A completely unfamiliar Death God appeared.
And the mont it manifested, every clan head and senior ninja in the room realized this Death God was not the one described in Konoha's records.
Although they were not qualified to practice the forbidden technique [Shiki Fuujin], many of them had still seen secret notes and forbidden texts that roughly described the appearance of the Death God.
But the being before them now was different.
It was not the legendary white haired Death God with a blade clenched in its mouth.
That was because the god summoned by this "improved" Shiki Fuujin was not the original Death God Jin at all.
It was Brook's own Hell God Jin form.
And unlike the usual Death God, which could only be seen by the caster and the victim, this one could be seen by everyone present.
So the mont the Hell God Jin appeared, all the shinobi in the room broke out in cold sweat.
That aura was terrifying.
It made their souls shiver.
And the most horrifying part was this.
Why could they all see it?
Had the Fourth Hokage also targeted them?
Had he altered the forbidden technique into a large scale version, visible to all, ant to wipe out everyone in the room in one move?
Even Orochimaru showed a rare expression of fear.
As Hiruzen's disciple and one of the legendary Sannin, he knew quite a bit about the forbidden techniques in the Scroll of Seals.
He knew how terrifying [Shiki Fuujin] was, and he knew the price it took in exchange.
That was precisely why he had never chosen to practice that fatal technique.
He pursued immortality.
Not glorious suicide.
So the instant he saw this altered Death God, he followed one iron rule.
No scientist stands under a collapsing wall.
He imdiately turned his body into a swarm of snakes and scattered, trying to escape right then and there.
He simply did not trust the current Minato Namikaze, whose personality had changed so drastically, and he had no intention of accidentally dying in the Hokage office.
"Danzo," Brook said coldly through Minato's face, "take your sins with you into the Underworld!"
He sneered.
Then, before Danzo's horrified eyes, the Hell God Jin behind him moved like it had crossed space itself and appeared directly in front of him.
It seized Danzo.
The next mont, in full view of everyone present, it ripped Danzo's soul out alive before he even had the chance to activate [Izanagi].
Danzo's soul scread in terror.
Then the Death God swallowed it whole.
A mont later, the Hell God Jin dispersed.
Danzo's body collapsed limply to the ground.
Just like that, the first generation of Root Leader and Konoha's Darkness fell.
Everyone in the room could only stare at the Fourth Hokage with fear and reverence after watching the Death God fade away.
A Kage level shinobi had just been erased as casually as if soone had plucked a weed.
"Good," Brook said with a mild smile, once again becoming Konoha's gentle little sun. "The termites inside Konoha have been cleaned out. Everyone can now continue contributing to the village's prosperity."
"Where the leaves dance, the fire will never cease!!!"
The clan heads and senior ninjas all shouted the Will of Fire together.
At this mont, they truly acknowledged this "civilian Hokage."
Because what the Fourth Hokage had shown today, power, ruthlessness, decisiveness, had completely changed how they saw him.
"Shikaku, Kakashi," Brook ordered, "rge Root into the ANBU. Also transfer [A], the one who possesses Wood Release, and Uchiha Shisui into my guard."
Then he seed to rember sothing.
Might Guy.
Kakashi's peer.
A few years ago, Guy's father, Might Duy, had single handedly shattered the Seven Ninja Swordsn of the Mist and reduced them to the Three Lucky Survivors.
"Kakashi," Brook added, "bring Might Guy into the guard as well. I'll give him so guidance."
Brook had already realized that the Naruto world's training system leaned far too heavily toward ninjutsu. There were not many true taijutsu users.
But many physical techniques from the One Piece world might still be reproduced here.
Swordsmanship.
The Navy's Six Powers.
Especially flying slashes.
Compared to that, the kunai and shuriken style of this world looked small and dull.
The mont the clan heads heard that the Fourth Hokage was forming his own direct guard unit, many of them beca interested.
The Uchiha had Shisui.
The other clans did not want to fall behind.
The Hyuga, the Sarutobi, and others all imdiately began recomnding their own people, hoping to place one of their clansn into the direct service of the Fourth Hokage.
But "Minato" declined them all for now.
"At the mont, I've decided on four people," he said. "Kakashi Hatake, Might Guy, Uchiha Shisui, and [A]. More suitable candidates may be added later."
Danzo's corpse was taken away by the ANBU.
Fugaku deliberately ignored the Sharingan hidden in Danzo's eye and did not try to claim it.
Koharu and Homura were both imprisoned.
The eting ended quickly.
