"Uchiha Ao... single-parent household, four family members: mother, younger brother, younger sister... currently residing..."
Danzo silently recited the information on the scroll. When he reached the section about the Ninja Academy grades, a cold smile tugged at his lips.
Overall score: 61... Barely enough to graduate?
They said a Uchiha who could use Wood Release and had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan had only barely managed to graduate from the Ninja Academy!?
Since when had the Ninja Academy's graduation requirements become so strict?
Sarutobi's evaluation system really was inadequate!
It should be abolished as soon as possible and replaced with the Anbu selection system he had created.
This wicked Uchiha brat had done a good job of disguising himself.
He had graduated at twelve and only become a Genin this year...
Yet he possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and Chakra no weaker than a Jonin's. He had even earned Orochimaru's trust and received the opportunity to have First Hokage Cells transplanted into him.
Tsk!
This kid was even better at hiding his strength than Orochimaru!
Danzo vaguely remembered noticing this Uchiha brat at Orochimaru's secret base. At the time, aside from his Uchiha surname, there had seemed to be nothing remarkable about him. He had looked utterly ordinary.
If you ignored his bloodline, he was just an ordinary person.
Who would have thought he had such strength, and had even replicated the First's Wood Release? The first time he used it, it already possessed two or three tenths of that man's power.
A genius like him, and an Uchiha at that... He would inevitably become a major threat to me in the future!
Did Uchiha Ao have any weakness that could be exploited?
Danzo stared at the scroll in his hand, his knuckles turning white. A wave of irritation welled up inside him, and the killing intent he could no longer suppress showed in his eyes.
"Lord Danzo, I heard Uchiha Ao cares deeply about his brothers and sisters. He often trains with Uchiha Lan, and he's very close to his family..."
Yamanaka Fu suddenly offered a reminder. He had heard this information from his younger brother, who had once been bullied by Uchiha Ao at school.
"That kid's been a thug since he was little..."
Yamanaka Fu went on to describe some of the things his younger brother had told him about Uchiha Ao.
When he was a student, Uchiha Ao had behaved terribly, often using his seniority to bully younger students.
He had even extorted protection money at school.
Relying on the Uchiha name, he had oppressed other civilian ninja.
"Your younger brother?"
Hearing this, Danzo's eyes suddenly lit up. An idea came to him.
A peripheral member of the Uchiha Clan.
Perhaps he could be recruited into Root.
He could help Danzo gather intelligence about the Uchiha Clan, and could also be used to threaten Uchiha Ao in the future...
"Fu, make arrangements to secretly recruit Uchiha Ao's younger brother... What was his name... Let me see... Lan... Yes, that's right! Do everything you can to bring him into Root."
"He'll make a fine blade..."
Danzo looked at the Uchiha Clan members tied up in the distance, the wrinkles on his face bunching into a bright smile.
Uchiha Inabi noticed and couldn't help shivering from head to toe.
It felt as if something unclean had set its sights on him.
This was bad!
Now that the Anbu had caught them, he wondered if the clan head would save them.
And what price would the family have to pay...?
Damn it!
It was all because of Uchiha Ao that they had ended up like this.
Once he saw the clan head, he would tell him everything and expose Uchiha Ao's evil deeds to the entire clan.
He would issue a Clan Execution Order!
And kill this Uchiha traitor.
Beneath Kage Rock.
At the concealed entrance to a secret chamber.
Two Root members lay collapsed on the ground without a sound.
Uchiha Ao stood by the entrance. A small snake on his arm kept flicking its tongue and turning its head to guide him.
Ao stopped and turned around, noticing the Hokage Building not far away.
He couldn't help sighing inwardly.
"That's well hidden! Who would've thought the Second's old underground research facility was so close to the Hokage Building?"
Kage Rock, the most sacred place in Konoha.
It was the secret research facility where the Second had once studied forbidden techniques.
"Orochimaru really is something. He even found a place this well hidden."
A roughly twenty-centimeter-long Chakra Scalpel appeared in Ao's hand. He crouched and casually slit the throats of the two Root members again.
He wasn't about to give them a chance to play dead.
Then he deftly searched their ninja tool pouches and placed them on their chests before following the little snake into the secret chamber.
As soon as Ao stepped inside, a musty, earthy odor greeted him. It seemed no one had been here for a long time, and the air was stale.
He casually took out a match and struck it. Seeing it light without trouble, he confirmed there was enough oxygen and stepped farther inside.
After walking about fifty meters down a dark corridor, he reached a spacious hall.
Orochimaru was searching through the place, stirring up clouds of dust.
"Ao, you're here already?"
"Good timing. Hurry and look for what we need. They'll realize what's happened in half an hour at most... We'll have to leave by then."
