Chapter 89: Research Results On The Iburi Clan
Konohagakure.
Menma, who was playing with Hinata and Naruto building a snowman in the park, suddenly paused.
The shadow clone had already used the Flying Thunder God Technique to place the items at home, then dispelled itself voluntarily, flooding a massive amount of information into Menma’s mind.
“Menma?” Little Hinata keenly noticed Menma’s abnormality, her snow-white eyes filled with concern.
Naruto, however, was completely oblivious and kept vigorously sticking a branch onto the snowman’s head as a nose.
“It’s nothing, let’s keep playing.” Menma shook his head, signaling to Hinata not to worry, and continued playing the snowman-building game with them.
Nowadays, Menma was already the king of the children in this park. The surrounding kids either avoided him or acknowledged him as their boss, which occasionally led to kids his age treating Naruto kindly too.
Of course, the premise was that those kids’ adults weren’t around.
This at least made Naruto’s childhood not so lonely.
In a couple of years, after entering the Ninja Academy, descendants of ninja clans like Shikamaru and Choji wouldn’t discriminate against Naruto either, allowing him to make a few more friends.
“Menma bro! Look!” Naruto shouted excitedly.
Menma and Hinata looked over, only to see that Naruto had taken off his own red scarf and wrapped it around the snowman.
“Your scarf will get dirty, and it’ll take several days to dry after washing.” Menma vaguely remembered that this scarf seemed to be knitted by Kushina for Naruto.
“It’s fine, I have another scarf at home, though it’s a darker color.” Naruto grinned, unconcerned.
This statement made Menma pause: “Another one?”
“Yeah.” Naruto nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, “Not just the scarf, but clothes, hats, and such—all have a darker-colored version. I don’t know why.”
Hearing this, Menma’s heart skipped a beat.
‘So, Kushina and Minato prepared for two children…’ Menma lowered his head, lightly biting his gums.
He didn’t know why the Third Hokage hadn’t searched for the missing children of the Fourth Hokage and his wife, nor investigated the extra orphans from the night of the Nine-Tails Attack.
But now it seemed that Kushina was indeed pregnant with twins at the time and had prepared clothing and such for two children.
He wasn’t born directly into the Limited Tsukuyomi World, but first had a body nurtured by Kushina, entering the Limited Tsukuyomi after birth?
So, it was still Obito’s doing?
————
After parting with Naruto and Hinata, Menma returned home and took the Iburi Clan samples.
Then, using the Flying Thunder God Technique, he arrived at the secret base in the Land of Fields.
His black robe brushed over the snow at the village entrance. When Menma, wearing the white three-eyed fox mask, appeared in Otogakure, the sky had already completely darkened.
This village was now fully under Orochimaru’s control, with the villagers relying on Orochimaru’s forces to survive.
In such turbulent times, a ninja-protected village was extremely rare.
Orochimaru didn’t care about these ordinary people anyway; he just wanted them to produce some basic supplies.
“Lord Shura.” The red-haired girl at the village entrance, who had been waiting who knows how long, finally saw Shura emerging from the darkness and approached somewhat nervously.
“Lead the way ahead.” Menma glanced down at Tayuya. This kid was already like Orochimaru’s other subordinates, with a shimenawa wrapped around her waist.
Many of Orochimaru’s subordinates were orphans and problem children with strong worship for Orochimaru, even willingly offering their bodies to become Orochimaru’s vessels.
This kind of brainwashing-like ideological education was a key cornerstone in Orochimaru establishing Otogakure.
“Yes!” Tayuya bowed slightly, then led the way ahead.
This time, compared to last year, the village had many more buildings, and the entrance to Orochimaru’s underground base had changed greatly.
Entering from a wooden structure building in the village, through corridors extending ever downward, Menma once again arrived at Orochimaru’s base.
In some cages, various experimental subjects were still imprisoned, the air filled with the scent of blood and disinfectant.
Menma frowned slightly under his white mask.
“You’re indeed in the Land of Bears.” The woman-sized Orochimaru walked out of a laboratory, satisfied that his guess was correct.
“Where are the things?” Menma walked up to Orochimaru, arms crossed over his chest, the white three-eyed fox mask slightly raised, meeting Orochimaru’s gaze.
Orochimaru snorted lightly twice, stepped aside, and gestured for Menma to follow him into the laboratory.
After Menma entered Orochimaru’s laboratory, Orochimaru began explaining: “Thanks to the White Zetsu you provided, I used its cellular tissue to neutralize the Iburi Clan’s genes, achieving free control over smoke transformation.”
“But these were all done on flesh and blood tissue; no human experiments have been conducted yet. If you could provide a few Iburi clansmen…”
Orochimaru’s words were cut off by Menma before he finished.
“It’s not yet at the stage for human experiments.” A rejecting voice came from under the white three-eyed fox mask.
Hearing Shura’s response, Orochimaru frowned slightly.
“Shura, aren’t you overly concerned about the Iburi Clan’s survival?” Orochimaru’s golden slit pupils contracted slightly.
He couldn’t figure out why Shura, a top strong practitioner who could wreak havoc in Konoha and Cloud Village, cared so much about such a weak clan.
“Orochimaru, do you know what the biggest difference is between you and the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju?” Menma tilted his head slightly, the white three-eyed fox mask looking back at Orochimaru.
“Apart from strength, where I might not match him, in the research field, I don’t think I’m inferior to the Second Hokage in any way.” Orochimaru stuck out his tongue to lick his cheek; he was very confident in his research achievements.
“It’s the bottom line, Orochimaru.” Yet Shura’s seemingly light words struck hard at Orochimaru’s heart.
Orochimaru’s pupils trembled slightly, involuntarily recalling various information about the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju.
This Second Hokage, also a research genius, seemed to have never experimented on living people…
Even his attitude toward the Uchiha Clan was better than the current Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.
After all, Tobirama Senju had taken a Uchiha as a disciple.
The Second Hokage probably truly wanted to change the Uchiha Clan.
“Let’s not talk about that.” Orochimaru suddenly grinned, walked to a cabinet by an experiment bench, took out a scroll from inside, and tossed it to Menma.
“How have you considered the meteorite and Hell Valley matters?” Then, Orochimaru brought up his plan to build a base in the Land of Bears again.
“No need to establish a new base; I’ll allocate an experimental building in my Land of Bears base for your people.” Menma opened the scroll, glanced at the research data, nodded slightly—it aligned roughly with his own research direction, just much faster progress.
After closing and storing the scroll, Menma took out a storage scroll and tossed it to Orochimaru.
“Whatever, I just have some interest in the poison gas from the meteorite and Hell Valley anyway.” Orochimaru caught the storage scroll and directly put it into his mouth.
As he said, the poison gas from Hell Valley and the meteorite were just to satisfy Orochimaru’s curiosity until a greater use was found.
“So, how did the Kirigakure trip go?” After swallowing the storage scroll, Orochimaru licked around his mouth with his tongue, issuing an invitation to Shura.
