After reflecting for a moment, the Third Hokage ordered the ANBU to cordon off the area and began carefully reading through the journal.
The journal recorded the process of developing Hashirama cells in detail. Some of those details made the Third frown deeply. The Root under Danzo was even darker than he had imagined, and the measures they had taken to develop forbidden techniques were even more deranged than Orochimaru's.
It was fair to say that every advance in the research had come at the cost of a test subject's life.
Yet what interested him more than Danzo's crimes was the nearly perfect transplantation procedure mentioned in the journal. Simply implanting a seed in the body would allow Hashirama cells to integrate perfectly.
Unfortunately, Danzo's body had deteriorated beyond recovery, leaving him unable to complete the final experiment.
The final entries also mentioned that transplanting Hashirama cells had rejuvenated his body by ten to twenty years.
Everything recorded in this journal was an immense temptation to the Third: a stronger body, restored youth, and even the ability to wield the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai.
The Third could disregard the other benefits, but faced with the temptation of regaining his youth, he hesitated...
His aging body had not only weakened his physical abilities, but also severely dulled his reflexes. For a ninja, that was undoubtedly fatal.
If he were ten or twenty years younger, he might not be able to defeat the Akatsuki Leader, but protecting himself would pose no problem.
But that would require implanting that seed of obviously unknown origin. Could Danzo's strange behavior lately truly have nothing to do with it?
Bringing someone who had spent so long in the darkness into the spotlight hardly seemed like a good thing.
The Third sensed a conspiracy behind this series