Tobirama's Legacy

Half a month later.

Inside an underground secret base discovered in the wilderness.

Kimura Takuya was so excited he danced around.

The equipment here might have looked old, but it could all be called the pinnacle of Ninja World technology.

He was increasingly certain this was Tobirama's secret laboratory.

Even after several decades, the equipment was every bit as advanced as anything sold on the market.

Only the designs looked outdated. In its day, this had certainly been state-of-the-art equipment.

So it had to be worth a fortune. The only people who could have built a secret laboratory like this and then abandoned it so casually were Orochimaru and Tobirama.

Though calling it abandoned would be less accurate than calling it forgotten.

Much of the equipment here was still in use.

Even the energy systems, which drew power from geothermal heat, were still running.

They had never been shut down, so this couldn't have been abandoned deliberately.

It was more like the place had been waiting for its owner, ready to be used the moment he returned.

And the Second Hokage's death had come unexpectedly.

So this was the secret laboratory of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. Tobirama had met with Cloud Village during the war to negotiate peace, only to suffer a fatal mishap, leaving this laboratory behind.

Judging by the signs of use, this seemed to have been Tobirama's personal laboratory. There was no evidence that anyone else had used it.

Even without looking at the signs of use, the research materials here made it obvious.

Tobirama would never have let anyone else know about this laboratory.

Not even his elder brother, the First, Hashirama.

Hashirama would never have tolerated Tobirama's reckless research into every bloodline user in the village.

If these research materials were exposed, they might well cause Konoha to collapse from within.

As early as the Warring States Period, Tobirama had specifically studied how Water Release could counter the Uchiha's specialty, Fire Release. He had even developed the Flying Thunder God to counter the Sharingan.

After Konoha was founded, Tobirama had likewise studied the techniques and Kekkei Genkai of every shinobi clan.

These were the materials stored here.

Looking through them, Kimura Takuya couldn't help exclaiming that Tobirama was a genius. He had prepared a way to counter almost every secret technique and bloodline ability.

And the materials didn't just cover Konoha; they included techniques from other shinobi villages as well. Some research had been completed, while the rest remained only theories.

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

What a waste of a brilliant mind!

"Then allow me to help you fulfill your ultimate dream!"

There was no explanation of what Tobirama's ultimate dream had been, but every piece of research here revealed his ambition.

As Kimura Takuya understood it, Tobirama's ambition had been to wipe out every shinobi village and bring unity to the Ninja World!

Kimura Takuya had once had some ideas of his own, though they were simple.

He only wanted to survive. Whoever came for him, he wouldn't let them kill him.

It didn't matter if they were from the Uchiha clan or the Otsutsuki.

Don't mess with me. If you do, I'll kill you!

But he had never had any grand ambitions. He only knew that even his original goal required him to become the strongest in the Ninja World.

Now, he felt that his original goal was almost within reach. Before, it had still seemed a long way off.

But after inheriting Tobirama's legacy, he had leaped forward on the path to becoming stronger.

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

As he pondered, a voice sounded in his mind.

"Boss Tuoye, where are you?"

"What is it? Something happened?"

"Danzo has again ordered me to assassinate Yakumo Kurama."

"Then have the brothers get ready. We're starting the Root-Cutting Plan. We've already finished modifying everyone we can trust over the past few days, and the Cursed Seals of the Tongue have been removed. Has everyone mastered Beastman Form?"

"Other than the two who were modified just yesterday, all 62 of us, including me, have mastered it."

"Good. First, spread the story that the Root's shinobi training base is the Bloody Mist Village. Emphasize the orphans whose parents sacrificed themselves for the village, and how the Root made them assassinate one another. That'll be the first step. We'll see how things develop before moving on."

"Understood."

The mental communication ended. He put it out of his mind and continued working to absorb the legacy Tobirama had left behind.

In his eyes, Danzo was already a dead man. The only question was when he would die.

The moment Danzo ordered Yakumo Kurama's assassination, Kimura Takuya had sentenced him to death.

And that was before he learned what had happened after his brothers and sisters had their Cursed Seals of the Tongue removed.

He had planned to wait a little longer, until he had made some initial progress in developing Sage Mode.

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

Then he'd send him on his way first.

Once the Root was disbanded, Kimura Takuya would fold the Spark Society into the Anbu that Tsunade was building.

He would first support Tsunade until she secured her position, then take over when the time was right.

It wasn't that he particularly wanted to be Hokage. At most, it was just being the village chief.

Kimura Takuya simply felt that by then, he would have reached the peak of strength. If he didn't become Hokage, no one else would dare take the position.

Within a few days.

Rumors spread through the taverns of Konoha.

People said that Shimura Danzo, Hokage Advisor of Konoha, had arranged for the orphans of heroes to kill one another for his amusement.

Worse, he had deceived those orphans into doing things that served his own private interests.

There was a pair of siblings whose parents had both died as heroes protecting the village.

The brother and sister had both joined the Root, believing they were carrying on their parents' legacy of protecting the village.

Instead, they had been forced to do all kinds of dirty work. That might have been understandable—after all, how could there be light without darkness?

But then the younger sister had been forced to use her body to gather intelligence.

She was a powerful kunoichi, yet she had been sent to a foreign tycoon to be abused and humiliated. She couldn't resist in the slightest; she had to greet him with a smile.

Meanwhile, her brother had to stand guard outside the door for that beast, making sure no one interrupted his pleasure.

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

But Danzo said that the beast was still useful to Konoha, and told them not to touch him. They had to put Konoha first.

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

At first, people found the rumor strange. The village had specialists for intelligence-gathering missions.

There was no need to sacrifice a kunoichi like that.

People questioned the storyteller, who then continued with the second half of the story.

Not long after the siblings swallowed their anger, they accidentally discovered that Danzo had used the intelligence they'd gathered to seize the tycoon's fortune.

The tycoon was a beast, but he was also a talented businessman. Danzo had spared him only so he could keep making money for him.

From the very beginning, this had nothing to do with the village. Konoha had gained nothing; only Danzo had profited.

Danzo had used those profits to expand the Root, hoping to stand against the Hokage's Anbu.

Konoha did have an Interrogation Squad that could extract information directly from an enemy's mind. There was no need to make a kunoichi sacrifice herself like that.

But the Interrogation Squad, whose members knew interrogation techniques, answered directly to the Hokage. They weren't under the Hokage Advisor's command.

Danzo had done this to serve his own secret aims. He couldn't let the Hokage find out.

That was why he had sacrificed the kunoichi to get what he wanted.

The people who heard this were in an uproar.

But the story wasn't over yet.