While Kenji's training continued, a small group met in an inconspicuous library in Konoha's northern district. To any villager, the place was just an old-fashioned bookstore; but behind the stacks, each encounter was a covert report. The men and women gathered there weren't merchants, but spies from Kumogakure.
Their mission: to identify new talents in the enemy village. The objective: to decide whether to recruit them... or eliminate them.
"So..." said a deep voice from behind the desk, amidst piles of scrolls and falsely neglected books. "What did you find out about those two brats?"
The younger spy, his face tense, placed a folder on the desk of his superior, the man known as Mr. Iroh. To anyone, Iroh was the owner of the bookstore. To Kumogakure, he was the coordinator of their undercover agents in Konoha.
"Mr. Iroh, we attempted to infiltrate the Furukawa boy's residence…" His voice faltered, "but… none of our men were able to get far."
Iroh looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and annoyance.
"None? Why?"
"Insects, sir." The young spy gulped and extracted another report. "Our men were attacked by… ants. But not ordinary ants. The sting causes pain like a red-hot nail piercing flesh."
Iroh raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"All our agents are trained to tolerate pain."
"Yes… but not hundreds of stings at once." The young man lowered his voice. "The pain was… incapacitating. They couldn't even bite their tongues to resist. They were captured."
The Kumo spy leader felt a chill run down his spine. The ants were just a detail... but if a kid could deploy a defensive perimeter like that, what else could he do?
"That brat... we can't underestimate him," he muttered, slamming the report shut.
The young spy then proceeded to explain the details of Kakashi Hatake.
"As for the kid Kakashi"—looking for his information in one of the reports—"he's the son of Konoha's White Fang. He's also constantly watched by an elite jounin in the White Fang's absence, making it impossible to get close. From this, we deduce that it's more feasible to get close to Furukawa than to Kakashi Hatake."
Iroh put on a serious face and closed his eyes, thinking of a plan to continue his work.
On one hand, they could create countermeasures to avoid those ants, but the subsequent problem is that he's under the protection of the Uchiha as well as Konoha's sannin, making the situation difficult.
They didn't know who the 9-tailed jinchuriki was, because if they had, they would have already made a move against him, so they ruled Kushina out of their plans.
She's an Uzumaki, yes, but due to the destruction of the Whirlpool Country, several villages lost some missing Uzumaki members.
"Keep watching that brat Furukawa, because although he's under surveillance, he's a talent that would be very beneficial to our village, so send our agents to approach him."
Iroh reads some reports and notices that according to the agents, the vast majority of merchants who settled near the entrance to the Uchiha district are mostly orphans taken in by Kenji, so they have some connection to him.
"Have some agents disguise themselves as merchants. I want them to settle near the commercial district across from the Uchiha district."
"But sir, wouldn't that be counterproductive? The Uchiha are precisely those in charge of the military police." But Iroh stopped him by raising his hand before he could finish speaking.
"It's true that they're military police, but if we use real merchants as agents without them realizing it, there won't be any problems."
The young spy tilted his head in confusion.
"What I mean is, you can set up regular merchants around you to gather information, whether we make them believe we want to study the market or some other excuse, and then have our real agents go there as interviewers or critics to do the actual gathering without raising suspicion."
The young spy's face lit up with understanding, for that way they wouldn't be captured or under suspicion, for who would think that mundane matters like these would involve intelligence from another village?
With that, the young spy left the room after bowing to Iroh.
Iroh remained alone in his office as he continued reading the numerous reports.
"Why are you sending me so many at once?" I understand that you don't want to raise suspicions, but every time I receive a package of reports, it's always a pile that takes me two days to read everything," he said in a glum tone.
The agents periodically sent the reports to the young man who had just left the office, but the young man ultimately had to compile everything to deliver to the liaison between Konoha and Kumo. So, in the end, it ended up being almost a very large compilation that looked like a real book, so he could maintain his cover as a writer.
But as Iroh read the reports, he stopped at a line that made his eyes twitch in disbelief.
