Chapter 47

Duy, mom, and I slowly made our way back to frost.

None of us were in a hurry, delaying our return by a day was acceptable and wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

"How was your break Duy?"

I hadn't seen Duy much, he got promoted to Chunin with my recommendation and had been training furiously ever since.

"It was most Youthful! I trained Guy in the ways of a youthful Gentleman and spent much of my days' training youthfully in preparation for my return to Frost!"

Even with years of decoding Guy speak, I wasn't sure what the ways of a youthful gentleman entailed...

"Sounds Youthful!"

I gave Duy a thumbs up, and mom rolled her eyes at both of us.

"What were you up to?"

I looked around for a moment trying to find out who mom's question was directed to, I realized it was me after Duy stared at me for a moment.

"I practiced with my new Kekkei Genkai and made some improvements to Heavens Palm."

I eyed mom for a moment, I guess I might as well ask her too...

"What did you do during your break Sumiko?"

Duy however beat me to it.

"I've been trying to make a new Taijutsu technique..."

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"And...?"

Mom smiled.

"And... it's a secret..."

I sent her a bland stare.

"Alright..."

I was glad she wasn't wasting time on Ninjutsu...

I sighed and looked forward.

We were almost at Hot Springs...

...

I arrived at the camp and sent a clone off to Orochimaru for instructions.

The camp seemingly hadn't changed.

The only major difference was the presence of some clan members dotted throughout the camp.

It was slightly worrying...

Either there was a large battle that went unfavorably or two-hundred or so people went on break and needed to be replaced...

The latter was sadly less likely...

...

"Long time no see."

I gave an annoyed-looking Orochimaru a nod.

"Shiro."

Orochimaru nodded back and continued studying a map he was leaning over.

"So... I see a lot of new faces, what happened when I was away...?"

Orochimaru took a deep breath before replying.

"The Third Raikage happened."

I hummed feeling thankful for my timely break.

"It's unusual for a Kage to leave his village."

It truly was, the Kages took no missions and weren't supposed to leave their villages.

"Indeed..."

Orochimaru didn't look up from the map.

"He came, decimated our forces for a while before becoming bored and leaving..."

I hummed again, it sounded about right...

In canon, the Third Raikage was known for facing ten-thousand Shinobi alone.

Though I forgot what nation they came from.

"Has anything changed that I need to know about?"

Orochimaru shook his head.

"Nothing that comes to mind..."

I just nodded and started heading towards the exit.

"Alright, thanks Sensei."

I eyed him from over my shoulder as I left, his demeanor was slightly different...

I put it out of my mind for the moment.

I needed to see if my minions survived...

...

Sadly, only one of my minions survived.

It was a female Jonin named Osada Aomi, she had accompanied me on my second mission in Frost.

Sadly, she wasn't even one of my top three favorite minions.

I eyed her missing arm for a moment before looking at her sleeping face.

I grabbed the clipboard at the end of her bed and gave it a quick look.

She's in a coma.

Due to a traumatic head injury...

It said she had been this way for a week.

I sighed.

I placed my hand on her head and hit her with the Diagnostic Jutsu.

Slight swelling...

My hand was covered in a green glow and I proceeded to leave a good amount of healing chakra in her brain.

There wasn't much more I could do for her...

"Let me know If she awakens..."

I turned and stared at a medic-nin who had been shadowing me.

"...If I don't hear about it immediately..."

I tilted my head slightly and smiled at him.

He froze and stood unmoving.

"...Someone will have to die."

I eyed him for a moment longer before leaving.

It's a shame I didn't know more about the brain...

...

I was standing with Orochimaru while he stared at the map and planned.

Kumo had moved their camp to the Frost/Cloud border and Shimo had moved all their ninja to the area surrounding their village.

After I left, Minato and Orochimaru fought with A and B twice more before the current Raikage came and fucked shit up on the only day Minato wasn't there.

From what I've gathered the Raikage wanted revenge for the massacring of his troops and the killing of two of Kumo's S-Ranked ninja.

He beat Orochimaru savagely before killing a good amount of the army and leaving.

