Tailed Beast? Bring It On!

In that instant, Uchiha Retsuo experienced a massive surge of emotion. But he immediately bowed respectfully. "Lord Orochimaru, what did you summon me for?"

Uchiha Sen and Kumata both frowned deeply. They stepped forward despite themselves, shielding Retsuo. Orochimaru had never been well-liked by the Uchiha to begin with. On top of that, he radiated a cold, sinister aura from head to toe, and his long tongue would occasionally flick out and circle around, making him seem exceptionally wicked.

Seeing this, Retsuo thought to himself that confidence had its benefits. They were brave for no reason at all!

Orochimaru was already a bona fide Kage-level powerhouse, while Sen and Kumata were merely Jōnin. Between them and Kage-level stood an unbridgeable chasm.

Take Kakashi, who could supposedly go fifty-fifty with them. In the Original Timeline, he had been tasked with hunting down Orochimaru after his defection. Yet when he truly faced Orochimaru, he had been so frightened he could not move at all, cold sweat pouring down his face like a frog seeing a snake and waiting to die.

At that time, Kakashi had already been an Elite Jōnin who had survived countless life-and-death battles. He could have killed countless Three Tomoe Uchiha like Kumata.

Orochimaru practically ignored Sen and Kumata. He nimbly retracted his tongue and studied Retsuo behind them with interest. "A very valuable ability. Very similar to that of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, though somewhat weaker."

Then he revealed an amused expression. "But Lord Retsuo has not reported such a valuable ability to the Third Hokage. That truly is surprising."

"Because I could not determine what kind of ability it was either, Lord Orochimaru. I have been testing its uses these past few days, and only just confirmed it."

"Hehe, a perfect answer." Orochimaru became even more interested. Uchiha Sen and Kumata, who were far stronger, faced him as though confronting a great enemy and made futile preparations, while Uchiha Retsuo, a complete rookie, was open and composed.

They were not even in the same league in terms of bearing, let alone the fact that Uchiha Retsuo was only nine years old!

Orochimaru felt as though he were seeing Young Minato again.

An inexplicable feeling rose and faded within him. "Lord Retsuo, I specifically came to find you today over a private matter. A friend of mine wishes to meet you."

"A friend?" Uchiha Sen questioned first. "A friend from Root?"

"Of course not."

Orochimaru was still quite handsome at this stage, with less viciousness and more feminine softness on his face. Even when questioned with a sour expression by this weakling, he remained graceful. "He is a medical ninja who belongs to the Land of Fire but not Konohagakure. His name is Shinnō. A very interesting man."

"Why would a ninja unaffiliated with Konoha want to see—"

"I'll go." Retsuo abruptly interrupted Uchiha Sen's questioning.

"Retsuo, you can't!"

"No, it's too dangerous!"

Retsuo waved a hand as if nothing had happened. "Lord Orochimaru is absolutely trustworthy. Uncle Sen, Brother Kumata, you should return to the clan first."

He knew Orochimaru was definitely not lying. Otherwise, there would have been no need for him to mention Shinnō's existence.

Retsuo was interested in Shinnō as well.

Shinnō had once taught Orochimaru the Body Regeneration Secret Technique. He was also the master of Ancor Vantian, the leader of the Sky Ninja Village, and the creator of the Artificial Tailed Beast, Zero-Tails—a prime candidate for destroying Konoha.

Orochimaru definitely did not know about the latter three titles. If he had, he would never have introduced Shinnō to anyone. On the surface, Shinnō was merely a wandering ninja who possessed superb Medical Ninjutsu and was decent at Taijutsu. By Konoha's evaluation standards, he would probably be rated as a Special Jonin. In reality, he was one of the Shinobi World's great villainous schemers.

Since Orochimaru had said it was Shinnō, it would not be a trap. At least, not this time.

That was why Retsuo looked so certain. Even Orochimaru was shaken by that certainty. In Konoha, plenty of people feared him, and some hated him. There were those who wanted to use him, those who were deeply wary of him, those with mixed feelings toward him, and so on.

But the only one who trusted him was that eternally useless fool Jiraiya. Not even Tsunade could do so.

The two of them were relaxed along the way, and Retsuo chatted freely at Orochimaru's side.

Konoha was still undergoing major construction at the time. Ninjas occasionally dashed through the streets, their rapid footsteps drawing near and then fading away. Excited and numb faces came and went. As Retsuo and Orochimaru walked through the crowd, they somehow found a sense of tranquility amid the bustle.