Minato Namikaze did not imdiately appoint new senior advisors. For now, he only promoted Nara Shikaku to Hokage adviser to help handle governnt affairs.
The remaining positions were left open.
After everyone finally left, Brook closed his eyes and rested for a while in the Hokage office, waiting for Kakashi to bring back the people he wanted.
But in the very next mont, he vanished from the Hokage chair and appeared inside a dim underground laboratory.
There, he saw Orochimaru burning experintal records and destroying test subjects.
"Orochimaru," Brook said calmly, "planning to defect?"
The sudden appearance of "Minato Namikaze" made Orochimaru stiffen for a mont, but he quickly turned around and looked at the Fourth Hokage.
At the sa ti, he was already calculating his odds of escape.
Flying Thunder God, which allowed Minato to co and go at will.
And that improved [Shiki Fuujin], which seed ready to activate at any mont.
Both made Orochimaru deeply wary.
"Minato," Orochimaru said slowly, "you've changed far too much. Enough that even I'm afraid of you."
"What exactly happened to you? Was Kushina's death really enough to turn you into this?"
He paused, then his snake like eyes lit up with familiar madness.
"Life is too fragile, don't you think?"
"So why not lift the restrictions on my research and let continue studying Hashirama's cells and the forbidden technique [Impure World Reincarnation]?"
"Perhaps… in the future, I could even revive Kushina for you."
Orochimaru was probing.
The Fourth Hokage had lost his wife. That made him soone who might be tempted.
And if Minato could be lured down the path of resurrection and immortality, then perhaps Orochimaru could continue his own research unhindered.
Brook ignored the question entirely and began casually walking through the lab, looking for anything worth taking.
"Give eighty percent of the Hashirama cells you have," Brook said. "I'll arrange sowhere else for you to continue researching these things."
"And if what you want is immortality, then perhaps I can actually help you."
Orochimaru stared at him in disbelief.
"What?"
"You have a thod for immortality?"
"And you're willing to support my research?"
Now he was genuinely shaken.
The little sun of Konoha had changed so much that Orochimaru could barely recognize him.
He had beco mysterious, unpredictable, almost enough to make Orochimaru suspect the man in front of him was not Minato Namikaze at all.
But he had checked.
Again and again.
And he found nothing wrong.
Which ant, perhaps, there was only one explanation left.
Kushina's death had truly broken sothing in him.
-------------
Seeing Orochimaru's serious expression, "Minato Namikaze" smiled faintly.
In a sense, his current state could already be called a different kind of immortality.
"If you want immortality, or at least a long lived body, I do have a few thods," Brook said calmly. "But what exactly do you have to offer ?"
He vanished and reappeared beside Orochimaru again.
"As of now, everything you have already belongs to ."
As long as the Flying Thunder God mark Brook had left on Orochimaru remained, he could appear beside him at any mont.
In the Naruto world, if one truly wanted immortality, the most direct path was naturally to beco a pure blood Otsutsuki or a powerful soul body.
But there were other options.
The immortals of the Three Great Sage Regions could also live for more than a thousand years.
In fact, even before Kaguya Otsutsuki descended upon this planet, the world already had its own power system, natural energy and sage arts, sothing completely different from chakra based ninjutsu.
And the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku even possessed a miraculous treasure capable of bringing back the dead, the [Resurrection Talisman]. Before Hagoromo ever awakened the Rinnegan, the toads of Mount Myoboku had already mastered such a thing.
Under Gamamaru's guidance, after Hagoromo killed his younger brother Hamura, he awakened the Eternal Mangekyo and then the Rinnegan from his three tomoe Sharingan. Later, with the aid of the [Resurrection Talisman], Hamura was revived and freed from Kaguya's control.
Only then did the brothers truly possess the power to fight Kaguya together.
In Brook's view, that ant that after the reincarnation system of Northern Underworld was broken, the native sage beasts of this planet had already grasped certain thods of recalling souls and restoring life.
And from Brook's perspective, the fact that Hagoromo and Hamura had been guided into opposing Kaguya by Gamamaru only proved that the old toad was terrifyingly cunning.
Those native sage beasts could not defeat Kaguya directly, but they also could not sit back and watch the Divine Tree drain their holand dry.
So they provoked an internal conflict within the Otsutsuki family and ultimately preserved the planet.
··
"You want my loyalty?"
Orochimaru slowly licked his lips with his long tongue and gave a sinister smile.
He had not expected Minato Namikaze to actually want to subdue him.
Even Danzo had only maintained a cooperative relationship with him.
"You have nothing else to offer," Brook said flatly. "If I wanted to, I could forcibly enslave your soul right now. Want to try?"