I smiled wearily.

Orochimaru would be staring at the map for a long while until he figured out what he wanted to do.

He did this before every battle that he planned often staring at the map until late into the night.

I rubbed my eyes and started to leave.

With my return, Minato was back in grass and was watching over the shit storm there.

It pissed me off slightly that I hadn't been promoted to Jonin even though I was killing S-Ranked ninja and massacring armies.

I couldn't understand why I wasn't promoted yet.

I put it out of my mind, a promotion wouldn't make me stronger anyways...

...

I eyed an Uchiha as he proceeded to systematically demolish an Inuzuka and his dog.

The Inuzuka was causing problems and this was the result.

I watched the dog fly out of the makeshift ring and collide with a spectator.

I hummed...

I don't need to be here...

Things are well in hand...

The Inuzuka collapsed and struggled to get up.

I hummed again and started towards my lab.

I needed to look further into my DNA...

But first I needed to make my lab Hyuga proof...

...

A week later my lab was Hyuga proofed and I was ready to look into my DNA some more...

"Shiro your girlfriend is awake."

I turned and saw an unexpected face.

"Keiji you look twice as ugly as I remember."

I eyed Keiji's new scar, it looked like someone slit his throat.

Something we now had in common...

"Fuck you!"

That's the Kenji I remember...

"So, what brings you to Frost?"

I made my way out of the lab and into Frost's cool air while Kenji followed.

"I got some bitch pregnant, and after a fight with her brother I was told to come here."

I eyed him for a moment wondering if he was serious.

"Is this a wanted pregnancy?"

Kenji gave me a so-so gesture.

"Eh, it was unexpected but we'll do right by the kid."

I hummed.

"What's the brother's problem?"

Kenji shrugged.

"Sometimes you're the villain in another person's tale."

I eyed Kenji, that was unexpectedly profound...

"So kid, I heard you're a big shot now."

I nodded and accepted the topic change.

"Yep, though they won't promote me to Jonin."

Kenji laughed.

"Hahaha... Cunts."

I snorted.

"Yep."

I entered the medical building that my minion was located in.

"So, I heard my friend was awake?"

Kenji nodded.

"Yep, good job threatening that asshole, she's been getting the best possible treatment since."

I hummed.

"Good, I'd hate to have to keep killing until I found someone competent."

Kenji laughed loudly scaring a passing trainee.

"Ha! I'll let them know!"

We approached my minion's room and Kenji opened the door before I could knock.

Alrighty...

My minion was still in bed so I proceed to her bedside and looked at her.

She looked dead in the eyes, and slightly gaunt.

She wasn't a happy camper.

"Kenji can you go get me one of the prisoners?"

Kenji nodded.

"Yea what for?"

I motioned to her arm.

"I'm going to replace the arm."

Kenji raised an eyebrow.

"What if I'm refused entrance?"

I hummed, Kenji hadn't been swearing as much as he usually did...

"Use my name and threaten the guards with death if they still refuse..."

Kenji nodded.

"What kind of prisoner do you need?" He smirked

I unsealed my Fuinjutsu supplies and shooed him away with my hand.

"Any will do."

Kenji nodded and went on his way.

I eyed my minion who was still unresponsive.

I shrugged, sat down cross-legged, and started on a DNA Overwrite seal.

I only needed to rewrite the stem cells so I only needed part of the seal and a few stem cells.

Easy peasy.

...

"Here's your prisoner..."

I nodded and stood up.

"Good, put Aomi to sleep and I'll show you a new trick."

Kenji nodded and dropped his cargo.

I heard the guys head hit the ground and winced slightly.

Alrighty...

I walked over and sliced an arm off at the shoulder with my chakra scalpels.

I healed his wound over so he wouldn't bleed out and brought the arm over to the little corner that I had taken over.

"Alright..."

I held the severed arm with two hands and started filling it with my chakra expelling the chakra already in the arm.

"Ok, watch this, it's pretty neat."

The arm slowly turned into a dark red slurry and started to drip into a pan I had prepared beforehand.

