The joy the peace talks had brought Konoha gradually faded from the village as time passed.
When the specific terms of the peace treaty began circulating among the villagers and shinobi, that joy vanished completely, and resentment began to fester beneath the surface.
Konoha had won the war against Iwagakure, yet as the victor, it had received almost no compensation.
The outcome dissatisfied the villagers at the bottom, drew complaints from the clans in the middle ranks, and placed the Konoha High Command under immense pressure.
Konoha had lost many shinobi in the war. The dead needed compensation for their families, their descendants needed care, and the disabled shinobi needed long-term support.
Not to mention the clans that had contributed so much. They had sacrificed many of their own and earned tremendous credit for the village, and they too were eager to receive compensation after the war.
All these expenses required a staggering sum of money.
Three years of war had not only drained Konoha's financial reserves, but had also left the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, who had continually funneled funds to Konoha from the rear, unable to provide any more support.
Under the circumstances, with no compensation forthcoming from Iwagakure, Konoha would visibly have to make its shinobi and villagers endure lean times over the coming years.
Many villagers and shinobi at the bottom might not have seen so far ahead, but with certain people spreading the word, rumors began circulating that the village would have to tighten its belt and live frugally in the future.
For a time, Konoha was awash with undercurrents and simmering resentment.
Faced with this situation, Danzo, now reincarnated as Hokage, remained as steady as a mountain, without the slightest anxiety.
The reason was simple.
Both the leaked details of the peace talks and the rumors spread by certain people had been deliberately arranged by Danzo.
His goal was to first stir up resentment among the shinobi and villagers, making them realize their interests were about to suffer, then direct all their anger and demands toward the outside threat: Hidden Cloud.
If they wanted adequate financial compensation, to protect their clans' interests, and to keep their future lives from being affected, then they had to unite and face their enemy together, defeat their final foe, Hidden Cloud, and recover all their losses from them.
That was Danzo's plan. It was nothing profound, but it was undoubtedly a very effective way to manipulate people.
Shiraishi had played no part in Danzo's schemes. He had simply guessed what Danzo was planning from the rumors in the village and a few subtle clues.
Shiraishi paid it little attention. When it came to Danzo and the war, all he wanted was the outcome, not the process.
That was also why Shiraishi had chosen to support Danzo instead of possessing the Third Hokage himself, or the future Fourth Hokage.
Managing an organization and planning a war both took time and effort.
He was a cultivator, a demonic cultivator—not some ambitious schemer. All he wanted was the large number of souls the war would bring, not direct control over a shinobi village and a nation.
At present, most of Shiraishi's attention was focused on Orochimaru's experiments.
Temporarily setting aside all his other research in the face of the allure of immortality, Orochimaru devoted all his time and energy to the cloning experiment.
Just as Orochimaru had initially predicted, cloning Shiraishi's body from that drop of essence blood was extremely difficult.
Over the course of a week, Orochimaru's many attempts had all ended in failure.
Fortunately, each failure gave Orochimaru more experience.
After spending an entire week and failing dozens of times, Orochimaru's experiment finally succeeded.
As soon as he received the message, Shiraishi hurried to Orochimaru's secret laboratory.
Inside a cylindrical cultivation tank filled with transparent green liquid, Shiraishi saw the successfully cultivated embryo.
Orochimaru stood beside the tank, explaining the process to Shiraishi.
"The blood you gave me is incredibly..." After a moment's thought, Orochimaru settled on a word. "Mysterious!"
"In my opinion, it's the complete opposite of the cells left behind by the First."
Whenever he spoke about his research, Orochimaru seemed to radiate a distinct brilliance, his eyes burning with an indescribable fervor.
Shiraishi said nothing. He listened quietly to Orochimaru's explanation, his eyes fixed on the embryo in the tank.
"Hashirama Cells possess an extraordinarily vigorous vitality. The moment they come into contact with nutrients or enter a living creature's body, they begin dividing and multiplying relentlessly. Their vitality is unprecedented."
"The blood you gave me is the exact opposite. It contains some kind of powerful energy, but unlike Hashirama Cells, it isn't active."
"It took a lot of experiments before I figured out why."
"This blood has a vigorous vitality too. The only reason it isn't active is that it's been in a constant state of energy deficiency."
As he spoke, Orochimaru pointed at the embryo in the cultivation tank and continued, "Look. Once I put it in the tank and added a large amount of nutrient solution, its powerful vitality began to manifest."
Shiraishi nodded. Through his spiritual sense, he could feel the embryo's vigorous vitality.
"But our experiment has run into another problem: the nutrient solution we have now can't provide enough nourishment for the embryo to develop." Orochimaru brought up the new obstacle he faced.
"Since I put it in the tank, I've already replenished the nutrient solution five times in less than a day, and each time, I've had to refill it sooner than before."
"If this continues, the nutrient solution will soon be completely insufficient. Without enough nourishment, the embryo might die or fall dormant and stop growing."
Orochimaru gazed at the embryo in the tank, his voice filled with wonder. "It's hard to imagine how powerful the owner of this blood must be. Even a cloned embryo requires such a vast amount of energy. It's like a bottomless pit that can never be filled."
"So, as long as we provide enough nourishment for the embryo to grow, there won't be any other problems?" Shiraishi asked.
Orochimaru looked at Shiraishi. "That's how it seems."
"I'll take care of it," Shiraishi said calmly.
"How do you plan to do that? The nutrient solution I have is already the most advanced in the entire Shinobi World. For ordinary creatures, a single tankful can last them for months," Orochimaru asked curiously.
Shiraishi stepped forward and placed a hand against the glass wall of the cultivation tank. A faint smile appeared on his face.
"If the nutrient solution doesn't have enough nutrients, then we'll find some shinobi to feed it instead." Shiraishi said it so calmly that his words sent a chill down the spine.
Orochimaru's pupils narrowed into slits. As a mad scientist, he had no moral qualms. What interested him now was what method Shiraishi would use to feed the shinobi to the embryo inside.
Shiraishi looked at Orochimaru and pointed at the cultivation tank. "If I inscribe some talismans on this, it won't damage it, will it?"
"As long as you don't damage the tank itself, it won't affect anything." Orochimaru's curiosity only grew.
"Stay right here. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back," Shiraishi said at last, then turned and walked out of the laboratory.
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