Tobirama's Legacy

Half a month later.

Inside a secret underground base discovered in the wilderness.

Kimura Takuya danced with excitement.

Although the equipment here looked old, it could be said that they were the pinnacle products of technology in the Ninja World.

He became increasingly certain that this was Senju Tobirama's secret laboratory.

Even after several decades, the level of sophistication of this equipment was no less than what was currently sold on the market.

While the exterior designs appeared dated, they were undoubtedly the most cutting-edge devices of their time.

Therefore, they must be worth a fortune; aside from Orochimaru, only Tobirama would be capable of setting up such a secret laboratory and abandoning it so easily.

And to say it was abandoned would be more accurate to say it was forgotten.

Many things here were still in a state of readiness.

Including the energy equipment powered by geothermal heat, which had been running the entire time.

It hadn't been shut down at all, so it couldn't have been an active abandonment.

Instead, it was as if it had been waiting for its master, ready to be used the moment they returned.

And the death of the Second Hokage happened to be a sudden, unforeseen event.

Thus, this was the secret laboratory of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, and because Tobirama met with an accident during peace talks with the Cloud Village during the war, this laboratory was left behind just like that.

Moreover, judging by the signs of use, this laboratory appeared to be Tobirama's personal space, with no traces of a second person ever using it.

Even without looking at the traces, one only needed to look at the research data here.

One could tell that Tobirama would never have let a second person know about this laboratory.

Not even his older brother, the First Hokage Hashirama, would have been allowed to know.

Because Hashirama would never have tolerated Tobirama researching all the Kekkei Genkai ninjas in the village so unscrupulously.

If the research data here were exposed, it would likely cause Konoha to collapse from within.

As early as the Warring States period, in order to deal with the Uchiha, Tobirama specifically researched Water Style to counter the Uchiha's specialty, Fire Style, and even developed the Flying Thunder God to counter the Sharingan.

After the founding of Konoha, Tobirama similarly researched the ninjutsu or Kekkei Genkai of all ninja clans.

What existed here was precisely that data.

Looking at this information, Kimura Takuya couldn't help but exclaim that he was a genius; for almost every secret technique or Kekkei Genkai ability, Tobirama had prepared a method to break it.

It even included not just Konoha, but the ninjutsu of other ninja villages as well, though some were completed while others remained mere hypotheses.

After all, Tobirama died young; if he had lived longer, his achievements would have far surpassed Hashirama's.

Alas, heaven is jealous of talent!

"Then, let me help you complete your ultimate dream!"

What Tobirama's ultimate dream was, there was no explanation here, but all the research in this place revealed his ambition everywhere.

According to Kimura Takuya's understanding, Tobirama's ambition was to level all ninja villages and achieve peace in the Ninja World!

Kimura Takuya originally had some ideas of his own, but his thoughts were very simple.

He just wanted to survive; no matter who came, they shouldn't even think about making him die.

Whether you are surnamed Uchiha or surnamed Otsutsuki.

Don't come to provoke me; if you do, then die!

But he never had any grand ideas; he only knew that even with his original goals, he had to become the strongest in the Ninja World.

Now he felt that his original goal was almost achieved; it might have seemed very far away before.

But after inheriting Tobirama's legacy, his path to becoming the strongest had taken a giant leap forward.

So he felt that perhaps he could do a little more.

While he was thinking, a voice came into his mind.

"Boss Takuya, where are you?"

"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

"Danzo is urging me again to assassinate Yakumo Kurama."

"Then have the brothers prepare; start the Root-Cutting Plan. In any case, all the trustworthy people have been modified over the past few days, and the Cursed Seal of the Tongue has been removed. Has everyone mastered the Beastman Form?"

"Except for the two who just underwent modification yesterday, the other 62 people, including myself, have all mastered it."

"Good. First, publicize the Root ninja training base as the Bloody Mist Village, focusing on the orphans whose parents sacrificed themselves for the village, only to be arranged by Root to assassinate each other. Let's start with this first step; once things develop, we will proceed to the next."

"Understood."

The mental communication in his mind ended, and he stopped thinking about these matters, continuing to work hard to digest the legacy left by Tobirama.

In his eyes, Shimura Danzō was already a dead man; the only question was when he would die.

From the moment Shimura Danzō ordered the assassination of Yakumo Kurama, Kimura Takuya had already sentenced him to death.

This was especially true after he learned the truth upon removing the Cursed Seal of the Tongue from his brothers and sisters.

He had originally intended to wait a little longer, until his Sage Mode was initially developed, before making his move.

But he hadn't expected Shimura Danzō to be in such a hurry to die.

In that case, he would send him on his way first.

After the dissolution of Root, Kimura Takuya would merge the Spark Society into the new Anbu established by Tsunade.

He would first support Tsunade in securing her position, and once the time was ripe, he would take over.

It wasn't that he had a burning desire to be Hokage; at most, it was just a village chief position.

It was simply that Kimura Takuya felt that by then, his strength would surely have reached the pinnacle, and if he didn't take the seat, no one else would dare to.

Within a few days.

Rumors were flying through every tavern in Konoha.

Some whispered that the Konoha advisor Shimura Danzō had been arranging for the orphans of heroes to kill one another for his own amusement.

Not only that, but he had also deceived these orphans into performing tasks to satisfy his own private interests.

Among them was a pair of siblings whose parents were both heroes who had sacrificed themselves for the village.

Both siblings had entered Root, believing they were inheriting their parents' will to protect the village.

Instead, they were forced to perform all sorts of dirty, black-ops work. That might have been acceptable—after all, how could there be light without darkness?

But then, the sister was forced to use her body to gather intelligence.

Despite being a powerful ninja, she was handed over to a foreign tycoon to be humiliated and tortured, forbidden from offering the slightest resistance and forced to greet him with a smile.

As for the brother, he had to stand guard outside the door to ensure no one disturbed that beast's pleasure.

Afterward, the siblings obtained the intelligence and wanted to kill the foreign beast.

But Shimura Danzō told them that the beast was still useful to Konoha, ordering the siblings not to touch him and to put Konoha first.

For the sake of Konoha, the siblings chose to endure.

At first, when people heard this rumor, they found it strange, as the village clearly had professional ninjas specialized in gathering intelligence.

There was no need to sacrifice a female ninja in such a way.

People questioned the storyteller, and then they heard the second half of the story.

After the siblings swallowed their pride, it wasn't long before they accidentally discovered that Shimura Danzō had used the intelligence they gathered to seize the tycoon's assets.

And while that tycoon was a beast, he possessed great business acumen; Shimura Danzō didn't kill him simply to keep him making money.

From the very beginning, this matter had nothing to do with the village; the village gained no benefits, and the only one who profited was Shimura Danzō.

Shimura Danzō used the profits he gained to cultivate his Root, attempting to rival the Hokage's Anbu.

So, while Konoha did indeed have a Torture and Interrogation Force that could extract intelligence directly from an enemy's brain without needing to sacrifice a female ninja, that unit was under the direct command of the Hokage and could not be deployed by a Hokage advisor.

Shimura Danzō had done this to achieve his own ulterior motives, and he could not let the Hokage know about it.

That was why he sacrificed the female ninja to achieve his goals.

After hearing all this, the public was in an uproar.

But the story didn't end there.