Megumi arrived at his new house. Nothing stood out from an outside perspective, just a three-story building in a forest, like some billionaire's glass house in the countryside.
'Let's make a barrier since I'm the only one living here,' Megumi thought. He called out five clones and repeated the same process as before, but this time using a simple barrier instead of blood.
After finishing the barrier, Megumi proceeded inside.
He found the key hidden under the doormat and unlocked the front door. Locating the light switch, he turned on all the lights throughout the house, revealing lavish decorations that spoke of wealth.
So it was true that women were the ones who truly owned a house.
Megumi remembered Kaede's new house had also featured lavish design. If not for her debts, that woman had high taste, and he was one hundred percent certain Tsume had been the main person helping with their home design.
Thinking of his mother, Megumi still remembered the scene where she'd been targeted by the Nara clan elders and the Hokage's faction.
He couldn't touch the Hokage since his binding vow prevented him from attacking the village, and Sarutobi represented the village as its Hokage.
He went to the bathroom and showered, then made himself a meal he couldn't taste or rate before heading to the top of the building.
Sitting on the balcony's iron fence, Megumi remembered how this journey had started: from being average at school to learning that a parent who never cared about him had left him something.
Megumi still felt the shame from that day. He'd thought his parents were leaving him a will since he was their only child. Instead, he inherited debt.
Nothing hurt more than knowing he'd never benefited a single dollar from those debts.
Then to be reborn in Naruto by some cosplay old Zeus, punished with powers he'd thought useless that turned out to be the most broken ones.
"No wonder Gege had to nerf my boy so badly that even viewers knew he couldn't be that useless."
Megumi remembered how he'd been stockpiling techniques like they were nothing since he was a "cheat," yet being labeled an NPC was the greatest blow he'd suffered.
Now he was neither curse spirit nor human.
Megumi remembered he'd kept Nue and his shadow crows in his mother's shadow before she died.
"It's time to find your remains, Mother."
Megumi shared his summons' perspective and sensed his crows in an underground location outside the village.
"Found you."
Megumi teleported straight to the crow's location. Before, the system had restricted his teleport usage. Now that limit was removed.
Arriving at the location, Megumi was greeted by a scene that would scare a grown man. Dead bodies used as decoration. Some on the walls, others on the floor.
Megumi's face remained unbothered.
"Shadow crows."
He called out. To his surprise, Kaede's body was among those hanging from large hooks, like meat at a butcher shop.
She was already missing all her internal organs. Even her body was unrecognizable, except for the shadow crows emerging from her feet's shadow.
Megumi had Divine Dog: Totality remove her from that height. At only five years old, his height was his only disadvantage.
"Toad."
Megumi used it as a storage device, having the toad carry Kaede in its mouth.
Then he sensed three presences heading toward a designated room. Among the three was a familiar life force: the Third Hokage.
"Let's see what makes those old bones run through tunnels."
Megumi merged with the shadows.
---
The underground corridor reeked of preservatives and something far worse, something that reminded Hiruzen Sarutobi of battlefields long past.
His footsteps echoed against stone walls as he descended deeper, two ANBU operatives flanking him in silence.
Their animal masks, Bear and Hawk, betrayed no emotion, but Hiruzen could sense their tension. They knew what they might find.
"Hokage-sama," Bear whispered, raising a gloved hand. "Chakra signatures ahead. Multiple."
Hiruzen nodded grimly. He'd hoped the reports were exaggerated, that his former student hadn't truly fallen so far. But hope was a luxury he could no longer afford.
The laboratory door hung ajar, light spilling from within. Hiruzen pushed it open.
The scene before him was worse than any nightmare. Rows of cylindrical tanks lined the walls, each containing subjects. Some bore the features of his own villagers. Children, even. Surgical tables stained with evidence of unspeakable experiments. Scrolls covered in forbidden jutsu formulas scattered across workbenches.
And in the center of it all stood Orochimaru.
His former student didn't turn immediately. He focused on a scroll, making notations with steady hands as if this were any ordinary research facility. When he finally looked up, his golden eyes held no surprise, no fear. Only mild curiosity.
