By the time the man had gone far away, Hashihime had already untied her ropes and was flexing her hands. These bindings posed no challenge to Shinsei either; escaping ropes was a required subject at the Ninja Academy.
A few seconds later, the ropes fell from Shinsei's body.
He formed hand seals, and two more Shinseis appeared beside him. The two exchanged a look, and one of the newly appeared Shinseis continued forming hand seals, turning into a bound Shinsei.
The other new Shinsei turned into a rat and slipped out beneath the door.
Hashihime also created a shadow clone, which turned into a small snake and slithered out.
Hashihime draped the ropes over herself to look as though she was tied up, leaned into a corner, and whispered:
"Come here. A mother and son should stay together. Why would they sit so far apart?"
The shadow clone Shinsei looked at the original, then walked over and leaned beside Hashihime, while the original found a corner and formed hand seals to conceal himself.
The rat quietly followed the man.
Knock, knock, knock. The man knocked on a door.
"Who is it?" A raspy male voice came from inside.
"Lord Kakumoto, it's me. Two new materials arrived tonight."
"Give them to me tomorrow. Disturb my sleep over something like this again, and I'll slaughter you!" The raspy voice was clearly impatient.
"Understood, my lord! It won't happen again!" The vicious-looking man bowed respectfully toward the door.
"Get lost!"
Wiping away cold sweat, the man even slowed his steps as he quietly walked away.
With a creak, the door opened. The vicious-looking man looked at the mother and son huddled together in the corner and snarled:
"Make any noise, and I'll slaughter you!"
The rat in the corridor dispersed in a puff of smoke, and Shinsei shook his head.
"I found Tarō Kakumoto's room," Shinsei said quietly as he walked over to Hashihime.
"Did you memorize the hand seals for opening the barrier?" Hashihime whispered.
"I did, but I don't know barrier ninjutsu. Do you?"
"What a coincidence. Neither do I!" Hashihime smiled. "We'll slip out with them the next time they open it. That man just now didn't look very skilled."
Shinsei nodded. From the man's gait and mannerisms alone, he could tell that he had received no rigorous training. He could refine chakra, but probably knew only a few ninjutsu. There was a qualitative gap between him and Konoha's Anbu, which was also what gave the Anbu confidence when carrying out missions. Outside the Five Great Shinobi Villages, other shinobi were clearly lacking in both the ninjutsu they knew and the training they received.
Hashihime stirred and said:
"I found Tarō Kakumoto's collaborator. He's sleeping in a room."
"Should we make our move?"
"No, not until we've regrouped with the captain and the others. I'm no assassination expert."
Hashihime took out a sealing scroll, formed hand seals, and retrieved a sheet of white paper and a pencil from it.
The pencil moved swiftly across the paper, sketching a thin, middle-aged man wearing a medical coat, with messy hair.
"This is the researcher in another room. It looks like he's the one in contact with Tarō Kakumoto."
"Can you determine his strength?" Shinsei asked quietly.
"I can't be certain, but judging from experience, he doesn't have much chakra."
If that was the case, their main opponent would be the former Konoha jonin, Tarō Kakumoto.
There were five people on their side. Captain Wood Kite was confirmed to have jonin-level strength. Although Hashihime specialized in medical treatment, she was at least at chunin level. Giant Beast should be around special jōnin level, and although Goat was a sensory ninja, he also had chunin-level strength.
With their intelligence on Tarō Kakumoto as well, it shouldn't be much of a problem.
Shinsei continued creating shadow clones, turning them into rats to gather intelligence on the base.
The rats roamed quietly through the base.
The horrific conditions inside shocked him.
Although he had always known about human experimentation, seeing it in reality still made Shinsei's stomach heave.
One room was filled with piles of bones, while another held over a dozen men and women, young and old, covered in wounds.
In a hall, the bodies of over a dozen children floated inside glass tanks.
Afraid of causing an epidemic, the base's owner had filled one room with charred remains.
