"When I came back, I saw that guy outside experiencing taking a dump. He said that today, he absolutely had to know what it feels like to take a proper shit, and would write a thousand-word reflection at the end."
White Zetsu answered Madara's question truthfully.
At the same time, he looked at Madara with hopeful eyes. Actually, just like Tobi, he was very curious about what it's like to take a dump.
After all, White Zetsu doesn't have an excretory system, does he?
Every time he's on surveillance and sees the target go to the bathroom, he gets unbearably itchy with curiosity, really wanting to know what taking a dump actually feels like.
Madara-sama, who already possesses the Power of All Things, is arguably the most powerful ninja in the Ninja Realm. He should know what it feels like to take a dump, right?
He is, after all, the strongest ninja in the Ninja Realm.
Though White Zetsu doesn't really get what the strongest ninja has to do with taking a dump anyway.
He just feels that if it's Madara, he must know the answer to this kind of question.
"..."
Madara stared unblinking at White Zetsu, and White Zetsu met Madara's gaze with an innocent, harmless look.
The atmosphere turned awkwardly silent.
In the end, it was Madara who turned his head first. He looked ahead and spoke in a low voice:
"Once the war starts, send someone to Konoha to investigate again. If it's still impossible to sneak into the Uchiha Clan by then, shift the focus to Nagato."
After issuing this order, Madara didn't answer White Zetsu's lingering question. He simply closed his eyes and fell back into slumber.
Right now, he can only remain awake in this kind of place. If he leaves, he'd just be an ordinary old man at anyone's mercy. Most of the time, he spends in hibernation, only consuming his life force at the bare minimum.
White Zetsu watched Madara close his eyes to rest and showed a disappointed expression.
He also knew Madara needed enough time to rest. After Madara closed his eyes, White Zetsu temporarily gave up on learning the mystery of taking a dump from Madara, sank into the ground, and disappeared to do his own thing.
◎
On the operating table, Hakushi's eyes shone with interest as he closely observed the humanoid figure wrapped entirely in white outer skin.
Although it's incredible that such a bizarre life form exists in the Ninja Realm, Hakushi is even more curious about how this kind of creature survives and keeps its life functions going.
In reality, even if this fellow hadn't snuck under the Uchiha Clan's compound, Hakushi would still be fascinated by its existence.
Compared to the person behind the scenes, Hakushi is now more interested in the lifeform itself.
If he could unravel its secrets, Hakushi felt that he'd get much closer to understanding the true nature of chakra in a meaningful way.
Because, unlike normal humans, the internal structure of this creature is more like a plant—in other words, a genuine "vegetable" person.
These plant-like life traits no doubt originate from the power of Wood Style.
That's why, when performing human experiments on such a creature, Hakushi doesn't feel even the slightest guilt.
It's just like researching plants, and as a human, Hakushi naturally can't empathize with plants.
Whether this type of creature feels pain, or holds anything like human values, is still a very debatable question.
"It's a pity, this tiny trace of Wood Style power can't reproduce true Wood Style..."
Hakushi stared at the vial storing life energy, inside which a faint bit of Wood Style power lurked.
The extraction technique isn't hard; the challenge is getting the human body to adapt to it. Even the tiniest trace of Wood Style power is nearly uncontrollable for ordinary people.
Even if you overcome that hurdle, the reproduced Wood Style power is still extremely weak—good enough for nurturing plants and flowers, but absolutely useless in combat.
And if you're just using it to cultivate flowers and plants, but have to conduct potentially fatal human experiments, pouring in effort and resources and still risking failure—the payoff simply doesn't add up.
But from another angle, combining it with other medicinal herbs could produce new types of cultivation agents. Selling these as pharmaceuticals for commercial profit? Now that's a decent avenue.
In this ninja-centric era, the power of a ninja is obviously critical, but money is just as important.
Most ninjas run themselves ragged on missions for the sake of money and survival—this is the reality of the Ninja Realm.
After extracting the life energy containing Wood Style from the white creature's body, Hakushi sealed it in the designated place and glanced at the clock on the nearby table.
"It's already this late? About time to head out."
Setting down his tools, Hakushi walked out of the lab.
◎
Konoha, Shion Flower Branch Pharmacy.
Located right on Konoha Village's main street, this is where the pharmacy stands.
This branch pharmacy has been open in Konoha for more than half a year and is currently getting a stellar response from the locals, already taking up much of the pharmaceutical market. It hasn't quite become indispensable to Konoha yet, but for Konoha, the Shion Flower Company's branch pharmacy settling in has definitely solved a lot of issues.
Even many of the medicines used by Konoha Hospital are now purchased directly from Shion Flower Company.
Though this does cut into the hospital's profits, Konoha Hospital—unlike hospitals in ordinary towns—was never established for profit in the first place. It's meant to serve ninjas, that special group, after all.