With a wave of his hand, a ghost gate appeared.
Danzo's soul was dragged out and displayed before them.
The fear on Danzo's face had not changed, but he was being controlled so thoroughly that he could not even speak.
The mont Orochimaru saw that, he transford into a small snake and retreated rapidly, instinctive terror crawling over his entire body.
It was too dangerous.
His snake like intuition scread at him.
"What kind of forbidden technique is this?" Orochimaru asked in horror. "You can actually drag out a soul directly? You can control the Death God itself?"
He had seen Danzo's soul devoured by the Death God with his own eyes.
So how could it appear here again?
Had Minato Namikaze really beco this monstrous?
After improving [Shiki Fuujin], could he now release souls at will?
Orochimaru was certain this technique was not recorded in the Scroll of Seals.
He had never seen anything like it before.
"I created it myself," Brook said lightly. "No one else can learn it."
Then he made Danzo's soul slap itself hard across the face before releasing its voice.
"Namikaze Minato!! You can actually control my soul! Let go!"
Danzo scread while being forced to slap himself, rage and humiliation burning in his eyes.
"Let you go?" Brook sneered. "Why would I enslave you if I planned to let you go? Use your brain."
He silenced Danzo again and shifted his gaze back to Orochimaru.
"If you want to lose your body and serve as a soul, that's also a kind of immortality. You won't escape today."
Brook smiled, and behind him, the Hell God Jin form rose once more.
If Orochimaru refused, then what awaited him would be a corpse and an enslaved soul.
Orochimaru's scalp turned numb under that gaze.
"Then I think I'll postpone accepting that kind of immortality for now… my Hokage."
He yielded imdiately.
He chose surrender.
"Good."
Brook nodded in satisfaction.
"Then from today onward, you are the director of Konoha's Scientific Research Departnt. There's no need to keep hiding in the shadows anymore."
"Work hard. Make contributions to Konoha."
As long as the Flying Thunder God mark and soul coordinate remained on Orochimaru, Brook was not worried about him escaping.
"Then… may I continue my experints?" Orochimaru asked cautiously.
Aside from Hashirama's cells, he had researched many reincarnation techniques and other forbidden thods, and most of them required large scale human experintation.
"Do your work well, and I'll grant you immortality," Brook said. "At the very least, I can let you live for a thousand years like the immortals of the Three Great Sage Regions."
"For now, continue cloning Hashirama's cells and refining the forbidden technique [Impure World Reincarnation]."
"As for your soul transfer technique, stop wasting ti on it. It's useless. I'll give you sothing better later."
Brook gave the order calmly.
With him, an actual soul based existence, standing here, Orochimaru's flawed body stealing reincarnation technique was nothing more than a crude and incomplete forbidden art. Brook now had plenty of practical experience when it ca to possession.
There was no true reincarnation in this world.
Souls could not properly cycle back into life, but they could retain mory and remain in the [Pure Land].
Still, only relatively strong souls could enter the Pure Land and persist there. Even those would gradually wear away over ti and eventually vanish.
Otherwise, after thousands of years, the [Pure Land] created by Hagoromo would have long since been packed with endless ordinary souls.
Even the Sage of Six Paths himself had failed to preserve the souls of his younger brother Hamura and his sons permanently. He could only watch the unique chakras of Indra and Ashura continue to reincarnate.
"Understood."
Orochimaru could only accept the situation for now.
He obediently took out his precious stock of Hashirama cells and handed them to Minato Namikaze.
For the next few days, he would have to behave.
Danzo had already exposed too much, and Orochimaru had nearly been frightened into defecting.
But now, with the Fourth Hokage backing him and granting him the post of research director, there was no need to flee for the mont.
"Namikaze Minato" took the Hashirama cells, returned to the Hokage's office, and imdiately fused them into his White Zetsu based body, acquiring part of Hashirama Senju's bloodline.
By then, Kakashi had already returned to the Hokage's office with Uchiha Shisui, [A], and Might Guy.
At this point, Kakashi and Uchiha Shisui had both already made nas for themselves in the Third Shinobi World War.
[A], on the other hand, had been hidden inside Root all along and had never shown himself publicly.
As for Might Guy, he had not yet mastered the Eight Gates and was still in the phase of nurturing his blazing youth.
In the eyes of the elites from the great clans, they looked down on Guy, a civilian shinobi.
The fact that he was a taijutsu specialist only made them look down on him more.
To them, his inclusion in the Fourth Hokage's personal guard could only be called pure luck.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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