He had always known how cruel the shinobi world was, but the twelve peaceful years since his rebirth in Konoha had left that cruelty as something he knew only on paper. Even though he knew about the Uchiha Clan Massacre, without witnessing it himself, it had always felt as though a veil separated him from it.
Everything he now saw with his own eyes filled Shinsei's heart with anger.
Peace!
The peace Madara Uchiha yearned for, the peace Hashirama Senju yearned for, the peace Pain yearned for, the peace Uchiha Itachi yearned for.
How could peace be so easy to obtain!
The peace Naruto Uzumaki proposed, achieved through mutual understanding between people, was probably no more than flowers reflected in water and the moon in a mirror.
A great man had once said that peace sought through struggle would endure, while peace sought through compromise would perish.
In his previous life, it was only after the Flower-Growing Nation had grown its great mushrooms that it finally enjoyed peace undisturbed.
Shinsei did not know how the shinobi world could achieve peace. He was still too weak, too young, and stood too low.
Setting aside his heavy thoughts, Shinsei began conserving his strength, waiting for an opportunity.
A yawn alerted the two people in the room.
"Go buy some food. There isn't much left in the base," the vicious-looking man's voice rang out in the corridor.
"Fine. It's always me!" a young male voice complained.
The door opened, and the vicious-looking man walked inside.
"Get up! Come with me!"
"You need the woman too?" A young man with a scarred face poked his head through the doorway.
"No choice. We're short on materials." The vicious-looking man rapped on the door. "Hurry up! Don't make me get rough!"
Shinsei glanced at Hashihime, and the two stood up.
A spider quietly jumped onto the scar-faced man's shoulder and hid inside his collar.
With ropes bound around them, Shinsei and Hashihime followed behind the vicious-looking man.
As they went deeper down the corridor, a faint stench made Shinsei's stomach churn. He did not hold it back and began dry-heaving. That was how a normal person would react.
The vicious-looking man sneered and silently led the way.
The three made their way to the hall, where Shinsei looked around in horror at the glass tanks containing human bodies.
A thin, middle-aged man in a white coat was writing something at a table.
"Lord Kazuo, these are the new materials."
Kazuo raised his head and scratched his messy hair.
"Why are there only two? And one's a woman?"
"My lord, it's really hard to catch people. There are very few outsiders left. All that's left are locals!"
"I don't care! There aren't enough materials, and the experiment has reached a critical stage!" His face full of anger, Kazuo turned and shouted toward a room nearby, "Tarō Kakumoto!"
The door opened, and Tarō Kakumoto walked out.
"Then we'll take people from the town. I'll go myself. How many more do you need?"
"Fifty? No, another hundred!"
"That many?" Tarō Kakumoto grew angry too. "You originally said a few dozen would be enough. It's already been over a hundred. Do you know how dangerous it would be to take another hundred or more?"
"Materials! Materials! Materials!" Kazuo tore at his hair in anguish. "There aren't enough materials! The data won't line up!"
"I'll give you another fifty!" Tarō Kakumoto rubbed his brow. "I hope these fifty produce some results and let me meet Lord Orochimaru!"
"Once there are results, you'll naturally get to meet him." Kazuo picked up his pen and continued writing and drawing. "How can I introduce you to Lord Orochimaru without any research results? Who knows whether you're a Konoha spy!"
"You'll find out." Tarō Kakumoto looked at Shinsei and Hashihime. "Take them to Laboratory Two."
"Yes, Lord Kakumoto." The vicious-looking man bowed respectfully.
A rat crept closer, intending to follow the vicious-looking man.
Tarō Kakumoto suddenly sniffed, his expression turning grave as his hands began forming seals.
Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!
Balls of flame spewed from Tarō Kakumoto's mouth, rushing toward the rat on the floor.
Damn it! We've been exposed!
Shinsei pushed his hands outward, and the ropes fell away.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall!
A wall of water surged up, spinning as it blocked off the flames.
Boom, boom, boom!
The fireballs exploded against the water wall, erupting into huge bursts of firelight.