The White Zetsu Was Unavoidable After All

At last, they met.

Orochimaru studied Genitsu with great interest.

His long tongue unconsciously flicked out, curling up skewer after skewer of dango and stuffing them into his mouth.

"Waaah! A monster!" An innocent child passing by was frightened to tears on the spot, shrieking as he ran away.

"It is an honor to meet you for the first time, Lord Orochimaru."

Genitsu bent slightly at the waist without displaying anything unusual. Nor did he consider whether this encounter had been accidental or deliberate, because it no longer mattered.

"Sensei, it was this guy! He made me lose the match last time and even took away my sense of taste! Damn it!!"

Anko was furious and eager to fight Genitsu. Since she had been defeated by a single mouthful of blood, she had practically become the stepping stone for Genitsu's rise to fame. Worse still, her sense of taste had somehow malfunctioned. Even dango tasted like nothing now.

"Stand down, Anko. You are no match for him right now. He is a Konoha genius who has already begun to make a name for himself; there is no reason he would lose to you. Besides, I have only just begun treating you. Do not act rashly."

Orochimaru let out a low, hoarse laugh. "Still, Genitsu-kun's awakened Kekkei Genkai truly surprised me. It can actually destroy and distort things at the cellular level."

Whenever Orochimaru recalled the large number of oral cells he had collected from Anko's mouth, he felt a surge of excitement.

They had changed. Those oral cells, which should have been normal, had undergone a certain degree of mutation at an astonishing rate.

"Thank you very much for what happened with Anko, Genitsu-kun. If you had drawn out that power any later, I'm afraid Anko would have been killed by you..." Orochimaru revealed a terrifying smile.

"I'm truly sorry. I did not want something like that to happen either..."

"I am not blaming you. On the contrary, I am very much looking forward to your performance. Perhaps you will become my subordinate."

Orochimaru stared fixedly at Genitsu, his gaze as though he were looking at a priceless treasure.

What had he discovered? A mobile treasure trove capable of causing cellular mutations! To Orochimaru, who pursued immortality and was madly gathering and studying all kinds of Kekkei Genkai, it held fatal allure.

Cellular mutation meant the unknown, and the unknown was what Orochimaru loved most.

Genitsu watched with a smile as Orochimaru dragged Anko away. Then, at the same vendor stall, he ordered some dango and quietly found an empty seat to eat.

The sun set in the west.

It was not until dusk that Genitsu got up and headed back.

"So Orochimaru had noticed me after all. If I were a scientist, I would be interested in radiation too."

Genitsu smiled and shook his head. This was truly terrible news. Getting too close to Orochimaru without sufficient strength made it all too easy to be swallowed whole.

It seemed he needed to seriously consider what to do next.

That night.

Inside a secret laboratory.

As usual, Orochimaru carried out his experiments. He dissected corpses secretly collected from the battlefield one after another, conducting intricate experiments.

Creak, creak, creak...

"Orochimaru, this old man can no longer delay Hiruzen. He needs you to go to the battlefield and share some of his burden."

Shimura Danzō entered with an icy expression.

"Heh, I was already prepared. But you, Danzo—under normal circumstances, shouldn't you be heading to the eastern front to deal with those clowns from Hidden Mist? Why are you still refusing to move?"

Orochimaru sneered.

Danzo's face darkened. "I do not need you to tell me what to do! Do not forget your position!"

"...Understood. What a stubborn old man."

With one slash, Orochimaru dug a heart out of the corpse and carefully stored it in a container.

After a while, Danzo grew somewhat impatient. "When exactly will you fulfill what you promised this old man? When will the experiment to fuse Hashirama cells with the Sharingan begin?"

"Soon. Wait a little longer. I need more Sharingan as samples."

"Hmph. I will find a way to obtain more eyes, but you must produce results!"

Danzo swept a glance over the laboratory filled with severed limbs, then turned and left without expression.

Obtaining Sharingan would not be difficult.

He immediately set off for the eastern battlefield. There, the Uchiha clan's main force was fighting the Hidden Mist ninja, and people died every day.

"I recall that the Uchiha clan's new generation genius is a member of Shibi's team..."

A sinister gleam stirred in Danzo's one eye.

"Shikuroo, although you have only recently joined Root, I trust you have already made up your mind. Now, I need you to monitor every member of Shibi's team and brainwash Kazue... as well as Genitsu. Find a way to make them join Root."

After leaving the laboratory, Danzo gave his order to the Root member standing guard outside.

"Understood, Lord Danzo. Everything is for Konoha! They are ninja Root needs, but Lord Hokage..."

"There is no need to worry about Hiruzen. If the two of them willingly join Root, even Hiruzen will be too late to stop it."

Danzo spoke indifferently.

Shikuroo nodded slightly and silently followed behind Danzo. Whenever he looked at Danzo, his expression beneath the mask was filled with reverence.

Danzo, sensing that burning gaze, was greatly pleased within his heart.

Aburame Shikuroo, a ninja who wielded nano-scale poisonous insects. Truly excellent—he possessed the resolve to dedicate himself to Konoha.

Genitsu sat on his bed, sinking his consciousness as he entered the dim space once again.

This time, he stood ninety meters away from Godzilla—he had advanced another ten meters.

"I cannot move any closer. With my Chakra, this is as far as I can go."

Genitsu gathered a massive amount of Chakra together. It was an amount comparable to a jōnin's Chakra, yet at most, it only elicited the faintest response from the giant ahead.

Genitsu felt utterly helpless. What a terrifyingly huge creature.

His daytime meeting with Orochimaru had given Genitsu a tremendous sense of crisis, driving him to find a way to gain greater power.

"The ideal situation would be to quickly obtain Godzilla's power. I'm not asking to become Godzilla, but at the very least, I need the ability to create something like a Tailed Beast cloak..."

He was now similar to a jinchūriki. Following the path of a jinchūriki was the more suitable route he had envisioned.

But...

"This big guy is sleeping so deeply. Apart from Chakra, it is not interested in anything at all. This is really troublesome..."

Genitsu sat cross-legged at the ninety-meter mark, pondering for a moment before determination appeared in his eyes.

He needed to take a risk.

The source of Chakra was the Ten-Tails God Tree.

If he wanted to study Chakra, there was no way around the God Tree. And in his hands, he possessed something connected to it.

A White Zetsu corpse.