"This child was born in the Land of Lightning? How is it possible that they hadn't discovered this information until now?"
Yes, they had finally managed to obtain information about Kenji's origins.
"We can use this information to lure him to our village."
And so, the Kumo ninjas discarded the idea of eliminating Kenji and instead tried to recruit him to the Kumo village. But first, they have to test the waters to know how to do it, since it's not as if your origin is a special reason to suddenly switch sides and abandon everything you know.
Reports take time to arrive, that's understandable. However, thanks to the techniques the Kumogakure ninjas have, the delivery of supplies, letters, or anything else makes the delivery times from other nations seem like a bad joke, so the reports from the spies based in Konoha arrive in record time.
The third raikage was reading the report from his agents in Konoha, and suddenly, the raikage's gaze tightened in disbelief as he read them.
"Lord Raikage, what's going on?" Dodai asked, noticing the raikage's expression.
"Read it yourself," he said, passing the report to Dodai, who was at his side.
Now it was Dodai's turn for his expression to turn into disbelief.
"How can this be possible? That such a talent originates from our country but was received by those from the Leaf Village."
The Third Raikage nodded in agreement at Dodai's words, for he thought the same.
"According to what the report says, the place where he was born was probably a village near the border between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Frost."
Dodai turned to look at the Raikage with a stunned expression.
"Lord Raikage, isn't that it?"
But before Dodai could finish speaking, the Raikage continued.
"Yes, it's the very place where the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers were banished, along with their clandestine army of renegades."
Dodai immediately understood the implication. If he was born in that village, he was likely a descendant of one of the members of that army, but based on the attached image and descriptions, everything points to two specific people.
"Could he be the son or grandson of Kinkaku or Ginkaku?" he said in a serious, somewhat trembling tone.
The third raikage, still frowning, sighed in frustration, as that wasn't all.
"Recently, there was an attack on that village, where some corpses with red hair were found. But when we recorded the casualties, we noticed some people were missing, as if they had broken through the barrier we had built to keep them there."
Dodai paled at the news. Although he knew there had been an attack, only the raikage and those involved knew of the capture and captivity of the escaping Uzumaki members. But all the efforts to capture them were in vain, as now they have all been massacred, as have all those involved in the Kinkaku army.
"To think that through our carelessness we have lost such a child..." Dodai's voice held sorrow in its tone, lamenting that such a child had fallen into Konoha's hands.
But the Third Raikage interrupted Dodai's frustration.
"I have a plan to bring him back to Kumogakure." He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
Dodai's gaze lifted and immediately brightened, knowing his Raikage had a plan in mind.
"We can send some agents to convince him to return, either by forging an emotional bond, or if that doesn't work, by taking him back even by force. Because that boy belongs to Kumogakure and must not fall into the hands of those Konoha bastards."
Dodai's figure straightened, and his spirits returned.
"Who do you plan to send?" The Third Raikage searched a drawer in his desk for some candidate files, which included several kunoichi and ninjas of various ages who were qualified for the task.
"Send these." He found the files he was looking for and handed them to Dodai. "While some are genin, they are in the same age range as that boy, so they could forge a friendship and gradually convince him to return."
Among the agents to be sent are two girls, one with dark skin and silver hair who has recently shown analytical talent, and the other is a girl with fair skin, blue eyes, and straight blonde hair.
"We'll send Samui, Mabui, and these other three agents," the Third Raikage paused. "I didn't choose them at random. According to the intelligence gathered, the Furukawa boy has a reserved personality, somewhat proud, but endowed with great intelligence and analytical thinking almost at a petty level, so at least the first two will be perfect for relating to him due to their affinity with his personality."
Dodai held the profiles in his hands and read their characteristics.
"But how will we send them to Konoha without them using the mind-reading technique?"
With that, the Third Raikage took a piece of paper and began to write down the plan.
"We can have them accompany ordinary people who want to move to the Land of Fire and pretend they want to make a new life. They could settle near Konoha to avoid the attention of the ninjas and, over time, gain trust to be able to enter and trade."
