Shisui Abura gripped his chest, drawing upon his hidden "cheat" ability to pull several rhinoceros beetles into his personal space. Days passed in a flash...
When he finally erged from his experints, his expression was far from pleasant.
He had intended to use his cheat to accelerate their growth, simulating life-giving tree sap with primordial energy.
However, the cost was staggering beyond his wildest expectations. The primordial energy required for every milliliter of that "sap" was calculated in years.
To raise just one fist-sized rhinoceros beetle, he had burned through nearly a thousand years of his three-thousand-year reserve.
And the result? As soon as the beetle absorbed the energy, it fell into a deep, stubborn slumber, ignoring every command he gave it.
Shisui could only think of one word for the creature: Ancestor.
Helplessly, he placed the "Ancestor" into a dedicated incubation vat. As for verifying its abilities, he would have to wait until he had the ans to wake it.
A few days later, Shisui summoned Kakuzu and Naoto to the heart of the palace. "I'm leaving for a while."
"Where are you going, Lord Shisui?" Naoto asked. "The Land of Snow?"
"It's a secret."
He pulled out two porcelain vials and handed one to each of them. "These are Marrow-Cleansing Pills. I refined them using White Zetsu and Spirit Dew.
They will strengthen your physical constitution and slowly wash away bodily impurities and the spiritual residue in your chakra."
Kakuzu took the vial, his mind full of questions. "White Zetsu?"
"You don't need to know the details yet," Shisui replied vaguely. "Think of them as a type of vegetable-man."
Kakuzu: "..."
He had lived for nearly a century and prided himself on knowing most of the world's secrets, yet he felt like he couldn't understand a single word his new boss said.
He poured out a pill and swallowed it without hesitation. A mont later, his expression shifted.
He felt a gentle, warm power spreading through his limbs, brushing over his ridians, blood vessels, and hearts.
The stagnation of decades and the foreign wills of the hearts he had stolen were being peeled away layer by layer. For the first ti, he felt his own chakra—pure and singular.
Simultaneously, a violent resistance flared up within his five hearts. Those were the lingering wills of the five ninjas he had killed long ago.
"They're still there?" Kakuzu asked, astonished.
"Of course. That's why you haven't progressed. They have been entangled with your will, fighting you, even rging with you.
Every ti you mold chakra, you're subconsciously wasting energy to suppress them.
Give it a few hundred more years, and you might have ceased to be 'Kakuzu' entirely, becoming nothing more than a mindless mass of Earth Grudge Fear."
Shisui added, "As for cloning hearts, the technology isn't there yet. But it will be. Until then, these pills will keep you human."
Kakuzu wasn't frightened by the prospect of vanishing in a few centuries. He looked at the vial and laughed. "Interesting. This trip back ho was worth it."
Naoto swallowed his pill and asked, "What should we do while you're gone?"
"Business as usual," Shisui instructed. "Kakuzu will remain in the palace to guard the Seven-Tails and the laboratory.
Naoto, you handle the village and external missions. If anything happens, I will contact you through the swarm."
As he finished speaking, his form dissolved into a cloud of insects and vanished.
There was a secondary effect of the pills Shisui hadn't ntioned: after consumption, their biological signature would be subtly altered to mimic White Zetsu.
To the Zetsu surveillance network, they would effectively "disappear" or be ignored as "one of their own," provided they didn't stand directly in front of the most intelligent Zetsu variants.
Naoto and Kakuzu looked at each other, realizing they had been talking to a re Bug Clone the entire ti.
The Daimyo's Estate
Shisui appeared in the eting hall where Daimyo Hiratsugu, Matsumoto the butler, and a group of hypnotized financial officials were waiting.
He tossed a thick scroll onto the table. "This is the renovation plan for the next few years."
Hiratsugu opened the scroll, and his face went from surprise to sheer terror.
Road construction, city remodeling, reservoir dams, dock upgrades, power plants... every item was detailed with budgets, tilines, and labor requirents. Hiratsugu did a rough ntal calculation and began to sweat.
"Lord Shisui... how much will this cost?"
"A lot. It will likely hollow out the national treasury and drain the pockets of every rchant and noble in the land. And even then, that will only cover about one-fifth of the total cost."
Hiratsugu: "..."
"So, we invite investnt," Shisui said. "Let the six major families put up the capital to build the factories and roads.
They are better at making money than we are. As for managing the funds... a man nad Kakuzu will arrive shortly to help you. Refer to him as Mr. Kakuzu. He manages the money; you manage the people. Don't provoke him. He kills."
Hiratsugu and Matsumoto nodded numbly. Shisui flicked his sleeve, and dozens of insects flew onto the scroll.
"These are control permissions for the Construction and Iron-Eater swarms. Sign your nas on the contract.
They will handle the underground tunnels and foundations. Above ground, hire workers to keep up appearances. Below ground, leave it to the bugs."
With that, the figure vanished again. This contract scroll was a masterpiece Shisui had spent a long ti refining; it allowed non-Abura to command specific insect types based on their own chakra levels.
The Land of Grass, A Remote Valley
A figure slowly rose from the earth in a secluded valley far from the Land of Waterfalls.
He reached up and removed the mask he had worn for years, letting the fresh air touch his skin. The sunlight was slightly piercing, and the forest was rich with the scent of nature.
Behind him, a vibrant green dragonfly circled his head with a happy buzz.
The young man took a deep breath of air that didn't sll of damp stone and earth, then began walking out of the valley.
In the distant Takigakure, everything seed normal. The comrcial streets were bustling, the ninja academy was in session, and the villagers went about their lives.
Only a handful of people knew that the kind, sunny young ninja who occasionally taught at the academy and helped compile textbooks had long since vanished without a trace.
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