78: Interrogation

Really peaceful life.

　　After quitting his career in the front line and entering the ninja school, Shiraishi felt as if he was living a retirement life for the elderly.

　　Except for going to work at the ninja school on time at 3:00 p.m. every day, the rest of the time is at his own discretion.

　　Even if he would go to the hospital to work, the working hours would not be very long each time. It can be said that Shiraishi's current life is something that many Konoha ninjas envy.

　　Study, go for a walk, go to work, go home on time to rest.

　　Occasionally I go shopping with Ruri, but I see Ayane only a handful of times.

　　After the three of them withdrew from the Sakumo team, they had their own work to do.

　　Ruri needs to work in the garrison, responsible for the security issues of the village, and resolve civil disputes in the village.

　　Since Ayane has become a Jonin, and she was considered to have high potential by the elders of the high-level Hyuga at a very early time, she is also in an important position in the Hyuga clan at this moment.

　　After all, being the guardian of the future head of the Hyuga clan is not something that a normal Hyuga ninja can do.

　　It can be seen that Ayane's status in the Hyuga clan is much higher than that of the ordinary Hyuga branch ninjas.

　　There is also a serious level gap between different people in the branch.

　　Based on this situation, since leaving the Sakumo team, Shiraishi has only seen Ayane outside once, and during the meeting, he was not able to talk for more than five minutes.

　　In the dark, of course, in secret to keep in touch and exchange information.

　　However... At present, what Shiraishi is most concerned about is undoubtedly the recent series of secret measures taken by the top management of Konoha——

　　Wood Release Research Experiment!

　　◎

　　"What kind of plan are those people at the top of Konoha plotting?"

　　It was precisely this that made Shiraishi worried.

　　On the surface, Shiraishi was not anxious about this. According to the usual rhythm, he lived in the village as a qualified Konoha ninja, but he was wary of the higher-ups' research and experiments on the wooden release.

　　Shiraishi, who had never underestimated these higher ups, raised the danger level of these high-levels to a new tier in his heart.

　　The power of wood release has not been verified by Shiraishi with his own eyes, but he has witnessed the terrifying power of the tailed beast when it runs wild.

　　And that was just the power that erupted from one tail. Regardless of whether it was in a complete state at that time, among the tailed beasts, the strongest tailed beast was nine tails.

　　It was once suppressed by the original Hokage's wood release, which shows the extraordinariness of wood release.

　　At that time, the chakra in the shape of a sphere was ejected by the one tail, and the terrifying power generated by the explosion really surprised Shiraishi.

　　It made him doubt the profession of ninja for a while.

　　Even if wood release, which can suppress the strongest tailed beast, may not necessarily have the level of the original Hokage, it should not be taken too lightly.

　　According to Insect Man and the others, that kind of strange white creature has a strong ability to sneak. If it is not for the ability to sense natural energy, it is difficult to find the trace of this strange creature.

　　If the senior officials of Konoha really use the wooden release to develop such a special stealth unit, then the purpose is self-evident. Whether it is to search for information on enemy ninjas or to monitor the interior of the village, the observation ability will be several times higher than that of Anbu, it is hard to prevent.

　　Shiraishi is not very worried that the research here will be discovered. The stealth ability of this strange creature can be sensed by natural energy.

　　No matter how troublesome something is known, as long as precautions are taken, there is nothing to fear.

　　The trouble is the unknown.

　　In the hands of Konoha senior management, how many such stealth creatures are there?

　　Where are these creatures arranged?

　　What unknown plan are they plotting?

　　Has the Uchiha clan been infiltrated by the other party?

　　All of this is unknown.

　　Shiraishi has absolute confidence in his own safety, but it is based on the premise that the senior officials of Konoha made serious mistakes in their own intelligence on him, no matter what, he has the initiative, and this is the key to victory.

　　But this kind of unknown variable, Konoha executives now also have this kind of trump card.

　　Unknown vs. unknown, things can be troublesome if a conflict suddenly erupts.

　　"It's a headache..."

　　If you know how to break the game, or know what the top management of Konoha is conspiring, then I will not be so passive.

　　How to take the initiative back into my own hands, I must think of a foolproof strategy.

　　In the face of such a huge military establishment like Shinobu Village, there is no chance of winning.

　　Just when Shiraishi was worried about this matter, Ruri had already walked down the corridor of the underground laboratory.

　　"When did you come back?"

　　"Just now."

　　"It's already time for work to end?"

　　Shiraishi was unaware of the passage of time.

　　Ruri's work hours in the garrison are nine in the morning to seven in the evening.

　　There will be two days off each week, which can be used for free activities and doing what you like.

　　"You shouldn't have been worrying about the high-level plan here, right?"

