After leaving the Hokage Building, Kitazawa headed alone for the Forest of Death.
He stopped and activated the Byakugan, taking in everything around him at a glance.
"The Ōtsutsuki bloodline really does buff the Byakugan," he said, satisfied.
He felt his Byakugan grow by roughly ten percent. Of course, that was just icing on the cake. The biggest gain from this ten percent of Ōtsutsuki bloodline was about six "bars" of chakra.
Kitazawa's first reaction: huge win.
He'd worked diligently through plenty of system quests in the past to scrape together six bars of chakra. Now a single Limb Regeneration medical jutsu had handed him that much—easy and painless.
The only real cost, he figured, was time.
His second reaction: a lot, and yet not much.
Six bars was a lot for him; for the Ōtsutsuki, it was nothing—after all, in theory they have inexhaustible chakra. The only conclusion was that his Ōtsutsuki bloodline purity wasn't high enough. He'd seen this with the Senju bloodline: hit 100% purity and you get extra chakra as a bonus.
It also depended on which kind of Ōtsutsuki bloodline you had. Those who'd eaten the God Tree's fruit were far stronger than those who hadn't. No doubt the system had given him the latter. If it were the former, it should have boosted the Sharingan too—but it hadn't. Only the Byakugan got a lift.
Still, the extra six bars of chakra were plenty. Most directly, his Senju Chakra Mode now lasted twelve minutes.
Kitazawa took out the humanoid puppet Konan had given him.
With a thought, the puppet moved as he willed.
He couldn't help thinking, this Byakugan: Puppet Control is broken.
In theory, so long as his ocular power was sufficient, he could control an endless number of puppets. And he didn't have to micromanage them—give an attack order and they'd fight on their own.
Normal puppeteers couldn't do that. They had to manipulate puppets with chakra threads; without active control, a puppet didn't move. Generally, ten puppets at once was the ceiling—limited by fingers and by bandwidth in your head. Only after Sasori "stopped being human" did he push that cap past a hundred.
In truth, in the entire shinobi world, only Chiyo and Sasori could handle ten. And now Kitazawa could do it effortlessly.
He deactivated the Byakugan and returned to the Anbu base—not to his office, but to an empty room.
"Konan."
He called once and pulled out a summoning storage scroll.
Konan appeared at once.
She stood there looking at Kitazawa, saying and doing nothing—because she already knew what he planned to do.
Kitazawa unsealed a heap of medical lab equipment—borrowed from Konoha Hospital—and then the medicinal ingredients Konan had brought. Right in front of her, he started compounding and adjusting the formula.
Konan watched in silence. She wasn't a medical-nin, so she only half understood. But understanding wasn't the point—Kitazawa's focus and attitude put her at ease.
Her amber eyes reflected him. She drifted a little, thinking again about how to make money.
Akatsuki's way was simple: take jobs off the underground black market. With White Zetsu everywhere, their mission efficiency was extremely high. But truly high-paying jobs were limited—those in the tens of millions, or high bounties, might not appear for months.
She had another problem. Now that she'd joined Anbu and had to stay by Kitazawa's side, she had no time to go out on contracts. Kakuzu and the others could still work, but the pay went to Akatsuki and the Eye of the Moon Plan. As an Anbu member she did get mission rewards, just not much—and most of her assignments were guarding Kitazawa.
By noon, Kitazawa peeled off his gloves. "Alright, that's it for today. We've used up about one-fifth of the ingredients. Give it another three or four days and we'll be done."
"Thank you," Konan replied coolly.
Kitazawa glanced at her, said nothing, locked the door, and headed for the adjacent Hokage Building. It was lunchtime.
He usually ate at the Academy with Uchiha Sasuke and the others, but since he was at the Anbu base today, he'd try the Hokage cafeteria. Still, just eating in the cafeteria sounded dull—better to find Tsunade and feast his eyes while he was at it.
He knocked. He wasn't Tsunade; kicking doors wasn't his style.
"Come in," Tsunade called.
Kitazawa pushed the door open. Tsunade and Shizune were on the couch with food laid out on the coffee table.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked, blinking.
"Of course," Shizune smiled. "Who do you want to sit next to?"
They sat facing each other, one to a side.
"Makes no difference," Kitazawa said, taking the spot beside Tsunade.
"What brings you to eat with us today?" Tsunade leaned forward slightly, picking up a fried shrimp with her chopsticks.
