"The Wood Release puppet is yours now," Kenji said, glancing at Danzō. "I hope we'll have chances to work together again in the future."
He turned to leave.
"Wait. We can continue our cooperation."
Kenji stopped but didn't turn around immediately.
Danzō continued, "But first, remove what you left in my heart. Then we'll discuss the details of our partnership."
He was pointing at his chest. The iron sand that Kenji had embedded near his heart during their first confrontation. It was a little insurance policy to make sure Danzō didn't get any ideas about forcing him into Root service.
Kenji said nothing. He simply raised his hand and made a gesture.
Blood erupted from Danzō's chest in a sudden spray. A clump of black iron sand tore through skin and muscle, bursting out of his body and clattering to the floor.
The Root operatives reacted instantly. Masks turned toward Kenji, hands moving to weapons. Within seconds, he was surrounded by drawn blades, a dozen elite ninjas ready to cut him down on their commander's order.
"Stand down." Danzō clutched his chest, blood seeping between his fingers, but his expression remained hard as iron. "I'm fine. Lower your weapons."
The Root operatives hesitated for maybe half a second, then obeyed. Blades disappeared back into sheaths. The circle around Kenji loosened but didn't completely disperse. Only after his subordinates backed off did Danzō turn his full attention back to Kenji. His breathing was slightly labored from the pain.
"Tell me something. Do you know the name Uchiha Madara?"
Of course Kenji knew. Everyone who'd paid attention in the Academy knew the basics. But he kept his expression neutral and gave the kind of answer someone with only surface-level knowledge would provide.
"Uchiha Madara? I know a bit. They say he founded Konoha together with the First Hokage, but later they had some kind of falling out. And he left the village."
Danzō nodded slowly, seemingly satisfied with the response. He pressed a hand more firmly against his chest wound and began speaking, "That's right. He and the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, were contemporaries. Konoha was founded through an alliance between the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan. The First Hokage led the Senju, and Madara led the Uchiha."
He paused, either for dramatic effect or because talking while bleeding from a chest wound was uncomfortable. "But the two men who built the village together eventually turned on each other. Their ideologies couldn't be reconciled. They fought a battle at the Valley of the End. The First Hokage killed Madara, but he was gravely wounded in the process. He died not long after."
Something changed in his eye as he said the next part. "Madara possessed power that could rival the 'God of Shinobi' himself. Power that stood equal to the Wood Release. And that power came from the Uchiha clan's bloodline limit."
He leaned forward slightly, ignoring the way the movement made blood flow faster from his wound.
"The Sharingan."
Kenji let a look of curiosity cross his face, playing the part of someone hearing interesting new information.
"But I've heard the current Uchiha clan has plenty of jonin and isn't weak overall. Yet none of them have reached Kage-level strength, right? Does that mean the Sharingan has some kind of secret that isn't widely known?"
"The Uchiha clan is cursed," Danzō said. "They're born with darkness in their hearts. The more hatred they feel, the more pain and loss they experience, the stronger their Sharingan becomes. The First Hokage was too merciful. He should have eliminated them when he had the chance. Instead, he left Konoha with a threat."
Kenji kept his expression neutral, but internally he was rolling his eyes.
Danzō's words were pure Tobirama propaganda. The Second Hokage had feared the Uchiha's power while simultaneously coveting it for the village's use. That prejudice had been passed down to his students.
Though to be fair, the track record wasn't great. Madara, Obito, Itachi, they were all incredibly powerful individuals who'd made choices that resulted in massive death tolls. But then again, Tobirama himself had invented Edo Tensei, a technique that literally desecrated the dead by forcing their souls back into corpse puppets to fight for you. If anyone belonged in the "supervillain" category, it was the guy who thought reanimating corpses was acceptable jutsu development.
"So you want me to study the Sharingan," he said bluntly. "And try to recreate Madara's power."
"Exactly." Danzō didn't even try to hide his ambition. "Konoha's leadership has been researching Wood Release for years. Countless people were sacrificed. Massive resources burned. All for nothing. They still haven't succeeded."
He gestured toward where the Wood Release puppet stood.
"But you, within just a few years, created a puppet that can use Wood Release. Someone with your talent can definitely unlock the secrets of the Sharingan."
What he didn't say, but what they both understood, was that if he could have forced Kenji into Root, he would have done it already. But he couldn't. Kenji was too strong now, and the Flying Thunder God Technique meant he could escape any trap. So instead, he was using the pretense of "cooperation" to manipulate him into doing Root's work voluntarily.
