Zombie Sage in Naruto

Chapter 60 My old eyes can distinguish the real from the fake.

root base.

This was Kaedeji Tsukasa's first time entering this place. His expression remained normal, showing no sign of vigilance despite entering Danzo's stronghold.

"So calm, Kaedeji. It seems that you lack true respect for me, aside from that false humility. Hiruzen may not have noticed, but I can clearly sense it."

Danzo's wooden clogs clattered on the floor tiles, echoing in the dimly lit basement.

As they ventured deeper into the base, more and more Root ninjas appeared, spontaneously following behind the two. At Danzo's command, these people would swarm forward and capture Kaede Tsukasa.

"There are already twelve people, all of them are very excellent ninjas. I also saw Lord Terai, as well as the Yamanaka clan members who used the Mind Transfer Technique to target me last time."

Kaede Tsukasa turned around, counted, and said something.

The sound of a group of people's footsteps was uniform and they were putting pressure on each other with their actions, but Kaede Tsukasa was completely unmoved by it.

Danzo said, "Hmph, it seems you have your own method of perception. Are you using the Corpse Escape Technique to secretly test and control these living people?"

Terai immediately replied, "Lord Danzo, I haven't noticed anything unusual."

"I already guessed it. By the time you realize something is wrong, you'll probably already be under his spell, like a special kind of illusion. However, given your strength, he's not capable of casting spells on you yet. You can generate more chakra to cleanse your body," Danzo said.

Danzo has been collecting and analyzing various intelligence on Kaedeji, and has drawn conclusions from many details.

A prime example is the battle where Kaede Tsukasa and Kato Dan killed Sandstorm Araki. Many people witnessed Sandstorm Araki's strange behavior before his death, and the fact that Kaede Tsukasa didn't forget to form hand seals and cast spells while constantly retreating and dodging already speaks volumes.

"Curse? Plague? Poisonous insects? Barrier? These are just a few possibilities. I already know which one it is. Many of the corpses you have touched have already left traces."

When Danzo spoke, his gaze remained fixed ahead, as if his attention was not on Kaedeji Tsukasa.

"You're really confident, arranging so many people for me alone. If a few of them were to die by accident, you would be heartbroken."

Kaede Tsukasa was not surprised. Although he rarely made public moves, especially after five months of intensive training, Danzo had no chance to see his strength in person. The three Root ninjas who reported to him were also killed by Kaede Tsukasa, so Danzo could not make an accurate judgment.

But the existence of a zombie virus cannot be concealed. With so many corpses, Danzo is no fool. Even if he only obtains a little bit of flesh and blood, he will know the truth.

"Kaede Tsukasa, don't think you're really unique. The Aburame clan has cultivated nano-poisonous insects. Those things are more insidious and troublesome than your techniques, and their damage to the human body is more severe. The village's foundation is beyond your imagination. Don't let your shallow knowledge limit your view of the village just because you are a war orphan."

Danzo bluntly warned, "Among these people are several excellent ninjas who have mastered sealing techniques. No matter how fast you summon corpses or how fast you use the Sky Realm Technique, you still won't be able to escape from here."

“Lord Danzo, your probing is a bit unnecessary. Yes, I can indeed sense my zombies from a distance. I can leave here whenever I want without needing to summon zombies on the spot and then use magic to teleport them short distances.” Kaede Tsukasa shook his head. “Incidentally, I can also kill a few people along the way.”

“The line between confidence and arrogance is often blurred, but it’s amazing that a place like an orphanage could produce such an excellent ninja as you.” Danzo didn’t move his head, but his eyes moved to the edge of their sockets before turning back.

Kaede Tsukasa... seems to have become visibly more difficult to deal with. Every time we meet, he always manages to come up with unexpected methods.

And he became increasingly ruthless. This gave Danzo a terrible feeling—a feeling of being out of control and out of expectations. Orochimaru gave him the same feeling; he was also a sinister guy who was touching on forbidden research projects, and there were countless ways to guard against him.

However, Danzo did not believe that Kaede Tsukasa could reach Orochimaru's level, not now, and certainly not in the future—except for the area of ​​extracting life force from corpses, which is currently beyond Orochimaru's reach.

"arrive."

Danzo stopped and pushed open the door to a laboratory.

"You are the second outsider to enter this place after Orochimaru."

"Really? That's an honor. But I don't think this is your core laboratory."

"You haven't earned my trust yet, so I can't let you access the core secrets of the Root."

Danzo snorted coldly, glanced at the two prisoners in the iron cage, and immediately some Root ninja stepped forward and dragged the two guys out.

"These two were prisoners of Sunagakure. After the village reached a peace agreement with Sunagakure, a group of prisoners were released, but not everyone was eligible to return. These two killed village ninjas on the battlefield, and their crimes are unforgivable."

Danzo pointed to the one on the left and then to the one on the right: "Now, use this person as a sacrifice to perform your forbidden technique on another person for me to see. As long as I see it with my own eyes, you will have my full support."

Kaede knew that even if these two Sand Village ninjas hadn't killed any Konoha ninjas, Danzo would still try to detain them and create the illusion of their deaths if he captured them.

After all, all kinds of taboo human experiments require a lot of materials to test and make mistakes. If we don't take advantage of the war to capture a group of enemy ninjas and then make it look like they are dead, we can't just capture ninjas from our own village, can we?

Of course, it's not impossible, but doing so would be too dangerous. Unless it's a critical moment in the experimental research where you don't want to wait even a second longer, there's no need to do it.

"So that's how it is. What you meant by 'seeing it with your own eyes' is actually like this."

Kaede watched as Danzo removed the bandages from his head, revealing his three-tomoe Sharingan.

He turned his head again, looking at the Root ninjas scattered around and the various sealing techniques that filled the laboratory.

The ninjas of the Yamanaka and Nara clans are ready to unleash secret techniques to restrict Kaedeji's movements at any time.

Danzo himself probably prepared his own illusion technique, which would be enough even if it only had a momentary effect on Kaede Tsukasa.

Goodness, they're really not pretending anymore. Once Kaedeji's forbidden technique turns out to be fake, these people will swarm him and do everything they can to keep him here forever.

"This kind of setup is extremely cautious. It seems I've come across more of the Root's secrets, especially your eye. If I may, I'm actually quite interested in that clan's bloodline limit."

Kaedeji began using the Corpse Transformation Technique to quickly transform a Sand Village ninja.

(End of this chapter)