Konoha Notes

Chapter 183 Old Shadows
Hiruzen Sarutobi maintained a policy of not easily interfering with Tsunade's governance. After stepping down, he primarily appeared as a staff member in the Political Affairs Department handling routine affairs.

For Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, this somewhat alleviated their burden. Tsunade didn't interact much with these two advisors to begin with, and often lacked patience.

With an old buddy mediating, Hiruzen Sarutobi would step in whenever there was a matter requiring communication with Tsunade. Over the past year, this arrangement had maintained a semblance of harmony.

At this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi, unusually, stepped into the Hokage's office again, this time for matters concerning the Uchiha clan.

"Tsunade, you've seen the files on the Kumogakure envoy incident, haven't you?"

"Hmm." Tsunade leaned back in her chair. "The Cloud Village envoy, Akai, has been confirmed to be under mind control, and two guards have disappeared without a trace. The final investigation points to space-time ninjutsu."

She paused, then looked up at the Third Hokage: "The files also mention the possibility of a connection with the Uchiha clan."

“Exactly.” Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded. “The Uchiha clan was cleared of suspicion because of their proactive response to the incident.”

"But as you mentioned before, Fugaku once speculated that this series of events might be related to Madara Uchiha."

"Uchiha Enjin may not have contacted many people this time due to his field mission."

“He is dissatisfied with the current state of the police force, but as an Uchiha, the only people he would actively contact are those who share his ideals and have considerable influence within the Uchiha community.”

"In other words, judging only among those related to the Uchiha clan, there aren't many options left."

After all, Uchiha Shisui had confirmed that his people showed no signs of contact with Uchiha Enjin.

Tsunade closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "Ah, yes. All that's left is that ghost that keeps haunting Konoha."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes sharpened: "I will set off with the additional Anbu squad to personally confirm whether Uchiha Enjin is indeed connected with that person."

"Understood." Tsunade opened her eyes, her gaze calm. "I will immediately inform Shisui to return to the village. We need his power to face that person."

Compared to the potential relatives of Madara Uchiha, the few extreme Uchiha clans, given Konoha's preparations, could not possibly cause any trouble.
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Shuji spent several days patiently manipulating a few thin strands of Wood Release roots to explore deep underground. Finally, with minimal chakra disturbance, he silently penetrated the barrier technique and found the hidden entrance.

A mixture of dust, old metal, and some indescribable sweet and pungent smell wafted towards me.

What came into view of the wooden clone was a laboratory that had obviously been abandoned for a long time, but had not been completely emptied.

Orochimaru's laboratory?
The association arose because, after taking a few steps closer, he saw several snake molt specimens of varying sizes and dark colors casually placed on a display shelf not far away.

In the ninja world, when you see both a snake and a laboratory, there's little need to think twice; the answer usually points to the same person.

However, this guy actually set up a base so close to Kumogakure?
He then remembered that Orochimaru had indeed infiltrated Kumogakure.

He infiltrated one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, found the location of the Jinchuriki, and triggered the Jinchuriki to go berserk. In the end, no one even knew that Orochimaru was the one who did it.

In terms of infiltration and action capabilities as a ninja, Orochimaru is indeed among the top tier. Since it is Orochimaru's laboratory, the internal defenses are nothing more than dangerous experimental subjects he left behind, snake-like summoning beasts, or trigger-based sealing techniques.

Considering the location and condition of this base, if there were live experimental subjects or a large number of summoned beasts present for an extended period, it would likely have been detected by the Cloud Village long ago.

Therefore, the most likely possibilities are snakes or sealing traps. These pose no threat to a wood clone.

The laboratory's lighting had long since failed, with only a sliver of natural light filtering in from the entrance, barely dispelling the darkness inside.

With the mindset that "since I'm already here," Shuji began to inspect the various areas of the base.

The storage cabinets and file racks were mostly empty, and the rooms where the equipment was kept were in a similar state, with only some bulky or low-value equipment left behind.

When Orochimaru sealed off this base, he obviously took away all the core research results and important resources.

Shuji continued his patient search, leaving no corner unchecked for any possible trace of information. Finally, at the bottom of an inconspicuous, seemingly completely abandoned filing cabinet, he found some carelessly discarded scrolls and scattered documents, likely discarded items left over during the cleanup.

He picked up the yellowed papers and browsed through them in the dim light. The data recorded on them was fragmented and disorganized, with obvious signs of erasure and modification in many places, as if the recorder was constantly negating his own ideas.

He then unfurled the scrolls. The contents on the scrolls were relatively neater, but the remaining charts and data were still incomplete, like fragments of a complete report.

Thanks to the systematic learning last year, Tsunade's access to the database, and the scrolls given by Orochimaru himself.

Shuji was already quite familiar with Orochimaru's usual methods of recording information and his research direction. Even with the incomplete data in front of him, he could still manage to decipher some of the content.

"Chakra extreme activation simulation..."

"Observations on the resonance effect between life energy and chakra entities..."

"Stress response of tailed beast tissue samples under high-density natural energy environment..."

These documents are likely fragments of data left behind by Orochimaru many years ago when he was researching the Eight-Tails itself.

He seems to be trying to cultivate or maintain the activity of tailed beast tissues in vitro, but the experiments conducted at this base seem to be yielding little result.

However, for Shuji, who was also trying to use the properties of Wood Release to contain and study the chakra of the Tailed Beasts, Orochimaru's detours, the reasons for his failures, and the phenomena he observed became a kind of alternative inspiration.

The crossed-out data and incomplete inferences reveal potential pitfalls and difficulties from another perspective.

He silently noted down the valuable parts, especially the records about energy stability and the interaction of the samples with the natural energy environment. Then, he placed the papers and scrolls back into the broken cabinet as they were, trying his best not to change their condition.

After confirming once again that there were no other noteworthy discoveries inside the laboratory, Shuji carefully removed all traces that the wooden clone might have left behind, quietly withdrew, and properly concealed the entrance, restoring it to its original hidden state.

(End of this chapter)