　　"Well, after all, it is linked to wood release, and we can also analyze the components similar to the tailed beast from it. This can't be avoided... Why, you don't seem to be worried at all?"

　　Only then did Shiraishi notice that there was no worry on Ruri's face, and was slightly surprised.

　　You must know that some high-level officials have a very bad relationship with Uchiha, especially Shimura Danzo, the root leader of the radical faction.

　　If there wasn't the third Hokage to balance them, the roots will not be so honest and stand still in recent years.

　　"Why should I worry about this kind of thing? As long as you have the power to suppress all conspiracies and tricks, trying to create countermeasures is a complete waste of time and energy. With such time and energy, it is better to use it to improve your strength."

　　"..."

　　It's really forceful thinking.

　　Thinking of this, Shiraishi felt as if he was worried for Ruri for nothing.

　　"You are too attached to the so-called truth. You were like this in the past. You must thoroughly understand the so-called truth."

　　"Searching for the truth is my job."

　　Shiraishi gave the answer.

　　"You are obviously insecure."

　　Ruri has a look of 'don't try to lie to me', her eyes seem to be able to discern the essence of him.

　　"Since you understand this, why say it? It hurts."

　　Shiraishi reluctantly pulled out a smile.

　　Just as he understands everything about Ruri, Rurialso understands everything about him.

　　It is impossible to hide this trick from the other party.

　　"Because I rarely see you in such a tangled state, it's very interesting."

　　Ruri laughed like this.

　　"You... Could it be that Ayane used the transformation technique to transform?"

　　Shiraishi hesitated for a moment and asked this somewhat rude question.

　　Sure enough, after listening to Shiraishi's words, Ruri's pitch-black pupils suddenly stared at Shiraishi without answering him, but the condensed air was slowly flowing around.

　　Appears to be genuine.

　　Ayane does not have such a powerful and intimidating aura.

　　"How is the progress of Immortal Art?"

　　Ruri asked about the topic she cared about the most.

　　"In a recent experiment, the success rate of synthesizing immortal chakra has steadily increased to more than 80%. Give me another half a year to a year or so before it can be officially put into use."

　　Shiraishi gave a more conservative time.

　　Ruri nodded, half a year to a year, this time is completely affordable.

　　Anyway, she has a lot of free time now. As one of the squad leaders in the garrison, most of the time she can just leave the work to her subordinates. Occasionally, she will have to come forward to settle things.

　　After Ruri left, Shiraishi fell into deep thought.

　　Indeed, as Ruri said, instead of guessing what the top executives of Konoha are going to do here, you will never lose money by improving your strength.

　　"But no matter how I improve myself in battle, I can't surpass Ruri. Her growth rate is too abnormal. My 'strength' is not reflected in battle..."

　　Give up all the time for cultivation, and spend all your time on research except for work and rest. This was what Shiraishi could think of.

　　Not only Ruri, but Ayane's strength is also growing faster than his own.

　　Although his cultivation talent is not bad, compared with Ruri and Ayane, the gap cannot be ignored.

　　But the two of them have a bloodline limit bonus, and sharingan and byakugan are the leading bloodline limits in the ninja world.

　　This is an advantage that Shiraishi does not have.

　　And the power of the bloodline limit, with the continuous development of the holder, the power will become more and more terrifying.

　　Not to mention, the two of them are geniuses in their own right.

　　It is also a way to improve your 'strength' by giving up your training time and putting all your energy into research.

　　Creating 'weapons' is his job, and fighting with 'weapons' is the job of Ruri and Ayane.

　　Shiraishi suddenly had a feeling of clearing the clouds and seeing the truth.

　　Everyone in this world is not perfect.

　　Therefore, we need others to complement our shortcomings and advance and retreat together.

　　Compared to fighting, he is better at research, and has cognition and thinking beyond the ninja era. This is where he is stronger than Ruri and Ayane.

　　Therefore, there is no need for the current self to strive for excellence in combat, that is not the path that one should choose.

　　Thinking about it this way, the secret plan of Konoha's high-level executives is not an important matter.

　　The important thing is to improve yourself.

　　◎

　　The weather in May is already relatively warm.

　　A creature named 'white zetsu' has sneaked into Konoha.

　　Compared with other villages, Konoha's infiltration difficulty is one of the most difficult out of all the Ninja villages.

　　The perceptual barrier that surrounds the entire village can be seen through the eyes of the entity, and when white zetsu sneaks in, he is very careful about what he does.

　　A total of three came in, and two white zetsu were in charge of monitoring outside Konoha Village.

　　The three white zetsu who sneaked into the Konoha Village had a very clear goal, to find out whether the missing white zetsu was related to the top officials of Konoha, and then they collected information in the Uchiha clan to find the so-called 'spokesperson'.

