After a month away, Fugaku found Konoha more prosperous than ever. Crowds streamed through its gates, and people from the surrounding Small Nations came to post missions.
Traveling Merchants were everywhere. Cartloads of goods rolled in and out, and a village built as an armed force had become something of a commercial center for the Land of Fire.
Konoha had been different from the Four Great Ninja Villages since its founding. Cloud, Mist, Sand, and Stone saw little commercial activity.
Konoha, by contrast, handled some of the Land of Fire's trade.
Fugaku went home first to see his child. Itachi had changed little in the past month and still spent most of each day asleep.
Now and then, he babbled to himself, making Fugaku want to burst out laughing.
A Security Force member appeared outside the courtyard. Fugaku frowned and went out to meet him.
"Clan Head, the Hokage would like to discuss something with you."
"All right. You can go. I'll be there shortly."
Fugaku vanished with the Body Flicker Technique. Two minutes later, he reached the Hokage Building, knocked, and went in. Orochimaru was alone in the office, reading intelligence reports.
"Fugaku, it's been a month. How is your Ninjutsu development going?"
"Well enough. If you could set aside your work and collaborate with me, I think we could perfect Impure World Reincarnation within half a year.
"I've run hundreds of experiments this month and simplified quite a few Formulas."
Orochimaru looked surprised. Fugaku had killed no small number of Ninja over the years—perhaps eight thousand, if not ten thousand.
But Orochimaru knew Fugaku had never been one to slaughter innocents. Even when he had conducted Human Experimentation, he had used Wandering Ninja or Bandits.
A gleam appeared in Orochimaru's eyes. The mention of Human Experimentation had plainly