Orochimaru turned and glanced at Ao. Seeing he wasn't injured, he let out a relieved breath.
Ao saw that Orochimaru was already carrying a large pile of things. He had even summoned a huge snake, nearly two meters thick, to wait nearby. Every so often, he put something too large to carry into the snake's mouth and had it swallow it.
The snake's body, more than ten meters long, was coiled in a corner, its belly already bulging.
It looked as if it had swallowed plenty of good stuff.
Was his teacher planning to empty the entire secret chamber?
Ao was curious what treasures this place held, since his teacher had spent so long planning and clearly thought so highly of it.
He didn't linger in the hall. After glancing at several corridors leading to other areas, he spotted the words "Experimental Operation Area" and headed straight over.
Noticing his movement, Orochimaru smiled and reminded him, "Ao, I've already been in there. I've got all the original research materials on Impure World Reincarnation that you asked me about."
Ao paused, then flashed a bright smile. "I see! Teacher, I'll go take a look at how the Second arranged his laboratory. Maybe there's something worth learning from."
With that, he went straight inside.
What could he find while searching under Orochimaru's watchful eye?
Orochimaru had an exceptionally sharp eye and was cautious and suspicious by nature. He wouldn't give Ao a chance to find some overlooked treasure.
Ao wasn't particularly interested in the equipment, materials, and various documents in the hall.
Orochimaru would collect them all and take them along anyway.
Given their relationship,
everything his teacher owned would eventually be his.
There was no need to fuss over it.
Orochimaru watched Uchiha Ao's retreating back thoughtfully. He seemed to have guessed what Ao was thinking, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
He chuckled and shook his head.
Then he got back to work.
Uchiha Ao passed through another corridor, about twenty meters long. He went by two adjoining rooms and took a quick look: one was for changing and washing up, and the other was a rest area.
Then he entered the actual laboratory.
The Second's laboratory wasn't large, about twenty square meters.
Its layout was simple.
There was an operating table, two shelves, and a sink.
There were no chairs.
All six surfaces of the room had been smoothed over, forming flawless white planes with some kind of unknown white clay.
There were no windows. Apart from the entrance, there were only two sets of vents, one for intake and one for exhaust.
"Interesting. This research pioneer even designed a Ventilation System... Smoothing the whole room prevented any hard-to-clean corners! It's even more advanced than Teacher's lab!"
Ao studied the two vents, rubbing his chin as he spoke.
The openings looked a little crude, though, and there were no filters.
Apparently, people hadn't yet discovered how microorganisms could affect experiments.
He had only put in a basic barrier to keep visible dust from entering the laboratory.
Some tools were still on the shelf to the east: two twenty-centimeter-long scalpels, two pairs of scissors of different lengths, four metal clamps resembling hemostats, three somewhat rotten bamboo tweezers, and a pile of gauze.
Two boxes sat on the shelf to the west. One of them was still sealed.
Ao walked over and examined them. One looked as if it had just been opened, and the dust on it was fresh. Orochimaru had probably taken whatever was inside.
The other box hadn't been touched and was covered in dust.
Through the crystal surface, he could see that the box was empty, yet it had been completely sealed with a layer of some kind of special gel.
Orochimaru might have seen there was nothing inside and decided not to open it!
The other one had been opened, so it probably contained something.
What could be important enough for the Second to preserve so carefully?
And why keep it in a laboratory where he often conducted research?
Was there something special about it?
Ao couldn't help recalling the projects the Second had once worked on... An idea slowly took shape in his mind.
He instinctively used the Spirit Transformation Technique. His spiritual arm detached from his body, and he reached out. The instant it touched the box, he felt enormous resistance.
His spirit, which could pass through anything, was suddenly unable to do so.
The gel covering the outside of the box blocked his spiritual perception. He couldn't sense anything inside.
"Interesting... Just as I thought. It blocks spiritual perception... Is something sealed inside?"
"I wonder what was in the box Teacher took. I'll ask him when we get out..."
Ao's lips curved into a smile. The Three-Tomoe Sharingan appeared in his eyes as he carefully studied the entire box, occasionally wiping away some of the gel with his hand.
Thinking of the things the Second had researched, he felt a surge of excitement.
He quickly picked up both boxes, took out a scroll, and sealed them inside.
After moving the boxes aside,
Ao's Three-Tomoe Sharingan casually swept over the wall.
Suddenly, his expression changed. He focused his attention.
He noticed that the wall behind the boxes was slightly different from the surrounding area. On its smooth surface was a trace of Chakra fluctuation, almost invisible to the naked eye.
If not for the Sharingan's microscopic dynamic vision and its ability to sense genjutsu,
he wouldn't have spotted it!
Someone had tampered with the wall.
They had concealed it with genjutsu.
There was another space behind the wall!
Before you continue