"That's some gross looking shit."

I rolled my eyes the rest of the arm fell through my fingers only leaving bone in my hand.

I tossed the bones behind me and stuck my finger into the slurry, I started scanning it for cancerous cells.

"You gonna drink that or something?"

I ignored Kenji and pulled my finger out of the slurry, surrounding my finger was a bunch of cancerous cells.

I flicked my slurry covered finger in Kenji's direction.

I ignored Kenji's curses and brought the pan of red slurry over to the seal and placed it in the center.

"Make yourself useful and inject the seal with your chakra."

I went over to the prisoner and blocked the tenketsu on his neck, I didn't want him causing problems.

...

"So why turn the arm into sludge?"

Kenji gave the pan a swirl before handing it to me

"It makes the seal less-expensive chakra wise."

I stuck my finger into the sludge and stirred it while using the Diagnostic Jutsu.

It was cancer-free...

"Alright, now I'll fill the slurry with chakra..."

My hand glowed green and I filled the stem cells with a good amount of healing chakra.

"And now the hard part begins, I'm going to regrow the arm, feel free to ask questions as I go."

I set the pan on the bed and started un rapping her elbow stump.

"Why did you have to use more arm then she lost?"

I shrugged.

"So, the seal has something to use to change the cells, making something from nothing is expensive chakra wise, so the seal uses parts from the other cells to make the changes."

I looked at the stump, it was clean-cut and could have probably been reattached easily if they had the arm.

"Alrighty... The hardest and most time-consuming part of this whole thing is making new bones..."

I trailed off as manipulated a tentacle of sludge and pressed it to the stump.

"So, I'll do most of the bones later..."

Kenji was biting his thumb as he watched me.

"No hand-seals?"

I shook my head.

"Not yet, it's more expensive this way but I prefer to know what I'm doing rather than trusting in the hand-seals to do the work."

Cells weren't hard to manipulate anyways...

"What did you even need me for?" Kenji sent me a slightly hostile look.

I hummed and tapped my chin with a finger.

"I needed someone to power the seal..."

Kenji grunted.

"Ya, I figured."

I rolled my eyes and focused back onto my task.

...

"Wow..."

I nodded.

Bones seemed to be easier to do then I remembered...

Perhaps a happy side effect of the Shikotsumyaku...?

"Alright, I've got stuff to do, let me know how she's doing when she wakes."

Kenji send me a nod.

I turned and made my way out of the room.

"Don't forget to get rid of the prisoner..."

The whole ordeal was surprisingly less annoying and time-consuming then I thought it would be.

Perhaps my 'Yang affinity' at work...?

My chakra was feeling 'warmer' both to myself and others who were sensors.

Though hopefully, it wouldn't cause me problems, Fuinjutsu had some connections to Yin Release as did Genjutsu and my Lightning Constructs.

It was just that my chakra needed to lean more towards spiritual energy than physical energy when I formed constructs...

Yin gave form to things that didn't already have it...

Hopefully, a Yang affinity didn't affect my ability to use lightning constructs.

Something to test in any case.

...

Lightning constructs were doing ok.

I slashed the air with my tiny Lightning Knife.

I studied it for a moment before releasing my hold on the chakra and letting it disperse.

I might as well do one more experiment while I was here...

A blade of bone grew on the edge of my hand.

I coated it in Lightning chakra and chopped at the air.

Hmmm...

I didn't have anything I could chop at in my lab...

I let the chakra disperse and withdrew the bone.

I'm not sure if it'll work out, but I guess I'll see soon.

Orochimaru seemed to be planning some sort of attack.

I'll have plenty of time to test out some ideas I had.

...

Orochimaru continued to stare at the map and I the ever-dutiful assistant stood and stared at the map as well.

Well... a clone was...

I was checking in on my minion who had gained an arm but was still very traumatized.

A severe case of Mutism, whether it is Neurogenic or Psychogenic remains to be seen.

Meaning she has brain damage or is extremely traumatized and can no longer speak...

I eyed her as she ate some hospital soup.

"Are you feeling better?"