He reached into his robe and pulled out a scroll. He tossed it across the room. Kenji caught it.
"Inside are Sharingan from the Uchiha clan. Study them. As long as you succeed, whatever resources you need, I'll provide them."
Kenji unrolled the scroll.
Four glass containers were sealed inside, suspended in preservation matrix. Two bottles each held a pair of Sharingan floating in nutrient solution. The first pair had single tomoe. The second pair had two tomoe. The remaining two bottles contained corresponding cell samples from the Uchiha clan members those eyes had belonged to.
No three-tomoe eyes at all.
Kenji had to suppress a smirk. Danzō talked about "believing in his talent," but he was only handing over scraps. The cheapest samples he could acquire without raising suspicion.
The logic was obvious, though. The Uchiha clan was still very much present in Konoha. Every three-tomoe Sharingan belonged to a jonin-level ninja, people who were difficult to kill quietly and whose deaths would be investigated. Single and double tomoe eyes, however, could be harvested from dead or missing genin and chunin. For Root, that wasn't particularly difficult to arrange.
Danzō was gambling with worthless chips. If Kenji succeeded, he would gain access to Sharingan research. If Kenji failed, well, he'd only lost some low-grade samples that weren't useful for much else anyway.
"Alright, I'll take them," Kenji said, resealing the scroll and tucking it away. "But I can't guarantee success. After all, if the Uchiha themselves haven't unlocked whatever secrets their eyes contain, I probably won't crack it either."
"I have faith in you," Danzō said firmly.
What he actually had faith in, only he knew.
Kenji gave a slight nod, offered no further comment, and walked out of Root headquarters. This time, no one stopped him.
---
The ocean stretched endlessly in all directions.
Kenji stood at the railing of a wooden sailing vessel, watching waves roll past. Salt spray occasionally misted his face when the wind picked up. The ship cut through the water at a steady pace, but steady didn't mean fast. They'd been sailing for days.
He'd never seen the ocean in his previous life. He grew up inland, and spent his whole life surrounded by cities and farmland. When he'd first boarded the ship, the vast seascape had been incredible. The horizon seeming to curve, the way sunlight sparkled off the waves, the sheer scale of all that water.
But that novelty had worn off after about six hours.
Now, several days into the voyage, all he felt was boredom. Everywhere he looked was just more water. Blue water, green water, gray water when clouds covered the sun. It was all the same. No landmarks, or real variation, just endless ocean.
Worse, he'd gotten seasick.
He was a ninja. He could run up walls, walk on water, fight multiple opponents simultaneously without breaking a sweat. But apparently, his inner ear didn't care about any of that. The constant rolling motion of the ship had made him violently nauseous for the first two days.
The seasickness had finally passed after he'd adapted to the motion, but he still missed solid ground. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he spotted something on the horizon.
A strip of green against the blue.
"Finally," he muttered, pulling out his mission briefing to confirm.
The island in the distance matched the description perfectly. Nanakusa Island.
Relief flooded through him. The prospect of getting off this boat and onto stable land made even the salty ocean breeze feel refreshing. He actually smiled, something he hadn't done much of during the voyage.
The mission had come directly from the Hokage's office, marked as urgent priority. With the shinobi world growing increasingly unstable and the Third Great Ninja War looming on the horizon, Konoha needed to stockpile strategic resources. Medicine, soldier pills, antidotes, all the supplies that would be critical once fighting broke out again.
Nanakusa Island was located east of the Land of Fire and south of the Land of Lightning. The climate was humid with abundant rainfall, which meant the vegetation was incredibly lush. The island produced numerous rare medicinal herbs that grew nowhere else, making it essentially a natural pharmacy. It had become a priority target for resource gathering.
The ship slowly approached the shore. As soon as they were close enough, he jumped from the deck, clearing the last few meters of water and landing on the beach. His feet sank slightly into the sand, but it was wonderfully stable.
He pulled out the mission scroll again and unrolled it, reviewing the extensive list of herbs he was supposed to collect.
"Energy Carrot, Mandra Grass, Giant Mato, Crimson Newt..."
The list went on for several more inches of parchment. Dozens of different plants, each with specific harvesting requirements and identification criteria.
He looked at the dense list, then raised his eyes to stare at the wall of green vegetation that covered the island interior.
"This is going to take a while."