"Sensei," Orochimaru said, his voice carrying that familiar silken tone that now made Hiruzen's blood run cold. "How unexpected. Though perhaps not entirely. You always did have a talent for appearing at inopportune moments."
"Orochimaru." Hiruzen's voice was heavy, each syllable weighted with grief and anger. "What have you done?"
A thin smile crossed Orochimaru's pale face. "What I've always done: pursued knowledge. Pushed beyond the limitations that bind lesser shinobi. Surely you of all people can appreciate the pursuit of understanding, sensei."
"Understanding?" Hawk's voice cracked with fury. "You've experimented on your own people! Children!"
Orochimaru's gaze shifted to the ANBU operative with dismissive coldness. "Sacrifices for the greater advancement of our art. The shinobi system has always been built on sacrifice. I simply refuse to let those sacrifices go to waste."
Hiruzen couldn't tell where it had started going wrong for his favorite student.
"Arrest him."
He gave the order to the ANBU at his side and summoned his ape.
But Orochimaru's hands had already started forming seals.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough."
A gust of wind blew through the room, knocking down the ANBU. But the unthinkable happened when Sarutobi also fell.
Orochimaru was shocked that such a jutsu could make the Professor of Jutsu fall. He looked back with a smirk before leaving the room.
"Sarutobi, don't let him esca—"
Enma the Monkey King stopped after seeing the look on Hiruzen's face.
He let him escape.
*Clap.*
Hiruzen jumped up to see who that was. He was certain he'd restricted others from coming.
Megumi walked out of the shadows, clapping. That acting deserved five stars.
"Who are you? How can a kid find this place, Hiruzen?"
Enma's glance fixed on Megumi even after asking the question.
Hiruzen couldn't tell how much Megumi had heard, but the way he appeared suggested he'd been nearby already.
Now he'd fallen into this boy's trap.
"It's alright, Enma. He's a Leaf shinobi."
"What? You mean this kid is already a shinobi?"
Hiruzen nodded.
"What are you doing here at this late hour?" he asked.
"I came to collect my mother's body for burial."
Megumi summoned the toad from a nearby shadow, revealing a body in its mouth.
"Now that I've proven my purpose, would the Hokage mind telling me why he let that uncle snake escape?"
Megumi had read this scene in manga and watched it in anime in his previous life, but experiencing it in real life was surreal.
"Don't worry. I'll dispatch ANBU after him. He's become the village's S-rank rogue ninja."
Ever since his actions in the Hokage's office that day, Hiruzen had checked Megumi's profile. He'd noticed Minato had classified Megumi's file with the same security level as the Scroll of Seals.
He knew Minato must have had his reasons. From Shikaku, he'd learned how dangerous Megumi was.
He'd learned everything about the boy's summons, classified as shikigami. And he'd learned Megumi had a summon strong enough to destroy the village.
Megumi looked at the Hokage, uninterested in sweet speeches. He saw fear in Hiruzen.
Megumi took out his Heavenly Spear and flash-stepped, stabbing both ANBU through their brains. Killing them before they were aware of what was happening.
Both Sarutobi and Enma were shocked. Especially Enma. He couldn't sense how or when this boy had moved.
"Why did you kill them?" Enma was angry. Seeing a child with such a cold-blooded personality was dangerous for the kid's development.
"If you say that shit again, I'll skin you and feed your meat to your fellow brethren."
Megumi didn't like monkeys at all. He wouldn't tolerate even a talking monkey.
"And Sarutobi, I'm sure you received my message from your men. I don't know or like politics, and you're doing what I hate most. If you think allowing your dog to treat the Inuzuka clan the same way you're treating the Uchiha, it will end so badly that your clan might join the Senju in the history books."
Megumi had wanted to go to his office to find him, but this was better. He knew about Danzo, but also valued his own family.
Megumi had nothing to lose at this point. He couldn't allow those brash, brainless Inuzuka to be treated like those red-eyed freaks.
Megumi walked out of the room but tilted his head. "And I killed those men because they were faking unconsciousness. As the village guardian, how could I allow those men to live after witnessing your awful drama with your student?"
---