She nodded at me and continued to slowly eat her soup.

"Are you interested in continuing your career or are you done with the ninja life?"

She eyed me for a second, shrugged, and went back to eating her soup.

I leaned against the wall, it sucked that I would have to get new minions...

My train of thought was interrupted when Kenji walked in and stared at me.

"What?"

Kenji eyed Aomi for a moment before looking back at me.

"Will you teach me the arm thing?"

I shrugged.

"Are you any good at Fuinjutsu?"

Kenji shook his head.

"I've never had the patience to learn that shit."

I sent Kenji a half-smile.

"Fuinjutsu is kinda the most important part of the whole thing..."

Aomi seemed to be interested in the conversation, as was Kenji.

"If you had a Yang affinity or the person you were healing had great vitality you probably could still use the technique."

The Yang affinity was a complete guess on my part, but if someone was an Uzumaki or Senju you could probably remake a limb without too much trouble or adverse effects.

"Yang... affinity...?" A quiet almost whispered question stopped the conversation.

Aomi herself seemed surprised she spoke and had covered her mouth in shock.

I watched her try to speak some more before she eventually gave up with silent tears streaming down her face.

I sighed...

"Yang is said to breathe life into soulless form, what does that have to do with the arm thingy?"

Kenji ignored the atmosphere with a roll of his eyes and asked his question.

"If you have a Yang affinity or your chakra leans more toward Yang, then Medical-Jutsu has better effects."

It was a half-formed theory...

I only thought so because the Senju were said to be great at Medical-Ninjutsu and leaned toward Yang on the chakra spectrum...

At least according to the book, I browsed through during a trip through the archives...

That and my own Medical-Ninjutsu had gotten noticeably better.

"Anyways, I'll see you two in a bit."

I started making my way out of the makeshift hospital, I wasn't in the mood to discuss half-baked theories about Yin or Yang.

I didn't know anything substantial about Yin or Yang, most of what I knew were vague guesses.

I shouldn't be spreading my vague and likely wrong theories...

So, I opted for a tactical retreat.

...

The 'sensor gene' was a series of genes most of which were recessive.

There were many variations of these genes, each variation providing different benefits.

Some combinations could give someone crazy sensing range but almost dull chakra sense when it came to people within six feet of them.

Minato was one such person.

Some combinations could give someone average or medium range but an amazing sense for detail.

Mom was one such person, according to her anyway.

Or some combinations could give someone Karin like chakra senses.

If that was even the right name...

I've forgotten a lot nowadays...

I scratched my nose and ignored the thought.

"Sigh..."

To get the best result for the sensor genes would require a lot of study of different DNA.

I wonder if Orochimaru had done any research on the sensing genes...?

It would save me a lot of time if he did...

He did have a lot of stuff about DNA and personality traits...

And loads more about DNA and body structure...

And even more about DNA and chakra...

So hopefully the whole Sensor DNA thing will go well.

If not, I'll have to do the research myself...

Which wasn't a bad thing.

It was just super time consuming without doing messy experiments...

And messy experiments were something I wanted to keep to a minimum.

...

...

Interlude.

"Shiro are those cigarettes in your pocket!?"

Shiro shrugged.

"No, it's a conversation starter."

Sumiko didn't look amused.

"It's what?"

Shiro shrugged again looking annoyed with his mother.

"If a pretty girl asks for a cigarette, I can give her some and use it to start a conversation..." Shiro trailed off as Sumiko's frown deepened.

"Thus, they are not cigarettes, they are conversation starters..." Shiro continued only to trail off at Sumiko's glare.

"Get rid of them." His mother spoke with a growl making me flinch instinctively.

Sumiko saw me flinch and looked apologetic.

"Sorry sweety, don't be nervous, I don't mean any harm." She approached me while she spoke making me flinch again and back away from her.

'It's fine, I'm still a little jumpy is all.' I held my notepad up and sent her a serene smile trying to show her I was ok.

I heard a snort behind me and saw Shiro giving his mother a disapproving look.