His gaze dropped to her without thinking. Her back was a straight line; gravity made her clothes sway twice. Tsunade took a bite, arched a brow, then lifted her leg and stepped on his foot.
"No special reason," Kitazawa withdrew his eyes. "I just felt like trying the Hokage cafeteria."
"I think it's a lot worse than your cooking," Shizune said, gracious as ever.
"Thanks." Kitazawa set down the boxed meal he'd brought up from the cafeteria. He picked up a piece of meat. Not bad—edible, not exactly great. Passable.
"I've improved the Limb Regeneration medical jutsu," Kitazawa said, remembering.
"What did you improve?" Shizune asked. "I thought Limb Regeneration was already close to perfect—did you lower the side effects?"
"Regenerate bloodline-limit organs?" Tsunade thought of Uchiha Fugaku's earlier request.
"No." Kitazawa shook his head. "I improved it so it can be cast on yourself."
What he really meant was a Medical Forbidden Technique: Body Revival.
"Huh?" Shizune blinked. "So if you lose an arm…?"
"You can regrow it," Kitazawa said with a smile.
"Usable in combat?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes.
"It is," he nodded.
"You sure?" Tsunade's face tightened, her tone turning serious. Usable mid-fight meant its value skyrocketed—especially in an even match. Land a crippling limb-severing blow, and your opponent just grows it back on the spot? That would crack anyone's psyche.
"Why would I lie?" Kitazawa handed her the Body Revival scroll.
Tsunade set down her bowl and chopsticks and began to read. Shizune stood and leaned in as well. As a medical-nin, she knew exactly how significant this was.
Kitazawa ate unhurriedly. Given the difficulty, in Konoha probably only Tsunade could learn it. He'd made it for her, plain and simple—to power her up. With the Yin Seal she was already hard to kill; add Body Revival and she was, in some sense, unkillable.
Of course, raw recovery alone wasn't enough—you couldn't just tank hits. Tsunade's offense was fairly single-track: raw monster strength. Kitazawa was also re-engineering Shennō's other medical forbidden technique, Body Activation, aiming to turn it into a Yang Release chakra mode akin to Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Then both he and Tsunade could use it—and he'd clear a system quest on the side. The rewrite was hard, though, and would take time.
"This is… unbelievable," Shizune murmured, dazed when she finished. This wasn't a tweak; it was a brand-new medical jutsu. Compared with Limb Regeneration, the medical forbidden technique was even stronger—you could be torn to pieces and still reassemble and recover.
"You're the second ninja I've seen with extraordinary talent for creating jutsu," Tsunade said gravely as she closed the scroll.
The first, naturally, was Senju Tobirama, who'd created a great many jutsu for Konoha—several of them terrifying forbidden arts.
"If Limb Regeneration is an S-rank medical jutsu, then this Body Revival is an S-rank medical forbidden technique," Tsunade mused. "It's harder to learn and has harsher side effects."
"But the payoff's better," Shizune added, sitting back down. "Most importantly, you can use it in battle."
"At the brink of life and death, no one cares about side effects," Tsunade nodded, eyes returning to Kitazawa.
No question, his medical-ninjutsu talent was high. Before, she'd figured he topped out around her level; now she'd changed her mind. These two medical jutsu alone were enough to etch his name in bold in medical history. Create another one or two and surpassing her in strength and reputation wouldn't be a problem.
"Why are you staring at me?" Kitazawa waved a hand in front of her eyes.
"I'm thinking about what to give you as a reward," Tsunade said, stowing the scroll.
Even if few could master Body Revival, its value was obvious. An S-rank medical forbidden technique like this deserved a substantial reward.
"Put it on my tab." Kitazawa's gaze slid to her rosy lips.
Tsunade shot him a glare, then looked back at the food on the table. She bit her lip, feelings briefly tangled. On reflection, he'd probably brought out Body Revival because of her—at present, she was likely the only one who could learn it.
"Eat," she said, quickly regaining her calm.
After lunch, Kitazawa went off to "practice the Yin Seal." In reality, he was training Five Release Great Combo Technique.
Another week flashed by. Kitazawa didn't have much on his plate—training and refining medicine. Konoha was quiet; the negotiations between Nara Shikaku's team and Kirigakure were still noisy but nearing the end.