Before long, Retsuo arrived at Orochimaru's mansion.

Many people did not know that Orochimaru had a home in Konoha. Not only did he have one, it was quite large. In the courtyard, strangely shaped rocks were entwined by sickly green Vine Entanglement, radiating an aura that warned strangers to keep away.

There was a hidden door beneath the rocks. Once opened, it led straight underground to a subterranean laboratory Orochimaru had carved out for himself, complete with extensive facilities.

Who knew why Orochimaru loved putting his laboratories underground so much? Shinnō was busy working inside.

At this time, Shinnō appeared to be only around forty. His features were proper, he was in his prime, and the hardships of life had yet to carve many wrinkles into his face. He was not wearing an old-man-style knit cap either, giving him a very upright impression.

When Retsuo saw him, Shinnō was holding a swaddled infant and feeding the baby milk.

The child was around half a year old. Her wrinkled little eyes were tightly shut, but sensing Retsuo's approach, she opened them and blinked.

After exchanging pleasantries, Shinnō gazed lovingly at the swaddling cloth and said, "This is Yuliu, the daughter of my dearest friend. Thanks to Lord Orochimaru, I was able to find her again. Otherwise, I would have failed my friend."

What a load of crap. If she were your dear friend's daughter, would you be raising her in an underground laboratory?

Besides, I had seen this episode before. She was the Zero-Tails Jinchuriki!

In truth, Yuliu was not an ordinary Jinchuriki. She was the candidate meant to "hatch" Zero-Tails—a living incubator. Retsuo remembered that when Shinnō finally made his move in the future, he planned to take Zero-Tails from Yuliu's body.

Zero-Tails was an aggregate of Dark Chakra. In Retsuo's understanding, it meant injecting negative emotions—negative Yin Release Chakra.

That was why Shinnō traveled the world, seeking out or creating despair and terror everywhere, then injecting them into Yuliu. It took more than ten years to nurture a monster like Zero-Tails.

At that moment, Shinnō's words successfully caught Retsuo's attention.

Orochimaru had helped him find the incubator?

Why had he not looked for one himself?

Watching Shinnō's kindly movements, a thought suddenly occurred to Retsuo. Perhaps Zero-Tails had extremely strict requirements for its Jinchuriki?

That made sense. Even selecting a Jinchuriki for an ordinary Tailed Beast was not as simple as grabbing any random strong man, let alone hatching an aggregate of negative emotions.

Was that why he needed someone as influential as Orochimaru to help him search? And in exchange, he taught Orochimaru the Body Regeneration Secret Technique?

Yuliu probably possessed some special aptitude. But what did that have to do with me?

Readers always question the timeline. It is written clearly in the chapter comments, yet no one reads it, so I will write it here. The following events occurred in the original work in this order:

1. Nine-Tails Night.

2. After the memorial ceremony, Kakashi joined ANBU and saw Yamato use Wood Release.

3. Hiruzen went to the capital of the Land of Fire. Danzo sent Yamato and several other Root members to assassinate Hiruzen, and Kakashi turned against them.

4. Hiruzen became Hokage again. Kakashi returned to ANBU, while Yamato remained in Root.

5. Danzo and Orochimaru continued their experiments, but both realized they were about to be exposed and began preparing contingencies.

6. Orochimaru defected.

The length of time between 5 and 6 has yet to be determined, but it was not short in any case.

When Orochimaru met the protagonist in this chapter, Hiruzen had not yet gone to the Land of Fire. Kakashi had just entered Root, placing it between 2 and 3. Hiruzen would not return from the Land of Fire until Chapter 34 of this book.

Additionally,

Over the next ten chapters, everyone will say I have fallen off.

But the logical chain behind this book's original Golden Finger is all contained within them.

I designed a very fun Golden Finger. I hope it can bring Esteemed Readers joy and laughter.

But it needs to be properly grounded.

I am a science student, so I have to extract raw materials from the original work to build this Golden Finger.

One must give rise to two, and two must give rise to three.

So I could not bear to change it.

If you lack patience, you can skip ahead and start reading from Chapter 29...

What I am ashamed of is that these ten chapters were not written engagingly enough, making them feel weak.

But with three daily updates right now, there is no time to revise them.

I will optimize them when I have time in the future...