"Stop scaring my minion, that's my job." He continued with his disapproving look even as his mother gave a disapproving look of her own.

"Stop calling her your minion, she's a person use her name." Sumiko turned and started leaving.

Shiro made faces at her back as she went and only stopped when the door shut.

"Sigh..." Shiro sighed, picked his cigarettes out of the garbage, and pocketed them.

"Welp! Let's go, I've got experiments to do and children to orphan." With a dark chuckle, Shiro stepped through a curtain and into his lab.

I followed behind as a sedate pace, not feeling all that eager to begin my minion-hood.

I brushed the curtain aside and met eyes with a woman strapped to a table.

I stopped where I stood and gaged from what I was seeing.

"Don't feel too bad, she can't feel a thing..." Shiro placed a bin under me and gave me a reassuring back rub while directing my line of sight away from the woman.

I pushed him away and pointed at the woman.

"Why..." I tried to speak more but the words wouldn't come out...

I looked into Shiro's eyes trying to show him what I was feeling.

"Believe it or not this is a good deed..." Shiro brushed my hair away and stared into my eyes. "I try to use the women first because what awaits them in the prisons is worse..."

Shiro looked away. "Sigh..."

"I experiment on them first so they don't spend hours in the prisons getting raped repeatedly over and over again every time someone has the urge..." Shiro pointed to the woman and my eyes were drawn to her again.

"Orochimaru doesn't care what happens to the prisoners and lets anyone have free reign as long as they're left alive..." Shiro grabbed me by the shoulder and started leading me out of the room.

I turned my eyes away from the woman with mixed emotions.

I wasn't sure how I was feeling.

"The reality is that what I'm doing is awful and irredeemable." I sensed a but there and I was right. "But, should they stay in prison they will die anyway and suffer for as long as they are needed."

Shiro started towards a cupboard.

"I don't enjoy what I do but human experimentation gets faster results and saves the prisoners from arguably more suffering." Shiro grabbed a cup from the cupboard and started filling it with water from his canteen.

Shiro handed me the glass.

"Though I save the women from suffering, the same can't be said about the men, but they were going to die regardless, though..." Shiro trailed off for a moment. "...with their deaths, Konoha advances..."

Shiro trailed off again and looked at me deeply.

"I understand if you don't want to work with me, but as I said before, being my minion is a good opportunity to learn more and strengthen yourself while staying away from the direct fighting." Shiro held the stare for a moment more before looking away.

Things were silent and for the first time in my life, I thought I might need a cigarette.

"It might help you if you find a reason to justify the experiments..." Shiro spoke and stared at the ceiling blankly.

And I stared at him.

"I justify it by telling myself that their death brings advancement and that their deaths weren't pointless..." Shiro hummed and tapped his chin.

"By sacrificing the wicked, a better world is created."

"It's my favorite quote..." Shiro shrugged. "Its suit's the situation somewhat..."

By sacrificing the wicked, a better world is created...

Every death brought advancement to Konoha weather it be Jutsu advancement or knowledge.

Every death would help Konoha advance and stand above other nations.

Every death brought with its knowledge that would strengthen future generations, ensuring they were more knowledgeable than their parents.

Every death wasn't meaningless...

"Every death brings advancement..." I mumbled.

Shiro sent me a smile.

"That's the spirit." Shiro lost his smile and turned to me. "But in the end, justify it all you want but what you're doing will still be irredeemable..."

Shiro stood up and started towards the exit. "Take a break and if you still want to work with me, come see me in a few days."

"Well..." Shiro paused at the door. "Sorry for rambling, I hope it helped..."

Shiro trailed off as he left the room and I was left alone with my thoughts...

I should have known Shiro's offer was too good to be true...

But did I have any other choice?

I buried my face in my hands.

By sacrificing the wicked, a better world is created...

Every sacrifice brings advancement...

But would it be worth it...?

I didn't want to be weak...

I wanted to know more...

See more...

And be able to do more...

I didn't ever want to be helpless...

And perhaps I won't be as helpless if I accept Shiro's offer...

I sighed and my body slumped.

I didn't know what to do...

...