoha's Year 40.

He realized that aside from Kakashi becoming a Chunin at the age of six, there seemed to have been no other major events.

Thus, Kyosuke completely immersed himself in his experiments and ignored everything else.

The final results were gratifying as well. After a full three months, he finally succeeded in turning these two crucial techniques into his own skills.

Cloning Technique LV1 (0/100)

Cell Transplantation Technique LV1 (0/100)

Like the other two top-tier techniques, these two skills required a costly 100 Experience Points to level up even at Level 1.

Still, Kyosuke was already very satisfied just to have turned them into his own skills.

No matter how much experience they required, they would be maxed out someday.

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

But before long, the "method" would come knocking on his door by itself.

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

After examining his results, Orochimaru smiled in satisfaction.

At last, Orochimaru also revealed his mission.

From Orochimaru's explanation, Kyosuke learned that he had indeed begun collaborating with Danzo.

However, because Orochimaru had official duties to attend to, the everyday work of cultivating the "cells" and observing the experimental results could only be handed over to Kyosuke.

And due to the secrecy of this experiment, Kyosuke would need to continue his research in Root.

Orochimaru had specifically come to ask for his opinion.

Kyosuke pretended to consider it before readily agreeing, but he raised his own conditions.

First, no one was allowed to monitor his activities in Root. Even if Danzo wanted to enter the laboratory, he would need Kyosuke's permission.

Orochimaru nodded and immediately agreed to the request.

Seeing him agree, Kyosuke roughly understood the situation and raised his second condition.

Second, he needed the identity of a Root Anbu agent as cover. In other words, publicly, he needed to enter the Anbu system.

After all, this experiment was the kind of research that could not stand the light of day. To be safe, Kyosuke had to leave himself a way out.

If things were exposed later, he could successfully extricate himself with his Anbu identity.

Because publicly, he had merely gone to Root for training. What did research into Hashirama Cells have to do with him, Kyosuke?

Of course, that was merely what Kyosuke told Orochimaru. His true goal was actually that Anbu identity.

After all, during the earlier patrol mission, it was precisely because he had an "official" identity that the system recognized it and generated a corresponding mission.

Thus, Kyosuke believed that as long as he became an Anbu agent, he would definitely be able to obtain "missions" again.

After all, there were currently no enemy ninjas for him to kill.

Given his status, he probably could not even leave the village, let alone lead a squad on missions.

After much consideration, Kyosuke ultimately decided to temporarily side with Danzo.

Though there were risks involved, he had no other choice.

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

What a joke. Although the Third Hokage treated him fairly well on the surface, he was actually deeply wary of Kyosuke and the Uchiha Clan.

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

But Danzo was different. Setting aside his impression of Kyosuke, the prospect of cultivating Hashirama Cells alone was enough to make that old bastard abandon every principle he had.

Besides, for Danzo, who put profit above all else, what the hell were principles?

As long as it was supposedly for Konoha's benefit, there was nothing he would not do, much less give Kyosuke a mere Anbu identity.

Kyosuke understood all of this perfectly.

Even if Orochimaru had not proposed this mission, Kyosuke would probably have found a chance to "approach" Danzo and then figure out a way to join Root.

Now things were much better. Orochimaru—or rather, Danzo—taking the initiative had spared him quite a bit of trouble.

After all, if he had approached them himself, he would certainly have drawn the attention of interested parties.

Especially the Uchiha Clan, which was currently caught in the midst of gathering storms.

Why did Kyosuke say that?

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

And Fugaku himself had revealed it.

Kyosuke had learned this intelligence from the Second Elder.

The Second Elder sternly ordered Kyosuke not to tell anyone about it, or he would face clan punishment.

At the same time, Kyosuke could also sense that ever since several Elders learned of this, their attention toward him had greatly diminished.

After all, no matter how talented he was, whether he could awaken the Mangekyō in the future was uncertain. Even if he could, it would be many years from now, and they could not wait that long.

Fugaku, on the other hand, was someone they could see and grasp, so such a reaction was hardly surprising.

Though Kyosuke sneered inwardly, he also felt sincerely pleased.

He wished the Uchiha would forget about him completely.

With Orochimaru's support, now that his wings had gradually filled out, he no longer relied so heavily on the Uchiha.

But the Uchiha Clan occupied a very important position in his plans, so in the future, he had to place it under his control.

Originally, he had hoped Fugaku could provide some help in that regard.

But now, it seemed Fugaku was truly incapable of being entrusted with anything important.

Even if he wanted to make it easier to seize power after taking office, exposing his Mangekyō for no reason was simply too foolish.

He probably naively believed that once the Elders knew about it, they would gradually hand over their authority after he took office.

But he had not considered what consequences would follow if this matter were exposed.

One had to know that there were never any true secrets in this world.

Otherwise, after the Nine-Tails Incident, why had Konoha's higher-ups pointed the finger directly at the Uchiha Clan?

Was it not because they all knew that only the Mangekyō Sharingan could control a Tailed Beast?

By then, Fugaku's Mangekyō had probably been exposed long ago.

There was another point as well. The reason the Uchiha launched their coup was not merely because they had been excessively oppressed. More importantly, was it not Fugaku who had given them confidence?

All things considered, although exposing the Mangekyō would bring Fugaku temporary convenience, it had also planted the seeds of endless future trouble.

Kyosuke would probably need to deal with all these matters in the future.

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

Fortunately, there was still plenty of time. He still had time to make arrangements and grow stronger.

Otherwise, he would have wanted to bite Fugaku to death.