He handed the sheet to Dodai, then took out another sheet.
"We can also have our already undercover agents report to us when the boy goes on a mission, where we can disguise these new agents as victims of a bandit attack."
Dodai immediately understood what the Raikage was getting at.
"Do you mean taking advantage of the fact that the boy collects former bandit victims and then hires them as servants?"
The Raikage smiled at Dodai's understanding.
"That's right."
With a smile, Dodai took the profiles and the sheet with the Raikage's second plan to convert it into a mission form and give it to his new agents.
"We will do it immediately, Lord Third Raikage."
The Raikage nodded and watched him leave.
And thus begins the operation to recover the lost shinobi.
Meanwhile, in the two weeks since Kenji's training, Kushina has tried to communicate with the nine-tails within the seal's interior.
But the nine-tails are generally in a bad mood, so Kushina hasn't been able to find out more than what they discussed last time.
However, one day while Kenji was training, the nine-tails began to become restless, either unleashing chakra fluctuations from time to time or causing Kushina to lose control for brief moments.
"What's wrong? Why so restless now?"
But Kurama was still very stubborn. Even with his restless attitude, he still didn't want to talk, but Kenji was being pushed to the limit in his training.
"That damn brat is running out of chakra reserves and is close to using mine."
Kushina looked at the nine-tails in confusion.
So her theory about him feeling discomfort from having used a small portion of the fox was correct?
Kushina whispered to Tsunade what Kurama had mentioned, and she simply nodded.
Tsunade wanted to verify what Kushina had told her, so she harassed Kenji with multiple attacks while blindfolded, knowing that Kenji was likely to bleed, and her hemophobia would incapacitate her.
Kenji struggled to stay on his feet and asked Tsunade to rest, feeling his chakra running low.
But Tsunade continued to harass him, hitting him, and even yelling insults at him to provoke Kenji's anger.
"If you can't block this, you can't call yourself a shinobi," Tsunade growled as she landed a punch at Kenji, sending him flying.
Tsunade chased him as he flew to land another punch, but he wasn't inside the crater. Instead, he had used a substitution technique, and suddenly three tomahawks appeared in different directions.
Kenji appeared one after the other to draw Tsunade's attention and then landed a blow, swinging his fist like a hammer.
That blow caused Tsunade to land inside the crater, as that previous blow was strengthened with super strength.
Tsunade's surprise was evident when Kenji landed his blow while avoiding her own.
"Brat, I see you're learning," she said with a smile curling her lips.
It wasn't time to think, so Tsunade immediately got up and lunged at Kenji again.
In another corner, Obito, Rin, and Kakashi watched Kenji train.
None of the three could believe that Kenji managed to land a single blow on Tsunade. She's known as the strongest kunoichi and holds the title of Sannin of Konoha, so it's understandable that they couldn't believe such a scene.
Obito, for his part, had admiration shining in his eyes. He and Kenji had already chatted, and he had a good impression of Kenji, so he admired how strong he was.
Kakashi was stupefied by what he saw. He was supposed to be Konoha's greatest genius, son of the White Fang. But there was his father's student, facing Tsunade as if they were on equal footing. Was it a lie that he was a genius?
Meanwhile, Rin was more focused on the medical ninjutsu Lady Tsunade used while fighting. By this world's standards, medical ninjas are weaklings who should prioritize staying behind. Therefore, her admiration was more directed at Tsunade, while she maintained a feeling of "I want to be like her."
But as the three of them watched the scene, Tsunade saw that she couldn't provoke Kenji by merely harassing him physically, so she tried to randomly insult him to get his emotions moving.
However, Kenji was already used to common insults since his own mother had used them in his previous life, but Tsunade, seeing that such simple insults wouldn't work, began to use more personal ones.
"You're useless, a disappointment. Honestly, if your mother saw your current state, she'd be truly disappointed."
Kenji paused for a moment as a punch grazed him.
