15877 / 19658 / 18795…
"As expected, Uchiha give experience the fastest," Arin muttered.
The arrows in his hand did not stop.
Only the squad leader remained—
Struggling to resist.
He darted through the dense rain of flaming arrows, trying to break through the ANBU encirclement.
Seeing his comrades die, he roared:
"Bastard!!!"
But the increasingly dense barrage of flaming arrows left him no time to continue shouting.
The three tomoe in his eyes spun rapidly—
Almost merging into one.
Unfortunately—
Countless flaming arrows pierced through his body.
"Hyuga… Arin!!"
BOOM!!
The explosion swallowed him whole.
Only then did Arin descend from the sky, casually digging at his ear.
"Why shout so loudly? You almost awakened the Mangekyō."
Though even if he had—
A freshly awakened Mangekyō wouldn't be his match.
But why shout his name?
It wasn't like he issued the mission.
He only knew they were ordered to silence this squad.
It just so happened—
There were a few more Uchiha than usual.
They didn't even know what mission this group had completed.
Arin began collecting the dropped items.
Things like Fire Release techniques and Uchiha bloodlines—
All useless.
They were tossed into the furnace and refined into essence.
In the end—
Only six Sharingan remained.
Three one-tomoe combined into one two-tomoe.
Two two-tomoe—
Plus the two he already had.
[Three-Tomoe Sharingan]
[Two-Tomoe Sharingan: 1/3]
[One-Tomoe Sharingan: 2/3]
"Just seven more Sharingan… and two Pain Crystals."
Arin touched his forehead—
Where a hidden Sharingan spun slowly, unseen by others.
Within the crimson pupil—
Three tomoe rotated.
His Yin Release strengthened further.
"Captain."
A Root ninja landed beside him.
Arin waved his hand.
"Clean up the battlefield. Return to the village."
"Yes!"
Arin glanced at his panel.
Over the past two years, he had barely accumulated over 500,000 experience.
With this batch—
He now had over 600,000.
[Experience: 612,548]
All of it—
Earned painstakingly in the hospital.
Plus occasional Root missions.
The hospital didn't always have patients.
Root missions were infrequent.
And Hiruzen wasn't assigning him anything.
Meanwhile—
Nawaki was constantly going out on missions, thriving.
Nothing compared to wartime harvesting.
What a mess.
"It's year 41 now… theoretically, six more years until the Third Great Ninja War."
Arin sighed.
Soon—
The battlefield was completely cleaned.
No trace of combat remained.
"Withdraw."
…
Inside Root—
"You did well on this mission," Danzo nodded in satisfaction.
This squad had taken on a Root mission—
And was eliminated afterward.
Standard procedure.
Otherwise, it might damage the Hokage's image.
Definitely not targeted.
"Danzo-sama, Root's strength is already quite high. Using us for this is overkill," Arin said lazily, yawning.
Danzo had gotten used to his attitude.
"What do you want to do, then?"
He knew the Second Squad's strength had skyrocketed.
Many members had improved rapidly.
Even several Hyuga had joined.
Among all Root squads—
The Second Squad was now the strongest.
"No team can match them."
Arin stared at Danzo with dead fish eyes.
"How about we go assassinate a Kage?"
"Not yet."
Arin narrowed his eyes.
"You're not thinking about the Hokage again, are you?"
"Ahem." Danzo coughed lightly. "Hiruzen and I share a revolutionary bond. Why would I think that? So what do you want?"
Arin got straight to the point.
"Let us take out the Kazekage."
Danzo's mouth twitched.
Might as well kill the Hokage—
At least then he'd become Hokage himself.
Killing the Kazekage brought no benefit—
Only war.
"Not yet."
"Running out of excuses?" Arin scoffed.
Danzo did have ambition—
But only after becoming Hokage.
"If there's nothing else, leave."
"Tch."
Arin grumbled as he walked out.
From the shadows—
Orochimaru emerged, looking at Arin's departing figure with mild amusement.
"I didn't expect you and my student to get along so well, Danzo-sama," he said hoarsely.
Danzo replied coldly:
"He's a useful blade."
Aside from being slightly more radical—
Arin was extremely effective.
Some attitude issues didn't matter.
Though sometimes—
Danzo really wanted to poison him mute.
He turned to Orochimaru.
"Still no results?"
Orochimaru sighed.
"The hidden Senju within Konoha are nearly exhausted. Yet there's still no progress."
He didn't even know how to face Tsunade anymore.
It felt like Hiruzen and Danzo were working together—
To erase the Senju entirely.
After all—
Only Senju could potentially fuse with Hashirama's cells.
"Hiruzen is already dissatisfied and wants to shut this down," Danzo said coldly. "I need results. No matter the cost."
"If you're unhappy with my progress, use your other researcher," Orochimaru replied coldly.
Using fellow villagers as test subjects already disgusted him.
And now—
"no matter the cost"?
He knew Danzo's other lab used children.
Danzo's expression darkened.
Hiruko had made no more progress than Orochimaru.
But under his control—
Hiruko had abandoned his humanity completely.
A perfect Root tool.
Orochimaru, on the other hand—
Still hadn't fully crossed the line.
"Hmph."
Danzo turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Orochimaru sighed again.
If Nawaki or Tsunade ever asked what he'd been doing these past two years—
"Experimenting on your hidden clan members."
That wasn't just dark humor—
That was a death sentence.
…
Back home—
Arin looked at his experience and abilities.
"If you won't help… I'll just kill the Kazekage myself."
He had already spent two years.
Only one year remained.
If he failed—
His chakra would reset to zero.
He had hoped Danzo would help.
What a pity.
That old man was too busy staring at the Hokage's seat.
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