The Daimyo's Loving Father

After rescuing Karin, Lin Chongshu did not hesitate for long.

He took Jugo and Karin's mother and daughter westward according to the address Orochimaru had left behind, heading for the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind.

To make the act convincing, before setting out, he told Jugo and Karin's mother and daughter that he had found a place where he could fulfill his ideals. He would go there, grow stronger, and then kill Rasa.

He asked whether they were willing to help him.

They agreed without even thinking. Seeing their reaction, Lin Chongshu wondered whether they even knew who Rasa was.

The hideout Orochimaru had given him was located on the Land of Rain's side near the Land of Wind, its entrance concealed within an isolated oasis.

Lin Chongshu had already made up a backstory for himself before coming.

He came from the clan of the Third Kazekage, and his Magnet Release had been inherited through his bloodline.

After the Third Kazekage was assassinated, Fourth Hokage Rasa rose to power on the merits he had earned during the Third Shinobi World War, but the transition of power had not gone smoothly.

Some members of their clan had been secretly purged by Rasa. Rasa had also tried to kill him amid Shukaku's rampage, but he had reacted in time and barely escaped with his life.

Half of that story was true and half false. His connection to the Third Kazekage was false, but Sunagakure's power struggle was real, and so was Rasa's pursuit of him.

He even added a final line: "As long as I can have my revenge, I'm willing to give my life."

Orochimaru did not ask any further questions after hearing it.

Lin Chongshu's willingness to come on his own was already enough to pass his test. Besides, the information Orochimaru had gathered on Lin Chongshu lined up with the story.

The hideout was not large. Orochimaru led Lin Chongshu around it once, and the people inside were divided into two groups.

One group consisted of rogue ninja he had brought out of the Hidden Leaf Village. There were currently around twenty stationed at the base, mostly chunin. There were not many jonin, but they were the core fighting force.

The other group consisted of war orphans gathered from various small countries. Seventy or eighty of them were crammed into the lower level of the base, receiving basic ninjutsu training every day.

Lin Chongshu looked over both groups several times but did not spot a single familiar face.

After spending a day adapting to the environment, Lin Chongshu followed Orochimaru straight into the laboratory.

The laboratory was at the very bottom of the base. Jugo was assigned quarters beside it for convenient blood draws and cell sample collection.

His physique was naturally perfect experimental material. He could freely control his cells and even absorb the cells of others to replenish himself.

Lin Chongshu told Orochimaru that he relied on his chakra reserves to control the Sage Body. As long as chakra and natural energy remained balanced, he could prevent himself from losing control.

Orochimaru merely nodded after hearing that. He had actually learned this back at Ryūchi Cave, but he was still somewhat surprised that Lin Chongshu had figured out the principle on his own.

Orochimaru selected a group of the youngest war orphans, injected them with Jugo's bodily fluids, and observed their reactions.

Lin Chongshu was responsible for recording every subject's body temperature changes, degree of skin mutation, and time before berserk transformation.

Karin followed behind him, helping organize the records, pass test tubes, and mark sample numbers.

She learned quickly and worked meticulously. Orochimaru occasionally taught her things himself as well.

In his eyes, Karin's talent far surpassed her mother's. If properly trained, she could eventually handle the medical support for an entire experimental group on her own.

The first batch of test subjects all died within two weeks.

The youngest lasted five days, while the oldest lasted twelve.

After each one died, Lin Chongshu was responsible for performing the autopsy, recording the cause of death, compiling the report, and practicing the Mystical Palm Technique along the way.

There was more to life in the hideout than research. Half a month later, Orochimaru assigned him another task.

Every so often, Orochimaru received a batch of assassination lists. The targets were officials and important merchants from various countries.

He did not say who had issued the jobs, but Lin Chongshu knew perfectly well.

The underground dealings between Orochimaru and Shimura Danzō had begun back in their Hidden Leaf Village days. Danzo provided Orochimaru with protection and intelligence, while Orochimaru dealt with those people Danzo could not conveniently target under the Hidden Leaf Village's name.

For his first assassination mission, Orochimaru personally took him along.

The target was the younger brother of the Land of Rivers' daimyo, who lived in a manor near the Land of Rivers' border.

When the two infiltrated the place, the man was in bed with one of his concubines.

Lin Chongshu stood beside the bed, a kunai in his hand, looking down at the naked middle-aged man.

The man scrambled off the bed and dropped to his knees, clutching Lin Chongshu's feet. He said that if Lin Chongshu spared him, all his women would belong to Lin Chongshu, all his money would belong to Lin Chongshu, and he could give him anything.

Lin Chongshu glanced at the cream puff on the bed. "I'm a germaphobe!"

After saying that, he killed them both.

After that first time, Orochimaru was rarely needed for later missions.

Lin Chongshu led the teams alone, occasionally bringing Karin with him. Using the intelligence Orochimaru provided, he cleared the names off the lists one after another.

He assassinated merchants, officials, and distant relatives of daimyos from small countries.

At first, Lin Chongshu had been astonished. The intelligence gathered by Orochimaru and Danzo was absurdly precise. They knew even the targets' schedules and the number of guards they had.

Moreover, despite killing so many people, he had not encountered a single truly powerful opponent.

But after enough killings, he gradually figured it out. Some questions that had puzzled him when he read the original story also found their answers.

For example, mission rankings. When he had read the original story, he had always felt something was off. Team Kakashi's first escort mission had been C-Rank, only temporarily raised to A-Rank because they encountered Zabuza.

That meant a rogue ninja at Zabuza's level was only barely enough to meet the threshold for an A-Rank Mission.

Who was Zabuza? One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, an elite ninja ranked near the top of Kirigakure, someone who specialized in carrying out difficult missions for successive Mizukage. He might not have ranked in Kirigakure's top ten, but top fifty was guaranteed.

Yet Jiraiya had completed six hundred and fourteen A-Rank Missions and one hundred and thirty-eight S-Rank Missions. Tsunade had completed four hundred and eighteen A-Rank Missions and ninety-five S-Rank Missions. Orochimaru had completed four hundred and ninety-one A-Rank Missions and one hundred and eight S-Rank Missions.

Between just those three, they had nearly killed two thousand rogue ninja at Zabuza's level.

Where in the entire shinobi world were there that many Zabuzas?

Then there was Hayate Gekkō, who had been instantly defeated by Baki in one move. He had completed ninety-six A-Rank Missions, which was roughly equivalent to killing a hundred Zabuzas.

That was clearly unreasonable. Even inflation was not that absurd.

Mission rankings were tied to the bounty. Those capable of issuing high-level missions were wealthy daimyos or merchants.

Those S-Rank and A-Rank Missions were not really about killing people. They were a disguised way of offering tribute to ninja.

Before the Sage of Six Paths founded the Ninja Sect, daimyos and samurai had been the lords of this land.

After the Ninja Sect emerged, ninja began to widen the gap with their extraordinary individual strength. Fighting ten or even a hundred people alone was commonplace.

But although ninja had gained power, they had always remained scattered, fighting each other endlessly for a thousand years and posing no substantial threat to the daimyos' rule.

Until a genius emerged in the Land of Fire—the loving father of all daimyos, Hashirama Senju.