"But of course, someone as disgraced as you could never fill her with pride with such a pitiful performance. I really shouldn't waste my time on you just because I was asked."
Kenji's eyelids began to twitch, opening and closing uncontrollably, his heart pounded, and a feeling of rage began to well up, further upsetting his physical state exhausted from training.
Kenji had previously tried to tell Tsunade to stop, but as soon as he opened his mouth, a slap landed in his face.
Kenji's expression was somewhere between confusion and a feeling of anger welling up.
While he knew Tsunade wasn't the type to insult like that, his mind couldn't keep up at that moment due to physical exhaustion, so analyzing the scene wasn't on his agenda.
Hearing and seeing such things, Kushina wanted to intervene; it seemed like too much, but Tsunade gestured with her hand for her to stop.
"Poor thing, it's not like she was that special, after all, she died fighting a mere troublemaker. It's not like she was someone worth it."
Kenji's brow furrowed, and his expression wasn't as angry as one would expect. Instead, his eyes and expression suddenly relaxed as his eyelid continued to move uncontrollably.
Tsunade slapped him again, causing his glasses to fall off, leaving a red mark from the blow.
The glasses that disguised his sharingan fell to the ground. Tears of anger fell down his cheeks, and his eyes returned to Tsunade's, but instead of seeing a three-tomoe sharingan pattern, they instead revealed the elongated pupils of a beast.
A layer of red chakra began to flow from his body, enveloping him completely.
Obito, Rin, and Kakashi, who detected the aura, moved away.
A tail began to sprout from Kenji's back. As it emerged, the chakra pressure increased, causing the Kakashi/Rin/Obito trio to fall to their knees.
Kushina acted immediately, removing her adamantine sealing chains while Tsunade restrained him.
This confirmed that Kenji is the grandson of one of the Gold and Silver siblings and that he also inherited the fragment of the nine-tailed fox that his grandparents devoured in their youth.
While all this was happening, Minato felt the nine-tailed fox's chakra spiraling out of control, so he immediately went to Kushina's house to verify what had happened.
Others who felt it were the Third Hokage, Danzo Shimura, as well as some members of the Uchiha clan, so they too went to check it out. Although they knew about the nine-tailed fox, its chakra felt different from what they remembered.
Minato Namikaze, Fugaku Uchiha, and Hiruzen Sarutobi, accompanied by some ANBU, arrived on the scene and were surprised that it wasn't Kushina who had lost control, but rather a child.
"Kenji, wake up. What Sister Tsunade said isn't true."
Hiruzen and the others were in shock, but came back to their senses after a while and began to move.
Minato began to perform ninjutsu seals to activate and restrain Kenji while Hiruzen ordered his ANBU to support Minato.
Fugaku, for his part, was still impressed that the boy his cousin adopted somehow had the nine-tailed fox's chakra within him, so he didn't move and just stared.
Seeing that they were helping her restrain Kenji, Kushina immediately began activating sealing techniques to calm the malicious chakra within Kenji.
Moments later, the situation calmed down. Because it was only a single tail, sealing it wasn't much of a problem, but because it maintained its super strength, the support of multiple shinobi was necessary to restrain him.
"What the hell does he eat to have such a level of physical strength?" was something some ANBU, including Minato, wondered.
But in the end, everything turned out fine, but the problem now is how to deal with what happened.
Although the tail vanished and the chakra dissipated, no one in the room doubted that Konoha had just seen the birth of a new hope... or perhaps a threat. And Kumo was already on its way.
A/N Hello there
Sorry for the delay, but I haven't been feeling well these past few days. I had a bad time with some filthy bastards that put me in a bad mood, but unfortunately, my mind wouldn't let go of the topic even though I tried to distract myself or take medication.
I'm feeling better now, so I'll be able to write again. Also, even though I'm deviating from my plans for this story, I'm enjoying the direction it's going.
I really appreciate your comments, as I'd love to know if you enjoy this novel, and I love it when you even post memes or impressions.
Without further ado, thanks for reading.