On Monday, Kitazawa gave Konan a day off. She took the medicines back to Akatsuki. It was half a month's supply, but she wouldn't stay—just drop them off and return to Konoha.
Kitazawa went to the Academy. Two weeks had passed since the last monthly exam; time to prep the next one. He needed to re-form teams for the eighteen students doing the new practical exam.
Since Sarutobi Hiruzen would also be a supervising leader this time, Kitazawa tweaked the assignments: he and Hiruzen would each take one team; Kosuke Maruboshi and Hatake Kakashi would continue to lead two teams each.
Reason: Kitazawa was too busy. Besides the Advanced Class and the medical-nin training class, he needed to practice Five Release Great Combo Technique and rework the Body Activation medical forbidden technique. He also had Wood Release to study.
Taking two teams meant sacrificing two weekends.
Following Hiruzen's suggestion, Kitazawa handed Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura to him—Team 7 from the original, balanced and sensible.
As for Kitazawa's own team, he wasn't picky; tentatively, Yamanaka Ino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Tenten—the only criterion being that he hadn't led them last time. No need to keep repeating the same students. The rest he left to Kosuke and Kakashi to distribute as they liked.
He hadn't decided what missions to take. He'd see what was on the board and maybe trigger a system quest.
At noon, after lunch back in his office, he was about to study Bodily Activation when someone knocked. Nara Shikaku walked in.
"Are the talks over?" Kitazawa raised a brow. Coming to him at midday was… off.
"Almost done, but the Fifth Mizukage has a new request—or suggestion," Shikaku said after a pause. "She hopes to hold a genin exchange meet between the villages."
"A genin exchange? Sparring between genin?" Kitazawa asked, thoughtful.
"She means picking the top genin from both villages to spar," Shikaku nodded. "No need for a big event—five bouts will do."
"What's her angle?" Kitazawa already had a hunch, but he tossed the question to the village genius.
"She wants to see Konoha's future," Shikaku said.
"If there's a gap in the next generation, Kirigakure might have a chance to catch up," Kitazawa smiled. "If not, recognize reality and settle into an alliance."
All in all, Mei Terumi's idea wasn't bad. A village's future lies not in its jōnin, but in its genin—or rather, in the talented ones who haven't made their names yet. If you lack young prodigies, current strength is just a momentary high.
From Konoha's perspective, though, it showed Mist still wasn't fully reconciled and wanted to gamble on the future.
[As the future Hokage, answer Kirigakure's provocation with a heavy hand.]
[Current Mission: Make Kirigakure lose all five matches.]
[Reward: +10% Byakugan purity.]
[Accept?]
Kitazawa's brow ticked up. Sudden, yes, but perfect timing—and a sweet reward. With his current fifty percent Byakugan purity, this would bring him to sixty.
The task wouldn't be easy, though. He was confident Konoha could beat Kirigakure overall—but five straight wins? Hard to guarantee. Mist's younger generation had a couple of standouts—for example, Chōjūrō, the future Sixth Mizukage, a bona fide prodigy.
"Konoha can accept, but I want one condition," Kitazawa said after a moment. "Let Academy students participate alongside genin."
Shikaku blinked. Normally Academy students couldn't beat genin—but there were exceptions, like the Advanced Class. He'd heard his son Shikamaru talk more than once about Naruto and Sasuke doing inhuman things.
"Since it's sparring, there should be prizes," Kitazawa added after thinking it through. "Winners can choose one B-rank jutsu from the other village."
He'd wanted to shoot for A- or S-rank, but Mist would never agree. B-rank was still fine—free loot.
"Also, have them sign the treaty tomorrow morning. Once it's signed, we hold the exchange."
"Understood," Shikaku said. "We'll need the Hokage present to sign."
He left the Academy and headed straight for the Mist delegation's temporary lodgings. Soon he met Mei Terumi and Ao.
"Academy students?" Mei was momentarily taken aback. Her first reaction was that Kitazawa was being arrogant. Why bring in students who hadn't even graduated?
But then she remembered Kitazawa's file—he was an Academy instructor. It probably meant Konoha's Academy had a crop of geniuses.
Fine by her. The whole point of proposing an exchange was to get a read on Konoha's prodigies and, at the same time, light a fire under Mist's own. Pressure creates motivation.
As for the B-rank jutsu, expensive but manageable. And she didn't believe they would lose—certainly not all of them.
~~~
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