　　As for what kind of character a 'spokesperson' needs, talent requirements, etc… The white zetsu's have some idea, but everything needs to be decided by their 'Master Madara'.

　　But the age of the 'spokesperson' must not be too large, preferably between a few years old and a teenager, so that it is easy to control.

　　Therefore, most of the Uchiha clansmen who are under surveillance by them are mostly young ninjas in their teens, or they are children studying in ninja schools.

　　One person is in charge of investigating high-level officials, the other person is in charge of the ninja school, and the other person is lurking in the Uchiha clan.

　　They have already been very handy in collecting intelligence, even if this is the most difficult to penetrate Ninja village, as long as they are given a certain amount of time, they can successfully operate the intelligence channel.

　　White zetsu, who was in charge of the Uchiha clan, was swimming underground like no one else was around.

　　Like a ghost that doesn't exist, no one has noticed his actions so far.

　　Even the Uchiha clan could not find his trace.

　　The white zetsu was complacent.

　　Although the weak combat ability is the flaw of most of the white zetsu, but everyone's stealth ability is very good, only a very small number of special perception ninjas can detect their existence.

　　According to the characteristics of the Uchiha clan, there are no perception ninjas in this clan.

　　Therefore, monitoring Uchiha's information is the easiest task in his eyes.

　　It seems that you will be able to meet Madara-sama soon. The white zetsu was very happy.

　　Just as he was about to move forward, the chilling feeling of being peeped at by some creature's eyes suddenly made his white body stop moving in the soil.

　　He turned his head and almost cried out in fright.

　　A pair of dark eyes suddenly squeezed out of the soil next to him, staring at him without warning.

　　What is this?

　　White zetsu just had this thought in his mind, and then the soil around him began to wriggle, shrink, and become extremely soft, like a swamp. White zetsu felt the oppression of suffocation, and immediately lost consciousness.

　　Everything happened so suddenly that the white zetsu couldn't even see what the enemy looked like.

　　——When he woke up, white zetsu found himself sitting on a stone chair with restraint props tied up and down his body.

　　This is a secret room, and the light from the lights is close to dim yellow, barely illuminating the room.

　　In front of him stood a man and a woman, all fifteen or sixteen years old.

　　The woman was dressed in a black tight-fitting ninja suit, with an indifferent expression. Just standing there gave him a strong sense of oppression.

　　On the other hand, the man was wearing a white coat, and with a strange gaze that made him feel chills, he kept walking on his body.

　　White zetsu, who was stared at by such strange eyes, trembled uncontrollably.

　　Although he felt that the girl was stronger, he didn't know why, but the danger he felt was even higher from this boy.

　　This man and woman are Shiraishi and Ruri.

　　"Hello, how are you?"

　　White zetsu tried his best to use his exaggerated funny art to adjust the cold atmosphere of the scene, and by the way to reduce his inner tension.

　　Shiraishi and Ruri ignored white zetsu's exaggerated and deliberately funny behavior.

　　After the atmosphere cooled down, Shiraishi turned to Ruri and said:

　　"Since I've caught a living one this time, I'm going to use the technique of spiritualization to possess this guy's spiritual world and get his information from the inside. My body will be in your hands."

　　Seeing Ruri nodding earnestly, Shiraishi immediately formed a seal with both hands and closed his eyes. Immediately afterwards, his body glowed, and an illusory human body that looked exactly like Shiraishi floated in the air.

　　This illusory human body is Shiraishi's soul.

　　After his soul came out, Shiraishi ignored white zetsu's struggling body and rushed towards white zetsu's body, overlapping with his body and connecting with white zetsu's spiritual world.

　　White zetsu, who was sitting on the stone chair, struggled more violently, and cold sweat continued to flow out from his face.

　　But no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get rid of Shiraishi's soul possession, preventing Shiraishi from exploring his spiritual world, all of which were useless struggles.

　　Wandering in white zetsu's spiritual world, Shiraishi found that his soul had entered a completely blank space, and he couldn't help showing a look of astonishment.

　　When he used the technique of spiritualization to explore the spiritual world of others, the picture presented in front of him was definitely not like this.

　　There will always be some memories.

　　But... in this empty spiritual world, is there nothing in this guy's mind?

　　How can there be such a strange creature?

　　"Is his memory here, pinned on other 'objects'..."

　　It's a little weird, but it seems to be the only answer.

　　Even animals without intelligence have their own spiritual world, and their spiritual world is not empty.

　　Therefore, Shiraishi could conclude that the memory leading to the origin of this white creature was sealed elsewhere.

　　Shiraishi was about to leave when a huge scarlet pupil suddenly appeared in the empty spiritual world.

　　A powerful chakra hit him that Shiraishi had never felt before.

　　Cold and dark.

　　It was as if he had become a small boat in the tsunami, in danger of overturning at any time.

　　"Sharingan... how is that possible!?"

　　Shiraishi turned pale in shock at first.

　　These huge scarlet pupils, as well as the symbolic three tomoe, are obviously enlarged versions of the sharingan.

　　The dark and cursed spiritual pressure was stronger than the pressure that Ruri made him feel.

　　——Outside, white zetsu suddenly roared loudly, his face twisted and grim, and countless bloodshots were present in his eyeballs, which might burst at any time.

　　Shiraishi's illusory spiritual body quickly detached from the body of white zetsu and returned to his own body.

　　When he returned to his body, his face was covered in cold sweat. Looking at white zetsu who was roaring frantically, he stood there with a pale face and did not say a word.

　　In the end, the roaring stopped abruptly, white zetsu kept his mouth open as much as possible, sat motionless on the stone chair, and rolled his eyes to the limit, already dead.

　　"What's up?"

　　Ruri didn't know what Shiraishi had experienced just now, but with a concern in her tone, she helped him aside and sat down.

　　After sitting down, Shiraishi's fingers on the armrest were trembling slightly, looking like he was in shock.

　　For a long time, his voice was hoarse, and it was difficult to spit out a sentence from his mouth:

　　"Sharingan..."

　　"Sharingan?"

　　"Sharingan pupil power more powerful than yours... what a monster..."

　　Having said this, Shiraishi slowly closed his eyes, as if he hadn't recovered from the shock before.

　　Hearing Shiraishi say this crucial information, Ruri's brows knit together tightly.

　　"You mean, in this guy's spiritual world, you encountered the illusion of sharingan?"

　　"Yeah, the other party's sharingan illusion is very strong, at least I have never seen such a terrible sharingan..."

　　Shiraishi opened his eyes again, glanced at Ruri, nodded and said.

　　His words naturally included Ruri.

　　The other party's use of sharingan is much higher than that of Ruri.

　　"I know the strength of those people very well. I can't say that my pupil power is the strongest of Uchiha today, but there are definitely no more than two pairs of sharingan that can rival me."

　　"But that's the truth. The person who sets up the sharingan illusion in this guy's spiritual world has far more pupil power than you."

　　Shiraishi also didn't want to hurt Ruri's self-confidence, but it was the truth.

　　Hearing Shiraishi's repeated affirmation of this, Ruri also knew that she was making trouble unreasonably, so she calmed down and thought.

　　But no matter how much you think, you can't guess who else in the Uchiha clan has the power of sharingan that can surpass her.

　　"It seems that I guessed wrong from the beginning. This level of protection is not only about the wooden release and the tailed beast, but also involves the sharingan. The appearance of this guy is likely to have nothing to do with the top of the village... Behind the scenes the master is someone else."

　　Shiraishi let out a sigh of relief, his eyes full of solemnity.

　　Be more careful next time.

　　The rain country is temporarily designated as a restricted area, to avoid contact with Akatsuki's people again.

　　He didn't want to be targeted by unknown enemies because of this kind of thing.

　　◎

　　"Lord Madara, white zetsu, who was investigating the Uchiha clan, is missing."

　　In the dark huge cave, a white zetsu emerged from the ground and immediately reported to the old man sitting on the wooden chair.

　　"I know that the illusion I set in his mind was triggered, and he was obviously caught."

　　The old man's eyes flickered, not knowing what he was thinking.

　　"Will our information not be leaked?"

　　White zetsu was a little worried.

　　"No, the moment the illusion is triggered, another suicide spell will be chained, and that white zetsu is already dead."

　　The old man said calmly.

　　"As expected of Mr. Madara, it's a pity for that white zetsu."

　　White zetsu smiled, not at all saddened by the death of that white zetsu.

　　Because the meaning of their existence is to serve as a tool for the owner to make a profit.

　　"Take all the white zetsu back from Konoha. I didn't expect that after I left, there would be such an excellent ninja in the clan, and you can't act rashly."

　　The old man's face was full of regret.

　　"Do you want to give up monitoring Uchiha like this?"

　　"It's not giving up. Wait until the limelight passes, and then send white zetsu to try. Or when the Ninja World War starts again, it will be a good time."

　　After all, some people in his clan can already detect the trace of white zetsu. No matter what method is used, it means that he cannot easily get all the information of the current Uchiha clan in his hands, and carefully select the 'spokesman who suits his heart'.

　　Seeing that the old man was in a bad mood, white zetsu also shrewdly burrowed into the soil and disappeared in front of the old man.